24.+Wrap+up

May 15, 2015
 * 24. Wrap up**

What is cognition?
 * The tools your mind uses to think
 * The content of our daily experience, all day every day
 * Perception, attention, learning, memory, language, decision-making, reasoning, problem solving, and more

Learning styles
 * Learning**
 * Learning styles view - different people learn best in different ways
 * For example: visual learners vs. verbal learners
 * Can mean 2 totally different things:
 * Performance - are you more adept at visual or verbal tasks?
 * Learning - do you learn more when presented with material visually or verbally?
 * Surveys show teachers, parents, students, and others believe learning styles matter
 * Meshing Hypothesis says that:
 * If you're a person with visual aptitude, you should get visual instruction
 * If you're a person with verbal aptitude, you should get verbal instruction
 * How to test this idea:
 * First assess learning style (i.e., is each subject visual or verbal)
 * Then randomly assign learners to a type of instruction
 * 2x2 design:
 * [[image:2x2.png]]
 * Subjects are then given the same final test
 * IF the meshing hypothesis were true:
 * Visual would do better with visual instruction and verbal would do better with verbal instruction
 * Massa & Mayer (2006): Participants learn about electronics
 * Assessed on a variety of measures of preference and verbal/visual ability
 * Given help screens that were visual (diagrams) or verbal (text) in nature
 * All subjects take the same final test on knowledge of electronics
 * Results: no evidence for meshing hypothesis
 * [[image:massamayer.png width="288" height="188"]]
 * Visual was better for everyone
 * This doesn't mean visual is always better. It happened to be in this study
 * Pashler et al. (2009): reviewed the entire literature on learning studies
 * Very few studies even tested the question properly
 * "have been unable to find any evidence" for learning styles
 * Evidence would have to be extremely convincing to justify cost of catering to each students' learning style
 * Appropriate assessment of students
 * Customized instruction within a classroom
 * Teacher training
 * Many teachers report feeling inadequate because they aren't able to account for learning styles
 * Research says they can relax
 * Learning styles summary:
 * Do people differ in their aptitude for different kinds of thinking/problems?
 * Yes
 * Is it helpful when the style of instruction matches their aptitude?
 * We don't know
 * Note: Meshing hypothesis assumes making things easier enhances learning (remember desirable difficulty)

Mnemonics rely on Peg-word system Memory palace In many mnemonic systems, including peg words and memory palace:
 * Mnemonics**
 * Systems to keep track of order information
 * Interactive visual imagery
 * "One is a bun, two is a shoe, three is a tree..."
 * First, memorize the list above
 * To memorize milk, eggs, bread...
 * Form an interactive image of milk with a bun, eggs with a shoe, etc.
 * Recalling 1 = bun is easy; then you see what bun is interacting with
 * Memory palace
 * A set of locations along a path that's familiar to you (e.g., walking through your house)
 * Same principle as peg words
 * Path locations are like pegs; they tell you the order
 * You create an interactive image of an object at each point in the path
 * A known (ordered) set of cues interacts with the targets you want to memorize

If you ever have to memorize a shopping list...think fondly of cognitive psychology.



Here's a picture of Prof. Kornell's kids. Good luck on your finals!