The law of effect principle developed by Edward Thorndike suggested that responses closely followed by satisfaction will become

firmly attached to the situation and therefore more likely to reoccur when the situation is repeated. Conversely, if the situation is followed by discomfort, the connections to the situation will become weaker and the behavior of response is less likely to occur when the situation is repeated.

Learned helplessness, as a technical term in animal psychology and related human psychology, means a condition of a human person or an animal in which it has learned to behave helplessly, even when the opportunity is restored for it to help itself by avoiding an unpleasant or harmful circumstance to which it has been subjected. Learned helplessness theory is the view that clinical depression and related mental illnesses may result from a perceived absence of control over the outcome of a situation.[1]

Four Factors of Banduras Theory: 4 factors that determine whether imitative behavior will occur: Attentional Processes Must attend to relevant features of models beh. Retentional Processes Must remember relevant features of beh. Motor Reproductive Processes Must translate general knowledge into coordinated pattern of muscle movements. Incentive and Motivational Processes Must expect that if do beh. will be reinforced.

Sensorimotor stage: from birth until about two years of age. At this age children are only aware of objects that are directly before them, thus the saying, "out of sight, out of mind." (Example: The game of "peek-a-boo" is enjoyed only by infants. Their joy in this game comes from their "finding" the adult -- who"hides" by blocking the child's view and thus "disappears" and "re-appears" as the child experiences it.) Preoperational stage: emerges when children are about two years old until they are about six to seven years old. This is the stage of language development. Expanding childrens vocabularies reflect the many new mental schemes that are developing. This stage is characterized by a logical thinking, but not according toadult standards. A classic example is how young children cannot understand conservation of liquid. They

will usually think that a taller glass has more water than a short glass even though both have been demonstrated to have the exact same amount of water. Concrete operations: this third stage of cognitive development appears when children are six or seven years old and continues until they are about 11 or 12 years old. Children begin to think logically about conservation problems and other situations as well. However, they typically can apply their logical operations only to concrete, observable objects and events. Formal operations: the fourth and final stage usually appears after children are 11 or 12 years of age and continues to evolve for several years after that time. During this time the child develops the ability to reason with abstract, hypothetical, and contrary-tofact information. [It must be noted that some recent research does not confirm Piaget's four stages in their entirety.]

Vygotsky's developmental theory:

This Russian psychologist conducted numerous studies of children's thinking. Some of his most influential ideas are: 1. Complex mental processes began as social activities. As children develop, they gradually analyze these processes and can use them independently of those around him. Vygotsky called this process of social activities being internalized as mental activities "internalization." 2. Children can often accomplish more difficult tasks when they have the assistance of other people more advanced and competent than themselves. 3. Tasks within the zone of proximal development promote maximum cognitive growth. This is the zone of learning for a child where he can learn something with the assistance of others. Without such assistance he would not be able to learn the subject. 4. The idea of scaffolding learning comes from Vygotsky's zone of proximal development theory. Scaffolding refers to learning situations in which adults and other more competent individuals provide some form of guidance or structure that enables students to engage in learning activities within their zone of proximal development. <>Verbal Learning Research <>Verbal learning research is another area that has affected cognitive theory. Verbal learning research studied serial learning and paired social learning. Serial learning is characterized by a particular pattern. People usually learn the first few items and the last few items first of a list (i.e., they are more likely to forget items from the middle of the list than the beginning or the end).

Overlearning is learning something to the level of mastery and then practicing additionally. Overlearned material is more easily recalled at a later time. Distributed practice is easily more effective than massed practice. This is the idea of spreading study out over time instead of into one long cram session. Learning in one situation often affects learning and recall in a later situation. The characteristics of the material affect the speed with which people can learned it. For example, items aremore quickly learned when they are meaningful, pronounceable, concrete rather than abstract, or able to be mentally visualized. People often impose meaning when learning new information. People organize what they learn. People often use coding strategies to help them learn. (Examples: mnemonics -like the strategy of remembering "HOMES" as a mnemonic for the names of the Great Lakes (Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior; or a rhyme, like "In 1492, Columbus sailded the ocean blue" to remember that date) People are more likely to learn general ideas than to learn words verbatim.

Introduction to Contemporary Cognitivism

General assumptions of cognitive theories: 1. Some learning processes may be unique to human beings. (Example, complex language.) 2. Cognitive processes are the focus of study. Mental events are central to human learning and they must therefore be incorporated into theories of learning. 3. The objective, systematic observations of peoples' behavior should be the focus of scientific inquiry; however, inferences about unobservable mental process can often be drawn from such study. 4. Individuals are actively involved in the learning process. They are not passive receivers of environmental conditions, they are active participants in that learning process. In fact, they can control their own learning. 5. Learning involves the formation of mental associations that are not necessarily reflected in overt behavior changes. This is very contrary to the behaviorist position, where no learning can happen without an external behavior change. This is contrasted with behavioral objectives.

6. Knowledge is organized. An individual's knowledge is self organized through various mental associations and structure. 7. Learning is a process of relating new information to previously learned information. Learning is most likely to occur when an individual can associate new learning with previous knowledge. Information Processing Theory This theory focuses on how people process the information they receive from the environment; how they perceive the stimuli around them, how they put what they've perceived into their memories, and how they find what they have learned when they need to use the knowledge. Constructivism: In the last 30 years, it has become apparent that people don't just receive information at face value. Instead, learners do a great deal with the information they acquire, theyt actively organize and try to make sense of it. This is often done in a unique and special way. Most cognitive theories now show learning as a construction of knowledge rather than just a reception or absorption of knowledge from the surrounding world. Contextual views: Several cognitive theories have emerged that place considerable emphasis on the importance of the immediate environment (i.e., the context) in learning and behavior. This view includes the zone of proximal development. Contextual use of learning has many labels, such as situated learning, situated cognition, and distributed intelligence. Distributed intelligence is shown when we think about and discuss ideas with others and think more intelligently than when we think alone.

General educational implications of cognitive theories:

1. Cognitive processes influence learning. 2. Learning difficulties often indicate ineffective or inappropriate cognitive processes, especially for children with learning disabilities, who tend to process information less effectively. Therefore, teachers need to be aware that all students are trying to learn something, as well as what they are trying to learn. 3. As children grow, they become capable of increasingly more sophisticated thought. 4. People organize the things they learn. Therefore, teachers can facilitate students' learning by presenting information in an organized manner. This organization should reflect students'

previous knowledge and show how one thing relates to the other (i.e., helping students understand and make connections). 5. New information is most easily acquired when people can associate it with things they have already learned. Teachers should then show how new ideas relate to previous learning. 5. People control their own learning. Ultimately students, not their teachers, determine what things will be learned and how they will be learned.

Summary:
Cognitivism is currently the predominant perspective within which human learning is described and explained. Contemporary cognitivism emphasizes mental processes and proposes that many aspects of learning may be unique to the human species. Cognitivism has affected educational theory by emphasizing the role of the teacher in terms of the instructor's effectiveness of presentation of instructional material in a manner that facilitates students' learning (e.g., helping students to review and connect previous learning on a topic before moving to new ideas about that topic, helping students understand the material by organizing it effectively, understanding differences in students' learning styles, etc.)