Welcome

Welcome to the blog I created for my Advanced Educational Psychology class! Here I will ponder selected theories of cognitive psychology, review the current scientific literature, and see how the information applies to my chosen career path as a school library media specialist. First, I believe, some definitions are in order.

From Margaret Maitlin’s, book Cognition:

Cognition is the acquisition, storage, transformation, and use of knowledge. Cognitive psychology can be considered a synonym for this mental activity, or it can refer to a particular theoretical approach to psychology, the cognitive approach. This approach emphasizes people’s knowledge and their mental processes. The cognitive approach is often contrasted with the behaviorist approach, which emphasizes observable behaviors, or the psychodynamic approach, which focuses on unconscious emotions.

From the American Library Association (ALA) web site:

Today's school library media specialist works with both students and teachers to facilitate access to information in a wide variety of formats, instruct students and teachers how to acquire, evaluate and use information and the technology needed in this process, and introduces children and young adults to literature and other resources to broaden their horizons. As a collaborator, change agent, and leader, the school library media specialist develops, promotes and implements a program that will help prepare students to be effective users of ideas and information, a lifelong skill.

Notice the similarity in the definitions for cognition and school library media specialist. Acquire and use information…transformation and change agent… If a library media specialist is to instruct students and teachers how to acquire and use information and serve as a change agent, then she should understand the mental activities surrounding the acquisition, transformation, and use of knowledge, don’t you agree?

The area of cognitive psychology is as broad as it is deep, so I can only begin to cover a subset of topics in the time and resources I have available. In order to narrow my focus, I chose the following set of questions to discuss on this blog.

Present, evaluate, and show the relation between the theory of semantic memory and working memory with perceptual processes: visual and auditory recognition. Show how the semantic memory could influence perceptual processes. What is the influence of working memory in perceptual processes? Show how the theories could be used in your future career. Evaluate how your knowledge about these theories influences the way you would explain different situations in your career.

I feel these theories are key to my purpose as a library media specialist, which is to provide many means by which students can learn about a subject. When a person takes in information, it is stored in semantic memory. How well this is retained in semantic memory can be influenced by how the information was presented (perception). And vice versa, what is already in semantic memory could influence how students they perceive additional information. Working memory grows during the elementary school years, so the stage of the student’s memory development needs to be considered when planning learning projects.

My next few posts will discuss the theory behind perception, working memory, and semantic memory. The posts will also review current literature on these topics from the perspective of how these cognitive processes influence student education and teaching methods.