Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Students who are aware of the way they study and learn achieve more than those
less so (Kuhn & Dean, 2004). In other words, students who are metacognitive learn
more than those who are not (Anderson & Nashon, 2007; Smith, Rook, & Smith,
2007), and at least four reasons exist for these differences.
First, students who are aware of the importance of attention are more likely to
create effective personal learning environments, which can be as simple as mov-
ing to the front of the class or turning off a radio while studying. Second, learners
who are aware of the possibility of misperceptions attempt to find corroborating
information or ask if their understanding is accurate.
Third, metacognition helps regulate the flow of information through working
memory. When you say to yourself, “I'd better write this down or I'll never
remember it,” you are exercising
metamemory
—knowledge and control of memory
strategies. The ability to monitor the processing of information in working memory
is essential because of its limited capacity.
Finally, metacognition influences the meaningfulness of encoding. For example,
students who are metacognitive about their encoding consciously look for relation-
ships in the topics they study. This influences their study strategies and ultimately
how much they learn.
Putting the Memory Model into Perspective
The human memory model made an important contribution to increasing our under-
standing of the way we gather and organize information and store it for further
use. However, the model, as initially presented in Fig. 5.1 oversimplifies the nature
of human memory. For example, the model presents attention as a filter between
sensory memory and working memory, but some evidence indicates that the cen-
tral executive in working memory governs what we pay attention to and how we
perceive that information. So, attending to incoming stimuli and attaching meaning
to them are not as simple as the one-way flow of information that is suggested by
the model (Demetriou, Christou, Spanoudis, & Platsidou, 2002). In addition, some
researchers question whether or not working memory and long-term memory are as
distinct as the model suggests (Baddeley, 2001; Wolz, 2003).
The memory model has also been criticized for failing to adequately consider
the social context in which learning occurs (Greeno & van de Sande, 2007), as well
as cultural and personal factors that influence learning, such as students' emotions
(Nasir, Rosebery, Warren, & Lee, 2006). Critics also argue that it does not ade-
quately account for the extent to which learners construct their own knowledge,
one of the principles of cognitive learning theory presented at the beginning of the
chapter (Kafai, 2006).
However, despite these criticisms, virtually all cognitive descriptions of learning,
including those endorsing the principle that learners construct knowledge, accept the
basic structure of the human memory model, including a limited-capacity working
memory, a long-term memory that stores information in organized form, cognitive
