The Community College Adult Learner: MEMORY, COGNITION, AND THE BRAIN I often feel tha...

The Community College Adult Learner: MEMORY, COGNITION, AND THE BRAIN  I often feel tha...: MEMORY, COGNITION, AND THE BRAIN     I often feel that my computer looks like the computer above – covered in sticky notes with ...

MEMORY, COGNITION, AND THE BRAIN

 

 

I often feel that my computer looks like the computer above – covered in sticky notes with reminders so I won’t forget something important.  Our chapter says that during the course of the day, new pieces of information constantly accumulates on our desk and we have to determine which piece of information is important, which piece of information requires further processing, which processing strategy to use, and which pieces of information are just cluttering up the desk.

 

In researching for my chapter project, I ran across the following video:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PB2OegI6wvI

 

 

I found this video to be interesting because our chapter discusses memory and how it relates to learning.  This video talks about how memories can be manipulated to be what the user needs them to be.  How does this relate to adult learning?  If, as an educator, you have a student who was told in their childhood, that they would not amount to anything, they will live their lives believing that they will not amount to anything.  The memory may be a false memory, but they will not be able to see past the fact that they believe they will not amount to anything. 

 

On the other hand – can/should educators “plant” false memories to enable students to become better students?  Would it be possible as most community college students are adults? 

Our chapter left us with several unanswered questions.  One question in particular I would like your input on – Could our increasing fast-paced lives have the potential to limit our capacity in our information processing systems to the point that they will create bottlenecks in our ability to process information?  With such easy access to basically everything at your fingertips via Google, Wikipedia, etc. re we creating a generation whose ability to use the brain will be limited because the answers will be quickly at their fingertips rather than having to think about their answers?

 

Just for fun, use the following website to exercise your brain:     http://www.gamesforthebrain.com/

 

 

 



Traditional Learning Theories: Social Cognitive

Social Cognitive Theory

Of all the videos posted to consider this week, the one relating to Social Cognitive Theory was perhaps the most compelling.  One of the initial scenes from the video shows a group of younger adults following an older adult across a cross-walk.  How true it is that we often rely on the behaviors of others to guide us and teach us the correct way to perform!

Social Cognitive Theory combines elements from both behaviorist and cognitivist orientations and states that people learn from observing others (Merriam, Caffarella, & Baumgartner, 2007).  These observations take place in a social setting and thus are labeled "social learning" (Merriam, Caffarella, & Baumgartner, 2007).  Although it has been argued by previous theorists that imitation and reinforcement must occur in order for social learning to take place, later theorists like Bandura maintained that one could learn from observation free from imitation (Merriam, Caffarella, & Baumgartner, 2007).  

When we consider the truth behind this, it becomes obvious that observation is a powerful tool in how we learn from others.  Perhaps we listen to our parents tell us about their previous experiences and thus choose a different path, or we witness the mistake of a friend and its negative consequences which guides us to alter the way we are behaving. Either way, we do learn simply by watching others!  

Think about a time when you witnessed an act and this was a learning experience for you.  How vividly do you remember the act? What did you learn?  Was it as powerful as committing the act yourself?