Transcript for:
Understanding Cognitive Factors in Learning

all right let's proceed to cognitive factors so cognitive factors are of course mental processes involved when we are learning so literally what's happening inside our brain okay when we're trying to learn something right so under this Factor we'll be tackling the topics of motivation attention working memory processing speed executive functioning and prior knowledge right let's tackle motivation first so a lot of the times people think now when you're thinking of the word motivation that it's about a feeling right but cognitive behavior Theory actually argues that before a feeling occurs actually a thought occurs first okay it's just that the thought is very instant it's very automatic and um a lot of the time take um a lot of effort to really think about that automatic thought no and then comes the feelings after that thought but we can also influence what we're thinking so that because this is what we're thinking this is what we're feeling right so that's also possible now um even um coaches who teach or who try to teach people how to motivate themselves would argue that the thought process okay involved in getting you motivated is much more significant rather than just relying on feelings of motivation right of course there is um a neurochemical in charge gya of of uh the feelings of motivation which is dopamine in this case um but our thoughts can also activate our our thoughts can help activate our feelings of motivation all right so it is defined as a person's internal process that activates guides and maintains Behavior over time so it can also be described as the influence of our needs and our desires on the intensity and direction of our Behavior okay so note that the internal process here of course it's involving um thoughts right how we think about the situation you start first task when you don't feel up to doing a task just start a task and start thinking why you have to do the task and then as you're doing the task you start to feel motivated to keep continuing the task because motivation the feelings of motivation comes after after the thought right so again our motivations our feelings of motivation can also be influenced by the intensity of our needs and our desires so an example would be a video that I showed you earlier right with elizabelle um she was hungry right and because of her hunger um and their poverty she has the desire to help her family out of poverty the intense desire is motivating her to keep going motivating her to keep studying because she has that desire um another example would be um the teacher cupcake as motivation students or pupils um the pupils needs are you know food and nutrition and they're hungry and so because the the need the intensity of their need is great their motivation to study is also great okay so you understand how motivation works now so there are two kinds we have extrinsic and intrinsic motivation so extrinsic from the word itself obviously it's um you are motivated to do stuff because there is a reward that comes after doing that something or you're going to be avoiding some sort of punishment or consequence um and that is the thing that motivates you okay an example of this would be uh for example when I was in college because I didn't know that I had ADHD I have ADHD um at the time um I would have these moments books notebook laptop everything is there I really want to start but then I experien what we call as ADHD paralysis now ADHD paralysis is just that your dopamine just isn't you're you started everything your dopamine is not working properly um release um enough for you to start the motivation the motivation to start the process of doing what you need to do and so um what works for me usually is extrinsic motivation in those situations right so what does that look like for me um in our class room my Reviewer is the most comprehensive the most complete kind of reviewer and so my entire class is relying on me to create a reviewer that will be used for the whole class and so I use that as a motivator for me now okay my classmates need me they need my reviewer they need my help and I also need this uh because we have a quiz tomorrow so I'm I'm trying to avoid failing that's why and then I'm also after fulfilling feeling of being able to help which is the reward which is an extrinsic motivation and because of of me thinking about those things I start to get motivated so you see that's an example of extrinsic motivation all right on the other hand we have inic motivation so you are motivated to perform an activity for its own sake and the personal rewards that you feel by doing the thing that you're doing right so intrinsic it's from within right so um an example of this is of course uh another example from my life that I'm going to be using uh so of course when I was studying in Manila there were so many you know um difficulties challenges you know in living away from your family um and then of course degree in itself is very challenging because um I think you will know this in the future there's going to be a lot of like research work and stuff and you know people who have ADHD will have a lot of difficulties when it comes to that I'll be explaining this later so executive functioning and why it's very hard um but yeah so for people like me at the time I was really struggling a lot because a lot of paperworks and stuff but I had this intrinsic motivation I really wanted I really want to become a psychologist that's really my dream and I'm like this is just a means to an end this is just a means to an end I will I will uh be able to reach my dreams but I have to go through this I have to you know because because I want to be a psychologist so it's an an internal thing that I really want to do I want to be able to help people I want to be able to you know learn how to help people in that kind of way and so it was coming from Within Myself And even if bu bu and the struggle is real and challenges I st I still kept going because there was an internal driver within me that intrinsic motivation right so the question would uh usually be better motivation extrinsic or intrinsic right A lot of the times the most common answer is intrin IC motivation that it's a better motivator but reality is research has found that it's actually the best approach to it is having both being able to use both at the appropriate times that they are needed so we need both intrinsic motivation and we also need extrinsic motivation because you know even if you have a dream even though you have that vision of yourself um there will be times that you need extrinsic motivators to push you when you're not really up to the task of doing what you have to do and so that's what the researchers have found that if you're able to use both of those kinds of motivators um to your advantage then you will be able to reach Greater Heights okay so answer both of them have their own purposes you just have to use them um at the appropriate times that you're needed all right so that's for motivation moving on let's go to attention and working memories so for attention first of course it's a process of selectively concentrating on a particular aspect of information whether it's a subjective information or an objective observation so attention is necessary of course when we are trying to learn and for people who have problems with attention this is going to be an issue right so I think for us uh for future Educators or when you're trying to teach someone you have to see limits attention span so for example children um the maximum at a time given in a given time that they can stay focused and attentive is 15 minutes okay so when you know future in the future if you have kids you have to understand that at 15 minutes you have to come up with something that will grab their attention again so that they can keep engaging in the lesson again for adults okay so that's like 30 minutes to almost an hour which is 50 minutes So Max and then you have to you have to gain their attention Again by another means okay para interesting so class what I try to do is I'm G to ask significant questions or make jokes here and there right attention class para to get them back um and attentive in class right now for people who have again problems with attention like people with ADHD it's a struggle of course to study so just to clarify people who have ADHD um the name in itself ADHD is actually a very bad G label for the disorder um because it's not that we have a deficit in attention is actually that we cannot regulate our attention properly we have a lot of attention the problem is we give attention to everything so it's very hard for us to like really focus our attention only on one thing and so it seems like we're distracted all the time we can't really give attention a lot of the times a lot of I know because we are easily distracted our attention is all over the place right so that's the issue okay then the next one we have working memory so working memory is the retention of small amounts of information in a readily accessible form so in short right now the memory that's working right now as you're listening to me as you're trying to process this information that's actually working memory so your working memory facilitates the planning comprehension reasoning and problem solving that you have and unfortunately people who have ADHD also has a problem with their working memory right so with attention with working memory so it's very difficult so as you can see here in the picture um working memory is in charge of all of these um things that I've listed that the picture has listed here so working memory manipulates Visual and auditory information which is why which is why um people with ADHD are easily overstimulated because again I told you our attention is like scattered everywhere and so working memory Nam very bad com combo is because our attention is all over the place and then our attention sh sorry working memory supposedly Focus attention or something from the auditory and the visual information that we receive the problem is our working memory sucks as well which is why our attention is all over the place okay working memory is in in charge of our attention and working memory sucks and so like we receive everything all at once and if ever there are so many things going on let's say um as a student you're trying to listen to your Prof Dr [Music] some people may tune that out but for people who have ADHD it's very difficult to tune that out because our working memory sucks right ano P or something while so it's it's very hard to manage and that's why that's why you have to really um par do stuff that will really try to engage with that particular subject right so it sustains attention I told you attention is under working memory another one of course it's going to impact school performance and your IQ because obviously um your working memory is in charge of a lot of things right your reasoning skills your comprehension skills your problem solving skills and a lot of the academic requirements would require you to have those skills readily say IMO and if you're working memory sucks most likely capability to comprehend that it's just that for example um it may take some time just a little lagging before I know or just a little repetition so for example in my case if my attention is all over the place if our Prof asked me a question and then I was distracted I have to ask again like uh sorry what was the question again then I can comprehend and then I can answer right so that's what I mean working memory Nam sucks it's not as readily active as you know neurotypical people you know do question they can answer it G right so struggle okay um the good news is that working memory can be trained using different exercises which is what um ADHD specific therapy addresses right so is trying to help the people who have ADHD train their working memory to be better um in my case since I was late um in being diagnosed I sort of developed my own ways on how I can better improve my working memory right and lastly of course it's temporary storage um for the things that you are currently learning right now and then later on if your brain decides okay this is relevant and important information let's put it a long-term memory so working memory stores that um shortterm temporarily okay so I hope we're clear with working memory and detention so what are the implications of course it's important for educators to take note and observe what activities work best to not only gain but sustain the attention of their students as well as engaging their working memory right to influence their motivation levels okay so of course it's it's very important not just to gain your attention as my students so that you can engage in class but also to try and do stuff that will get you motivated so if you noticed how to gain and sustain uh my way at least here is to make my presentation aesthetically pleasing you don't you can't really expect what you're going to see next so that's going to keep your attention every now and then what else uh jokes I will say a joke here and there or I will exaggerate my emotions a classroom just to gain your attention right what else um to engage your working memory I ask significant questions um during our discussion so that I can get again your attention and Al also get your working memory going and motivation um in my in my way how I get your motivation is by happy stubs right which is an extrinsic Mo motivator all right so so I hope we're clear moving on we have processing speed and prior knowledge so of course processing speed um Common Sense Lang is a measure of the time required to respond or process information okay from the environment so when you are U faced with a particular situation you have to process what you're receiving like okay from the class an discuss and then okay how how fast you are to process that information that you just received that is your processing speed okay uh in short in essence learning Pace okay processing speed determines how fast we are going to learn okay so some people processing speed very instant okay you have to like repeat every now and then lesson right so that is a slower processing speed but again processing speed doesn't indicate a high or low IQ it's just as a processing speed compter processor computer hardware and all of the other parts processor performance some computer doesn't mean that this computer sucks you just have to upgrade the processor that it has because so with people um of course process so processing speed although it can it is trainable you can practice um so that processing compared factors that involves how you're going to increase your processing speed right or adjust processing speat up people although it's your personal usean um most likely a lot of people want to hasten their processing speed catch up discussion okay so prior knowledge of course Common Sense Nam as well is defined as all the knowledge that you have even before the topic is discussed right so um a lot of the times a lot of the times the teacher hopes that um as they start their class A a lot of the times we're hoping that there are things that you already have prior knowledge on so that build on topic so like in our class for example there are many things that you are you're already knowledgeable of and so organize in a way that made sense ah yeah so these things that I'm mentioning now these are not new these are things that you're already aware of belong that actually affects our learning right and because you know these things already it's very easy for me to teach you because you have prior knowledge to it already but of course as an educator it's important to note now not all students have the same prior knowledge as as the other students right so for example um um first s first lecture video or first lecture first video um the teacher asked who here knows about the Holocaust only one student raised his hand about the Holocaust so she kept blabbering blabbering about the Holocaust and none of them understood what the Holocaust was and so appreciate at that very moment exactly because point of reference because prior knowledge about the Holocaust right versus white student which is Ben um awareness about the Holocaust and so Holocaust you know with the hate and everything and so you know knowing this for example see Mrs G knew that they don't have the prior knowledge to this and soin build anay prior knowledge n with that so that they can appreciate the lesson that comes along with that reference right so an example go here personal experience I had a Prof um in college ethics Prof namon um who was a big go fan for people who don't know go it's Game of Thrones I I am now actually a fan of Game of Thrones as well um per that time we had no idea what go was and so in his ethical lessons ethical ethics G um reference Game of Thrones characters or events or something and we could not not understand at all like crew crew crew crew because we don't know what go is we didn't know what this the plot was we have no idea and So eventually get references and he asked us if any of us have watched Game of Thrones and watch Game of Thrones and so what he did he required us to watch Game of Thrones exam will be application based peram Game of Thrones characters and events and how are we going to apply the ethical dilemas situations blah blah blah and so Game of Thrones the first season require and then we understood the lesson better because and we were able to appreciate it because show and actually is I became a fan and I kept watching Game of Thrones until season 8 right so point right prior knowledge helps in hastening the learning process right per if you don't have prior knowledge as a a profer a teacher it is your uh responsibility yes it is your responsibility to make sure that you build that prior knowledge that Foundation First so that they can understand better okay lastly we have executive functions all right so this is a group of complex mental processes and cognitive abilities such as working memories working memories under executive function impulse inhibition and reasoning that control other skills such as organizing tasks remembering details managing time and solving problems required all of which are required for goal directed Behavior which is why it's a problem for people who have ADHD as I mentioned earlier clear um is because we have executive this function just so you can understand the depth of how hard that is so you can see so executive functioning I we've listed here eight functioning so are impulse control emotion control flexible thinking working memory self-monitoring planning and prioritizing task initiation Cog organization so as you can see all of these things Kami struggles okay so I'll give you an example uman task initiation okay uh impulse control so for people um who don't have ADHD for example let's say you have um a lot of deadlines and you know that the deadlines are coming per for people who have and and so like masin right um becausei for people who have ADHD not unless exemptions not unless like like super close deadline usually people who have a HD umate hyper Focus otherwise impulse control is is very difficult so Facebook because we have very poor impulse control right um ano PA flexible thinking so example is I'm very partic sa ano sa let's say Lang let's say on a date tapos ofos can last minute person like reaction right so it's like it's it's very inflexible mind but things I've I've started to practice managing that part of me per before I was like really inflexible when it comes to certain things for example I have a certain system and I'm really as in off and like wild certain things in my room are misplaced in in areas so system to my chaos that only I understand and if people mess with that system I really get mad and so again that displays inflexible thinking right so you can also see from my examples Outburst emotion control is very very difficult but also for me um however I have also developed the skill of masking very well all throughout my life and so that when I'm in public when I am doing my work when I am doing my profession and what ABS or when I'm teaching it's not obvious I can mask to the point that you will not see any of these things although in my personal life the people around me my family and my friends they see that side of me because I don't have to I don't have to mask around them because I feel comfortable with them I'm not saying that I'm not comfortable with you guys but of course this is my work this is profession so yeah that's how I manage to show you guys that I am executively functioning all right so I am a person with ADHD who is high functioning ADHD person all right per pero I do have these executive dysfunction in the daily all right in the daily it's just that I managing them all right so hopefully we're clear these things are part of your executive functioning that happens when you're learning something so how um is that an impediment to learning well obviously for example sa ano s impulse control instead focusom for example for for those of you who have ADHD or undiagnosed notice impulses so of course that's going to affect your learning right um fle inflexible thinking right executive functioning is not it's Haywire so it's going to affect you being inflexible and what you know in open to you know learning from you know from the changes or from things not going your way right so that's going to be hard um and it's going to be hard to solve problems time management is under executive functioning as well um planning and prioritizing organization number six number eight time management we have time blindness people with ADHD has time blindness and so it's very hard for us to manage time we think we just to give you a glimpse we have this notion in this amount of time but then we overestimate oh we underestimate just how long it's going to take us to do something because we overestimate our capability to do that something or distract or something like that so ending 30 minutes we end up doing it for two hours right so let's say minutes ADHD you're so easily distracted or something uh you end up doing for an hour so you know the time management is really wacky and it's it's very hard when you're learning because you okay chapter in like 30 minutes or something like that or one hour in one hour ending you end up doing it for five hours to like because you have executive dysfunctioning so it's it's really going to be an impediment to your learning and it's extra difficult right okay so at least we're understanding how exact itive functions actually affect our learning okay so what are the implications it's important for educators to take into account the different learning Paces or processing speeds of their students that's what I said earlier as well as giving leeway regarding prior knowledge and to clarify for those who don't have prior knowledge um you know to clarify by telling them about this thing that you're discussing so that they have a knowledge about it too right understanding that c certain people may have executive dysfunction will help inform your teaching approach so understanding that maybe some of your students have problems with their executive functioning will help you in trying to come up with Solutions or activities perhaps that will help them manage manage um par lesson the the pressure when it comes to Executive functioning right or maybe you can create um specific activities for those who have those kinds of difficulties approach learning instead of this thing that you want to do right okay so that's all um we will be discussing the other two in our next uh session all right and then the other two in the other session all right