Underpinning Theory...

Cognitive theory refers to mental activity including thinking, remembering, using language and I earning. "By cognitive theory, we mean the ability to spontaneously restructure one's knowledge, in many ways, in adaptive response to radically changing situational demands…. This function of both the way knowledge is represented (e.g. a multiple rather single conceptual dimensions) and the processes that operate on those mental representations (e.g. processes of schema assembly rather than intact schema retrieval)."

Cognitive theory maintains that how one thinks largely determines how one feels and behaves. This relates to and incorporates to all forms of knowing, including memory, psycholinguistics, thinking, comprehension, motivation and perception. An example is illustrated below;

Memory is going on all around us each day of our lives. It is there to help us deal with problems, and to help us make future decisions. Memory can be stored to later recall or recognise events that were previously experienced. Memories can be affected by physical health, attention, emotion, prejudice, and many other conditions.

There are three types of memory: sensory, short-term, and long-term (Zimbardo, 1993).
· Sensory memory- preserves fleeting impressions of sensory stimuli-sights, sounds, smells, and textures for only a fraction of a second.
· Short-Term memory- includes recollections for what we have recently perceived, such as limited information, lasts only up to twenty seconds unless special attention is paid to it or is reinstated for rehearsal.
· Long-Term memory-preserves information for retrieval at any time. The information may be stored for an entire life time and constitutes our knowledge about the world.

Cognitive flexibility theory is especially formulated to support the use of such interactive technology as videodisc and hypertext. A major claim of cognitive flexibility theory is that revisiting the same material for different purpose at different times is essential for mastery of complexity in understanding and preparation for transfer

According to cognitive flexibility theory, the way students are taught is a significant influence on the type of cognitive structures they create and the way they store and structure knowledge they acquire determines to a great extent how flexible they will be when they must use that knowledge.

Encouraging cognitive flexibility requires a flexible teaching environment. Information must be presented in a variety of ways, as well as for a variety of different purposes. Flexible instructional methods help students learn the contours and complexity of the material they are studying, and it helps them work with that content from several different perspectives (Spiro, 1992).

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