where the model could go in terms of advancement into the future. In 1986, Rumelhart and McClelland took the cognitive science community by storm with the Parallel Distributed Processing (PDP) framework; which sought to construct at the algorithmic level models of cognition that were compatible with their implementation in the biological substrate (Mayor, Gomez, Chang, & Lupyan, 2014). After walking through some of the obsticles that the theory has so far embraced, it talks about its key challenge, learning abstract structural representations, and how there are many gaps that need to be filled before this model could explain complex intelligence.
Dalege, J., van den Berg, H., Borsboom, D., Conner,… Continue Reading...
Blending pop psychology with cognitive science, Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons write about perceptual biases and inattentional blindness in The Invisible Gorilla. Sparked by a now-famous experiment the authors performed, The Invisible Gorilla: How Our Intuitions Deceive Us is not as much about intuition as the subtitle of the book suggests. Rather, the book describes six ways our brains are fooled by illusions. Recognizing and understanding the illusions can prevent people from making critical mistakes in judgment. Those mistakes can sometimes be egregious, as when cops presume a black man is a criminal or… Continue Reading...
The Pinker vs. Sapir-Whorf debate is central to the study of linguistics and related areas like psycholinguistics and cognitive science. Most linguists can at least agree that humans have a “unique language capacity,” (Levinson 25). Yet the innate capacity to learn language is where the similarities between Pinker and Whorf end. Whereas Whorf radically transformed both cognitive science and linguistics by using empirical evidence to show how language shapes thought, Pinker has also been influential with a nativist, modular, and nativist understanding of human language development. Both theories have their strengths and weaknesses, but ultimately the Whorf-Sapir hypothesis remains far more compelling, more substantiated by empirical evidence, and… Continue Reading...
theoretical frameworks to guide intelligent, participative, and evidence-based classroom design. Likewise, cognitive science offers tremendous insight into ideal methods of classroom design. This vision statement of an English classroom reflects ultimate goals in a literacy-focused environment, including collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking.
The instructor needs to create a learning environment conducive to responsiveness, from both teacher and peers. Responsiveness is a process whereby students in the classroom can feel heard, empowered to voice their questions, and also give constructive feedback to their peers. To ensure responsiveness is built into the modeling of the classroom, the following elements need to be taken… Continue Reading...
school not only followed the best practices evident in recent research on RTI and cognitive science but also to follow best practices for accountability and professional standards. Stahl (2016) recommends distinguishing differentiation from intervention, allocating resources according to student need, and tracking tier movement at the grade level, all of which are feasible interventions in any particular school.
References
Hauerwas, L.B., Brown, R. & Scott, A.N. (2013). Specific learning disability and response to intervention. Exceptional Children 80(1): 101-120.
Stahl, K.A.D. (2016). Response to intervention. The Reading Teacher 69(6): 659-663.
2. The practice of RTI does offer a glimmer of hope that special education is… Continue Reading...
