Page 225 - Nutrition Counseling and Education Skills: A Guide for Professionals

EXAMPLE “What can you eat for breakfast? In a restaurant? On trips?”
“What does the food label tell you?”

Cognitive Theories

Cognitive psychologists studying learning focus on mental activities, such as thinking, remembering, and
solving problems that cannot be seen directly. Rather than observable changes brought about by external
events, cognitive learning theories are explanations of learning that focus on internal, unobservable mental
processes that people use to learn and remember new knowledge or skills.2

Which is easier to learn—the formulas for the essential amino acids or the United States Department of
Agriculture (USDA) ChooseMyPlate food guide? Which is easier to remember—a phone number used
yesterday for the first time or the food that was eaten for dinner last evening? The difference is between rote
learning, which requires memorizing facts not linked to a cognitive structure, and learning and remembering
more meaningful information without deliberately memorizing it. Both are necessary.

The cognitive view sees learning as an active internal mental process of acquiring, remembering, and using
knowledge rather than the passive process influenced by the external environmental stimuli of the
behaviorists.2 Individuals pursue goals, seek information, solve problems, and reorganize information and
knowledge in their memories. In pondering a problem, the solution may come as a flash of insight as people
reorganize what they know.

The cognitive approach suggests that an important influence on learning is what the individual brings to
the learning situation, that is, what he or she already knows.2 Prior knowledge is an important influence on
what we learn, remember, and forget. Remembering and forgetting are other topics in cognitive psychology.
Table 10-2 compares the theories discussed in this chapter.

Discovery learning is an example of a cognitive instructional model. When people learn through their own
active involvement, they discover things for themselves. This approach, using experimentation and problem
solving, helps people to analyze and absorb information rather than merely memorize it.2 The professional can
provide problem situations that stimulate the client to question, explore, and experiment.

Memory

There are many theories of memory that explain how the mind takes in information, processes it, stores it,
retains it, and retrieves it for use when needed. Cognitive perception theories see learning as an all-or-none
event rather than an incremental process. Past perceptions are already stored in memory for future use. If the
learner has no prior experience to draw upon (a perceptual deficit), a frame must be created with the help of
the educator. With prior experience, a frame already exists. If the current frame is incorrect, a different frame
must be created. Through the use of questions and listening, the nutrition professional can discover the
learner frame of reference and build on it. Strategies must fit the client’s frame of reference. Teaching involves
managing real or vicarious experiences until the learner develops insight, outlooks, or thought patterns.8 This
is a teacher–student-centered approach with cooperative and interactive inquiry and problem solving.7–9

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