Cognition, Learning, and Motivation
Newsletter - Faith Smith - DCLF
Introduction
Cognition - What is it?
Example #1- When you burn your hand on something, your cognitive skills kick in and you acquire the knowledge to not repeat that action.
Example #2- Just recently, there has been a video floating around the internet of Ian Brown, a Wisconsin freshman, performing the Heimlich maneuver on his choking classmate, Will Olsen. In the video, the other boys standing by him either didn't notice the situation, ignored it, or even walked away. Brown noticed Olsen was choking, and saved his life. Brown had cognition of that situation and knew what to do, which ended up saving Olsen's life.
Learning - What is it?
Example #1- Learning vocabulary terms and their definitions before a test.
Example #2- While President Donald Trump attended University of Pennsylvania to earn his Bachelors degree in economics, he was taught vigorously and had to learn the information needed to achieve his degree. He probably studied a lot and had experiences that would help him learn about economics as a whole.
Motivation - What is it?
Example #1- For lots of people, the idea of career success is their motivation to work hard in college.
Example #2- Steven Spielberg is arguably the best director of all time. But, his journey to success had several speed bumps. Spielberg applied to the University of Southern California to study film, but was rejected two times in a row. Despite this, he was motivated to pursue his dream of being a director and did not let these stop him.