Cognitive Psychology/Information Processing Case Study Analysis

1. After participating in this activity, what do you think the students will remember? How might those memories differ from those students would have if they only read about the Civil War in their textbook?

The students will not only be placing informational knowledge in their memories, but they will be imprinting experiences into their memories. They will remember being at camp and engaging in the battle preparation and battle. The students in this experience will use their sensory memory greatly. The environment and use of many senses, such as visual, kinesthetic, auditory, will help the students memorize the details of the experience and Civil war much better than compared to one just reading about the war. Reading is not using sensory memory nor as many senses.

2. How does Mr. West’s use of a Civil War re-enactment engage students’ emotions? What is the relationship between emotions and learning?

This engages students emotions as it causes them to become loyal to a certain side. This causes the students to become more involved as the situation becomes more personal to them. The emotions cause one's cognitive changes in thoughts to be stronger and more profound. The emotions cause one to emphasize the mental processes of processing new information with more passion and with more relevance to one's own life, since the emotions cause the situation to be personal and of more importance.

3. Based on the principles of dual-coding theory, what activities would be effective for Mr. West to use as a follow-up to the re-enactment?

In order to follow-up using the dual coding theory, Mr. West could show a educational video of the Civil war. This way the students can visual and auditory understand the Civil war, and compare and contrast the actual experience with their own experience.


4. Who do you think provides better instruction for his students? Support your answer from an information processing perspective.

Mr. Richards instruction would best suit my learning style. Mr. Dunkin's style does not accommodate diverse learners. Even though it has the pros of being well planned and organized, one is obligated to try to learn one certain way and the the style would become very monotonous and boring. Mr. Richards involves memory on a different level as he provides instruction that engages many different types of learning styles. His method uses dual processing and sensory memory. His method is not only generating information to be learned, but experiences.


5. How would you expect the students’ learning outcomes to differ depending on which teacher they had?

Mr. Dunkin's style would be very effective for organized learners that can focus when reading. I would expect some students to do excellent through this method, and others that do not comprehend well from reading to suffer. Mr. Richard's method does accommodate for diverse learners, however those learners that learn from organized reading and tests will suffer. Both methods are very effective for some learners, and very ineffective for others. I would expect the learning outcome to be better for Mr. Richard's because his method accommodates a greater percentage of learners than compared to Mr. Dunkin's method.