Reasoning – Cognition in Class

April 27, 2025April 28, 2025

Divergent Thinking: The Creative Way to Learn

By Riley Reuter

Introduction

Retaining information from lectures can be a tiring task, especially when you have multiple long lectures back-to-back. Trying to find meaning to the words presented to you via a power point can be more difficult some days than others, especially if your professor is going through the slides too fast. Finding the meaning of the information you are given and how to achieve a better understanding while you are studying for big exams is everyone’s goal in the classroom. But how exactly should one go about it? Well sometimes you need to “think outside of the box” to really connect to the information you are trying to learn. This could also be known as divergent thinking.

What is Divergent Thinking?

The term divergent thinking was coined by J.P. Guilford during the 1950s. Guilford used the term divergent thinking to describe the processes of deconstructing a topic into parts and then creating as many varied productions as possible within a short period of time ¹. Divergent thinking allows one to have a variety of perspectives and allows one to have multiple pathways to answering a problem ². Divergent thinking is also known to be one of the many ingredients of creativity³.

April 28, 2024May 1, 2024

Two to Six, Take Your Pick!

By Garrett Spahn

Introduction

A lot of kids will struggle with studying when they first start college. Some kids may have gotten by with their study habits in high school but most of the time, these study habits don’t quite help anyone in college. College is so much different in that there aren’t many small assignments that help you to make sure you understand the material like there were in high school. There are lectures, quizzes, participation, papers, presentations, and exams and that’s pretty much it when it comes to grades in college. For me, I tried to take on high school by myself whenever I could but that will not go will with you for college. I highly encourage any freshmen coming in to immediately start going to some study groups or just collaborating with at least one person that you can count on.

April 26, 2024May 1, 2024

Using Elaboration as a Cognitive Approach for Helpful Studying

By Emma Sandlin

It is quite difficult to start college. There are several issues that must be resolved, the most important of which being how to comprehend and absorb the content in the best possible way. One of the many worries that accompany beginning college is learning how to use elaboration when studying new material. According to cognitive psychologists, elaboration is a very useful technique for enhancing learning and memory retention (1). Elaboration is the process of bringing new information to life by connecting it to what has already been learned or by creating meaningful connections. Students can improve their comprehension and retain more information by using the elaborative encoding method. Study skills mastery is essential to achieving academic brilliance. Elaboration is shown to be an effective tactic for boosting understanding, fortifying memory retention, and encouraging in-depth learning (1). Elaboration makes study sessions more lively by enticing students to actively interact with the content, draw connections, and develop ideas (2). Students that integrate elaborative processing into their study regimens open the door to an abundance of knowledge that is just waiting to be discovered and comprend (3).

November 29, 2020March 12, 2024

Dual-Task Methodology

By KayeLynn Brown

As college students have you ever really thought of the most productive vs least productive ways to study and retain information? Trust me, we’re all in the same boat in one way or another. While adjusting to the college workload it can be stressful to find what works for you. What is important to note is trying to do several tasks at once is harmful to a student’s ability to learn and study information. If there’s one thing I would’ve liked to been told when I was an incoming freshman trying to learn all of this for myself – it would’ve been the greater amount or load of things you put on yourself and try to learn, will actually just hinder your ability to succeed. Dual-task methodology can help explain the reasoning behind this.

December 2, 2018

Easy as 1,2,3

By Jhariana Floyd

It is no secret that math tends to be the subject that most students struggle with. There are numerous reasons as to why that is so, but there are steps that can be done to develop stronger math skills. Math teachers are taught to present concepts in CPA format. That means concrete examples, then pictorial examples, and finally abstract examples. It is believed that this allows students to best comprehend new material. However, there are many debates on how information should be delivered to students. It is believed that it is best to teach information with concrete facts and work up to abstract material. Think back to when you first took algebra. Sorry if I am forcing you to relive horrific memories., but it’s to help you. You were prepared to learn algebra your whole life through the use of concrete methods. Your teachers taught you how to solve equations, then how to graph equations, and then how to guess what a line would look like given facts. Guessing the line requires mental imagery, and I’m going to help understand how mental imagery contributes to one’s success in math.

Breaking down math visuals to gain a better understanding.

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May 1, 2017

Rethink Your Reasoning

By Annie Clark and Drew Kinsella

In college, incoming freshman can often get swept up in the overwhelming amounts of school work they suddenly have to balance. With the increased workload, learning effective and productive studying habits is essential for success. Although many people know the typical studying tips (spacing out studying sessions, not cramming, and using a variety of techniques to help memorize new facts), one area that does not receive a lot of attention is the actual cognitive processes that occur when new information is presented. An essential mistake that many people make while reasoning with new information, is belief bias. Though not often thought about directly when dealing with study techniques, it is important to be aware of the types of errors you can make when trying to learn information to help avoid them.

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