Learning Science for Instructional Designers

CHAPTER 4

Emergent Cognition

•  New frameworks from cognitive science

•  Social learning

Evidence mounts that people are not as logical as we would like to believe. This might not seem to matter to us, but consider that we’re designing to achieve successful performance. If our learners don’t act in the ways we imagine, our outcomes might not match our intents. Thus, it’s worth exploring some more recent frameworks that provide new insights into how we really think, and considering the implications for designing to achieve effective outcomes.

That story of stores and processes and artifacts in chapters 2 and 3 pretty much characterizes the basics of cognition. However, in addition to the artifacts mentioned previously, we also have these emergent ...