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Cognitive Science and Reading · The Reading Instruction Show

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This is The Reading Instruction Show. I'm your
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host, as always, Dr. Andy Johnson. Topic of today's
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podcast is cognitive science and reading. So
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let's see if we can do a little bit of learning
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today. Now, neuroscience is a study of the nervous
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system, including the brain, spinal cord, and
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neurons. The neuroscience of reading looks at
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how the brain functions during reading using
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imaging techniques to detect the flow of blood
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and electrical energy. Now cognitive science
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is based on the word cognition, which means thinking.
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Cognitive science looks at human thinking. Here
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one studies the physical brain as it thinks.
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and the other studies the thinking the brain
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does. But we can't observe thinking directly.
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We can only observe the effects of thinking.
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Thus, both fields look at the effects of thinking
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to make deductions about thinking itself. Now
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this podcast, the first part, is designed to
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help you understand how reading works from a
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purely cognitive perspective. This provides an
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important context for understanding the theory
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of orthographic mapping, which I have described
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elsewhere. Orthographic mapping is a theory based
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on logical deductions made from research. And
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the questions we must ask about this theory are
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how robust is the theory, how valid are the data
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upon which it is based, and how logical are the
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deductions? And my conclusions are not very,
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not very, and not very. But, getting ahead of
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myself, let's first look at memory from a cognitive
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perspective. Storage tanks. Memory can be thought
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of as a storage tank. The informational processing
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model, sometimes known as the standard memory
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model, describes three types of storage tanks.
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Sensory memory, short -term memory, and long
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-term memory. Each tank has a different capacity
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and duration. and each tank is used a bit differently
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in reading. Sense memory. Sense memory, sensory
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memory, or sensory registar is where your original
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sense data is perceived. In the case of reading,
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letters and words are perceived here. It has
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an unlimited capacity but a very short duration.
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since memory retains an exact copy of all the
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stimuli you perceive, but you can hold it for
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only one to three seconds. And after this, it
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quickly fades away. Short -term memory. Now,
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while the term short -term memory and working
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memory are often used synonymously, technically
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they are different. Short -term memory is like
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a small storage tank for selected data that's
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perceived in sensory memory. It has a limited
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capacity, holding only seven plus or minus two
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bits of information. And this means that most
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people can hold seven bits of information, some
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can hold up to nine bits, and some only as few
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as five bits. And that's not a lot of information
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bits. Also, the duration here is not very long.
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Without some sort of elaboration or rehearsal,
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this information starts to fade away after 15
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seconds. Holding more bits. Chunky. enables you
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to hold more information in the limited space
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in the short -term memory holding tank. This
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is the process of organizing bits of data into
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meaningful, larger holes. Now, to illustrate,
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in your short -term memory holding tank, you
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could hold on to these eight letters, and here
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they are, I, T, I, S, A, C, A, and T. Or you
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could hold on to these four words. It is a cat.
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That's what those letters spelled. Or you could
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hold on to the single idea of a cat with the
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related associations. Letters, words, or meaning.
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Of the three, meaning carries the most information.
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Holding the meaning created by reading in your
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short -term memory storage tank is much more
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efficient than holding the letters you're reading.
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Now, expert readers use very few letter clues
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to recognize words as they read. Instead, much
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like gas flowing into a carburetor to mix with
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air and create power, information flows into
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short -term memory to mix with letters and create
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meaning. This carburation of letters and information
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provides more space in short -term memory to
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focus on understanding what's being read. And
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as I've said many times before, and I'll say
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it in the future, this does not mean that we
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ignore phonics. Rather, we combine phonics with
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our natural ability to use semantic and syntactical
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information to create reading power. Working
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memory. Where short -term memory is a passive
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receptacle, working memory is an active space
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within short -term memory used to work with information.
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This is where you add analyze, organize, evaluate,
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or restructure data, as well as make meaningful
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connections. Working memory is also the place
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where metacognition takes place, and metacognition
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means thinking about thinking. Here you monitor
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your own thoughts to check for understanding.
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This happens during reading when you ask yourself
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questions such as, do I understand what I'm reading?
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Does this make sense? Do I need to read this
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paragraph again? Metacognition is also used to
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ask higher level questions such as, what's the
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main point here? How is this like something else
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I've learned? Does this make sense? Did Andy
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just compare reading to a carburetor? automaticity.
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This is the act of performing a procedure or
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cognitive operation without thinking about it
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or with very little conscious awareness. In other
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words, the thinking processes involved with the
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procedure are automatic. And the best example
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of this is driving a car. Now as we drive, most
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of us don't have to consciously think about pressing
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the gas pedal or the brake pedal or steering
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the wheel. We respond to the curves and stop
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signs we encounter automatically, with very little
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conscious attention. Automaticity frees up space
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and short -term memory, allowing us to devote
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more attention to other things, such as road
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conditions or other cars. or our cell phones.
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Developing automaticity with any skill enables
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us to devote more space and short -term memory
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to high -level thinking. And the goal is for
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children to be able to automatically recognize
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words while reading. In this way, they're better
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able to analyze and evaluate ideas and engage
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in high -level thinking as they read. And automaticity
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is important for any cognitive operation related
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to reading, such as comprehension, critical thinking,
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metacognition, or the application of strategies.
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Long -term memory. This is where all your memories
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are stored. Episodic, semantic, and procedural
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memories, and we'll talk about this in just a
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minute. The long -term memory storage tank has
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an almost unlimited capacity to store information
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for an almost unlimited duration. This means
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that everything we've ever experienced is tucked
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away in our brain somewhere. So why do we forget?
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It's not a matter of storage, rather of retrieval.
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That is, the information is still in our memory,
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tucked away someplace. We just have a hard time
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getting access to some of it because lots of
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other stuff gets in the way. But given the right
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stimuli, that information is accessible. Now
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think of how a song or a smell suddenly brings
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up memories of events and places long past. The
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storage locker analogy. Putting data in and taking
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it out of long -term memory is very much like
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putting things in a rented storage locker. Three
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important terms in this process are encoding,
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storage, and retrieval. Encoding is the process
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of organizing and putting information into long
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-term memory. And this is like gathering up all
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your things, sorting them into plastic storage
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bins with labels and putting them into the storage
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locker in an organized fashion. Storage is the
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actual holding of information in long -term memory.
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This is like a storage locker filled with boxes
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and bins. And retrieval is getting access to
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information found in long -term memory and pulling
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it back out into short -term memory. And this
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is like going into the storage locker, getting
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specific things from the boxes or bins, and then
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taking them out so that you can see what they
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are and use them. Now, if the things are organized
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and stored next to related things in the storage
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locker, it's much easier easier to find and retrieve
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exactly what you need. And lucky for us, our
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brains naturally do this. They organize new information
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and experiences around related things, not around
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letters or letter patterns. Now, Let's look at
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the two -way flow of information. Information
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does not just flow from your sense memory to
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short -term memory and up to long -term memory.
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In the act of perception and coding and retrieval,
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information flows down from long -term memory
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to short -term memory to even sense memory. And
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this replicates the flow of information described
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in the neurocognitive model of reading. There's
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a two -way flow of information, most of it coming
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down from the cortex or from long -term memory.
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So, long -term to short -term. Information long
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-term memory flows into short -term memory to
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help us understand and encode it. and the more
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information you have about what you encounter,
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the easier this becomes. For example, Dave Hanson
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knows a lot about pipe fittings. When he encounters
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new information related to this topic, he's able
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to understand and encode it quickly and efficiently
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without much memory loss. And when he reads technical
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manuals related to pipe fittings, he reads effortlessly
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and he's able to comprehend and remember much
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of it. And it's not because his brain functions
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any better than yours. Instead, it's because
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his long -term memory is full of pipe fitting
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knowledge. This enables him to easily encode,
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store, and retrieve pipe fitting information.
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He knows exactly what to look for, where it's
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stored, and how it's connected to other things.
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However, when his same brain is exposed to information
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about cryptozoology, encoding seems to be slow,
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inefficient, and labored with much memory loss
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and very little understanding. This is because
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there's very little information in Dave Hanson's
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long -term memory related to this subject. The
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same brain that was interacting with pipe -thinning
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information is now interacting with cryptozoology
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information, yet meaning and understanding vary
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greatly. In one instance, he's a very capable
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reader, and in the other, he's a struggling reader.
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The important difference is the type and amount
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of knowledge in long -term memory. So, long -term
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memory to sense memory and perception. We also
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use... information in long -term memory, the
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knowledge there, to help us perceive and attend
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to stimuli in sensory memory. In terms of reading,
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the knowledge in Dave Hanson's head related to
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pipe fittings helps him to easily perceive and
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identify important pipe fitting words and concepts.
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He's able to perceive and recognize them much
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faster. than he would words and concepts related
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to cryptozoology. In the context of pipe fittings,
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he needs fewer letters to recognize content words.
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And again, the knowledge in long -term memory
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enhances this process. So let's look at types
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of memories, finally. We have three types of
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memory, all of which are stored a bit differently
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in long -term memory. Episodic memory, semantic
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memory, and procedural memory, and a very simple
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explanation of these with an example are included
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here. Episodic memory are memories of the episodes
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in your life. These include what you did last
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week as well as memories of things you did or
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things that happened to you growing up. Remembering
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the time that an elephant stepped on your toe
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would be an example of an episodic memory. Semantic
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memory refers to meaning. This is a memory of
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meaningful things such as facts, information,
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and knowledge. Remembering that there are three
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species of elephants or that elephants are the
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largest land animal would be examples of semantic
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memory. And procedural memory. This is your implicit
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memory of how to do things. This memory is unconscious.
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Remembering how to type the word elephant is
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an example of procedural memory. And if you are
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proficient in keyboarding, you don't have to
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consciously think about where your fingers should
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go. So what about orthographic memory, orthographic
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mapping? I have yet to encounter anything in
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the field of cognitive psychology that mentions
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a special memory for the storage of words. And
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this idea of orthographic mapping does not fit
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well within this standard information or standard
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memory model or the information processing model.
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This has been The Reading Instruction Show. I
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am your host, Dr. Andy Johnson.