Psychology of Learning Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Psychology of Learning - Essay Example By definition, psychomotor skills refer to how the physical body responds to stimuli found in the environment. These are complex movements born out of repeated practice of various actions (e.g., driving, typing, or throwing a ball), and are measured to check an individual's ability and development. Motivation and practice frequency are the most important factors of the psychomotor domain, as well as feedback gained from experience. Here, motivation is considered to be the top consideration, because it has been proven that motivation helps increase one's speed and ability (Think Quest). Cognition is the general term to define an individual's capacity to glean and process knowledge from ideas presented to him. In fact, when Wilhelm Wundt established his laboratory in 1879 to identify and analyze human thought processes, the pioneering effort was considered the birth of modern psychology. In this domain, introspective feedback is deemed the most essential-the effect of learning as validated by one's own thoughts. The commonly-known idea of information processing falls in this category, as it studies the capability of the human mind to process specific ideas and contexts. The iconic psychologist Benjamin Bloom designed the Taxonomy of the Cognitive Domain, primarily to classify and evaluate various learning objectives in the realm of experience and identification of knowledge. On a more process-oriented level, Jean Piaget developed his own theory of cognitive development that analyzes how the human mind adapts to both abstract and symbolic thinking (Huitt, 2006). On the other hand, the affective domain of learning ascribes its history and significance to the importance of emotion. It has been acknowledged how emotion can be complex, and that it can completely affect not just one's social and personal development but plays a major role in intellectual maturity as well. Studies have proven that some of the brain's particular parts are directly associated with emotion, and through this discovery, the concept of emotional intelligence was recognized. It is important to define certain terms, often loosely used in everyday language: 1. Emotion is the result of one's mental application in processing feelings and relationships. 2. Emotions are mainly experiences, always subjective, that may include several parts-from physical, expressive, and subjective connotations. (Huitt, 2003). The significance of emotions in the learning process is definite and whole, a complete area of the process through which advancement may depend. Learning is adjudged to be in progress and working towards specific goals when these three domains are in place and are noted. Education, received in school, is the structured management of each factor, that points to achieving full mental and physical maturity. In this light, the college level is assumed to hold individuals of complete development in all domains. However, it is also at this time when a person, judging from his or her psychomotor, cognitive and affective skills, shows preference for specific areas. This is where a new branch of learning comes in, one that caters to multiple intelligences. Developed by Howard Gardner, this refers to, literally, an array of intelligences, that declares how each individual excels in various areas-and one cannot be deemed more intelligent than the other, just by