Cognitive theories of learning focus on the mental processes within **individual minds**.^[Fischer et al., 2018] Those **processes** include the perception, encoding, storage, transformation, and retrieval of information. A key assumption of cognitive theories is that learning mechanisms are rooted to a large extent in the individual, and can be investigated independently from contexts. **Scholarship** in this space has been referred to generally as cognitive science and includes schema theory, information processing, and constructivism, as well as more recent work within cognitive neurosciences. Cognitive approaches view **knowledge** as the representation of information within an individual mind. The distinctions between specific cognitive theories lie in how knowledge is represented and transformed. However, Illeris notes:^[Jarvis, 2021, p. 20] >The most important development in the understanding of human learning since about 1990 has been that **learning is never and by no means only a cognitive matter** – which implies that pure cognitive learning does not take place in normal human beings and that cognitive learning theories deal only with a special side of human learning. --- Created: [[2023-04-30]] Type: #permanent Topics: [[Learning (Index)]] Related notes: - [[What are the cognitive mechanisms of learning and how do they work?]] - [[What are the major theories of learning?]]