Construction of a Cognitive Simulator for Human Memory Process and Class Practice

Abstract

For practice-based science education, the authors developed a cognitive simulator that demonstrates the human memory process and simulates the serial position effect in different experimental situations. Our cognitive simulator as a learning tool is established on the basis of the dual storage model; it visualizes the items stored in the short-term and long-term memories. The participants learn how the model works while confirming which items are rehearsed in the short-term memory, encoded into the long-term memory, or overflowed from the memory. We designed and performed practice-based psychological training through two university class sessions of the author’s cognitive science class. The results of the practice showed that participants’ data interpretation and data prediction were improved through class activities. More specifically, the participants explained the observed data using naïve concepts prior to the learning phase, but they subsequently explained them using theoretically defined concepts of the dual storage model. Further more, the participants were successfully guided to predict the experimental results more accurately by the learning activities using the cognitive simulator.