The cognitive approach to learning and educational informatics in higher education

The objective of this article is to assess different arguments, from the cognitive psychology approach to learning, which support the relevance of the introduction of Computer Science in the teaching-learning process at the university.

Theoretical conceptions from the cognitive psychology of learning enable the introduction of Educational Informatics at this level of teaching in two mutually dependent aspects: the acceptance that the conception of the learning process with a cognitive approach is closely related to Educational Informatics and the existence of psycho-didactic arguments in favor of its application in education higher.

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Index

1. Introduction
2. Acceptance of the learning process with a cognitive approach underlies Educational Informatics.
3. Psychodynamic approaches for the teaching-learning process
4. Concept maps
5. The existence of psychodidactic arguments in favor of the application of Educational Informatics in higher education.
6. Psychodynamic arguments: group learning
7. Cognitive bases of cooperative / group learning
8. Conclusions

Learning psychologists have traditionally been concerned with and concerned with investigate and explain the subjective mechanisms that underlie the teaching-learning processe, which has led to the appearance of different conceptions, depending on the approach or paradigm from which it starts.

Each conception has been conditioned not only by the evolution of psychology as a science, but also by the development of society and, therefore, of education. The appearance of Informatics constitutes an evident expression of this development, as a reflection of the increasing complexity of social life with the support of new technologies of information and communication, which, when introduced in higher education, have become an open challenge for students, teachers and researchers of the learning.

The objective of this work is evaluate different arguments, from the perspective of cognitive psychology of learning, that support the relevance of the introduction of Informatics in the teaching-learning process at the university.

But,what is the use value What do the theoretical conceptions have from the cognitive psychology of learning for the application of Educational Informatics in higher education?

To answer this question, it is necessary to take into account two complementary aspects:

• The acceptance that the learning process with a cognitive approach underlies Educational Informatics.
• The existence of psychodidactic arguments in favor of the application of Educational Informatics in higher education.

Within the different psychological conceptions of learning, cognitivist theories make up an approach that starts from contemporary cognitive psychology, which has extrinsic conditioning factors the scientific-technical development that is manifested in the contributions of cybernetics, computing, discoveries in physiology higher nervous activity and psychology of cognitive processes. It is a result of interdisciplinary relationships, since it incorporates results from linguistics, psycholinguistics and neurosciences. From the historical point of view they constitute a response to the demands of the increasing development of automation and the computerization of modern society and form an approach due to the large number of different theories that contribute to her.

As intrinsic conditioning factors are the dissatisfaction with psychoanalytic, humanist and neo-behavioral conceptions about learning, that raise the need to illuminate Skinner's black box to know the internal phenomena of man.

The contributions of the Cultural Historical University of L. S. Vygotsky (and his followers), from the J. Piaget (and his followers) and the Information Processing Approach (based on the similarities between computer programs and cognitive processes).

However, antecedents can also be found in the conceptions of some neo-behaviorist authors, such as Clark L. Hull (1884-1952), E.C. Tolman (1886-1959) and B.F. Skinner (1904), of which the following influences on contemporary cognitive psychology are found:

• The deductive character of the theory with the use of the hypothetico-deductive method, since for its representatives psychology can only acquire a scientific status when it reaches a level of formalization of its conceptualizations as exists in other exact sciences, with the corresponding level of mathematization, with a profusion of theorems, laws, definitions and concepts with a high level of operationalization, especially with influences of cybernetics and computing, conceiving man as a great computer and his brain functioning according to the laws of hardware and software.
• Other positions emphasize the facts, the empirical, the data obtained by dissimilar methods, without trying to rise above them. Empiricist and inductivist positions also proliferate with the great accumulation of concrete results and the establishment of relationships at very immediate and concrete levels.
• The recognition of the existence of internal cognitive variables that mediate the E-R scheme, constituted the way ready to accept, highlight and investigate the role of cognitive phenomena and their role in learning human. This is precisely a psychology of the phenomena of knowledge in man.
• The programmed teaching itself and the algorithm proposal constitute an immediate antecedent of cognitivism, with the man-machine relationship and information processing, which will be an integral part of the computational model of the approach cognitive. B Skinner's early teaching machines were the forerunners of today's tutorials, artificial intelligence, and coaches.

The influence of the information processing approach It is reflected as a computational cognitive model that has an information input subsystem (the instruction itself), a coding register, information processing and storage (construct variable) and a device for executing / outputting the information already prepared that manifests itself in various forms (A.Barca; R. G. Cabanach and others, 1994).

It is in the 1950s when this approach begins to gain strength as a result of the challenges of the increasing automation and computerization of society. The information is conceived as meaning and as a stimulus at the same time with certain physical qualities.

Two basic assumptions are that the human being is an active processor of information So what mental processes and structures can be studied based on two indicators: the time to execute a task and the precision of said execution. To the conceive of man as a machine, Information theorists conceive it as endowed with programs designed to deal actively and intelligently with the information it receives from the environment. These programs are sequences of operations or cognitive processes closely related to each other to build, create, transform, store, retrieve and manipulate in any way information units or knowledge

This influence has led to the establishment of the analogy of the computer, that is, that man functions in a similar to computers in processing both certain abstract symbols by applying rules formal. Importantly, this analogy is fully functional and not structural.

Two levels of information processing in learning have been determined (A.Barca; R. G. Cabanach and others, 1994):

1. Surface processing level, in which attention is directed towards learning the text itself (the sign or signifier), which is synonymous with talking about reproductive learning or adopting a learning strategy repetitive. Of the students requires low levels of demand and adopt a passive position, so that they focused only on content elements, the task is approached thoughtlessly and the material is perceived predominantly as task for memorize.
2. Deep processing level, in which students' attention is directed toward the intentional content of the material of learning (what it means or meaning), towards understanding what they were wanted to transmit. It constitutes an active form of approach to the learning task in which the attention is focused on the content as a whole, an attempt is made to discover the relationship between the different parts of the text, it is reflected on the logical connections involved and the structure of the text is perceived in its integrity.

Learning is conceived as a acquisition, restructuring and change process cognitive structures, in which cognitive phenomena play a fundamental role: perception, attention and memory, from a dynamic interpretation of these phenomena and not static as they have traditionally appeared in psychology general.

Perception is conceived as a cognitive process that facilitates the adaptive capacity of the human being in the environment, that allows to discriminate, select and interpret the meanings of the multiple stimuli that he receives. It is a process of information extraction for the subject. This selective mechanism is influenced by prior knowledge, by man's interests, needs and cognitive schemes. It has an active character and is not a copy of reality, as it is subject to the transformations to which the data supplied by the different external receivers are subjected. The language gives it objectivity and generalization.

Attention is the process of selective mental orientation towards certain stimuli. It constitutes the concentration and focus of cognitive activity on a certain stimulus or activity and the simultaneous inhibition of other simultaneous or concomitant stimuli or activity. It can be voluntary (when determined by the subject) or involuntary (when determined by the nature of the stimulus); between the two there are close relationships.

The memory is conceived as a process that allows to retain and remember the contents objects of learning past and present. It controls, regulates and underlies the entire understanding process. Its structure is made up of short-term memory or storage and long-term memory or storage.

Short-term memory (MCP), or working memory momentarily retains information, is immediate. It has an auxiliary system of verbal repetition of the sensory content received to retain information for a short time, has limited capacity and serves as a bridge to long-term memory. It is episodic and situational in nature.

Long-term memory (MLP) accumulates a whole class of data that is acquired throughout life through different types of information processing. It can be experiential or episodic and conceptual or semantic. With unlimited capacity, it has a constant activity that serves as a basis for thought. It requires the learning of the organization of the material and its recovery. Both integrate memory systems with the constant transfer between one to another that are essential in learning.

These considerations allow us to propose the following psycho-didactic derivations for the teaching-learning process:

- Perception, attention and memory constitute vital units that process information, along with thought.

- The needs and motives of those who learn determine that the information processing (learning) has a active character in the subject.

- The environmental characteristics (adults-family-society) are factors that facilitate or retard the student's cognitive development.

- To optimize the processing of information in school work, it is suggested algorithmize the teaching-learning process in the decomposition of the contents into simpler and more didactic elements.

- Link content to real life and establish relationships with previous knowledge to motivate learning and rely on analogies.

- When people find information relevant to themselves, they tend to actively interpret it and use previously stored and organized knowledge structures, which stimulates self-cognition.

• Students develop learning strategies, which constitute a series of cognitive operations that the student carries out to organize, integrate and elaborate the information in their cognitive structure in the most effective way possible. They are processes or sequences of activities that serve as the basis for the performance of intellectual tasks that facilitate the acquisition, storage and application of information or knowledge.

A very important concept proposed by cognitivists is that of metacognition, to which many investigations and several critical evaluations have been dedicated, since there is no consensus regarding it. A. Labarrere (1996) considers it as the analysis, assessment and self-regulation of knowledge on the part of the student, that is, the knowledge that he has of his own cognitive processes when he is solving a problem.

E.Martí (1995) abounds that metacognition includes two aspects: the knowledge of cognitive processes of the person (know what) and the regulation of these processes (know how). And that cognitive psychology as a whole is metacognitive since its objective is to know precisely the cognitive processes. However, the aspect of regulation has traditionally been the least researched, perhaps because it is the most complex.

Metacognition is essentially a result of the personological approach by including in its own definition of the self-regulation of the person and the regulation exercised by others in the act of learn.

It is evident the theoretical and practical value of this concept for teaching, since as F. Trillo (1989) states, metacognition is a skill that contributes to the protagonism of the student in the classroom, from which derives the possibility of applying different metacognitive strategies useful for the acquisition, use and control of the knowledge. Students must be as aware of their thinking strategies as they are of their attempts to keep information in memory. And he proposes within the metacognitive skills those of planning, predicting, understanding, interpreting, verifying, checking the procedures used and evaluating.

Therefore, the goal of teaching and education is teach the student to think, to value the significance of knowledge and the learning process itself, so that an increasingly independent, creative and self-regulated learner is encouraged.

Within the set of authors that are grouped around the cognitive approach, are the contributions of D.Ausubel and J.Bruner to the conceptualization of learning, which are widely cited in the literature specialized.

D. Ausubel

The substantial contribution of D. Ausubel is the conceptualization of meaningful learning, which is achieved when the student can relate the new knowledge to her individual experience (with what you already know) not in an arbitrary and substantial way, that they are previously organized in cognitive structures. Sometimes this link is erroneously identified by the previous knowledge received in the school setting, that is, that learned in previous subjects and courses. Actually, by individual experience it is necessary to conceive the intuitive knowledge that the student possesses, either by way of schooled or not, and the further away students see the knowledge they are trying to teach, the more difficult it will be learn them.

D. Ausubel (1987) refers to meaningful learning and his classification of types of learning by repetition, by reception, by guided discovery and by autonomous discovery, which are neither exclusive nor dichotomous. And any of them can become significant if it complies with the above. It also abounds in intrapersonal variables of learning, of an internal nature, such as cognitive structure, intellectual capacity, motivational factors, attitudinal and factors of the personality. And as situational variables the practice and ordering of teaching materials.

Certainly D. Ausubel (1983) highlights the motivation as absolutely necessary for learning Sustained and intrinsic motivation is vital to meaningful learning, which automatically provides its own reward.

C. Coll

C. Coll (1988) delves into this concept of significant learning and he values ​​that the polysemy of the concept, the diversity of meanings that it has accumulated, he explains to a great extent Part of its attractiveness and its generalized use, which requires, at the same time, to maintain a prudent reserve about him. However, he considers that the concept of meaningful learning has great heuristic value and holds enormous potential as an instrument of analysis, reflection and intervention psychopedagogical.

J. Bruner

J.Bruner emphasizes on the value of discovery learning within its cognitive-computational model, to produce the ultimate goal of instruction: the transfer of learning. The contents of the teaching have to be perceived by the students as a set of problems, existing relationships or gaps and that he himself, considering the learning that must be perform. And he establishes a similarity between the knowledge that the child discovers and the work of the scientist.

Since the ultimate goal of learning is discovery, the only way to achieve it is through exercise in the solution of tasks and the effort to discover (active character), the more it is practiced, the more it generalizes. The information must be organized into certain concepts and categories, to avoid raw and useless learning, which is why it is necessary to learn to learn.

This approach has raised the existence of cognitive styles, which are individual cognitive differences, associated with various non-cognitive dimensions of personality (M. Carretero and J. Palacios, 1982), that is, stable structures of the self that serve to coordinate intentions and desires of the subject and the demands of the situation, so they have a double cognitive and personological.

According to their classification, the best known are field dependence-independence (DIC), and reflexivity-impulsivity, but there are also others of which the literature also echoes: conceptualization style, restrictive control-flexible control, leveling-sharpening, scrutiny, etc. (M. Carretero and J. Palacios, 1982).

It has been shown that between the two best known styles there is a close link, since reflexivity is associated with field independence and impulsivity with dependence.

By critically appraising the cognitivist approach to learning it can be noted that:

- It incorporates valuable elements and concepts from other previous theories that are indisputable scientific contributions.

- It has a solid research base that has led to the realization of multiple scientific works of an experimental nature, with the creation and development of task analysis, which place people in situations similar to everyday ones in solving different problems, with its consequent results in order to enrich the theory with an interdisciplinary nature, such as, for example, the contributions to metacognition in the learning.

• The cognitive analysis of tasks has many potentialities of application in the teaching-learning process to through the so-called teaching tasks or pedagogical tasks in the didactic field because they constitute its foundation psychological.

- As all scientific approach does not have a homogeneous character, since theories of different authors proliferate, which without leaving of ascribing to the cognitivist position, certain aspects of learning stand out that are not contrasted between Yes.

- Some of its tendencies, very close to the theories of information processing and neurosciences, in order to achieve "greater objectivity scientific ", emphasize in the experimental technological, to the detriment of the personological, since the representatives of the strong version of the analogy with the computer ignore subjective phenomena, such as affective-motivational phenomena and even consciousness, as well as the social context in which they develop people.

• The group and the interactive in learning is not highlighted by some authors by highlighting too much the internal of said process.
• By emphasizing so much on the cognitive, the affective is relegated to the background or overlooked in some of the contemporary positions.
• He has provided a whole arsenal of complex concepts that need to be elucidated in order to understand his theoretical positions, such as diagrams of knowledge, cognitive schemas, states of knowledge, learning variables, types of learning, previous organizers, cognitive maps or Concept maps, which, according to J. Novak and D. Gowin (1988), are intended to represent significant relationships between concepts in the form of propositions.

Concept maps are schematic devices to represent a set of conceptual meanings included in a structure of propositions, which allows to offer a formal summary of everything that has been learned. They must be hierarchical, that is, go from the general to the particular. They contribute to the development of creativity in students by stimulating them to discover for themselves same new relationships between the concepts, according to the tasks and activities proposed by the teacher. Similarly, group concept maps stimulate discussion among students.

Thus, concept maps have significant didactic value by allowing better visualization of the relationships between concepts, planning and organizing not only the process of teaching-learning, but also the design of the curriculum, as well as revealing the cognitive organization of the student and his spontaneous conceptions (J.Novak and D.Gowin, 1988).

Based on these assessments, it is wise to make the following statements that help to better explain the phenomenon of learning:

• It is a process because it passes through successive stages or phases. It is evident that it does not occur immediately in the student, it needs a certain sequential and repetitive character over time that varies depending on individual differences. In the same way, it accumulates a series of quantitative changes that are later translated into qualitative changes when the act of learning occurs in the full sense of the word.
• It has a subjective character because it occurs within the person, with an external and objective exteriorization in a timely, voluntary and systematic manner.

• It is elaborated (built) in an active and conscious way in the organization and processing of the information received, when the subject performs activities and individual and collective actions and not without contradictions between the demands that teaching places on the student and their possibilities of learn them.
• It is determined by the learning style of each subject, reflecting the individuality of the personality in that act. This style is usually not made aware by the learner, but it is a step forward to get to know it with the help of the teacher, which contributes to metacognition.

• It involves the personality in its entirety, in the unity of the cognitive, the affective and the behavioral.
• The teacher plays an essential role as leader in the pedagogical mediation of learning.
• He is strongly conditioned by the students' previous experience, both scholarly and intuitive.

• There are no universal or optimal learning mechanisms, as they are determined by the context in which it takes place, by the content that is learned and the learning styles of each student, because of this the teacher must use different styles of to teach.
• Multiple internal and internal, school and extracurricular factors influence the learning process, often difficult to predict and fully control

• It constitutes an essential mechanism for the psychic development of man, of his personality, hence the fundamental role of the university as an enhancer of said development.

• It is an essentially interactive phenomenon, which occurs in the communication of the teacher with the student, of the students with each other, and of the subject with himself. Therefore, it is a dialogical process, essentially communicative, since to the same extent that it is stimulated and increases its dialogic character, learning is enhanced, enriched and, therefore, increases its efficiency and quality.

Precisely, these considerations about learning allow us to reach the other aspect of the presentation:

The interactive feature of the learning process conditions that it be a essentially communicative phenomenon, which constitutes one of the most important characteristics not only for the conformation of a scientific theory about it, but for the act of teaching itself, for the daily work of the teacher and the student, which is closely related to Computer Science Educational

Vigotskian conceptions they serve as theoretical support in this case due to their emphasis on the social genesis of consciousness, which is built through the interactions of the individual with the world (social and cultural). Therefore, investigating the field of consciousness consists of studying the interactions between individuals in the framework of the activities that they carry out, and the teaching-learning process constitutes a particular and special case of interactive human activity par excellence.

Likewise, the principle of the unity of activity and communication, outlined by Vigotsky (1980, 1985), and later developed by Marxist Orientation Psychology contributes to the psychological foundation of learning as dialogue within the pedagogical process. Even the very concept of the zone of proximal development, which by its essence is interactive, reinforces these criteria.

The author F. González (1995) highlights that learning is a communication process and that knowledge is built through dialogue, in a participatory and questioning atmosphere. The possibility of dialogue allows students to concentrate on the knowledge process, without inhibitions of any kind.

And with regard to the formation of values, this author (1996) asserts that communication is substantial, not as instruction, orientation or transmission, but as real dialogic communication, where a common space is created in which the intervening parties share needs, reflections, motivations and mistakes. The university, together with political and mass organizations and the community as a whole, must seek a dialogue that stimulates the real involvement of students with their teachers and that they awaken emotions, so that they are not established in a formal but personalized way, as a legitimate expression of the subject that assumes.

At present the Theory of Communicative Action (TAC) by J. Habermas has a great influence on contemporary critical pedagogy, as it has a dialogical character, interactive type that seeks understanding, gives strength to the value of the arguments and is optimistic. Some characteristics of this pedagogy related to communication can be delimited (M. Rodríguez, 1997):

1. Encourages contradictions in educational activity.
2. Take advantage of conflict situations.
3. It attends to linguistic phenomena.
4. Solve teaching problems using organizational styles that stimulate participation and discourse.
5. Train teachers to use these methods.

From which it can be inferred that TAC serves to build a humanized didactics because its essence consists of dialogue as explanation of reality and as a scientific attitude, in the reflection between the educational community, between the teacher and the student and all those who are part of the instructive process in the search for a communicative symmetry within the process of teaching-learning.

TO. Escribano (1998), proposes a interactive global theory as a new paradigm within those existing in Didactics, whose essence lies in its holistic rationality in seeking the integration and unity in plurality, avoiding fragmented and unilateral knowledge in the field educational. It presupposes a great interdisciplinarity due to the large number of sciences that contribute to the didactic act and highlights the influence of new technologies information and communication, such as computer-assisted learning and the virtual classroom, leading to the emergence of computerized didactics and global communication.

From this approach derives a interactive learning and multilevel telelearning through the use of geostationary satellites for communications, in which the student learns by himself, with the help of others or with the help of the teacher and considers four basic levels of telelearning, according to the criteria of J.Tiffin and Rajasingham (1995), cited TO. Escribano (1998):

• An individual student with his PC and her modem.
• Small group networks.
• Course networks.
• Individual learning institutions.

The first three would form the virtual classroom and the last one the virtual learning institutions. Which in turn are based on the levels of social communication proposed by the same authors:

• Intrapersonal communication (individual neural network).
• Interpersonal communication (two people).
• Group communication (networks of 2 to 20 people).
• Communication of Organizations.
• Mass Media Communication.
• Global Communication.

From the above it is derived by its importance of group learning. There is unanimity regarding the educational value of the group, however, it is forgotten when learning tasks are designed only of an individual nature, that is, they do not require the link between students or the performance of activities joint Precisely, G. García (1996) includes among the problems that have begun to manifest and that affect the formation of values ​​the poor development of the school group based on the task educational, which does not allow interaction between them to stabilize certain norms, as well as the establishment of superficial affective relationships, not mediated by the activity of study.

It has even been shown experimentally (R. Rodríguez and A. Rodríguez, 1995) that group discussion positively influences the appearance and development of affective states, which in turn have repercussions on the processing of information by its members, which is manifested in the quality of their interventions and, therefore, in the learning.

It is also widely spread today as well the term cooperative learning when it occurs specifically through the mediation of the group, from the interaction between its members and an awareness of the value of the interpersonal relationships of its members in solving tasks teachers. This term began to appear in the scientific literature in the early 1970s.

In the United States there are several researchers who have worked with this approach, such as E. Dubinski in the teaching of Mathematics (1996), the works of E. TO. Forman and C. B. Courtney (1984) with a Vigotskian perspective on the cognitive value of peer interaction, through peer mentoring and peer cooperation, both of which help improve individual knowledge and produce results superior intellectuals, and the investigations of N.M. Webb (1984) on student interaction and small group learning, highlighting the importance of helping behavior within the group, of verbalizations among its members, of socio-emotional variables (motivation, anxiety and satisfaction) and predictors of interaction (student skills, group composition and structure of the reward).

In Spain you can also find several authors who investigate it and introduce it into their professional educational practice. For example, C. Coll (1984), has referred to the fact that cooperative learning experiences favor the establishment of much more positive relationships between students. characterized by sympathy, interaction, courtesy and mutual respect, as well as reciprocal feelings of obligation and help, that They also make intellectual progress possible by allowing the confrontation of their own points of view with others of others, regardless of the degree of correction Between both

J.Onrubia (1997) states that in cooperative learning situations three basic requirements must be met:

1. The existence of a group task, that is, of a specific goal that students must achieve as a group. In other words, it is not enough to do things together, but to face and solve a certain common task or problem and as a consequence learn something together.
2. The resolution of this task or common problem necessarily requires the contribution of each and every one of the participants, so that the group responsibility in relation to the goal to be achieved rests, supports and builds on individual responsibility of each student. This does not mean that all members of the group should contribute in the same way or at the same level.
3. That the group has sufficient resources to maintain and advance your own activity, both from the point of view of the regulation of interpersonal relationships between its members and in relation to the development and performance of the proposed task.

In turn, three key factors are derived from these three requirements (J.Onrubia, 1997):

• The distribution and assignment of roles to students.
• The internal structure of the proposed task.
• The delimitation of the forms of support offered by the teacher throughout the activity.

In the Anglo-Saxon world, for its part, this problem of cooperative learning is also investigated, considering it as a group research approach (S. Sharon, 1990), whose theoretical bases are in the conceptions of J. Dewey and K. Lewin, in the constructivist psychology of cognition and in the theory of intrinsic motivation to learn.

American social psychologists D. Johnson and R. Johnson (1990), explaining what cooperative learning is, state that work together to meet certain shared goals, with the instructive use of small groups so that students work together and in this way maximize the learning of each one. Students have two responsibilities: to learn the assigned material and to make sure that all the other members of the group do it.

They clarify that cooperative learning is often thought of as just having students sit next to each other. side by side at the same table and talk to each other about their individual tasks and once they finish helping the most laggards. It is much more than being close, than discussing a topic with other students, than supporting the other or sharing study material with others, although these issues are important too.

Actually group, interactive or cooperative learning It is not a type of learning, but a method, a path, a strategy and not an end in itself, and in turn, inter-student communication is a condition, a way also for learning individual. Furthermore, between group learning, interactive or cooperative learning there is no difference, since the former does not exist without interaction, within the group and in cooperation.

By its very essence, school learning is subjective and individual because it occurs in each person, but within a group context, of course. There can be no one type of learning that occurs outside of the learner. From a scientific point of view, it is more rigorous to refer to group learning than to propose group learning, to avoid confusion.

Those who try to explain this type of group learning as alternative or parallel to individual learning include within their definition elements referring to what is a joint development process and what results from the appropriation of knowledge as a result of interaction, which emphasizes how the learning process occurs and reaffirms its character as a method, a way and not a type of learning.

Precisely, the pedagogical mediation, whose essence lies in the interactive process of the teacher with the student (D. Prieto, 1995; I. Contreras, 1995), is capable of promoting and accompanying learning, that is, the task of each student to build and appropriate the world and itself, which constitutes a vital element for the practical application of new computer technologies in the university, by making compatible the conception of learning conceived as an interactive and communicative process par excellence with said means of teaching.

These teaching aids play an important role as facilitators of individual and group communication and learning, especially those that are part of the new generation of educational technology, which allow greater interactivity and independence of the student with said techniques, such is the case of personal computers, multimedia, video, television, e-mail, teleconferencing and networks.

As stated by A. Meléndez (1995), education is at a crossroads, since the prevailing and millenary method based on the passive reception of knowledge in the classroom is collapsing classes, even the notion of learning is also changing due to the explosion of information or knowledge, since the university preparation of the future professional is being reconsidered due to the impossibility of learning the entire content of a discipline in its undergraduate preparation, but must develop the ability to learn.

According to this author, this situation can be faced with success with the use of new technologies and especially of Informatics. The specific and peculiar interaction with the personal computer as a teaching medium gives a new nuance and a new dynamic to the teaching-learning process. When the personal computer is mentioned, educational software is being considered, such as tutorial systems, exercise and practice systems, as well as simulators. In the same way, it is assumed that this novel way of learning requires computer literacy that it should not start at the university, but rather the student acquires it in the preceding teachings.

The new computer technologies applied to education are called intelligent because it has been shown that attentive and voluntary involvement in a Homework forces students to speed up their intelligence, generate a greater number of original deductions and memorize more and better the learning material (G. Salomon, D.N. Perkins and T. Globerson, 1992)

It is suggested that the personal computer constitutes a student intellectual amplifier, an instrument of the mind because it could modify mental functions in two ways: by altering the knowledge base of the person and altering the operations applicable to said knowledge base (D. Olson, 1989). In other words, it constitutes a tool that facilitates and enhances the search, experimentation and acquisition of knowledge.

Its impact on education has led to the emergence of new areas of proximal development that increase the possibilities for educational interactions, but in a personalized and not in a homogeneous way, since not all will go in the same direction or go that far, since the student is an active appropriator of knowledge mediated by these computer technologies (D. Newman, 1992)

L. Maldonado and others (1995) refer to the possibilities of hypertext and hypermedia techniques in education as a way to develop self-directed study skills, one of the learning most needed today and one of the least developed by traditional education systems. Hypertext allows students to individualize the process of acquiring knowledge, as well as interact with new information from the in a more meaningful way for each one, with the use of concept maps through the nodes and arcs (the concepts and their relations).

AND. Iglesias and G. Ruiz (1992) abound on hypertexts in education considering that they have a foundation psychological, since its sequential way of organizing information resembles the functioning of the human mind. In addition, they stimulate meaningful learning and effective information processing, as well as the development of metacognitive skills, such as planning, prediction, verification, reality check, and control of Actions. Hypertexts also develop cognitive flexibility, as it allows students to reorder the sequences of the instructional materials in a personal way, providing multiple possibilities to structure and connect the elements of the knowledge.

On the other hand, R. Contreras and M. Grijalva (1995) address that multimedia technology allows, in a virtual university with a different space and time, to achieve an adaptation to the student learning pace, greater freedom of movement within the information, optimal use of time and more meaningful use of information. The student requires self-discipline, responsibility, better organizing their time, ability to search and analyze information and effective self-learning.

And in relation to mental processes, as this technology is a combination of text, graphic art, sound, animation and video, the human being is able to retain (Cevallos, 1990, cited by R. Contreras and M. Grijalva, 1995):

• 20% of what you hear
• 40% of what he sees and hears
• 75% of what you see, hear and practice.

And this new information is stored in short-term memory (MCP), where it is repeated until it is ready to be stored in long-term memory (MLP). This combination of information and skills in this long-term memory allows the development of cognitive strategies or skills to deal with complex tasks.

Regarding networks, M. Trujillo (1995) highlights the great possibilities they pose to increase communication between human beings, based on the collaboration and complementation of the participants working in a cooperative environment, which stimulates and facilitates inter-learning, that is, interactive, cooperative and group learning.

However, the existence of such media in the classroom does not per se guarantee the quality of the teaching-learning process, it all depends on what are in function of making it more active, that is, that they do not hinder the process or that students become passive recipients of information. As E. De Corte (1990), New Information Technologies (NTI) by themselves cannot be vehicles for the acquisition of knowledge, skills and attitudes, but must be integrated into a teaching-learning context, that is, in situations that stimulate in students the learning processes necessary to achieve educational objectives.

From a psychological point of view, the decisive factor in this case is the motivation and voluntary commitment of students to incorporate these new technologies in their learning, so they should take into account not only technological variables, but also individual psychological and social (G. Salomon; D. N. Perkins and T. Globerson, 1992).

D. Prieto (1995) warns about the danger of its uncritical use and the dire consequences that it can cause when evaluating its isolated use within the process education, believing that they can solve educational problems by themselves and not previously training teachers to use them in a pedagogical.

This same author affirms that the value of technology in support of learning goes through the appropriation of its communication resources, through the ability to dialogue with its recipients, because of the possibility of using it, creating it and recreating it, as well as that pedagogically mediating technologies is to open spaces for search, processing and application of information, as well as for the encounter with other beings and the appropriation of the aesthetic and ludic possibilities that are linked to any creation.

Due to the criteria set out above, it is essential to carry out pedagogical research that introduces, through formative experiments, the different technologies of Educational Informatics in the different disciplines and university careers that take into account the existence of psychological, social and technological variables and how to adapt them in each context of teaching-learning.

Scientific experimentation In this field, with the participation of multidisciplinary teams that adopt coherent theoretical positions, it is the only one that will allow specialists to be offered criteria rigorous and solid to avoid empiricism or trial and error and to be able to improve gradually and increasingly the introduction of Educational Informatics in education higher.

In Cuba, work in this field is still incipient, but promising, based on the provision of modern computer equipment available to universities. For example, researchers I. Alfonso and A. Hernández (1998) developed an interesting experience regarding teacher training in the use of multimedia, which allows a certain generalization by reaffirming its value pedagogical for the formation of learning strategies in students and the need to work in multidisciplinary teams that integrate specialists where they are included pedagogues.

In accordance with the objective of this article, several scientific arguments have been evaluated, from the cognitive psychology of learning approach that demonstrate the need, feasibility and relevance and even the urgency of the introduction of informatics in the teaching-learning process in the college.

Its use value has been based, precisely, in the existing relationships between the cognitivist conception of learning and Informatics Educational, as well as the contribution of psycho-didactic arguments in favor of its introduction in the teaching-learning process of education higher.

It is unforgivable that in the era of scientific-technical development Currently, the teacher misses the possibilities offered by advanced technologies, especially because they compete with him, because the students are under his influence outside the frames teachers. It is a challenge for the teacher to prepare adequately in mastering it for its relevant exploitation.

In a certain way, the university can fall behind in the ways of transmitting information to students and enhancing their capacity learning if you try to isolate yourself or compete, for example, with the immediacy of satellite television, with the clarity and quality image via cable or with the infinite possibilities of compact discs that combine first-class text, image and sound quality.

That is why pedagogical research is so necessary in this field that provides scientific criteria for applications experimental tests carried out by teachers in different disciplines and careers, integrated into teams by various specialists.

Society is inexorably moving towards computerization in all its activities and spheres and the university cannot be an exception. The call educational technology should be incorporated into the classroom precisely and with full didactic justification, without trying to confer a mythical role in the solution learning disabilities, or blame him for the ills that plague the learning process. teaching-learning.

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to The cognitive approach to learning and educational informatics in higher education, we recommend that you enter our category of Cognitive psychology.

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