1. I believe that this reading was about the different ways we visually recognize objects. The chapter also went into the topics of face recognition and how interesting it is that we can recognize peoples faces even if they are contoured or partially turned. Also, the topic of speech perception is discussed and that the general mechanism approach views speech sounds as a learned ability.
2. I'm starting to see that cognition is extremely complex and that theories are always changing as more research is completed.
3. All the different theories confuse me, but I think it is more because I have a difficult time comprehending while I read. I learn much better by discussions. It is not until after I read a few people's posts that I really feel like I understand what I read. I still feel like I am confusing the top-down and bottom-up processes.
4. It has really helped me to think about how my students learn. I used to think that my students were just reading too fast and making up words when the read aloud to me, but now I realize that they are just overusing the top-down processing. It also interests me to see how much context helps in the learning process.
5. All the examples from the research really made a believer out of me. Especially the face recognition credit card study. I could not believe how many cashiers did not notice that the person giving them the card and the person in the picture were completely different people.
6. I can predict that my students are going to have a difficult time learning if I am only teaching them by standing at the board and lecturing or by just having visuals and not connecting them to the lecture. I now also know that when I teach 2D shapes, it is important that I use good features for them because if I just say to draw a 4 sided and 4 cornered shape, they could draw several different shapes. I need to teach them the specific features that show how each shape is different.
7. I sort of answered this above, but I think this benefits all students.
8. I think using many different ways to teach a topic will help the students learn it better, but being careful not to overwhelm them. Also, having good features the first time and being able to create a context for what they are learning will show improvements faster.
