In this article, the contributions of cognitive psychology to research and development of medical education are assessed. The cognitive psychology of learning consists of activation of prior knowledge while processing new information and elaboration on the resulting new knowledge to facilitate storing in long-term memory. This process is limited…

Effects of mobilizing prior knowledge on information processing were studied with 3 groups of 12 adult subjects each. The assumption that activating different kinds of prior knowledge would induce different information processing activities during subsequent text processing (inferencing or elaborating) was tested using passages about fishing…

This paper examines research on students' learning in small tutorial groups, highlighting: (1) cognitive processes elicited by small group discussion and their effects on achievement; and (2) the influence of tutors on student learning. The studies examined problem based learning (PBL) in small groups in high schools and universities. Researchers…