Modes of Cognitive Representation
Please respond to the following:

• Describe a simple instructional activity using all three of Bruner’s modes of cognitive representation.
• Discuss why you included the elements you did. Explain your rationale.
• If you created the same bit of training for someone from a vastly different culture than your original audience, explain what you would need to modify, and why.

Respond to classmate:

“Bruner proposed three systems by which people structure their understanding of the world. He suggested that humans respond to their environment through action or patterned motor acts, through conventionalized imagery and perception, and through language and reason. These capabilities formed the basis for the modes of representation that Bruner called enactive representation, iconic representation, and symbolic representation.” (Driscoll) A simple instructional activity using all three of Bruner’s modes of cognitive representation is giving instructions on how to build a bridge with marshmallows and toothpicks. The enactive stage would be actually building the model bridge. The iconic stagewould be the class watching videos and looking at pictures of different bridge and then sketching out different bridges. Thesymbolic stage would be us looking up and researching the different bridges and its importance and impact it has on the environment. The only thing I think I would have to modify if I was training a group from a diverse cultural background, would probably be the language and maybe my approach.

Driscoll, M. Psychology of learning for instruction (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.