INDIVIDUAL PORTFOLIO 6 Name: Ronny Anak Tanjong

Lecture 4: Reading, Writing & Cognition Matrix ID: 19752

This lecture discusses about Reading, Writing & Cognition for Cognition and
Learning. The major question in this lecture is: why is reading and writing a cognitive
activity? Many of us do not realize that the reading process is not easy as we read. Although
it is effortless, reading is a complex and demanding cognitive task. For example, recognize
the letters in the sentence, use working memory to remember material from reading that we
have read, or maybe construct mental images of currently read sentence. Our eyes as the
visual receiver play an important role in the reading. We move our eyes across the page, but it
does not move smoothly. We may pause on a word, then, jump to another word and pause
again or we may jump backwards. Rapid movements of eyes during reading are known as
saccadic movement. Then, when we pause, the visual system extracted the information from
the text which is called fixations. Different readers have different time consuming on
fixations. A good reader usually pauses for a shorter time before making the next saccadic
movement. Under certain circumstances during reading, we jump backward to the earlier
sentence. It is called regressions.
There are prerequisites for reading in the term of cognition. First, we must know
about world knowledge or background knowledge. To read means to understand. In order to
understand, we must have knowledge on the meaning of what is read. If not, there is no point
to read it. For example, if there any words or phrases in the sentence that we do not know, the
whole sequence of events in the passage can become incomprehensible. We might not know
the meaning of the sentence as what the writer try to deliver to the reader. Second, we must
have adequate capability of working and long-term memory. During reading, new
information is store in working memory while previously encountered information is drawn
from long-term memory. Third, reading also requires attention. We must focus to the
sentences that we read in the systematic way. Movement of our eyes are also involves in the
attention during reading.
In reading, we found thousand of words, and yet, some of the words have equivalent
rhyme. If there is a word that we do not know how to pronounce, we use our knowledge of
letters, sounds and word patterns to solve it. Vocabulary knowledge also plays an important
role in order to be a good reader, which, understands the words and know how to use them.
Besides, schema theory can be applied in comprehending text as far as good reader is
concerned. Schema theory state that readers construct meaning from the text material they
encounter, their knowledge and their purposes for reading. Strategy in reading comprehension
also plays a significant role in order to acquire metacognitive awareness and gain control over
INDIVIDUAL PORTFOLIO 6 Name: Ronny Anak Tanjong

Lecture 4: Reading, Writing & Cognition Matrix ID: 19752

the learning process. The strategy consists of determining importance, summarizing

importance, drawing inferences, generating questions and monitoring comprehension.
Learning process is not just about reading. We also need to be good in writing. But, it
is not easy to produce a good writing. Lack of practice, low quality and low-level writing
activities could make our writing more difficult. In the term cognition, writing has 3
components; task environment, long-term memory and working memory. Before write, the
writers need to choose whether use the writing assignment or the external storage. The
writing assignment is the writing task faced by the writer meanwhile the external storage is
the resources such as created text and other materials used by the writer. All processes of
writing are influenced by long-term memory. In long-term memory, writer can accesses
knowledge about content and knowledge about discourage processes. Information in both
long-term memory and task environment is combined to produce a place where major
cognitive activity does, which is working memory. It is includes planning, translating and
reviewing.
Different writers have different skills. High-level writing skills usually produce a
knowledge transforming. According to Bereiter and Scardamalia (1987), knowledge
transforming defined as writer generates possible content the same way as novice writers, but
they use rhetorical knowledge to set goals and organize content before translating it into text.
Meanwhile, writers that have low-level writing skills usually produce a knowledge telling.
According to Bereiter and Scardamalia (1987), knowledge telling defined as writer generates
content from long-term memory and translates the content directly to the page and then stops
writing.
As a learner, reading and writing are very important in the learning process. More
reading means more knowledge we gained. However, if we just read it without any
understanding, there is no use to read it. A good writing also has a big influence in the
learning process. Any ideas, thoughts or suggestions can be write in a right manner so that we
can read it again in future as our reference.