Dynamic Assessment : Mechanisms Underlying Cognitive Modifiability

Dynamic Assessment : Mechanisms Underlying Cognitive Modifiability

Dynamic Assessment covers educational approaches that affect enduring structural changes in the learnerʹs cognition such that the learner would eventually be capable of independent functioning and problem solving. We adopt a three-tier conception of cognitive modifiability at psychological, systems, and cellular levels. At the psychological level, research has clearly demonstrated that cognition is malleable and capable of change for the better or worse. Literature suggests that memory mechanisms of consolidation and reconsolidation at cellular and systems levels could be invoked to explain the cognitive modifiability at psychological level. Neuro-scientific evidence indicates that each time a consolidated memory is recalled and the neuronal ensemble holding that memory is exited, the memory trace enters a labile volatile state. Through protein synthesis, release of chemicals, and changes in neuro-electric signals, the relevant neurons could re-stabilize and reconsolidate a reconstructed and, thus, modified version of the original memory. In our view of systems consolidation, long distance cortico-cortical connections materialize over a period of weeks to years whose main function may be the integration of memories pertaining to various skills and experiences located in different regions of neocortex. Systems reconsolidation occurs when reactivated cortico-cortical connections undergo a second though less time-consuming round of consolidation.