Verbal Information / Verbal Skills

Robert Gagne classified the outcomes of all learning processes into 5 types.

• Intellectual Skills
• Cognitive Strategy
• Verbal Information
• Attitude
• Motor Skill

We’ve already discussed Intellectual Skills and Cognitive Strategy, and understood what sort of abilities fall under these two classes.

Verbal Information is possibly the most abundantly found among the three types of cognitive abilities listed by Robert Gagne. We’ve got a lot of verbal knowledge stored in our brains. It’s easy for us to recall the names of our family members (naturally,) our cousins, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, once or even twice removed (whatever that means – this usage perplexes me perpetually!) Add to this the names of our friends, associates, and numerous celebrities – national as well as international, innumerable fictional characters and so on. And I’ve been just talking about names of people here! Think about the sort of other information we have on metals, non-metals, body-parts, cars, places, dates, days, movies, books…oh, I could go on and on.
Here’s Coffeebeans. Beware!
(If you aren’t an Indian, you should watch this video or read the lyrics of this “Hindi-English = Hinglish” song,  to understand what’s raised Coffeebeans’ hackles!)

Reflection Activity:
1.    List three examples of verbal skills.