What is Cognitive Learning Theory & How Can You Apply it?

L&D leaders consistently state that promoting learner engagement is one of their top challenges. To help employees feel engaged during training, L&D professionals can use cognitive learning theories as frameworks to build more effective programs.

By applying cognitive learning theory to your L&D program’s design, you can encourage higher employee engagement and more effective learning. This theory uses cognitive psychology concepts, mental processes, and real-life role play to foster learning based on your team’s own thinking patterns.

Read on for a deep dive into Cognitive Learning Theory or download our cheat sheet below for a bird's eye view:

What is Cognitive Learning Theory?

Cognitive learning theory uses metacognition—“thinking about thinking”—to understand how thought processes influence learning outcomes. It’s often contrasted against, or complemented by, behavioral learning theory, which focuses on the outside environment’s influences on learning.

In a nutshell: By understanding the role of thought processes during learning, we can guide those thoughts to help us gain knowledge more effectively. We can manipulate the internal and external factors that impact our thinking to improve learning in ourselves and others.

In the traditional classroom, teachers apply cognitive learning theory by encouraging self-reflection and asking learners to explain their reasoning. Using cognitive learning theory in the workplace requires a somewhat similar approach, but with different execution.

Why Use Cognitive Learning in Organizational L&D?

Evoking educational psychology for a company’s learning and development approach may seem excessive. But embedding cognitive learning activities and principles into organizational learning offers several advantages:

1. Deeper understanding and knowledge transfer. Cognitive approaches emphasize understanding (how and why), not just rote memorization. That helps learners transfer what they learn into new, real-world situations.
2. Better long-term memory and retention. Because learners actively process and combine new knowledge with existing knowledge, the learning “sticks” better over time.
3. Stronger problem-solving skills, critical thinking, and metacognition. Cognitive learning encourages learners to reflect on their thinking, ask questions, test hypotheses, and refine mental models. Over time, learners become more self-aware and able to monitor their own learning.
4. Higher engagement and motivation. Learners are doing more than passively absorbing information. They’re working hands on with scenarios, exploring, and reflecting, which boost engagement and motivation.
5. Adaptability in dynamic environments. When employees learn cognitively, they are better prepared to adjust and respond to change because they understand the underlying principles (rather than just fixed procedures).
6. Cost efficiency over time. Since learners internalize not just discrete facts but robust mental models, organizations may reduce the need for repeated “refresher” training.
7. A stronger learning culture. Cognitive approaches align with continuous learning mindsets: they emphasize reflection, iteration, improvement, and learner agency. Over time, this can help build a “learning organization.”
8. Support for diverse learning needs. Because cognitive methods can incorporate multiple modes (visual, verbal, interactive, reflective), they can better accommodate individual differences.

In sum: by investing in cognitive learning design, L&D teams move beyond check-the-box training toward sustainable learning environments which elevate employee capability, agility, and autonomy.

Cognitive Learning Theory concepts in L&D

In workplace L&D, cognitive learning theory and its concepts apply differently than in the traditional classroom. We can better understand how to strengthen L&D programs with cognitive learning theory by applying some of its most well-known concepts.

These terms can help you frame and refine teaching methods and L&D strategy around the ways your team learns most effectively.

Social cognitive theory

Academics sometimes divide cognitive learning theory into two sub-theories: social cognitive theory and cognitive behavioral theory. Social cognitive theory explores how social interaction affects learning cognition.

This theory overlaps slightly with behavioral learning theory, but instead of focusing on stimulus and response mechanisms grounded in external behaviors, it aims to modify the learner's environment to influence inner thought processes.

Concepts under social cognitive theory include:

• Reciprocal determinism: A person, their environment, and their behavior all influence and interact with each other.
• Positive and negative reinforcement: A positive or negative response, such as a reward or punishment, impacts future learning behaviors.
• Observational learning: Learners can watch someone else perform an action and repeat that behavior themselves.

Social cognitive theory often observes how people regulate their behavior to develop goal-directed habits. Instead of examining how a person begins their behavior like many other learning theories, social cognitive theory evaluates actions over time.

In the workplace, learners need an environment where leadership and peers invest themselves in learning. L&D professionals know that convincing managers to prioritize learning and fostering a learning culture are among their two highest priorities. These two achievements encourage more learning-focused behaviors in team members through positive reinforcement and observational learning.

Cognitive behavioral theory

The second subset of cognitive learning theory, cognitive behavioral theory, examines how our thoughts influence our behavior and feelings. According to cognitive behavioral theory, a person’s thoughts, feelings, and actions impact how they learn.

In other words, their thought patterns and mindset affect how they pick up and retain information.

For example, one study suggests that someone’s motivation to learn helps determine how often their mind wanders during a lesson. Participants who felt more motivated to learn weren’t as easily distracted as those who said they were less motivated. In turn, people whose minds wandered more than others retained the lesson’s information less effectively.

In Harvard Business Review, leadership coach Erika Andersen sets out the four traits she discovered in successful learners: aspiration, self-awareness, curiosity, and vulnerability. According to Andersen, people in the workplace can nurture these qualities with exercises.

For example, considering how new information could help them, or reframing mistakes as learning experiences. Taking time to position new skills or course content in practical, tangible terms helps to engage employees who might otherwise be turned off from workplace learning.

Implicit and explicit learning

Two more concepts often discussed alongside cognitive learning theory are implicit and explicit learning:

• Implicit learning is learning that happens without a conscious effort
• Explicit learning iso learning that happens with a conscious effort

In the workplace, implicit learning involves skill improvements that happen as employees perform their job. This concept ties into the 70-20-10 rule that claims that most learning happens through experience.

According to the Center for Creative Leadership, the 70-20-10 rule argues that “individuals tend to learn 70% of their knowledge from challenging experiences and assignments, 20% from developmental relationships, and 10% from coursework and training.”

Explicit learning on the job consists of training programs and courses with clear goals. These practices allow for more deliberate learning. Through explicit learning tasks, you can specify the exact concepts and skills you want a team member to understand.

A learning organization counts on active (explicit) and continuous (implicit) learning to keep employees engaged. As team members guide their active learning strategies together, they participate in ongoing learning through shared experiences.

Learn more about building your own learning organization through the Embracing the Learning Organization Model ebook.

Applying Cognitive Learning Theory through Collaborative Learning

Collaborative learning is an approach to training that relies on many of the ideas behind cognitive learning theory. While also democratizing and promoting learning in general, collaborative learning ties in these cognitive learning theory concepts:

• Social cognitive theory: Collaborative learning organizations get everyone involved in L&D. Team members promote learning to each other across departments and seniority levels. A collaborative learning culture also provides positive reinforcements, group discussions, and social context that encourage employees to along their learning journeys.
• Cognitive behavioral theory: Training programs based on collaborative learning aim to provide relevant and engaging content that motivate team members to learn. They use trainee feedback to deliver meaningful learning experiences that employees want to participate in.
• Implicit and explicit learning: Collaborative learning shifts much of L&D’s focus to implicit learning’s experience-based teaching, while making use of explicit learning’s intentional curriculum. Information gained in collaborative learning is shared among learners, leaning into the prevalence of implicit learning in a person’s growth. Meanwhile, employees determine the subjects and content of collaborative learning courses, allowing for the deliberate knowledge gain associated with explicit learning.

You can start shifting to a collaborative learning work culture by encouraging team members to share their knowledge strengths and gaps, democratizing the ways you share L&D content and promoting learning behaviors throughout your organization.

Cognitive Learning Strategies in Skills-based Learning

Alongside collaborative learning, skills-based learning is a core pedagogical focus for L&D teams. It’s useful to clarify how CLT (a theory about how people think, learn, and process knowledge) complements and underpins skills-based learning (i.e. training designed to help learners acquire concrete, demonstrable skills).

Here are some key connections and implications:

1. Skills are built on cognitive processes. The acquisition of a skill is not just memorizing steps. Learners must understand conditional reasoning (when/why), exceptions, and patterns. CLT emphasizes building mental models and schemas, which are central to mastering skills (not just following rote steps).
2. Worked examples reduce cognitive load when learning new skills. A well-known effect in cognitive load theory (a branch of cognitive learning research) is the worked-example effect. Learners benefit from studying worked-out examples rather than jumping immediately to solving problems for themselves. This helps them avoid overloading cognitive capacity.
   
   In skills-based learning, you might first show a fully worked example of the skill (with annotated reasoning), before asking learners to try similar problems.
3. Scaffolding and fading. Cognitive learning approaches often suggest scaffolding: providing supports, hints, and guiding steps first. Then gradually removing (fading) them as learners internalize the structure.
   
   In skills-based programs, early learners might get full prompts or checklists; then mid-stage learners get partial scaffolding; later learners perform independently.
4. Spaced practice, interleaving, retrieval practice. CLT research underscores spacing, mixing problem types, and forcing retrieval. These techniques all strengthen the mental representations underlying skills. So designing a skills curriculum with spaced repetition or interleaved practice helps learners strengthen underlying key concepts, not just performance of routines.
5. Metacognitive monitoring and self-regulated learning. As learners progress in a skill track, they should learn to self-assess: “Am I making errors? What part of the skill is weak? What strategy might I try next?” That metacognitive layer is a staple of cognitive development, and an essential component in skills-based learning.
6. Transfer and adaptability of skills. A purely procedural skill may falter in novel situations. But cognitive learning (with an emphasis on understanding why the steps work, when they don’t, what underlying tradeoffs are) lets learners adapt skills to new or unforeseen contexts.
7. Bridge between declarative and procedural knowledge. CLT distinguishes between declarative knowledge ("knowing that") and procedural knowledge ("knowing how"). Skills-based learning must manage the transition: learners first internalize the “what” and “why” (declarative) and then move toward smooth execution (procedural). CLT insights help in sequencing training along that continuum.

In essence, CLT is not in competition with skills-based learning. Rather, it offers a theoretical foundation and design guidance to make skills training more robust, durable, and flexible. A skills curriculum designed with cognitive principles will better foster mastery, adaptability, and long-term retention.

Industry Examples of CLT in Action

To help make the theory concrete, here are some practical applications of cognitive learning in large organizations in various sectors.

Retail: Scenario-based simulations and branching logic

A large retail chain builds a simulated store environment in its LMS. Associates must respond to customer service scenarios including complaints, returns, and upsell opportunities.

Based on their decisions, the scenario branches. After each branch, there’s a chance for self-reflection: “Why did you choose that? What else might you have done?”

This is an elegant, repeatable way to strengthen mental models of customer interaction using eLearning.

Non-profit: Case-based discussion and peer reflection

A global nonprofit (NGO) rolls out a training on program monitoring and evaluation. Learners are given real case studies from projects, asked to analyze what went well or poorly, then compare with peers in forums.

Thanks to group discussions and the chance to reflect with other team members, participants build richer judgment skills and different ways to solve problems.

Healthcare: Worked examples, error analysis and spaced practice

In the healthcare industry, training modules on diagnostic decision-making present “worked example” patient cases. These show reasoning steps experts use to solve a particular issue. Then learners practice with similar but subtly different cases, and analyze where they diverged from expert reasoning.

Over weeks, they return to earlier cases (spaced repetition) to reinforce cognitive schema.

Financial services: Cognitive apprenticeship and scaffolding

In a bank’s risk-assessment team, new analysts shadow senior analysts as they assess credit applications. Alongside, mentors “think aloud” during the process to share their reasoning.

Over time, the scaffolding is removed and the analyst runs the case independently, then reflects on the differences they exhibit from their mentor.

Manufacturing: Problem-based learning and root cause analysis

A global manufacturer sets up “improvement challenge” teams. Each team is given a recurring production defect issue. They must gather data, hypothesize causes, test interventions, and iterate, then debrief on their thinking, what worked, and what failed.

The L&D function acts as facilitator and reflection coach, with subject-matter experts available to give precise instructions or advice.

Instructional design principles to highlight

• Start with realistic tasks or problems (not abstract lectures).
• Use scaffolding (worked examples, guided prompts) early, then fade support.
• Encourage metacognitive reflection (“What assumptions did I make? Where was I uncertain?”)
• Use spaced recall or revisit prior learning in new contexts.
• Enable social learning (peer discussion, observing experts).
• Allow learners to make mistakes in a safe environment, then analyze those mistakes.

You could also embed micro-moments in “the flow of work” (just-in-time training). Small pop-up prompts (“What would you do next?”) help to reinforce cognitive learning in situ.

To see how you can build CLT activities and principles in your learning processes, talk to our team today.