Bobbe Baggio is a recognized expert in applying psychology and neuroscience to the design of instruction and learning materials. Believing first and foremost that all decisions for instructional design should be based on proven research, she is a recognized leader in innovative techniques and approaches that always put the learner first. A consultant in multicultural and international diversity integration for learning globally, she believes that technologies are here to help each and every one and to be used to enhance out human performance. Bobbe is a highly regarded author, speaker, advisor and educator in the field of instruction and learning.

“Trilogy of the Mind” is a threefold approach to learning that is incorporates the affective, cognitive and conative domains of the brain. It makes no difference what technologies or approaches you use to create learning. If you don’t design for the way that people learn, you are lowering the probability that they will learn. The affective domain is that area of the brain that governs feeling and emotions. The affective domain is a key part of the process for a learner’s interaction with content. The cognitive domain is what governs mind or intelligence and how you think. Cognitive science incorporates psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, linguistics, biology, anthropology and computer science. Understanding how the brain takes in and processes information, where and how it is stored and how it can be retrieved is paramount in designing for learning. The conative domain is the least well known and is often over looked or ignored. The reason for this is that conation is your instinct, or firmware, and cannot easily be influenced or changed. Conation is our knack for doing things or how we do the things we do.  It is totally separate from a person’s intelligence, personality type, or learning style. So this time honored three facility concept of mind is the foundation for the approach to Learning by Design.    

Trilogy of the Mind puts the affective domain first because if you can’t get past that area of the brain, the emotions and feelings, you are going to have a very difficult time getting to thinking. Just a few words so that you can associate the three areas in “Trilogy of the Mind”:

 Affective: feelings, personality, ego, beauty, emotions, esthetics, caring, mood

 Cognitive: knowing, skills, thinking, thought, epistemology, conscious, decisions, imagine, reason, solve problems

Conative: acting, performing, talent, willing, goodness, volition, ethics, doing, behaving