Notes: Cognitivism

Developed as an anathema to the behaviourist models, in truth it is a development of kinds to the former, but expressing a key change in the belief of the existence of internal mental states. Chomsky argued in his theory on universal grammar (Chomsky, 1969) that language could not be acquired purely through conditioning as espoused by the behaviourists and argued for the presence of internal mental states / representations that are inherent to the individual as a ‘genetic linguistic endowment.’ Methodologically cognitivism applies a scientific approach that favours explanation by use of experimentation and measurement, changes in behaviour may be observed, and used as indicators as to what is happening inside a learner's mind.

Some of the key concepts are worth mentioning as they may impact on future discussion with regard to the implementation of educational technology. The concept of a pre-ordained or genetically embedded ‘Schema’ is fundamental to the theory. The affirmation of existing knowledge (representations or internal mental states) allows an individual to use this as a point of reference from which to compare, contrast, adapt, develop, combine and extend the inherent data set.

The model of ‘Three Stage info processing’ adheres to the scientific methodology to account for access, acquiring computation of new data. The first phase the Sensory Register merely accounts for transitory data that is acted upon only if necessary. Phase two Short Term Memory, enables an individual to hold data referred by the sensory register for longer periods of time, and may in fact be held over if appropriately ‘chunked’ or tagged as meaningful to that individual. The final phase Long Term Memory takes over from STM when necessary and in effect appears to be of limitless capacity. Information here may be then cross referenced and linked to previous data or schema to embed into LTM an enable better recall and retention.

Social cognitivism theory implies that individuals learn by observing others and that their behaviour is self directed, Bandura’s work on social learning theory is the most cited work in this realm and is often connected with criminological studies after his seminal paper involving the now infamous Bobo Doll (Bandura, 1692). Bandura believed that aggression was learned through a process called behaviour modelling, and went further claiming that it may be reinforced by the media, family and the environment.