Cognitivism and Cognitive

psychology

master studentPrepared by:Ghenaiet Abir

THE OUTLINE1- Overview2- Roots3- What is cognition?4- What is Cognitivism?5- Cognitive psychology6-Cognitive Development Theory7- weaknesses

OVERVIEW: Second language acquisition has been

the subject of colossal interest since the 1960s when it was established as a field

of enquiry. Current theories of second language acquisition are based on years of

research in a wide variety of distinct disciplines, including linguistics, cognitive

psychology, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, anthropology, neurolinguistics and education.

OVERVIEW:As a footnote, the term ‘L2 acquisition’

can be used to refer to the acquisition of any language other than the mother tongue. In addition, since ‘acquisition’

and ‘learning’ are still a subject of controversy among specialists, they

can be synonymous and they are used often interchangeably.

OVERVIEW: Over the last two decades, a variety of approaches to second language acquisition

(SLA) have appeared. Each of these approaches has enriched SLA studies

substantially and has contributed crucially to what, as a result, is now a conceptually richer

field. «Let all the flowers bloom … You never know

which ones will catch the eye to become tomorrow’s realities.»

(Lantolf, “SLA theory building: ‘Letting all the flowers bloom!’” Language Learning, 1996, p. 739)

OVERVIEW:The dominant psychological theory

of the 1950s and 1960s was Behaviourism. However, the

apparent meagernesses of behaviourist explanations of L2

acquisition steered researchers to look for an alternetive theoretical

framework.

OVERVIEW:As the 1960s witnessed a major shift in

thinking in psychology and linguistics, researchers switched their attention

from: ‘nurture’ (i.e. how environmental

factros shape learning) to ‘nature’ (i.e. how the innate properties

of the human mind shape learning).

OVERVIEW:This new paradigm was,

therefore, mentalist (or ‘nativist’) in orientation and it

was the platform for the historically leading theory:

Cognitivism.

ROOTS: The systematic study of SLA was

inspired by a “cognitive revolution” that began in North America in the 1950s. Although a

comparatively recent event, its roots lead back to René

Descartes (1596–1650), the main founder of modern Western

philosophy.

ROOTS: Descartes’ famous claim ‘I

think, therefore, I am, or I exist’ along with his

understanding of ‘being’ placed the “I-as-thinker” at the center of existence; all else is incidental.

The implications for understanding human life were

profound.

ROOTS:First, human mind was given the place

formerly reserved for God—as the organizing principle of human existence, and in fact all life.

Second, the human body and the rest of the world were radically separated from the mind, assigned a subsidiary position, and thus took on a spectral character.

Third, the human mind was viewed as a logical—even mathematical—device.

ROOTS:Fourth and finally, cognition was

reduced to what we now consider just one of its forms: consciousness.Here, the portrait of mind is entailed by these four principles—as logical, conscious, radically isolated, and virtually godlike in its powers. The resulting worldview has sometimes been called cognitivism

(e.g., Freeman & Núñez, 1999; Haugeland, 1998).

What is cognition?It is the process involved in knowing, or the

act of knowing, which in its completeness includes perception and judgment. Cognition includes all processes of consciousness by which knowledge is accumulated, such as perceiving, recognizing, conceiving, and reasoning. Put differently, cognition is an experience of knowing that can be distinguished from an experience of feeling or willing. It is one of the only words that refers to the brain as well as to the mind.

What is Cognitivism?The term cognitivism is typically

used to denote the doctrine that: (1) the mind/brain is, for all intents

and purposes, the necessary and sufficient locus of human thought and learning; and

(2) such thought and learning is a form of information processing.

What is Cognitivism?Wallace (2007, p. 18) defined

cognitivism as simply “the information processing view of human cognition,” while

Haugeland (1998, p. 9) defined it as “roughly the position that intelligent behavior can be explained (only) by appeal to internal ‘cognitive processes’—that is, rational thought in a broad sense.”

Cognitive

pshycology

Cognitive psychology is a subdiscipline of psychology exploring internal mental processes. It is the study of how people perceive, remember, think, speak, and solve problems.[1]

Cognitive psychology is radically different from previous psychological approaches in two key ways.

It accepts the use of the scientific method, and generally rejects introspection[2] as a valid method of investigation, unlike symbol-driven approaches such as Freudian psychology.[neutrality is disputed]

It explicitly acknowledges the existence of internal mental states (such as belief, desire and motivation). In its early years, critics held that the empiricism of cognitive psychology combined with its acceptance of internal mental states was contradictory. However, the sibling field of cognitive neuroscience has provided evidence[citation needed] of physiological brain states which directly correlate with mental states. In that sense, cognitive neuroscience has vindicated the central assumption of cognitive psychology.

cognitive psychology (a branch of psychology concerned with the study of the main internal psychological processes that are involved in making sense of the environment and deciding what action might be appropriate. These processes include attention, perception, learning and memory, language, problem solving, reasoning and thinking.)

The school of thought arising from this approach is known as cognitivisim.

history Ulric Neisser coined the term "cognitive psychology"

in his book Cognitive Psychology, published in 1965[3] wherein Neisser provides a definition of cognitive psychology characterizing people as dynamic information-processing systems whose mental operations might be described in computational terms. Also emphasising that it is a "point of view" that postulates the mind as having a certain conceptual structure. Neisser's point of view endows the discipline with a scope beyond high-level concepts such as "reasoning" that other works often espouse as defining psychology. Neisser's definition of "cognition" illustrates this well:

  The term "cognition" refers to all processes by

which the sensory input is transformed, reduced, elaborated, stored, recovered, and used. It is concerned with these processes even when they operate in the absence of relevant stimulation, as in images and hallucinations... Given such a sweeping definition, it is apparent that cognition is involved in everything a human being might possibly do; that every[4] psychological phenomenon is a cognitive phenomenon. But although cognitive psychology is concerned with all human activity rather than some fraction of it, the concern is from a particular point of view. Other viewpoints are equally legitimate and

necessary. Dynamic psychology, which begins with motives rather than with sensory input, is a case in point. Instead of asking how a man's actions and experiences result from what he saw, remembered, or believed, the dynamic psychologist asks how they follow from the subject's goals, needs, or instincts.

Cognitivism

What is cognitivism Cognitivism, as a perspective in

education, has a premise that humans generate knowledge and meaning through sequential development of an individual’s cognitive abilities, such as the mental processes of recognize, recall, analyse, reflect, apply, create, understand, and evaluate.

Major Figures in CognitivismMajor

Cognitivists

Jean Piaget

Lev Vygotsky

Jerome Bruner

Cognitive Development Theory

Piaget was the first psychologist to make a systematic study of cognitive development. His contributions include a theory of cognitive child development, detailed observational studies of cognition in children, and a series of simple but ingenious tests to reveal different cognitive abilities.

Cognitive Development Theory

Before Piaget’s work, the common assumption in psychology was that children are merely less competent thinkers than adults. Piaget showed that young children think in strikingly different ways compared to adults.

Cognitive Development

TheoryAccording to Piaget, children are born with a very basic mental structure (genetically inherited and evolved) on which all subsequent learning and knowledge is based.

Piaget's Theory Differs From Others In Several

Ways: It is concerned with children, rather

than all learners. It focuses on development, rather than

learning, so it does not address learning of information or specific behaviours.

It proposes discrete stages of development, marked by qualitative differences, rather than a gradual increase in number and complexity of behaviours, concepts, ideas, etc.

There Are Three Basic Components To Piaget's Cognitive Theory: Schemas(building blocks of knowledge) Processes that enable the transition from

one stage to another (equilibrium, assimilation and accommodation) Stages of Development:sensorimotor,preoperational,concrete operational,formal operational

Schemas A schema can be defined as a set of linked mental

representations of the world, which we use both to understand and to respond to situations. The assumption is that we store these mental representations and apply them when needed.

Piaget called the schema the basic building block of intelligent behavior – a way of organizing knowledge. Indeed, it is useful to think of schemas as “units” of knowledge, each relating to one aspect of the world, including objects, actions and abstract (i.e. theoretical) concepts.

When a child's existing schemas are capable of explaining what it can perceive around it, it is said to be in a state of equilibrium, i.e. a state of cognitive (i.e. mental) balance.

Assimilation and Accommodation

Stages of Development

Weaknesses Are the stages real? Vygotsky and Bruner would rather not

talk about stages at all, preferring to see development as continuous. Others have queried the age ranges of the stages. Some studies have shown that progress to the formal operational stage is not guaranteed. For example, Keating (1979) reported that 40-60% of college students fail at formal operation tasks, and Dasen (1994) states that only one-third of adults ever reach the formal operational stage.

Because Piaget concentrated on the universal stages of cognitive development and biological maturation, he failed to consider the effect that the social setting and culture may have on cognitive development (re: Vygotsky).

Piaget’s methods (observation and clinical interviews) are more open to biased interpretation than other methods. Because Piaget conducted the observations alone data collect are based on his own subjective interpretation of events. It would have been more reliable if Piaget conducted the observations with another researcher can compared results afterwards to check if they are similar.

-As several studies have shown Piaget underestimated the abilities of children because his tests were sometimes confusing or difficult to understand (e.g. Martin Hughes, 1975).

-The concept of schema is incompatible with the theories of Bruner and Vygotsky. Behaviorism would also refute Piaget’s schema theory because is cannot be directly observed as it is an internal process. Therefore, they would claim it cannot be objectively measured.

-Piaget carried out his studies with a handful of participants (i.e. small sample size) – and in the early studies he generally used his own children (from Switzerland). This sample is biased, and accordingly the results of these studies cannot be generalized to children from different cultures.