COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY

Cognitive psychology examines the ways people manage the flow of information in their minds.
It studies perception, the intake of information; memory; the storage and retrieval of information;
and thinking, the diverse uses of this information in reasoning, language, and other mantel
activities (Santrock, 2004). Contemplation about human mental activities has occurred from the
earliest stages of human history, but the forerunners of modern cognitive psychology appear in
the late 19th century.

Foundations of Cognitive psychology

Knowledge and understanding are known as cognition. The Cognitive psychology deals with
knowing, understanding, and all other mental processes--including perception, memory, and
thinking. Cognitive psychology stands in marked contrast to radical behaviorism, which
concentrates on overt actions. The cognitive approach aims to discover what goes on inside the
black box, as the human mind has been called because of its mysterious, seemingly
inaccessible state. Cognitive psychology generates ideas about the way human knowledge is
represented in the mind and about the processes that shape and transform these representations,
making them useful mental mechanisms (Mandler, 1985).
Cognitive psychology has become an open, dynamic approach to psychology, emerging without
any particular individual becoming the overall leader. It developed instead under the influence of
several prominent figures. With its broad mandate and the accelerated development of new
equipment, it continues to change rapidly from its earlier roots, which are largely, tangled and
diverse.

Efforts in Gestalt psychology

Like biological psychology, the cognitive perspective developed early roots in Wundts
laboratory, in experiments aiming to explore the human mind or, more exactly, its basic contents.
But early Cognitive psychology lacked adequate instruments and techniques for measuring
mental life. Its method of introspection failed because participants reports of their experiences
and feelings could not be studied in a consistent, accurate manner. Psychology at that time could
not look inward in any reliable fashion.
An empirical approach came forth soon, called Gestalt psychology, for the German word gestalt
means whole or configuration. It emphasized the study of unified patterns or wholes, especially
of natural organizations, focusing on perception and the role of insight in thinking.
Gestalt psychologists by experiments, found that examining the whole person, the whole mind,
became more important than examining characteristic part in a more precise but isolated fashion.
Information about parts is of course essential and inevitable because attention must become
focused, but the overall phenomenon requires a more holistic approach.

Cognitive activities
The cognitive activitiesperception, memory, and thinkingare ways of knowing about the
world and are hardly separable from one another. But perception stands at the beginning of the
cognitive sequence. It is sometimes called the gateway to knowledge, the mortal of the mind.
Sensation and perception
The processes of organizing and interpreting incoming sensory information are collectively
perception. Through perception, one learns about his/herself and surroundings, using
contributions from two sources: the present environment and past experience. In sensation, a

person becomes aware of present stimulation. Sensation provides raw, unorganized information
about the immediate environment, directly from the sense organs.
Processes in memory
The capacity of reviving prior experience, called memory, is not a single faculty. Among its
many forms, the most fundamental include recall and recognition.
Recall is process to produce a prior experience without cues.
Recognition, the details are available to produce prior experience. A much easier memory task,
recognition simply shows awareness of prior experience.
i.

Sensory and short-term memory

After experiencing any event, the peripheral nervous system contains a brief impression
of that event. In this first stage of memory, known as reception, or sensory memory, the
fleeting residual information from the senses remains in the sensory system. The
unprocessed information disappears without some prompt effort to retain it. For retention,
it must pass to the second stage. Originally known as short-Term memory, the second
stage may continue up to thirty seconds following the event, during which the new
information is being prepared for shortage or it is being ignored. If not processed, it will
be lost. Short-term memory serves as an organizing and loading platform for long-term
memory storage.

ii.

Memories in long-term storage

Information comes into working memory from two directions: sensory memory and
memory in long-term storage. Long-term memory, which has no known limit for
capacity, information is maintained for indefinite intervals ranging up to the individuals

full lifetime. Sometimes simply called storage, long-term memory is not an intermediate
or processing stage. There are two types of long-term memory.
a) Explicit memory reflects our usual manner of thinking about how a memory is retrieved.
When memory storage is searched, it is a controlled effort to retrieve an earlier
experience; the outcome is called explicit memory.

b) Implicit memory, automatic and quick response is made, even without awareness of
attempting retrieval.

Cognitivist Theories
These include:
1. Jean Piagets cognitive studies
Poet Noah Perry once asked, Who knows the thoughts of a child? More than anyone, the
famous Swiss Psychologist Jean Piaget (18961980) knew.
Piaget concentrated on in-depth studies with small samples of children, including his own
daughter. His work has been tremendously influential in school education for many years,
because he outlined the way children developed cognitively in a series of books. For him,
learning related to the stage of childrens cognitive development. The closer the content to be
learnt matched the level of cognitive development, the better. In this effort, Piagets coworker,
Valentine Chatenay, deserves special credit. As Piagets wife, the children they studied were her
children too. She not only supplied the participants; she also made observations and collected
data. Their research program, which began almost as a summer job for Piaget, blossomed into a
collaborated marital effort and a lengthy career for him. Piaget is best remembered for
identifying four stages in cognitive development, leading to the conclusion that a young childs
understanding of the world is not just inferior to that of an adult. It is fundamentally different.

Piagets is a stage theory and can be summarized in the following table, taken from a summary
overview of his work (Jarvis, 1972).
Period

Age (in years)

Characteristics
Infant learns to differentiate between self

Sensory-motor

0-2

and objects in the external world

Child ego-centric but classifies objects by

Pre-operational

2-4

single salient features

thought
Child thinks in classificatory way but may
Intuitive

4-7

be unaware of classifications
Child able to use logical operations such as

Concrete operations

7-11

reversibility, classification and serialization

Trial steps towards abstract

Formal operations

11-15

conceptualization occur

As can be seen from table, Piagets focused upon the fact that as children grows older, so there
ability to conceptualize develops.
Cognitive Processes
Schema is a concept or frame work that exists in an individual mind to organize and interpret
information. Children use schemas to construct their world. Schemas can range from the simple
(such as a schema of a car) to complex (such as a schema for what constitutes the universe).
Piagets interest in schemas focused on how children organize and make sense out of their
current experience.

Piaget (1952) said that two processes are responsible of how children use and adopt their
schemas: assimilation and accommodation.
Assimilation is a process of using new knowledge into existing knowledge. In assimilation
children assimilate the environment into a schema.
Accommodation occurs when a child adjust to new information. Children adjust their schemas
to the environment in accommodation.
Organization is Piagets concept of grouping isolated behaviors into a higher order. Every level
of thought is organized. Continual refinement of this organization is an inherent part of
development. Organization occurs within stages of development as well as across them.
Equilibration is a mechanism that Piaget proposed to explain how children shift from one stage
of thought to the next. The shift occurs as children experience cognitive conflict or
disequilibrium in trying to understand the world. Piaget believed there is considerable movement
between states of cognitive equilibrium and disequilibrium as assimilation and accommodation
work in concert to produce cognitive change.

Vygotskys Theory
The Russian Lev Vygotsky (18961934) believed that children actively construct their
knowledge. Vygotsky was born in Russia in the same year as Piaget was born, but died much
younger at the young age of thirty-seven. Piagets and Vygotskys ideas remained virtually
unknown to American scholars for many years, being introduced to American audience through
English translations in the 1960s. In the last several decades, American psychologists and
educators have shown increased interests in Vygotskys views.

Vygotskys Assumptions.
Three claims capture the heart of Vygotskys views (Tapan, 1988):
(1) The childs cognitive skills can be understood only when they are developmentally analyzed
and interpreted; (2) cognitive skills are mediated by words, language, and forms of discourse,
which serve as psychological tools for facilitating and transforming mental activity; and (3)
cognitive skills have their origins in social relations and are embedded in a socio-cultural
backdrop.
Vygotskys developmental approach means understanding the childs cognitive functioning by
examining its origins and transformations from earlier to later forms. Thus a particular mental act
such as using inner speech cannot be viewed accurately in isolation but should be evaluated as a
step in a gradual developmental process.
Vygotskys second claim, that to understand cognitive functioning it is necessary to examine the
tools that mediate and shape it, led him to believe that language is the most important of these
tools (Robbins, 2001). Vygotsky argued that in early childhood, language begins to be used as a
tool that helps the child to plan activities and solve problems.
Vygotskys third claim was that cognitive skills originate in social relations and culture. He
portrayed the childs development as inseparable from social and cultural activities (Holland and
others, 2001). He believed that the development of memory, attention, and reasoning involves
learning to use the inventions of society, such as language, mathematical systems, and memory
strategies. In one culture this could consist of counting on ones figures or using beads.
Vygotskys theory has stimulated considerable interests in the view of that knowledge is situated
and collaborative (Bearison & Dorval, 2002; Maynard, 2001). That is knowledge is distributed
among people and environments, which include objects, artifacts, tools, books, and the

communities in which people live. This suggests that knowing can best be advanced through
interaction with others in cooperative activities. Within these basic claims, Vygotsky articulated
unique and influential ideas about the relation between learning and development. These ideas
especially reflect his views that cognitive functioning has social origins. One of his unique ideas
was his concept of the zone of proximal development.
Zone of proximal development.
Zone of proximal development (ZPD) is Vygotskys term for range of tasks that are too difficult
for children to master alone but that can be learned with guidance and assistance from adults or
more skilled children. The lower limit of ZPD is the level of problem solving reached by the
child working independently. The upper limit is the level of the additional responsibility the
child can accept with the assistance of an able instructor. Vygotsky emphasis on the ZPD
underscores his belief in the importance of social influences, especially instruction, on childrens
cognitive development (Hasse, 2001).
The ZPD involves the childs cognitive skills that are in the process of maturing and their
performance level with the assistance of a more skilled person (Panofsky, 1999). Vygotsky
(1978) called these the buds or flowers of development, to distinguish them from the fruits
of development, which the child already can accomplish independently.
Scaffolding
Scaffolding is a technique of changing the level of support. It is closely linked to the idea of
Zone of proximal development. Over the course of a teaching session, a more skilled person
(teacher or more advanced peer of child) adjusts the amount of guidance to fit the students
current performance level. When the task the student is learning the new, the more skilled person
might use direct instruction. As the students competence increases, less guidance is given.

Dialogue is an important tool of Scaffolding in the zone of proximal development (Jhon-Steiner

& Mahn, 1996; Tappan, 1998). Vygotsky viewed children as having rich but unsystematic,
disorganized, and spontaneous concepts. As a result of the meeting and dialogue between the
child and the skilled helper, the childs concepts become more systematic, logical, and rational.
Language and thought
Vygotsky (1962) believed that young children use language not only for social communication
but also to plan, guide, and monitor their behavior in a self-regulatory fashion. The use of
language for self-regulation is called inner speech or private speech. For Piaget considered
private speech egocentric and immature but for Vygotsky it was an important tool of thought
during the early childhood years.

Learning and cognition in context areas

Cognitive approaches to Reading
Cognitive approaches to reading emphasize decoding and comprehending words, constructing
meaning, and developing expert reader strategies.
Decoding and comprehending words
The cognitive approach emphasizes the cognitive process involved in decoding and
comprehending words. Important in this regard are certain metacognitive skills. Metacognition is
involved in reading in the sense that good readers develop control of their own reading skills and
have an understanding of how reading works. Good readers know that it is important to
comprehend the gist of what an author is saying.
Teachers can help students develop good metacognitive strategies for reading by getting them to
monitor their own reading, especially when they run into difficulties in their reading.

Constructing Meaning
Text has some meaning that a reader must construct, not simply to decode it. Readers actively
construct this meaning by using their background knowledge and knowledge of words and how
they are linked (Heilman, Blair, & Ruplay, 2002).
Developing expert reading strategies
Michael Pressley and his collegeous (1992) developed the transactional strategy instruction
approach, a cognitive approach to reading that emphasizes instruction in strategies. In their view,
strategies control students ability to remember what they read. Summarizing is also thought to
be an important reading strategy. In the strategy approach, authors of teachers manual for
subjects other than reading per se are encouraged to include information about the importance of
reading strategies, how and when to use particular strategies, and prompts to remind students
about using strategies.
Cognitive approaches to writing
Planning
Planning, which includes outlining and organizing content information, is an important aspect of
writing (Levy & Randsell, 1996). Students need to be shown how to outline and organize a
paper, and they need to be given feedback about the competence of their efforts.
Problem solving
Instruction in writing involves teaching students how to write sentences and paragraphs properly.
More fundamentally, writing is a broader sort of problem solving. Kellogg, (1994) called the
problem solving process in writing the making of meaning. As problem solvers, writers need
to establish goals and work to attain them. It also is helpful to think of writers as constrained by
their need for integrated understanding of the subject, knowledge of how the language system

works, and the writing problem itself. This writing problem includes the purpose of paper, the
audience, and the role of the writer in the paper to be produced (Flower & Hayes, 1981).
Revising
Revising is a major component of successful writing (Mayer, 1999). Revising involves writing
multiple drafts, getting feedback from individuals who are knowledgeable about writing, and
learning how to use the critical feedback to improve the writing. It also includes detecting and
correcting errors. Researchers have found that older and more skilled writers are more likely to
revise their writing than younger and less skilled writers (Bartlett, 1982; Hayes & Flower, 1986).
Metacognition
Metacognition emphasizes the knowledge of writing strategies. Monitoring ones writing
progress is especially important in becoming a good writer (Graham & Harris, 2001). This
includes being receptive to feedback and applying what one learns in writing one paper to
making the next paper better.

Cognitive Development
Cognitive development is the construction of thought processes, including remembering,
problem solving, and decision-making, from childhood through adolescence to adulthood.
Jean Piaget described the stages of child development. Information is not just poured from
environment and children construct their own cognitive world at different points in their
development.

Stages of Cognitive Development

According to Piaget there are four stages of cognitive development and believe that all people
pass through the same four stages in exactly the same order.
1. Sensorimotor

2. Preoperational
3. Concrete operational
4. Formal operational
These are the guidelines not labels for all children of a certain age. Children may go through a
long period of transition between the stages and may show character of one stage at one time and
other in another situation.

Sensorimotor 0-2 years: Infancy

At this stage infants gain knowledge of the world from physical action they perform on it and
they coordinate sensory experiences with these physical actions. They begin to make use of
imitation memory and thought. They start to think that objects do not cease to exist when hidden.
They move from reflex action to goal directed activity and from reflex to symbolic thought. The
development at this stage is further divided into 6 sub-stages.

The Preoperational Stage: Early Childhood to the Early Elementary years.

The stage after sensorimotor is called preoperational because the child has not yet mastered these
mental operations but is moving toward master. The ability to form and use symbols words,
gestures, signs, images, and so on is thus major accomplishment of the preoperational period
and moves
The Symbolic Function Sub-stage
In this sub-stage, the young child gains the ability to mentally represent an object that is not
present. This ability vastly expands the childs mental world. Young children use scribble
designs to represent people, houses, cars, clouds, and so on.

Egocentrism is the inability to distinguish between one own perspective and someone else
perspective.
Animism, another limitation of preoperational thought, is the belief that inanimate objects have
lifelike qualities and are capable of action (Gelman & Offer, 2002). .
The Intuitive Thought Sub-stage
The child has difficulty understanding events that he knows are taking place which he cannot
see. His fantasized thoughts bear little resemblance to reality. He cannot yet answer the question
what if?

Concrete Operational Stage

The concrete operational stage, which lasts approximately from 7 to 11 years of age, is the third
Piagetian stage. In this stage children can perform concrete operations (operations that involve
concrete objects) and logical reasoning replaces intuitive reasoning as long as the reasoning can
be applied to specific or concrete expels. For instance, concrete operational thinkers cannot
imagine the steps necessary to complete an algebraic equation, which is too abstract for thinking
at this stage of development.
Conservation
The conservation tasks demonstrate a child ability to perform concrete operations. A concrete
operation is a reversible mental action on real, concrete objects. Concrete operations allow
children to coordinate several characteristics rather than focus on a single property of an object.

Formal Operational Stage

The formal operational stage, which appears between 11 and 15 years of age, is the fourth and
final Piagetian stage. In this stage, individuals move beyond concrete experiences and think in

abstract and more logical ways. As part of thinking more abstractly, adolescents develop images
of ideal circumstances.
Abstract, Idealistic, and Logical Thinking
The abstract quality of the adolescents thought at the formal operational level is evident in the
adolescents verbal problem solving ability. Whereas the concrete operational thinker needs to
see the concrete elements A, B, and C to be able to make the logical inference that if A = B and B
= C, then A = C, the formal operational thinker can solve this problem merely through verbal
presentation. As adolescents are learning to think more abstractly and idealistically, they are also
learning to think more logically.

Adolescent Egocentrism
David Elkind (1978) has described how adolescent egocentrism governs the way that adolescents
think about social matters. Adolescent egocentrism is the heightened self-consciousness of
adolescents, which is reflected in their belief that others are as interested in them as they are
themselves, and in their sense of personal uniqueness and invincibility Elkind believes that
adolescent egocentrism can be dissected into two types of social thinking imaginary audience
and personal fable.