Psychology today

-7-COGNITIVISM

Cognitivism was a real revolution in the history of psychology and begun to be the dominant paradigm in the 1960s.This psychological current focuses on the inner mental activities, opening the black box of behaviorism (i.e. the mind).

Cognitivism is not a whole refutation of behaviorism, but rather an expansion that accepts that mental states exist. This was due to the increasing criticism towards the end of the 1950s of behaviorist models.

One of the most notable criticism was Noam Chomsky's argument that language could not be acquired purely through conditioning, and must be at least partly explained by the existence of internal mental states, based on two main areas in the left hemisphere of the brain (Broca and Wernicke language areas).

According to Cognitivism, people are not “programmed animals” that merely respond to environmental stimuli; people are rational beings that require active participation in order to learn, and whose actions are a consequence of thinking.

Changes in behavior are observed, but only as an indication of what is occurring in the learner’s head. Cognitivism uses the metaphor of the mind as computer: information comes in, is being processed, and leads to certain outcomes.

Mental processes such as thinking, memory, knowing, and problem-solving need to be explored. Indeed, from about 1960 to 1980, it is possible to observe many models trying to explain the human mind.

A very famous model suggested by cognitive researchers is the multistore memory model by Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968). This model is a very common model of memory and it is a typical example of the way cognitive scientists were thinking.

The model assumes there are different types of memory that are used for different tasks. In particular, these link together in an effective sequence like in a computer (it is indeed the cognitive computer metaphor).

The multistore model of memory(Atkinson & Shiffrin, 1968)

The three stages of a multi-store memory model are:

1-Sensory memory;2-Short-term memory (STM);3-Long-term memory (LTM).

1-Sensory memory. It is a very short-term buffer (iconic or echoic) where senses store what they have received before any cognitive processing occurs.

For example: has somebody said something when you were not listening carefully, you then said: “What did you say?” and simultaneously realise that you already know what they said?

2-Short-term memory. The things that you are processing in your memory at any one time is the short-term memory. This is a limited store for things or items that you can think about at one time (around seven, Miller, 1956).

Things get into short-term memory from two directions: directly from external senses or recalled from long-term memory. 'Thinking' as an act contains much switching of items to and from long-term memory. 

Items in short-term memory do not stay there by themselves and need constant attention and rehearsal to keep them in place. Without attention, they will typically remain for 20 to 30 seconds, but this can be much less (have you had someone introduced to you, then forget their name in seconds?)

3-Long-term memory. It is the memory where all of our memories are stored. If something does not reach this, then for all intents and purposes, it does not exist for us.

There are two types of retrieval:recall and recognition.

Recall is when you deliberately recall something by means of thinking alone. What were you doing a week ago from today? Getting back this memory is recall.Recognition is when you recognise something that you have already known.

There are many types of long-term memory, including:

-Declarative (explicit) memory: Knowledge of facts and events.-Episodic (autobiographical) memory: memories of periods of time.-Semantic memory: Knowledge of concepts and meaning.

-Prospective memory: Thoughts about the future.-Procedural (nondeclarative, implicit) memory: Knowledge of how to do things.-Abilities.

-8-COGNITIVE SCIENCES

In the 1990s, the idea that mental functions can be described as information processing models has been criticised by philosophers Searle, Dreyfus and mathematician Penrose.

Although the computational-representational approach has been successful in explaining many aspects of human problem solving, learning, and language use, many researchers have claimed that this approach is fundamentally mistaken.

Critics of cognitivism have offered such challenges as:

1-The emotion challenge: Cognitivism neglects the important role of emotions in human and animal thinking.

2-The consciousness challenge: Cognitivism ignores the importance of consciousness in human thinking.

3-The world challenge: Cognitivism disregards the significant role of physical environments in human thinking.

4-The body challenge: Cognitivism neglects the contribution of the body to human thought and action.

5-The social challenge: Human thought is inherently social in ways that Cognitivism ignores.

6-The dynamic systems challenge: The mind is a dynamic system, not a computational system.

7-The mathematics challenge: Mathematical results show that human thinking cannot be computational in the standard sense, so the brain must operate differently.

Cognitive sciences are an interdisciplinary field with contributors from various fields, including psychology, neuroscience, linguistics, philosophy of the mind, computer science, anthropology, biology, and physics.