Foundations of Cognitive Theory
Elizabeth Caldwell
Excelsior College

Abstract
Cognitive-learning theories explore the complexity of the mind from the perspective of how the mind processes information. The paper will discuss the history of cognitive-learning theories and how they shaped the way one perceives, organizes, stores, and retrieves information. The main focus will be on Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, however, it will include theorists such as Wilhelm Wundt, William James, Edward Tolman and Frederic Bartlett. It will start off with the definition of cognitive theory and move on to the history of psychological theorists, ending with the conclusion.

Keywords:

Defining Cognitive Theory
Cognitive theory is an approach to psychology that attempts to explain human behavior by understanding the thought processes (Fritscher, 2014). The main facet of cognitive theory involves the communications between mental components and the information that is processed through this intricate system. As individuals learn, they vigorously generate cognitive arraignments which determine their perceptions of environment and self.
Concepts of Cognitive Theorists
Cognitive theorists think that learning consists of the incorporation of events into an operating storage system contained within the organizational structures called schemata. This concept of schemata was introduced by Frederic C. Bartlett in the early 1930’s. We will discuss more about Frederic C. Bartlett later. Readers use schemata to make sense of events and descriptions by providing default background information for comprehension, as it is rare and often unnecessary for texts to contain all the detail required for them to be fully understood. Usually, many or even most of the details are omitted, and readers’ schemata compensate for any gaps in the text (Hühn, 2014). Thus, the mind uses schemata to selectively organize and process all the information individuals receive from the world.
This all inclusive network is achieved by a selective monitor that organizes the immense flow of sensory input. The system chooses, arranges and encodes for storage of new information based on the individual’s interest, motivations and particularly, perceptions. Within this process, attention deals with what individual’s notice, while encoding involves the preparation of data for storage. When encoding new information, schemata seldom copy the input exactly as received, instead, it is changed or distorted to fit the individuals existing system of schemata. Likewise, when retrieving information from memory, schemata only select that which corresponds to the currently active script. Therefore, one’s learning and application of knowledge depends on one’s schematic framework.
The processing of information for storage includes several key cognitive components. When one experiences sensory input, the data is briefly captured in a sensory buffer, which has unlimited capacity. This information can vanish rapidly unless there is real concentration which will transfer it to short-term memory. Short-term memory holds approximately seven items, however, grouping items of information can increase this amount. Then there is working memory. This is similar to short-term memory, but this is used for specific mental operations such as addition. Information that is encoded into long-term memory is organized, meaningful, and permanent, additionally, long-term memory has unlimited capacity. Within long-term memory, are two categories of memory: semantic and episodic. Semantic memory consists of information that is received directly from the environment (directions, addresses, equations), while episodic memory deals with events experienced by the individual. Each of these components plays an active role within the scope of information processing.
Meaningful learning occurs when knowledge stored in long-term memory is shifted to short-term memory to integrate new information into the mind. The most important cognitive associations occur when individuals relate stored knowledge to sensory input and consequently encode the stimuli into long-term memory. This concept differs from the behavioral view of association which is based upon external motivation.

Psychological Cognitive Theorists
Strong attempts to investigate and understand the role of the mind arose in Germany in the late 1800’s. The founder of psychology as a science, Wilhelm Wundt, was the first to research the cognitive structures involved in mental processing. Wundt, not considered a cognitive theorist, he formulated a basis for cognitive development and research. Wundt’s “Principles of Physiological Psychology” holds that the mind’s structure is composed of basic, unchanging elements.
Wundt thought that scientific psychology should center on consciousness and consequently centralize on structuralism. Wundt’s examination of the composition of the mind used a method called introspection, which include the subjective reflection of one's own experience. For Wundt, sensations and our somatic sensory apparatus are especially important for the project of physiological psychology for the simple reason that sensations are the “contact points” between the physical and the psychological.
As psychology began to emerge as an independent science, several Americans rejected structuralism. William James believed that Wundt’s methodical analysis and classification of cognitive elements was too narrow. Strongly influenced by Darwin’s theory of evolution, James emphasized the process of cognition as it related to environmental adaptation.
During the 1930’s, Edward Tolman supplemented the Gestalt viewpoint with his concept of purposive behaviorism. Tolman expressed that, individuals learn specific events that result in the gratification of certain goals. In a given situation, learning involves one’s expectations. If the expectancies are achieved, then they are validated and remain part of one’s schematic structure. As expected, a person’s perceptions of a situation considerably impact their assumptions within that scenario. Tolman eventually determined that individuals develop cognitive maps of the environment that formulate the basis for perceptions and expectations. Cognitive mapping involves the psychological processes that develop one’s viewpoints about relative locations and attributes in one’s environment. Tolman’s emphasis on expectations in addition to his separation of process from product contributed significantly to cognitive theory.
Frederic C. Bartlett performed a substantial amount of research related to perception, remembering, and comprehension of information. During these experiments, individuals consistently constructed scenarios to compensate for incomplete information within perceptual sequences. Bartlett’s finding helped to develop the key cognitive concepts of perception and mental processing. One of Bartlett’s experiments involved relaying of a story from person to person. One person read a folktale, rewrote it from memory, and then gave it to another person, who followed the same procedure. When the story reached the last person, it was completely different from the original.
Jean Piaget was the first psychologist to make a systematic study of cognitive development. Before Piaget, the common assumption in psychology was that children are merely less competent thinkers than adults. He showed that young children think in strikingly different ways compared to adults. According to Piaget, children are born with a very basic mental structure (genetically inherited and evolved) on which all subsequent learning and knowledge is based (McLeod, 2009). Piaget’s theory differs from the others in many ways. He concerned himself with children, instead of all learners. He focused on development, rather than learning. It proposes discrete stages of development, marked by qualitative differences, rather than a gradual increase in number and complexity of behaviors. There are three basic components to Piaget’s Cognitive Theory: Schemas, Adaptation processes that enable the transition from one stage to another – equilibrium, assimilation and accommodation, and four stages of development – sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational and formal operational.
Schemas are the building blocks of knowledge, according to Piaget. Adaptation involves building schemes through direct interaction with the environment. It consists of two complementary activities, assimilation and accommodation. With assimilation, we use our current schemes to interpret the external world. Accommodation – we create new schemes or adjust old ones after noticing that our current ways of thinking do not capture the environment completely (Berk, 2014). Equilibration is the force which moves development along. Piaget believed that cognitive development did not progress at a steady rate, but rather in leaps and bounds.
The first stage in cognitive development is sensorimotor stage. This stage is for the first two years of life. Infants and toddlers “think” with their eyes, ears, hands, and other sensorimotor equipment. Infants progressively construct knowledge and understanding of the world by coordinating experiences (such as vision and hearing) with physical interactions with objects. Piaget divided the sensorimotor stage into six sub-stages. These sub-stages are: Reflexive schemes (birth – 1 month) which are newborn reflexes, Primary circular reactions (1 – 4 months) – simple motor habits centered around the infant’s own body; limited anticipation of events, Secondary circular reactions (4 – 8 months), these actions aimed at repeating interesting effects in the surrounding world; imitation of familiar behaviors, Coordination of secondary circular reactions (8 – 12 months), intentional, or goal-directed, behavior; ability to find a hidden object in the first location in which it is hidden (object permanence); improved anticipation of events; imitation of behaviors slightly different from those the infant usually performs, Tertiary circular reaction (12 – 18 months) exploration of the properties of objects by acting on them in novel ways; imitation of novel behaviors; ability to search in several locations for a hidden object, and Mental representation (18-months – 2 years) toddlers have internal depictions of objects and events, as indicated by sudden solutions to problems; ability to find an object that has been moved while out of sight (invisible displacement); deferred imitation; and make-believe play (Berk, 2014). The second stage is pre-operational stage, which spans from 2 – 7 years. Piaget noted that children do not yet understand concrete logic and cannot mentally manipulate information. During this stage, children increase in playing and pretending. Children have difficulty seeing things from other’s point of view. Concrete operational stage is the third in Piaget’s cognitive theory. Occurring during the ages of seven and 11 and is characterized by the appropriate use of logic. Children at this stage start having more mature and adult like thought processes. Their problem solving is more logical. They can only solve problems that apply to concrete events or objects. Piaget determined that children are able to incorporate inductive reasoning. Inductive reasoning involves drawing inferences from observations in order to make a generalized principle in order to try to predict the outcome of an event. Children have the ability to distinguish between their own thoughts and the thoughts of others, they understand that their thoughts and perceptions may be different from those around them. Also according to Piaget, children in this stage are able to classify objects by their number, mass, and weight. Important processes at this stage are, classification, conservation, decentering, reversibility, seriation, and transitivity. Classification it the ability to name and identify sets of objects according to size, appearance or any other characteristic. Hierarchical classification is the ability to sort objects into classes and subclasses. Conservation is the understanding that even though an object’s appearance changes, it still stays the same in quality. Decentering, according to Piaget allows the child to take into account multiple aspects of a problem to solve it. Reversibility is when the child can understand that objects or numbers can be changed and then returned to their original state. Seriation is the ability to sort objects in an order according to size, shape, or any other characteristic. The last process transitivity, refers to the ability to mentally sort objects and recognize relationships among various things in a serial order. The Formal operation stage is the final stage. The age range is 11-20. Intelligence is demonstrated through the logical use of symbols related to abstract concepts. The person is capable of deductive and hypothetical reasoning and develop the ability to think about abstract concepts.
Conclusion
According to these theories, one’s ability to learn stems from the way one perceives, organizes, stores, and retrieves information. Primary emphases involve problem-solving and the facilitation of storage and retrieval of information for application. The ongoing study and enhancement of these processes can only benefit our ability to learn more efficiently and effectively.

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Add into the references
Kim, Alan, "Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2014 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2014/entries/wilhelm-wundt/>.