Cognitivism

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Cognitivism
"The central issues that interest cognitive psychologists include the internal mechanism of human thought and the processes of knowing. Cognitive psychologists have attempted to find out the answers to mental structures, such as what is stored and how it is stored, and to mental processes concerning how the integration and retrieval of information is operated. The theoretical assumptions in cognitive psychology lend instructional systems a hand in the design of efficient processing strategies for the learners to acquire knowledge, e.g. mnemonic devices to reduce the workload of the short-term memory, rehearsal strategies to maintain information, and the use of metaphors and analogies to relate meaning of the new information to prior knowledge". @Bib 1

The date cited as marking the beginning of psychology as a science is 1879, when Wilhelm Wundt established the first psychology laboratory in Leipzig, Germany. Introspection, the method of inquiry used by Wundt, is claimed to be a cognitive approach, since it is a tool of self-observation to examine the working of the mind. Winn and Snyder (1996) claimed that Wundt's methodological contribution was "the development of introspection as a means for studying the mind". Many ideas and assumptions of cognitive psychology can be traced back to the early decades of twentieth century, i.e. [|Gestalt psychology], Edward Tolman's cognitive learning (1932), and Jean Piaget's cognitive development theory. @Bib 1
 * Theoretical Foundations**

Anderson (1985) lists three main influences for the modern development of cognitive psychology:
 * 1) [|Information processing approach]: Broadbent's information (1958) processing model gives consideration to perception and attention. The important characteristic of an information-processing analysis is that it involves a tracing of the sequence of mental operations and their products in the performance of a particular cognitive task
 * 2) Artificial Intelligence: Allen Newell and Herbert Simon's work in cognitive psychology has promoted use of concepts from computer science in the development of psychological theories.
 * 3) Linguistics: Noam Chomsky asserted that language learning must include internal constructs. A theory that only considers the observable stimuli and responses in linguistic interaction is not sufficient. @Bib 1