Cognitive Approach

Fundamental Assumptions of the Cognitive Approach (CA)

The cognitive approach assumes that information is mentally represented and processes are defined according to such representations. Information is mentally represented in terms of symbols (for example, a number may represent a quantity). As Neil A. Stilling and his collaborators remind us, processing is defined independent of the meaning associated with those symbols, as simple manipulations/transformations of those symbols (following some rules or algorithms—like the way “multiplication” is a rule able to transform numbers). To define a process is to identify the algorithms (the formal procedure) that underlie those transformations. The CA has no assumption regarding the nature of these representations Some theories see them as explicit and localized (as schematic representations, such as the ones theorized by authors like Roger Schank and Robert Abelson) while others see them as distributed over many memory locations, defining connectionist models that describe mental phenomena by interconnected networks of simple units (a work represented by authors such as David Rumelhart and James L. McClelland). Different kinds of information may also be assumed to have different kinds of representations. For example, perceptual and conceptual information may be assumed to have distinct modes of representation, or this visual or tactile information may be assumed to have the same type of codification as conceptual information. Thus, what characterizes the CA is the focus on the understanding of those representations, assuming that processing relies on their transformation. This focus on representation and process relates empirical hypothesis testing in a CA to [Page 184]measures such as reaction times, recall or recognition, error rates, and so forth.

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