Cognitivist Theories

Cognitivist Theories

There are three different cognitivist approaches to the story that can be discussed. The first approach uses the CIP cognitive theory which is short for Cognitive Information Processing. The CIP theory can be effectively applied to facilitate the understanding and explanation of key concepts in the story and aiding the learning. Using the cognitive information-processing theory, the task of performing a song on the keyboard can be broken down into a number of important tasks (Schneider, 2005). For example, firstly, Kermit will have to look at the musical scores on a printed page and understand it so that he can play the music. This will be the input process wherein Kermit will gather information and try to make sense of it. In the following step, the contents of the information, or the musical scores, will be processed and understood and this will require Kermit to recognize the symbols (Schneider, 2005).

Hence, the process of reading the musical scores can be likened to reading actual text. By doing this, Kermit will be able to relate what he learns with what he already knows. For example, after taking a note of the signatures, Kermit will have a better idea of the number of beats in every measure. Moreover, he will also know about the key which is represented by the number of flats and sharps (Schneider, 2005). By retrieving all this vital information, Kermit will be able to organize a proper response which essentially means that he will have a better idea of which key corresponds to the notes in the musical score. It is also true that various backgrounds and voices will allow Kermit to modify encoding cues in order to help him in learning to play the same song in different contexts.

If he repeatedly makes mistakes in rendering “House of the Rising Sun”, it will most likely be the result of an encoding specificity. If Kermit keeps repeating the same mistake only when using a certain type of background, it can be because it is the same background with which he made the mistake in the first place (Strohm, 2008). This also implies that content that is difficult or highly complex can easily lead to problems in understanding just like in the case of Kermit. Although it is true that CIP offers a very resourceful perspective regarding Kermit's keyboarding skills development, it fails to address a crucial question related to the story - why does Kermit spend 20 minutes practicing some days and an hour other days?

The Piaget's theory on cognitive development offers a very different perspective on the skills development of Kermit's keyboarding skills. According to this theory, Kermit is expected to have reached the formal operational stage of development since he is already an adult. Although this may suggest that Piaget's theories on development would not help much in aiding the understanding of Kermit's learning progress throughout the short story, there are some important concepts highlighted by Piaget which must be kept in ...