The Cognitive Perspective

One study cognitive psychologists have focused on is memory.  A study by Brown (1958) and Peterson & Peterson (1959, cited in Haralambos & Rice et al 2002) suggests from experiments, that if not rehearsed, information held in short term memory disappears in about 20 seconds.  Participants in one experiment were asked to learn 3 sets of consonants.  They were also asked to count backwards in threes from a 3 digit number.  This was done to prevent them rehearsing the sets of letters.  After 6 seconds of counting, 50% of the letters were recalled and after 18 seconds the recall of the letters dropped to 10%.  The result of this experiment suggests that information held in short term memory is quickly lost when rehearsal is prevented.

In the early years of the 20th century, a group of German psychologists conducted investigations into problem solving.  This was known as the Gestalt approach.  Gestalt is a German word meaning ‘whole’, the Gestalists believed the idea that people view things as a whole rather than as a combination of parts.  According to the Gestalt’s, problem solving behaviour can be productive or reproductive.  This means that problem solving does not just involve reproducing past behaviours and that new behaviour needs to be introduced to help solve a problem.  The idea of insight, a sudden realisation of the solution to a problem was first suggested by Kohler (1927, cited in Haralambos & Rice et al 2002) from studies of a chimpanzee using different length poles to reach bananas through its cage.  When confronted with the problems the chimpanzee paused frequently to analyse the area and everything in it before suddenly, in one action, solving the problem.  If the chimpanzee could speak it would have probably said ‘aha!’ at the moment of insight.

These findings suggest that problem solving is based upon perception of a ‘whole’.

The cognitive perspective has many strengths but it also has weaknesses.  Critics argue that the cognitive approach tends to overestimate the role of rational, logical thought processes.  This approach also ignores human emotions and sees humans as little more than information processing machines.  However man is more complex than a computer.  There is also a tendency to detach the individual from their social context, the situation they may be in and the interaction in which they are involved.  Critics believe that human behaviour is not appropriate for scientific experiments, they do not reflect what humans are really like and it is not ethical.