WHAT IS COGNOCYTIVISM? - SCIENCE - 2026

The cognitivism is a current or theory of knowledge is based on the use of reason and logic to ensure learning of a subject through the relationship and interaction between the perception and the objects and experiences gained.

Cognocitivism is based on the mental reach to relate elements and scenarios that could have occurred in different temporal spaces, and relate them to throw a new conclusion or way of thinking and seeing.

Cognocitivist theory takes advantage of attributes such as perception, intelligence, memory, information processing capacity, and problem solving applied to learning. This is one of the reasons why it is considered the most effective theory of knowledge applied to mathematics, logic and other sciences.

Due to its rational and logical character, cognocitivism has proven to be insufficient in the transfer of knowledge when it comes to the humanities and other humanistic sciences such as history.

In the case of psychology, cognocitivism is related to constructivism, sometimes sharing more common characteristics than they really have.

History of cognocytivism

The cognitive theory has its origins in the foundations of other currents, such as positive and phenomenological relativism. One of the first to address pre-experience knowledge was Immanuel Kant, through his critique of pure reason. He would begin to approach the first postulates of cognocitivism with a strong influence of rationalism.

Cognitivism would break out as a formal current from the 30s, having its origin in England. During this period, studies on thinking, perception and other cognitive processes had been formally started.

The theoretical development on this new trend would extend to the United States during the same period, mainly by the hand of the author Edward Tolman.

Other authors who worked in terms of cognitiveism in North America were David Ausubel and Jerome Bruner. In Germany there was also a deep interest in cognitiveism at the beginning of the century, led mainly by psychologists such as Wertheimer, Lewin, Koffa, and Kohler.

The emergence of cognitivism, especially in Europe and specifically in Germany, was positioned, among other reasons, as a response contrary to what the behaviorist current in psychology had been promoting.

Those who advocated cognitivism rejected the concepts of conditioning and instinctive responses to stimuli.

In this way, cognitivism would begin to propagate in history the validity of knowledge and learning through experiences, beliefs, convictions and desires, in relation to the daily scenarios to which a subject is subjected.

characteristics

According to authors like Jean Piaget, the cognitive is basically the consolidation of learning through stages; a process of restructuring mental and psychological schemes and precepts that undergo changes with each new phenomenon.

These stages include passing through assimilation, adaptation and accommodation, to the point of reaching a state of equilibrium, in which the level of knowledge acquired is much higher.

This current also seeks, in the field of teaching, that the subject's ambition for more knowledge increases as he obtains it, and charges the person responsible for teaching to create dynamics according to the experiences of each of the learners.

Other more formal elements that make up the cognitive theory are the following:

Knowledge, intentionality and existentialism

It has been mainly Immanuel Kant who has laid the conceptual foundations around knowledge and the individual, presenting it as "a synthesis of the form and content that have been received by perceptions."

In this way, it makes it clear that the knowledge that each subject receives is inherent to their own individuality and capacity for perception, their experience and attitude to each moment of their existence.

Intentionality, in the case of cognitivism, is defined as the intentional approach of consciousness towards a specific object.

Finally, the concept of existentialism is handled simply as the importance that is given to the very existence of things and their environment; temporality as an essential element of existence, and this as the proper meaning of objects.

From these conceptions, the human being can establish more appropriate interaction relationships with his environment, and through his psychological aspects, develop a vital space for his development and understanding of the world.

Principle of contemporaneity

The principle of contemporaneity within cognitivism is one of the formal values ​​that the experts of this current use to illustrate and explain the psychological dynamics of knowledge and experience.

The concept behind this principle refers to the fact that every psychological event is activated by the psychological conditions of the subject at the time a behavior is manifested.

In this way, it can be interpreted that there is nothing absolute in the psychological dynamics of cognitivism, and that each reaction is tied to the singularity of the subject.

Forms of learning in cognitivism

Because it is a stream of knowledge, and like others, it promotes the efficient obtaining of this through interaction and interrelation with the environment, two formal ways of obtaining knowledge have been established.

By discovery

The subject is allowed the opportunity to discover the information for himself; that is, it is not read directly provides the content on which it is wanted to teach.

In this way, through clues, the subject can approach the information by himself, generating a much more genuine interest.

By reception

The subject is the recipient of certain information, which he can process and interpret both repetitively and meaningfully.

The way in which this process is carried out will depend much more on the type of content and the subject's own attitude towards that content; the reception dynamics itself is not decisive for the type of interpretation.

References

1. Estefano, R. (2001). Comparative table between behaviorist, cognitivist and constructivist theory. Libertador Experimental Pedagogical University.
2. Teacher training. (November 8, 2002). The cognitivist theory. ABC Paraguay.
3. Gudiño, DL (2011). Behaviorism and cognitivism: two psychological frameworks of learning of the 20th century. Educational Sciences, 297-309.
4. Ibañez, JE (1996). The four "strong avenues" of contemporary sociological theory. Papers, 17-27.
5. Mergel, B. (1998). Instructional design and learning theory. Saskatchewan: Communications and Educational Technology Program.