Theories about human learning can be grouped into four categories: Humanisitc, Behaviorism, Social and Cognitive in which I will explain, give several different examples, and discuss theorist who worked to develop the theory as it is today. Keep in mind that a theory is a general principle that explains or predicts facts, observations or events. It is generally accepted as having a valid repeating testing process. It can never be recognized beyond all doubt.
Cognitivism focuses on inner mental activities, which some think that we all have a little black box that needs to be opened in order to understand the human mind. To determine the process of thinking, knowing, problem solving and memory we have to have a cognitive understanding. Humans are those of action and consequence, where we respond to our environment as stimuli and rational thinkers. This process also happens through our genetic make-up. We as humans have our own individual make-up which makes us unique. As children we are born to reach certain levels of development depending on our age, as well as cognitive and genetic developments (Olson, 2009).
Jean Piaget states “The development of thought process, including remembering, problem solving, and decision-making, from childhood through adolescence to adulthood.” A cognitive theorist may propose that babies use their sense of taste, to build mental pictures of the world around them. Infants on the other hand would mouth everything around them until they have learned the behavior and thus move forward into a mature world where they can interact (Boyd & Bee).
The cognitive development theory was a direct reaction toward Watson and Skinner which believes babies were born with no capacities, which meant that babies learned and did not develop. This theory says that humans are born with indigenous cognitive abilities and qualities that grow over a period of time at predictable rates at different times that may be influenced by their environment and...