Kermit and Cognition
Dwayne White
American InterContinental University Online
Abstract
Cognitive Information Processing (CIP), Cognitive Development and Interactional Development are theories of learning based upon the idea that learning is an internal process rather than merely something that can be observed like behaviorism. Here I examine the three theories as they relate to a scenario of a young man attempting to learn to play a keyboard. The objective is to show the similarities and differences in the three theories and how each can be applied to a given situation. As Kermit is an adult, some of the more specific elements may or may not apply and each theory has gaps in it that make it incomplete of itself. Yet, each also…show more content… As he progressed through to the concrete operational stage, he would have begun completing his cognitive map and been able to visualize music abstractly. He then would be capable of imagining his own compositions. Along the way, he would also have been exposed to environments that would have given him the social setting crucial to Piaget’s theory of social knowledge (Driscoll, 2012). He played in a band and orchestra and there gained access to the knowledge and shared cognitive maps of others. By the time of this scenario Kermit has surpassed these stages and entered into the formal operational stage and Piaget’s theories have little direct application.
As compared with CIP, Piaget’s theory neither contradicts nor reinforce. One area they may have differing but still not contradictory explanations are in the “mistake” Kermit makes when playing “House of the Rising Sun.” Whereas CIP would ascribe the error to a problem with encoding, developmental theory might say that it was the result of the creation of a new cognitive map. As the error did not create disharmony, it could have been an accident the first time that Kermit actually liked and purposefully played that way afterward in the way that a jazz musician creates new sounds from older basic patterns.
Interactional Theory of Development Whereas Piaget’s theories acknowledged a role for
