Question

Explain how cognitive psychologists combine traditional conditioning models with cognitive processes.

Answer 1

One area in which cognitive psychologists have influenced traditional conditioning practices is modern education. Education previously employed conditioning models to teach students with reward (good scores) and punishment (bad scores). Modern educators use metacognition (a concept from cognitive psychology) to aid students in evaluating their personal knowledge. That in turn helps students to strategize for improvement in school subjects where they are weak.

Answer 2

Behaviorists generally claimed that conditioning occurred without thinking or reasoning ans was simply a result of consequences or reinforcement. Cognitive psychologists demonstrated that thinking and reasoning (cognition) influences the conditioning processes and that many behaviors that are conditioned depend on the type of cognitive reasoning that occurs during conditioning. Therefore, as one is being conditioned to respond to environmental stimuli or is responding to a consequence, they are also pondering and thinking about the process occuring. Cognition is often the reason individuals are not all conditioned in the same manner.