How Important Are Mental Representations in Cognitive...

HOW IMPORTANT ARE MENTAL REPRESENTATIONS IN COGNITIVE THEORIES? How the world around us is represented mentally is the corner stone of cognitive architectures. It facilitates understanding of information received and perceived from our environment. The storage and retrieval of knowledge would be impossible without mental representations. Mental representations are the way in which we create ‘copies of the real things around us, which we perceive. A description of a representation is a symbol, sign, image or a depiction that takes the place of a real object in the real world. . Representations were broadly categorised into three. The ‘analogue representation the ‘propositional representation and ‘procedural rules. Analogue†¦show more content†¦Their well known Restaurant script was designed to test whether people would agree about which events occur in a restaurant. The idea being that we store scripts in memory to allow us to make sense of stories which concern typical events. They found that when scripts written by participants were compared there was general agreement about the main events in that scenario. ACT* is very similar to schema theory as the mental representations here are also propostitional and symbolic. Since it is a computer model it can be programmed as a memory system, a language processor or a problem solver (e.g. the Towers Of Hanoi.). Schema theory focuses only on long term memory, whereas ACT* acts on working memory and two kinds of long term memory, declarative and procedural. Of the three models this is the only one to address the overall structure of what is being modelled. ACT* representation is organised similarly to schema theory, in organised packages of information but for declarative memory only and it is not a strictly organised hierarchy but a tangled one. Procedural memory is represented as a productionShow MoreRelatedThe Theories : Dual Coding Theory, Multimedia Learning Theory And Cognitive Load Theory904 Words   |  4 Pagesthere are three foundational theories: dual coding theory, multimedia learning theory and cognitive load theory. 2.2.1: Observational Learning Screencasting is popular due to its ability to offer picture, motion and simulation, all of which provide the viewer with a sense of realistic context when attempting to understand and follow a presenter’s actions. The concept of demonstration, observation and repetition can be traced to Bandura (1986) and his Social Cognitive Theory of Observational LearningRead MoreReport : A Lot Of Research 1013 Words   |  5 PagesIntro + Summary: A lot of research has been going on focusing on an infants ability to understand false beliefs. Researchers are emphasizing on an infants ability to understand mental representations. 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