Human and Abilities

The behaviorist perspective of learning sees learners as passive and simply responding to stimuli. The cognitive perspective of learning says that learner’s process, store, and retrieve information, which they will then use later. Behaviorists also believe that the instructor shapes the way a child acts through reinforcement. This is different from Cognitivists who believe that the instructor provides the environment for children to learn and develop.

It is important to apply both of these perspectives of learning to instruction, especially as a future speech therapist, because individuals both with their therapy and in everyday life can use these theories. By reinforcing a behavior, which goes with the behaviorist theory, you can have a patient increase the chance of becoming successful in reaching their goals. By using the cognitive theory, patients can learn information on how to help them articulate words better, store that information, and then retrieve it if they are struggling.

As for limitations of these approaches, the cognitive approach is limiting because it takes the human brain and reduces it to the idea that it simply processes things as memory and attention. It limits the brain, and person, to small parts and does not look at it as a whole unit working together. Humans are more complex than the theory gives credit for. The behaviorist approach does the opposite of the cognitive approach. It looks at humans as, for a lack of a better word, needy. A person needs rewards or punishment to be successful. It focuses very highly on nurturing the person to make them successful in learning.

Personally, I reside more with the behaviorist perspective of learning. I often find that people do well if they have rewards or punishments. Sometimes, simply processing information and storing it may not be enough. Learners may need to complete extra assignments to remember the information. Having points for completing the assignment usually means that students will be more likely to do the extra work. This way, they will be able to retrieve the information easier.

I can see myself applying the things I have learned in this module in a few different ways. First, I can reward my patients when they have done something successfully, even if this is with a simple congratulations or good job. Also, what I have learned has allowed me to understand that people do process and learn things differently and I need to take that into consideration when I am working with patients. Some people may be able to store things simply and easily while others may need more nurturing. I will have to evaluate my patient and decide how to work with them best based on their needs.