Psychology Schools of Thought, Essay Example

Introduction

My like is playing video games. Videogames is electronic games that involve the interaction between humans and user interfaces to generate visual feedback. This activity falls into the cognitive subfield of psychology. This sub field deals with the study of the mental process that includes how people learn, think, perceive and remember. Video games require individuals to perceive, think, learn and remember, therefore, video games fall within this field.

Behaviorism

The learning behavior can be affected by visible behavior, which results from external stimuli present in the environment. According to the behaviorism theory the learning process is affected by conditions and change in behavior signifies learning. The behavioral approach to learning recognizes the importance of conditions and classifies necessary conditions for learning as classical or operant conditions. In this regard, classical conditions encompass responses to stimulus from natural reflex responses while operant stimulus occurs upon reinforcement of response to stimulus. These stimuli affect the sensation of an event and consequently lead to learning through the concept of reward or punishment attached to a new behavior. The essence of behaviorism is to describe what is to be leant, demonstrate the activity, give an opportunity to the learner to practice and refine the behavior by reinforcement. Examples of positive reinforcements or rewards are bonuses, points, unlocks and power-ups. The instances of negative reinforcements include decline in status, an increase in obstacles, degrading and failure to beat high scores. The sensation acquired in learning a new behavior in regard to a video game is rewarding if the result ranks the player higher; however, behavior can attract punishment and as a consequence the player ranks lower in a video game.

Constructivism

Active engagement in an activity can also result to learning and the constructivism perspective of learning notes that this process requires self-regulation and the building of structures through abstraction and reflection. In this approach, it is upon the learner develop his or her understanding of phenomena or an act through active engagement. In this case, the learner learns from personal experiences rather that receiving information from others. Learning, therefore, is achieved through processing, observation and interpretation of sensory input in order to develop meaning. The constructivism paradigm of learning also dictates that learning is a process of constructing knowledge as contrasted to acquisition. In this regard knowledge is formed out of personal experiences and a hypothesis of the environment. Learning cannot occur only as a result of experiences, and the learner needs to reflect on these experiences in order to learn. The process involves making inquiries, making explorations and the assessment of the existing knowledge. This approach identifies that each individual forms a different construction and interpretation of knowledge, however, this learner bring past experiences and cultural factors to a case at hand. In regard to computer games, the knowledge in playing the game results from previous encounters in playing the game and the player learns new tricks and maneuvers through the continued interaction with the game. It is noteworthy that, in such circumstance, the only way learning takes place is through playing a computer game. This perspective encourages experiments and real world scenarios as means of learning. Playing a video game gives the player an opportunity to inquire into the strategy of a game, exploring the desired strategy by playing the game and subsequently assessing the effectiveness of this strategy. This process often improves the performance of a video game player in subsequent games as a result of previous experiences.

Cognitivism

On the other hand, learning can also result from cognitivism which proposes that learning results from mental activities that connect to an event and includes motivation, thinking, memory and reflection. This approach argues that altering the learner’s mental model leads to learning and as such learning is an internal process that relies on the capacity and the motivation of the learner. The cognitivism approach to learning centers on the transmission of knowledge from an expert to a learner. In this case, learning takes the form of connecting pieces of knowledge in order to form a meaningful result. Acquisition of knowledge related to playing video games affects the performance of a player in a game. The learning process in this case requires the learner to receive, store and relate information or knowledge to already existing ideas. This is founded on the availability of information to the player on the strategies, goals and terms of the game which favorably positions the player. In respect to the like for video games, the information on the video game being played makes it possible to make decisions that yield the desired results. The knowledge of the opponent’s tactics, the appropriate moves and the rules of the game is among a few factors that are reliant on learning and improves performance. This approach focuses chiefly on the process rather than the products and, as a result, manifests in exercise that are aimed at improving performance