Monday, March 28, 2011

3. Cognitive Theory – Cognitive Approach


Edward Tolman was recognized as pioneer of Cognitive Theory. The theory consists of relationship between environmental (cognitive) cues and expectations. He used white rat in his psychological experiment of Cognitive theory. He found that the rat could run through critical path with particular intention of getting food (goal/objective). In the experiment,
Tolman established certain choice points where expectations were established. The rat learned cognitive cues at various choice points, which would raise its expectation to move forward to the objective (food). Thus the rat turned to acquire food, based on relationship of Cues and Reward or expectations. This theory was later applied on human resources where incentives were related to higher performance.

No comments:

Post a Comment