Article analysis

Cognitive theory

Cognitive theory is an approach to psychology that attempts to explain human behaviour by understanding your thought processes.  Jean Piaget (1936) was the first psychologist to make a systematic study of cognitive development. His contributions include a theory of child cognitive development, detailed observational studies of mental action or knowledge in children, and a series of simple but inventive tests to reveal different cognitive abilities.

What Piaget wanted to do was not to measure how well children could count, spell or solve problems as a way of grading their I.Q. According to Piaget, children are born with a very basic mental structure on which all subsequent learning and knowledge is based.

Comments on article

The article we were asked to look at was about how broken homes may have an effect or damage the brains of infant children. It states that children that come from dysfunctional or broken families start school with the mental capacity of a one year old. People have put this down to the children’s or family’s background. In some respects, I agree. I believe that neglect and lack of attention to children as they grow up limits their motivation when they are forced to do things such as school.

Some may disagree with the statement. They believe that they learn and achieve from their own will and has very little to do with their background or upbringing. The main features of the article that are eye catching is the bold title, the high register language and the graphology.  

The purpose: the main purpose of this text is to inform however, the secondary purpose would be to persuade. This is because the article is telling you about education and how, stereotypically children learn. On the other hand the article is very biased and one sided so it is trying to persuade the readers to side with the writer of the article.

The mode: the mode is the form that the text is written in. The text we are looking at is in the form of an article. Possibly an online article.

The tone: due to the tone of the article it shows a high register because of the language that is used, however, the article also uses biased language.

The audience: the targeted audience for this article is adults, possibly parents with children. It may also be targeting others such as the education welfare etc.

The context: the article is about children from a less supporting background are more likely to have learning disabilities. This is seen this way because it states that broken or damaged homes effects the way the younger children in the household are able to use their brains and knowledge.