DOI: 10.36347/sjahss.2014.v02i05.010

Pages: 658-661

This was an evaluation study which sought to answer the research question:’ Have attempts at developing computer based models resulted in good models?’ ‘Do computer operated representations work the same as the human mind?’ This was a qualitative study using literature sources. The following criteria were used to evaluate the effectiveness of the computer operated cognitive models: behaviour of the models compared to human performance, model validity compared with psychological theory and model complexity. It was conceptualised that a good model would replicate human processes namely, representing ‘goodness of fit’. In other words, to what extent do a model’s prediction approximate observed data, such that the smaller the discrepancy the better the model. Results have demonstrated that computer operated models of the human mind were capable of showing the structure and functions of the human mind. Computer operated models had contributed immensely to the development of cognitive psychology. The models have been used as tools for research which has enhanced understanding of the human mind such as reasoning, language processing, and recording and information processing. They have also enabled cognitive psychologists to gain insight into human mind processes, behaviour, study of relationships between theoretical constructs and human behaviour such as homophone effect and meaning making, phonological mediation and problem solving. The models have provided both the framework for describing complex behaviour and also the means of testing enabling cognitive psychologists to make more rapid progress in understanding complex human behaviour which would be impossible without them. Though some of the models lack ‘goodness of fit’ and do not work as fast as the human mind, cognitive psychologists continue to refine them as they go along.