Which theory did you find most difficult to understand and why? You might also consider
writing about which theory you disagreed with and what kind of evidence would you want to see in order to be
more convinced of the argument made by that theory?
Here is a good example:
“I find the core-knowledge theories to be quite challenging to understand, which may be due to my weak
background in behavioural neuroscience. Another reason could be there seems to be subtle overlaps between
this group of theories and the information-processing theory because both have their focus on the cognitive
mechanisms and functioning of the brain. Perhaps, certain components of principles, such as modularity and
domain-specificity, can be consolidated with mental strategies so that information-processing theory could be
more detailed and specific in terms of neural structure which provides the framework for processing to occur.
After reading the later section of core-knowledge theories, the component which I most disagreed with is
information encapsulation and lack of access to interlevels. Our brain is a heavily interconnected network of
neurons which adapts to a variety of functional demands. My understanding is that in accordance with such
demands, information can still be accessible and permitted to flow across levels as deemed necessary,
although limited to and concentrated in relevant brain regions. We may be tricked by visual illusions but our
higher level of cognitive logic and reasoning enable us to question the obvious and employ the mental strategy
of numerical measurement to correct our presumption. I would like to see evidence that stimuli which are
normally processed by their respective sensory faculties, such as vision and hearing, would not have
associative influence on each other, such as attentional distraction and object recognition, but studies have
shown that the emotional tone of our voice can affect our perception of a facial expression when they are
simultaneously contradictory (Tanaka et al., 2010)”
Reference: Tanaka, A., Koizumi, A., Imai, H., Hiramatsu, S., Hiramoto, E., & de Gelder, B. (2010). I feel your
voice cultural differences in the multisensory perception of emotion. Psychological science.
Critique: Even though this post highlighted the challenges this student faces with the theories taught in class,
they were able to hone in their weaknesses, and succinctly describe their thoughts. To strengthen their
argument, they provided good examples and used logical reasoning to describe why they were able, or unable
to understand the concepts discussed. Furthermore, if they agreed, or disagreed with a theory/ argument
discussed, they outlined why this was their stance, and also provided examples and empirical work relevant to
the coursework.