Yahoo Inc. Strategic Analysis Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Yahoo Inc. Strategic Analysis - Case Study Example Yahoo’s main competitor is Google that is constantly bringing, in new digital products, to stay on top of the market. The major targets that the company concentrates on are the Users, the advertisers and publishers. By offering their services to these groups of people, they generate income that will enable them continue running the company. Over the years, the company has been implementing various strategies that would enable it improve the services offered and the amount of revenue collected. Such moves included hiring competent employees, introducing more services and setting up a webpage that is enticing and will enable them get a number of clicks. In the face of rising competition in the market environment, the company has strived to improve in its revenues and competitive position in the market. This study, therefore, looks into the various strategic aspects that the company has put, in place, to compete favorable in the market. With other big players like Google in the m arket, the strategies put in place by the company would ensure fairness in the market competition. The Yahoo Inc strategies Internal analysis The Yahoo Inc Company has largely placed its focus on products and people since this form the basis of their operations. The company’s major goal was to bring quality products into the market. In a bid to improve its existence, the yahoo company produced new products such as the new and improved version of the Yahoo mail. Different from the initial versions, this new version could be accessed on other mobile devices such as iPhone, windows 8, iPod and Android OS. The introduction of this new version greatly changed the market competition since many people could access yahoo services from their devices. At the same time, the new Yahoo mail version was blended with flicker, a photo sharing application that enable users to capture and share their photos easily across the social media networks such s facebook, twitter or Tumblr among other through email. At the same time, in a bid to improve the internal structure of the company, talented persons were hired and placed into administrative posts. Relatively, the company acquired mobile phone application developers who would enable them to invent applications that would bring their services closer and closer to the customers. Through this team, the company established a professional team of engineers, designers and managers who would ensure the company attains its set target. In order to ensure the company maintains exemplary performance, a hiring system was put in place that was rigorous and intensive. Employee performance was also evaluated quarterly, with a provision of perfect working environment for all of the workers. Within the management system, the company developed a policy that would enable it monitor the performance of its products and services across the web. Such system was also designed to address the internal issues that the company faced. The incorporati on of these internal factors was meant to place the company in a competitive position that would ensure better products and services offered to the customers. This system also ensured accountability on the side of every employee as well as the other people working in the company. External analysis In terms of external factors, the company has set up various strategies to enable it interact well moreover, competitively in the business environment. This implies that they had to launch new products that would attract many people towards using their services. Thus, in order to provide a lasting advertising solution, the company decided to launch a yahoo genome. This advertising platform was meant to ease

Does the Media Frame Social Reality?

Does the Media Frame Social Reality? Critically assess the proposition that the media ‘frames’ social reality. Introduction Roughly developing processes in modern society touch all aspects of life. In the end, it highlights the importance of the development of public consciousness of people, their communication, interaction and relationship at all levels of activities. In our time, such thing as mass media renders huge psychological influence on consciousness of the person all over the world. Unfortunately, today’s media presented by reality which is substantially mediated by someones opinion. Moreover, it is simplified and doesn’t offer any reflection or the analysis. Entman (2007: 164) suggests that in certain way this information can be dangerous, as the person accepts processed information without personal reflection. In such case, media can inspire and change a lot of things. Therefore, for us it is much easier to plunge into the flow of information, than critically try to perceive it. Today, media is a powerful factor of influence on a mental condition of people. For the last decade there was a set of researches on the matter of media in absolutely various spheres (press, television, advertising, radio, internet). After all, as Hodkinson (2011: 109) states, the distinctive features of any media in the world have always been such things as publicity and ambiguous inconsistent tool of media itself. This fact stimulates new growth of researches about possible ways and consequences of integration of media in social life of people. Media â€Å"framing† of public consciousness â€Å"Mass media became the main tool for distribution of the messages that influence public consciousness† (Hodkinson, 2011: 111). The modern person can’t evade mass media influence. In other words, impact of media on public opinion often described as mind manipulation. This phenomenon, as Hodkinson (2011: 113) insists, is very widespread in Great Britain, United States and the developed countries of Asia. For greater success, such thing as mind control should always remain imperceptible. The success of manipulation is guaranteed, when the viewer believes that all events are natural and inevitable. It is important, that people’s trust is neutral to all main social institutes. Audience should believe that the government, mass media and science are behind a framework of clashing social interests. So, at that point, institutes can settle different situations and protect interests of citizens. Entman (2007: 167) believes that the government takes the main place in the myth about neutrality. On the one hand, the myth assumes honesty and impartiality of the government and its components. On the other hand, such things as corruption, deception and fraud, which were showed from time to time, are accepted to move to human weaknesses. Institutes are higher than suspicions. Fundamental durability of all system is provided with careful thought about the work of its components. It is considered that media is also should be neutral for giving the publicity the realistic analysis of life. Any deviations are admitted, but mass media assures us that it is no more than the mistakes of cer tain people that can’t be considered as a whole reliable institute of distribution of information. One of the most important rules of mind manipulation is the success that depends on how fully you will isolate the addressee from extraneous influence. Ideal situation is the total absence of alternative sources of information and opinion. Mind control is incompatible with dialogue and public debate. Hodkinson (2011: 117) mentioned that the main role of mind manipulation is not only about the control of public opinion, but also about its integration into society. It is important to send public consciousness to the necessary point and to give installation on certain reactions to different events. The integrated opinion should be perceived as personal and it should be real, not imposed, created by the natural way that has arisen from the person’s mind according to the analysis of received information. It looks like deception. But it is not always necessary to perceive mind manipulation as a negative factor. Today, provision of integrity to state and need of reforms are the parts of any country’s policy. It follows that it is necessary to prepare society for any changes. Therefore media in this case are irreplaceable assistant and powerful control tool. The main thing is to be able to dispose it wisely. Mass media cover various actual public problems. As a result, they influence opinion and behavior of people both in society and in person. Media today is a powerful tool of impact on a social and psychological condition of people. Greatest degree of influence is the audience with the weak consciousness which has not have personal outlook. Nevertheless, the sides of influence can be both positive, and negative. Long and Wall (2013: 359) agree that it is possible to allocate direct aspects of main functions of media: information transfer, the entertainment, informative and educational tool. But there is also some deeper influence that can be imperceptible for the first time. For example, with the help of the media, the public opinion was created the condition of the mass consciousness comprising the hidden or obvious relation of various social problems. That is how reality events formed. It is important to note that right now there is accurately formulated public opinion about such global universal issues as prevention of ecological accident, nuclear and biological warfare and many more. As there is an accurate opinion in world consciousness about these problems, it is possible to say that media can observe some objective information which is not contradicting values of society, both allowing to create rather long-term and affirmed view. Internet is much extended now as well. Media system o f searching and sending information around the globe, generated by technologies, undoubtedly, got an absolute degree of freedom. This phenomenon opens huge possibilities for creativity, training and modeling. In addition, the virtual technologies created on the basis of understanding social reality, will bring doubtless advantage both for individual person, and the state system as a whole. Certainly these are the positive sides of media influence on public opinion and human activity. One of negative impacts of media is advertising, or, to be more precise, disinformation method. It is considered at the moment of making any serious decision. Sometimes media give news that considered as lie. As a matter of fact, disinformation goes from untrusted channels and stay in the mind of the person. Even though this method is useful because it is used at the moment of making any crucial decision, this method is clearly not fair, and when the person will understand the truth, the result of disinformation will be already achieved. Fortunately, disinformation method observed not so often in modern media. Unfortunately, the method of â€Å"framing† used much more obviously. The frame method includes strict and careful selection of information, causing a variety of emotions. This method allows media to monitor and influence the audience, by manipulating different associations which built on typical person’s thoughts. Stereotypes operate effectively all processes of perception of information. †Perceiving process is the manual regulation of the obscure fact under an unchangeable common law† (Entman, 2007: 170). Therefore media prune down all submitted information or put it in a framework or common idea. The person should perceive the message without any efforts, thinking that information from mass media source is the unique and only right possible way of perception of reality. Media makes the person think stereotypically. It reduces intellectual level of messages, turning itself to ideal stupidity tool. It is possible only with the â€Å"frame† method of fixing unnecessary stereotypes in the mind of people. Thus, by means of various methods, influence of media is extremely important. It is possible to make the idea, that skillful manipulation of public consciousness can cause not only direct changes in cultural development and behavior of society, but also in a certain role of each social class and person separately. Conclusion A variety of mass media (the press, the Internet, radio, television) should conduct to an individualization of social activity and consciousness of the person and to give him the chance of a choice: to watch or not watch TV, to read or not read the press, to listen or not listen to broadcasts. But, after long studying of a question of media framing, the sad conclusion has been drawn. In fact, it is only illusion, the person has no choice. The great number of people is watching the same channels on television, the programs which are confirmed by state regulations. They read the same articles in magazines and newspapers, listen to the same radio and information releases, looking for typical affairs, views, problems. Current situation generates ambiguity of media. As Hesmondhalgh (2013: 39) reported, the development of mass communication services positively affects awareness of individuals about the world, but in the same time there is a factor which is actually manipulating consciousness of masses behind all this development process. Media is standing still among the first provocateurs of individual degradation, standard views and behavior of people and developing uniformity of their reactions. Great British politician once said that the one, who owns information, owns the world. Today, it is possible to say with confidence that the one, who control media flow, is capable to influence the modern world. Reference list: Entman, R. (2007) â€Å"Framing Bias: Media in the Distribution of Power†, Journal of Communication, vol. 57, no. 1, March, pp. 163–173. Hesmondhalgh, D. (2013) The Cultural Industries, London: Sage. pp. 37-633. Hodkinson, P. (2011) Media, Culture Society, London: Sage. pp. 105-26. Long, P.and Wall, T. (2012) Media Studies, London: Sage. pp.344-69.  Bibliography: Curran, J. (1986) Bending Reality, London: Pluto. Marris, P. and Thornham, S. (1999) Media Studies: A Reader, 2nd edition, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Hall, S. (1997) Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Rojek, C. (2013) Event Power, London: Sage. pp. 112-121.

Jack London :: essays research papers

Jack London fought his way up out of the factories and waterfront dives of West Oakland to become the highest paid, most popular novelist and short story writer of his day. He wrote passionately and prolifically about the great questions of life and death, the struggle to survive with dignity and integrity, and he wove these elemental ideas into stories of high adventure based on his own firsthand experiences at sea, or in Alaska, or in the fields and factories of California. As a result, his writing appealed not to the few, but to millions of people all around the world. Along with his books and stories, however, Jack London was widely known for his personal exploits. He was a celebrity, a colorful and controversial personality who was often in the news. Generally fun-loving and playful, he could also be combative, and was quick to side with the underdog against injustice or oppression of any kind. He was a fiery and eloquent public speaker, and much sought after as a lecturer on socialism and other economic and political topics. Despite his avowed socialism, most people considered him a living symbol of rugged individualism, a man whose fabulous success was due not to special favor of any kind, but to a combination of unusual mental ability and immense vitality. Strikingly handsome, full of laughter, restless and courageous to a fault, always eager for adventure on land or sea, he was one of the most attractive and romantic figures of his time. Jack London ascribed his literary success largely to hard work - to "dig," as he put it. He tried never to miss his early morning 1,000-word writing stint, and between 1900 and 1916 he completed over fifty books, including both fiction and non-fiction, hundreds of short stories, and numerous articles on a wide range of topics. Several of the books and many of the short stories are classics of their kind, well thought of in critical terms and still popular around the world. Today, almost countless editions of London's writings are available and some of them have been translated into as many as seventy different languages. In addition to his daily writing stint and his commitments as a lecturer, London also carried on voluminous correspondence (he received some 10,000 letters per year), read proofs of his work as it went to press, negotiated with his various agents and publishers,

I can only dream for so long, before they become nightmares

It was not like her to hide herself away, today she seemed more tortured, frightened. She was a ghost to herself, unable to surround herself with the illusions that conjured her putrid smile. In the corner she forever laid, like a silhouette of dreams protected, yet captured by the ambience of life itself. The intelligence of her once intrigued mind fell short with the constant shivers of things that once were. Do I seem myself; do I seem happy to others? Does my prolonged absence from the world affect the way people see me? I can't always be so positive, life has taught me that much. But I've tried for so long to see the good; to see the light that's suppose to forever shine upon me, yet it's so far beyond my reach, however much I try, my jealous being stops me entirely, tying me down, chaining me to the withering of existence that is me. I can only dream for so long, before they become nightmares. Nightmares I can't escape! Within her mind was always the agitated concept of doubt, yet however she placed it, she could not seem to dictate what effect it would have on her. Unwilling to except the hand of others, she struggled with the journey of living and the tragedy of knowing. To be someone that people noticed, was a dream she could only imagine through the echoing walls that held her from the person she aimed to be, yet as the darkness of the walls and the lights of the windows framed her vicious circle, she could only question the memories. Her mother was a kind, genuine creature, who always showed her that there was more to life, then just co-existing. But she could never see the beauty which her mother would talk about. Her father had left at an early age, leaving only a hole of bitterness and resentment in her unprotected heart that would always question her ability to live. She never thought of him as someone that loved her, but as someone who could not handle the concept of having a child. To think is to feel, and that's not a journey worth taking. Can searching for an answer too graphic to understand be a conflict, and can you reach for something surreal and pray that it's not an abstract illusion? If finding out the meaning of what once was, forces out the beauty from which it came, can I be judge of what I feel is right? So my father left me when I was young, and my mother blames herself for his disappearance, yet I feel compelled to still find him and ask those questions that haunted me for the last few years. So I play a game in my mind, a game that allows me to dictate the outcome, and that provides me with the acceptance of his cowardly soul. If I look through him, can I see what ambition he had? Can I tell his story through my eyes? Yet I've grown out of caring about his particular emotions, or the way his smile is. Time was never on her side, but it was a factor that she become used to. A timeless presence of doubt was always abundant, it clawed and ripped apart the person she once knew, choking and crushing the things that seemed awake in her. Her father was her source of doubt. Like a demon, holding her to him, getting tighter as she grew older, but She would always think about him and the day he left, but never for too long, there was a voice inside of her that protected her from the bellowing and shame of his once gentle voice that always seemed to settle her as she slept. The controllable aspects of her mind always vanished when she left her corner. She was obligated to stay there never to move, never to feel the way others did. Her mother thought she was doomed to a life on her own, a life that could only bring pain and destruction. Nothing was foreseeable in her darkened future, the lines were scratch out, living a complex life so full of confusion and sorrow. As the night settled in and the luminous light was but a figment of what once was, she dwelled in the opportunity of delusions and fiction. And as she swayed from side to side, holding her legs ever so tightly, the images of her youth seemed to pour out of her like a twisted play acted out by the misapprehension of others. To seem as normal as possible was always her goal, finding the fault in the memory of others and not herself, but that was a game too complicated for her to play out. The night was colder than usual more putrid, more harmful, its shivering wind was almost alive, playing with the restless and fearful. She could not move, she could not breathe, her reactions were slow, almost as if something was holding her down, and taking away the very essence that is her. I can't move, I can't feel, is it my time. The air is so cold, I can't seem to warm myself up. If I move I know I'll become insane, the melody of deformed creatures, is move vivid than usual. I am a ghost to myself, a plague which I've grown accustomed to. Can I play out the things that seem to be awake? an I change the meaning of words that I don't know and rehearse them till they become the knowledge that changes my situation? My mother has tried for so long to recreate the image I have made for myself. The image that I am now has scared her. She never looks at me the same anymore, her looks are more disgusted, more tortured and they seem to be on fire. I can feel her slipping away from me. The night is the only time I don't feel safe, I don't feel like me, it's cruel and mindless, possessing a nature of a different kind. If I run, how far will I reach before it swallows me, taking away all that I am, in the night I am a monster, a nightmare that would bring tears to all that saw me. In her mind she was the very reason of all the suffering and pain to others around her, she could only escape the nightmare if the sun was up, for its rays of purity and truth were the only reason she had not become the thing that seemed to corrupt her. She was the meaning which you could not find, the lonely hero that was only visible through the sun. It seemed that nothing would be able to release her from herself. A soul forever doomed.

Early Adulthood Cognitive Development

Cognition pertains to the acquisition, processing, transformation, storage, and retrieval of any information concerning the world (Louw, Van Ede, and Louw, 1998). This process affects every aspect of our personality. Cognitive processes such as perceiving, conceptualizing, reasoning, remembering, and contemplating are all necessary for us to solve everyday problems, to work and do the household chores properly, to arrive at a sound decision and perform other daily activities that make use of our minds (Louw, Van Ede, and Louw, 1998).Thus, the development of the cognitive attributes of every individual molds his or her future for cognition is the crucial factor in meeting the challenges of life (Louw, Van Ede, and Louw, 1998).According to Piaget, cognitive development is the product of the interaction of the individual with the environmental events (Louw, Van Ede, and Louw, 1998). The cognitive attributes of every individual is fundamentally shaped by the heredity.Heredity dictates ou r physical appearances and other biological and physiological characteristics (Louw, Van Ede, and Louw, 1998). In this connection, our genetic make up spontaneously manifests in our physical appearance and personality through maturation (Louw, Van Ede, and Louw, 1998).Even though we have different genes, human maturation is identical to all races. This means that differences in our physical appearance is dictated by our genes but all humans pass through, as a result of maturation, identical stages of development.Early AdulthoodEarly adulthood generally included individuals within the age-range of eighteen to forty years (Hewston, Fincham, and Foster, 2005). After adolescence stage, individuals have attained formal and abstract reasoning and capable of solving problems by considering all possible means (Hewston, Fincham, and Foster, 2005). In his theory of development, K. Warner Schaie described the transition between adolescence to adulthood stages as a cognitive change from acquisi tion of knowledge to knowledge application (Santrock, 2006).He proposed that cognitive changes occur in two distinct stages. In achieving stage, the individual applies intelligence in achieving long term goals like career development. The honing of cognitive skills for behavioral regulation leads to the acquisition of the sense of independence (Santrock, 2006). On the other hand, during the early to middle adulthood, the responsibility stage commences.The young adults in this stage start to establish and nurture their own career and recognize their social responsibility (Santrock, 2006). Also, during this stage, individuals form families, focus effort and attention on the needs of children and spouse (Santrock, 2006).Gisela Labouvie-Vief believed that young adults undergo thought synthesis and intensive changes on thinking (Santrock, 2006). The young adults tend to look for their proper place in the society and seldom use logic in problem solving. Due to strong cognitive attributes, logical skills do not suffer a slump in the adulthood (Santrock, 2006).Meanwhile, William Perry suggested the differences in the process of thinking between adolescents and young adults (Santrock, 2006). The view of the adolescents on the world is described as dualistic thinking wherein every object has its opposite like right or wrong and good or bad. As maturity takes it course, multiple thinking replaces dualistic thinking (Santrock, 2006).Then, young adults tend to recognize myriad opinion and ideals of community members which leads to realization that not every problem can be resolved by the authority (Santrock, 2006). As a result, young adults start to shape their own thinking style, recognize the possible equality of opinions among the populace, and form their own opinion.This process results to relative subordinate thinking where the knowledge assessment is practiced and one’s opinions are challenged by the other members of the community (Santrock, 2006). After the s ystematic evaluation of knowledge, full relativism arises which leads to the realization that knowledge is constructed, context-based, and nom-absolute; thus, one realizes that truth is relative (Santrock, 2006).Furthermore, Jan Sinnot viewed that cognitive attributes of every individual develops as pressured by real-life problems (Santrock, 2006). As the individual strive to solve the problems at hand, he or she considers different perspectives resulting to realization that knowledge is non-absolute (Santrock, 2006).Jean Piaget’s Formal OperationsThe fourth stage, Formal Operations, of Jean Piaget’s cognitive development corresponds to adolescent period of humans and extends to the adulthood (Elliot, Kratochwill, Cook, and Travers, 2000). This is the stage of decentralization where the individual learns to thinks objectively and considers every aspect of a problem.Although every adult develops the ability for formal operations, most may not reach the summit of formal operations; they continue to have a single-minded and ego-centered judgment (Elliot, Kratochwill, Cook, and Travers, 2000). Meanwhile, a decentrated individual has the capacity to rearrange and simplify information which in turn facilitates his or her understanding.The individual has the ability to conceive principles or scientific law applicable to observations, formulate hypotheses and design experiments for testing, and operate on operations (Elliot, Kratochwill, Cook, and Travers, 2000).In the stage of formal operations, individuals learn to perform formal operations by means of logical and abstract forms of thinking (Louw, Van Ede, and Louw, 1998). Individuals’ thoughts at this stage tend to shift form ideal to reality. In addition, adolescence at this period has developed hypothetico-deductive form of reasoning (Louw, Van Ede, and Louw, 1998).They already have the ability to gather data and investigate, formulate hypotheses, and deduce generalization from the results of investigation. Â  Further, the satisfactory completion of formal operations leads to continuous development of knowledge’s structure and the intellect. However, in the absence of the appropriate mental stimulus, it would be an arduous task for the individual to hurdle the stage of formal operations for the mental structures required were not attained (Hewston, Fincham, and Foster, 2005).Nevertheless, even the student s of the higher educational institutions and some professionals failed to reach the formal operations; they tend to be stagnant on the stage of concrete operations (Hewston, Fincham, and Foster, 2005). For those who will successfully attain the formal thought level, further development of mental capacity and completion of process of maturation spontaneously occur (Hewston, Fincham, and Foster, 2005).Information Processing Theory and CognitionThe information processing theory described the information processing of humans similar to computers. Perceived stimuli through our senses are encoded, transformed, and stored by our cognitive system (Louw, Van Ede, and Louw, 1998).Then, retrieval to stored data happens as the need arises. With respect to cognitive development, the information-processing theory emphasized the changes on the perceived information during the processing (Louw, Van Ede, and Louw, 1998). For instance, the capacity to perceive stimulus varies with age while the ability to apply the process of encoding also changes with age (Louw, Van Ede, and Louw, 1998).Research and CognitionIn 1975, Riegel postulated that our experiences serve as cognitive challenge which leads us to the discovery of opposite of dialectical forces in our immediate environment (Hewston, Fincham, and Foster, 2005). He suggested that by dealing with every dialectic force in our life, intellectual ability is enhanced.Based on research concerning postformal thought, development continuously progresses beyond Piaget’s formal operational stage (Hewston, Fincham, and Foster, 2005). In a study, participants were given complex tasks like political problems, personal relationship, and problems on the economy (Hewston, Fincham, and Foster, 2005). Then, they were asked to give their own views and its rationale.It was revealed that adults exhibited different levels of reasoning (Hewston, Fincham, and Foster, 2005). Similarly, according to Kramer, postformal individuals pass through absolutist, relativist, and dialectical cognitive levels (Hewston, Fincham, and Foster, 2005). Most young adults are absolutists; they are able to face problems and often believe that every problem has its own solution (Hewston, Fincham, and Foster, 2005).Relativists recognize variation on perspectives for a single issue and the rightful solution for the problem is always context-dependent (Hewston, Fincham, and Foster, 2005). In the dialectic phase, individuals tend to integrate and synthesize all possible views concerning the problem. According to Basseches, this level of reasoning can be observed among university students and professors in the higher educational institutions (Hewston, Fincham, and Foster, 2005).In line with this, the postformal operation stage comes into the scene when the individual has a thought-provoking environment between twenty to thirty years of age. The nature of work or profession of the individual triggers his or her knowledge on concrete operations for further development (Hewston, Fincham, and Foster, 2005).At about twenty years of age, the individual had undergone roughly two decades of changes in cognitive aspects (Fischer, Yan, and Stewart, 2003). The cognitive development beginning from the infancy stage has been becoming complex.Along with this, as revealed by researches in developmental psychology, individuals exhibit cognitive skills at different levels of cognitive development (Fischer, Yan, and Stewart, 2003). This means that the individuals at this point can apply both basic and a considerable cog nitive skills complexity in dealing with life problems.In addition, the concept of upper limit or the set of tasks beyond which the individual can not perform is not absolutely real for appropriate scaffolding or contextual support can facilitate the attainment of goals (Fischer, Yan, and Stewart, 2003). Instead, the absence of scaffold or tasks per se is the caused why certain skills won’t be observed in an individual (Fischer, Yan, and Stewart, 2003).Thus, the progress of cognitive development should be analyzed as a continuous process from infancy to the present state. In fact, the present cognitive skills honed by cognitive tasks are built upon the previous cognitive skills attained (Fischer, Yan, and Stewart, 2003).The theory of Dynamic skills described the context-based development and refinement of cognitive attributes. Cognitive tasks from infancy to the present state have been building and restructuring conceptual categories and concrete skills upon the minds of indi viduals (Fischer, Yan, and Stewart, 2003). Both adolescent and young adult restructure tasks from representation to abstractions.Also, the ladder of skills is not merely just a reflection of development, rather a yardstick onto which variation in cognitive tasks are assessed (Fischer, Yan, and Stewart, 2003). This permits for the comparison of every activity under optimal, scaffolded, or functional classification.AnalysisCognition is generally defined as set of metal activities involved in the encoding, perception, storing, and retrieval of information. It is described as a set of inter-related process that guides one’s contexts of action as well as emotion. The information processing theory holds that proper allocation of attention on a task or stimulus results to efficient perception.On the other hand, perception means recognition of stimuli; thus, successful perception entails efficient processing of information that becomes the basis of one’s volition. Meanwhile, t he cognitive faculties of the individual are primarily shaped by the cognitive tasks and scaffold or contextual support provided by his or her immediate environment.Thus, although every human has inborn capacity for cognitive advancement, environmental influences take precedence on the expression and further development of cognitive attributes. As a result, the age demarcation for any cognitive stage is just a rough estimation for some people may advance or lag far behind, on age basis, with respect to cognitive skills attainment.Moreover, even though Piaget’s theory was extremely attacked by criticisms, it provided insights on the development of cognitive skills from infancy to adolescence. On the other hand, Lev Vygotsky proved that through proper scaffolding, a child can accomplish a task higher than associated tasks under his or her classification in Piaget’s stages of cognitive development (Elliot, Kratochwill, Cook, and Travers, 2000).Hence, cognitive development is not made of distinct phases, but the development can proceed gradually. This means that a child at pre-operational stage by means of scaffolding can accomplish cognitive tasks under formal operations. Further, the respective theories of Schaie, Sinnot, Perry, Vief as well as of Riegel and Kramer, similarly recognized the crucial role of environmental support on the cognitive development of every individual.ReferencesElliot, S.N., Kratochwill, T.R., Cook, J.L., and Travers, J.F. (2000). Educational Psychology: Effective Teaching, Effective Learning, 3rd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.Fischer, K., Yan, Z., and Stewart, J. (2003). Handbook of Developmental Psychology. Valsiner, J. and Connolly, K.J. Eds. London: SAGE Publication.Hewston, M., Fincham, F.D., and Foster, J. (2005). Psychology. United Kingdom: BPS Blackwell.Louw, D.A., Ede, D.M., Louw, A.E. (1998). Human Development, 2nd ed. Cape Town, South Africa: Pearson Education.Santrock, J. W. (2006) Life-Span Development, 10th ed. Ne w York: McGraw-Hill.