Cognitive psychology . Essay

“Cognitive Psychology revolves around the notion that if we need to know what makes people tick; then figure out which processes are going on in their minds. Psychologist theorized, from this study, that cognition is a mental act or process by which information exists, (McLeod, 2012)".

Cognitive psychology is a branch of psychology which focuses on the brain and how we think, Cognitive psychologists believe that our thought processes explain behaviour and make these assumptions by looking at our perception, language, attention and memory. (Jarvis,M,2005). One of the main assumptions is that cognitive psychologists often use a computer to explain how we think and behave. Based on this computer analogy, cognitive psychology is interested in the way the brain inputs, stores and outputs information and how behaviour can be influenced by the way we deal with information. (Sammons, A, n.d) However an important criticism directed at the cognitive approach is that it often ignores the way in which other factors such as biological and environmental explain how we process information. (cognitive psychology, n.d)

Smith (2001) defines psychology as the study of the mind. One major subset within the broad study of psychology is popularly known as cognitive psychology. According to Aukrust (2011), cognitive psychology is a branch of psychology that deals with the study of mental processes which includes how people or individuals think, perceive, learn and remember. As a part of the larger cognitive science field, this psychology branch is by means related to other disciplines such as neuroscience, linguistics and philosophy. Processes included in cognition are judging, thinking, remembering, knowing and problem solving.

In this essay I am going to explore two of the major approaches to Psychology, Cognitive theories and Behaviourist theories. I will discuss in some detail the two approaches, state how they compare and illustrate the similarities and the differences between them. John Watson, one of the founders of Behaviourism, based his theories on the principles of learning outlined by Pavlov who suggested the theory known as Classical Conditioning; he trained dogs to salivate whenever he rang a bell. Dogs have a natural reflex response to salivate when they see food, Pavlov rang a bell when the dogs were given food and after several repetitions of this action, the dogs began to salivate whenever they heard the bell, even when there was not

In other words, cognitive psychology refers to the study of human mental processes and their role in thinking, feeling and behaving (Bernstein, 2013). According to Jones (2004), the cognitive approach was developed from the basis of Wundt and Titcher’s (1927) theory of structuralism.

Cognitive psychology is the study of how we think. It studies how we learn, forget, memorize, and make decisions. Cognitive psychology studies how an individuals mind works and why they choose to do what they choose. Why they chose to go left instead of right or why they chose option A verses option B. Because of the nature v nurture theory therapists or psychologists try to understand why a person chooses to do what they do. Is it because of this branch in psychology that helps us understand the individuals mind more in depth.

Cognitive psychology is primarily concerned with the study of subjective internal mental states. However, the subjective nature of cognitive activities such as thinking, memory, learning, perception, and language make it difficult to directly and empirically test these mental processes. Cognitive psychology therefore relies on a fundamental assumption of reductionism, where the dynamic and convoluted cognitive processes mentioned above are reduced to manageable and pre-agreed hypothetical constructs which can be operationalized, and thus empirically measured to highlight relationships between specific variables. Yes, many

The changes in how different psychological processes were identified and understood in the 1950s and 1960s is what many refer to as the “cognitive revolution.” The introduction of research in problems that have already been met - for instance, studying problems of memory and decision making - led to the new approach of theorizing. The cognitive revolution focused on just a couple of key concepts. One idea that stemmed during the cognitive revolution is that the science of psychology cannot direct study the mental world. Another idea that grew during the cognitive revolution was that in order to understand behavior, the science of psychology has to study the mental world (Cognition, pg. 8).

Cognition refers to the process in which people are able to acquire and comprehend various forms of knowledge through their thoughts, experiences and use of their sensory systems. This process of cognition is in itself takes various processes. It must be said as early as now that the ultimate result of cognition processes is to result in one learning. The cognitive processes are started by one having to pay attention. This

Cognitive psychology studies the mental processes that permit humans to perceive, remember, learn, and think. Cognitive psychology is subsumed under the broad field of cognitive science, which includes disciplines such as linguistics, philosophy, and neuroscience. (Allport, 1985). Cognitive psychologists study human memory, attention, perception, intelligence, problem-solving, decision-making, judgment, and language acquisition (Cherry, 2011). Among these several topics, the emphasis of cognitive psychology is human acquisition and processing of information, and the human mind's ability to store and apply of information (Cherry, 2011). Cognitive psychology as a discipline arose in the period of time between 1950 and 1970 more or less as a result of scientific dissatisfaction with behavioral psychology as a complete discipline (Allport, 1985). Moving away from a behavioralist approach which concerned itself with overt behaviors rather than the processes that produced those behaviors scientists began to develop cognitive processing models and research methods to study cognition (Neisser, 1967). Early childhood cognitive psychology is most closely associated with Piaget and Vygotsky.

As the circuit board of a computer, data streams through the channels of the mind at lightning-fast speed. However, what happens when you lose this essential function? Once lost, a person could immediately understand the absolute need for it. The need to understand how information is stored and recalled was thought not so widely followed through until the concept of cognitive psychology came along. Cognitive Psychology is broadly known as the study to understand the deep complexity of processing and recalling information which can determine our behaviors and feelings. There are three main focuses which contribute to the study of cognitive psychology. The first is a memory which can be looked at as the storage of information, both immediately and stored throughout a given length of time. Of course, a well-working memory can help or hinder someone which causes it to be studied in cognitive psychology frequently. The second area focused on this particular system is perception. Perception plays a vital role in how we as individuals view and interpret the environment around us, and combine with the values and beliefs on why we are interpreting this information in a particular way. Learning is the last of the three areas and most exciting when an individual develops the idea or path to adapt to what is being presented change direction. (Careers In Psychology, n.d.)

Cognitive psychology is the segment of psychology that explores internal mental processes such as visual processing, memory, problem solving, and language. Cognitive psychology also focuses on information processing and the method of how people store, manipulate and use information (Barsalou, 2005). With an emphasis on thought processes, cognitive psychology also explores and discusses thinking and knowledge acquisition as conceptual terms. Well known contributors to the fields, such as Jean Piaget, are especially concerned with the development of cognition and formed stage theories to explain

1). Cognitive research is often labeled in literature as thinking, reasoning, perceiving, problem-solving, critical thinking, conflict resolution, moral reasoning, decision-making, perception and abstraction (p. 2). Cognitive-based strategies are considered therapeutic rather than educational.

Cognitive psychology is a pure science based mainly on laboratory experiments and began to revolutionize psychology in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s and became the dominant approach in psychology by the late 1970’s [ (McLeod, 2007) ] according to Saul McLeod. An example of the cognitive perspective would be when one learns to take blood pressure. First you must learn how to manipulate the blood pressure manometer, learn how to hear blood pressure sounds and understand the meaning of the sounds. As each time you practice these activity, you will gain more confidence and competence in performing the task. The strong point of this perspective is that it mostly uses rigorous scientific methods and the approach has had many practical applications. The weakness of this perspective is that it is to simplistic. It ignores the complexity of the human function, biological influences of the human function and it ignores the emotions, conscious experience and free will.

The Cognition refers to the unique set of an individual 's mental processes and abilities that are related to various things. These include general memory, attention, judgment, evaluation, problem solving, production of language,