Cognitive Psychology: this short article explains Cognitive Psychology in a practical way. Next to what it is, this article also highlights famous theories, an example and tips. Enjoy reading!
Cognitive Psychology: this short article explains Cognitive Psychology in a practical way. Next to what it is, this article also highlights famous theories, an example and tips. Enjoy reading!
Cognitive Psychology is about the study of mental processes such as thinking, perception, memory, language, problem solving and learning. It is a relatively young part of psychology, but has quickly become one of the most popular areas within the profession.
Learning how people think and how they process information not only identifies how the human brain works, but allows psychologists to discover new ways to help people cope with a variety of psychological problems. An example of a method used to explain memory is the Modal Model of Memory by Atkinson and Shiffrin.
The term cognition encompasses all processes by which sensory input is processed, stored, reduced, transformed and used. Given this comprehensive definition, it is acceptable that cognitive psychology is involved in everything a human does.
This type of Psychology has its origins in the 1960s. Its rise was the result of a change in the way behaviorism was perceived. In the 1920s to 1950s, scientists in this branch claimed that unobservable mental processes do not fall within the domain of empirical science. This idea was stepped away from when researchers from different fields and applied psychology used models of mental processing to explain human behavior. The founder of the domain is Jean Piaget, known for his work on the development of children. He elaborated on the work of other psychologists such as Max Wertheimer, who proposed the Gestalt theory in the early twentieth century.
Related to cognition are topics such as social identity theory, chunking, mindfulness, cognitive behavioral therapy, cognitive restructuring and breathing techniques.
Cognitive psychology involves the study of the mind and how people think. Examples of things studied in this field are attention span, memory, reasoning and other functions and actions of the brain that are seen as a complex mental process.
The concept of learning itself is also an example of cognition. This is about the way in which the brain makes connections while remembering what is learned. The ability to reason logically is an excellent example of cognition, problem solving and making judgments about information. Metacognition is about the knowledge and skills that enable someone to think about their own thinking. Metacognition is knowing about knowing and thinking about thinking.
What are the most popular methods and theories of cognitive psychology? How can I use this knowledge to train my own cognitive skills? How can these skills help me in the workplace? The articles related to cognitive psychology deal with the different methods and studies of human cognitive functions and behavior.