...What is Cognitive Psychology? Donyelle Best PSY/360 Cognitive Psychology Luvenia Jackson September 4, 2014 What is Cognitive Psychology? The word cognitive refers to the mental processes involved in gaining knowledge and comprehension. These mental processes include the acts of thinking, knowing, remembering, reasoning, judging, learning, perceiving, speaking, believing, speaking, decision making and problem solving. These are more complex functions of the brain and include language, imagination, perception and planning. It uses scientific research methods in studying the mental processes. In other words, cognitive psychology is a scientific approach to studying the mind. The main focus of cognitive psychology is on how an individual acquires, processes, and stores information, and it studies how individuals view and comprehend the world around him or her. Cognitive psychology also focuses on trying to identify behavior through characteristics other than its obvious properties (Willingham, 2007). Cognitive psychology rose to the top due to top in response to the flaws in other methods of studying the mind. Key Milestones in the Development of Cognitive Psychology Cognitive psychology developed primarily from the inability of the behaviorist approach to fully explain every form of behavior. While there were many things that drove its development, there were four...
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...Social psychology is the scientific field that seeks to understand the nature and causes of the individual behavior and thought in social situation. Social psychology investigates the ways in which our thoughts, feelings, and actions are influenced by the social environments in which we live. Social interactions help to shape who we are and how we act in different situations. The factors affecting social interaction fall into five major categories. They are the actions and characteristics of others, basic cognitive processes, ecological variables, cultural context and biological factors. The Cognitive processes such as perception, memory and inferences play a key role on the understanding and behavior of every individual in the society. Reactions to certain situations by an individual strongly depend on the memories of others past behaviors and the inferences an individual formed about these behaviors. If anybody wants to clearly understand the causes of others behavior in a social situation it is a must that one should understand what went on in the thinking pattern and understanding process of those people when they behaved in a particular social situation. For example, if your friend sets an appointment with you in a particular time. You are waiting for him at a particular point in a particular time, if he comes late what would be your reaction. In such a situation, cognitive process plays a crucial role in the social behavior and social thoughts of every individual....
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...Social psychology is the scientific field that seeks to understand the nature and causes of the individual behavior and thought in social situation. Social psychology investigates the ways in which our thoughts, feelings, and actions are influenced by the social environments in which we live. Social interactions help to shape who we are and how we act in different situations. The factors affecting social interaction fall into five major categories. They are the actions and characteristics of others, basic cognitive processes, ecological variables, cultural context and biological factors. The Cognitive processes such as perception, memory and inferences play a key role on the understanding and behavior of every individual in the society. Reactions to certain situations by an individual strongly depend on the memories of others past behaviors and the inferences an individual formed about these behaviors. If anybody wants to clearly understand the causes of others behavior in a social situation it is a must that one should understand what went on in the thinking pattern and understanding process of those people when they behaved in a particular social situation. For example, if your friend sets an appointment with you in a particular time. You are waiting for him at a particular point in a particular time, if he comes late what would be your reaction. In such a situation, cognitive process plays a crucial role in the social behavior and social thoughts of every individual...
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...Cognitive Psychology Psych 560 May 20, 2013 Prof. Pitt Cognitive Psychology The brain is one of the major faculties that provide sense to human life. The numerous and various abilities of the human brain are truly amazing. However, although it is a common thought that man may think extraordinarily, human emotions have great influence to how human beings think, and use his brains. It is the reason why any activity facilitated or performed by the brain is called a mental processes or cognition. Cognition refers to the process that involves mental or cognitive ability such as in learning, comprehension, judging, thinking, problem-solving, remembering and recalling (Kendra, 2011). Neisser (2009) defined cognition as the “act of knowing, and cognitive psychology is the study of all human activities related to knowledge”. (Page 1) Cognitive psychology is a part of the larger field of cognitive science and is related to various disciplines in psychology such as neuroscience, linguistics, and philosophy. The main thrust of cognitive psychology is how the people acquire, store and process information. Compared with other dominant approaches in psychology for example, the behaviorism approach which is concerned with the observable behaviors, the cognitive approach focuses on internal mental states. Unlike psychoanalysis which is focused on subjective perceptions, the cognitive psychology...
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...Cognitive psychology Psy/360 April 13, 2012 Cognitive psychology Cognitive psychology is the area of psychology that evaluates the "mental processes including how people think, perceive, and even learn. (Van Wagner, 2009)." Cognitive Psychology is a psychological perspective that addresses mental processes such as thinking, problem solving, perceiving, remembering, believing, and speaking, and seeks to identify behavior by characteristics other than its obvious properties” ("Cognitive psychology," 2009). Cognitive psychology is often compared to behaviorism because of the sharp contrast of the perspectives (Willingham, 2007) Cognitive psychology is used the most when someone is evaluating patients for different types of mental disorders and diseases. The principles that have evolved from the founding of cognitive psychology from the early times starting from the Greek philosophers to modern day psychologist it has greatly affect how people around the world think about the psychological processes of the human mind. Greek philosophers were the first people to start looking into the human mind and how it works. Plato and some of the other early Greek philosophers started creating the foundation for what would be known as today as cognitive psychology (Anderson, 2005). Plato's principles of rationalism described how reality should be viewed, stating that "reality resides not in the concrete objects we perceive but in the abstract forms that these objects represent...
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...Cognitive Psychology Definition ZabrynSamar Data 360 September 24, 2012 Terry Hancock Cognitive Psychology Definition What is cognitive psychology? Why is it important? Cognitive psychology is the branch of psychology that studies the mind and how a person perceives things (Willingham, 2007). It also deals with how a person acquires, utilizes, organizes, and retrieves information (Halpern, n.d.) and studies recollection, decision making, problem identification and solving, critical thinking, and logic. It is important as it aids in knowing how a person perceives things and allows one to make changes in one's behavior. It is interesting to know that cognitive psychology was not the first scientific approach to studying the mind, but that is came about in response to defects in other systems (Willingham, 2007). This paper will describe the milestones that were important in the development of cognitive psychology and.. Key Milestones in Cognitive Psychology Cognitive science is the interdisciplinary of embracing philosophy, psychology, linguistics, and artificial intelligence (Thagard, 2012). These are key milestones in the field that would be cognitive science. Its intellectual origins are in the mid 1950's when researchers in several fields began to develop theories of mind based on complex representations and computational procedures (Thagard, 2012). In the beginning, it was the Greek philosophers like Plato who created the foundation of cognitive psychology...
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...Cognitive Psychology Definition Paper Gregory Finch PSY/360 Axia College/University of Phoenix Cognitive Psychology Definition Paper Because of a prominent contrast, behaviorism and cognitive psychology are often compared. Cognitive psychology focuses on determining understandable explanations of the human mental processes, whereas behaviorism does not address the concerns of mental processes. The main objective of cognitive psychology is to explain the human transformation of thoughts into manifistations by a cognitive process. As behaviorism was being questioned and at the end of popular opinion, cognitive psychology, with the assistance of the application of abstract concepts, neuroscience, and new technology sprung into existence. With a scientific approach of the psyche, cognitive psychology has allowed new applications in the treatment of human dysfunction and disease. It is the intension of this paper to discuss the importance of behavioral observation in cognitive psychology while identifying a minimum of four prominent milestones in the development of the discipline of cognitive psychology. Cognitive Psychology Defined According to Merriam-Webster, by definition, cognitive psychology is “a branch of psychology concerned with mental processes (as...
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...Cognitive psychology today has a huge influential role in determining how people think and how we learn. Cognitive psychology has been in existence since about the 1600’s. There are many interesting milestones in the development of cognitive psychology throughout the years. In the following paper I will discuss some of these milestones as well as discuss the importance of behavioral observation in cognitive psychology. According to Kendra Cherry (2012) “Cognitive psychology is the branch of psychology that studies mental processes including how people think, perceive, remember and learn”. Cognitive psychology dwells heavily in how people acquire, process and store information. This branch of psychology has several forms of treatment, which help to improve memory, decision making accuracy as well as enhancing learning (Cherry, 2012). Plato and other early Greek philosophers were created the foundation for what would be known as cognitive psychology (Anderson, 2005). Plato's principles of rationalism described how reality should be viewed. Plato states that reality is not in the concrete objects we perceive but in abstract forms that the objects represent (University of Arizona, 2008). Plato also believed that logical analysis is how knowledge is found. Aristotle had the same thought process with his belief that reality lies only in the concrete world of objects that our body can sense (University of Arizona, 2008)." Aristotle also believed that knowledge could be obtained...
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...Cognitive Psychology Definition Paper PSY/360 July 21, 20xx xxxx Cognitive Psychology Definition Paper Defining Cognitive Psychology Cognitive psychology focuses on the way human’s process information, looking at how we treat information that comes in to the person, better known as stimuli, and how this treatment leads to responses (McLeod, 2007). Cognitive psychologists study internal processes including perception, attention, language, memory and thinking. In ancient Greece, cognitive psychology created the need to understand how the mind works and what processes are involved in learning. Philosophers and early psychologists studied the mind, however the ancient Greeks knew little about the human mind and the mental process. Cognitive psychology is the field of psychology that emphasizes the study of mental processes (Galotti, 2014). These processes include thinking, language, problem solving, knowing, reasoning, judging and decision making. Cognitive psychology concluded that humans were not pushed or pulled by environmental factors. Cognitive psychology also studied how people view and understand the world. Subjects wanted to describe the patterns and irregularities during the operation of his or her mind. There were several key milestones in the development of cognitive psychology. Key Milestones in the Development of Cognitive Psychology Developmental milestones began in ancient Greek times have set a precedent in today’s views of cognitive psychology...
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...The Theoretical Perspective of the Cognitive Personality Approach Brett Abstract What I as an author am trying to do in this essay is to grab my audiences attention and explain and appeal to them about the theoretical perspective of the Cognitive Personality approach. I provided historical statements, theories, and research to make each individual aspect of the perspective as clear as possible. This essay will consist of the Theoretical perspective of the approach, Theorists who have contributed to this approach, Compare and contrast two theorists perspectives within this approach, Identify and describe measurement and assessment instruments, and Clinical application of the approach. If you believe the saying 'Perception is everything,' then you may well be a cognitivist. Cognitive theory is focused on the individual's thoughts as the determinate of his or her emotions and behaviors and therefore personality (Dasen). Many cognitive theorists believe that without these thought processes, we could have no emotions and no behavior and would therefore not function. In other words, thoughts always come before any feeling and before any action. The theoretical perspective of the Cognitive approach of personality can be simply described as what personality does, but is much more complex than that. Cognitive Psychology revolves around the notion that if we want to know what makes people tick then we need to understand the internal processes of their mind (Dasen). Cognition...
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...Cognitive psychology is a scientific subset of psychology that studies mental processes including thinking, memory, perception and learning. This discipline focuses on cognition and acquiring information. Cognitive psychology studies how an individual distinguishes, learns and retains information; thinks, rationalizes and responds. Cognitive psychology, according to the text, focuses on how a person feels on the inside. (Willingham, 2007). 1.2 Identify key milestones in the development of cognitive psychology as a discipline. Cognitive psychology developed as a deeper analysis of mental processes associated with behavioral psychology (behaviorism). The development of cognitive psychology is largely attributed to Aaron Beck and Albert Ellis. Its development includes several milestones and key approaches which make cognitive psychology one of the most important disciplines of psychology. The basic foundation of cognitive psychology is Alderian psychology. The evolution of cognitive psychology is evident in several main approaches which are presently influential: Ellis’s “Rationale Emotive Therapy” Beck’s works in cognitive therapy Computational cognitive approach Cognitive neuropsychology 1.3 Discuss the importance of behavioral observation in cognitive psychology. Observation must be made in order to understand and explain behavior. Cognition, in the mental and inner sense, can only be measured by observing behavior patterns; inner states are not visible. 1.4 Explain...
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...Cognitive Psychology Definition Paper Gina S Washington Psychology 360 May 28, 2014 Keisha Pou Cognitive Psychology Definition Paper Cognitive Psychology According to psychologist, cognitive psychology is associated with behaviorism due to the shrill differences of the perspectives (Willingham, 2007). While behaviorism neglects to deal with mental processes, cognitive psychology target to create a logical description of these processes typical to humanity. Opposed to other perspectives in psychology, cognitive psychology has a reputation founded in the scientific and experimentation technique (Willlingham, 2007). The key goal is clarify how humans convert ideas into actions and thoughts by the composite and frequent peculiar process of cognition (Eyesnck, 2004, Willingham, 2007). The human psyche nature is addressed through nature and observation through cognitive psychology while using abstracts to produce observable behavior and nature causing a further understanding of these processes (Willingham, 2007). Through the fall of behaviorism and by the help of technology, neuroscience and the application of concept abstract is when psychology essentially came to life (Willingham, 2007). The cognitive methodology has infused contemporary psychology by way of scientific interpretation of the convoluted human psyche, also the opportunity to infuse this knowledge in treatments of dysfunction and human disease (Eyseneck, 2004). Cognitive Psychology Defined Cognitive...
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...Cognitive Psychology Definition Paper PSY/340 Cognitive Psychology Dr. 07/14/2014 The cognition process study is an integral part of getting familiar with the human nature. Considering the topic of human nature, the most interesting thing to discover is the way people behave themselves, what is ascribed to the study of behavioral psychology. Nevertheless, the way people behave is fully dependent upon what people learn, what do they read, which information they process, and how does it take place. A human's behavior in different situations is just as set of theoretical and practical knowledge received in the process of cognition. All the questions regarding this topic are put under deep scrutiny by the branch of psychology, which is called the cognitive psychology. This kind of psychological studies is one of the most important, as it examines and researches not only what and who we are, but how do we acquire the features we possess. The 18th century was a harsh time for the development of psychology in the role of a scientific discipline. Towards the end of the 19th century psychology was dominated by an approach known as introspectionism. The basis of introspectionism was to study mental processes via a method of subjective self-examination. (Parkin, 2000, p. 1) In the middle of the 20th century, three general movements arose to inspire and shape a cognitive psychology. First of all, after the introduction...
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...Defining Cognitive Psychology: Merriam Webmaster dictionary defines Cognitive Psychology as “a branch of psychology concerned with mental processes (as perception, thinking, learning, and memory) especially with respect to the internal events occurring between sensory stimulation and the overt expression of behaviour.” Simply put, cognitive psychology is the scientific study of the mind and it revolves around the notion that if we want to know what makes people tick then we need to understand the internal processes of their mind. The need to study cognitive psychology: Cognitive psychology assumes that behaviour is the result of information processing. By describing thinking as information processing, cognitive psychologists are making a comparison between minds and computers (i.e. they are adopting a computer metaphor for the mind). This is useful because minds and computers have some attractive similarities: both have inputs, outputs, memory stores and a limited capacity for how much information they can process at any one time. Just as a computer’s behaviour is determined by what information it is given and how it has been programmed, so a person’s behaviour is determined by (1) the information available in their environment; (2) the ways they have learned to manipulate (process) information; and (3) the capacities for information processing inherent in the types of brain people have. In short, it is important to study cognitive psychology to gain an...
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...Defining Cognitive Psychology Cognitive Psychology, by definition, is a branch of psychological science that claims the study of mental processes including how people think, perception, remembering, and learning (Dowd & Arnold, 2010). The core of cognitive psychology revolves around many other branches while its inner core is based on how people acquire, store, and process information (Dowd & Arnold, 2010). The most common applications of cognitive psychology are to help improve memory as well as how to increase decision processes, and how to structure or enhance learning (Dowd & Arnold, 2010). Historically, between 1950 and 1970, behaviorism was psychologies most dominant school of thought (Dowd & Arnold, 2010). When studies began to shift the focus onto attention, problem solving, and memory, it became known as the cognitive revolution which then generated masses of research studies which included processing models (Dowd & Arnold, 2010). While behaviorism focused mainly on observable behavior, internal mental state was the main concern of cognitive research (Dowd & Arnold, 2010). Cognitive research also surpassed psychoanalysis in that it relied solely on the scientific method while psychoanalysis used subjective perceptions (Dowd & Arnold, 2010). Major contributors of the cognitive school of thought include Wilhelm Wundt, William James, and Edward B.Titchener (Dowd & Arnold, 2010). While these founders helped establish what we know today...
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