Cognitive
psychology encompasses various psychological processes such as attention,
memory, sensation, perception, language use, intelligence, emotions, thinking,
visualization, neuroscience, and other processes.
Cognitive
psychology contains many theories, methods, and principles that are used in the
analysis and interpretation of mental phenomena in humans.
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| What is sensation, perception and attention in psychology? |
Cognitive
Psychology: Sensation, Perception, and Attention - The Secret Reality of Mind
Introduction:
Ancient and modern scholars have been associated with man's mental
and intellectual activities practiced by various life situations such as
thinking, attention, perception, cognition, remembering and many others.
It is worth mentioning that the separation of psychology from
philosophical sciences in the modern era led to the expansion of the areas of
focus and research in human knowledge and mechanism.
To show the knowledge of science within the psychological aspects,
modern scholars are interested in studying the mechanism of mental processes at
all levels, and ways of promoting mental health, methods of recruitment and
selection
Researchers are interested in how to benefit from these principles
and laws and how to encourage cognitive development in middle childhood, as
well as methods of processing information during the individual's processes of
remembering, perception, thinking, problem-solving, and others.
What is Cognitive psychology?
Cognitive
psychology talks about how humans acquire information about the surrounding
world in a scientific way, and how to transform this knowledge into
representative knowledge that can be exploited and used to change their lives
and evaluate their behavior.
Cognitive
psychology encompasses various psychological processes such as neuroscience,
attention, memory, sensation, perception, intelligence, emotions, thinking,
visualization, and other processes that are related to the human mind, the
nature of its thinking, and thus its intellectual development.
The
cognitive scientists are interested in a wide range of psychological concepts
that help answer the following questions: how do people know, how they
remember, and how they acquire knowledge?
Ulric
Neisser defined cognitive psychology as all methods and processes carried out
by the human to transfer information and sensory inputs and then processed by
interpretation and conversion and shortening, and the latest storage to be
recovered later and used when needed.
This
definition shows the mechanism of cognitive psychology, which performs all
human mental processes, which are performed when the human receives
information, processing, storing, retrieving, and using it in the process of
directing human activity.
Stephen Reed
defined cognitive psychology as the science that is called the science of
information processing.
Studies and
research conducted in cognitive science have reflected great development.
The most
prominent studies of cognitive psychology, whose applications have spread and
emerged in different sciences, which have clearly emerged in academic and
psychological sciences.
The contents
of these sciences are the curricula and methods of teaching, and special
education, mental health, individual differences, and others.
Cognitive Psychology Research Areas
Cognitive
psychology contains many theories, methods, and principles that are used in the
analysis and interpretation of mental phenomena in humans.
These
theories were derived from twelve areas that are the main areas of scientific
research.
Perception
Perception
is one of the most important topics of psychology because it is concerned with
the detection of sensory stimuli in humans and thus their interpretation and
statement.
Brain Science
There is
cooperation between cognitive psychologists in their studies and
neuroscientists; each of them needs the other to interpret some observations of
their results.
Pattern recognition
Human life
and its events and processes are only a set of integrated sensory environmental
stimuli, forming a single, consistent pattern, although humans consider
different events.
Memory
Memory is a
set of human mental processes, in which external information is acquired,
retained, and used for the future.
Many human
functions require two mental processes that work together to perform these
functions: memory and Perception.
When a
person receives new information and conducts a dialogue, he keeps the
information for a short period of time that is called temporary memory or
short-term memory.
The
information is then transferred to permanent memory which is called long-term
memory.
Knowledge Representation
Each person
receives what is in the surrounding environment in a special way that makes him
different from others.
The total
correspondence in the representation process does not occur in individuals, there
is, however, some degree of similarity in the representation of some of the
vocabulary of the environment, which helps man to live with others.
Imagination or Visualization
A
visualization is a form of cognitive representation, where man has some mental
images and cognitive maps of things he encounters in his life, such as
landscapes, streets, buildings, places, events, and through these images and
maps he has the ability to call the features and events serialized in a
particular format and arrangement, and then he converts them to words and
sentences used if he wants to describe them to someone else.
The language Use
Language is
one of the most important things in cognitive psychology. It consists of
actions, names, letters, syllables, and sounds.
When a
person speaks and is in contact with others, he needs to use his own dictionary
that is stored.
This process
may be accompanied by some of the motor or physical reactions so that the
information to be explained and communicated to the recipient in one way.
Problem Solving
Many people
are exposed to many problems in their lives, which require finding the right
solution for them.
The
mechanism used by man to solve the problem that he has encountered is what we
call the mental process, which a person does in order to arrive at a solution
that was not clear to him.
This
requires a person to take certain actions, to be used, and to get the person to
what he wants.
Sensation in Cognitive Psychology
Perhaps you
know since primary school that we have five senses: vision, hearing, taste,
smell, touch.
The idea of
the five senses turned out to be exaggerated.
We also,
have sensitive systems that provide information about equilibrium, position,
and movement of the body, pain, and temperature.
A sensation
is the first step in a chain of biochemical and neurological events ranging
from the energetic stimulus of a sensory organ to perception.
Although the
classification of sensations varies according to cultural context and
physiology, the sensory systems of the human being are described in biology according
to three categories:
Exteroception:
It includes vision, hearing, olfaction, general somesthesia, and taste.
Proprioception:
This is the sensation of muscular tension, position and movement, balance and
displacement.
Interoception:
It is vegetative somesthesia and unconscious sensory modalities.
There are
some specialized neurons in the brain known as sensory receptors that respond
to specific types of stimuli.
A sensation
occurs when sensory information is detected by a sensory receptor.
For example,
the light which enters the eye causes a chemical change in the cells, which is
the line behind the eye.
These cells
relay messages to the central nervous system, in the form of work capacity
and action potentials.
Perception as Cognitive and Mental Processes
The process
by which people transform sensory impressions into a consistent and integrated
approach to the world around them.
Although
essentially based on unverified and incomplete information, for most
practical purposes, perception is similar to reality and guides human behavior
in general.
There are
many different definitions of the perceptual process in general:
Perception
is a process of the psychological processes through which the individual
recognizes and reaches the meanings of individuals, objects and different
stimuli, and understanding their implications, by organizing sensory stimuli
and interpreting them and formulating them in independent units with their own
meanings.
The comprehensive definition of perception is given as it is a mental process,
which helps man to know his external world, and to reach the meanings and
connotations of things, by organizing sensory stimuli, to interpret and
formulate them in faculties of meaning.
The
following points illustrate the meaning and characteristics of perception:
Perception
is defined as the total set of responses to sensory stimuli produced by
different external stimuli, which the individual receives through sensory
nerves in sensory organs.
The perceptual
process is the result of stimulation of sensory organs, through external
stimuli, to interpret external sensations through perceived experiences, ie,
the interpretation and realization of sensory impressions are based on
experiences and knowledge previously stored in memory.
It can be
said that the process of perception is a highly complex sensory-emotional
process; it interferes with feeling, processes of remembering, imagination,
attention, awareness, and language.
Some
perceptual processes may include the recognition of material objects by their
names and most essential functions and may include the different meanings and
forms of relationships that govern certain physical stimuli.
Attention in Cognitive Psychology
Attention is
the process of focusing the feeling on something exciting whether it is
emotional or moral. It is the primary determinant of behavior.
Attention is
defined as an innate tendency inherited by the owner to recognize and focus on
subjects of a particular category.
Attention as Part of Cognitive Development
We are in
contact with more sensory stimulation at a time, that we can fully handle.
Without attention, we will not be able to scrutinize everything to address what
we must and ignore what is irrelevant.
There are different
types of sensory impressions that compete with each other for your attention.
Attention
helps us to maintain perception, sensation, thinking, and behavior despite
the distraction.
There are
different types of attention in cognitive psychology; each of them is dependent
on different brain mechanisms and for a different purpose.
Attention or
meditation can be divided into three main categories: Selection, Vigilance, and
Control.
There are
many theories about different types of attention techniques.
Conclusion
Cognition is
the realization of concepts, beliefs, facts, and general meanings, such as the
concepts of life and logic.
Cognition is
one of the most distinguishing features of human beings from other living
beings.
Cognition is
the work of mind and brain, which is responsible for the formation of abstract
general concepts and far from physical sensibilities.
The cognitive process is a mental process based on the development and extraction
of the total abstract meanings of imaginary images that are produced mainly from
the process of sensory perception and sensory images.