Cognitive Processes

Attention 🤓

Meaning of Attention

Some of the definitions of attention are as follows :

1. According to Guildford, "attention is the process of focusing on one or few objects, persons or situations from among many from the field of awareness".

2. According to Norman Munn, "attention is the mental process of bringing few stimuli into the center of awareness out of many stimuli present."

Aspects of Attention

Span of attention

Span of attention can be described as the total number of stimuli that we can become clearly aware of in a single glance. Our span of attention is very limited. For a normal adult the span of attention varies between 7 to 8 digits or alphabets.

Distraction of attention

After focusing on a specific stimulus, attention drifts towards another stimulus due to some external or internal disturbances. This is known as the distraction of attention. Many external factors such as intensity, size, movement etc. of stimuli, may distract attention.

Division of Attention

In a true sense, individual cannot divide attention to two tasks simultaneously.

Fluctuation of Attention

Attention keeps oscillating like the pendulum of the clock.

We cannot pay attention to a single stimulus for a long period of time.

Our attention shifts towards other stimulus for a fraction of time and comes back to the original stimulus.

This is known as fluctuation of attention. The factors like fatigue, low interest, attractiveness of other stimulus, etc. may lead to fluctuation of attention.

Perception 🤯

Meaning and definition of perception

“The process of assigning meaning to the information received about the environment based on the past experiences."

Phenomena associated with perception

Top down and bottom up processing

Top-down processing : If we pay attention to each of our senses all the time, our senses would be overwhelmed. Therefore, many times our brain uses the context or general knowledge while perceiving a particular stimulus. This process is called as a top-down processing. When we utilize top-down processing, our ability to understand information is influenced by the context in which it appears.

Bottom-up processing : Many times our perceptual experience is based entirely on the sensory stimuli and is not influenced by any context in which it appears. In such situations we take in energy from the environment and convert it to neural signals (sensation) and then try to interpret it (perception). This process is called as bottom-up processing. Bottom-up processing is a process that starts with an incoming stimulus and works upwards until a representation of the object is formed in our brain.

Law of perceptual organization

German psychologist Max Wertheimer in 1923

1. Law of proximity : According to this law of perceptual organization, the stimuli that are near to each other are perceived together than stimulus that are far away from each other.

2. Law of similarity: According to this law of perceptual organization, the stimuli that are similar to each other are perceived together than stimuli that are distinct from each other.

3. Law of continuity : According to this law of perceptual organization, there is a tendency to perceive a stimulus in continuation according to its established direction. According to this law, when two stimuli intersect, the continuation of each stimulus is perceived apparently.

4. Law of closure : According to this law of perceptual organization, there is a tendency to perceive an incomplete stimulus in a complete manner. Our brain fills up the gaps in incomplete stimulus and we perceive it as a meaningful figure

Thinking 🤔

Definition and core elements of thinking:

"Thinking is the mental activity that uses various cognitive elements and processes that involves manipulation of information, problem solving, reasoning as well as decision making."

Mental representation : Mental representation is “the mental imagery of a thing that is not currently physically available to the senses.” Mental representation is a coded internal sensation. Internal representations are acquired through direct experiences through sense organs or through indirect experiences such as narrations, pictures, videos, etc. Internal representations form the basis for all the cognitive processes.

Concept : Concept is "an internal representation which the brain uses to denote a certain classes of things in the world". The concepts involve extraction of some ‘idea’ on the basis of similarities and differences among many sensations. Concepts form the basis for all the cognitive processes. Various concepts act as building blocks by connecting with each other to form more complex concepts like schema.

Schema : A schema is “an internal representation that organizes knowledge about related concepts and relationships among them". Schemata influence most of the cognitive processes.

Language : Language is a system of symbols. Mental representations, concepts and schemata are all better represented by language.

Types of thinking 🧠

Problem Solving :

Problem solving refers to the process of finding solutions to problems encountered in life.

Problem solving includes the following steps .

Defining the problem : In this step a person needs to identify and define the problem correctly. If a person defines the problem incorrectly, he will never reach the solution.

Generating alternative solutions : For every problem there are various solutions, some effective while some may turn out to be ineffective. In this second step of problem solving a person tries to search for all those possible actions that can solve a problem.

Selecting a solution : In this third step of problem solving, out of many possible solutions, the person selects one on the basis of the reasoning applied. Reasoning ability of an individual helps him/her to solve problems more realistically.

Implementing and follow up on the solution: In the last step of problem solving a person actually tries out a certain solution and evaluates the outcome on the basis of whether it has helped him/her to resolve the problem or not.

Creative thinking:

Creative thinking seems to be having following four sequential stages

1. Preparation

2. Incubation

3. Illumination

4. Verification

Learning 🧐

Meaning and definition of learning

1.Any temporary change in the behaviour is not considered as learning.

2. Learning involves relatively permanent change in the behaviour.

3. Learning may take place because of practice.

4. Learning may take place because of experience.

• Learning can be defined as “a relatively permanent change in the behaviour that occurs due to experience or practice.

Processes of learning

1.Learning by Classical Conditioning

Learning by Classical Conditioning was explained for the first time by a Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov (1928) through his experiment on a dog

2.Learning by Operant Conditioning :

Learning by an Operant Conditioning was explained by an American psychologist Burrhus Frederic Skinner. He performed an experiment in which a rat was put in a special box that contained a lever.

3.Learning by Cognitive Processes :

Edward Tolman demonstrated that though rats in his experiment were not given any food, they still learnt about the different pathways in the maze.

4.Learning by assimilation and accomodation :

Jean Piaget explained that we learn many things by assimilation and accommodation. Jean Piaget is of the opinion that on the basis of the new experiences or new information we keep refining the existing concepts that we have.

5.Learning by observation :

According to Bandura, we learn many things by observing someone's behaviour and later reproducing it. Many of our skills like eating, walking, writing, etc. are learnt by observing others.