Cognition, Consciousness, and Language Notes

Cognition, Consciousness, and Language

Introduction

• We often take our brain for granted, despite its rapid encoding, storage, and retrieval of information via electrical and chemical impulses.
• Most brain processes occur without conscious thought.
• Example: Grocery store trip involves taking in information, making conscious decisions, daydreaming, and attending to stimuli, all while the brain handles tremendous processing.
• Simultaneous conscious thinking, daydreaming, and decision-making is a key aspect of being human.
• These functions are largely controlled by the frontal lobe, which is disproportionately large in Homo sapiens sapiens.
• The frontal lobe enables delayed gratification and controls language production for transmitting ideas.
• It also coordinates thinking by determining which stimuli deserve attention.
• These functions are indispensable to daily functioning.

Cognition

• Cognition is the study of how our brains process and react to information overload.
• Cognition is not unique to humans, but we are the most advanced in complex thought.
• The frontal lobe is disproportionately large in humans, as evidenced by skull shapes accommodating this enlarged lobe.

Information Processing Model

• In the 1950s, computer science influenced psychology.
• Computers require encoding, storage, and retrieval of information.
• Psychologists applied this model to the human brain, theorizing:
  • The brain encodes information into chemical and electrical signals.
  • The brain stores information for later retrieval.
  • The brain retrieves information when needed.
• The manner of encoding, storing, and retrieving information is debated.
• Pavio's Dual Coding Theory:
  • Both verbal association and visual images are used to process and store information.
  • Example: The word "dad" and a picture of dad can both recall the same information.
  • Coding information in two ways builds redundancy and increases the chance of retrieval.
• The human brain is not just a computer; it handles emotions, sensations, and memories.
• Encoding, storage, and retrieval are often influenced by context and emotion.
• Four key components of the information processing model:
  1. Thinking requires sensation, encoding, and storage of stimuli.
  2. Stimuli must be analyzed by the brain for decision-making.
  3. Decisions can be extrapolated and adjusted to solve new problems (situational modification).
  4. Problem-solving depends on cognitive level, context, and complexity.

Cognitive Development

• Cognitive development is the development of the ability to think and solve problems across the lifespan.
• Early cognitive development in childhood is limited by brain maturation.
• It includes learning control of one's body and interacting with the environment.
• Early development focuses on mastering the physical environment before progressing to abstract thinking.
• Social skills also develop throughout life.
• The development of abstract thinking relies on increases in working memory and mental capacities.

Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development

• Jean Piaget was a key figure in developmental psychology.
• Piaget's model proposes qualitative differences between children's and adults' thinking, divided into four stages:
  • Sensorimotor
  • Preoperational
  • Concrete operational
  • Formal operational
• Passage through these stages is continuous and sequential.

Learning According to Piaget

• Infants learn through instinctual interaction with the environment (e.g., grasping reflex).
• Schema (Schemata): Organized patterns of behavior and thought, including concepts, behaviors, or sequences of events.
• New information is processed via adaptation, with two complementary processes:
  • Assimilation: Classifying new information into existing schemata.
  • Accommodation: Modifying existing schemata to encompass new information.

Sensorimotor Stage

• From birth to about two years of age.
• Children learn to manipulate the environment to meet physical needs and coordinate sensory input with motor actions.
• Infants exhibit circular reactions:
  • Primary circular reactions: Repetitions of body movements that originally occurred by chance (e.g., sucking thumb).
  • Secondary circular reactions: Manipulation is focused on something outside the body (e.g., throwing toys).
• Object permanence: Understanding that objects continue to exist even when out of view. This understanding marks the end of the sensorimotor stage.
• Object permanence marks the beginning of representational thought, in which the child creates mental representations of external objects and events.

Preoperational Stage

• From about two to seven years of age.
• Characterized by symbolic thinking and egocentrism.
  • Symbolic thinking: The ability to pretend, play, make believe, and have an imagination.
  • Egocentrism: Inability to imagine what another person may think or feel.
• Inability to grasp the concept of conservation: The understanding that a physical amount remains the same, even with changes in shape or appearance.
• Centration: The tendency to focus on only one aspect of a phenomenon while ignoring other important elements.

Concrete Operational Stage

• From about seven to 11 years of age.
• Children understand conservation and can consider the perspectives of others, resulting in the loss of egocentrism.
• They can engage in logical thought when working with concrete objects or information directly available.
• They have not yet developed the ability to think abstractly.

Formal Operational Stage

• Starts around 11 years of age.
• Marked by the ability to think logically about abstract ideas.
• Adolescents can reason about abstract concepts and problem-solve.
• Piaget's pendulum experiment illustrates the difference between concrete and formal operations.
  • Children in the concrete operational stage manipulated variables at random and distorted data.
  • Adolescents systematically varied one variable at a time to determine that only the length of the string affects the frequency.
• Hypothetical reasoning: The ability to mentally manipulate variables, important in scientific experiments.

Role of Culture in Cognitive Development

• Cognitive development is related to culture, which determines what one is expected to learn.
• Some cultures value social learning, while others value knowledge.
• Culture influences the rate of cognitive development.
• Lev Vygotsky proposed that a child's internalization of culture drives cognitive development.
• Skills develop further with help from adults or other children.

Cognitive Changes in Late Adulthood

• Aging brings about changes in cognition.
• Reaction time increases, while time-based prospective memory declines.
• IQ changes are misleading.
• Intelligence is separated into two subtypes:
  • Fluid intelligence: Solving new problems using creative methods.
  • Crystallized intelligence: Solving problems using acquired knowledge.
• Fluid intelligence peaks in early adulthood and declines with age, while crystallized intelligence peaks in middle adulthood and remains stable.
• Decline in intellectual abilities is linked to the ability to function in activities of daily living (eating, bathing, toileting, dressing, and ambulation).
• Higher education, intellectual activities, and socializing are protective against intellectual decline.
• Dementia: A general loss of cognitive function characterized by impaired memory, judgment, and confusion.
• The most common cause of dementia is Alzheimer's disease, along with vascular multi-infarct dementia.
• People with dementia often require full-time supportive care, causing stress on families.

Heredity, Environment, and Biologic Factors

• Cognition can be affected by various conditions, including organic brain disorders, genetic and chromosomal conditions, metabolic derangements, and long-term drug use.
• The environment can affect cognitive development.
• Parenting styles influence cognitive development.
• Genetics can predispose to difficulties in cognitive development (e.g., Down syndrome, Fragile X syndrome).
• Antisocial personality disorder has a strong genetic component.
• Intellectual disabilities can be caused by chemical exposures, illness, injury, or trauma during birth.
• Alcohol use during pregnancy can cause fetal alcohol syndrome.
• Infections in the brain and complications during birth can affect cognition.
• Trauma to the brain can cause cognitive decline.
• Delirium: Rapid fluctuation in cognitive function that is reversible and caused by medical issues (e.g., electrolyte imbalances, malnutrition, low blood sugar, infection, drug reaction, alcohol withdrawal, pain).