preview

Cognitive Psychology : Psychology And Psychology Essay

Better Essays

Cognitive Psychology Smith (2001) defines psychology as the study of the mind. One major subset within the broad study of psychology is popularly known as cognitive psychology. According to Aukrust (2011), cognitive psychology is a branch of psychology that deals with the study of mental processes which includes how people or individuals think, perceive, learn and remember. As a part of the larger cognitive science field, this psychology branch is by means related to other disciplines such as neuroscience, linguistics and philosophy. Processes included in cognition are judging, thinking, remembering, knowing and problem solving. Cognitive psychology began emerging in the 1950’s. As highlighted by Kraiger and Salas (1993), this was partially as a response to behaviorism. Critics noted that behaviorism failed to explain how some internal development processes impacted behavior. Cognitive psychology focuses on how individuals acquire process and in the long run store information. Currently, cognitive psychology concentrates on few key human characteristics which include: Perception The foremost human characteristic is the ability to comprehend or perceive. Perception is a vital feature since it is the process by which an individual interprets his immediate environment as well as situations, changes, and interactions within it. Aukrust (2011) states that perception involves the physical sense such as smell, sight, hearing, touch taste, and cognitive processes which are

Get Access