What is Cognition?

  Imagine all of your thoughts as if they were physical entities, swirling

rapidly inside your mind. How is it possible that the brain is able to
move from one thought to the next in an organized, orderly fashion?
The brain is endlessly perceiving, processing, planning, organizing, and
remembering—it is always active. Yet, you don’t notice most of your
brain’s activity as you move throughout your daily routine. The infinite
amount of sub-routines we organize every day to make up larger
behaviors such as driving, operating machinery, participating in sports
or even holding conversations (all relatively new behaviors in terms of
the evolution of a species) go unnoticed but together allow us to
navigate our environment safely and efficiently. There are facets to the
multitude of complex processes involved in human cognition and what
we understand about animal thought processes. Simply put, cognition
is thinking, and it encompasses the processes associated with
perception, knowledge, problem-solving, judgment, language, and
memory. Scientists who study cognition are searching for ways to
understand how we integrate, organize, and utilize our conscious
cognitive experiences without being aware of all of the unconscious
work that our brains are doing (for example, Kahneman, 2011).

COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY – A BRIEF

HISTORY

Although discussions and descriptions of thought processes date back

millennia to societies such as the ancient Greeks, Egyptians and Maya,
the formal scientific study of cognition is relatively new, growing out of
philosophical debates including Rene Descartes’ 16th century argument
suggesting humans are born with innate knowledge and the that the
mind and body reflect two different entities.  This theory was known as
substance dualism. From Descartes’ theories in the 16th century, major
debates formed on whether human thought is created solely through
the stimulation of our sense organs (empiricism) or whether we are
born with innate knowledge which allows us to form language and
maintain conscious experience (nativism). philosophers such as George
Berkeley, an Irish bishop who denied the existence of material
substance, suggesting instead that the objects we interact with are only
ideas in the minds of the perceivers, and John Locke, an English
philosopher who founded the study of theory of mind which lead to
modern conceptions of identity and the self.

This research eventually lead to Claude Shannon’s developments in

information theory in 1948, which described the quantification,
storage, and communication of information. Developments in
computer science soon led to parallels between human thought
processes and computer information processing.  Newell and Simon’s
development of artificial intelligence (AI) described both advanced
capabilities in computing and descriptive models of cognitive processes

Noam Chompsky argued against B.F. Skinner’s views that language is

learned through reinforcement, suggesting that Skinner ignored the
human creativity found in linguistics. Soon after, the first Cognitive
Psychology textbook was published in 1967 by Ulrich Neisser.  Neisser
was influenced by Gestalt psychologists, Wolfgang Kohler and Hans
Wallach, as well as MIT computer scientist Oliver Selfridge. 
Neisser’s definition of the new term “cognition” illustrates the then
progressive concept of cognitive processes as:
“all processes by which the sensory input is transformed,
reduced, elaborated, stored, recovered, and used. It is
concerned with these processes even when they operate in the
absence of relevant stimulation, as in images and
hallucinations. . . Given such a sweeping definition, it is
apparent that cognition is involved in everything a human being
might possibly do; that every psychological phenomenon is a
cognitive phenomenon. But although cognitive psychology is
concerned with all human activity rather than some fraction of
it, the concern is from a particular point of view. Other
viewpoints are equally legitimate and necessary. Dynamic
psychology, which begins with motives rather than with
sensory input, is a case in point. Instead of asking how a man’s
actions and experiences result from what he saw, remembered,
or believed, the dynamic psychologist asks how they follow
from the subject’s goals, needs, or instincts.” ( Neisser’s 1967
publication of  Cognitive Psychology)

Consciousness
consciousness, a psychological condition defined by the English
philosopher John Locke as

“the perception of what passes in a man’s own mind.”

In the early 19th century the concept was variously considered. Some
philosophers regarded it as a kind of substance, or “mental stuff,”
quite different from the material substance of the physical world.
Others thought of it as an attribute characterized by sensation and
voluntary movement, which separated animals and men from lower
forms of life and also described the difference between the normal
waking state of animals and men and their condition when asleep, in
a coma, or under anesthesia (the latter condition was described as
unconsciousness).

The method employed by most early writers in observing

consciousness was introspection

The failure of introspection to reveal consistent laws led to the

rejection of all mental states as proper subjects of scientific study. In
behaviourist psychology, derived primarily from work of the American
psychologist John B. Watson in the early 1900s, the concept of
consciousness was irrelevant to the objective investigation of human
behaviour and was doctrinally ignored in research.

That consciousness depends on the function of the brain has been

known from ancient times. Although detailed understanding of the
neural mechanisms of consciousness has not been achieved,
correlations between states of consciousness and functions of the
brain are possible. Levels of consciousness in terms of levels of
alertness or responsiveness are correlated with patterns of electrical
activity of the brain (brain waves) recorded by an
electroencephalograph. During wide-awake consciousness the pattern
of brain waves consists of rapid irregular waves of low amplitude or
voltage. In contrast, during sleep, when consciousness can be said to
be minimal, the brain waves are much slower and of greater
amplitude, often coming in periodic bursts of slow waxing and waning
amplitude.

Learning
learning, the alteration of behaviour as a result of individual
experience. When an organism can perceive and change its behaviour,
it is said to learn.
Types of learning

discrimination learning (where a subject learns to

respond to a limited range of sensory characteristics, such
as a particular shade of coloration)

 habituation (the cessation of responses to repeated

stimulation),

 concept formation (the process of sorting experiences

according to related features)

problem solving, perceptual learning (the effects

of past experience on sensory perceptions), and 

psychomotor learning (the development of

neuromuscular patterns in response to sensory signals). 

Association, conditioning, imitation, insight,
and imprinting represent other types of learning.

. There were represented in the works of Edwin R. Guthrie, Clark

L. Hull, and Edward C. Tolman. Guthrie reasoned that responses
(not perceptions or mental states) were the central building blocks
of learning. Hull argued that “habit strength,” a result of practiced
stimulus-response (S-R) activities promoted by reward, was the
essential aspect of learning, which he viewed as a gradual process.
Tolman portrayed learning as a process that derives from
behaviour. Many of these themes remain vital to contemporary
research.
. Associative learning, the ability of an animal to connect a
previously irrelevant stimulus with a particular response, occurs
mainly through the process of conditioning, in
which reinforcement crystallizes new behaviour patterns. The
earliest well-known conditioning experiment was performed by
19th-century Russian physiologist Ivan Petrovich Pavlov, who
conditioned dogs to salivate to the sound of bells.

S-R theories failed to account for many learned phenomena,

however, and seemed overly reductive because they ignored a
subject’s inner activities.

Another current theme is that of reinforcement, which accounts

for the finding that a subject’s performance will improve when his
or her aGestalt psychologists, for instance, believe that the key
learning processes involve a restructuring of relationships in the
environment, not simply an associative experience with them.

 Psycholinguists (those who study the psychological aspects

of language ability) argue that language learning involves too
many words and combinations to be satisfactorily explained by
association theoryctivities are rewarded.

CONCEPTS AND PROTOTYPES

   The human nervous system is capable of handling endless
streams of information, as emphasized in the sensation and
perception chapter. The senses serve as the interface between the
mind and the external environment, receiving stimuli and
translating it into nervous impulses that are transmitted to the
brain. The brain then processes this information and uses the
relevant pieces, which are held in working memory, later
expressed through language, or stored in memory for future use.
To make this process more complex, the brain does not gather
information from external environments only. When thoughts
are formed, the brain pulls information from emotions and
memories  Emotion and memory are powerful influences on both our
thoughts and behaviors.

 In order to organize this staggering amount of information, the brain has
developed a file cabinet of sorts in the mind. The different files stored in
the file cabinet are called concepts. Concepts are categories or
groupings of linguistic information, images, ideas, or memories, such as
life experiences. Concepts are, in many ways, big ideas that are
generated by observing details, and categorizing and combining these
details into cognitive structures. You use concepts to see the
relationships among the different elements of your experiences and to
keep the information in your mind organized and accessible.

Concepts can be complex and abstract, like justice, or more concrete, like
types of birds.

HIERARCHIES OF CONCEPTS
Concepts can be understood by considering how they can be organized
into hierarchies. At the top are superordinate concepts. This is the broadest category
which encompasses all the objects belonging to a concept. The subordinate concept of
“furniture” covers everything from couches to nightstands. If we were to narrow our
focus to include only couches, we are considering the midlevel or basic level of the
hierarchy. This is still a fairly broad category, but not quite as broad as the
superordinate concept of furniture. The midlevel category is what we use most often
in everyday life to identify objects. Sub-ordinate concepts are even narrower, referring
to specific types. To continue with our example, this would include loveseat, a La-Z-
Boy, or sectional.
Another technique used by your brain to organize information is the identification
of prototypes for the concepts you have developed. A prototype is the best example or
representation of a concept. For example, for the category of civil disobedience, your
prototype could be Rosa Parks. Her peaceful resistance to segregation on a city bus in
Montgomery, Alabama, is a recognizable example of civil disobedience

NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL CONCEPTS

    In psychology, concepts can be divided into two categories, natural and artificial.

Natural concepts - are created “naturally” through your experiences and can be
developed from either direct or indirect experiences. Natural concepts can range
from mundane things such as knowing how to put on pants to what a
mountain looks like. This type of knowledge is also how an individual can be
trained to perform highly complex tasks (like flying a plane or driving a car).
Because of this ability humans are able to learn and use an amazing array of
skills without having to constantly be consulting instructions.

  artificial concept- is a concept that is defined by a specific set of

characteristics. Various properties of geometric shapes, like squares and triangles,
serve as useful examples of artificial concepts. A triangle always has three angles and
three sides. A square always has four equal sides and four right angles. Mathematical
formulas, like the equation for area (length × width) are artificial concepts defined by
specific sets of characteristics that are always the same. Artificial concepts can
enhance the understanding of a topic by building on one another. For example, before
learning the concept of “area of a square” (and the formula to find it), you must
understand what a square is. Once the concept of “area of a square” is understood, an
understanding of area for other geometric shapes can be built upon the original
understanding of area.

SCHEMATA
A schema is a mental construct consisting of a cluster or collection of related concepts
(Bartlett, 1932). There are many different types of schemata, and they all have one
thing in common: schemata are a method of organizing information that allows the
brain to work more efficiently. When a schema is activated, the brain makes
immediate assumptions about the person or object being observed.
There are several types of schemata. A role schema makes assumptions about how
individuals in certain roles will behave (Callero, 1994). For example, imagine you
meet someone who introduces himself as a firefighter. When this happens, your brain
automatically activates the “firefighter schema” and begins making assumptions that
this person is brave, selfless, and community-oriented. Despite not knowing this
person, already you have unknowingly made judgments about him. Schemata also
help you fill in gaps in the information you receive from the world around you. While
schemata allow for more efficient information processing, there can be problems with
schemata, regardless of whether they are accurate.

An event schema, also known as a cognitive script, is a set of behaviors that can feel
like a routine.  Because event schemata are automatic, they can be difficult to change.

Imagine you driving and you hear your phone’s ring tone. Typically, the event schema
that occurs when you hear your phone ringing involves locating the phone and
answering it or responding to your latest text message. So without thinking, you reach
for your phone, which could be in your pocket, in your bag, or on the passenger seat
of the car. This powerful event schema is informed by your pattern of behavior and
the pleasurable stimulation that a phone call or text message gives your brain. Because
it is a schema, it is extremely challenging for us to stop reaching for the phone, even
though we know that we endanger our own lives and the lives of others while we do it
(Neyfakh, 2013).