The word “cognition” refers to the mental processes of the
brain associated with thinking, knowing, and remembering
The core focus of cognitive psychology is on how people
acquire, process and store information.
, which focuses only on observable
behaviors, cognitive psychology is concerned with internal
mental states.
, which relies heavily on subjective
perceptions, cognitive psychology uses scientific research
methods to study mental processes.
The cognitive approach began to revolutionize psychology in
the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, to become the dominant
approach (i.e. perspective) in psychology by the late 1970s.
But it was the arrival of the computer that gave cognitive
psychology the terminology and metaphor it needed to
investigate the human mind.
The start of the use of computers allowed psychologists
to try to understand the complexities of human cognition
by comparing it with something simpler and better
understood i.e. an artificial system such as a computer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeoyzqmyWug
In order to understand the mind – both conscious and
unconscious thought – one has to understand the brain and
how it works.
Visual Processing
Problem solving & planning
Behavioral control
Transfers new memories
from short to long term
Spatial orientation
Language & speech
Memory
Motor movement
Phineas P. Gage (1823–1860) was an
American railroad construction foreman
remembered for his improbable survival
of an accident in which a large iron rod
was driven completely through his head,
destroying much of his brain's
left frontal lobe … and for that injury's
reported effects on his personality and
behavior over the remaining twelve
years of his life effects so profound
that (for a time at least) friends saw him
as "no longer Gage."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6kRP41ygrI
The frontal lobe and it’s parts are also responsible for the
way we perceive things.
In 1953, an anonymous patient by the name of HM
underwent one of the most drastic and educational
surgeries that neuroscientists and psychologists had
ever seen. The surgery was performed in an attempt to
cure his epilepsy. Doctor Scoville removed a section of
HM's brain encompassing the hippocampus.
HM lost the ability to form new memories. He would
have a conversation with someone new … and moments
after meeting, would be quite unaware that the
conversation had taken place.
He became suspended in time on that surgical day.