Cognitive psychology: representatives and main ideas

Psychology is one of the youngest sciences, which is not always given due attention. However, it is simply impossible not to notice its rapid development in recent years. But scientists still do not consider it a unified science, because today it has many directions that put forward their own theories of the organization and perception of mental reality by man. This prevents representatives of different directions from sharing knowledge and enriching each other with it.

Cognitive psychology (representatives of this movement are actively working on its development, developing methodology) is the direction that interests the scientific world more than others. And this is not at all surprising, because it reveals a person as a thinking being and constantly analyzing his activities. This is the basis of all cognitive behavioral psychology, which originated in the middle of the last century and is still in the stage of active development. From the article, readers will have the opportunity to become better acquainted with this relatively new trend in science. And also learn about the main representatives of cognitive psychology, its provisions and tasks.

General characteristics of the new direction

Cognitive psychology (representatives of this direction have done a lot to popularize it and set the main tasks) currently occupies a fairly large section in psychology as a science. The very name of this movement is derived from the Latin word meaning “knowledge.” After all, it is the one most often referred to by representatives of cognitive psychology.

The conclusions that were drawn by this scientific movement later became widely used in other disciplines. First of all, of course, psychological. They are regularly addressed by social psychology, educational psychology and psycholinguistics.

The main difference between this direction and others is the consideration of the human psyche as a certain set of patterns formed in the process of understanding the world. Followers and representatives of cognitive psychology, unlike their predecessors, pay great attention to cognitive processes. After all, they provide the necessary experience and the opportunity to analyze the situation in order to make the right decision. In the future, the same algorithm of actions will be used in similar situations. However, under changing conditions, he will also change. That is, human behavior is determined not so much by the inclinations and influences of the external environment inherent in it, but by mental processes and abilities.

Cognitive psychology and its representatives (U. Neisser, for example) believe that all knowledge acquired by a person during life is transformed into certain schemes. They are stored in specific memory cells and retrieved from there when necessary. We can say that all the activity of an individual occurs within this framework. But we cannot assume that they are static. Cognitive activity occurs constantly, which means that new schemes regularly appear and old ones are updated. Representatives of cognitive psychology do not consider attention as something separate. It is studied in the totality of all cognitive processes, such as thinking, memory, perception, and so on.

Cognitive therapy: applied work with thoughts and behavior.

In the 60s, American psychiatry professor Aaron Beck published a monograph in which he described a fundamentally new direction, based on experience different from the approach of traditional schools. Before this, representatives of classical psychiatry, psychoanalysis and behavioral therapy defended the claim that the root cause of a patient's psychological problems was outside his consciousness. Cognitive psychotherapy finds the beginning of a client’s psycho-emotional problems precisely in his mind.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy combined the knowledge of behaviorists and psychoanalytic methods into the general concept that, despite the pressure of psychological trauma, a person is able to change his behavior for the better. And all the problems are explained by the tendency to make incorrect conclusions , premises and assumptions that distort real information about the event. By understanding how a person perceives and processes information, one can understand the causes of specific psychological problems.

Take a personality type test

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT):

• Gives the expected effect in 5-7 sessions and saves the annual budget for visiting a psychotherapist.
• Works with specific client requests: stress, anxiety, depression, phobic symptoms, eating disorders, difficulties in relationships, communication.
• Shows greater effectiveness than drug treatment when dealing with obsessive-compulsive psychosis.
• Provides a reserve for the future: helps change behavior, become more flexible in the perception of others and ourselves.
• It is recognized as the most proven approach from a scientific and practical point of view.
• The only type of psychotherapy covered by health insurance in the EU. And in some countries it has the status of a state program.
• Used in clinical practice, psychological counseling, pedagogy, work with personnel, and criminology.
• Suitable for clients who are determined to solve a problem, as well as those who are accustomed to actively overcoming difficulties, are able to analyze the mistakes of the past, control the present, and make realistic forecasts for the future.

CBT is not the only global method; it does not deny or replace other therapeutic approaches. Rather, it effectively combines successful techniques from other methods, using different techniques for each disorder.

History of the scientific direction

We can say that cognitive psychology owes its emergence to American scientists. It was they who showed serious interest in human consciousness in the forties of the last century.

Over time, this interest has generated a large number of research papers, experiments and new terms. Gradually, the concept of cognition is firmly established in psychology. It begins to act as a determinant not only of human consciousness, but also of almost all of its actions. Of course, this was not yet cognitive psychology. Neisser laid the foundation for serious research in this direction, which later began to overlap with the work of other scientists. They also placed first place a person’s knowledge about himself and the world around him, which allows him to create new behavioral patterns and acquire certain skills.

It is interesting that initially this direction was difficult to consider homogeneous. This trend has continued to this day, because cognitive psychology is not a single school. Rather, it can be described as a wide range of tasks united by a common terminology and study methodology. With their help, certain psychological phenomena are described and explained.

Cognitive is... What is cognitive science, cognitive?

The word “cognitive” comes from the noun “cognition” and the Latin cognitio “to know.” It is used in a number of complex scientific terms, one way or another related to the human capacity for cognition. What is the meaning of the word "cognitive" in itself and what do the associated terms mean?

Cognitive science, cognitome and cognitive ethology

The human brain is the main area of ​​study of the science of knowledge, cognitive science. With a focused study of the brain, some of its capabilities were identified, called cognitive. These are the highest functions of the brain, thanks to which a person is considered an individual: a coherent, consistent and logical flow of thoughts, awareness of oneself as an individual, spatial orientation, the ability to calculate, understand, speak, reason, draw conclusions and direct learning.

To clearly define the totality of cognitive skills of the human brain, Konstantin Vladimirovich Anokhin (a recognized Russian neuroscientist) coined the term “cognitome”. The concept of cognition calls the problem of the brain interdisciplinary: biomedical, technological and existential.

Rapidly deteriorating memory and attention are the main signs of decreased brain function. We can say that this is cognitive “death” for the neurons of the brain, during which dementia almost always inexorably develops.

This can be facilitated by constant stress, unhealthy diet, unhealthy lifestyle and tension (nervous or physical).

Man differs from animals in the cognitive functions of his brain. Researchers have often wondered what the cognitive process means for fauna. Cognitive ethology studies the mental perception of animals to answer this question. Until recently, there was frequent debate around this discipline.

Cognitive process and cognition

The cognitive process is an action during which the human consciousness processes and filters information coming from outside. Also, the cognitive processes taking place in the human brain include the sifting and assimilation of relevant data, which is vaguely comparable to the work of modern computers.

The paradigm of cognitive experience consists of types of information encoding, conceptual mental, as well as archetypal and semantic (semantic) structures. Cognitive linguistics uses, as models and constructors, those paradigms and processes that are created and take place in the consciousness and subconscious of a person.

In turn, cognition is the very special process through which our brain successfully processes information. Outside of this science, the terms “cognition” and “cognition” are used as complete synonyms.

Cognitive graphics

In graphics, a technique called cognitive is all that artificial intelligence uses in speech recognition systems. The cognitive advantage of a computer over the brain is a hint or instant solution to a problem obtained using cognitive graphics.

Cognitive psychology

Another young field of science is cognitive psychology. Epistemological (cognitive) processes of the human psyche in this branch of the general concept of cognitive science are areas of the brain inextricably linked with issues of memorization and concentration, feelings, logic and coherence of thinking, presentation of information, and its assimilation.

Although the basic principles of cognitive psychology were laid down long before the advent of cybernetics and any complex computing and information machines, at the current stage of development it is almost entirely based on the parallel between human learning and the transfer of information into computing devices.

Psycholinguistics as a branch of cognitive psychology

Language, reason and mind, their relationship and the resulting operations are the area that is studied by current psycholinguistics.

The solid foundation on which it stands is cognitive psychology. Its conclusions are also useful in other areas of psychology.

Psycholinguistics, as a field of linguistics, describes speech messages, the extraction of their meaning, speech activity (both in isolation from mental functions and in close connection with them), and analysis of the progress of speech associated with the formation of personality.

Cognitive psychology: main representatives

Many consider this branch of psychology to be unique, because it practically does not have a founder who inspired others. We can say that different scientists created scientific works united by a single idea at approximately the same time. Later they became the basis for a new direction.

Therefore, among the representatives of cognitivism, it is necessary to highlight several names who made a serious contribution to the development of this movement. For example, George Miller and Jerome Bruner organized a specialized scientific center fifty-seven years ago, which began studying problems and setting tasks in a new direction. These include memory, thinking, language and other cognitive processes.

Seven years after the start of the research, U. Neisser published a book in which he spoke in detail about the new direction in psychology and gave its theoretical justification.

Simon also made a major contribution to cognitive psychology in the middle of the last century. Its representatives, I would like to note, often began their research completely by accident. They were led to cognitivism by their interest in certain aspects of human consciousness. This is exactly what happened to Herbert Simon. He worked on creating a theory of management decisions. He was very interested in decision-making processes and organizational behavior. Despite the fact that his scientific work was aimed at supporting the scientific theory of management, it is also very actively used by representatives of cognitive psychology.

[edit] The essence of the method

While psychologists were tinkering with mosk devices, nerds from Britain and America invented computers with computer science. And the nerds decided that this was good. And the nerds set out to measure their strength with G-d himself, creating artificial intelligence.

But then there was an ambush, because as soon as they started, the nerds cried out: “How will we create artificial intelligence if we don’t even know anything about our own intelligence, bida-bida!”

The nerds tried to ask psychologists for advice, but as soon as they looked at the bullshit described above, they lost heart. This would have been the end of the fairy tale, but suddenly one of the nerds came up with what turned out to be a bright thought: “What will happen if the Mosk has to be compared with a computer?”

The nerds sat down with their notebooks and, wow, the picture began to clear up. Let's assume that the brain is an information system. Therefore, it consists of:

• input signals
• permanent memory
• random access memory
• signal conversion algorithms
• and finally the output signals.

Example: you, anonymous, saw a beautiful girl (input signal). A recording of how you jerked off with Sasha Gray was loaded from the permanent memory into the operational memory, and the thought (signal conversion) comes to your mind: “I would fuck her.” But then suddenly (or rather not suddenly, but according to an algorithm, or otherwise a cognitive scheme) another record is loaded from memory - like in the first grade a girl tripped you up. And now you think: “She won’t give it to me,” while making a thinking error (cognitive distortion) of the form: “A general conclusion from a single case.” And then comes the exit signal: you go to the school toilet and jerk off. And in the next booth, your classmate is fucking that same girl, because he has different cognitive patterns in his head. Haha, sucker.

And then, remembering their wonderful school years, the nerds saw that the idea worked and that was good. This, or something like this, is how cognitive psychology began. Catchers of human souls immediately appreciated its advantages:

• Firstly, this approach is understandable to any redneck coder, or to anyone whose computer skills are at least at the level of “emergency computer assistance.” Although no, it will still be a minus.
• First, the subject is consistent with the scientific method ( Newton Issac
  , circa 1666
  ). He has a system-forming theory. It can be measured objectively - by imagining a person as a black box (but with a known general structure) and through this determining what is going on in the skull between stimulus and reflex. Damn, it can even be classified as an exact (and not humanitarian) science, because a person is like an electronic device!

In general, the cognitive approach affected everyone interested so much that its emergence was later called the “cognitive revolution.” Because he introduced a whole new paradigm of what a person is and how he should be studied/changed.

[edit] What is “cognitive”?

The important thing about all this cognitive farming is that it is not simply the study of human thinking. Cognitive psychology is a view of a person in which he is an information system that processes useful information into garbage (or vice versa). And all functions of the psyche are considered in this direction precisely as various information processors. Thus, CP studies thinking, imagination, attention, perception, memory, emotions, and in general everything that is in the human head - but exactly what from the point of view of information processing by all this hard and software. You can read more here.

Key Ideas

In order to more accurately imagine what is included in the sphere of interests of this movement in psychology, it is necessary to outline its main ideas:

• Cognitive processes. These traditionally include thinking, memory, speech, imagination, and so on. In addition, cognitive psychology also considers the emotional sphere of personality development, because without it it is impossible to create behavioral patterns. Intelligence also takes part in this process, and cognitivism takes great interest in the study of artificial intelligence.
• Studying cognitive processes from a computational perspective. Psychologists draw parallels between human cognitive processes and modern computers. The fact is that an electronic device collects, processes, analyzes and stores information in almost the same way as the human psyche.
• The third idea is the theory of staged information processing. Each person works with the received data in several stages, most of this process occurs unconsciously.
• Determining the capacity of the human psyche. Scientists believe that it has a certain limit. It’s just not clear at the moment what it depends on and how much it varies among people. Therefore, psychologists are trying to find mechanisms that will in the future make it possible to most effectively process and store incoming information.
• The fifth idea is to encode all processed data. Cognitive psychology broadcasts the theory that any information receives a special code in the human psyche and is sent for storage to a specific cell.
• One of the ideas of the new direction in psychology is the need to conduct research only using chronometric means. In cognitivism, the time that a person spends searching for a solution to any given problem is considered important.

The ideas listed above seem very simple only at first glance; in reality, they are the basis on which a complex chain of scientific research and research is built.

Concept

Cognitive psychology is understood as a branch of psychology that studies the cognitive processes that occur in the mind of an individual.

Its essence lies in the study of man as a kind of computer , the basis of which is thinking and reason.

It perceives various signals coming from the outside world, perceives and converts them into information, processes, analyzes and organizes it.

The subject of cognitive psychology is the study of such elements as imagination, consciousness, attention, memory, sensation, as well as other thought processes.

Cognitivism: provisions

The basic principles of cognitive psychology are quite simple and understandable even to a person far from science. It is noteworthy that the main goal of this direction is to find explanations of human behavior from the point of view of cognitive processes. Scientists place emphasis not on inherent character traits, but on experience and knowledge acquired as a result of conscious activity.

The main provisions of cognitive psychology can be presented as the following list:

• study of the sensory process of cognition of the world;
• study of the process of assigning certain qualities and characteristics to other individuals by people;
• studying the processes of memory and creating a certain picture of the world;
• understanding the unconscious perception of events and so on.

We decided not to list all the provisions of this scientific movement, but highlighted only the main ones. But even after studying them, it becomes clear that cognitivism studies the processes of cognition from different angles.

Cognitive psychotherapy techniques

The cognitive approach to therapy is inextricably linked with the formation of cognitive psychology, which places the main emphasis on the cognitive structures of the psyche and deals with personal elements and logical abilities. Cognitive psychotherapy training is widespread today. According to A. Bondarenko, the cognitive direction combines three approaches: direct cognitive psychotherapy by A. Beck, the rational-emotive concept of A. Ellis, and the realistic concept of V. Glasser.

The cognitive approach involves structured learning, experimentation, mental and behavioral training. It is designed to assist the individual in mastering the operations described below:

— detection of one’s own negative automatic thoughts;

— finding connections between behavior, knowledge and affects;

— finding facts “for” and “against” identified automatic thoughts;

— finding more realistic interpretations for them;

— training in identifying and transforming disorganizing beliefs that lead to deformation of skills and experience.

Training in cognitive psychotherapy, its basic methods and techniques helps to identify, dismantle and, if necessary, transform negative perceptions of situations or circumstances. People often begin to fear what they have prophesied for themselves, as a result of which they expect the worst. In other words, the individual’s subconscious warns him of possible danger before he gets into a dangerous situation. As a result, the subject becomes afraid in advance and tries to avoid it.

By systematically monitoring your own emotions and trying to transform negative thinking, you can reduce premature fear, which can be modified into a panic attack. With the help of cognitive techniques, it is possible to change the fatal perception of panic attacks that is characteristic of such thoughts. Thanks to this, the duration of a panic attack is shortened and its negative impact on the emotional state is reduced.

The technique of cognitive psychotherapy consists of identifying the attitudes of patients (that is, their negative attitudes should become obvious to patients) and helping them to understand the destructive impact of such attitudes

It is also important that the subject, based on his own experience, make sure that, due to his own beliefs, he is not happy enough and that he could be happier if he were guided by more realistic attitudes. The role of the psychotherapist is to provide the patient with alternative attitudes or rules

Cognitive psychotherapy exercises for relaxation, stopping the flow of thoughts, and controlling impulses are used in conjunction with the analysis and regulation of daily activities in order to increase the subjects’ skills and focus on positive memories.

Methodology

Almost any cognitive psychology study must first involve a laboratory experiment. In this case, a number of installations are distinguished; most often they consist of three components:

• all data is isolated from mental formations;
• behavior is a consequence of cognition and experience;
• the need to consider behavior as something holistic and not divide it into its component elements.

Models of attention

There are three models of attention. Early selection by D. Broadbent. Represents a data link limitation. Peculiarities:

1. The transmission channel is the central nervous system. Has limited bandwidth.
2. Selection occurs in the early stages of sensory analysis.

Processing stages:

1. Physical stimuli affect the senses.
2. With the help of sensory registration, incoming data is stored in iconic memory.
3. Significant information is filtered out using a filter.
4. The last stage is the analysis of the selected data.

Late selection by Donald Norman:

1. Incoming data is simultaneously identified, processed, and undergoes initial analysis.
2. Important information is filtered out.
3. The selected data undergoes in-depth analysis. Unnecessary information after processing
4. forgotten.

Model of A. M. Treisman:

1. Between the verbal analysis of the message and the input sensory signals there is a perceptual filter. Its task is to amplify various signals and filter out unnecessary information.
2. When the data passes the filter, the information is divided into separate streams with different activation thresholds.

Data is processed in different ways. There are two methods:

1. Without concentration, concentration, conscious effort. Automatic processing that occurs in parallel, quickly. Once data is received by the main receptors, it is quickly processed. In this case, the most simple, noticeable signs of objects are highlighted.
2. Focusing attention. Processing takes place sequentially. To do this you need to concentrate your attention and make a conscious effort.

Features of cognitive psychology

It is interesting that scientists have been able to identify a special scheme that controls the behavior of an individual in certain situations. Cognitivists believe that the primary thing in a person’s knowledge of the world around him is impression. It is sensory perception that triggers processes that subsequently transform knowledge and impressions into a certain chain. It regulates human behavior, including social behavior.

Moreover, these processes are in constant motion. The fact is that a person strives for inner harmony. But in connection with gaining new experience and knowledge, the person begins to experience a certain disharmony. Therefore, he strives to streamline the system and gain even more knowledge.

[edit] Memes

Oddly enough, some of the cognitive concepts have already become memes, although their users are not aware of it.

[edit] Maslow's pyramid

Nuff said.

[edit] Rule 7 ± 2

A person can hold so many elements of thinking in his head at the same time. The rule arose from the fact that if the brain is similar to a computer, then its power, like the computer, should be limited. In working memory, for example, a person can hold from five to nine concepts, no more. That’s why it’s advisable to write down your thoughts and call this process a note - otherwise there won’t be enough memory for truly complex thinking.

By the way, cognitive distortions, automatic thoughts and other stereotypical thinking come from the same limitations. Since there are not enough brain resources to think fully at every moment of time, a person forms ready-made templates, and then follows them. Stupid? But it works quickly!

[edit] Cognitive dissonance

Main article

:
Cognitive dissonance
Nuff said. For details, see the related article.

[edit] Cognitive distortions

Main article

:
Cognitive psychology/Cognitive distortions
Evolutionary features of the brain, cockroaches in the head. Available in 100% of the population, in 95% of cases they lead to cognitive dissonance, neuroses, poor sleep, loss of money and time, and other manifestations of FGM, the causes of which are. ChSKh do not lead to breaks in patterns; on the contrary, they strengthen illusions in every possible way, being reinforcement in their titanium-concrete structure. They have enormous practical significance - in particular, for those who have chosen the path of “relatively honest taking of money from the population”: both by criminal scammers and corporations through marketing, advertising and public relations. Invented by cognitive psychotherapists.

In a little more detail, cognitive distortions (or cognitive errors) are systematic errors in thinking, due to which many thoughts, judgments, conclusions that are born in a continuous stream in our brain seem to be infallibly true, but upon objective verification they turn out to be completely false. At the same time, a person himself can be confident in his judgments for many years, because the principle of operation of most cognitive errors becomes clear only when seeing the results of ingenious scientific experiments involving large groups of subjects. Moreover, just being aware of the presence of a particular cognitive distortion does not mean that you are no longer susceptible to it, because cognitive distortions are part of the natural processes of thinking. Everyone is susceptible to all of them, but those cognitive distortions that you do know how they work are usually easily detected when analyzing automatic thoughts, your own or others' reasoning. This is very similar to optical illusions, which you actually can’t stop seeing even if you know what the trick is, but if you still look at it from a different angle or use a ruler, then everything becomes clear.

Scientists have already identified, proven and documented hundreds of such constantly occurring mistakes, and the horizon in this work is not yet visible. Their current complete list is collected on a special page on Wikipedia (the English version is updated more often). And here is a small selection of the most lulz memes:

[edit] Language prime

Meme from the field of psycholinguistics

, invented by Korzybski. Psycholinguistics states that language, the words used in particular, influence thinking processes and the psyche. Therefore, a special language is needed - devoid of the concept “is”. That is, according to the rules of the prime language, you can’t say “You’re a dick,” you have to say, “You did crap,” or, even better, “I rate what you did as crap.” So, they say, it turns out more accurately and constructively, since it eliminates some of the distortion (and causes less butthurt).

[edit] Brain plasticity

Information from a doctor named Taub, who in the second half of the 20th century ran a private clinic for the rehabilitation of people who had suffered a stroke; as a meme popularized by Norman Doidge.

• The essence from Taub is this: the cerebral cortex is not a computer with a strict division of blocks (a la the IBM PC), but rather resembles an Amiga analogue capable of reflashing itself under circumstances (in the sense, with a bunch of coprocessors): disabling one piece of the brain with a stroke, even if can lead to an ass due to the failure of what this piece was supposed to do, but due to the correct jerking off of the brain lobes adjacent to the affected one to the point of being cut off, this is very much fixed. For example, with classes that “trivially” teach a paralyzed person to crawl => walk => run like a kindergartener. In other words, after a stroke, if you don’t forget how to breathe, there is a chance to return everything to the way it was, and still, due to the efficiency of the rest of the brain, doing everything as it was is still possible many times faster than with a kindergartener (if the patient is not a philoniac, does not take days off , and in order to quickly achieve the “Monday effect” he fucks without rest, and the doctor is not a “killer”). In the case of a piece of the brain responsible for complex shit like speech being fucked up, you will have to learn more cunningly (if Broca’s area or Wernicke’s area is affected). ChSH, it was precisely this aforementioned “teaching again, like a baby” that Taub turned out to be simply a breakthrough in how effective,
  compared to the “doctor’s decision” of the 1930s, to take and put on crutches a person who had lost precisely the contact of the legs with the brain from a stroke, and not the nerves themselves in legs.

• And in “Emperor's New Mind” from Roger Penrose, who in his research refers to Lawrence Weiskrantz, is described as a man who lost his sight due to the reason “it was necessary to remove part of the visual cortex of the brain” ( spoiler:
  it’s an aneurysm, or epilepsy
  )
  , an almost 100% ability was revealed to “guess” which of the figures was being shown to him.

From Norman Doidge the gist is this:

• If you were born with only one hemisphere of the cerebral cortex, then you can go and become a normal person with a job and a license to drive a car (spoiler:
  not without mistakes like 100,500 scratches and chips on it from any curb, but with a perk (somehow “in five seconds you can guess what day of the week was on such and such a date decades ago”)
  ,
  and you’ll only get to the doctor for a head scan by accident.
• If you fap a lot on pron, then due to the exploitation of the same neural circuits, various kinds of fetishes and more will come and go. Insomnia for “vanilla sex” is treated SUDDENLY with a nofapophone.

• In cases of hardcore BDSM fetishes of specific patients, there is a clear connection with rickets and the corresponding hospital childhood.

Already different

Taub, already in 2007, reported an interesting cool story with pictures: a man gradually lost his brain from the inside and nevertheless lived a full life until the age of 44 in the role of a “civil servant”, which seems to hint at how much mosca people still use . And there is only one solution: the hydrocephalus, seeing an improvement, removed the mounted injection in the head (the same one, IRL, aka “drainage”), which is why the intracranial fluid was quietly putting pressure on the brain for as many as 30 years.

[edit] Weighting coefficients @ Neural network

The parameter for the strength of connection between one neuron and another varies from 0 to 0, (9). Explains the main difference between the brain and the anon’s bakery: in the brain there simply cannot be a binary number system in the form of one signal taken as a threshold signal (that is, as a standard “one” signal, the absence of which gives an even zero), all signals from the neuron to the strength of a neuron changes back and forth, which depends on a ton of reasons (the throughput of the membrane between neurons, the state of the neurons themselves, the respawn of neurons).

• This, ChSKH, was implemented in several places at once. Available:

1. The power of the outgoing signal (the same for everyone, this is a neuron: it has one output channel IRL);
2. The power of the incoming signal (depends on the size of the specific small process of the receiver neuron with which it is connected to the transmitter signal, or more precisely, on the number of molecules connecting their contact);
3. General excitability of the neuron.
4. Etc. - salt balance, surrounding magnetic background (MagStim developers guarantee this), etc.

The topic of neural networks itself is a meme of the scientific world and a developing branch of computer science and startups, since it qualitatively contrasts itself with canonical computers with a certain number of digits in the number system. In the “neural network capable of self-learning” version, which effectively imitates something living, the oche neuron is costly to implement even on the most powerful supercomputers, but 20-30 “neurons” in a combination called a “single-layer neural network” can stun those who like to recognize letters of random fonts or even take out those who are ready to analyze the foreign exchange market at their own game.

• But no one forbids creating the so-called. “optical systems” or abandon the idea of ​​a centralized CPU and use parallel computing already on video cards (where each neuron easily gets its own coprocessor; in the “multilayer neural network” version this is implemented with a bang), which makes it easy to tinker with image recognition and other goodies, difficult to implement on ordinary computers, but which are so familiar to the human eye.

[edit] Synergy

Synergy is when, in the presence of each other, while remaining themselves, two substances or even two organizations (and, of course, two parts of the brain), themselves failing and considered “soft,” SUDDENLY with their power in the presence of each other create a particularly strong action in the body\prove to be a powerful player.

In more detail, the essence of synergy is that “sometimes you don’t need to hit just one point, even with the fastest, decisive blow.”

In the case described above with two drugs, for some desired effect it may be necessary to act on two fronts (and then substance A affects the “alpha” receptors, substance B affects the “beta” receptors, and the desired effect is achieved only by simulating some complex state when both “alpha” and “beta” are involved). Or if you need to effectively deal with a disease, then A suppresses the reproduction of the source of the disease, while B normally ruins the life of this source, reducing it to zero against the background of A).

Cognitive dissonance: definition

The individual’s desire for inner harmony and the discomfort experienced at this moment is called “cognitive dissonance” in psychology. Every person experiences it at different periods of life.

It arises as a result of contradictions between knowledge about the situation and reality or the knowledge and actions of the individual. At the same time, the cognitive picture of the world is disrupted, and that same discomfort arises, pushing a person to a series of actions in order to re-enter a state of harmony with himself.

Research methods

The modern direction of cognitivism represents many concepts combined with each other. Research carried out within the framework of the development of cognitive psychology pursues the following goals:

• study of perception;
• study of memory, sorting, data storage;
• studying the cognitive picture of the world;
• the study of cognition of any living organisms;
• study of attributive processes;
• study of unconscious behavior, cognition, perception.

The main method of conducting research is laboratory experiments. Methodological settings:

1. cognition determines behavior;
2. mental education is the main source of data;
3. behavior is a holistic phenomenon.

When conducting research, scientists do not use the generally accepted model of brain function. The work takes place in narrow specialized areas - reading, memorization.

Causes of dissonance

As you already understand, it is impossible to avoid this condition. In addition, there are a lot of reasons for its appearance:

• logical inconsistency;
• inconsistencies in behavior with the samples accepted as the standard;
• contradiction of the situation to past experience;
• the occurrence of disturbances in the habitual pattern of cognitive behavior.

Any item on the list can seriously affect the behavior of a person who begins to actively look for ways out of an unpleasant state. At the same time, he considers several possible algorithms for solving the problem.

Cognitive approach: brief description

Cognitive scientists are very interested in conscious human behavior. It is this that becomes the main subject of scientific research. But this is done from a certain point of view in order to reveal as best as possible the main tasks posed by psychology.

The cognitive approach allows us to understand exactly how a person perceives, deciphers and encodes information extracted from the surrounding world. Thus, using this approach, the process of comparison and analysis of the obtained data is revealed. In the future, they help make decisions and create behavioral patterns.

Psychology of personality constructors

It is impossible to consider cognitivism without the theory of personality constructors. It is basic when studying people's behavior in different situations. To describe it briefly, we can say that people brought up and living in different conditions cannot perceive and evaluate reality in the same way. Therefore, when they find themselves in equal conditions, they often perceive the situation completely differently and make unequal decisions.

This proves that the individual acts as a researcher who relies only on his knowledge, and this allows him to find the right solution. In addition, the individual can calculate subsequent events arising from the decision made. Thus, certain schemes are formed, called personal constructors. If they prove themselves, then they continue to be used in identical situations.

Albert Bandura's theory

Even before the advent of cognitive psychology, scientist Albert Bandura developed a theory that now forms the basis of the scientific field. The theory is based on the fact that basic knowledge about the world around us arises in the process of observation.

Bandura argued in his writings that, first of all, the social environment gives the individual an incentive for growth. From it knowledge is drawn and the first chains are built, which in the future will act as a regulator of behavior.

At the same time, thanks to observations, a person can predict how his actions will affect other people. This allows you to regulate yourself and change your behavior pattern depending on a particular situation.

In this theory, knowledge and the ability to self-regulate are prevalent in relation to intuition and natural instincts. All of the above resonates perfectly with the basic tenets of cognitivism. That’s why Albert Bandura himself is often considered one of the founders of a new direction in psychology.

Cognitive psychology is a very interesting scientific movement that allows you to better understand a person and the motives that encourage him to act in accordance with certain rules.

Cognitive direction in social psychology

• This type of work is not scientific work, it is not a finished work!
• This type of work is a finished result of processing, structuring and formatting collected information intended for use as a source of material for independent preparation of educational work.

If you have a hard time understanding this topic, write to me on WhatsApp, we’ll look into your topic, agree on a deadline, and I’ll help you!

Using this link you can find psychology essays on any topic and see how they are written:

Check out these similar threads, they might be useful to you:

Introduction:

The cognitive direction emphasizes the influence of intellectual, or thought, processes on human behavior. American psychologist George Kelly (1905–1966), one of the founders of this trend, believed that any person is a kind of researcher, seeking to understand, interpret, anticipate and control the world of his personal experiences, drawing conclusions based on his past experience and making assumptions about future.

A personality construct is an idea or thought that a person uses to understand or interpret, explain or predict his or her experience. It represents a stable way in which a person comprehends some aspects of reality in terms of similarity and contrast.

In cognitive psychology, personality is understood as an organized system of more or less important personality constructs that a person uses to interpret the world of experiences and anticipate future events.

Social interaction consists primarily of one person's attempts to understand how another person understands reality. In order to interact fruitfully with someone, a person needs to interpret some part of the other person's constructive system; It is necessary for one person to put himself in the place of another in order to better understand and predict his present and subsequent behavior.

Basic theories of cognitive correspondence in social psychology

Cognitive social psychology is based on cognitive correspondence theories. This is a certain class of theories that were developed in Western psychology.

The main idea of ​​all existing theories of cognitive correspondence is the idea that a person’s cognitive structure is a priori balanced and harmonious. If a person shows signs of disharmony in development and existence, then he is a stimulus for changing the emerging state and returning to the previous internal correspondence of the cognitive structure of the personality.

This idea is developed by such scientists as F. Heider, T. Newcomb, K. Osgood, P. Tannenbaum, L. Festinger. Let's take a closer look at them. The theory of structural equilibrium F. Heider. This theory is based on the idea of ​​correspondence and the idea of ​​causal attribution.

Causal attribution is the process by which a subject interprets his or her own interpersonal perception of the causes and motives of other people's behavior. The theory of structural balance examines in detail the state of balance of a person’s cognitive structure in the event that he perceives other people, and in the process of building a series of relationships: with this person; common, uniting partners in the process of communication.

T. Newcome's theory of communicative acts

This theory is based on the idea that the main way to overcome the discomfort that arises in the process of communication is the active development of a person’s communication skills.

Communication is a social interaction of a person that has a certain semantic aspect. According to this theory, the main function of communication between people is to achieve social community, but at the same time while maintaining the individuality and personal value of each participant in the communication process. In the process of communication, it is possible to change the attitude towards another person or object. Thus, the necessary compliance is restored.

Cognitive dissonance theory

The author of this theory is L. Festiger. In his theory, he defined dissonance as a negative state of a person’s personality, which arises in situations when a person has different, most often contradictory, information, opinions or knowledge about the same object. This state is experienced by a person as uncomfortable, from which he strives to get rid of as quickly as possible.

In this situation, there are two possible options:

• Change of opinion regarding the object of dissonance;
• Obtaining additional or new information that can eliminate the contradiction that has arisen and is consistent with the ideas a person already has.

Main problems and theoretical foundations of the cognitive approach in social psychology

Cognitive psychology is one of the most modern areas of psychology, the main subject of research of which is the explanation of human behavior and the study of the process and dynamics of knowledge formation. The essence of the cognitivist approach comes down to the desire to explain social behavior using a system of cognitive processes and establishing a balance between cognitive structures.

It is these structures that act as regulators of human social behavior in reality. Thanks to them, perceived objects are classified and assigned to certain classes and categories.

Within the framework of the cognitivist approach in social psychology, the following questions are studied:

• features of social perception;
• features of manifestation of attraction in relation to another person;
• formation and change of attitudes.

The main cognitive theories in social psychology include:

• Cognitive fit and structural balance theory
• The theory of communicative acts, which was already mentioned earlier.
• Congruence theory.

The theoretical basis for these theories is the idea that a person’s personality is in the process of striving to get rid of the existing internal imbalance. Speaking about a group of people as a social community, followers of these theories say that the group strives to maximize the internal conformity of people's interpersonal relationships with each other.

Theories of the cognitive approach by S. Asch, D. Krech, R. Crutchfield

This approach does not rely on the principle of correspondence, which is fundamental to the theories discussed above. The main ideas of the authors, which serve as a methodological setting for experimental research, boil down to the following provisions:

• a) a person’s behavior can only be examined on the basis of recognition of his integrity;
• b) the most important element of the holistic organization of behavior is cognition;
• c) perception is viewed as the relation of incoming data to cognitive structure, and learning is viewed as a process of cognitive reorganization.

S. Asch, focusing his efforts on the study of problems of social perception, argues that a person’s perception of the surrounding social reality selectively depends on previous knowledge.

That is, the tendency towards “perceptual integration” is realized taking into account the possibility of ensuring the consistency of the cognitive organization.

Moreover, when a person constructs an image of an object, identical data are not the same in different contexts.

Conclusion

In general, the cognitive approach in social psychology is characterized by the following conclusions: the main source of information and data and the determining factor influencing a person’s behavior are his existing cognitive processes and education, expressed in knowledge, understanding, formed judgments, the possibility of qualitative interpretation of states of dissonance and The prediction of certain manifestations of human behavior in most cases is associated with human psychology, which acts both as an explanatory principle and as a kind of norm for comparing the actual behavior of the subjects with it.