What is cognitive psychology and why is it useful

What is cognitive psychology

Cognitive psychology is a branch of psychology that studies perception, imagination, thinking, speech, memory and other cognitive (cognitive) processes. At the same time, much attention is paid to the hidden mechanisms of the brain that affect a person, although he himself is not aware of this. Cognitive psychologists are also interested in complex behavior. For example, love, friendship, or altruism.

The direction originated in the mid-50s of the last century in the United States. This did not happen by accident. Interest in cognitive processes was largely caused by the advent of computers, as well as the first experiments in AI-modeling and algorithmic processing.

Therefore, most cognitive scientists compare the human brain to a computer. They consider mental processes from the point of view of working with information:

input signal - information from the environment;
its analysis and recording;
output signal - reaction.

Why Cognitive Psychology Can Be Trusted

Cognitive scientists always try to confirm their hypotheses experimentally. Psychologists in this area work in conjunction with specialists in artificial intelligence and neuroscientists, which increases the quality of research and scientific conclusions.

Also, cognitive scientists managed to create one of the most understandable and complete brain models. By analogy with the device of computers, they proposed to separate short-term and long-term memory, and consider attention as a kind of information filter.

Although this model has been criticized by some experts, it is still useful, as it leaves no room for mysterious and non-studyable "blank spots" of the mind. It is no coincidence that this approach helps to better understand what the different regions of the brain are responsible for.

Why is cognitive psychology useful?

Cognitive psychology has not only made a great contribution to the understanding of human consciousness, but also discovered ways to beneficially influence it.

Helps Fight Cognitive Biases

From the experiments of cognitive scientists, we know that our consciousness is biased, as it is affected by cognitive biases. One of the most famous of these is the confirmation error. This is when we give preference to the information that is consistent with our opinion, and ignore the opposite. To combat cognitive biases, you must first find them and then reconcile your biases with reality. With which cognitive psychology helps.

Also, cognitive scientists have shown that a person's ability to memorize information is limited. We cannot learn more than nine letters, numbers or short words at a time. This short-term memory rule is known as seven plus or minus two.

Therefore, for example, we do not accept ads or websites that are overloaded with information. But this makes it easier for us to remember the phone numbers, broken down into combinations of numbers. For example, in the format X ‑ XXX ‑ XXX ‑ XX ‑ XX.

Promotes the development of critical thinking

Representatives of this trend argue that we can less often find ourselves in the captivity of delusions if we change our thinking. To do this, it is enough to stop accepting internal sensations that the mind did not have time to question as reality. That is, do not take emotional reactions as a basis for conclusions.

For example, once falling off a bicycle on a wet road, a person may begin to consider this type of transport very dangerous and be afraid to get back into the saddle. However, if you think logically, you can understand that a trip in dry weather and with the observance of safety measures will only bring pleasure.

Underlies an effective form of psychotherapy

Based on the cognitive approach, two types of therapy have been developed: cognitive-behavioral (CBT) and rational-emotional. The differences between the two are minimal. Their essence is that the therapist or the person himself seeks irrational beliefs (cognitive distortions) and makes rational arguments against them.

This is one of the most effective types of psychological therapy. The cognitive approach works great for solving real-life problems. CBT is known to be good for dealing with depression, stress, complexes, anxiety, and other mental problems.