Cognitive Psychology

The cognitive psychology studies the great functions Psychologique S of the human being which are the memory, the Langage, the Intelligence, the Raisonnement, the solution to problem, the Perception or the Attention.

More generally the Cognition is defined as the whole of the mental activities and the processes which refer to the Connaissance and with the function which carries it out.

The cognitive psychology share of the principle which one can inférer of the Représentation S, the structures and the mental processes starting from the study of the Comportement. Against the Béhaviorisme it defends that the Psychologie is well the study of mental and not of the Comportement. Of the difference of the other currents mentalists, she does not think that the Introspection is a particularly reliable access road to explore the mental one.

History

After the Behaviorism, Hull and Tolman, are the first to open the block box , i.e. the whole of the phenomena which take seat between the Stimulation Sujet by the Environnement and the observable answer of the organization.

Cognitive psychology is truly born in the Années 1950, at the same time as the artificial intelligence. Indeed, once admitted the principle of studying the contents of the block box, it was necessary to develop Concept S to describe what occurred there. The beginnings of the Informatique precisely made it possible to provide a conceptual arsenal making it possible to think the Cognition: concept of Information and Data processing.

Although considerable progresses have been made for this time, the concept of Information system remains in the middle of the cognitive maps, that those adopt formalizations rather Symbolique S (the Cognition seen like a system of handling of Symbole S), rather connexionnists (the Cognition seen like circulation of activation in a wide-area network of Neuron S), or hybrids (concept of a wide-area network of Neuron S which carries out functionally a system of Symbole S).

Basic concepts

The cognitive psychology preferentially uses the behavioral Expérimentation and measurements which include/understand in particular the measurement of Reaction time (TR), or of the Temps necessary to an operation (time of realization of the task, duration in reading), precision of the answer (for example rate the good ones or bad answers), or even the cognitive Oculométrie or data Physiologique S (functional imagery, evoked potentials, etc) data-processing modeling also plays a big role there.

Certain researchers devote themselves to the study of cognitive architecture. One finds thus Expérience S aiming at elucidating the various “modules” which deal with the great functions of the Cognition. These distinctions do not recover necessarily identified cerebral units, but correspond rather to functional entities being able to mobilize a variety of distinct cerebral structures. For example in the memory, with the distinction between Working memory and long-term Memory. One meets also various sensory memories, or the distinction between semantic Mémoire and episodical Mémoire. Cognitive psychology also works with the concept of association.

Other researchers get busy to describe the strategies installation by the individuals to treat the tasks of the daily life, tasks of resolution of problem, catch of Décision, or even tasks professional (medical diagnosis, air control, memorizing among coffee boys, etc). Cognitive psychology finds many applications thus, in particular in cognitive ergonomics.

In 2002, Daniel Kahneman, a psychologist cognitivist of the Decision, received the “Nobel Prize” of economy.

The awakening of the need for information

Andre Tricot, is a specialist in documentary pedagogy, i.e., the analysis of the human activity of training and search for information in electronic documents. He proposes the awakening of the need for information. He wonders about the conditions and the factors which push with the need for information. That can come from an impulse of a cognitive nature. A researcher, for example is confronted with a missing link in his capital of information and this link is necessary to the continuation of its research. Very often, this awakening of the need for information emerges thanks to the action of a third: a professor who asks his pupil to cover such subject, an employee with whom one asks to make a particular purchase etc But, one notes in cognitive psychology, that the individuals who seek more of information are those which have already a high quantity of information. Moreover, they are individuals who have the control of Méta-knowledge S (to know about the topic, competences documentary, know-how like that to work out a questioning). As André Tricot quotes it, “the decision to seek information is influenced positively by the fact of having sought information beforehand”. Moreover, less one is advanced in his research, and less one will be thorough to go to seek new information. The same author from of deduced the following definition.

“the need for information corresponds to an awakening, in a typical location, of a lack of knowledge; what requires knowledge; the satisfaction of the need for information does not exhaust this one, on the contrary it develops it”.
However, the factors health and particularly psychological health influence the motivation to seek information: anxiety or depression. In a general way, “the need for information corresponds to the need for reduction of uncertainty”. However, the psychology of the reasoning emphasized the skew of the confirmation, either by a phenomenon of screening of the contradictory information, or reinforces the decision taken as the theory of the cognitive Dissonance attests it. If the subject is sure of its decision, it does not need additional details, it refuses it or justifies its engagement. On the other hand, to need information require uncertainty and knowledge. An expert can have difficulties in repair a breakdown because its knowledge of the breakdown attends (case of near certainty) directs it towards a false track.

Consequently, the need for information appears when there is one:

  • need for a knowledge which one does not have;

  • need for a confirmation of a knowledge which one has;
  • need for a knowledge more complete than that which one has (example, illustration, against example);
  • need to be in conformity with the goals, the constraints, waitings of the situation;
  • need for indications on the form of knowledge to use in the situation;
  • detection of a marker of relevance in the situation (ostentation, put forward visual, sound, etc For example: a word in fat in the text; a teacher who says to me: “you are of course? ”).

Bibliography (introductory Handbooks and texts)

  • Jean-Luc Roulin (to dir.), cognitive Psychology , Bréal, Rosny-sous-Bois, 1998.

  • Annick Weil-Barais (to dir.), the cognitive man , university Presses of France, Paris, 2001.
  • Patrick Lemaire, Cognitive Psychology , De Boeck, Brussels, 1999.
  • Reuchlin, Psychology , Paris, 1999.

See too

cognitive Sciences

Psychological cognitivists

Precursors:

Cognitive psychology:

Cognitive Neurospsychology:

  • Michael Posner
  • Anne Treisman

Psychologists inspired by the cognitive approach:

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