Cognition: Encyclopedia II - Cognition - Cognition in mainstream psychology

Cognition - Cognition in mainstream psychology

The sort of mental processes described as cognitive or cognitive processes are largely influenced by research which has successfully used this paradigm in the past. Consequently this description tends to apply to processes such as memory, attention, perception, action, problem solving and mental imagery. Traditionally emotion was not thought of as a cognitive process. This division is now regarded as largely artificial, and much research is currently being undertaken to examine the cognitive psychology of emotion; research also includes one's awareness of strategies and methods of cognition, known as metacognition.

Empirical research into cognition is usually scientific and quantitative, or involves creating models to describe or explain certain behaviours.

While few people would deny that cognitive processes are the responsibility of the brain, a cognitive theory will not necessarily make any reference to the brain or any other biological process (compare neurocognitive). It may purely describe behaviour in terms of information flow or function. Relatively recent fields of study such as cognitive science and neuropsychology aim to bridge this gap, using cognitive paradigms to understand how the brain implements these information processing functions (see also cognitive neuroscience), or how pure information processing systems (e.g. computers) can simulate cognition (see also artificial intelligence). The branch of psychology which studies brain injury to infer normal cognitive function is called cognitive neuropsychology. The links of cognition to evolutionary demands are studied through the investigation of animal cognition. And conversly, evolutionary-based perspectives can inform hypotheses about cognitive functional systems evolutionary psychology.

The theoretical school of thought derived from the cognitive approach is often called cognitivism.

The phenomenal success of the cognitive approach can be seen by its current dominance as the core model in contemporary psychology (usurping behaviorism in the late 1950s).

Cognition - Influence and influences

This success has led to it being applied in a wide range of areas:

• Psychology (particularly cognitive psychology), cognitive science and psychophysics
• Cognitive neuroscience, neurology and neuropsychology
• Behavioral economics and Behavioral finance
• Artificial intelligence and cybernetics
• Ergonomics and user interface design
• Philosophy of mind
• Linguistics, especially psycholinguistics and cognitive linguistics
• Economics, especially experimental economics
• Learning styles and Learning

In its widest sense, the field is quite eclectic and draws from a number of areas, such as:

• Computer science and information theory, where attempts at artificial intelligence, collective intelligence and robotics focus on mimicking living beings' capacities for cognition, or applying the experience gathered in one place by one being to actions by another being elsewhere.
• Philosophy, epistemology and ontology
• Moral philosophy where it deals with the problem of ignorance, often seen as the opposite of cognition.
• Biology and neuroscience
• Mathematics and probability
• Physics, where observer effects are studied in depth mathematically.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Cognition in mainstream psychology", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki