Interests frequently govern the choice of pursuing a specialist career. The decision to specialize comes after so many considerations depending on an individual. The vast field of psychology adds to one of the reasons to specialize together with other fields. Specialization in psychology is constantly in flux and can be either emergent or established. An established speciality requires training for instance in health psychology. While emergent speciality has been newly developed based on special settings, like sport psychology (Sternberg, 2016). This paper discusses the reason why cognitive psychology is interesting as an established speciality in the field of psychology. It outlines what the specialization in cognitive psychology entails broadening roots on examples of work done in this area of speciality.
Cognitive Psychology and The Mind and Perception
According to Grison & Gazzaniga (2015), cognitive psychology is primarily built on the functioning of the mind Put differently; cognition factually means ‘the art of knowing’ (Sternberg, 2016). Cognitive psychology examines how the human mind functions in aspects such as information processing, and the reaction that comes out of the mind after the information processing. “ In a process called transduction, the sensory receptors change the stimulus input to signals that the brain can understand.” (Grison & Gazzaniga, 2015, pg 159). This is called the stimuli. Cognitive psychologists are able to determine internal events that cause a person to act in a different manner. Through examination of a person’s mind, they can quickly conclude the individual's perception of certain aspects, the rational perspective of the person as well as verbal aspects. Cognitive psychologists help in understanding thoughts senses and how people attempt to internalize their thoughts and senses before conveying it to others. They are also able to bring clarity in the manner in which thoughts or information stored in the ‘human CPU’ cannot alter human feelings.
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Memory Retention
Specializing in cognitive psychology is perhaps one of the decisions that one cannot regret making once decided. In a setting where learning is an everyday activity, retention and commemoration of what has been learnt is vital. Learning processes are mostly stored in the memory and later used for other brain processes. Specializing in cognitive psychology is of great importance in this process as Lane (2018) asserts the role that cognitive psychologists play in memory retention for chess positions. Nonetheless, processing of informal data may be easy, but experts of cognitive psychology help effect that memory and ability to recognize the formal and informal data to be easily remembered.
Examples of Work Done in The Cognitive Psychology Field
“Today, cognitive psychology is concerned with investigating mental functions such as intelligence, thinking, language, attention, learning, memory, problem solving, and decision making.” (Grison & Gazzaniga, 2015, pg 17). Cognitive psychologists continually practise in workshops and labs to test performance and natural cognitive abilities. For individuals in any formal setting, a cognitive psychologist's service is required to test the memory condition which is usually in controlled conditions. Cognitive psychologists continue to diagnose and practise in mental facilities to help the psychiatric patients get the natural validity perception. They also advise and guide them on the right form of behaviour. Cognitive psychologists are also endowed with the ability to study language and achievement in case of learning in capacity mostly observed in toddlers.
Conclusion
Speciality in cognitive psychology is important. It helps individuals understand themselves and others’ thought process. Memory retention, learning, verbal communication and perception are all effected by cognitive psychology. This knowledge has made the practice of cognitive psychology easy as most of the aspects are easily shown and can be quickly determined through tests. Also, the basis and growth of cognitive psychology as a field of speciality in Psychology continues to bring other emergent specialities which combine the ideas of cognition and apply in the settings provided.
References
Lane, D. M. (2018). Chess knowledge predicts chess memory even after controlling for chess experience: Evidence for the role of high-level processes. Memory & Cognition, 46 (3), 337–348. Retrieved November 3rd, 2017
Grison, S. & Gazzaniga, M. (2015). Psychology in Your Life (Second Edition ). New York, USA: W W NORTON & Company Incorporated.
Sternberg, R. J. (2016). Career Paths in Psychology: Where Your Degree Can Take You (3rd ed.). Washington: American Psychological Association. Retrieved 2016
