Modern theories of cognitive psychology. Cognitive direction in psychology - what is it? Basic principles and methods

Introduction

The topic of this coursework is cognitive psychology. The problem of the development of cognitive psychology is one of the key ones in psychology. It is widely discussed within the framework of domestic and foreign psychological research. The study of cognitive psychology and the dynamics of its development is of great interest, both theoretically and practically, since it allows us to get closer to understanding the mechanisms of personality formation in ontogenesis.

Cognitive psychology is the psychology of cognitive processes; a special cognitive-oriented direction in psychology associated with the study of mental states and mental processes that characterize human behavior and distinguish it from other living beings. Cognitive psychology stood at the very origins of cognitive science and owes its name to W. Neisser; in 1967, he named his famous book in a similar way.

In the history of psychology as a special discipline, we can talk about the “cognitive revolution” of the late 50s - it can be considered a kind of reaction to the then dominant behaviorism in psychology, which was characterized by the denial of any role in the internal organization of mental processes. R.L. Solso names the “failure” of behaviorism as one of the most important factors behind the “cognitive revolution.”

Modern Cognitive Psychology consists of many sections: perception, pattern recognition, attention, memory, imagination, speech, developmental psychology, thinking and decision making, in general natural intelligence and partly artificial intelligence. Since the emergence of cognitive psychology, its main method has been the information approach, within which models of the microstructure of perception, attention and short-term memory have been developed, occurring mainly in the millisecond time range. Many principles of cognitive psychology underlie modern psycholinguistics. This direction arose under the influence of the information approach. Cognitive psychology is largely based on the analogy between the transformation of information in a computing device and the implementation of cognitive processes in humans. Cognitive psychology is closely related to cognitive anthropology and is one of its foundations. Their conceptual apparatus overlaps to a large extent, although cognitive psychology is most interested in how, with the help of which concepts and categories one can explain the assimilation, classification, and memorization of knowledge, and cognitive anthropology is how, with the help of these categories and concepts, one can explain culture and the connection between the psyche and culture.

Cognitive psychology includes all areas that criticize behaviorism and psychoanalysis from intellectualistic or mentalistic positions (J. Piaget, J. Bruner, J. Fodor).

An object : cognitive psychology and the process of knowing oneself.

Item: analysis of the concept of cognitive psychology. Methods of knowing yourself.

Purpose: to analyze the main provisions and examples of experimental research in cognitive psychology and research into methods of personality self-knowledge.

• consider the concept of cognitive psychology;
• explore the field of cognitive psychology;
• analyze cognitive models;
• get acquainted with cognitive psychocorrection.

1. Cognitive psychology

.1 Historical emergence of cognitive psychology

Cognitive psychology (cognitio (lat.) - knowledge, cognition) arose in the USA in the 50s of the 20th century. Before the advent of cognitive psychology in its modern form, psychologists were already trying to deal with problems of cognition.

Many years ago there were already the first attempts to study thinking using both philosophical and scientific methods. Philosophers such as Descartes, Hume and Kant played a certain role in the development of modern cognitive psychology. Descartes' idea of ​​mental structure resulted in a research method for studying one's own psyche. The empiricist Hume tried to establish the laws of association of ideas and developed a classification of mental processes. For Kant, reason is the structure, experience is the facts that fill the structure. He distinguished three types of mental structures in the study of cognition: dimensions, categories and schemas. It would be wrong to consider that only these philosophers are the pillars of cognitive psychology. Yes, and not only philosophers, but also scientists from other branches of knowledge contributed to the formation and development of cognitive psychology.

Cognitive psychology studies how people obtain information about the world, how this information is represented by a person, how it is stored in memory and converted into knowledge, and how this knowledge influences our attention and behavior. Cognitive psychology covers the entire range of psychological processes - from sensations to perception, pattern recognition, attention, learning, memory, concept formation. Thinking, imagination, remembering, language, emotions and developmental processes; it covers all possible areas of behavior.

Cognitive psychology is a psychological concept that focuses on the process of cognition and the activity of consciousness.

Even ancient thinkers tried to figure out where memory and thought are located. As hieroglyphic records from ancient Egypt testify, their authors believed that knowledge was in the heart - this view was shared by the Greek philosopher Aristotle, but Plato believed that the brain was the seat of thought. Like all true innovations in the history of psychology, cognitive psychology did not appear out of nowhere. Its origins can be traced back to earlier concepts. According to some researchers, cognitive psychology is both the newest and oldest psychology in history. This means that interest in the problem of consciousness has been present in history since its appearance. Long before it became a science. The problem of consciousness is discussed in the works of Plato and Aristotle. As well as in the studies of modern representatives of the empirical and associative schools.

When psychology became an independent discipline, interest in the problem of consciousness remained. Wilhelm Wund can be considered one of the forerunners of cognitive psychology, since he repeatedly emphasized the creative nature of consciousness. Structuralism and functionalism also deal with consciousness: the first with its elements, and the second with functioning. And only behaviorism moved away from this tradition, expelling the topic of consciousness from the field of psychology for almost 50 years.

The revival of interest in this topic can be traced back to the 50s. and, if desired, from the 30s. Cognitive psychology is a product of a time when psychology, anthropology, and linguistics redefined themselves, and computer science and neuroscience were just emerging. Psychology could not take part in the cognitive revolution until it freed itself from behaviorism and treated the problem of cognition with due scientific respect. By that time, it had become clear to representatives of several disciplines that the solution to a number of issues they were studying inevitably depended on the development of problems traditionally attributed to other areas of science.

The predecessor of the cognitive movement can be considered E.S. Tolman. This researcher recognized the importance of considering cognitive variables and contributed greatly to the move away from the stimulus-response approach. Tolman introduced the idea of ​​cognitive maps, argued for the applicability of the goal category to animal actions, and emphasized the need to use intervening variables to define internal, unobservable states.

J. Piaget also conducted a number of very significant studies on child psychology from the standpoint of studying the stages of a child’s cognitive development. Once the cognitive approach began to spread in America, the significance of Piaget's work immediately became apparent. Piaget was the first European psychologist to receive the award "For Outstanding Contribution to the Development of Science." Even that circumstance. The fact that Piaget's work was devoted primarily to child psychology contributed to a further expansion of the range of applicability of the cognitive approach.

Since the 1970s. years, cognitive psychology began to occupy a prominent place as a field of research and therapeutic practice. She vigorously deals with the central elements of consciousness, just as W. James did when he created the scientific discipline called psychology. Cognitive psychology is not a theory of personality. It does not form any single, coherent system, but rather combines many theories and types of therapeutic practice that have different goals and use different methods. Two areas of cognitive psychology are particularly relevant to understanding human personality. One has to do with mapping the structure of intelligence. The other is with the development of therapeutic techniques with the goal of modifying the influence of intelligence on thinking, emotional life and human well-being.

All cognitive psychologists have an interest in the principles and mechanisms that govern the phenomenon of human cognition. Cognition covers mental processes such as perception, thinking, memory, evaluation, planning and organization.

1.1.1 George Kelly's theory

Cognitive psychology has made inroads into many areas of psychology. Including personality theory. Cognitive psychology analyzes how the mind functions and appreciates the variety and complexity of human behavior. If we can better understand how we think. By observing, focusing, and remembering, we will gain a clearer understanding of how these cognitive building blocks contribute to fears and illusions, creativity, and all the behaviors and mental pathways that make us who we are.

According to Kelly, all people are scientists. They form theories and hypotheses about themselves and other people, just like professional scientists.

Kelly's cognitive theory is based on the way in which individuals comprehend and interpret phenomena in your surroundings. Calling his approach personality construct theory, Kelly focuses on the psychological processes that allow people to organize and understand the events that occur in their lives.

The main concept in this direction is “construct”. This concept includes the features of all known cognitive processes (perception, memory, thinking and speech). Thanks to constructs, a person not only understands the world, but also establishes interpersonal relationships.

The constructs that underlie these relationships are called personal constructs.

A construct is a kind of classifier - a template for our perception of other people and ourselves.

Kelly discovered and described the main mechanisms of the functioning of personality constructs. From Kelly's point of view, each of us builds and tests hypotheses, solves problems using appropriate constructs. Some constructs are suitable for describing only a narrow range of events, while others have a wide range of applicability. For example, the construct “smart - stupid” is hardly suitable for describing the weather, but the construct “good - bad” is suitable for virtually all occasions.

People differ not only in the number of constructs, but also in their location. Those constructs that are updated in consciousness faster are called superordinate, and those that are updated more slowly are called subordinate. For example, having met a person, he is assessed from the point of view of whether he is smart or stupid, and only then - good or evil, then the construct “smart - stupid” is superordinate, and the construct “good - evil” is subordinate. Kelly believed that individuals have limited free will. The constructive system that a person has developed over the course of his life contains certain limitations. However, he did not believe that human life is completely determined. In any situation, a person is able to construct alternative predictions. The outside world is neither evil nor good, but the way we construct it in our heads.

Ultimately, according to cognitive scientists, a person’s fate is in his hands. The inner world of a person is subjective and is his own creation. Each person perceives and interprets external reality through his own inner world.

Thus, according to cognitive theory, personality is a system of organized personal constructs in which a person’s personal experience is processed (perceived and interpreted). The personality structure within the framework of this approach is considered as an individually unique hierarchy T constructs.

.1.2 Piaget's cognitive theory

J. Piaget's theory is one of the most notable milestones in the development of cognitive psychology. His theory is the opposite of behaviorism. Piaget envisioned radical changes at different age stages of intellectual development. Children actively interact with the world, adapt the information they receive to the knowledge and concepts they already have, constructing knowledge of reality from their own experience. Postulating predispositions of cognitive functions for the organization and adaptation of experience, Piaget believed that learning should be based on the achieved level of development.

According to Piaget's theory, children, as their brains develop and experience more, pass through four long-term stages, each characterized by qualitatively different ways of thinking. During the sensorimotor stage, cognitive development begins with the child's use of senses and movement to explore the world. These motor patterns relate to the symbolic, but not logical, thinking of the preschooler in the preoperational stage. Piaget developed special methods for studying children's ways of thinking. Early in his career, he carefully studied the behavior of his three infants and gave them everyday tasks, such as showing them an attractive object that they could grab, put in their mouth, throw, and then look for. Based on these reactions, Piaget formed an idea of ​​the cognitive changes that occur in children in the first two years of life. Despite Piaget's significant contributions, his theory has come under criticism in recent years. Research shows that Piaget underestimated the capabilities of infants and preschoolers. When young children are presented with problems ranked by difficulty, their understanding of the problem appears to be closer to that of an older child or adult than Piaget believed. This finding has led many researchers to conclude that children's thinking maturity may depend on the degree of familiarity with the task and the nature of the knowledge learned. Moreover, many studies show that training can improve children's performance on Piagetian problems. These findings challenge Piaget's assumptions that discovery learning, rather than adult teaching, is the best way to promote development.

Currently, researchers of child development are divided in accordance with their attitude to Piaget's ideas. Those who continue to see progressive aspects in Piaget's approach adhere to a modified view of his cognitive stages, according to which qualitative changes in children's thinking occur gradually, not as quickly as Piaget believed. Others are inclined to believe that changes in the cognitive sphere of children occur continuously, and not in stages: information processing theories. Some researchers subscribe to theories that focus on the role of social and cultural contexts in children's development.

1.2 Field of cognitive psychology

Modern cognitive psychology borrows theories and methods from 10 major areas of research: perception, pattern recognition, attention, memory, imagination, language, developmental psychology, reasoning and problem solving, human intelligence, and artificial intelligence.

1.2.1 Perception

The branch of psychology directly concerned with the detection and interpretation of sensory stimuli is called perceptual psychology. From experiments in perception we know about the sensitivity of the human body to sensory signals and how these sensory signals are interpreted. It has been proven that human perception has a creative power, the actions of which are subject to certain objective laws.

The perception system is divided into subsystems: visual, olfactory, auditory, skin-kinesthetic and gustatory. They are adaptive systems capable of learning and anticipating situations. The goal of these systems is to provide high accuracy and speed of perception.

The general model of perception is as follows: receptors carry out the primary encoding of external information and analyze it according to physical qualities (intensity, duration).

Next, information travels along nerve fibers to parts of the brain located in the back of the cerebral hemisphere. These departments are responsible for deep multi-stage processing of information. There, a plan of perceptual actions is formed and images are formed.

The process is controlled by innate and acquired skills, as well as with the help of attention, which in turn depends on the tasks solved by the individual and his volitional efforts. By studying innate and acquired skills, it is possible to reconstruct the algorithm of their work.

Perceptual research alone cannot adequately explain expected actions; other cognitive systems such as pattern recognition, attention, and memory are also involved.

Thus, perception is a holistic reflection of objects, situations and events that arises from the direct impact of physical stimuli on the receptor surfaces of the sense organs. Sensations and perceptions are inextricably linked and interdependent.

It should also be noted that perception is influenced by a person’s previous experience.

1.2.2 Pattern recognition

Environmental stimuli are not perceived as single sensory events; most often they are perceived as part of a larger pattern. What we sense (see, hear, smell, or taste) is almost always part of a complex pattern of sensory stimuli.

This entire process, performed every day by billions of people, takes a fraction of a second, and is simply astounding when you consider how many neuroanatomical and cognitive systems are involved.

Pattern recognition is the process of perceptual categorization, assigning a perceived object to one of many classes based on perceived features, i.e. the process of perceiving and identifying shapes and objects. For example, reading requires remembering a set of meaningful patterns (images) consisting of combinations of lines and curves.

There are several theoretical approaches to explain the human ability to identify and process visual patterns.

-According to the theory of Gestalt psychology, it is assumed that the perception of visual patterns is organized according to the principles of proximity, similarity and spontaneous organization.

-Information processing occurs according to the principle “from specific to general” or “from general to specific.” Experiments show that object perception is significantly influenced by hypotheses determined by context.

-Comparison with the standard assumes that pattern recognition occurs when the sensory stimulus exactly matches the corresponding internal shape.

-The principle of fine-grained analysis states that pattern recognition occurs only after stimuli have been analyzed into their elementary components (similar to general-to-general processing).

-According to the prototype formation hypothesis, pattern perception occurs as a result of the comparison of stimuli with abstractions stored in memory that serve as ideal forms.

The essence of visual image recognition is visual analysis at the input stage and storage of information in long-term memory.

.2.3 Attention

Attention is the process and state of the subject’s attunement (concentration) to perceive priority information and perform assigned tasks. R. Solso gives a more concise definition: attention is the concentration of mental effort on sensory or mental events.

The ability to process information is obviously limited at two levels - sensory and cognitive. If too many sensory cues are imposed at once, "overload" can occur; and if you try to process too many events in memory, overload also occurs. The consequence of this may be a malfunction.

Psychologists study the following aspects of attention:

-Consciousness, in the sense of awareness of external and internal information. There are several levels of consciousness corresponding to episodic, semantic and procedural memory systems.

-Bandwidth and selective attention. Research has shown that there is a bottleneck in the information processing structure. It is assumed that the signals have different activation thresholds. Selectivity of attention selects essential information for further processing.

-Level of arousal (interest) - supports the ability to perceive sensations and exert mental effort. The relationship between arousal and performance needs to be addressed. Increasing arousal to a certain level improves activity; further intensification leads to deterioration in activity.

-Attention management. There are two types of attention control: automatic and controlled information processing.

-One of the important properties of attention is its volume. It is measured by the number of objects that a person is able to correctly perceive when briefly presented simultaneously.

-The process of attention is also characterized by such characteristics as switchability (the ability to quickly switch off from some types of activity and join new ones that correspond to changed conditions) and distribution of attention (the ability to maintain attention simultaneously on several objects, at least two)

.2.4 Memory

Memory is the actual information that is stored and retrieved as needed. Memory connects the subject's past with his present and future. It is the most important cognitive function underlying development and learning. Memory and perception work together.

There are four main processes in memory:

1.Memorization is a process aimed at preserving received impressions in memory. There are voluntary and involuntary, mechanical and meaningful memorization.

2.Preservation is the process of active processing and systematization of the received material.

.The processes of recognition and reproduction are processes of identification, actualization and exteriorization of the perceived object. Simply put, these are processes of restoration of previously perceived information (skills).

.Forgetting is the process of gradually reducing the ability to recognize and reproduce past information or skills.

Due to the fact that memory is present in all life processes, its research is interdisciplinary.

Psychologists distinguish between voluntary and involuntary memory; according to the nature of its manifestation, they distinguish between figurative, verbal-logical, mechanical, emotional and conditioned reflex memory, and according to the type of perception - visual, auditory, olfactory and motor memory. One of the main characteristics of memory is time, or the duration of information storage. Based on storage time, memory is divided into short-term and long-term.

Despite the active and comprehensive study of memory, it cannot be said that everything is known about this process. But the research carried out made it possible to practically apply knowledge about memory processes.

1.2.5 Language

Language plays an important role in many human activities, such as communication, thinking, perception and presentation of information. This is one of the main means of human communication and information exchange.

The development of language in humans is a unique type of mental selection, the mechanism of which serves as the basis of cognition.

Language influences perception, which is a fundamental aspect of cognition. Some scientists suggest that language is used by humans to describe the world and directly influences the perception of this world. There is also the opposite point of view, that it is the development of language that depends on the perception of the world.

For cognitive psychologists, the study of human language is interesting for the following reasons:

Development of language in homo sapiens is a unique type of abstraction, the mechanism of which serves as the basis of cognition. Other species (bees, birds, dolphins, prairie dogs, etc.) also have complex means of communication, and apes even use something like linguistic abstractions, but the degree of abstraction of human language is much higher.

Language processing is an important component of information processing and storage.

Language is involved in various types of human thinking and problem solving. Many, if not most, types of thinking and problem solving occur "internally" - in the absence of external stimuli. Abstractions expressed by verbal symbols allow us to judge these events.

Language is one of the main means of human communication; information exchange most often occurs with its help.

Language influences perception, which is a fundamental aspect of cognition. Some scientists argue that the language a person uses to describe the world influences how a person perceives that world. On the other hand, the development of language is largely based on the perception of the world. Therefore, the components of the perceptual-linguistic process are interdependent: one of them significantly influences the other. Language from this point of view is similar to a window on the world.

Word processing, language, and semantics appear to engage specific brain regions and thus provide an important link between neuroanatomical structures and language. In addition, studies of brain pathology have often found clear changes in language function, as is the case in aphasia.

.2.6 Developmental psychology

This is another area of ​​cognitive psychology that has been studied quite intensively. Recently published theories and experiments in cognitive developmental psychology have greatly expanded our understanding of how cognitive structures develop.

The process of developmental psychology was formed over a long time, but did not receive due recognition due to the fact that it was too “physiological” for psychological theories. However, we now recognize that biological brain development, both prenatal and postnatal, is an integral part of cognitive development. In addition to this theoretical argument, the neurocognitive approach to cognitive developmental psychology has become increasingly important in view of recent discoveries in brain scanning techniques, some of which have already been discussed in other chapters of this textbook.

1.2.7 Thinking

Thinking is an intellectual activity based on the ability to operate with external and internal experiences and sensations. In other words, thinking is a generalized reflection of the surrounding reality, mediated by the word and past human experience.

Advances in cognitive psychology, especially over the past 20 years, have led to the creation of a huge arsenal of research methods and theoretical models that help to identify and explain some of the facts about thinking, and to place them into a convincing framework of coherent psychological theory.

Thinking can be characterized by the following main points:

1.Thinking is cognitive, occurs "internally", in the mind, but is judged by the behavior of the subject.

2.Thinking is a process in which some manipulation of knowledge occurs.

.Thinking is directed, its results are manifested in behavior that “solves” a certain problem or is aimed at solving it.

.Thinking is an integral part and special object of a person’s self-awareness, the structure of which includes understanding oneself as a subject of thinking, differentiation of “one’s own” and “other people’s” thoughts.

Many features of the thinking process have not yet been fully studied.

1.2.8 Problem solving

Problem-solving activity permeates every nuance of human behavior and serves as a common denominator for a wide variety of human activities.

Humans, apes, and many other mammals are curious and, for survival reasons, seek novel stimulation throughout their lives and resolve conflicts through creative problem solving.

Many early problem-solving experiments asked the question: What happens when a person solves a problem? This descriptive approach helped define these phenomena, but it did not provide new information about the cognitive structures and processes that underlie them.

Problem solving - this is thinking aimed at solving a specific problem and including the formation of responses, as well as the choice of possible reactions.

In everyday life, we encounter countless problems that force us to formulate response strategies, select possible responses, and test responses. For example, try solving this problem: a dog has a six-foot rope tied to his neck, and ten feet away from it there is a saucepan.

1.2.9 Human intelligence

Despite the widespread use of the word intelligence, psychologists have not come to a single definition of it. R. Solso considers human intelligence as a working definition as the ability to acquire, reproduce, and use knowledge to understand concrete and abstract concepts and relationships between objects and ideas, and to use knowledge in a meaningful way.

Human intelligence, or the ability of abstract thinking, is one of the most important essential properties of a person. Man, from the standpoint of scientific materialism, is not a local and random episode of evolution, but a necessary result of the endless development of matter, its “highest color,” arising “with an iron necessity” inherent “in the very nature of matter.” The statement about the random nature of the emergence of man in the world, expressed by some philosophers and natural scientists, is in clear contradiction with the deep tendencies of modern science, which in the era of the modern scientific and technological revolution has convincingly shown that man is the result of a single natural world process formed by the necessary sequence of physical , chemical and biological forms of matter.

1.2.10 Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence is a field of research focused on the development of computer programs capable of performing functions usually associated with human intellectual actions: analysis, learning, planning, decision, creativity.

The most productive areas of work in artificial intelligence are related to the following developments:

) expert systems (allowing semi-skilled workers to make decisions accessible to narrow specialists),

) databases (allowing us to analyze information in different ways and select options, assessing the consequences of decisions made),

) research models that allow you to visualize a reality that is inaccessible to direct observation.

Work on artificial intelligence is based on the idea of ​​isomorphism between the brain and physical devices, corresponding to the unified structure of the world and the unity of the laws of nature, society and thinking. Work on artificial intelligence contributes to the mutual enrichment of technical and psychological knowledge.

At the first stages of work on artificial intelligence, human thinking was taken as a model, as a certain ideal created by nature and society over millions of years of evolution and millennia of social development. Subsequently, starting with the works of Marvin Minsky and Seymour Papert, computer programs are considered not only as a tool for explaining thinking processes, but also as a means of changing and improving intellectual procedures.

Work on artificial intelligence has opened up prospects for the development of modern thinking associated with its unique character. Under the influence of work on artificial intelligence, the understanding of learning tasks is changing: a person must master not so much the methods of solving problems as the methods of formulating them, and must be able to choose a thinking style that is adequate to a specific problem. A person’s thinking should acquire an epistemological character, that is, be aimed at understanding the principles of the work of his intellect and knowledge of his individual characteristics.

1.3 Cognitive models

Conceptual sciences, including cognitive psychology, are metaphorical. Models of natural phenomena, in particular, cognitive models, are useful abstract ideas derived from inferences based on observations. The structure of the elements can be represented in the form of a periodic table, as Mendeleev did, but it is important to remember that this classification scheme is a metaphor. And the claim that conceptual science is metaphorical does not diminish its usefulness in the least. One of the challenges of building models is to better understand what is observed. But conceptual science is needed for something else: it gives the researcher a certain framework within which specific hypotheses can be tested and which allows him to predict events based on this model. The periodic table served both of these purposes very elegantly. Based on the arrangement of elements in it, scientists could accurately predict the chemical laws of combination and substitution, instead of conducting endless and messy experiments with chemical reactions. Moreover, it became possible to predict yet undiscovered elements and their properties in the complete absence of physical evidence of their existence. And if you study cognitive models, do not forget the analogy with the Mendeleev model, since cognitive models, like models in the natural sciences, are based on the logic of inference and are useful for understanding cognitive psychology.

Thus, models are based on inferences drawn from observations. Their purpose is to provide an intelligible representation of the nature of what is observed and to help make predictions in the development of hypotheses. Let's look at several models used in cognitive psychology. There is a rather rough version of the model that divided all cognitive processes into three parts: stimulus detection, stimulus storage and transformation, and response generation (Fig. 1):

This model was often used in one form or another in previous ideas about mental processes. And although it reflects the main stages in the development of cognitive psychology, it contains so few details that it is hardly capable of enriching the “understanding” of cognitive processes. It is also unable to generate any new hypotheses or predict behavior.

This primitive model is similar to the ancient ideas of the universe as consisting of earth, water, fire and air. Such a system does represent one possible view of cognitive phenomena, but it does not accurately convey their complexity.

One of the first and most frequently cited cognitive models concerns memory. In 1890, James expanded the concept of memory, dividing it into "primary" and "secondary" memory. He proposed that primary memory deals with past events, while secondary memory deals with permanent, “indestructible” traces of experience. This model looked like this (Fig. 2):

Later, in 1965, Waugh and Norman proposed a new version of the same model and it turned out to be largely acceptable. It is understandable, it can serve as a source of hypotheses and predictions, but it is also too simplified. Is it possible to use it to describe all processes of human memory? Hardly; and the development of more complex models was inevitable. A modified and expanded version of the Waugh and Norman model is shown in Fig. 3. Note that a new storage system and several new information paths have been added. But even this model is incomplete and requires expansion.

Over the past decade, building cognitive models has become a favorite pastime of psychologists, and some of their creations are truly magnificent. Usually the problem of overly simple models is solved by adding another "block", another information path, another storage system, another element worth checking and analyzing.

We can now conclude that the invention of models in cognitive psychology has gotten out of control. This is not entirely true since it is such a broad task - i.e. analysis of how information is discovered, represented, converted into knowledge, and how this knowledge is used - that no matter how much we limit our conceptual metaphors to simplified models, we will still not be able to exhaustively explain the entire complex field of cognitive psychology.

1.4 Cognitive psychocorrection

Cognitive psychology emerged as a response to behaviorism and Gestalt psychology. Therefore, in cognitive psychocorrection the main focus is<#"justify">Conclusion

So cognitive psychology is a field of psychology that studies the processes of human cognition. In English-language literature, the term cognitive sciences is more commonly accepted, denoting a set of areas of research into cognition and thinking, which, in addition to psychology, includes cybernetics, computer science, some areas of logic, as well as a number of areas of philosophy of consciousness.

Cognitive psychology studies how people acquire information about the world, how this information is represented by humans, how it is stored in memory and converted into knowledge, and how this knowledge influences our attention and behavior.

Cognitive psychology covers the full range of psychological processes - from sensation to perception, pattern recognition, attention, learning, memory, concept formation, thinking, imagination, remembering, language, emotion and developmental processes; it covers all possible areas of behavior.

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Cognitive psychology- is the scientific study of the thinking mind; it concerns the following issues:

How do we pay attention to and collect information about the world?

How does the brain store and process this information?

How do we solve problems, think and express our thoughts using language?

Cognitive psychology covers the full range of mental processes - from sensation to perception, neuroscience, pattern recognition, attention, consciousness, learning, memory, concept formation, thinking, imagination, remembering, language, intelligence, emotion and developmental processes; it concerns all possible spheres of behavior.

Rice. 1 . Main directions of research in cognitive psychology

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Cognitive psychology arose in the late 50s and early 60s of the 20th century. On September 11, 1956, a special group of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineering devoted to information theory met at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This meeting is believed to have marked the beginning of the cognitive revolution in psychology. The cognitive direction in psychology does not have a “founding father”, like, for example, psychoanalysis. However, we can name the names of scientists who laid the foundation of cognitive psychology with their work. George Miller, Jerome Bruner, Ulric Neisser, George Kelly, Herbert Simon, Allen Newell, Noam Chomsky, David Green, John Sweets. George Miller and Jerome Bruner founded the Center for Cognitive Research in 1960, where they worked on a wide range of problems: language, memory, perceptual and concept processes, thinking and cognition. On August 22, 1966, Jerome Bruner's book “Studies in Cognitive Growth” was published. In 1967, Ulrik Neisser published the book “Cognitive Psychology,” in which he tried to establish a new direction in psychology. 1976 U. Neisser “Cognition and Reality.”

The main prerequisites for its occurrence: - the inability of behaviorism and psychoanalysis to explain human behavior without referring to the elements of consciousness; - development of communications and cybernetics; - development of modern linguistics.

In the late 70s - early 80s, within the framework of cognitive psychology, a movement appeared for a “new view” in psychology, that is, the adoption of a computer metaphor (or consideration of the human psyche by analogy with the functioning of a computer), absolutization of the role of knowledge in human behavior.

Cognitive psychology owes awareness of its subject and method to Neisser and his book “Cognitive Psychology” (1967). Like Piaget, he proved the decisive role of the cognitive component in the structure of the psyche and in people’s activities. Neisser defined cognition as the process by which incoming sensory data undergoes various types of transformation for the convenience of their accumulation, reproduction and further use. He suggested that cognitive processes are best studied by modeling the flow of information through various stages of transformation. To explain the essence of the ongoing processes, he proposed the terms: “iconic memory”, “echoic memory”, “pre-tuning processes”, “figurative synthesis”, and developed methods for studying them - visual search and selective observation. Initially, he also researched “artificial intelligence,” but later criticized (for its narrowness) that the abundance of information stimuli that a person receives is underestimated.

Jean Piaget (1896-1980) is a prominent representative of the cognitive school and child psychology in general, who combined biology with the science of the origin of knowledge (epistemology). J. Piaget, a student of P. Janet, at the beginning of the 20th century worked together with A. Binet and T. Simon in their Paris laboratory to develop tests. Then he headed the Jean-Jacques Rousseau Institute in Geneva and the International Center for Genetic Epistemology. He was attracted not by standards, but by patterns of erroneous answers, and he used the method of clinical conversation or probing interview to reveal what was hidden behind the wrong answer, and used logical models in the analysis.

J. Piaget considers the development of intelligence as a form of adaptation to the environment by balancing assimilation and accommodation, assimilating information and improving schemes and methods of processing it. This allows humans to survive as a biological species. At the same time, emphasizing the role of the child’s own efforts, J. Piaget clearly underestimated the influence of adults and the social environment.

The development of intelligence, according to J. Piaget, goes through four stages.

I. Sensorimotor intelligence (from 0 to 2 years) is manifested in actions: patterns of looking, grasping, circular reactions are learned when the baby repeats the action, expecting that its effect will be repeated (throws a toy and waits for a sound).

P. Preoperative stage (2-7 years). Children learn speech, but they use words to combine both the essential and external characteristics of objects. Therefore, their analogies and judgments seem unexpected and illogical: the wind blows because the trees sway; a boat floats because it is small and light, and a ship floats because it is large and strong.

III. Stage of concrete operations (7-11 years). Children begin to think logically, can classify concepts and give definitions, but all this is based on specific concepts and visual examples.

IV. Stage of formal operations (from 12 years). Children operate with abstract concepts, categories “what will happen if...”, understand metaphors, and can take into account the thoughts of other people, their roles and ideals. This is the intelligence of an adult.

To illustrate the cognitive theory of development, J. Piaget proposed a famous experiment to understand the phenomenon of conservation. Understanding the conservation of matter (volume, quantity) when changing shape, location, appearance is the separation of the essential properties of an object from the non-essential. Children were shown two glasses of colored water and asked whether the amount of water in the two glasses was the same. After the child agreed, water was poured from one glass into a taller and narrower one. The same question was asked again. Children under 6-7 years old said that there is more water in a tall glass. Even if the transfusion was repeated several times, they still said that there was more in a narrow glass. Only 7-8 year olds noticed the same volume. And this was repeated in different countries and cultures.

Fritz Heider's theory of structural balance. The basic tenet of this theory is that people tend to develop an orderly and coherent view of the world; in this process, they build a kind of “naive psychology”, trying to understand the motives and attitudes of another person. Naive psychology strives for an internal balance of objects perceived by a person, internal consistency. Imbalance causes tension and forces that lead to restoration of balance. Balance, according to Heider, is not a state that characterizes real relationships between objects, but only a person’s perception of these relationships. The basic scheme of Heider's theory: P - O - X, where P is the perceiving subject, O is the other (perceiving subject), X is the object perceived and P and O. The interaction of these three elements constitutes a certain cognitive field, and the task of the psychologist is to , to identify what type of relationship between these three elements is stable, balanced, and what type of relationship causes a feeling of discomfort in the subject (P) and his desire to change the situation.

Theodore Newcomb's theory of communicative acts extends Heider's theoretical principles to the area of ​​interpersonal relationships. Newcomb believed that the tendency toward balance characterizes not only intrapersonal, but also interpersonal systems of relationships. The main point of this theory is as follows: if two people perceive each other positively, and build some kind of relationship towards a third person (person or object), they tend to develop similar orientations towards this third person. The development of these similar orientations can be enhanced through the development of interpersonal relationships. A consonant (balanced, non-contradictory) state of the system arises, as in the previous case, when all three relationships are positive, or one relationship is positive and two are negative; dissonance occurs where two attitudes are positive and one negative.

Leon Festinger's theory of cognitive dissonance is perhaps the most widely known cognitive theory. In it, the author develops Heider’s ideas regarding the relationship of balance and imbalance between the elements of the subject’s cognitive map of the world. The basic proposition of this theory is the following: people strive for some internal consistency as a desired internal state. If a contradiction arises between what a person knows, or between what he knows and what he does, the person experiences a state of cognitive dissonance, which is subjectively experienced as discomfort. This state of discomfort causes behavior aimed at changing it - the person strives to again achieve internal consistency.

Dissonance can arise:

from logical inconsistency (All people are mortal, but A will live forever.);

from the discrepancy between cognitive elements and cultural patterns (The parent yells at the child, knowing that this is not good.);

from the inconsistency of this cognitive element with some broader system of ideas (a communist votes for Putin (or Zhirinovsky) in presidential elections);

from the inconsistency of this cognitive element with past experience (he always violated traffic rules - and nothing; but now he was fined!).

The way out of the state of cognitive dissonance is possible in the following way:

through a change in the behavioral elements of the cognitive structure (A person stops buying a product that, in his opinion, is too expensive (poor quality, unfashionable, etc.);

through a change in cognitive elements related to the environment (A person continues to buy a certain product, convincing others that this is what is needed.);

through expanding the cognitive structure so that it includes previously excluded elements (Selects facts indicating that B, C and D are buying the same product - and everything is fine!).

Congruence theory by C. Osgood and P. Tannenbaum describes additional possibilities for getting out of a situation of cognitive dissonance. According to this theory, other options for exiting the state of dissonance are possible, for example, through a simultaneous change in the subject’s attitude towards both another subject and the perceived object. An attempt is made to predict changes in relationships (attitudes) that will occur in the subject under the influence of the desire to restore consonance within the cognitive structure.

The main provisions of the theory: a) the imbalance in the cognitive structure of the subject depends not only on the general sign of the relationship, but also on its intensity; b) restoration of consonance can be achieved not only by changing the sign of the subject’s relationship to one of the elements of the triad “P, O, X”, but also by simultaneously changing both the intensity and sign of these relationships, and simultaneously to both members of the triad.

Who decided to conduct the first research in the field of human cognition, and what results did the bold experiments of innovators bring? Behaviorism and psychoanalysis were not able to provide an explanation of human behavior without an interpretation of processes in consciousness. Gradually, interest led humanity to the emergence of a new direction, which affected not only cybernetics, biology, neurophysiology, but also linguistics.

The path to the formation of a new science

Cognitive psychology originated in the mid-20th century, during an era of rapid development of technology and computing. Scientists are faced with the need to substantiate the interaction between humans and modern technologies from a psychological perspective. The main interest of the new field was the study of cognitive, that is, human cognitive abilities. Perception was seen as a fundamental act on which the foundation of the human psyche is built. All sorts of experiments and studies have been carried out to explore the possible limits of human abilities in relation to processing and storing information in their memory.

It is worth noting that the founders of the science include psychologists Fritz Heider (the theory of cognitive balance) and Leon Festinger (the theory of cognitive dissonance). But noticeable progress was facilitated by a meeting in 1956 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where representatives of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineering and specialists in the field of information theories gathered. This meeting is still considered a real revolution in cognitive psychology; issues of the formation of language and memory under the influence of computer technology were raised there.

Cognitive psychology received its name thanks to the researchers Jerome Bruner (Study of Cognitive Development, 1967) and Ulrik Neisser (Cognition and Reality, 1976), who published their works, telling the public about the subject of their research. Subsequently, the Center for Cognitive Psychology was organized, where the processes of cognition, thinking, aspects of developmental psychology, etc. were studied.

By choosing the term “cognitive..”, we opposed ourselves to behaviorism. Initially, we thought about using the concept of “mentality”. But “mental psychology” sounded too ridiculous, and “common sense psychology” would send us to the field of anthropological research, “folk psychology” is similar to Wundtian social psychology. As a result, we settled on the term “cognitive psychology.”

George Miller, co-founder of the Center for Cognitive Psychology

One of the famous psychologists working in this area was the Swiss Jean Piaget. Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Neuchâtel devoted himself for a long time to his passion for psychoanalysis, which was fashionable at that time. While working with children, Piaget conducted a number of interesting experiments. Through tests, he established the chain of logical operations and the integrity of the general structure of the child’s thinking.

Piaget talked about changes in human intelligence and its possible adaptation to the environment with each stage of development. He identified four cognitive stages:

• Sensorimotor – external manipulation and the beginning of work with internal symbols (0-2 years).
• Pre-operative – building associative connections and transductive reasoning (transitional processing of information from one image to another), centralization of consciousness on conspicuous objects, attention to the external state (2-7 years).
• Stage of concrete operations - a system of integrated actions is formed, logical operations with classes are established, their hierarchy is built, operations occur only with specific objects of study (7-11 years).
• The stage of formal operations is the transformation of consciousness into a hypothetical-deductive one, the construction of mental sentences and reasoning, the systematic identification of variables, their combination (11-15 years).

In 1925, Piaget, after a series of significant experiments, came to the discovery of children's egocentrism. His theory states that children up to a certain age are focused only on themselves and their inner experiences. You can often see a picture of a small child or teenager, being close to a parent, another child, or even alone, talking about his experiences or simply voicing his thoughts, without any need for feedback.

Unusual experiment

With the gradual decline of the dominance of behaviorist concepts in 1971, psychologist Philip Zimbardo of Stanford University decided to take a bold step. Purpose of the study: to study the behavioral characteristics of a person in cruel conditions (limited freedom of action and will, pressure on moral principles). The recruitment of volunteers took about a month; not everyone was ready to calmly go to torture and obey any instructions. A total of twenty-four people were selected. In order to maintain the purity of the experiment, the candidates were divided into two groups. The first half included guards, and the other half included so-called prisoners. The main guards were a laboratory assistant and an assistant psychologist; Zimbardo himself became the manager of this research prison.

The subjects were "arrested" in their homes under false pretenses and under the direction of the Palo Alto police. The prisoners were transported to a fenced area, processed, assigned a number and placed in compartments. From the first minutes, the scientist began to record the mental reactions of the experiment participants and observe their behavior.

The experiment was originally designed to last two weeks, but ended after just six days due to the fact that things quickly got out of control. The “prisoners” were mocked, humiliated and even used physical violence. The “guards” quickly got used to the role and began to show sadistic tendencies, depriving the prisoners of sleep, forcing them to hold their hands up for a long time, etc. Many “prisoners” already experienced severe emotional distress and a feeling of depression on the third day of the experiment.

A significant result of the experiment can be considered the book by F. Zimbardo entitled “The Lucifer Effect” (2007), in which he described the effect of cognitive dissonance (a conflict of emotional reactions in the human mind) and the inherent humility of a person before obvious personal authority. Particular attention was paid to the influence of public opinion and the degree of government support, which can justify or reject an individual's views.

This was the most striking experiment in the field of cognitive psychology. For ethical reasons, no one else made similar attempts to repeat the experiment.

Further development of interest

In the subsequent years of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, researchers delved deeper into the field of human-computer interaction. A theory that portrays the psyche as a kind of center that can perceive a finite number of signals emanating from the environment and then processed by the human brain has gained wide popularity. The human cognitive system was viewed as similar to a computer system, with input, output, and information storage devices.

Psychologist George Miller conducted a number of interesting tests to determine human memory abilities. So, as a result of the experiment, Miller found out that we can remember no more than 7-9 characters at a time. It could be nine numbers, eight letters, or five or six simple words.

New stage of research

American neurophysiologist, physician and psychologist Karl Pribram, collaborating with the famous researcher in behavioral psychology Karl Lashley, developed a holographic model of the functioning of the human psyche, which led to a unique discovery. Memory is not concentrated in separate areas of the brain, but is distributed across all parts. This discovery revolutionized cognitive psychology, since it was previously believed that it was the middle lobes of the brain that were responsible for the perception and storage of information. Pribram's theory and experimental results are not fully accepted, but are indirectly confirmed by most subsequent experiments.

Interaction with other sciences

It is now believed that cognitive psychology and neuroscience are developing in parallel with each other. This is because both sciences study similar areas of the human brain. The difference lies in the focus of psychology - on the study of the reactions of the human psyche to external stimuli, and neurobiology - on the study of the reactions of neurons in the brain. At the same time, many psychologists, such as S. Gerber and A. Newell, do not consider the results of research in the field of neurobiology applicable to human psychology, because the answers to questions from one science are almost impossible to adapt to another.

Conclusion

Almost fifty years have passed since the Stanford prison experiment, but the psychological community is still discussing its results and citing the decisive action of the researcher as an example. During the experiment, truly frightening properties of the human psyche were revealed. People chosen at random and not showing any signs of violence were able to become sophisticated sadists in just 24 hours. Guided by the justification of his own actions and succumbing to his inner nature, a person allowed an extreme degree of anger. And these are clearly not the defense mechanisms that Sigmund Freud described.

Cognitive psychology has made its contribution to science and, despite the frightening findings, still continues to attract the interest of researchers. Perhaps very soon this relatively new field of psychology will give humanity the opportunity to look deeper into the origins of human behavior and understand its fundamental laws.

Literature sources:

• 1. Druzhinin V.N. Ontology of psychic reality // Series-14. General psychology. – 1995. - No. 13. – P. 67-485.
• 2. Cognitive psychology. John Anderson. – St. Petersburg. Series-2. – 2014. - P. 24-45.
• 3. Cognitive psychology. R. Solso. – St. Petersburg. – Series No. 4-2014. – P. 234-342.
• 4. Jean Piaget. "Favorites". Ed. Obukhova S.V. // Moscow University Publishing House.
• 5. Introduction to general psychology. Abdurakhmanov R.A. – Moscow-Voronezh. pp. 345-454.

Editor: Chekardina Elizaveta Yurievna

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Research in the field of psychology and ethics of business communication conducted in Western countries is based on certain provisions of the existing areas of general and social psychology when solving theoretical and methodological problems. For this purpose, the fundamental principles of such directions as behaviorism, cognitive psychology, Gestalt psychology, field theory, psychoanalysis, humanistic psychology, and interactionism are used. That general revolution in views and fundamental views on the essence, subject and methods of psychological science, which has now taken especially sharp and vivid forms in Russia, cannot, of course, pass without leaving a trace and unnoticed for the entire applied field of psychology. If in the field of theoretical knowledge there is a radical breakdown of old concepts and ideas, a fundamental restructuring of ideas and methods, then in applied disciplines, representing branches from the common trunk, so those painful and fruitful processes of destruction and restructuring of the entire scientific system are inevitable. The restructuring of psychological ideas that is taking place now directly causes a radical change in scientific views on the very essence of the pedagogical process. We can say that here for the first time education is revealed in its true essence for science, that for the first time here the teacher finds the ground to talk not about guesses and metaphors, but about the exact meaning and scientific laws of educational work.

1. Characteristics of the essence of behaviorism as a science that studies behavior in an objective way

Behaviorism is a direction in psychology of the twentieth century, which considers the subject of psychology to be behavior, which is understood as a set of physiological reactions of an individual to external stimuli. At the beginning of the 20th century, behaviorism (from the English word behavior) or behavioral psychology became an influential trend in psychology, which is credited with “revolutionary” significance. Its experimental premise was the study of animal behavior conducted by E. Thorndike (1874-1949). Many of his findings were taken into account in explaining human behavior. He believed that pedagogy should be based on the psychology of behavior. E. Thorndike is the founder of behavioral psychology and objective psychology. He views the human psyche and behavior as a system of reactions of the body to internal and external stimuli.

In 1913, John Watson (1878-1958) formulated the basic principles of behavioral psychology. The main principle is not to study oneself, but to study the behavior of a neighbor. In this way, a person explains his own behavior. Watson believed that the study of oneself is a subjective assessment, and behaviorism examines psychological phenomena objectively. Therefore, one should study the behavior of other people and their reactions to environmental influences, i.e. incentives. This is the essence and meaning of behaviorism. Many of its provisions explain the influence of external factors on people’s behavior, activities and interpersonal communication.

Behaviorists studied behavior and activity. Activity - external and internal - was described through the concept of “reaction”, which included those changes in the body that could be recorded by objective methods - this includes movements and, for example, secretory activity.

As a descriptive and explanatory one, D. Watson proposed the S-R scheme, according to which the impact, i.e. stimulus (S) gives rise to some behavior of the organism, i.e. reaction (r), and, importantly, in the ideas of classical behaviorism, the nature of the reaction is determined only by the stimulus. Watson's scientific program was also connected with this idea - to learn to control behavior. In fact, if the response is determined by the stimulus, then it is enough to select the right stimuli to obtain the desired behavior. Consequently, it is necessary to conduct experiments aimed at identifying the patterns by which stimulus-reactive connections are formed, to organize careful monitoring of situations, and recording behavioral manifestations in response to the influence of a stimulus.

The principles of classical behaviorism look simplified. Subsequent experimental practice did not confirm the validity of the original scheme as universal: in response to the same stimulus, different reactions may follow, and the same reaction can be stimulated by different stimuli. The stimulus dependence of the response was not questioned; however, the question arose that there is something that determines the reaction, in addition to the stimulus, or more precisely, in interaction with it. Researchers who developed Watson's ideas proposed introducing one more instance into the argument. Usually denoted by the concept of “intermediate variables,” meaning some events in the body that are affected by the stimulus and which, not being a reaction in the strict sense (since they cannot be objectively recorded), also determine the response. (S-O-R Diagram).

One of the most authoritative behaviorists is B. Skinner, who suggested that behavior can be built on a different principle, namely, determined not by the stimulus preceding the reaction, but by the likely consequences of behavior. This does not mean freedom of behavior (although within the framework of his approach the problem of human “self-programming” is discussed); In general, it is meant that, having had a certain experience, an animal or person will tend to reproduce it if it had pleasant consequences, and avoid it if the consequences were unpleasant. In other words, it is not the subject who chooses the behavior, but the likely consequences of the behavior that control the subject.

Accordingly, behavior can be manipulated by rewarding (i.e., positively reinforcing) certain behaviors and thereby making them more likely to occur; This is the basis for the idea of ​​programmed learning proposed by Skinner, which provides for “step-by-step” mastery of an activity with reinforcement for each step.

A special direction within the framework of behaviorism is sociobehaviorism, which was most actively formed in the 60s. New to what we have been talking about is the idea that a person can master behavior not through his own trial and error, but by observing the experiences of others and the reinforcements that accompany this or that behavior (“observational learning” , “learning without trial" This important difference assumes that human behavior becomes cognitive, i.e. Includes an indispensable cognitive component, in particular, symbolic. This mechanism turns out to be the most important in the process of socialization; on its basis, methods for implementing aggressive and cooperative behavior are formed. This can be illustrated by the experiment of the leading psychologist of this direction, Canadian Albert Bandura.

Representatives of neobehaviorism Edward Chase Tolman (1886-1959) and Clark Leonard Hall (1884-1952) tried to explain human mental activity from the standpoint of behaviorism methodology. They came up with the concept of “mediators” - internal processes occurring between stimulus and response. At the same time, they proceeded from the fact that for “invisible mediators” there should be the same objective indicators that are used when studying stimuli and reactions accessible to external observation. However, their concept turned out to be unconvincing in a scientific sense and has largely lost its influence. There was a return to classical behaviorism, especially expressed in the work of Burres Frederick Skinner (b. 1904).

2. Basic principles of cognitive psychology. Cognitive theories.

The positions of behaviorists were criticized by representatives of cognitive psychology. They proceed from the fact that human behavior is determined both by the influence of environmental conditions on him and by his mental abilities. The word “cognition” comes from the Latin cogponsere and means to cognize, to know.

This direction was started by the research of U. Neisser. The ideas of cognitive psychology, which reveals the role of people’s consciousness in their behavior, were also substantiated in the works of American psychologists J. Kelly, J. Rotter, A. Bandura and other representatives of this direction. The main problem for them is “the organization of knowledge in the memory of the subject.” They believe that a person's knowledge is organized into certain conceptual schemes within which he thinks and acts. It is argued that “perception, memory, thinking and other cognitive processes are determined by patterns in the same way as the structure of the organism by genotype.”

Cognitive approach in the study of conscious human behavior is the desire to understand how we decipher information about reality and organize it in order to make comparisons, make decisions or solve problems that confront us every minute.

The psychology of personal constructs is one of the variants of the cognitive approach to the study of behavior, developed in the theory of George Kelly (1905-1967). Its initial premise is that different people perceive and evaluate the phenomena of reality differently and, in connection with this, make different, alternative decisions that allow them to carry out their urgent tasks. This approach is characterized as constructive alternativeism. The scientist substantiates the proposition about the selective nature of human behavior, who, from a number of alternative possibilities, chooses quite specific ones, from his point of view the most optimal in a given situation. In this case, a person acts as a researcher who puts forward various kinds of “working hypotheses” regarding reality and the choice of a possible option for his behavior. This approach helps not only to behave correctly at the moment, but also to anticipate the course of events, as well as control your behavior. At the same time, he “controls events depending on the questions posed and the answers found. According to J. Kelly, any person comprehends and evaluates the phenomena of the external environment and determines the options for his command based on the conceptual schemes or models he constructs, which he calls personal constructs. He characterizes a personal construct as “a stable way in which a person comprehends some aspects of reality in terms of similarity and contrast.”

Kelly notes that if this or that personal construct or conceptual scheme justifies itself when assessing reality and choosing an action by this or that person, then he proceeds from it further. If not, he rejects it and constructs another. It is emphasized that personal constructs are not chaotically crowded in a person’s consciousness, but are organized in a certain way and function in a particular system. We are talking about their hierarchical, or “pyramidal” organization, so that some of them are “in a subordinate” position, while others are in a “subordinate” position relative to other parts of the system.

The thesis is comprehensively substantiated that the system of personal constructs (conceptual schemes), formed in the process of a person’s conscious interaction with the external natural and social environment, determines his wide alternative possibilities in choosing his actions and thereby expands the range of his freedom. In J. Kelly's theory of personality constructs, “people are presented as free and dependent on their own behavior.” A number of substantive points were made by A. Bandura and J. Rotter within the framework of their social-cognitive approach to the study of the human psyche and their behavior.

Observational learning is the main idea of ​​the theory of Albert Bandura (b. 1925). The point is that a person’s mental abilities develop in the process of observing phenomena in the external, especially social, environment. And he acts in accordance with his observations. Bandura justifies human ability. Towards self-regulation, in particular, to ensure that, when acting in accordance with the situation, one takes into account the nature of the influence of one’s actions on other people and their possible reactions to these actions. Thus, it becomes possible to foresee the consequences of one’s own actions and regulate and change one’s behavior accordingly.

In addition to observations, the scientist assigns great importance in the conscious behavior of an individual to such manifestations of a person’s consciousness as attention and motives that prompt him to act in one direction or another. We are talking about the incentive motivation for people’s behavior, arising from their needs, interests, goals, etc. By evaluating past experiences of successes and failures in an attempt to achieve the desired results, a person himself builds his behavior in accordance with his needs and interests.

Quite definitely, A. Bandura “gives priority to conscious thinking over unconscious determinants of behavior.” In other words, he puts meaningful goals over instincts or intuition. This increases the possibility of self-control in people’s behavior and activities, including taking into account the extent to which a person’s behavior meets the conditions of the external environment and how effective it can be for his social self-affirmation. The problem of developing a self-control program and its implementation is posed and solved.

In his theory of social learning, Julian Rotter (b. 1916) explores the problem of the influence of social factors on the development of the human psyche, primarily his relationships with other people. The influence of social situations on the development of a person’s consciousness and self-awareness, including the formation of conscious motives for his behavior, is explored.

J. Rotter introduced into the science of personality psychology the concept of behavioral potential, which expresses the probability of one or another behavior depending on the nature of the influence of external social factors on it. In this he agrees with the opinion of A. Bandura, who asserts that a person’s consciousness, which determines his behavior, is to a large extent formed under the influence of external circumstances, primarily social ones. At the same time, the role of these circumstances in the formation of the goals of activity and the entire system of internal motivation of a person is indicated.

Conclusion

Behavioral approach to personality, supported by B.F. Skinner refers to people's overt actions in accordance with their life experiences. Skinner argued that behavior is deterministic, predictable, and controlled by the environment. He categorically rejected the idea of ​​internal “autonomous” factors as the cause of human actions and neglected the physiological-genetic explanation of behavior. Skinner recognized two main types of behavior: respondent behavior, which is a response to a familiar stimulus, and operant behavior, which is determined and controlled by the outcome that follows it. Skinner's work focuses almost entirely on operant behavior. In operant conditioning, the organism acts on its environment to produce an outcome that affects the likelihood that the behavior will be repeated. An operant response followed by a positive outcome tends to be repeated, while an operant response followed by a negative outcome tends not to be repeated. According to Skinner, behavior can best be understood in terms of reactions to the environment.

It is quite difficult to talk about psychology as a single science at the present stage: each direction offers its own understanding of mental life, puts forward its own explanatory principles and, accordingly, concentrates efforts on the analysis of certain aspects of what it understands as mental reality. At the same time, recently there has been a convergence of a number of directions - or at least a tendency towards greater tolerance of them towards each other, which means the possibility of dialogue and mutual enrichment.

Bibliography

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2. Nemov R.S. Psychology: Textbook for students of higher pedagogical institutions. In 2 books - M.: Enlightenment - Vlados, 1994.
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4. Psychological Dictionary (Ed. Zinchenko V.P., Meshcheryakova B.G. - M.: Pedagogy - Press, 1999.

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Currently, cognitive psychology is largely based on analogies between the mechanisms of human cognition and the transformation of information in computing devices. (And this despite the fact that its foundations were laid before cybernetics and complex computing and information technology appeared.)

The most common concept is that the psyche is a device that has a fixed ability to transform received signals. The main significance in it is the internal cognitive schemes and activities of the body involved in the process of cognition. The human cognitive system is considered as a system with input, storage and output devices, taking into account its throughput potential. And the basic metaphor of cognitive psychology is a computer metaphor, according to which the work of the human brain is likened to the work of a computer processor.

For those who are interested in representatives of cognitive psychology, we will name them. These are Boris Velichkovsky, George Sperling, Robert Solso, Karl Pribram, Jerome Bruner, George Miller, Ulrik Neisser, Allen Newell, Simon Herbert and some others. At the end of the article we will also provide a small list of books by some of these authors. Now the main ideas of cognitive science are of greatest interest to us.

But given the seriousness of the topic and the physical impossibility of talking about everything in one article, it won’t hurt if you take the time to watch the hour and a half video. This is a recording of the lecture “What is cognitive psychology, where does it come from and where is it going” by Maria Falikman, Doctor of Psychology, Senior Researcher at the Center for Cognitive Research, Faculty of Philology, Moscow State University. However, you can watch it after finishing the article or at any suitable time.

Basic ideas of cognitive psychology

Cognitive psychology relies on several fundamental ideas in its research. Let us present each of them in abstract form:

• The main objects of study are cognitive processes. These include thinking, speech, perception, imagination,... In addition to these, cognitive science studies human and artificial intelligence, the emotional sphere of personality, developmental psychology and the process of pattern recognition.
• The most important premise of cognitive psychology is the study and analysis of cognitive processes in the form of computer functions. Representatives of the direction consider the cognitive processes of the human psyche in the same way as, for example, an electronics engineer studies a computer. A computer performs many operations related to receiving, processing, storing and issuing data. Human cognitive functions are responsible for similar operations.
• The third idea follows from the second. It says that the psyche processes data in stages. Those. any stimulus received from the external world passes through a chain of ordinal transformations.
• Mental information processing systems have their own maximum capacity. This assumption explains the direction of work and tasks of cognitive psychologists - they strive to find natural and most effective methods of working with information entering the psyche from the outside world (cognitive therapists use this knowledge to correct the behavior of patients).
• All information that enters the psyche through cognitive processes is encoded and reflected in a special (individual) way.
• For any research, it is necessary to use chronometric means to estimate the response time to proposed tasks and/or the speed with which the psyche reacts to signals. Cognitive psychology does not use introspective technologies (when a person himself observes the processes occurring in the psyche and does not use tools and standards), and considers them insufficiently accurate.

These ideas may seem quite simple at first glance, but in fact they form the basis on which a whole complex of complex scientific research rests. This, in turn, says that cognitive psychology, despite its relatively small age, is a very serious scientific field. By studying the processes of cognition occurring in the psyche, she can draw certain conclusions based on empirical evidence obtained.

The cognitive approach in psychology makes it possible to explain human behavior through a description of cognitive processes, to study and interpret the processes of perception, pattern recognition, problem solving, and memory functioning; to explore the mechanisms of constructing a cognitive picture of the world, unconscious perception and cognition, not only in humans, but also in animals.

All research in the field of cognitive psychology is carried out using special methods. First of all, these are methods of microdynamic and microstructural analysis of perceptual processes. The microstructure and microdynamics of mental activity are the subject of cognitive science, which studies the characteristics of mental life. The structure here is a relatively static representation of the system of organizing the elements of mental processes. And microdynamics is the study of processes occurring in mental life through the processing of information coming from the surrounding world. Thanks to both methods, human actions are considered as parts of a single intrapsychic system, and not as separate phenomena.

The next method is the microgenetic method, based on one of the types of Gestalt theory (Leipzig school), which focuses on the peculiarities of the formation of mental phenomena. According to this theory, images of objects do not appear in the human mind immediately, but after passing through several stages, which can be identified by creating certain conditions. But the main task of the method is to study not the final result of the thought process or its relationship with conditions, but the process itself leading to this result.

These three methods are designed to analyze thinking and cognitive processes. But there is one more that attracts the most attention. This is a personality construct replacement method developed by American psychologist George Kelly in 1955. Despite the fact that the cognitive approach in psychology was still in its infancy, Kelly’s works became defining for him, and today such an important area of ​​practical cognitive psychology as cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy has been built around them. When considering it, we will touch a little deeper on the above-mentioned method.

Cognitive behavioral psychotherapy

cognitive approach in psychology

Today, with the help of cognitive behavioral psychotherapy, therapists work with people’s mental disorders: eliminate them, smooth them out, or reduce the likelihood of future relapses. It helps eliminate psychosocial consequences, correct behavior, and increase the effectiveness of medication treatment. This direction was based on the ideas of George Kelly.

Kelly's personality construct theory states that each mental process proceeds through different ways of predicting events in the surrounding reality. Human consciousness and behavior are not controlled by instincts, incentives, or even the need for self-actualization. He acts as a scientist, studying and understanding the world around him and himself.

According to Kelly, a person, by studying the behavior of others, trying to understand its essence and make predictions, builds his own system of personal constructs. The concept of “construct” is fundamental in the scientist’s theory. The construct consists of the characteristics of perception, memory, thinking and speech and is a classifier of how a person perceives himself and the world around him.

This is the main means for classifying the phenomena of reality, which is a bipolar scale, for example, “stupid-smart”, “beautiful-ugly”, “brave-cowardly”, etc. The process of a person’s choice of constructs characterizes him as an object of cognition, which is the subject of interest of all therapy. The constructs form a system, and if it turns out to be ineffective, a healthy person either changes it or replaces it with a new one. In case of mental disorders, they resort to therapy.

In general terms, therapy can be defined as a comparative analysis of the characteristics of people’s perception and interpretation of external information. This analysis consists of three stages:

1. At the first stage, the patient works with various tools that help identify erroneous judgments and then find their causes.
2. At the second stage, the patient, with the help of a therapist, masters techniques for correct correlations between phenomena in the surrounding world. The specialist’s task is to show a person the benefits and harms, advantages and disadvantages of an existing construct.
3. At the third stage, the patient must become aware of the new construct and begin to build his behavior on its basis.

It is important to note that the specialist only starts the treatment process, and then simply corrects it. And a lot here (which is also typical in other areas of psychiatry and psychology) depends on the person undergoing treatment.

Kelly's theory describes a conceptual framework that allows a person to make sense of reality and create specific behavioral patterns. By the way, it was supported by the famous Canadian and American psychologist Albert Bandura. He developed a system of "observational learning" used to change behavior.

The personal construct itself is used by world experts who study fears and phobias, and depressive states. Cognitive psychotherapists believe that the cause of any mental disorder lies in dysfunctional (wrong) constructs. This is why Kelly's theory is so important for therapy.

Instead of a conclusion

If we talk about the relevance of cognitive science in general, then it is in demand by specialists who study the features and mechanisms of not only perception, memory, attention and speech, but also the formation of judgments, decision-making, problem solving, the functioning of the intellect and many other issues.

Considering that cognitive psychology relates to some other sciences, its study is required by people working in completely different fields. It is of interest to neuroscientists, linguists, educators, teachers, engineers, artists, scientists, designers, architects, educational program developers, field specialists, etc.

Cognitive psychology and its representatives have played a huge role in understanding the patterns of the entire process of cognition and its individual mechanisms. The work of cognitive scientists contributed to the development of personality psychology, the psychology of emotions and developmental psychology, and made a serious contribution to research on the ecology of perception and the study of social cognition.

These are, in general terms, the basics of cognitive psychotherapy and cognitive psychology. Let us remind you once again that this article is purely for informational purposes, and we in no way pretend to fully cover the topic of cognitive science, which is the subject of a huge number of books and scientific works. And therefore, we recommend that you (if you have relevant interest) read the works written by representatives of the cognitivist movement. Here are a few such books:

• “Cognitive psychology: history and modernity”, anthology;
• “Cognitive Psychology”, R. Solso;
• “Cognitive psychology”, D. Ushakov;
• "Cognitive Psychology", A. D. Robert;
• “Cognitive evolution and creativity”, I. Merkulov;
• “A Little Book about Big Memory”, A. Luria;
• “Mimetics of stupidity”, Krupenin A. L., Krokhina I. M.;
• “Your Memory”, A. Baddeley;
• “The Invisible Gorilla”, D. Simons, K. Sharby;
• “Cognition and Reality”, W. Neisser.

Finally, watch a short video about cognitive therapy and how it works. Develop, train your perception and explore the world. We wish you good luck!