Cognitive Psychology

Cognitive psychology is the study of human cognition-a term which literally means "knowing." It is grounded in the basic principle that the key to understanding human motivations and behaviors is to study and unravel the complex and mysterious internal processes of the human mind. When writing a research paper on cognitive psychology, remember to include the many aspects of cognition in your research. Have Paper Masters custom write your cognitive psychology research paper.

Cognitive psychology is generally focused on understanding the mind's internal processes in order to understand how the humans treat information that come to them from the external environment, and how the treatment of that information gives rise to responses. As such, cognitive psychologists emphasize the higher mental processes that are involved in knowing or, more correctly, in knowledge acquisition. According to the International Association for Cognitive Education and Psychology, these processes include (but are by no means limited to):

• Perception
• Attention
• Memory
• Problem solving
• Language use
• Reasoning
• Judgment

Cognitive Psychology and the Individual

Cognitive psychology is therefore quite different from other subfields of psychology. For instance, while psychoanalysis focuses heavily on the individual's subjective perceptions of the social world, cognitive psychology relies on scientific research methods to objectively investigate and understand mental processes. And while behaviorism emphasizes the study of observable behaviors and their causes, cognitive psychology focuses on the invisible internal states and processes of the mind. Moreover, while psychological counseling often focuses on improving such idiosyncratic phenomena as self-esteem and life-satisfaction, cognitive psychology may be used for rather practical applications and outcomes such as enhancing one's memory or improving the accuracy of one's decision-making. Cognitive psychologists have also worked on such tasks as restructuring educational curricula to improve the learning experience.