Cognitive Psychology and Everyday Life



Cognitive Psychology and Everyday Life

Introduction

Cognitive psychology studies the internal mental processes and is a sub branch of psychology. These processes relate with attention, visual perception, memory, speech comprehension, reading and written word recognition, reasoning, and problem-solving. Many people are mistaken that psychology is only limited for the usage of psychology students, psychotherapists and academicians. This could not be farther from truth, in that psychology is not only a theoretical subject but is highly applicable in everyday life too. It can be utilized in a variety of ways. There are so many errors that we make as far as our cognitive ability is concerned. If only we understand what goes around in our mind and how we use our cognitive abilities, many of us will be able to avoid the many errors.

The paper discusses the many ways cognitive psychology has helped humans in preventing errors in their everyday life.

Debates that surround key research in cognitive psychology

The research in developmental cognitive psychology has been debated on several grounds. These relate to the popular document of nature vs. nurture. This is the popular debate that some of the cognitive behaviours in a person are the consequence of his inborn traits. On the other hand, there is research that suggests the concept of tabula rasa. This means that a man when he is born is like a blank paper ready to be filled with details from grooming, up brining, circumstances as well as the environment and life experiences. The cognitive behaviour in later life is based on ones knowledge and experience.

Another debate relates to the early life experience as well as later experience. Some of the key researches in cognitive psychology suggest that the human mind makes its decisions on the basis of recent events. On the other hand, there is also research that suggests that experiences in the early life have lifelong implications and shape our cognitive patterns for the rest of the life. The debate must be understood from the point that for some people who hold grudges against one another, the recent experience will not matter. Their brain will continue to place a person under question in the category of foe regardless of the fact that things have apparently been sort out between them. However, there are also people who are more influenced by recent experience and will respond to the person whom they were earlier holding a grudge against in a very positive manner.

Recency effect theory and common errors in personal and professional lives

According to the theory of cognitive psychology on Recency Effect, Miller and Campbell suggested that people have a tendency to remember the most recent information first. This may seem common knowledge. However, this is not. The theorists found out that people also assume that the things that they remember, only because they are the most recent piece of information, are also the things that are more important for them. This theory has important implications for errors made by ...