Cognitive Learning and Human Behavior
Cognitive Learning: An Active Process
Cognitive learning is an active process by which an individual modifies their behavior, giving a personal meaning to what is learned. Cognitive psychology is a school of psychology that deals with the study of cognition, i.e., the mental processes involved in knowledge. Its object of study includes the basic mechanisms whereby knowledge is drawn from perception, memory, and learning, until the formation of concepts and logical reasoning.
Human Memory
Human memory is the brain function resulting from synaptic connections between neurons through which humans can retain past experiences. Memories are created when neurons in a circuit integrate, reinforcing the strength of synapses.
Fixing Memory
The transformation of a short-term memory into a long-term one plays a crucial role. Certain genes function within minutes of a particular experience, necessitating cerebral synthesis of new proteins for long-term memory to remain.
Sensory Memory
Sensory memory is a number of stores of information from different senses which prolong the duration of stimulation. This generally provides for processing in working memory.
Working Memory (Short-Term Memory)
Working memory, also known as short-term memory (STM), is the system where an individual manages the information with which they interact with the environment. Although this information is more durable than that stored in sensory memory, it is limited.
Long-Term Memory
Long-term memory is a store that is commonly referred to when talking about memory in general. It is the structure in which vivid memories are stored, along with knowledge about the world, images, concepts, action strategies, and so on.
Procedural Memory
Procedural memory can be considered an implementation system, involved in learning different types of skills that are not represented as explicit information about the world. On the contrary, they are activated automatically, as a sequence of lines of action, in response to the demands of a task.
Cerebral Hemispheres
The term cerebral hemisphere refers to each of the two structures that make up the largest part of the brain. They are inverses of each other, but not inversely symmetrical; they are asymmetrical, like the two sides of an individual’s face.
Declarative Memory
Declarative memory contains information relating to knowledge about the world and the experiences of each individual (episodic memory), as well as information relating to general knowledge, referring to extrapolated concepts rather than experienced situations (semantic memory).
The Left Hemisphere
The left hemisphere is the engine able to recognize groups of letters forming words, and groups of words forming sentences, both in regard to speech, writing, numbers, mathematics, and logic, as well as the powers necessary to transform a set of information into words, gestures, and thoughts.
The Right Hemisphere
The right hemisphere is an integrative hemisphere, the center of nonverbal visual-spatial abilities. It specializes in sensations, feelings, prosody, and special abilities, as well as visual and non-auditory language like art and music.
Brain Gym
Brain Gym is a series of simple body movements designed to activate or interconnect the two hemispheres of the brain, putting it in the best position to do anything you want to do.
- A research method that essentially provides evidence of the unconscious meaning of words, acts, and imaginary productions (dreams, fantasies, delusions) of an individual.
- A psychotherapeutic method based on this research and interpretation, characterized by resistance control, transfer, and desire.
- A set of psychological and psychopathological theories that systematize the data provided by the psychoanalytic method of investigation and treatment.
Structuralism
Its purpose is the introspective analysis of the human mind; psychology was to be a kind of chemistry of consciousness. The fundamental task of the psychologist was to discover the nature of elementary conscious experiences, then their mutual relations. It was thought that introspection, performed by a highly trained person, was a necessary tool.
Functionalism
Functionalism was born as a reaction to evolutionism and historical particularism. It posits that culture is an organic whole in which its various parts are inseparable (holistic) and interconnected, each having a specific function in the set.
Functionalist Postulates
- Every culture tends to form a balanced whole in the face of its tendency toward disequilibrium and change.
- The social structure works by targeting basic needs, as in organizational structure. Analyzing a basic function can lead us to knowledge of the general function.
- Each functionally interconnected part of the social system is connected to others.
Transactional Analysis
Transactional analysis is a system of social and individual psychotherapy that falls within humanistic psychology. It was originated by psychiatrist Eric Berne in the 1960s in the United States, who released his book involving existentialism. Existentialism is a philosophical movement whose central tenet is that human beings are, individually, those who create meaning and the essence of their lives.
Humanism
Humanism is an intellectual, philological, philosophical, and artistic movement closely linked to the European Renaissance, originating in the 14th century on the Italian peninsula.
Cognitive Psychology
Cognitive psychology is a school of psychology that deals with the study of cognition, i.e., the mental processes involved in knowledge.
Personality
Personality is a psychological construct, with which we refer to a dynamic set of characteristics of a person. It is also known as a set of physical, social, and genetic markers that determine an individual and make them unique.
Individualism
Individualism is the attitude that leads one to act and think independently, with respect to others or against standards. It is a philosophical trend opposite to collectivism, which gives priority to individual rights over social structures or claims that arise from the former.
Status
Our character is the first element of our image. The way we behave, how we try and present ourselves to others, speaks about us. Character is to be faithful to a set of principles, who I am, and how I feel about myself.
Roles
In role-playing, participants adopt and act out the role of characters, or parts, which may have personalities, motivations, and backgrounds different from their own. Role-playing is like improvisational drama or free theater in which participants are actors playing roles, and also the audience.
Neurolinguistic Programming
Neurolinguistic Programming is a system to develop “progra”) the mind systematically (neuro), and to effectively communicate what we think about what we do (linguistic), thus achieving consistency and effective communication through a strategy that focuses on human development.
- Unconscious Incompetence (not knowing what a car is, let alone how to drive it).
- Conscious Incompetence (the time when the most is learned. The driver is aware that they cannot drive and tries).
- Conscious Competence (the driver can drive and pays much attention to the process, such as the clutch, intermittent, shift lever, etc.).