The essence of cognitive processes and their types
Definition 1
Cognitive processes are a complex of mental functions that ensure the subject’s reflection and cognition of the phenomena of the objective world.
Note 1
The cognitive sphere of personality includes sensations, perceptions, imagination, attention, memory, thinking, and speech.
In cognition of the surrounding world, the primary psychological process is sensations, which are a reflection of the individual properties of objects that affect the human senses. The main part of each sense organ is the receptors, i.e. endings of the sensory nerve. Sensations are objective and subjective, if in the first case they always reflect an external stimulus, then in the second case they depend on the state of the nervous system and the individual characteristics of the person.
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I. Sherrington identifies three main classes of sensations:
- exteroceptive, occurring when receptors are exposed to external stimuli,
- interoreceptive, forming organic feelings, for example, hunger,
- proprioceptive, with the help of which the brain receives information about the movement and position of body parts.
The minimum magnitude of the stimulus has a barely noticeable sensation and refers to its lower threshold. A person does not perceive signals whose intensity is less than the lower threshold. The maximum magnitude of the stimulus is the upper threshold of sensitivity.
If sensations reflect individual qualities and properties of objects, then perception reflects the object as a whole. Perception can be voluntary and involuntary. Voluntary perception is caused by the characteristics of environmental objects and their correspondence to the interests of the individual. Involuntary perception does not have a predetermined goal. Perception is characterized by such properties as integrity, constancy, structure, meaningfulness, and selectivity.
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As for thinking, it allows you to reveal what is inaccessible to perception. This psychological process is associated with the discovery of new knowledge, with the creative transformation of reality.
Thinking can be visual-effective, visual-figurative, verbal-logical. The condition for thinking is a problem situation, and its main mechanism is analysis through synthesis.
Thinking includes imagination - the ability to imagine a non-existent object, hold it in consciousness and mentally manipulate it.
Development and learning are based on an important cognitive function - memory, which can be involuntary and voluntary.
From a genetic point of view, motor memory is considered primary - this is the ability to remember and reproduce a system of movements.
Different people have different types of memory - visual, auditory, motor, which differ in the level of their organization.
A person with a visual-figurative type of memory better remembers visual images, sounds, faces, and the color of objects.
The verbal-logical type of memory makes it possible to better remember verbal and often abstract material, formulas, and concepts.
The emotional type of memory preserves and reproduces the feelings experienced by a person.
Note 2
There is also a phenomenal memory, characterized by strong imagery - a person with such memory down to the smallest detail can “see” an absent object.
Spheres of personality
As a person involved in self-development, you have probably thought about improving some skills. But there are so many of them that sometimes you don’t know what to take on. What is more important: willpower or determination? This and similar questions can be confusing. However, if you know about the concept of the personality sphere, it becomes much easier to understand. For example, knowing that willpower and determination belong to the same group of abilities, you can draw certain conclusions.
In the online program “Self-Knowledge” you can better know yourself and your individual characteristics. With the help of psychological tests and exercises, you will find out what you really want in life and understand your strengths and weaknesses.
Personality spheres are a set of human characteristics that characterize his actions, motivations, ways to achieve goals, perception of information, needs, etc. Such categorization is needed not only for those who are engaged in self-development, but also, for example, for companies that are looking for employees.
The following areas of human personality are distinguished:
- motivational;
- strong-willed;
- organic and social;
- educational.
In this article we will look at these areas of human personality and try to understand how they are formed and what they depend on.
Motivational sphere of personality
Each person has his own specific needs, which prompt him to engage in one or another behavior aimed at satisfying these needs.
The level and quantity of needs differ from person to person: this is due to living conditions, different lifestyles, level of organization and place in society.
If basic needs (food, drink, warmth) do not change much during life, except perhaps their quantity, then others (self-realization, search for the meaning of existence) evolve along with a person. Much depends on moral values.
If we talk about the structure of the motivational sphere of the individual, then despite some differences, certain trends can still be identified. Here is an approximate diagram:
- Organic (food and drink requirements).
- Material (need for property and money).
- Social (need for authority, respect, sense of justice, self-esteem).
- Spiritual (faith, increasing spiritual level).
Psychologists pay the main attention to the motivational sphere of the individual, because human behavior aimed at achieving goals depends on motivation. We have done many things in our lives solely because we wanted to.
Main characteristics of the motivational sphere of the individual:
- Motivational Power: If a person is motivated enough, he is capable of doing a lot.
- Dynamics of motives: changes in the strength and priority of motives.
- The sustainable nature of motives: they do not disappear after satisfying certain needs.
- Availability of structure: several needs can be combined into one motivation.
- The existence of a certain hierarchy: there are secondary and dominant motives.
- Flexible nature: Each person can meet their needs in different ways.
- Multiple in nature: an increase in the needs themselves, means and ways to satisfy such needs.
- Diversity of motives: a large number of incentives to action.
It should be remembered that the motivational sphere of the individual is only one of several. You cannot judge a person by it alone. Let's look at others.
Volitional sphere of personality
The volitional sphere of personality is a set of volitional qualities that characterizes a person in his ability to achieve goals in difficult conditions.
The three most important qualities in this area: determination, willpower, willpower.
Determination is the ability in any situation to remember the plans and be focused on it until the bitter end.
By learning the basics of time management, we understand the importance of goal setting. But because of the irritants, we lose focus and begin to do completely different things, while experiencing shame and trying to get rid of cognitive dissonance with the help of excuses and looking for justifications.
To cultivate determination, you must first use tricks that are not directly related to it: even simple stickers posted throughout the apartment will have a significant effect. But at the same time you need to develop willpower.
Willpower is a person’s ability to make difficult decisions, as well as direct their actions and thoughts in accordance with the decision made.
It is an incredibly important component in achieving success. Even if a person has a highly developed motivational sphere, gaps in the volitional sphere will drag him down with every failure.
Willpower is necessary both to perform an action and to refuse it (which is no less important). For example, giving up cake for a future in sports or giving up a party with friends to learn English. Nowadays there are the greatest number of temptations in the entire history of mankind, so having willpower is one of the most serious advantages.
It is now fashionable to think that willpower is overrated, but it is rather underrated (all outstanding personalities possessed it). And if you can combine it with motivation, you will achieve the most ambitious goals.
Grit is the level of consistency and repetition of effort a person puts into achieving a challenging goal over a long period of time. Simply put, it is a scale for measuring willpower.
Yes, willpower is a finite resource, but it can be increased. This is willpower: how many minutes or hours can you work on a task without getting any results?
The volitional sphere of personality is also manifested in other aspects of human life. For example, in risk propensity and locus of control.
Risk appetite is a characteristic of human behavior in uncertain situations. It is believed that developed willpower makes an individual more risk-taking.
Locus of control is a person's tendency to attribute his failures or successes to either internal or external factors. An individual with a developed volitional sphere will take full responsibility for failures and failures (without suffering from self-flagellation and guilt).
Such a person knows that only he is responsible for his life and even other people’s reactions to him. While a person with an external locus of control (blaming circumstances) develops a victim syndrome.
Organic and social sphere of personality
A person cannot be considered outside the context of society. In addition to the volitional and motivational sphere of personality, the organic and social spheres develop simultaneously (it was studied by the Russian psychiatrist and neuropathologist Vladimir Bekhterev).
The organic sphere manifests itself in reactions to stimuli from the surrounding world, while the social sphere has a connection with the establishment of mutual understanding with members of the society in which a person is located.
As Bekhterev emphasizes, “the complex process of development of the social sphere of the individual does not in any way eliminate the organic sphere of the individual, it only complements it, although it partially suppresses it, so to speak, layers on it new combinations arising from actions related to the conditions of social life.”
Bekhterev placed character at the very top of the social sphere of personality. And only then comes concentration and mental performance. At the same time, he emphasized that these parameters are greatly influenced by temperament.
He also argued that the personality is characterized by volitional manifestations, internal motives for actions and deeds, that is, those mental phenomena that in psychology and philosophy are associated with will.
Cognitive sphere of personality
The cognitive sphere of personality is a set of abilities with the help of which a person cognizes the phenomena of the world around him. There is an opinion that the totality of all these elements is called intelligence.
This sphere consists of the following components: perception, sensations, attention, imagination, memory, thinking.
Sensations are what our receptors perceive from the external or internal environment.
Perception is how we interpret signals received through the senses. That is, this phenomenon can be called psychological, because he can change his perception with the help of volitional effort and a change in thinking.
Attention helps us focus on one stimulus, choosing it from everything that is around.
Memory is very dependent on attention, because what is remembered best is what a person was focused on. At the same time, memory is closely connected with all other elements of the human cognitive sphere.
Imagination is a person’s ability to conjure up images in the mind. It is believed that this skill is unique to humans; it helps plan the achievement of complex goals.
Thinking is a person’s ability to analyze received information. Sensation, perception, attention, memory and imagination are food for the mind, which is then processed by thinking.
All cognitive spheres of a person’s personality and their elements are amenable to training. On our website you will find courses and articles that will help you develop them, becoming a more versatile person. We advise you to start with the following courses:
- Cognitive Science;
- Leadership;
- Logical thinking;
- Making decisions;
- Self-knowledge.
We wish you good luck!
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We also recommend reading:
- Storytelling
- The need-information theory of P. V. Simonov
- 6 Skills to Develop Emotional Intelligence
- Self-actualization
- Achievement motivation
- Conditions for character formation
- Using Maslow's pyramid for self-actualization
- Humanistic theories of personality: what to take from history to modern times
- Psychosophy
- Cognitive sphere of personality
- Gordon Allport's Principle of Functional Personal Autonomy
Key words:1Self-knowledge
Memorization techniques
There are techniques designed to facilitate memorization and allow information to be recorded in the brain, converted into combinations of visual images - these are mnemonics.
A fairly effective way to remember information is rhyme and rhythm. This method, which is used in a number of mnemonic exercises, is widely used in advertising. Rhymed information is remembered much faster, is embedded in the memory regardless of desire, and it is often impossible to get rid of it.
Another memorization technique is an abbreviation (acronym). An abbreviation such as IMF, UN, etc. not only shortens long names of organizations, but also helps to remember them.
The method of remembering objects by recording their location came from Greece. A person uses this method quite often, although he is not aware of it. For example, it is difficult to immediately answer the question of how many windows there are in the house where a person lives, but if you imagine that he is walking through his house, then you can count all the windows.
The method of connecting numbers and letters is widely used to memorize numbers. The method helps to translate numbers into words because words have more meaning for a person. The correspondence between numbers and consonants is the basis of this method.
The picture method - the essence is to translate proper names into pictures based on their semantic meaning or sound. This method is especially useful for remembering people's professions and surnames.
To record proper names or just objects in memory, it is quite useful to use chains. To memorize, you need to connect each item from the list with the next one using associations.
