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Archive for the ‘Psychology’ Category

The word “cognition” is defined as “the act of knowing” or “knowledge.” Cognitive skills therefore refer to those skills that make it possible for us to know.

It should be noted that there is nothing that any human being knows, or can do, that he has not learned. This of course excludes natural body functions, such as breathing, as well as the reflexes, for example the involuntary closing of the eye when an object approaches it. But apart from that a human being knows nothing, or cannot do anything, that he has not learned. Therefore, all cognitive skills must be TAUGHT, of which the following cognitive skills are the most important:

CONCENTRATION

Paying attention must be distinguished from concentration. Paying attention is a body function, and therefore does not need to be taught. However, paying attention as such is a function that is quite useless for the act of learning, because it is only a fleeting occurrence. Attention usually shifts very quickly from one object or one thing to the next. The child must first be taught to focus his attention on something and to keep his attention focused on this something for some length of time. When a person focuses his attention for any length of time, we refer to it as concentration.

Concentration rests on two legs. First, it is an act of will and cannot take place automatically. Second, it is also a cognitive skill, and therefore has to be taught.

Although learning disability specialists acknowledge that “the ability to concentrate and attend to a task for a prolonged period of time is essential for the student to receive necessary information and complete certain academic activities,” it seems that the ability to concentrate is regarded as a “fafrotsky” — a word coined by Ivan T. Sanderson, and standing for “things that FAll FROm The SKY.” Concentration must be taught, after which one’s proficiency can be constantly improved by regular and sustained practice.

PERCEPTION

The terms “processing” and “perception” are often used interchangeably.

Before one can learn anything, perception must take place, i.e. one has to become aware of it through one of the senses. Usually one has to hear or see it. Subsequently one has to interpret whatever one has seen or heard. In essence then, perception means interpretation. Of course, lack of experience may cause a person to misinterpret what he has seen or heard. In other words, perception represents our apprehension of a present situation in terms of our past experiences, or, as stated by the philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804): “We see things not as they are but as we are.”

The following situation will illustrate how perception correlates with previous experience:

Suppose a person parked his car and walks away from it while continuing to look back at it. As he goes further and further away from his car, it will appear to him as if his car is gradually getting smaller and smaller. In such a situation none of us, however, would gasp in horror and cry out, “My car is shrinking!” Although the sensory perception is that the car is shrinking rapidly, we do not interpret that the car is changing size. Through past experiences we have learned that objects do not grow or shrink as we walk toward or away from them. You have learned that their actual size remains constant, despite the illusion. Even when one is five blocks away from one’s car and it seems no larger than one’s fingernail, one would interpret it as that it is still one’s car and that it hasn’t actually changed size. This learned perception is known as size constancy.

Pygmies, however, who live deep in the rain forests of tropical Africa, are not often exposed to wide vistas and distant horizons, and therefore do not have sufficient opportunities to learn size constancy. One Pygmy, removed from his usual environment, was convinced he was seeing a swarm of insects when he was actually looking at a herd of buffalo at a great distance. When driven toward the animals he was frightened to see the insects “grow” into buffalo and was sure that some form of witchcraft had been at work.

A person needs to INTERPRET sensory phenomena, and this can only be done on the basis of past experience of the same, similar or related phenomena. Perceptual ability, therefore, heavily depends upon the amount of perceptual practice and experience that the subject has already enjoyed. This implies that perception is a cognitive skill that can be improved tremendously through judicious practice and experience.

MEMORY

A variety of memory problems are evidenced in the learning disabled. Some major categories of memory functions wherein these problems lie are:

Receptive memory: This refers to the ability to note the physical features of a given stimulus to be able to recognize it at a later time. The child who has receptive processing difficulties invariably fails to recognize visual or auditory stimuli such as the shapes or sounds associated with the letters of the alphabet, the number system, etc.

Sequential memory: This refers to the ability to recall stimuli in their order of observation or presentation. Many dyslexics have poor visual sequential memory. Naturally this will affect their ability to read and spell correctly. After all, every word consists of letters in a specific sequence. In order to read one has to perceive the letters in sequence, and also remember what word is represented by that sequence of letters. By simply changing the sequence of the letters in “name” it can become “mean” or “amen”. Some also have poor auditory sequential memory, and therefore may be unable to repeat longer words orally without getting the syllables in the wrong order, for example words like “preliminary” and “statistical”.

Rote memory: This refers to the ability to learn certain information as a habit pattern. The child who has problems in this area is unable to recall with ease those responses which should have been automatic, such as the alphabet, the number system, multiplication tables, spelling rules, grammatical rules, etc.

Short-term memory: Short-term memory lasts from a few seconds to a minute; the exact amount of time may vary somewhat. When you are trying to recall a telephone number that was heard a few seconds earlier, the name of a person who has just been introduced, or the substance of the remarks just made by a teacher in class, you are calling on short-term memory. You need this kind of memory to retain ideas and thoughts when writing a letter, since you must be able to keep the last sentence in mind as you compose the next. You also need this kind of memory when you work on problems. Suppose a problem required that we first add two numbers together (step 1: add 15 + 27) and next divide the sum (step 2: divide sum by 2). If we did this problem in our heads, we would need to retain the result of step 1 (42) momentarily, while we apply the next step (divide by 2). Some space in our short-term memory is necessary to retain the results of step 1.

Long-term memory: This refers to the ability to retrieve information of things learned in the past.

Until the learning disabled develop adequate skills in recalling information, they will continue to face each learning situation as though it is a new one. No real progress can be attained by either the child or the teacher when the same ground has to be covered over and over because the child has forgotten. It would appear that the most critical need that the learning disabled have is to be helped to develop an effective processing system for remembering, because without it their performance will always remain at a level much below what their capabilities indicate.

Strangely, though, while memory is universally considered a prerequisite skill to successful learning, attempts to delineate its process in the learning disabled are few, and fewer still are methods to systematically improve it.

LOGICAL THINKING

In his book “Brain Building” Dr. Karl Albrecht states that logical thinking is not a magical process or a matter of genetic endowment, but a learned mental process. It is the process in which one uses reasoning consistently to come to a conclusion. Problems or situations that involve logical thinking call for structure, for relationships between facts, and for chains of reasoning that “make sense.”
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The psychologist, Carl Jung, described hidden part of our psyche as “the shadow”. It’s the part that sometimes frightens us with the things we don’t know, or don’t want to know about ourselves.

It is essentially our unconscious mind telling us what it wants. Sometimes it comes in dreams, other times and a welling up of emotion.

I Just had some thoughts about this so-called “dark” side and how it applies to learning mind control.

Some people are so oppressed that showing any interest in this shadow side creates fear if for no better reason than it’s what you were told not to do.

We all are likely to remember the voice of Darth Vader saying “Come to the Dark Side, Luke!”

That shadow side exists and many, many, MANY people will tell you to destroy it. To destroy your passions, wants, needs and desires. They will plead with us to connect with something higher that we can only dream and guess about.

They offer us something greater without really being clear on what it is.

Their hope is that if we give up everything that makes us animals we will become more Human, or perhaps we might even become Divine.
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Psychology is a very interesting science. With the help of it’s achievements we can research the hidden corners of our souls. This can be really exciting and even make you discover something new about your personality and traits of your character. You can make numerous tests to determine what will your reaction be to a certain event, how you act in extreme situations, what is your aim that you don’t notice, how well you get along with others. All the above stated questions and the answers you’ll get make up your temperament, a psychological term used to show types of personality by I.P. Pavlov, famous scientist from Russia.

He made a theory of temperament after doing some research on the topic and his theory is proved by experiments. In his personal experience essay and just notes he gives a detailed description of person’s reaction to the same event. You sit peacefully on a bench in the park and read the newspaper. You bought a new cap today, but the day is hot so you put it nearby on the bench and continue to read. You see an old lady approaching. She takes a free seat near you and says nothing, opens a book and reads. Suddenly, it dawns on you that she’s sitting on your new cap. What is your reaction? If you laugh and make jokes to calm the poor granny down you are a sanguine; if you start yelling and your face turns red of the strain and you don’t care about the granny who is probably going to have a heart attack, you are choleric; if you burst into tears and allow the granny to comfort you, you are melancholic; and if you ignore everything including granny’s sitting on your cap and the start of the rain you are a typical phlegmatic. These for types can be described by anybody who makes observations in an experience essay, if you have enough patience to observe your reactions to different situations long enough. Read the rest of this entry »

Have you ever wondered why your spouse, coworkers, or children seem to think so differently from you? You may not understand why they make the decisions they do, or why they place such importance on things that seem inconsequential to you. It is possible to understand the answers to all these questions. The secret lies in the theory of Myers-Briggs personality type.

In the 1960’s a psychological theorist named Katharine Briggs had many of the same questions you do. She wondered why some of her family members had such logical, linear thinking processes, when she herself was more likely to take values and feelings into account when considering an issue. In her research with her daughter Isabel Briggs Myers, she looked into this question and others, and discovered four central aspects of personality. Each one of us can be classified as either:

• Extroverted/Introverted—Do you get your energy from being with people, or being alone?
• Sensing/Intuitive—Do you see what’s actual, or what’s possible?
• Thinking/Feeling—Do you make decisions with your head or your heart?
• Judging/Perceiving—Do you like to make decisions, or keep your options open?

Our classifications on each of the scales is combined to make a four-letter type, for instance, ENTP, or ISFJ. There are sixteen types in all, encompassing all possible combinations.

With so many possibilities, you can imagine how much potential for misunderstanding there is with those around us! If we marry, or parent, or even work with someone who is very different from us, we can become increasingly baffled as to how their minds work. The key to unlocking the mystery and understanding those around us is to first understand yourself.

Where do you think you fall on the scales listed above? It can be difficult to decide, but fortunately the creators of this theory have also created a scientifically validated assessment that can tell you where you fall. This personality test is called the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and is the most accurate and efficient way to identify your own type. Most recently it has become available in an online format, which allows convenient access to anyone wishing to discover more about themselves. The official Myers-Briggs Type Indicator can be used to produce several different types of reports, from basic to detailed, all of which you can refer to as you learn more about your own Type.
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