Cognitive processing
The Basics of Cognitive Processing
- Cognitive processing refers to the mental acts of receiving, selecting, transforming, storing, and retrieving information.
- It involves perception, attention, language, memories, and even our problem-solving abilities.
- It’s driven by our internal thought processes and can therefore be affected by cognition biases, mnemonics, and illusions.
- Cognitive processing is intricately linked with neurological activity; it’s thought to be where the mind meets the brain.
The Role of Perception & Attention
- Perception and attention play key roles in cognitive processing.
- Perception refers to how we interpret information collected by our senses, which can be influenced by numerous factors such as past experiences and expectations.
- Attention, on the other hand, is the selective aspect of cognitive processing. We cannot take in and process all information in our environment, so our brain selectively focuses on certain aspects.
Memory & Cognitive Processing
- Memory is a critical component of cognitive processing.
- It involves the encoding, storage, and retrieval of information.
- Our brains organise memory into short-term memory (also known as working memory) and long-term memory. These two have different abilities in terms of capacity and duration.
- Memory processes can fail or get distorted, leading to forgotten or misremembered information.
Cognitive Biases in Cognitive Processing
- A cognitive bias is a systematic error in thinking, which influences the decisions and judgments that we make.
- These biases can alter the selective attention process and influence perception.
- Examples of common cognitive biases include confirmation bias, in which we favour information that confirms our existing beliefs, and attribution bias, where we attribute our successes to our skills and our failures to external factors.
Problem Solving and Cognitive Processing
- Cognitive processing is heavily involved in problem-solving.
- Involves various stages like identifying the problem, generating potential solutions, testing, and implementing the solution.
- It can use both convergent thinking (finding one correct answer) and divergent thinking (generating multiple possible solutions).