Cognitive theory proposes that beliefs and thoughts influence human emotions and behavior
Cognitive theory emphasizes the role of mental processes such as perceiving, memory, and thinking.shaping and functioning human behavior
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The Key Principles of Cognitive Theory
1. Schemas
The schemes are mental formulas built in the human mind on the basis the personal experiments, and interaction and influence the individual with society.
Schemas are used to understand, and interpret new information and affect individuals' decisions, and perceiving.
2. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)
CBT is used to identify and modify cognitive patterns to improve psychological well-being.
CBT emphasizes the bidirectional relationship between cognition and behavior. CBT combines behavioral methods and cognitive theory, as it emphasizes the influence of different mental processes on the individual’s behaviors and decisions.
Therefore, it tries to teach people how to deal with mental processes to improve people’s behaviors, morals, and interactions
History of Cognitive Theory
The history of cognitive theory back to the 20 of the century. In that period, people believed that a person's behaviors were involuntary and uncontrolled over the decades, psychologists contributed to the establishment of cognitive theory.
These are some important dates for cognitive theory:
1. Gestalt psychology
Gestalt psychology appeared in the early twenties and built on the fact that
" the perception of the human mind is influenced by organizing individual feelings in a certain way and is not influenced by individual feelings".
Previously, the public believed individual feelings constitute perception of things
2. Cognitive Revolution
The Cognitive Revolution (the fifties and sixties of the twentieth century) focused on mental processes instead of behavioral processes and proved that mental processes such as perception, memory, attention, and problem-solving generate behavioral processes.
The psychologists who establish the cognitive revolution are George Miller and Jerome Bruner
3 . Jean Piaget and Cognitive Development
Jean Piaget focused on the relationship between cognitive theory to children, studying specifically the relationship between children's thinking to growth
"The more children grow, the greater their awareness, attention, and perception".
Jean Paget contributed greatly to the cognitive development of children, he proposed various theories related to children and helped in understanding their emotional behaviors
Cognitive Theory of Adults
Cognitive theory is not limited to children but it has important implications for understanding adult behaviors and perceptions.
Here are some important points of cognitive theory that are relevant to adults:
1. Information Processing
Cognitive theory studies the mental processes of adults such as attention, concentration, memory, and decision-making. It examines the ability of the adult mind to collect, interpret, and clarify information.
These studies help to understand and explain the ability of some adults to solve complex problems successfully and make the most difficult decisions
2. Cognitive Development
Cognitive development is not limited to childhood, but it includes adults also.
Adults have been learning, absorbing, and expanding their cognitive abilities, such as strategies for problem-solving or successful thinking.
The older a person grows, the greater their absorption, and expanded cognitive abilities increase.
3. Cognitive Aging
Of course, it is no secret to everyone that aging has an impact on human motor and mental functions.
Mental processes such as perception and memory may weaken in the elderly, while others may improve.
Cognitive theory studies and explains the most important factors that may lead to mental processes; such as heredity and lifestyle of an elderly person comfortable or full of problems.
Cognitive Theory of Children
Cognitive theory has made significant contributions to the cognitive development of children, providing an understanding and explanation of how children perceive and pay attention to life situations as well as their acquisition of knowledge.
These are the most important points of cognitive theory that are relevant to children:
1. Piaget's theory of the cognitive development
Piaget's theory was previously explained in the same article, but there is an important point that must be mentioned.
Piaget's theory classified the change in children's mental processes into four stages:
1. preoperative stage.
2. sensory stage.
3. stage concrete operation .
4. The formal employment stage.
Each stage has its own restrictions and laws, when the mental processes of a child improve at stage 1(preoperative stage), then the child can move from stage 1 to stage 2(sensory stage), and so on
2. Constructivism
Children's awareness and understanding of information is expanded based on their environmental activity, their interaction with and their integration with others.
The more the child is active, lively, and loves to mingle with other children, the more his mental processes will expand and improve.
Cognitive Theory of Animals
Cognitive theory is not limited to children and adults, but it also studies animal cognition.
The main objective of the cognitive theory of animals is to understand the capabilities of different types of animals in perceiving and understanding things.
Among the most important points that the cognitive theory includes:
1. Perception and Sensory Processing
Cognitive theory says "Animals perceive and process information like humans".
Cognitive theory studies how animals perceive auditory, tactile, visual, and olfactory stimuli, and how these stimuli affect the behavior of animals.
2. Learning and Memory
Cognitive theory studies memory and learning in animals. The learning style of animals differs from one animal to another, including three learning styles: spatial learning, associative learning, and memory learning.
Psychologists study how animals acquire and store different information, what is the relationship between stimuli and responses, and how much memory can absorb and store data.
3. Problem Solving and Reasoning
Yes, animals can solve problems, but not at the level of human problems
Animal problems may include foraging and overcoming obstacles such as a wall, or gravel.
Cognitive theory studies and analyzes animals abilities to make decisions and solve problems
Cognitive Learning Theory
It is a branch of cognitive psychology that studies the progression of children's learning abilities during the stages of development.
When an infant transitions to a child and then to a teenager, the development of learning increases and improves, and the rate of perception and understanding of information is high