Cognitive Psychology — Know-it-all
Psychology is a sparse field hosting among others clinical, developmental, social or cognitive psychology. Any psychology student can’t deny the fact that actually, the popular representation of psychology is only concerned with the clinical one (with all its orientations which it involves, but this isn’t the topic).
Ask the people around and you’ll notice that for a good many people, psychologist is limited to therapist who receive patients, and that’s all. People’s knowledge about the various specializations you can get as a psychologist is indeed very narrow, that’s why we’ll try to cast a light on one of them: the cognitive psychology. Does it mean something to you? You’ve likely heard about it on the internet or within magazine but as far as you’re concern, have you really grasped the real purpose of it? What are the reasons to study cognitive psychology? What are the professional perspectives? We answer to all your questions!
The cognitive psychology aims to understand and to describe the human mental processes by making use of methodology which is rigorous as much as possible. Indeed, the study of human mind had been led for a long time by means of introspection — namely, a way too far subjective method which couldn’t allow to draw up theories based on systematic observations. The cognitive psychology consists of the study which deals with the great cognitive functions such as memory, attention, problem solving, learning, language, perception, emotions as well decision making. The study of these mechanisms is achievable by the use of numerous techniques such as behavioral observation, cognitive tests, the implementation of various experimental paradigms, or the use of more directs and unbiased techniques as EEG, fMRI, eye-tracking, and the like. The results obtained on the strength of these techniques lead to the working out of theories which thereafter will be able to be applied to sundry purposes. Here are few of them:
1) Did you know that Fedex’s logo was designed according to one of the Gestalt rules in order to pass on in a subtle way its fast nature by placing an arrow between the E and the X? Likewise, for Toblerone, which hides within its very logo a mountain shaped in the guise of a bear which is the symbol of Bern, Switzerland capital city. Theories of perception (among others) are a definitely efficient tools for the graphic design industry since they provide us with an insight of how people perceive, process the information and act consequently. Pinterest is another good example: the upright orientation of the pins drives us instinctively into scrolling down always more and more towards the bottom of the page. Obviously, it goes without saying that apart from their misuse, these theories are first and foremost meant to help the designers to draw up an efficient and an easy product to use. Great many studies have found out that during visual exploration, our attention is spontaneously directed toward the superior left corner of the space. This would chiefly be linked to the learning of reading which in the majority of cases is directed from left to right. An opposite effect was found within cultures amongst population whose reading is performed from right to left. This knowledge can also be applied throughout websites or other conception interfaces. We know henceforth that the higher the information is placed in the left-hand corner, the faster it is likely to be perceived.
2) The human being isn’t as rational as it used to be considered by the economics theories. Admittedly, we presently know that decision making is highly influenced by various factors as emotions, context, as well as other people presence. Many fields as marketing, ecology or transports have nowadays seized of a modern tool called “nudge”. The latest stands for a set of cognitive techniques aiming at transforming ingeniously the individual’s intention and thus, their behavior. Despite the fact that it is a matter of controversial tool, it enables to obtain promising outcomes providing its uses in line with ethics! One of the most famous examples of nudging is the printed image of fly in the public urinal which induces men to aim better at. Other example is one of the Stockholm underground stairs which has been transformed into piano keys — this nudging resulted in a rise of more than 50% of the use of the stairs. The French ministry of Finances has also resorted to nudging to encourage the taxpayers to their reporting online rather than doing it physically.
3) Another realm where cognitive psychology can be applied is of course the field of healthcare. Broca Living Lab, located in the Parisian Broca Hospital, is a laboratory which aims to develop new devices, programs and solutions adapted to elderlies and their needs in terms of reeducation and medical attention. The laboratory resorts to innovative technologies like the humanoid robot NAO or virtual reality in order to set up therapies adapted to different diseases. The solutions developed by the laboratory can also be intended for the medial professions (nurses, caregivers, doctors and healthcare workers…) to solve out workload or mental load issues.
4) Lastly, a field which collaborates closely with cognitive sciences is transport and urban mobility sector. Cognitive psychology is undoubtedly one of the smartest leverages in order to address issues as the adoption of new forms of transportation, the modification of heuristics and dangerous traveling patterns, the adaptation of displaying interfaces, as well as other issues like those related to the development of self-governing machines or environmental problems. Many organizations as Gustave Eiffel University, VEDECOM or SNCF, call on experts in cognition to meet their needs. Transport sector is nowadays undergoing important changes driven by technological challenges and environmental issues. Therefore, it seems to be a professional springboard for cognitive psychology students.
More often than not, research appears to be the major career path after cognitive psychology studies. It is called to be fundamental when it aims to develop new theories and knowledge in a specific field, mostly under academic circumstances. It is named applied when it aims to use theories in the interest of designing a product, as aforementioned. The cognitive psychology underpins user experience when designing a website, and it is largely employed for the development and improvement of human-machine interfaces (HMI), hence the artificial intelligence industry is certainly a promising field. The fundamental research garners the needs of applied research to develop itself whereas the latest are directly supported by the first. Therefore, these two fields are interconnected. On the other hand, the emergence of neuroimaging techniques has brought to cognitive psychology the possibility to describe neural correlated of mental processes: it’s called the cognitive neuropsychology. Even though the cognitive psychology is a sub-domain of psychology, it remains to be very sparse. As of now, and mostly on the account of its recent nature, it is unknown by general public but set out bright future perspective.
After you have heard it all about (even if it doesn’t look like your career perspective) you can still amaze your friends during zoom party.
Written by Amandine Guillin & Julia Kupis
