Estacio 1

Cognitive Psychologist
Brandon Estacio
Damien Memorial School
Mr. Asuncion
26 August 2013

One of the most interesting careers I find in the subfields of Psychology is a Cognitive Psychologist. What is a Cognitive Psychologist? Cognitive psychologists are ones who try and understand why someone is acting in a particular way. Also where they study the thought processes in an effort to add psychology’s reservoir of knowledge. The thought processes studied by this psychologist includes varieties that touch bases on intelligence, anger, problem solving, attention, decision-making, language, happiness, perception, memory, forgetting and much more. They really help us understand more on human thought processes and how we acquire. The very most important and common studies these types of psychologists do are memory, perception, and learning abilities. Here’s an example of what a cognitive psychologist may overcome, “why can it be difficult to remember a new password?” Well, you’ve had used the old password so many times it had interfered with the way your brain accesses the new password. It’s all mental process. Why this type of psychologist is so important is because take memories for instance, it could translate to problems in life in general. I mean without a good memory, we would be unable to read, write, or even speak well. Most of us don’t usually think to be thankful for the memories we have and are still there. It’s plain and simple, what if you lost your memory? Would you be frustrated or mad? Also, it would be hard for us to remember our own friends’ birthdays, or even ‘familiar’ faces. As I previously stated about what Cognitive psychologist does, most of them will usually choose one particular thought processes to specialize in. For example, one cognitive psychologist might focus on memory, and another might focus on learning disabilities or so forth. A cognitive psychologist can typically focus on three things such as research, treatment, or teaching. Some of the more ambitious cognitive psychologist will focus on more than one of these areas listed above. For example, some would do research and treatment or research and teaching. Where, I’d like to look upon or find myself interested in the Cognitive subfield is the ‘memory’ process. What trigger’s me to the memory process is what we all have and endured before called “short term and long-term memory.” Well short-term memory is where you keep the memory as long as needed to accomplish something at hand. Then you would notice how images might begin to fade and immediately disappear. While, long-term memory will be available for days, months, or even years. To psychologist, this is termed as “gatekeeper of memory”. Long-term must get your attention by something novel, noisy, wonderful, horrifying, or something really special in occasion. From then on it will be established in your memory. This is just one thing that keeps me interested in this field and sure would like to know a lot more about it. In order to pursue the field of a Cognitive psychologist is you have to have a four-year Bachelor’s degree and courses that touch bases on research strategies and statistics are also usually recommended and often required. Most careers in cognitive psychology might require a master’s or doctorate degree depending on your state and employer requirements. Also another option is majoring in psychology and advanced courses in psychology. Another major that would also be helpful is taking liberal arts with all the basic courses. Some skills required to take upon this type of psychologist is analytical (using analysis), critical thinking, teaching, and mentoring. In the working environment of a cognitive psychologist may differ in number of facilities depending on what type specialty you may be in. They’re several cognitive psychologists that conduct applied or basic research on the human thought method. Cognitive psychologists who focus on