4442198985

THE COGNlTlVE PROCESSES AND ORIENT A TION IN THE EN VIR ON MEN T

Summary

Psychology today has got far beyond the traditional introspective description of States of consciousness and discovery of the laws governing those States. It is now concerned with the mner mecha-nisms of action, and therefore with the inner processes regulating the behaviour of both men and animals. The cognitive processes should be regarded as the essential factor in the mechanism of beha-viour, and as a subject of importance in psychological research. In research of this kind, however, the cognitive process must be properly defined. The psychological terms used by introspective psychology do not suffice here because 1) they do not cover the sub-conscious phenomena which play a part in the mechanism of behaviour, 2) they treat the psychic processes as non-spatial and therefore do not explain how these may influence the actions of the organism, 3) they cannot be applied to animals without committing the error of anthropomorphism, 4) they separate the mental processes from the natural laws governing the organism, and 5) they are not precise enough. A new terminology is needed for the mechanism of behaviour. There have already been several attempts in psychology to create such a terminology. The present work discusses and analyses 1) the terminology of Freudism, 2) the terms used by classical and operational behaviourism, and 3) Soviet psychological terminology treating the cognitive processes as a reflection or mir-roring of the materiał environment in the consciousness. Each of these conceptions has its own virtues, but nonę of them is fully satisfactory in itself. A useful conception of the cognitive process should include morę than conscious cognition, it should embrace

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