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    Higher Mental Functions

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    Aastha Arora
    This document discusses higher mental functions including attention and concentration, thinking, decision making and problem solving, memory and forgetting, learning, intelligence, and emotional intelligence. It describes attention and concentration as the ability to focus and sustain focus on a task. Thinking is defined as mentally arranging, rearranging, and manipulating information using language, concepts, and images. Decision making and problem solving involve choosing between options using algorithms, heuristics, and evaluating pros and cons. The document also outlines different types of memory, factors influencing memory and forgetting, and principles of learning including classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and social learning theory.

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    Higher Mental Functions

    Uploaded by

    Aastha Arora
    610 views39 pages
    This document discusses higher mental functions including attention and concentration, thinking, decision making and problem solving, memory and forgetting, learning, intelligence, and emotional intelligence. It describes attention and concentration as the ability to focus and sustain focus on a task. Thinking is defined as mentally arranging, rearranging, and manipulating information using language, concepts, and images. Decision making and problem solving involve choosing between options using algorithms, heuristics, and evaluating pros and cons. The document also outlines different types of memory, factors influencing memory and forgetting, and principles of learning including classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and social learning theory.

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    psychology

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    This document discusses higher mental functions including attention and concentration, thinking, decision making and problem solving, memory and forgetting, learning, intelligence, and emotional intelligence. It describes attention and concentration as the ability to focus and sustain focus on a task. Thinking is defined as mentally arranging, rearranging, and manipulating information using language, concepts, and images. Decision making and problem solving involve choosing between options using algorithms, heuristics, and evaluating pros and cons. The document also outlines different types of memory, factors influencing memory and forgetting, and principles of learning including classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and social learning theory.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    610 views39 pages

    Higher Mental Functions

    Uploaded by

    Aastha Arora
    This document discusses higher mental functions including attention and concentration, thinking, decision making and problem solving, memory and forgetting, learning, intelligence, and emotional intelligence. It describes attention and concentration as the ability to focus and sustain focus on a task. Thinking is defined as mentally arranging, rearranging, and manipulating information using language, concepts, and images. Decision making and problem solving involve choosing between options using algorithms, heuristics, and evaluating pros and cons. The document also outlines different types of memory, factors influencing memory and forgetting, and principles of learning including classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and social learning theory.

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    At a glance
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    The key takeaways are that the document discusses higher mental functions such as attention, concentration, thinking, decision making, memory, learning, intelligence and their principles.

    The different types of memory discussed are immediate memory, short term memory and long term memory.

    The principles of learning discussed are classical conditioning, operant conditioning and observational learning.

    Higher Mental Functions

    Madhavi Gadkari
    Student Counselor, NIFT
    9422009853
    Meaning of Higher Mental Functions
     The “Intellectual” part of human beings; the
    “Thinking Self”
     Biologically it’s centre is in the ‘new

    brain’/frontal lobe
     It facilitates the process of planning,

    preparing, organizing the actions


    The list
     Attention and Concentration
     Thinking
     Decision Making and Problem Solving
     Memory and Forgetting
     Learning and Principles of Learning
     Intelligence
    Attention & Concentration
     Bringing focus of your sensory system on to a
    particular target/task
     It has to do with figure and ground, wherein

    the ‘focus’ is what you are attending to, and


    the background is in the margins, and you
    may be dimly aware of it
     It’s your focus on the target and ‘filtering’ out

    the other aspects


    An
    AnExample
    Example ofof the
    theFigure
    Figureand
    andGround
    GroundPhenomenon
    Phenomenon: :White
    Whiteor
    orBlack
    Blackbirds
    birdsvisible
    visibleininopposite
    opposite
    directions
    directions
    Attention & Concentration
     Attention is the ability to focus
     Concentration is the ability to

    continue/sustain the attention


     An average person can attend to a task and

    sustain it for about 45minutes at a stretch


     It gets affected by emotional state, physical

    distractions.
    Factors That
    Influencing Attention

     External Factors

    ◦ The environmental or Objective factors

    ◦ Size, including color/brightness


    ◦ Location
    ◦ Intensity
    ◦ Novelty
    Factors That
    Influencing Attention
     Internal Factors

    ◦ Needs, aims
    ◦ Interests/liking
    ◦ Mood
    ◦ Habits
    ◦ Learning history
    ◦ Past experiences
    Thinking
    Thinking

     A mental process in which arrange,


    rearrange, manipulate information from
    environment and the symbols in our storage
     Thinking uses language, concepts and

    images
     Creative Thinking involves new ideas, insights
     Creative thinking proceeds in 5 stages –

    preparation, incubation, illumination,


    evaluation and revision
    Critical Thinking Skills
    Critical Thinking Skills
    Creativity
    Creative and Critical Thinking
    Decision Making Process
    Decision Making and Problem Solving
     Problem Solving is an important form of thinking
    wherein there are options, often of conflicting/opposing
    nature and a choice has to be made to reach the goal

     To reach the goals algorithms and heuristics are used,


    algorithms are set rules ensuring success, while
    heuristics are approaches/strategies based on past
    experiences/learning

     A common approach to problem solving is to lay down


    all options and assessing each one on its merits and
    feasibility
    Decision Making and Problem Solving
     We have repeatedly to choose one of the
    plenty of available options
     In high risk situation, we often use heuristics

    to make decision
     Using the process of thinking, we are able to

    go step by step in coming to a conclusion


    about what steps to take to come a
    conclusion to pick one of the available
    choices
    Memory and Forgetting
     Psychologists list 3 types of memory :
    Immediate, Short term and Long term

     Memory refers to the encoding, storage, and


    and retrieval of information

     Key words in process of remembering


    include: Planning, Rehearsal, Organisation,
    Feedback, Review, and Over learning
    Memory process
    Memory Process
    Types of Memory
    Process of Forgetting
    Memory and Forgetting
     Forgetting is the loss of information, which was
    already encoded and stored in long term
    memory
     Forgetting depends on factors like,

    interference, difficulties in retrieving the


    information, and the motivational forgetting
     The common experience of ‘being forgetful’

    involves attentional process, ie. Lack of


    attention leads to information not being
    encoded and stored and hence the forgetfulness
    How to improve memory
    Learning and Principles of Learning

     Learning is defined as any relatively


    permanent change in behavior that occurs as
    a result of practice or experience
    Three Principles of Learning
    Classical Conditioning Principle
    Application in Daily life
     The various fears – Exposure to neutral
    situation associated with a strong negative
    outcome, leads to fear of it. Eg. Lizards,
    chasing street dogs, accidents, severe
    scolding from significant other (specially
    parent/teacher scolding a child)
     Habit formations – Nail biting,

    alcohol/cigarette smoking
    Operant Conditioning
    Reinforcements and learning
     Whatever is rewarded is repeated, to receive
    the reward
    Social Learning Theory
     Also called as Observational Learning, involves
    observation, imitation and modelling

     Compliments to the complex learning situations


    beyond classical & instrumental learning in human life

     Learning through observing the behavior of another


    person as Model

     The processes of Attention, retention, Motor


    Reproduction and Reinforcement are involved in this
    type of learning process, and continue across situation
    and people
    Observational Learning: Applications

     Human behavior: Studies on aggression &


    violence indicate the role of media/TV, Social
    media and use of alternative models of
    helpfulness
     At work: Using modeling to inculcate good

    work culture
     Increase in self efficacy i.e. developing I can

    do it attitude in observer
    Intelligence
    Emotional Intelligence

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