The 8 higher psychological processes

Higher psychological processes, such as language or reasoning, are involved in the capacities that distinguish people from other animals. These and other voluntary and controlled functions have allowed us to dominate the planet and explain much of the complexity that characterizes our societies.

But, What exactly are higher cognitive functions? In this article you can find the description of the main higher psychological processes and the definition of this concept.

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What are the higher psychological processes?

According Lev vygotsky, higher mental processes are human psychological systems that develop from other more basic, shared with animals. They are mediated by symbols and emerge from social interaction, as well as as a natural consequence of brain development.

In the opposite way, basic or elemental psychological processes they are shared by many species of animals and are present in people from birth. This type of process fundamentally encompasses attention, perception and memory.

The concept of higher psychological process is widely used today, especially in the cognitive psychology and neurosciences, although the definition is not always equivalent to that of Vygotsky.

In the field of neuropsychology, we speak of higher psychological processes to refer to the brain functions that depend on the areas of integration of the cortex. As their name suggests, these regions integrate information from the rest of the brain, allowing highly complex processes such as language or reasoning.

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The main higher cognitive functions

There is no clear consensus on the number of higher psychological processes that exist, although they are usually included within this concept at least gnosias, praxias, language and executive functions, such as reasoning and inhibition; we will treat the latter separately.

1. Gnosias

Gnosis is defined as the ability to recognize and give meaning to what we perceive. It depends on memory and the senses, so we can speak of visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory or tactile gnosias; These are the simple gnosis, through which we directly give meaning to external stimulation.

On the other hand, there are also complex gnosias, which combine information from the senses with other brain functions, leading to body perception or orientation visuospatial.

2. Praxias

When we run a motor behavior under voluntary control In order to achieve a goal, we are carrying out a practice, generally learned motor programs. Disorders in these functions are called "apraxias."

Praxis is divided into three types: visuoconstructive (using different elements to create a set, such as a drawing), ideomotor or ideomotor (recognize and carry out simple gestures, for example waving) and ideational or ideational (use a sequence of movements with a meaning concrete).

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3. Attention

Attention can be considered a basic mental process or a higher one depending on the complexity of the task and whether there is voluntary control. is defined as the ability to focus cognitive resources on specific stimuli, and is mediated by alerting processes and perception.

Among the types of attention that we could consider superior psychological processes It is worth highlighting the selective, sustained and divided attention. Selective attention is the ability to focus on a single stimulus, sustained attention is to pay attention for a prolonged period of time and the divided one allows to alternate the focus of attention between several stimuli.

4. Language

Language is a fundamental psychological process because it facilitates other cognitive functions and mediates many types of learning. For the development of language the symbolic function is required, that is, the ability to represent ideas through symbols and understand them, if they have been created by other people.

Within this higher mental process we find diverse capacities, such as the expression or discrimination of phonemes and letters. Both oral and written language, which is supported by spoken language, allow information or requests to be given to other people; the development of this capacity was key to the progress of human societies.

5. Decision making

Decision making is the ability to choose the most appropriate plan of action among those available to us. This skill includes detailed analysis of options and their possible consequences, as well as comparison of alternatives.

Decision-making is included within the executive functions, such as reasoning, planning or inhibition, which we will describe in the following sections. Executive functions are complex brain processes that allow us to achieve goals and maximize our adaptation to the environment by monitoring voluntary behavior.

6. Reasoning

We can define reasoning as the process by which we draw conclusions, make inferences and establish abstract relationships between concepts. It can be inductive (when we use individual cases to arrive at a general rule), deductive (draw conclusions from the general rule), or abductive (make the simplest inference possible).

7. Planning

Through planning we not only create plans to achieve our goals, but also allow for the setting of goals itself. The creation of plans and forecasts is based on the projection of memories into the future: that is, working through starting from knowledge about the past and present to establish hypotheses about what will happen and what could be make.

In addition, planning is strongly involved in decision-making and problem solving.

8. Inhibition

When we speak of higher psychological processes, the term "inhibition" refers to the ability to ignore irrelevant stimuli, or to restrain inappropriate impulses in a given context.

Brain inhibition appears to be altered in different psychological disorders, including schizophrenia and the ADHD. Furthermore, as with many other higher psychological processes, this capacity ends up being consolidated in adolescence and in the early years of adulthood.

Bibliographic references:

• De Vega, M. (1999). Introduction to cognitive psychology. Psychology Alliance. Madrid.
• Fuentes, L. & García-Sevilla, J. (2008). Attention psychology manual: a neuroscientific perspective. Madrid: Synthesis.
• Tirapu-Ustárroz, J. & Muñoz-Céspedes, J.M. (2005). Memory and executive functions. Journal of Neurology, 41 (8): pp. 475 - 484.
• Von Eckardt, B. (1996). What is cognitive science?. Massachusetts: MIT Press. pp. 45 - 72.