Higher psychological processes, such as language or reasoning , are involved in the capabilities 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 do higher cognitive functions consist of? In this article you will find the description of the main higher psychological processes and the definition of this concept.
According to Lev Vygotsky, higher mental processes are human psychological systems that develop from more basic ones, shared with animals. They are mediated by symbols and emerge from social interaction in addition to as a natural consequence of brain development.
On the contrary, basic or elementary psychological processes They are shared by many species of animals and are present in people from birth. These types of processes fundamentally encompass attention, perception and memory.
The concept of higher psychological process is widely used today, especially in cognitive psychology and neuroscience, although the definition is not always equivalent to Vygotsky’s.
In the field of neuropsychology, we speak of higher psychological processes to refer to the brain functions that depend on the integration areas of the cortex As their name indicates, these regions integrate information from the rest of the brain, allowing highly complex processes such as language or reasoning.
There is no clear consensus regarding 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 deal with 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 talk about visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory or tactile gnosias; These are the simple gnosias, 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, giving rise to the perception of one’s own body or visuospatial orientation.
2. Praxias
When we execute a motor behavior under voluntary control With the aim of achieving a goal we are carrying out a praxis, generally learned motor programs. Disorders in these functions are called “apraxias”.
Praxias are divided into three types: visuoconstructive (using different elements to create a whole, such as a drawing), ideomotor or ideomotor (recognizing and carrying out simple gestures, for example waving) and ideational or ideatory (using a sequence of movements with a specific meaning).
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 alert processes and perception.
Among the types of attention that we could consider higher psychological processes It is worth highlighting selective, sustained and divided attention Selective attention is the ability to focus on a single stimulus, sustained attention consists of paying attention for a prolonged period of time, and divided attention allows alternating the focus of attention between several stimuli.
Language is a fundamental psychological process because it facilitates other cognitive functions and mediates many types of learning. The symbolic function is required for the development of language that is, the ability to represent ideas using symbols and to understand them, if they have been created by other people.
Within this higher mental process we find various abilities, such as expression or discrimination of phonemes and letters. Both oral and written language, which is based on spoken language, allow us to give information or make requests 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 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 (drawing conclusions from the general rule), or abductive (making the simplest inference possible).
7. Planning
Through planning we not only create plans to achieve our objectives, but it also allows for the establishment of goals itself. The creation of plans and forecasts is based on the projection of memories into the future: that is, working from knowledge about the past and present to establish hypotheses about what will happen and what could be done.
Furthermore, planning is strongly involved in decision making and problem solving.
8. Inhibition
When we talk about 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 ADHD. Furthermore, as occurs with many other higher psychological processes, this capacity ends up being consolidated in adolescence and in the stage of the first years of adulthood.
