The brain is the body?s ultimate control center. It is the most important and the most complex organ in the body. Among other things, the brain is responsible for storing and processing information. A cognitive psychologist specializes in studying the brain and how the human brain learns, processes and recognizes information.
The term ?cognitive psychology? was coined by Ulric Neisser in 1967. ?Cognition? is defined as ?all processes by which the sensory input is transformed, reduced, elaborated, stored, recovered, and used. It is concerned with these processes even when they operate in the absence of relevant stimulation, as in images and hallucinations ? cognition is involved in everything a human being might possibly do? (1). Some of the most notable cognitive psychologists include Aaron Beck, Eric Lenneberg and Charles Sanders Peirce.
The most common areas in which cognitive psychologists practice are abnormal psychology (such as the study of depression, anxiety and other mental illnesses), social psychology (studying the way in which humans interact), developmental psychology, educational psychology and personality psychology.
Most cognitive psychologists have a specialty, such as attention, memory, problem-solving, language processing or information processing. They can work with patients with any variety of mental illness, those who may have suffered trauma, or any number of brain disorders. They also can work with patients on a long-term basis, such as those dealing with dementia, or on a short-term basis, such as helping a child with a learning disability learn how to cope with their schoolwork and process the information they receive in school.
Cognitive psychologists work in schools and universities, research facilities, prisons, treatment or rehabilitation centers, government agencies, hospitals or in a private practice setting.
Treating patients is not the cognitive psychologist?s only job. Most cognitive psychologists also teach at the graduate and undergraduate level. They may be professors or academic advisors or they may work with groups of students who are doing research projects.
In addition to teaching, many cognitive psychologists also focus on research. Research is important in the field of cognitive psychology. Many cognitive psychologists are required to participate in research projects and publish their findings in peer-reviewed journals. It is important for cognitive psychologists to pursue their own research in areas that interest them, as well as to research specific projects dictated by employers and universities.
Becoming a cognitive psychologist takes time, dedication and a desire to explore the human brain in all its glory. The education begins with getting a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in psychology. Although a Master of Arts (MA) in psychology can lead to work, many cognitive psychologists are required to have a Ph.D (a doctor of philosophy) in psychology or a Psy.D (a doctor of psychology). They must also be trained in the areas of neuroscience, cognitive learning and conducting.
Following a Ph.D or Psy.D program, cognitive psychologists generally work at internships and at entry-level jobs in order to gain experience and get the hours needed to qualify for the examination for professional practice in psychology that will provide them with their license. Any psychologist wishing to practice in a private setting must pass this test after completing 3,000 hours (approximately two years) of supervised practice. Once certified to practice in a clinical setting, cognitive psychologists are required to take continuing education credits to maintain their license.
If you are interested in a career in cognitive psychology, please be sure to check out the resources for more information.
APA Reference Rydzy, T. (2013). Job Duties and Qualifications of a Cognitive Psychologist. Psych Central. Retrieved on April 23, 2013, from http://psychcentral.com/lib/2013/job-duties-and-qualifications-of-a-cognitive-psychologist/
????Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 18 Apr 2013 ????Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.
Pitt education professor awarded year's exclusive access to unique dataset on teacher evaluationPublic release date: 22-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Adam Reger reger@pitt.edu 412-624-4238 University of Pittsburgh
Dataset was derived from the largest single effort to date dedicated to evaluating teacher effectiveness
PITTSBURGHA professor in the University of Pittsburgh's School of Education has been chosen to lead a team of researchers that is one of only 10 teams nationally to be granted one-year exclusive access to an unparalleled set of teacher-evaluation data that was collected during a three-year research project sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Tanner LeBaron Wallace, assistant professor of applied developmental psychology at Pitt, was recently awarded a Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) Early Career Research Grant, awarded by the National Academy of Education and the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research. Wallace and her Youth Development Lab research team of Pitt graduate and undergraduate students will use the grantwhich includes an award of $25,000 funded by the William T. Grant Foundation and the Spencer Foundationto undertake a research project that is novel in its collaboration between adolescents and adults.
The grant provides early-career educational researchers with a year's "head start" access to the MET Longitudinal Database, a massive and rich source of data for those seeking to measure teaching effectiveness and to design fairer and more reliable methods of measuring instructor performance.
The database stems from the Gates Foundation-sponsored three-year research partnership project, which involved 2,500 fourth-through-ninth-grade teachers, working in 317 schools located in seven large school districts, and dozens of independent research teams. This project, which cost an estimated $50 million, was the largest single effort to date dedicated to evaluating teaching effectiveness. Data collected during two school years beginning in fall 2009 included student outcomes, student-completed surveys, video-recorded lessons, assessments of teachers' pedagogical and content knowledge, and teacher surveys. The seven school districts from which data were collected were the Charlotte-Mecklenburg (N.C.) Schools, the Dallas Independent Schools, the Denver Public Schools, the Hillsborough County (Fla.) Public Schools, the Memphis City Schools, New York City's system of public schools, and the Pittsburgh Public Schools. The Pittsburgh Public Schools district was included in the project as a pilot district, and data from that preliminary phase of the project are not included in the MET Database to be used by Wallace and the other grant awardees.
Wallace was awarded the grant for her proposal "Employing Urban Adolescent Interpretations of Instructional Practice to Distinguish Teacher Proficiency From Ceiling Effect in the Classroom Organizational Domain." The Pitt project will involve recruiting students from local public schools to view some of the video footage taken during the MET research phase.
The students will be shown classroom situations where the interpretations of adolescents and adult evaluators differed, with student survey responses indicating that a teacher had poor control over the classroom, but adult evaluators considering the teacher to have adequate control. By discussing the videos with the students in small groups, Wallace and her team hope to identify the factors that caused adolescents to view each situation as they did.
Wallace believes that her project's inclusion of adolescents' responses to video recordings of teachers' lessons is unprecedented.
"The hope is that from the results of this study we'll be able to refine our existing view of classroom management in ways that are more sensitive to what matters to adolescents and their willingness to engage in classroom learning activities," said Wallace. A common, and valid, critique of much work evaluating teacher effectiveness, she said, is that these studies are "adult-centric," and they fail to prioritize students' voices in the process.
"We want to integrate the perceptions of adolescents but really link these perceptions to instructional practice," she added. "I think it's a promising new direction in evaluating teachers."
The research project fits in with Wallace's broader research. She studies high schools as developmental spaces, analyzing the ways that adolescents and teachers build connections through classroom interactions as they grow and develop together.
A side benefit of the project that Wallace has noted is the building of community among the 10 teams of researchers that have received the MET Early Career Research Grant. Several "virtual" meetings of the research teams will be held throughout the year, with some in-person meetings scheduled as well. "The goal of these grants is to build a cohort of young scholars who are advancing our ability to accurately measure effective teaching, and I am thrilled to be part of the group," Wallace said.
The other teams that have received the grant are based at Boston University, Brigham Young University, Michigan State University, New York University, the Rockville Institute for the Advancement of Social Science, the University of Connecticut, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Texas at San Antonio, and Wayne State University.
Wallace and her team members underwent multiple rounds of security clearance before gaining access to the data via a virtual data enclave system that prevents them from downloading the data to computers. The team's access began on March 1, 2013, and will expire on March 1, 2014.
###
The MET Longitudinal Database research collection is stored at the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research in the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research. Visit http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/METLDB to learn more about the MET Longitudinal Database.
4/22/13/mab/cjhm
Editors: An image of Tanner LeBaron Wallace is available at http://www.news.pitt.edu/gatesteacherevaluation
Contact:
Adam Reger
412-802-5908 (cell)
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Pitt education professor awarded year's exclusive access to unique dataset on teacher evaluationPublic release date: 22-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Adam Reger reger@pitt.edu 412-624-4238 University of Pittsburgh
Dataset was derived from the largest single effort to date dedicated to evaluating teacher effectiveness
PITTSBURGHA professor in the University of Pittsburgh's School of Education has been chosen to lead a team of researchers that is one of only 10 teams nationally to be granted one-year exclusive access to an unparalleled set of teacher-evaluation data that was collected during a three-year research project sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Tanner LeBaron Wallace, assistant professor of applied developmental psychology at Pitt, was recently awarded a Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) Early Career Research Grant, awarded by the National Academy of Education and the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research. Wallace and her Youth Development Lab research team of Pitt graduate and undergraduate students will use the grantwhich includes an award of $25,000 funded by the William T. Grant Foundation and the Spencer Foundationto undertake a research project that is novel in its collaboration between adolescents and adults.
The grant provides early-career educational researchers with a year's "head start" access to the MET Longitudinal Database, a massive and rich source of data for those seeking to measure teaching effectiveness and to design fairer and more reliable methods of measuring instructor performance.
The database stems from the Gates Foundation-sponsored three-year research partnership project, which involved 2,500 fourth-through-ninth-grade teachers, working in 317 schools located in seven large school districts, and dozens of independent research teams. This project, which cost an estimated $50 million, was the largest single effort to date dedicated to evaluating teaching effectiveness. Data collected during two school years beginning in fall 2009 included student outcomes, student-completed surveys, video-recorded lessons, assessments of teachers' pedagogical and content knowledge, and teacher surveys. The seven school districts from which data were collected were the Charlotte-Mecklenburg (N.C.) Schools, the Dallas Independent Schools, the Denver Public Schools, the Hillsborough County (Fla.) Public Schools, the Memphis City Schools, New York City's system of public schools, and the Pittsburgh Public Schools. The Pittsburgh Public Schools district was included in the project as a pilot district, and data from that preliminary phase of the project are not included in the MET Database to be used by Wallace and the other grant awardees.
Wallace was awarded the grant for her proposal "Employing Urban Adolescent Interpretations of Instructional Practice to Distinguish Teacher Proficiency From Ceiling Effect in the Classroom Organizational Domain." The Pitt project will involve recruiting students from local public schools to view some of the video footage taken during the MET research phase.
The students will be shown classroom situations where the interpretations of adolescents and adult evaluators differed, with student survey responses indicating that a teacher had poor control over the classroom, but adult evaluators considering the teacher to have adequate control. By discussing the videos with the students in small groups, Wallace and her team hope to identify the factors that caused adolescents to view each situation as they did.
Wallace believes that her project's inclusion of adolescents' responses to video recordings of teachers' lessons is unprecedented.
"The hope is that from the results of this study we'll be able to refine our existing view of classroom management in ways that are more sensitive to what matters to adolescents and their willingness to engage in classroom learning activities," said Wallace. A common, and valid, critique of much work evaluating teacher effectiveness, she said, is that these studies are "adult-centric," and they fail to prioritize students' voices in the process.
"We want to integrate the perceptions of adolescents but really link these perceptions to instructional practice," she added. "I think it's a promising new direction in evaluating teachers."
The research project fits in with Wallace's broader research. She studies high schools as developmental spaces, analyzing the ways that adolescents and teachers build connections through classroom interactions as they grow and develop together.
A side benefit of the project that Wallace has noted is the building of community among the 10 teams of researchers that have received the MET Early Career Research Grant. Several "virtual" meetings of the research teams will be held throughout the year, with some in-person meetings scheduled as well. "The goal of these grants is to build a cohort of young scholars who are advancing our ability to accurately measure effective teaching, and I am thrilled to be part of the group," Wallace said.
The other teams that have received the grant are based at Boston University, Brigham Young University, Michigan State University, New York University, the Rockville Institute for the Advancement of Social Science, the University of Connecticut, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Texas at San Antonio, and Wayne State University.
Wallace and her team members underwent multiple rounds of security clearance before gaining access to the data via a virtual data enclave system that prevents them from downloading the data to computers. The team's access began on March 1, 2013, and will expire on March 1, 2014.
###
The MET Longitudinal Database research collection is stored at the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research in the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research. Visit http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/METLDB to learn more about the MET Longitudinal Database.
4/22/13/mab/cjhm
Editors: An image of Tanner LeBaron Wallace is available at http://www.news.pitt.edu/gatesteacherevaluation
Contact:
Adam Reger
412-802-5908 (cell)
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somali militants linked to al Qaeda warned on Monday of further attacks in the capital, a day after killing at least 30 people in a wave of coordinated bombings and shootings that exposed the fragility of security gains in Mogadishu.
African peacekeeping troops blocked streets and searched houses across the city at dawn to flush out suspected members of the Islamist militant group al Shabaab, which claimed responsibility for the strikes.
But the rebels warned of more attacks and taunted the Mogadishu government, which they consider a Western stooge, over its trouble securing the city as Somalia struggles to emerge from more than two decades of conflict and anarchy.
Although a military offensive under an African Union peacekeeping banner has pushed al Shabaab from urban strongholds in central and southern Somalia, the attacks reinforced concerns the militants remain a potent force.
"Yesterday's blasts eliminated the dreams of the puppet government. More lethal attacks are coming," Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaab's spokesman for military operations, told Reuters by telephone.
At least one car bomb exploded and several suicide bombers blew themselves up at Mogadishu's law courts on Sunday. Gunmen also stormed the court compound, spraying it with bullets. Two hours later, a car bomb was detonated near the city's fortified airport.
The U.N. Security Council condemned the attacks and said it was willing to "take action against those whose behavior threatens the peace, stability, or security of Somalia."
Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon said the attack would not stop the government's efforts to restore peace and security.
He said there were several experienced foreign fighters among the attackers at the courts, showing that the fight against the militants was not just a Somali affair.
"We are concerned about the foreign involvement in this attack and this is why we are working so hard with our international partners on security and intelligence sharing," he said in a statement.
Al Shabaab said six of its fighters were killed in the attack, but the government has not said how many militants died.
The law courts were a symbolic target. Somalia's new government has made reforming the judiciary a priority in its campaign to shake off the country's "failed state" tag.
The scale of Sunday's attacks suggest the Islamist militants remain well organized, enabling them to infiltrate the city from which they were driven out two years ago and target important installations with apparent ease.
Western and Somali officials are concerned the militants were seeking to rebuild their strength in the capital.
"It will be almost impossible to eliminate al Shabaab," member of parliament Mohamed Farah Jimale told Reuters. "They will regroup and continue bombing."
Britain, which has a large Somali population and has warned of threats to its own security from Somalia-trained militants, had warned this month of an imminent attack in Mogadishu, highlighting the international networks involved.
Somalia's finance minister said the attack reinforced the government's call for more aid to pay and train its security personnel as it seeks to rebuild the nation of 10 million people.
"It proves that we need the support of friendly countries to help us in improving the security forces' capability in Mogadishu and other areas," Mohamud Hassan Suleiman told Reuters.
A more stable Somalia could help curb piracy, which has flourished in the absence of an effective central government, and would soothe worries that Somali Islamists could expand territory they control which could be used as a training ground for militants who could strike elsewhere.
(Additional reporting by Edmund Blair and Michelle Nichols at the United Nations; Writing by Richard Lough; Editing by Jon Hemming and Bill Trott)
A car bomb attack killed six people, including three U.S. soldiers and an Afghan doctor, in southern Afghanistan on Saturday and an American civilian died in a separate attack in the east. NBC's Ron Mott reports.
By Ismail Sameem, Reuters
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- A car bomb attack killed six people, including three U.S. soldiers and an Afghan doctor, in southern Afghanistan on Saturday and an American civilian died in a separate attack in the east, local and international officials said.
The attacks came as the top U.S. general, Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, arrived in the country for a short visit to assess how much training Afghan troops need before U.S. troops pull out as planned by the end of 2014.
The American troops were traveling in a convoy of vehicles in Qalat, the capital of Zabul province, when the car bomb exploded. Provincial governor Mohammad Ashraf Nasery was unharmed but a local doctor and two foreign civilians also died, according to local and NATO officials.
The convoy was near a hospital and a NATO base at the time of the explosion. Five Afghans, including a student and two reporters, were wounded, a local official said.
?
?
In a separate attack in Afghanistan's east, an American civilian working with the U.S. government was killed during an insurgent attack, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said in a statement.
Zabul shares borders with Pakistan to the southeast and the birthplace of the Taliban, Kandahar province, to the south.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the Zabul attack in a text message from spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi. He said a car bomb killed seven foreigners and wounded five others, though he later revised the toll to 13 foreigners killed and nine wounded.
The Taliban routinely exaggerates casualty figures.
The killings come in the wake of a bloody Taliban assault in the country's west on Wednesday that killed 44 people in a courtroom in Farah province. The United Nations says civilians are being increasingly targeted in 2013.
In a statement posted online earlier on Saturday, Taliban spokesman Ahmadi said the Taliban would continue to target Afghan judges and prosecutors.
"The Islamic Emirate, from today onwards, will keep a close watch over courthouses, all its personnel and all those who try to harm Mujahideen and will deal with them the same as the judges and prosecutors of Farah."
?
Related content:
Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.
Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy announced a 42 percent drop in murders in the first quarter of 2013.
By Tracy Connor, Staff Writer, NBC News
Three months after Chicago notched the most murders in the nation, officials are touting a dramatic downturn in crime.
In the first quarter of the year, murders dropped 42 percent over the same period last year and shootings were down 27 percent -- reductions that authorities say were fueled by anti-gang initiatives.
"These numbers are progress but they are by no means victory," Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said in a statement.
The encouraging figures come after a series of crimes that made Chicago a symbol of urban gun violence.
The nation's third-largest city ended 2012 with the most slayings: 506. Then came the shooting death of innocent teenager Hadiya Pendleton, who had just performed with her school marching band during President Obama's inauguration weekend activities. She was killed during the deadliest January that Chicago had seen in a decade.
But March, in particular, brought good news for the city and its beleaguered police force: murders down 69 percent, with 36 fewer people slain than in March 2012.
There were still horrific headlines out of Chicago last month, though, such as 6-month-old Jonylah Watkins being gunned down in what police said was a gang-related shooting aimed at her father.
And on the day that Mayor Rahm Emanuel and McCarthy announced the new crime stats, they also had to answer questions about a wild weekend melee by teenagers along the city's Magnificent Mile.
McCarthy told NBCChicago.com that the advent of warmer weather was partly to blame for the disturbance because it brings young people outside.
Since Pendleton's murder, the Police Department has put more officers on the street and City Hall is beefing up after-school and summer job programs to stop youths from falling in with gangs.
McCarthy said the first-quarter numbers are "encouraging" but cautioned that there are no shortcuts to cracking down on crime.
"It's not like a Jenga game where if you pull out that one stick everything falls down," he said.
iPhone: If you take your morning cup of coffee seriously, Brew Control is a useful iPhone app that helps keep your brewing consistent.
The app lets you choose from a variety of brewing methods, including Aeropress, espresso, and pourover, then set your preferred coffee to water ratio for each. Once you've set up your recipe, you can adjust the grams of coffee you'll be using, and Brew Control will tell you exactly how much water to add. The app even includes some customizable timers to keep your brewing times consistent.
If you're new to coffee, the developer included his own tips and instructional videos for each brewing method, and if you want to learn more, you can also check out our recent morning school series on the subject.
The brain is the body?s ultimate control center. It is the most important and the most complex organ in the body. Among other things, the brain is responsible for storing and processing information. A cognitive psychologist specializes in studying the brain and how the human brain learns, processes and recognizes information.
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 22-Apr-2013
Share ] 
iPhone: If you take your morning cup of coffee seriously, Brew Control is a useful iPhone app that helps keep your brewing consistent.