Function Theory and Cognitive Psychology

There is actually quite a lot of evidence to show the possible connections between what we currently call function theory and the emerging field of Cognitive Psychology

Function theory and Cognitive Psychology are both chiefly concerned with understanding how an individual's Information Metabolism works. When I say Information Metabolism, I mean the way that people take in the massive streams of information that are constantly throw at us in our everyday life. In just about any situation, there are several different ways to prioritize information and draw conclusions about stimuli and events. How a particular individual prioritizes and formulates conclusions about these stimuli define their information metabolism.

The similarities

Both systems are primarily concerned with things like perceptions, decision-making, learning, attention etc.

If we abstract out the core concepts of both systems we can see that they are actually attempting to describe very very similar things. These two systems simply go about this research and understanding in two different ways. Function theory is a high-level theory meant to explain behaviors we see forming from the complexity of the brain we don't understand yet. The conclusions come from watching people and using these observations to conclude different things about how they pay attention to things, what information they care most about, what information they struggle with and how they view the world as far as what is important to them.

Cognitive Psychology is more interested in these concepts from an empirical view and is more scientific and focused on the mechanics of the brain that actually create the complex behaviors we are able to observe with function theory.

If we view Function Theory and Cognitive Psychology as two halves of a whole, we can combine them in ways that benefit both. As our ability to measure brain activity improves we will be able to shine a light on things we can't now in order to corroborate the theories posed by function theory using cognitive psychology.

In fact the study of the brain is getting increasingly effective due to new tools being developed as we speak. As I will get into further into this book, there are resources out there that have begun this endeavor to show the mechanics of function theory as they relate to brain activity aswell. This area of research could be incredibly impactful on the future of our understanding of cognition by fusing these two systems and reaping the rewards of both of them as well as understanding the interconnectivity that immerges as a result.