HEALTH

1. Attention, Perception, Memory and Decision making are all different types of mental
processes in which the mind engages
Introduction
Mental process or mental function are all the things that individuals can do with their minds.
Mental process is defined as the mechanism that receives information from environment analyzes
them and makes decision or develop attitude based on the analysis. Mental process is a cognitive
psychology process or we can say analytical process that is not observable directly.
Attention
Attention is the behavioral and cognitive process of selectively concentrating on a discrete aspect
of information, whether considered subjective (lack of objective reality) or objective (truth
independent from individual subjectivity), while ignoring other perceivable information.
Attention focuses our resources on a series of stimuli while ignoring the rest. We receive a
large number of stimuli all at once and we cannot attend to all at the same time.
The attention process is adaptive because, if it did not exist, we would find ourselves
overwhelmed by stimuli. We would not know which to react to. It is paradoxical that the self-
imposition of a cognitive limitation implies an evolutionary adaptation, but it’s true.
Perception
Perception is the ability of the mind to transform sensory stimuli into conscious thought or
sensation. It is a phenomenon that happens almost instantaneously and involves the actions of
millions of neurons in the brain. To better understand perception, it is essential to understand the
properties, nature and activities of these neurons. Such activities are controlled not only by

2. chemicals but also by other internal and external processes. However, perception is responsible
for us having an “image” of the reality that surrounds us. It processes the information we
receive from the external stimuli of our senses. It is also responsible for organizing and giving
meaning to all sensory stimulus. The function of this is obvious: knowing the environment
around us allows us to move and interact with it. These are basic and necessary skills to
achieve an efficient adaptation.
Memory
Memory allows us to encode information for future storage and retrieval. This is an essential
process and closely related to all other processes.
Memory allows us to remember explicit information such as the capital of France or
procedural information like how to ride a bike. Memory exists because it is really useful to
have information about our past experiences at our disposal. This allows us to make guesses
about the future and act on them. Without this process, the other basic psychological processes
would not exist, since all are strongly supported by memory.
Decision making
When making a decision, we form opinions and choose actions via mental processes which are
influenced by biases, reason, emotions, and memories. The simple act of deciding supports the
notion that we have free will. We weigh the benefits and costs of our choice, and then we cope
with the consequences. Factors that limit the ability to make good decisions include missing or
incomplete information, urgent deadlines, and limited physical or emotional resources.