Chapter 1 - Introduction to Cognition

Question 1

1- What is cognition?

Answer 1

“The mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and
understanding through thought, experience, and the
senses”

“Cognitive processes use existing knowledge and generate new knowledge”

• Cognitive function, our thoughts and actions, is regulated by brain
  activity
• Cognition emerges from the connections of over 100 billion nerve cells in the brain
• Primarily concerned with understanding the processes that produce complex behaviors even though separate abilities are studied
• Memory, language, perception

cognitive abilities are studied separately but are not separable in reality

Question 2

2- What are the two types of cognitive research?

Answer 2

Basic Research:
* Goal is to try to understand the world and its phenomena without regard to a specific end-use of this knowledge
* Understand how we perceive information, remember, reason and solve
problems

Applied Research
* Research with the end-goal of developing a solution to a problem
* Includes understanding natural changes to the mind, cognitive diseases and disorders and human factors research

Question 3

3- Explain zoom fatigue (probably not in exam but idk)

Answer 3

• We have a limit to how much information we can process
• This limit might be reached earlier when Zooming than in
  real-world scenarios
  1.) A lack of information from body language, social cues, eye contact
  2.) The audio signal is out of sync on Zoom, so there are higher demands on processing (Powers et al., 2011)
  3.) The lack of immersion makes it easy to be distracted

Question 4

4- Explain how research is conducted (review).

Answer 4

• Most research is guided by a hypothesis: A certain
  guess about the link between variables under study
• Phenomenon-based research: an “effect” is discovered, and
  follow-up research examine the nature of the effect
• POPCORN!
• Experiments test hypotheses
• Manipulate an independent variable (IV: what you change)
• Test the effects on a dependent variable (DV: outcome)
• Factors that affect the IV-DV relation control or nuisance
  variables

Question 5

5- Explain the 3 general approaches to cognition and use the example of emotions.

Answer 5

Cognitive psychology:
* Study of Behavior to understand the mind
Example:
* Emotional enhancement effect: Emotional stimuli are more easily attended to, remembered than neutral stimuli
* Behavioral experiments show focal memory enhancements for
negative stimuli in an image (Loftus et al., 1987)…with gun remember face less than with drink

Neuroscience:
* Study of the brain and linking it to the mind
* Asks: what parts of the brain carry out functions we see behaviorally?
Example: * Amygdala activity predicts memory for emotional but not
neutral images (Dolcos et al., 2004)

Computational modeling
* Building and modelling the mind-brain connection
Example: (see flowchart)

Bonus: watch out for AI: to interpret and respond to emotion vis deep learning
(Challenges include differences in expression across cultures and people)