Cognitive and biopsychology lecture 1 Flashcards
What is the information prcoessing?
Used to understand psychological behaviour in real world and uses computer analogy to describe how the brain works.
What are we not aware of?
Everything that we process e.g. fans in the room, typing of keyboards
What is cognitive psychology the study of?
scientific of mental processes (controlled experiments) - referred to as info processing approach
Detail of computer analogy
info in - info processed in brain - info out
The brain processes info/stimuli from the environment in a similar manner as a digital computer
The components of the mind accord to computer analogy
hardware - physical system (nervous system)
software - mental processes (memory, attention, reasoning, perception)
mind and behaviour is info processing
What is a representational account?
internal representation of external objects
What is a propositional account
mental representations with semantic properties - tokens with meaning
What is indirect realism?
we access internal reality through representations
What is entropy
used to describe the uncertainty and disorder in an individuals mental state
what is information
the amount of surprise, mathematical and involves predictive probability in a system
What do cognitive processes aim to do
processes surprise and filter out noise. Brain constantly predicting e.g. how fast is this car going and can I get across the road in that time?
Aims of cog processes
process surprise and filter out noise
brain evolved to be optimal not maximal
brain is modular
systems transform and sort info from environment
What is meant by the the ‘brain is modular
environmental info processed by a variety of different processing systems.
what are the modules of the brain?
visual, auditory, memory and attention
History of the cog approach
structuralist approach - introspection (wundt)
behaviourism - high influence on development of psychology. study of observable, measurable events
what was Watson’s virew on psychology?
need behaviourism for scientific approach to psych - same foundations as other physical sciences - physics, biology and chemistry. Pavlov dogs - operant condition behaviour modified through +ve and -ve reinforcement.
What is epiphenomenalism
our actions have purely physical causes (neuropsychologlcial changes to the brain) while our intention, desire or volition to act doesn’t cause our actions but is itself caused by physical causes of our actions
further history
Cognitive revolution – 1950’s.
Behaviourism = too simplistic
Tolman – cog maps
Cherry – attention, cocktail party effect
Chomsky – language acquisition not operant condition
Miller - memory, magic no. 7 +/-2
what is info theory
influences cog approach. influenced by maths, engineering computers. New concepts - attention, skill, capacity.
what is the the bottom up approach
begins with analysis of sensory input e.g. light on retina perception built from low level info.
what is the top down approach
high level of cog info. knowledge and xp influence our view of the world
what is series info
sequential, bottle neck, easy to process
ppl say 1,2,3,4 one by one in a row
what is parallel info
1,2,3,4 said by ppl all the same time - harder to hear numbers
What is experimental cog
experimenter controls variables (e.g. items in word list, long list worse short list better) to study one variable or system (memory capacity)
remembering a list of dr. who actor’s vs remembering a list of football teams
