LECTURE 1

Question 1

what are the assumptions of cognitive psychology

Answer 1

1- mental processes exist
2- mental processes can be studied scientifically
3- humans are active ppts in the act of cognition

Question 2

strengths to cognitive psychology

Answer 2

it is a foundation of how we understand human mental processes
it continues to inform how we think in contemporary research across all disciplines
source of most theories and tasks used by other approaches

Question 3

weaknesses of cognitive psychology

Answer 3

• task impurity problem= most tasks involve multiple cognitive processes- so how do we know what we are truly measuring

ecological validity- behaviour differs to that in lab

labs provide indirect measures

paradigm specificity- findings on one task may not generalise to similar tasks

Question 4

information processing- what is metatheory?

Answer 4

a set of assumptions and guiding principles e.g. where to start, what to look for, what to be aware of

Question 5

information processing- bottom up-

Answer 5

bottom up is data driven processing.
processing directly affected by the stimulus input

serial- current process is completed before the next one starts
weakness of bottom up- too simplistic doesn’t account for top down

Question 6

information processing- top down

Answer 6

processing is influenced by individuals expectations and knowledge

parallel processing- more than one cognitive process occurs simultaneously