Week 1: What is Cognitive Psychology? Flashcards
Define Cognitive Psychology
The scientific study of mental processes of memory, perception, language and decision making.
perceive our environment
– memorise information
– use language to communicate
– make decisions
• Sometimes we are aware of our mental processes, often they are automatic
How we acquire, store and retrieve information
What is perception?
Internal representations (shapes, colours) How we acquire information about the world
What is attention?
The focussing and processing of information.
What information do we process, how do we process it, and what is not processed
What are the concepts and categories?
Concepts are key ideas(building blocks)
Categories are representations of information of the world
What is memory?
Holding manipulations in our mind
What is information processing?
The process of acquiring and storing information- A conceptual framework
Wicken’s model used in CBT
What is artificial intelligence?
Neural networks
Insight into human cognition
What is language?
How we communicate information
What is decision making, problem-solving and creativity entail?
How do we process information and choose what action to take
How does cognitive Psychology effect other areas of Psychology?
they change as we develop and age
– they influence how we understand and respond to social situations
– they are the outputs of biological and neural activity
Give examples of Artificial Intelligence
AI in Medicine- how neural networks have been designed to recognise cancerous cells. Similar to perception
AI in self-driving cars-use algorithms, trained using neural networks
What is the historical use by Wundt of ‘Method of Introspection’?
Trained participants to report and analyse own perceptions. They can interpret different things-subjectivity in perception.
What was Watson’s Behaviourist view?
Stimulus-Response relations
Don’t account for mental processes and don’t explain cognition
What was Tolman’s Rat in Maze experiment?
Trained rat to turn in maze to get a reward. Internal mental representations of map of maze in head. Explains problem solving.
Explain the cognitive revolution
Broadbent-computer mind analogy. Similarities between mind and computer. Both have receptors for inputs and effectors for outputs. Short term memory-computer models short term memory
Miller-magical number-capacity- 7+-2- Memory is like a little store. Inspired by the computer model.
Simon and Newell- computers and humans manipulate symbols. Way they are stored and processed is different
What are the different levels of cognition analysis according to Marr?
Computation level-Input and output function of a system
Algorithmic Level-How does it do it, process and sequence of steps
Implementational Level-cognitive neuroscience what are the systems physically made of. Neurons in brain
What are the common methods used in cognitive Psychology?
Experimental methods-Questions IV/DV
Verbal Protocols-Problem to solve tell them out load
Eye Tracking-Unpack sequence that people go through.(e.g. marketing)
Biological Techniques-fMRI, EEG/ERP. Physiological measures such as heart rate and skin conduction
What is the Typical Paradigm?
Goel & Dolan -logical reasoning- do people rearrange words or pictorial representations. How do people reason.
E.g. Karen in front of Darren, Darren above Mary
What are the fundamental assumptions of cognitive Science?
Alan Turing- Thinking was processing information. A computer that thinks
Searle’s Chinese Room- Make computer simulations that behave like people. Are computers conscious can they experience emotions? No. Computers on follow rules of a program.
What is the Classic Experiment of Sternberg show?
How do retrieve or access in short term memory?
Serial (looking in order) or parallel (looking at things all in one go).
Memory set and response time- for serial it will get slower, parallel will stay the same. Response time increased as the function size of memory test increased-took people longer.
