Cognitive Psychology, 2 nd Ed.

1. Cognitive Psychology, 2nd Ed. Chapter 1

2. Defining Cognitive Psychology • The study of human mental processes and their role in thinking, feeling, and behaving. • Experimentation versus mathematical models and computer simulations. • Information processing—the mind is analogous to the software of a computer and the brain to its hardware.

3. Information processing • Information as a reduction of uncertainty (h = log2N). • Meaning, not information in the mathematical sense, is the focus of human mental life.

5. Defining Cognitive Science • The study of the relationships among and integration of cognitive psychology, biology, anthropology, computer science, linguistics, and philosophy. • These disciplines bring different methodologies to common questions.

7. Core Concepts • Mental representation • Stages of processing • Serial versus parallel processing • Hierarchical systems • Cognitive architecture • Memory stores • Consciousness

8. Mental representation • An unobservable internal code for information. • Mental images are one kind of mental representation. • Other kinds are unconscious and abstract. • Provide the basis for all cognitive abilities and knowledge about the world.

9. Stages of processing • Processes modify mental representations in a series of stages. • Encoding, storage, and retrieval are stages of processing in memory, for example.

10. Serial versus Parallel Processing • At a given stage of processing, cognitive operations may be either serial or parallel. • Simultaneous operations are parallel not serial. • Is retrieval from memory serial or parallel?

11. Hierarchical Systems • Mind as a hierarchy of component parts analogous to bodily systems. • Nervous system divides into peripheral and central branch. Peripheral divides into autonomic and sensory, etc. • Mind divides into perception, memory, and motor output. Memory divides into sensory, short-term, and long-term. Long-term divides into declarative and nondeclarative.

13. Consciousness • Self-knowledge—knowledge of self in addition to knowledge of objects, events, and ideas external to self. • Informational access—capacity to be become aware of and able to report on mental representations and processes. • Sentience—capacity for raw sensations, feelings, and subjective experience.

14. Research Methods • Behavioral measures—reaction time and proportion of errors. • Verbal protocols—concurrent, think aloud protocols or other verbal reports. • Physiological measures—EEG, ERP, PET, fMRI.

17. Method of Subtraction • Used to isolate the properties of a single stage of processing. • Assumption of pure insertion: Control-Stages 1 and 2 Experimental-Stages 1, 2, and 3 Adding 3 does not affect 1 and 2

19. Strong Theories of Cognition • Account for a large number phenomena with as few assumptions as possible. • Are based on ecologically valid experiments. • Are based on converging evidence including behavioral, verbal reports, physiological, and mathematical models/computer simulations.

20. Symbolic models Design of digital computer Symbolic representations Local representations Serial processing Connectionist models Structure of brain Associations among simple units Distributed representations Parallel processing Cognitive Architectures