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33 Cards in this Set

  • Front
  • Back
What is Neisser's(1967) definition of cognitive psychology?
"all processes by which the sensory input is transformed, reduced, elaberated, stored, recovered, and used."
His definition means that cognitive psychologists are interested in what five things?
a. How much attention people give too particular task and how it affects their performance.
b. How people percieve and make sense of sensory input.
c. How people remember things.
d. How people visualize things.
e. How people use language to describe things.
What school of thought emerged at the beginning of the 20th century and what was it closely linked to?
Behaviourism - Linked to the attempt to apply the scientific method to human behaviour and observe what happened.
How did World War II contribute to the development of cognitive psychology?
During WWII, there was a focus on human performance and attention as a method of screening people fore military service.
Why did pilot errors occur?
Pilots focused their attention on successive instruments in the space. So rather than simply responding to stimuli around them. Pilots actively sought out information.
What is Baddeley's(1984) model of cognition?
Information is recieved thru senses, channeled thru filters, processed into stores and boxes, then 'outputted' into behaviour.
What does cognition mean?
Knowing
What do cognitive processes refer to?
Ways in which knowledge is gained, used and retained.
What are six topics that cognitive psychologists have studied?
Perception, Attention, Memory, Thinking, Language, and Problem Solving.
How do cognitive psychologists suggest studying mental processes scientifically?
By proposing models of psychological functions and then conducting research to see, when people are given an input of information, whether their output of behaviour matches what the models would predict.
What are two assumptions that cognitive psychologists make?
1. Study of internal mental processes is important in understanding behaviour.
2. Humans are information processors and these processors can be modeled and tested scientifically.
Describe the two most commonly used methods of investigation in cognitive psychology.
Experiments that are performed in a lab, with strictly controlled conditions. Independent variables are manipulated to find effect on amount of information retained.
Case Studies study brain functions.
Describe four contributions that cognitive psychology has made to society.
1. Memory - help improve memory thru mnemonic devices or to help police eyewitness testimonys.
2. Education - information processing thinking.
3. Therapy - Restructure faulty thinking and perceptions in depression.
4. Health Promotion - The health belief model and the following or not of health advice.
Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of cognitive psychology approaches and models.
Strengths - uses rigorous scientific methods, explores on a functional psychological level, has influenced and integrated with many other approaches and areas of study.
Weaknesses - Over simplistic, unrealistic, and over hypothetical, too cold, conscious experiences and free will in behaviour.
Basic assumptions of cognitive perspective.
1. Mental processes can and should be investigated scientifically.
2. Models of psychology functions can be proposed.
3. Cognitive processes actively organize and manipulate information that we recieve. Humans are not passive responders to their environment.
4. Soft determinism
5. Non-human animals may be used to help understand human behaviour.
Strengths and Weaknesses of the basic assumptions of cognitive perspective.
Strengths - 1. It investigates many areas of behaviour ignored by the learning perspective, using rigorous scientific methods.
2. Explainations at a functional, psychological level rather than a reductionists approach.
3. It has conbined with other perspectives to strengthen its explanations - e.g. neuropsychology.
Weaknesses - 1. Overly simplistic-computer model disregards the complexity of human behaviour.
2. Overly hypothetical.
3. Objectification of its participants
What three things did psychology emphasize that made it quickly embraced in western cultures?
Emphasis on the experimental method, computer modelling and solving socially important problems. ex. help firefighters be effective.
An information-processing model of human cognition suggests that a stimulus:
Produces a sensation that is then percieved and processed for meaning.
the information-processing model of human cognition occurs in what context?
In the context of what we know (long-term memory) and short-term expectations, which are analyzed in working memory to determine which responses are selected and executed.
Many experiments that are designed to understand cognitive process use what terms?
In terms of accuracy, response times, and errors.
What are some limits that psychologists recognize in comparing computers and humans?
Humans process several pieces of information at a time whereas a computer does only one. human use heuristics rather than algorithms. Rather than processing 1 piece of information at a time, humans use hueristics - cognitive short cuts or rules of thumb that we know work because of prior experiences. Humans can work simultaneously on several processes. 2. Rather than using algorithms(systematic rules for processes) we use hueristics (rules of thumb).
3. Humans think purposefully and strategically can initiate plans, which computers can't yet do.
Much of cognitive psychology is based on what?
Knowledge gathered from researchers.
Describe in detail one example of qualitative research.
A study investigating the views of parents about the cognitive abilities of their children, and which abilities they thought could be changed.
Qualitative information from focus groups, interviews or questionnaires can be valuable fore understanding what types of things?
Source of understanding about the things people believe and value, their attitudes, or the psychological processes they engage in.
What are three types of data gathered to study information processing/?
Reaction times, that is the speed at which information is processed and Emotional intelligence, that is the interaction between information processing and how we and others feel, working memory.
What is reaction time? What does reaction time tell us about a person's cognitive ability?
That is the speed at which information is processed.
What are two things speed of response has been associated with?
Reaction time or inspection time. Intelligence and memory performance.
What is inspection time? Give an example of a task that measures inspection time.
The speed of perception. e.g. the green ball test in teh computer lab.
What is working memory?
The amount of information we can simultaneously store and manipulate.
Describe three daily tasks that require use of working memory?
Reading a book, writing an essay, mentally re-arranging the furniture in your bedroom and doing mental arithmetic all require the ability to hold information temporarily in the mind while we perform the mental task.
What is thought to be ture about the capacity of working memory?
Limited, if capacity is exceded, task may be difficult or impossible to perform.
What do cognitive theories of emotion emphasize?
How we interpret events as well as how our bodies react to events in their explanations of emotions.
What data supports the view that we tend to remember pleasant memories more than unpleasant ones?
Events from childhood, 50% of memories were pleasant, 30% unpleasant, and 20% were neutral.