Cognitive Psychology
BY MARGARET W. MATLIN
Contents
Chapter 1. An Introduction to Cognitive Psychology ......................................................................................2
Introducing Cognitive Psychology...............................................................................................................2
A Brief History of Cognitive Psychology ......................................................................................................2
Cognitive Neuroscience Techniques ...........................................................................................................3
Additional Areas that Contribute to Cognitive Psychology ........................................................................4
Chapter 2 Recognizing Visual and Auditory Stimuli ........................................................................................5
Background on Visual Object Recognition..................................................................................................5
Top-Down Processing and Visual Object Recognition ................................................................................6
Face Perception ..........................................................................................................................................6
Speech Perception ......................................................................................................................................6
Chapter 3 Paying Attention.............................................................................................................................7
Several Kinds of Attention Processes .........................................................................................................7
Explanations for Attention..........................................................................................................................9
Consciousness .............................................................................................................................................9
Chapter 4 Using Working Memory ...............................................................................................................10
The Classic Research on Working Memory (Short-Term Memory) ..........................................................10
The Working-Memory Approach ..............................................................................................................11
Chapter 5 Using Long-Term Memory ...........................................................................................................12
Encoding in Long-Term Memory ..............................................................................................................12
The Effects of Context: The Encoding-Specificity Principle ......................................................................13
Retrieval in Long-Term Memory ...............................................................................................................13
Autobiographical Memory........................................................................................................................14
Chapter 6 Using Memory Strategies and Metacognition .............................................................................15
Memory Strategies ...................................................................................................................................15
Metacognition ..........................................................................................................................................16
Chapter 7 Using Mental Imagery and Cognitive Maps .................................................................................17
The Characteristics of Visual Imagery.......................................................................................................17
The Characteristics of Auditory Imagery ..................................................................................................18
Cognitive Maps .........................................................................................................................................18
,Chapter 8 Using General Knowledge ............................................................................................................19
The Structure of Semantic Memory .........................................................................................................19
Schemas and Scripts .................................................................................................................................21
Chapter 9 Comprehending Language ...........................................................................................................22
The Nature of Language ...........................................................................................................................23
Basic Reading Processes ...........................................................................................................................24
Understanding Discourse..........................................................................................................................25
Chapter 10 Producing Language ...................................................................................................................25
Speaking....................................................................................................................................................25
Writing ......................................................................................................................................................26
Bilingualism and Second-Language Acquisition........................................................................................27
Chapter 11 Using Problem Solving and Creativity ........................................................................................28
Understanding the Problem .....................................................................................................................28
Problem-Solving Strategies.......................................................................................................................29
Factors that Influence Problem Solving ....................................................................................................30
Creativity...................................................................................................................................................30
Chapter 12 Using Reasoning and Decision Making.......................................................................................31
Deductive Reasoning ................................................................................................................................31
Chapter 1. An Introduction to Cognitive Psychology
Introducing Cognitive Psychology
Cognition, or mental activity, describes the acquisition, storage, transformation and use of knowledge. A
related term, cognitive psychology, has two meanings: (1) Sometimes it is a synonym for the word
cognition, and so it refers to the variety of mental activities we perform. (2) Sometimes it refers to a
particular theoretical approach to psychology. The cognitive approach is a theoretical approach that
empathizes people’s thought processes and their knowledge.
A Brief History of Cognitive Psychology
The Origins of Cognitive Psychology
Aristotle emphasized the importance of empirical evidence, or scientific evidence obtained by careful
observation and experimentation. Many centuries later, Wilhelm Wundt proposed that psychology should
study mental processes, using a technique called introspection. Introspection means observing your own
sensations and reporting them as objectively as possible. Herman Ebbinghaus was the first person to
scientifically study human memory. Mary Whiton Calkins reported the recency effect, this refers to the
observation that our recall is especially accurate for the final items in a list of stimuli.
William James wrote the textbook Principles of Psychology, which provides clear detailed descriptions
about people’s everyday experiences. He empathises that the human mind is active and inquiring.
,According to behaviourism, psychology must focus on objective, observable reactions to stimuli in the
environment, rather than introspection. Behaviourists emphasized the importance of the operational
definition, a precise definition that specifies exactly how a concept is to be measured.
Gestalt psychology emphasizes that we
humans have basic tendencies to actively
organize what we see; furthermore, the
whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
A gestalt is an overall quality that
transcends the individual elements.
Bartlett proposed that human memory is
an active constructive process, in which we
interpret and transform the information
we encounter.
The Emergence of Modern Cognitive Psychology
The behaviourist approach tells us nothing about many psychological processes. The rise of cognitive
psychology began. The growth was encouraged by research in linguistics, memory, and developmental
psychology. A new approach was created, the information-processing approach. It argued that (a) our
mental processes are similar to the operations of a computer, and (b) information progresses through our
cognitive system in a series of stages. The Atkinson-Shiffrin model proposed that memory involves a
sequence of separate steps; in each step, information is
transferred from one storage area to another. External
stimuli first enter sensory memory, a storage system that
records information from each of the senses with reasonable
accuracy. Some material is then passed on to short-term
memory (or working memory), it holds only the small amount
of information that you are actively using. Only a fraction of the information is then passed on to long-term
memory. It has an enormous capacity and is relatively permanent.
The Current Status of Cognitive Psychology
Many cognitive psychologists now acknowledge that we need more complex models to account for human
thinking. Cognitive psychology has influenced a lot on the discipline of psychology. There is some critic
though. One complaint is the issue of ecological validity. Studies are high in ecological validity if the
conditions in which the research is conducted are similar to the natural setting where the results will be
applied.
Cognitive Neuroscience Techniques
Cognitive neuroscience combines the research techniques of cognitive psychology with various methods
for assessing the structure and function of the brain. Psychologists now use neuroscience techniques to
explore the kind of cognitive processes that we use in our interactions with other people, this discipline is
called social cognitive neuroscience.
Brain lesions
The term brain lesions refers to the destruction of an area in the brain, most often by strokes, tumours,
blows to the head, and accidents.
, Positron Emission Tomography (PET Scan)
By measuring certain properties of the blood in different regions of the brain while people perform a
cognitive task, we can determine which brain regions are responsible for that cognitive task. In a positron
emission tomography (PET Scan), researchers measure blood flow in the brain by injecting the participant
with a low dose of radioactive chemical just before this person works on a cognitive task. An image can
then be made of the accumulated radioactive chemical in the brain.
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is based on the principle that oxygen-rich blood is an index
of brain activity. The magnetic field of a magnet changes the oxygen atoms.
Event-Related Potential Technique
The event-related potential (ERP) technique records the very brief fluctuations in the brain’s electrical
activity, in response to a stimulus.
Additional Areas that Contribute to Cognitive Psychology
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a branch of computer science; it seeks to explore the human cognitive
processes by creating computer models that show “intelligent behaviour” and also accomplish the same
tasks that humans do.
According to the computer metaphor, our cognitive processes work like a computer, that is, a complex
multipurpose machine that processes information quickly and accurately. Both the human and the
computer may operate according to similar general principles. Computer models need to describe both the
structures and the processes that operate on these structures. Pure artificial intelligence is an approach
that designs a program to accomplish a cognitive task as efficiently as possible, even if the computer’s
processes are completely different from the processes used by humans. In contrast, computer simulation
or computer modelling attempts to take human limitations in account. The goal is to program a computer
to perform a specific cognitive task in the same way that humans actually perform a task. The connectionist
approach argues that cognitive processes can be understood in terms of networks that link together
neuron-like units; in addition, many operations can proceed simultaneously. Human cognition is often
parallel and not strictly linear. This approach is also called the parallel distributed processing (PDP)
approach or the neural-network approach. These approaches were used to develop techniques that are
used to explore the structure of the cortex. The cerebral cortex is the outer layer of the brain that is
essential for your cognitive processes. The classic AI approach viewed processing as a series of separate
operations; processing would be serial. During serial processing, the system must complete one step
before it can proceed to the next step. Many cognitive activities seem to use parallel processing rather
than serial processing.
Cognitive Science
Cognitive science is an interdisciplinary field that tries to answer questions about the mind. It includes the
already discussed disciplines and also philosophy, linguistics, anthropology, sociology and economics.
Cognitive scientists focus on internal representations, in contrast with behaviourists who focused on
observable stimuli.
