Cognitive Psychology

What is Cognitive Psychology? The cognitive approach helps us understand how mental processes shape our behaviour Cognition means knowing: how we come to know the world around us

Cognitive psychology 3 The cognitive approach It is about the way people deal with information. We can receive sensory information, change it, store it, use it and process it in different ways. We can use existing knowledge to help us to interpret new information. Cognition includes a range of different mental activities: attention perception memory decision-making language. How do we take in sensory information?

How we take in sensory information

Cognitive Psychology - Sensation vs. Perception Our senses encode information accurately (sensation) Then our mind interprets it according to what makes most sense (perception) Cognitive processors actively organise and manipulate information that we receive – humans do not merely passively respond to their environment

The human mind is compared with a computer – we are information processors

How do we perceive the world ? Can we believe the evidence of our own eyes? Do we all ‘see’ the same thing? Is seeing innate? Or is it learnt?

In this illustration, the stairs should turn upside down during a steady gaze. The wall with the floating glass sphere will shift from the foreground to the background (or vice-versa)

Stare at the picture (on the left) for about 45 seconds Stare at the picture (on the left) for about 45 seconds. Then, stare at the white section of this image (the right section). You should see the Queen again. Keep your concentration, and for those 45 seconds, don't take your eyes off the picture.

Do you think that these lines are parallel. They are Do you think that these lines are parallel? They are! But it doesn't look like it does it? We suppose that's what makes it an illusion!!!

Ghostly black patches appear at the white intersections Ghostly black patches appear at the white intersections. The illusion was noted by Hermann (1870) while reading a book on sound by Tyndall (1869).

By looking at exceptions we learn more about memory http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmkiMlvLKto

If you are fascinated by these concepts…. Check out this film

You will be learning about 2 different theories of memory I am going to tell you a story…………