Unit 3: Cognitive Level of Analysis

What is Cognition? Cognitive LoA is new to psychology (40-50 years) Important way to look at your life – important to be able to think about your thinking (metacognition) Understanding of perception = awesome. Do we study this in the lab or in a daily context?

Cognitive LoA Cognitive psychology: concerns itself with the structure and functions of the mind Mind: a set of mental processes that are carried out by the brain Mental processes (cognitions): include perception, thinking, problem solving, memory, language, and attention Cognitions: based on mental representations of the world such as images, words, and concepts

1.Mental processes guide behavior 2.The mind can be studied scientifically 3.Cognitive processes are influenced by social and cultural factors Principles of the Cognitive Level of Analysis

What about memory? Memory = reconstructive nature – Only outlines, not exact copies  false memories – The brain is able to fabricate illusions so realistic we believe they are true

Perception How do we perceive things? Perception: the cognitive process that interprets and organizes information from the senses to produce some meaningful experience of the world Problem: what people think is objective may not be… why? gY gY

What about technology?

In groups of 4, consider the questions in the “Be A Thinker” box on p. 69. Be prepared to discuss. 1.What can a human do that a computer can’t? 2.What can a computer do that a human can’t? 3.Do you think it will ever be possible to construct a robot that can be exactly like a human?

Cognitive Psychology: Methodology Methods – Experiments: we will look in a second – Observations: observe the effects of a pre-existing condition – Interviews and Self-Report: questionnaires, interviews, surveys – Psychometric Testing: standardized tests, other aptitude tests, Wechsler Memory Scale

Strengths and Limitations; Ethical Considerations Ecological Validity – Relevance to everyday life – Meaningfulness of research – Why might lab experiments lack ecological validity? Ethics – Examples: Malpass and Devine (1981) Suspect ID – Loftus and Palmer (1974, 1975, & 1979)

Experiment Video How fast was the car going when it hit the other car? How fast was the car going when it smashed into the other car? How fast was the car going when it collided with the other car? How fast was the car going when it bumped the other car?

RESEARCH IN COGNITION

Donders (1868) Stroop task

Historical Context: The First Cognitive Psychologists Donders (1868) – Mental chronometry Measuring how long a cognitive process takes – Reaction-time (RT) experiment Measures interval between stimulus presentation and person’s response to stimulus

Historical Context: The First Cognitive Psychologists Donders (1868) – (a) Simple RT task: participant pushes a button quickly after a light appears – (b) Choice RT task: participant pushes one button if light is on right side, another if light is on left side

Historical Context: The First Cognitive Psychologists Donders (1868) – Choice RT – Simple RT = Time to make a decision Choice RT 1/10 th sec longer than Simple RT – Mental responses cannot be measured directly but can be inferred from behavior

Let’s try a reflex test! Reflex Time Yo!

STROOP TASK

Say the colour of the word. BlueRedGreenYellow RedGreenBlueYellow BlueYellowRedBlue GreenRedGreenRed YellowRedYellowBlue

BlueRedGreenYellow RedGreenBlueYellow BlueYellowRedBlue GreenRedGreenRed YellowRedYellowBlue We can infer a different mental response

Try the Stroop Test on your own!! Stroop Test

Processing Bottom-up processing Top-down processing