Todd Farchione, Ph.D. Tommy Chou, M.A.

Questions in Cognitive Psychology How do people manage the flow of information? How do people “decode” and store sensations and perceptions? What’s in the “black box”?

Gestalt Psychology Gestalt – German word for “whole” or “configuration” Emphasizes the study of unified patterns or wholes Perception and insight Natural organizations

Jean Piaget Sensorimotor Stage (up to 18 months) Preoperational Thinking (18 months – 6 years) Concrete Operations (6 years – 11 years) Formal Operations (11 years and older)

Sensation and Perception Perception – organizing and interpreting sensory information (more cognitive) Sensation – unorganized, raw sensory information (more biological) Bottom Up vs. Top Down Processing Bottom Up – starts from the stimulus Top Down – starts with memory and prior experience

Memory Recall vs. Recognition Three primary stages of memory Sensory memory Short-term memory Long-term memory Explicit vs. implicit memory

California Verbal Learning Test-II (Example) Apple Orange Cat Owl Monkey Sparrow Water Peach Dog Banana Milk Pigeon Hawk Soda Juice Squirrel

Thought and Language Thinking Analytical thinking Synthetic thinking Convergent vs. Divergent thinking

Problem Solving Solve the anagram: HUSCOGYPLO Algorithms vs. Cognitive Heuristics

Language Provides an infinite number of meanings and messages Phonemes Morphemes Syntax Acquisition of language

Critiques of Cognitive Psych. Lacks coherence Mechanistic reductionism of the computer model External validity issues