Cognitive Processes PSY 334 Nancy Alvarado, Ph.D.

What is Cognitive Psychology?  How we process information about the world.  Normally we live without examining how we experience our lives.  Artists, engineers, product designers, entertainers must consider how we process our world – to do their jobs well.  Consider The Rokeby Venus by Diego Velázquez (British National Gallery)

What would she really see in the mirror?

Does the Parthenon look square?

Perspective in Architecture

What’s wrong with this picture?  With the mirror in this position, it would be impossible for her to see her face. We would see our faces or the painter’s face with the mirror at this angle. See would see us or the painter.  Her face is too large – it is actual size, not smaller as it would really be.  75% of people asked said she is looking at herself.

What should the artist paint?  Is it better to paint the woman’s own face or what would really appear in the mirror?  Artist’s must understand how we perceive in order to paint an image that looks real. If artists painted things the way they would really appear, the painting would look “wrong” to viewers.

Cognition is Full of Illusions  Similar cognitive “illusions” exist in many areas of cognition.  Studying these mistakes and oddities of thought give us insight into how people process information.  While illusions are interesting, the goal is to understand how people think in a more systematic way.

Mind as a “Black Box” Input: Sensation Output: Behavior What happens inside the “box” to produce the observed behavior?

Information Processing  A computer metaphor is used to conceptualize mental activity: Mental processes operate upon mental representations  “Ops on Reps” Flowcharted steps

Flow Chart on Flow Charts

College Flow Chart  owchart-can-you-skip-class-today owchart-can-you-skip-class-today  Luckily, this isn’t a morning class.

A Functional Approach  Mental activity is described in functional terms.  Brain location, brain processes and neural representation are ignored. Neuroscience allows us to test functional ideas.

Functional Flow Chart

How are Models Tested?  Because no direct observation of mental processes is possible, behavior is studied.  Measurement of response time is used to deduce the steps performed.