1. Cognitive level of analysis
3.1 Cognitive processes

2. Cognitive psychology
Includes: perception, thinking, problem solving, memory, language, and attention.
Cognition refers to such processes.
And cognition is based on one’s mental representation
A mental representation is every individual’s unique view of the world – due to one’s experiences.
For example: what is right and wrong, gender roles, prejudice, view on education…

3. Cognitive principles Mental processes guide behaviour
The mind can be studied scientifically
Cognitive processes are influenced by social and cultural factors

4. Mental processes guide behaviour
The mind as a complex machine
Bottom-up processing (from the sensory system)
Processed in the mind by top-down processing (pre-stored information)
Finally – output (behaviour)
A link between what we think – and how we act
For example stereotyping (remember the stereotype threat?)
Our memory can be false due to the nature of reconstructing our memory
Our perception can deceive us – what we think is objectively experienced may just be our brain’s interpretation (context, frequency or recency influence) Example, the Ames room
Visual illusion + be a thinker on p. 69

5. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCV2Ba5wrcs Ames room (Philip Zimbardo)

6. Memory tests
Go to to test your Short term memory

7. The mind can be studied scientifically
Experiments are commonly used – however now both in labs and in our daily lives
Today cognitive psychologists use case studies, brain scans, verbal protocols…

8. Moving On…

9. Activity
War of the ghost story
Read it twice

10. Cognitive processes are influenced by social and cultural factors
Schema theory (Bartlett)memory is subject to distortions
War of the ghost story
Schema is a mental representation of knowledge

11. Cognitive processes
Self-representation – an idea of who you are and how you look
The same you have for others, objects, animals, the world…
Mental representations are organized in categories stored in our memory
We are able to manipulate mental representations to think of other situations and about the future – what might happen… (books, films, make plans, calculate risks)
What we expect to happen are pre-stored mental representations!

13. Schema
“An active organisation of past reactions or past experiences” Barlett 1932
More generally a schema is a stored framework or body of knowledge about some topic (aka script)
When we encounter new material, we try to relate the material to something we already know to existing schemata.
If the material does not match an existing schema, we tend to alter the material to make it fit.

14. Schema
Due to this theory – recall is not a true, exact recall or reproduction of the original material.
Instead, it is a reconstruction based on elements from the original story and on our existing schemata.
(picture question)

15. Schema theory and memory processes
Encoding: transforming sensory information into a meaningful memory
Storage: encoded information in memory – lost or consolidated
Retrieval: use the stored information
Schema processing can affect memory at all stages!
Read the research by Anderson & Pichert (1978) on p. 72 and explain how that research shows how schema affect all stages.

16. Evaluation of schema theory
A lot of research support the schema theory, that it affect cognitive processes such as memory (Bartlett and Anderson & Pichert (1978) )
Has contributed to an understanding of memory distortions as well as social cognitions
Limitations: not clear on how schemas are acquired in the first place and how they actually influence cognitive processes
Therefore Too vague to use according to Cohen 1993
Handout

17. Moving on to Memory models

18. Individual Work Write an answer to the following learning outcome:
Evaluate two models or theories of one cognitive process with reference to research studies
The Multi-store model of memory p
The working memory model (4) p
More research can be found in other books suck as : Oxford revision guides (store in C313)
The internet
Note! First you have to describe them before evaluating them in your answer!