PSYC 358 1st EditionExam # 1 Study Guide Lecture 1 Outline of Current Lecture I. The meaning and idea of CognitionCurrent LectureThe thing that you perceive does not fully dictate your perceiving of it.“Genius is little more than perceiving in an un-habitual way” – William James“The role of art is to “…make the world strange.” – Ezra pound“We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are” - Anais NinBloom’s taxonomyPyramid of levels of learningLevel 1: rememberingLevel 2: understandingLevel 3: applyingLevel 4: Analyzing, Evaluating, and CreatingNeed for Cognition (or ‘zest’ for cognition)“a need to structure relevant situations in meaningful, integrated ways”“A need to understand and make reasonable the experiential world”Proposed by social psychologists as a personality variable-Measures how much people tend to use and enjoy using their cognitive faculties Lecture 2 Outline of Last Lecture II. Talked about the meaning and idea of CognitionOutline of Current Lecture II. Introduction to the coursea. Went over SyllabusIII. Tools and Approaches in the study of CognitionIV. Brief history of PsychologyCurrent LectureQuestion of the Day“What is Cognitive Psychology all about?”Announcements-Copy of textbook going on reserve-A few pointers on success in the courseExams will have: -A part 1 section that has multiple choices-Part 2 are essays written in blue books-Final covers whole course but are weighted towards the final third of the courseWhat is the nature of Cognitive activity-We can learn by instruction or experience. Experience can be hands on.-Motivations and emotions shape the way we think and behave with the world-Higher cognitive functions are planning, reasoning, contemplating.-Engaging a problem and coming up with an outcome more advanced than the most basic one-We tend to be egocentric and connect things to ourselves-We learn about the basic processes that involve simply getting the stimuli into your mind beforeyou can analyze it.What makes us Smart? -Cognition makes us smart-Smartness is relative-People who are traditionally considered smart, make connections faster than an idiot-We also have culture. A group of people living together create a community of knowledge and experience and beliefs and behaviors and this phenomena gices us a huge leg upIntrospection (turn of 20 th century)Cognition is a hard place to do science – “black box”Think-aloud protocols (try it…)Efforts to assess mental ability through felt experienceLimitations of introspection?-Is it really direct access to the contents of the mind?-Is it scientifically valid/reliable/falsifiable?-Do we have conscious access to cognitive activity?Role of introspection today?-can use a think-aloud protocol which is useful when recording thoughts on introspectionBehaviorism (early 20 th century)Repose to introspection and psych as un-scientific-Emphasis on observable behavior, conditionLimitations?Often cast as villain for denial of internal mental states--Semantics as critical part of cognitionrole of behaviorism today-Comparative cognition: understanding differences in how various species process info-Learning theory: learning theories and understanding response-Clinical Psych-“Basic” cognition: explaining as much as you can without making assumptions-Behavioral neuroscience.Cognitive psychology (begins ~ 1967)-Response to behaviorist method and theory-Indirect methods to evaluate the unobservable-Especially measuring the content and timing of responses made under controlled conditionsConstructivist view – going beyond the available information (“we see things as we are”)Information processing and the computer metaphor-Processes -Programs-Representations -Data StructuresHow useful is this analogy? Lecture 3 Outline of Last Lecture V. Introduction to the coursea. Went over SyllabusVI. Tools and Approaches in the study of CognitionVII. Brief history of PsychologyOutline of Current Lecture I. Doing research in Sciencea. Scientific analysisCurrent LectureDoing Research on CognitionQuestion of the day:-What is the Scientific Study of the mind like?Cognitive Science (`1980’s) multidisciplinary study of the mindMore abstract More concretePhilosophy XCultural anthropology XLinguistics XPsychology XComputer science XNeuroscience X-Cognitive science is an umbrella term for bringing together the different ideas/methods/perspectives that different fields have to offer on questions on the nature of cognition-Philosophy and cultural anthro are the most abstract disciplines because they are interested in big picture.-Theory of linguistics is the pure study of language, why are languages the way they are-Computer science and neuroscience are the most concrete contributors. Neuroscience is the nuts and bolts of psychology. It explains why our processes are able to have. Computer science finds engineering solutionsCognitive Science Research approaches-Behavioral (not behaviorist)Hypothesis testing (theory-driven)Exploratory studies (data-driven)-Universals vs. special populations-Culture mediates the nature of cognition. People all around the world don’t think the same way. There are differences that are more fundamentalthan just differences in knowledge, habits, or traditions-Computational (Psych, computer science)-Cognitive simulation-A program written that describes every step in a human’s cognitive processes.-Math models vs process models-A set of equations that can predict how a person can perform on memory tasks and other such cognitive functions. For certain cases, formulas were created to explain behaviors-Theory/data/model triangle-having a theoretical theory vs. empirical data vs. a mathematical model.-Theories can be very vague. The model forces you to be specific because you are building something concrete. Theories can become more concrete when you build a model. Theory is how you think things work and data tell you if you’re right or not. -Cognitive architecture-Another things people try to model, is the cognitive apparatus. What is common among all the things a mind does. Trying to build systems where you don’t just explain a single thing, it explains systems that are shared across many different parts of the brain.-Neurobiological (Psych, biology)-Neuroimaging, Neuropsychology-Seeing what goes on at a neural level and applying that to cognition-Neural Psychology is looking at brain damage or diseases and seing whathappens to