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 behavior2. The mind can be studied scientifically3. Cognitive processes are influenced by social

and cultural factors

Principles of the Cognitive Level of Analysis

Mental processes guide behavior1. See the mind as a machine.2. The information input in the mind comes via bottom-up

processing-that is from the sensory system.3. The information is processed in the mind by top-down

processing via pre-stored information in the memory. 4. Dweck-a person’s mindset is important in predicting his or

her behavior5. Reconstructive nature- people do not exact copies of their

experiences, but rather an outline which is filled out with information when it is recalled.

6. False memories-individuals cannot distinguish between what they have experienced and what they have just heard after the event.

7. Perception-the cognitive process that interprets and organizes information from the senses to produce some meaning experience of the world.

The mind can be studied scientifically

1. Demonstrated in theories and models of cognition which are discussed and continuously tested.

2. Study cognition in a laboratory and in a daily context.

Cognitive processes are influenced by social and cultural factors

1. Bartlett-coined schema: a mental representation of knowledge.2. People have a problem remembering a story from another culture;

they reconstruct the story to fit in with their own cultural schemas.3. Distortions- memory is not a tape recorder, but rather that people

remember in terms of meaning and what makes sense to them.

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?

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jkaSIOqUgY

• Sensation and Perception Prezi http://prezi.com/mtyc-vm7xhbn/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

• Memory Prezi• http://prezi.com/vretdfe4rwcq/?

utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

What about technology?

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?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FC3IryWr4c8

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 1/10th 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 color of the word.

Blue Red Green YellowRed Green Blue YellowBlue Yellow Red BlueGreen Red Green RedYellow Red Yellow Blue

Blue Red Green YellowRed Green Blue Yellow

Blue Yellow Red BlueGreen Red Green RedYellow Red Yellow Blue

We can infer a different mental response

Try the Stroop Test on your own!!

Stroop Test

Processing• Bottom-up processing-information comes from

the sensory system• Ie: For example, if someone offered you your favorite flavor of ice

cream, but it was topped with pickles and hot sauce, chances are you'd be able to turn it down right away without first having to give it a thought (unless you like that sort of thing).

• Top-down processing-pre-stored information in the memory. (processed in the mind)

• Ie: 'How nice. My friend is offering me ice cream, and I would like some. I should take that from her. I wonder what kind it is.' This thought leads to emotion (happy, excited, grateful, curious), and then a response in the body (increased heart rate, smile, arms reaching out).

• http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/attention-and-top-down-vs-bottom-up-processing.html#lesson