Cognitive Psychology Key Concepts and Assumptions

Vocabulary flashcards covering core concepts, methodologies, processing models, and structural foundations of Cognitive Psychology based on the lecture notes.

Cognitive Psychology

The experimental study of human information processing in its many forms, such as attention, pattern recognition, learning, memory, language processing, problem solving, and reasoning.

Information Processing Model

A framework describing human cognition through three sequential stages: Input (perception via external senses), Process (learning, memory storage, retrieval, and thinking), and Output (behaviour reaction).

Controlled Processes

Mental operations carried out consciously and intentionally that require conscious attention and are subject to processing capacity limitations.

Automatic Processes

Rapid mental operations that take place without conscious control or attention, are unaffected by secondary tasks, and serve to conserve limited controlled attention.

Top-Down Processing

Central cognitive processing driven by higher cognitive factors, expectations, and prior experience.

Bottom-Up Processing

Data-driven cognitive processing initiated by peripheral sensory input and external stimuli.

Parallel Processing

The simultaneous execution of top-down and bottom-up processing that continues until a solution is reached, mostly occurring outside of conscious awareness.

Cognitive Economy

The optimization of mental processing efficiency through balancing speed, criticality, difficulty, and effort.

Assumptions of Cognitive Psychology

Core principles stating that mental processes exist, are universal across humans like computer software, treat humans as active processors operating on rules or algorithms, and can be revealed through time and accuracy measures.

Experimental Psychology

A study approach utilizing objective measurement, rigorous methodology, and statistics to establish generalisations and replicability.

Computational Models

Cognitive psychology methods involving writing computer programs to simulate and predict human behaviour.

Neuropsychology

A methodology linking structural brain damage to cognitive deficits by testing patients.

Cognitive Neuroscience

A research discipline linking brain function directly to human behaviour through imaging techniques.

Primary Measures of Cognition

Reaction time and accuracy obtained during controlled behavioral tasks, used to infer the properties of underlying mental operations.

Neurons

Specialized nerve cells organized in interconnected networks within the brain that facilitate neural information processing.

Lobes of the Brain

The major functional subdivisions of the cerebral cortex, comprising the Frontal Lobe, Parietal Lobe, Temporal Lobe, and Occipital Lobe.