Introduction to Cognitive Psychology

Perception (Daily Life)

Recognizing faces and recognizing voices.

Problem Solving (Daily Life)

Fitting weekend plans into one schedule.

Attention (Daily Life)

Holding trays and not spilling the food.

Categories (Daily Life)

Managing homework or to-do lists.

Memory (Daily Life)

Remembering schedules and what needs to be done and when.

Visualization (Daily Life)

"Seeing" where an object, like a passport, was located.

Understanding Language (Daily Life)

Communicating effectively with customers.

Decision Making (Daily Life)

Deciding what to buy at the grocery store.

Cognitive Psychology

The branch of psychology concerned with the scientific study of the mind.

Cognition

Mental processes such as perception, attention, and problem solving.

Cognitive Processes

How the mind operates and functions, such as storing memories.

Applied Uses of Cognitive Psychology

Clinical psychology, medical treatment, computer design, military applications, and education.

Introspection (Wundt and Titchener)

Looking within ourselves to study conscious mental events like feelings, thoughts, and memory.

Problems with Introspection

Unconscious thoughts, misperceptions, post hoc explanations, and a lack of falsifiability.

Behaviorism

A push for measurable, recordable events, focusing strictly on stimulus-response relationships.

Immanuel Kant's Transcendental Method

Starting with observable facts and working backwards to determine the causes.

Problems with Behaviorism

Ignoring the "black box" between stimulus and behavior, failing to explain certain beliefs or memories.

Franciscus Donders

Researched reaction time to study how long it takes to make a decision.

Simple vs. Choice Reaction Time

Simple RT involves perceiving and responding; Choice RT adds a decision step.

Hermann Ebbinghaus

Studied memory using nonsense syllables, discovering the forgetting curve.

The Cognitive Revolution (1950s)

Born from discontent with behaviorism, viewing the mind beyond a "black box."

Fields Leading to Cognitive Science

Psychology, philosophy, linguistics, anthropology, neuroscience, and artificial intelligence (AI).

Structural Models

Diagrams or physical representations showing how brain structures are involved in cognition.

Process Models

Flow diagrams that show how cognitive processes operate.