The Cognitive Perspective
The Cognitive Perspective
Sensation and Perception
Sensation (seeing): how information about external stimuli makes it to our brain
Perception (believing): how our brain interprets this information
We all take in visual stimuli, but how we perceive that information alters experience.
Some of the visual cues are ambiguous, so your mind chooses how to perceive it.
A Constant Flow of Processed Sensory Information
Bottom-up Processing:
Processing of raw info entering our sensory nervous system.
We see base features before constructing the understanding.
Top-Down Processing:
Processing that draws upon expectations and experiences to interpret incoming sensory info.
Higher-level focus rather than raw info or basic parts first.
More On Higher-Level Processing – Evolutionary Psych Filter!
Our Main drive in life is to SURVIVE !!! (Evolutionary Psychology)
Our related drives to SURVIVE include…
A want to use least amount of energy or do things quicker/easier - why?
A want to feel good about self – why?
A want to feel bad about self (FOMO)--why?
A want to belong - why?
Physiological States Determine HOW or WHAT we can think about.
We Don’t Process One Thing At a Time, We Utilize Parallel Processing
And then a bunch of random words and examples (see key concepts list)
Perception of Self and Others
How do self-perceptions influence our behavior?
Self-Concept – all the thoughts and feelings we have in response to the question, “Who am I?”
Self-Efficacy – our perception of competence – often we link the 2
R.O.D. – The Pygmalion Effect
Rosenthal and Jacobsen (1968) conducted an experiment at an elementary school where students took intelligence pre-tests.
Rosenthal and Jacobsen then informed the teachers of the names of twenty percent of the students in the school who were showing “unusual potential for intellectual growth” and would bloom academically within the year.
Unknown to the teachers, these students were selected randomly with no relation to the initial test.
When Rosenthal and Jacobson tested the students eight months later, they discovered that the randomly selected students who teachers thought would bloom scored significantly higher.
Fixed Mindset
An entity (talent, intelligence, etc.) is static. You either have it or you don’t
Growth Mindset
An entity is fluid. You can progress through effort, and in spite of setbacks.
R.O.D. #2 – The “Dumb Jock” Stereotype
Stanford Professor Thomas Dee (2013) gave a group of undergraduates — some athletes and some not — a test made up of GRE questions
Just before the test, some students completed a questionnaire that asked whether they belonged to a sports team, what sport they played and whether they had experienced scheduling conflicts between athletics and academic activities like course meetings and laboratory sessions.
A control group received no questions about athletics, instead answering questions about the dining services on campus.
Student-athletes who were reminded of their identity as members of a sports team did significantly worse on the test than student-athletes who were not so reminded, and the effect was stronger for male students than for female students.
Perception and Our Decision-Making
Problems & Problem-Solving
Problem: When something blocks you from achieving a desired outcome.
We Use: Algorithms & Heuristics
Algorithm – a problem-solving strategy that guarantees a solution to a problem.
Heuristic – A problem-solving strategy that makes finding a solution more likely and efficient but does not guarantee a solution. A shortcut. A “rule of thumb”.
Perception Pitfalls & Problem-Solving
Our perception “shades” or “colors” the process of problem-solving.
Pitfall #1 – Mental Sets & Fixation
Mental Set – the tendency to approach a particular problem in a particular way.
Fixation – mental set rigidity, your set hinders the process of finding a solution.
Functional Fixedness – the tendency to only think of things in terms of their usual function.
Pitfall #2: Confidence > Accuracy
Pitfall #3 – How Information is Presented to Us
Framing – how something is presented influences our decisions and judgments.
“88% of accidents caused by texting while driving did NOT result in death.”
vs.
“12% of accidents caused by texting while driving resulted in death."
Pitfall #4: Bias
Confirmation bias
The tendency to attend to evidence that complements and confirms to our beliefs or expectations, while ignoring evidence that does not.
Only listening what you already believe is right, not listening to anyone else's beliefs.
Self-consistency bias
The commonly held idea that we are more consistent in our attitudes, opinions, and beliefs than we actually are
The feeling of “I’ve always liked …” even though you haven’t.
Anchoring bias
Focusing too much on one specific detail when there is much more to be seen.
Being too focused on one detail to look at the big picture
Availability bias
A faulty heuristic strategy that estimates probabilities based on information that can be recalled (made available) from personal experience. – bias based on past experiences
Hindsight bias
The tendency, after learning about an event, to "second guess" or believe that one could have predicted the event in advance.
“I knew it all along.”
Representativeness Heuristic / base-rate fallacy
Stereotyping or "pigeonholing" someone or something; unintentional prejudice. -- Assuming that because someone or something shares one characteristic with a group of people/things, they share all of the characteristics of that group.
How Memory Works
Assumptions Made About the Multi-Store Model:
1) Memory consists of separate storehouses
2) Memory processes are sequential (sequence order of operations)
Stores operate in conjunction with permanent memory 🡪 e.g. attention, coding, rehearsal
Pay attention, code it (give it a memorable form), rehearse, rehearse, rehearse until it is stored in LTM
Levels of Processing Model, Craik and Lockhart (1972)
Structural processing: Merely paying attention to what the words look like (very shallow)
Semantic processing: Considering the meaning of the words
The deeper the consideration and processing (understanding). The longer it is remembered.
*Challenges other models notion of repetition = LTM
**the deeper that information is processed, the longer the memory trace.
Important Take-Aways:
Memory is not infallible. Think about the “failings” of perception.
Memory processing has limits, time to hold an idea, loss upon arrival, overloading, etc.
We encode information, store it and retrieve it.
How well we encode the information influences storage and recall.
Types of Memory
Procedural Memory – memory associated with a task or skill, “knowing how to do”
Permastore / Neuralplasticty & “Pruning” – use it or lose it! You retain what you devote yourself to.
Problems with Memory
The Basic Functional Understanding of Memory
The Importance of Our Hippocampus
Key Take-Away - Essential Role in Encoding & Transfer ST → LT
Sensory Info → Limbic System → Cerebral Cortex for Sensory Processing
Cerebral Cortex → Hippocampus (rehearsal/encoding/forming of new connections) → Cerebral Cortex or other parts of the brain (for LT storage)
Flashbulb Theory - Emotion, (SCHEMA), and Memory
The reality about emotional memory is that it is often subject to the influence our schema for narrative conventions (i.e. storytelling schema)
A vivid memory due to rehearsal, but distorted due to schema reconstruction.
The Impact of Perception on Memory
KEY TAKE-AWAY: Our Memories Are Outlines, Filled in & Shaped By Our Perceptions
ROD - Loftus & Palmer (1974)
The participants were 45 students at the University of Washington.
They were each shown seven film-clips of traffic accidents that ranged from 5 to 30 seconds long.
Following each clip, the students were asked to write an account of the accident they had just seen.
They were also asked to answer some specific questions but the critical question was to do with the speed of the vehicles involved in the collision.
The Cognitive Perspective
The Cognitive Perspective
Sensation and Perception
Sensation (seeing): how information about external stimuli makes it to our brain
Perception (believing): how our brain interprets this information
We all take in visual stimuli, but how we perceive that information alters experience.
Some of the visual cues are ambiguous, so your mind chooses how to perceive it.
A Constant Flow of Processed Sensory Information
Bottom-up Processing:
Processing of raw info entering our sensory nervous system.
We see base features before constructing the understanding.
Top-Down Processing:
Processing that draws upon expectations and experiences to interpret incoming sensory info.
Higher-level focus rather than raw info or basic parts first.
More On Higher-Level Processing – Evolutionary Psych Filter!
Our Main drive in life is to SURVIVE !!! (Evolutionary Psychology)
Our related drives to SURVIVE include…
A want to use least amount of energy or do things quicker/easier - why?
A want to feel good about self – why?
A want to feel bad about self (FOMO)--why?
A want to belong - why?
Physiological States Determine HOW or WHAT we can think about.
We Don’t Process One Thing At a Time, We Utilize Parallel Processing
And then a bunch of random words and examples (see key concepts list)
Perception of Self and Others
How do self-perceptions influence our behavior?
Self-Concept – all the thoughts and feelings we have in response to the question, “Who am I?”
Self-Efficacy – our perception of competence – often we link the 2
R.O.D. – The Pygmalion Effect
Rosenthal and Jacobsen (1968) conducted an experiment at an elementary school where students took intelligence pre-tests.
Rosenthal and Jacobsen then informed the teachers of the names of twenty percent of the students in the school who were showing “unusual potential for intellectual growth” and would bloom academically within the year.
Unknown to the teachers, these students were selected randomly with no relation to the initial test.
When Rosenthal and Jacobson tested the students eight months later, they discovered that the randomly selected students who teachers thought would bloom scored significantly higher.
Fixed Mindset
An entity (talent, intelligence, etc.) is static. You either have it or you don’t
Growth Mindset
An entity is fluid. You can progress through effort, and in spite of setbacks.
R.O.D. #2 – The “Dumb Jock” Stereotype
Stanford Professor Thomas Dee (2013) gave a group of undergraduates — some athletes and some not — a test made up of GRE questions
Just before the test, some students completed a questionnaire that asked whether they belonged to a sports team, what sport they played and whether they had experienced scheduling conflicts between athletics and academic activities like course meetings and laboratory sessions.
A control group received no questions about athletics, instead answering questions about the dining services on campus.
Student-athletes who were reminded of their identity as members of a sports team did significantly worse on the test than student-athletes who were not so reminded, and the effect was stronger for male students than for female students.
Perception and Our Decision-Making
Problems & Problem-Solving
Problem: When something blocks you from achieving a desired outcome.
We Use: Algorithms & Heuristics
Algorithm – a problem-solving strategy that guarantees a solution to a problem.
Heuristic – A problem-solving strategy that makes finding a solution more likely and efficient but does not guarantee a solution. A shortcut. A “rule of thumb”.
Perception Pitfalls & Problem-Solving
Our perception “shades” or “colors” the process of problem-solving.
Pitfall #1 – Mental Sets & Fixation
Mental Set – the tendency to approach a particular problem in a particular way.
Fixation – mental set rigidity, your set hinders the process of finding a solution.
Functional Fixedness – the tendency to only think of things in terms of their usual function.
Pitfall #2: Confidence > Accuracy
Pitfall #3 – How Information is Presented to Us
Framing – how something is presented influences our decisions and judgments.
“88% of accidents caused by texting while driving did NOT result in death.”
vs.
“12% of accidents caused by texting while driving resulted in death."
Pitfall #4: Bias
Confirmation bias
The tendency to attend to evidence that complements and confirms to our beliefs or expectations, while ignoring evidence that does not.
Only listening what you already believe is right, not listening to anyone else's beliefs.
Self-consistency bias
The commonly held idea that we are more consistent in our attitudes, opinions, and beliefs than we actually are
The feeling of “I’ve always liked …” even though you haven’t.
Anchoring bias
Focusing too much on one specific detail when there is much more to be seen.
Being too focused on one detail to look at the big picture
Availability bias
A faulty heuristic strategy that estimates probabilities based on information that can be recalled (made available) from personal experience. – bias based on past experiences
Hindsight bias
The tendency, after learning about an event, to "second guess" or believe that one could have predicted the event in advance.
“I knew it all along.”
Representativeness Heuristic / base-rate fallacy
Stereotyping or "pigeonholing" someone or something; unintentional prejudice. -- Assuming that because someone or something shares one characteristic with a group of people/things, they share all of the characteristics of that group.
How Memory Works
Assumptions Made About the Multi-Store Model:
1) Memory consists of separate storehouses
2) Memory processes are sequential (sequence order of operations)
Stores operate in conjunction with permanent memory 🡪 e.g. attention, coding, rehearsal
Pay attention, code it (give it a memorable form), rehearse, rehearse, rehearse until it is stored in LTM
Levels of Processing Model, Craik and Lockhart (1972)
Structural processing: Merely paying attention to what the words look like (very shallow)
Semantic processing: Considering the meaning of the words
The deeper the consideration and processing (understanding). The longer it is remembered.
*Challenges other models notion of repetition = LTM
**the deeper that information is processed, the longer the memory trace.
Important Take-Aways:
Memory is not infallible. Think about the “failings” of perception.
Memory processing has limits, time to hold an idea, loss upon arrival, overloading, etc.
We encode information, store it and retrieve it.
How well we encode the information influences storage and recall.
Types of Memory
Procedural Memory – memory associated with a task or skill, “knowing how to do”
Permastore / Neuralplasticty & “Pruning” – use it or lose it! You retain what you devote yourself to.
Problems with Memory
The Basic Functional Understanding of Memory
The Importance of Our Hippocampus
Key Take-Away - Essential Role in Encoding & Transfer ST → LT
Sensory Info → Limbic System → Cerebral Cortex for Sensory Processing
Cerebral Cortex → Hippocampus (rehearsal/encoding/forming of new connections) → Cerebral Cortex or other parts of the brain (for LT storage)
Flashbulb Theory - Emotion, (SCHEMA), and Memory
The reality about emotional memory is that it is often subject to the influence our schema for narrative conventions (i.e. storytelling schema)
A vivid memory due to rehearsal, but distorted due to schema reconstruction.
The Impact of Perception on Memory
KEY TAKE-AWAY: Our Memories Are Outlines, Filled in & Shaped By Our Perceptions
ROD - Loftus & Palmer (1974)
The participants were 45 students at the University of Washington.
They were each shown seven film-clips of traffic accidents that ranged from 5 to 30 seconds long.
Following each clip, the students were asked to write an account of the accident they had just seen.
They were also asked to answer some specific questions but the critical question was to do with the speed of the vehicles involved in the collision.
