Cognitive Psychology

1. Cognitive Psychology

2. You will be learning about 2 different theories of memory I am going to tell you a story…………

3. The Brain is physical The mind is not! We can dissect a brain – we can scan a brain. Brains are what biological psychologists are interested in The mind is intangible –we cannot touch it. To make sense of it we build models or simulations which describe how we think it works

4. What is Cognitive Psychology? • The cognitive approach helps us understand how mental processes shape our behaviour • Cognition means knowing: how we come to know the world around us

5. 3 The cognitive approach Cognitive psychology It is about the way people deal with information. We can receive sensory information, change it, store it, use it and process it in different ways. We can use existing knowledge to help us to interpret new information. Cognition includes a range of different mental activities: • attention • perception • memory • decision-making • language. How do we take in sensory information?

6. How we take in sensory information

7. Cognitive Psychology - Sensation vs. Perception • Our senses encode information accurately (sensation) • Then our mind interprets it according to what makes most sense (perception) • Our minds actively organise and manipulate the information that we receive –we do not merely passively respond to their environment

8. The human mind is compared with a computer – we are information processors

9. How do we perceive the world ? • Can we believe the evidence of our own eyes? • Do we all ‘see’ the same thing? • Is seeing innate? Or is it learnt?

11. Visual Cliff • http://computervisionblog.wordpress.com/2013/06/01/cats-and-vision-is-vision-acquired-or-innate/ (click link to Learn about the kitten experiments)

19. http://www.echalk.co.uk/amusements/OpticalIllusions/silhouette/silhouette.htmlhttp://www.echalk.co.uk/amusements/OpticalIllusions/silhouette/silhouette.html • http://www.echalk.co.uk/amusements/OpticalIllusions/hollowMask/hollowface.html • http://www.echalk.co.uk/amusements/OpticalIllusions/colourPerception/colourPerception.html

25. In this illustration, the stairs should turn upside down during a steady gaze. The wall with the floating glass sphere will shift from the foreground to the background (or vice-versa)

26. Stare at the picture (on the left) for about 45 seconds. Then, stare at the white section of this image (the right section). You should see the Queen again. Keep your concentration, and for those 45 seconds, don't take your eyes off the picture.

28. Ghostly black patches appear at the white intersections. The illusion was noted by Hermann (1870) while reading a book on sound by Tyndall (1869).

31. Remember Our senses encode information accurately (sensation) Then our mind interprets it according to what makes most sense (perception) “Gopher tuna …bring me tuna…..” “Salsa Cookie!!”

32. How close can you pay attention https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJG698U2Mvo

33. If you are fascinated by these concepts…. • Check out this film http://www.echalk.co.uk/amusements/OpticalIllusions/pinwheel/pinwheel.html Just for fun 