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Cognitive Psychology. 7/22/13. Cognitive Psychology. the study of human mental processes and their role in thinking, feeling, and behaving. What does that mean?. Thought processes- how we think, the “mechanics” of thinking. Making inferences- drawing connections from stimuli.
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Cognitive Psychology • 7/22/13
Cognitive Psychology • the study of human mental processes and their role in thinking, feeling, and behaving.
What does that mean? • Thought processes- how we think, the “mechanics” of thinking. • Making inferences- drawing connections from stimuli. • Perceiving- gathering and interpreting information from our senses.
Core Concepts • Perception • Learning • Memory • Attention
Perception • Our brain has access to thousands of stimuli at any given moment. • We can only understand and respond to about 200. • What are examples of stimulus in the room?
Perception • Perception: Perception is not Reality, but interpretation is OUR reality. • Thinking is very powerful- we create our own happiness, sadness, etc. • We make many more assumptions about the world than we can even understand.
LIKE OMG GUYZ • When we see something visually, a certain part of our brain “lights up”. • When we imagine this same thing.. the same parts of our brain “lights up”. • Meaning- whether or not something is real, our brain perceives it to be. • What does this say about our thoughts? • What does this say about the power of our imagination?
What can we do with this.. • When you think: • My life sucks... • My life is great... • What you think will become your reality.
With this information:Why is it important to stay positive?How can we “hack” our brain?
We manifest our own internal world. • If we think __________.. • I’m sad.. you are right. • I’m happy... you are right. • We can control our thoughts and the quality of our internal experience.
Learning • It is easier to understand or learn when we can associate it to something we already know • What does this tell us about studying? • Make connections between things we are learning and what we already know!
Memory • Sensory memory- very brief, allows us to process our senses. • Short term memory- lasts a few seconds, a small store of memory. • Long term memory- indefinite!
Memory • Which words did you remember? • Cognitive scientists will say it is more likely for you to remember the first words or the last words. • Serial Position Effect
Memory • To commit something to long term memory, you must perceive and review the information at LEAST 3 times. • How can we apply this to study habits?
Retrieving Memories • How accurate is our memory? • We lose details, associate emotions to memories, distorting the reality of our memories. • False reconstruction is common.
Attention • Executive attention- our ability to choose what we will pay attention to. • Selecting what information we should attend to in a busy environment is hard! • The world is very distracting for our brains. • Multitasking- is it an effective way of attending to stimulus?
Tonight’s Reflection:Just how powerful is the imagination? How can we “hack” our brain and change our minds or our feelings?