Module 1

• Cocktail Party Effect

  Ability to focus on one out of many voices
• Cognitive Processes

  • Paying attention to conversations
  • Memorizing information for a test
• Cognitive Psychology


  Studies how people perceive, learn, remember, and think about information
• A Cognitive Psychologist may study how people perceive various shapes, remember some facts, forget others, or learn the language
• Addressing Fundamental Issues


  1. A thesis is proposed

  2. An antithesis emerges

  3. A synthesis integrates the viewpoints
• Thesis


  A statement of belief
• Antithesis


  A statement that counters a previous statement of belief (thesis)
• Synthesis


  Integrates the most credible features of two (or more) views
• The most widely accepted current contention is that the "nature or nurture" view is incomplete. Nature and nurture work together in our development.
• Asians


  • More dialectic in thinking, more likely to tolerate contradictory beliefs and seek synthesis that'll resolve the contradiction
• Europeans and other North Americans

  • More linear, expect their belief systems to be consistent with each other
• Asian cultures


  • Take different viewpoints when approaching a new object, emphasize context more than the objects embedded in the contexts
• Western Cultures


  • Generally process objects independently of the context
• European Cultures


  • Process objects in conjunction with the surrounding context
• The evidence suggests that culture influences many cognitive processes, including intelligence.
• Psychology emerged as a new independent field of study, only recently.
• Structuralism


  Seeks to understand the structure (configuration of elements) of the mind and its perceptions by analyzing those perceptions into their constituent components
• Functionalism


  Suggests that psychologists must focus on thought process rather than their contents. Seeks to understand what people do and why they do it.
• Introspection


  To look inward at pieces of information passing through consciousness. It aims to look at the elementary components of an object or process.
• Through Introspection, the study of the mind shifted from a rationalist approach to the empiricist approach.
• Introspection experiments


  • Researchers would ask the participants to think "aloud" while working on a puzzle.
• Associationism


  Examines how elements of the mind forms learning
• Associationism


  • Contiguity (associating things that tend to occur together at about the same time)
  • Similarity (associating things with similar features or properties)
  • Contrast (associating things that show polarities, such as hot/cold, light/dark, day/night)
• Behaviorism


  Focuses ONLY on the relation between observable behaviour and environmental events or stimuli
• Gestalt Psychology


  States that we best understand psychological phenomena when we view them as organized, structured wholes. We cannot fully understand behavior when only breaking phenomena into smaller parts.
• "The whole is more than the sum of its parts"
• Cognitivism


  Belief that much of human behavior regarding how people think can be understood. Rejects the notion that psychologists should avoid studying mental processes because they are unobservable.
• Human intelligence


  The capacity to learn from experience, use metacognitive processes to enhance learning and adapt to the surrounding environment
• More intelligent people are superior in divided and selective attention, working memory, reasoning, problem-solving, decision-making, and concept formation.
• Three-Stratum Model of Intelligence

  Intelligence compromises a hierarchy of cognitive abilities compromising three strata: Stratum I (narrow and specific abilities), Stratum II (broad abilities), Stratum III (single general intelligence)
• Theory of Multiple Intelligences


  Intelligence comprises multiple independent constructs, not just a single, unitary construct. Distinguishes 8 distinct intelligences, each with a separate functioning system.
• The Eight Intelligences


  • Visual-Spatial
  • Linguistic-Verbal
  • Logical-Mathematical
  • Body-Kinesthetic
  • Musical
  • Interpersonal
  • Intrapersonal
  • Naturalistic
• Triarchic Theory of Intelligence

  Emphasizes the separateness of different types of intelligence
• Types of intelligence


  • Visual-Spatial
  • Linguistic-Verbal
  • Logical-Mathematical
  • Body-Kinesthetic
  • Musical
  • Interpersonal
  • Intrapersonal
  • Naturalistic
• Creative Abilities


  Used to generate novel ideas
• Analytical Abilities


  Used to ascertain whether your ideas or others are good
• Practical Abilities


  Used to implement and persuade others of their value
• Cognitive psychology research methods

  • Laboratory or other controlled experiments
  • Psychobiological research
  • Self-reports
  • Case studies
  • Naturalistic observation
  • Computer simulations
  • Artificial intelligence
• Meta-Components


  Higher-order executive process like metacognition used to plan, monitor, and evaluate problem-solving
• Performance Components


  Lower-order process used for implementing the commands of the meta-components