DO NOW: Figuring Out Who You Are Take a copy of the article from the stool and read it independently. Decide

what you think of it and be prepared to discuss. Keep the following things in mind:ProcessingPerceptionSchemaDistortions http

://thoughtcatalog.com/2011/the-painful-art-of-figuring-out-who-you-are/

Unit 3: Cognitive Level of Analysis

What is Cognition?

Cognitive LoA is new to psychology (40-50 years)

Important way to look at your life – important to be able to think about your thinking (metacognition)

Understanding of perception = awesome.

Do we study this in the lab or in a daily context?

Cognitive LoA Cognitive psychology: concerns itself with the structure and functions of

the mind

Mind: a set of mental processes that are carried out by the brain

Mental processes (cognitions): include perception, thinking, problem solving, memory, language, and attention

Cognitions: based on mental representations of the world such as images, words, and concepts

1. Mental processes guide behavior

2. The mind can be studied scientifically

3. Cognitive processes are influenced by social and cultural factors

Principles of the Cognitive Level of Analysis

What about memory?Memory = reconstructive nature

Only outlines, not exact copies false memories

The brain is able to fabricate illusions so realistic we believe they are true

Perception How do we perceive things?

Perception: the cognitive process that interprets and organizes information from the senses to produce some meaningful experience of the world

Problem: what people think is objective may not be… why?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jkaSIOqUgY

What about technology?

In groups of 4, consider the questions in the “Be A Thinker” box on p. 69. Be prepared to discuss.

1. What can a human do that a computer can’t?2. What can a computer do that a human can’t?3. Do you think it will ever be possible to construct

a robot that can be exactly like a human?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FC3IryWr4c8

RESEARCH IN COGNITION

Donders (1868)

Stroop task

Historical Context: The First Cognitive Psychologists

Donders (1868)Mental chronometry

Measuring how long a cognitive process takesReaction-time (RT) experiment

Measures interval between stimulus presentation and person’s response to stimulus

Historical Context: The First Cognitive Psychologists

Donders (1868)(a) Simple RT task: participant pushes a button

quickly after a light appears(b) Choice RT task: participant pushes one button

if light is on right side, another if light is on left side

Historical Context: The First Cognitive Psychologists

Donders (1868)Choice RT – Simple RT = Time to make a decision

Choice RT 1/10th sec longer than Simple RT

Mental responses cannot be measured directly but can be inferred from behavior

STROOP TASK

Blue Red Green Yellow

Red Green Blue Yellow

Blue Yellow Red Blue

Green Red Green Red

YellowRed Yellow Blue

Blue Red Green Yellow

Red Green Blue Yellow

Blue Yellow Red Blue

Green Red Green Red

YellowRed Yellow Blue

We can infer a different mental response

Processing Bottom-up processing

Top-down processing