Cognitive Psychology – L1
What is cognition?
Cognition is a set of processes that can be used to gain
understanding about the world through thought, experience and the
sense. E.g.:
o Memory
o Perception
o Attention
o Language
o Reasoning
o Awareness
o Decision making
In early psychology, they saw the brain as a ‘super-computer’. This
is due to it starting with an input and then finishing with an output.
However, this idea is problematic in many ways:
o It does not allow for parallel or cascaded processing
o It assumes bottom-up processing (stimulus-to-response) and
ignores the influences that ‘the top’ (e.g. prior knowledge,
expectations) can have on the lower stages of processing. For
example, we expect strawberries to be red so when we see
them we automatically see them as red even if they are not.
Information processing approach
o We see humans as ‘stimulus-response machines’
o Information comes in through the senses
o The information is then processed through a series of modules
that change the information in a systematic way
o The output causes the observable response
o SERIAL PROCESSING – you do everything in order, only one
step at a time
o BOTTOM-UP PROCESSING – processing is driven by the
stimulus, all processes are directly triggered by the stimulus.
How the world is represented in our brains?
If you have thought it the ‘it’ must exist in your neurons because all
the thoughts happen in your brain.
This is known as a neural representation. E.g. a snapchat is
represented on your phone as zeros and ones, despite the fact that
it looks meaningful to you.
Mental representations are our own simulations and interpretations
of the world. They can be driven by external stimuli, but also purely
thought.
Neural representations are the patterns of brain activity that
represent the outside world.
, RATE CODING – greater rate of a neuron’s response is used to
code/represent information.
o A single neuron can change the rate in which it responds to
certain stimuli. Many of the neurons have a preferred stimuli
in which they respond to.
o Some single neurons resemble ‘Grandmother Cells’ in that
they code for one very specific concept, like your
grandmother. These often respond to the concepts
irrespective of sensory modality.
Some patients who suffer from severe epilepsy have to have brain
surgery in order to remove the part of the brain that causes the
seizures. However, before they can do this they have to identify the
part of the brain. They do this by implanting electrodes which record
the activity in the brain meaning that when the patient has a seizure
you are able to tell where about in the brain it came from.
TEMPORAL CODING – greater synchrony of the responses of several
neurons is used to code information.
o Neurons can also represent information in terms of temporal
coding. For example, if we watch a blue ball roll past us,
neurons in different parts of the brain code the colour,
direction etc. of the ball.
o All the neurons that code the information of the one object
may be in different parts of the brain but they all fire at the
same time. This way synchrony can act as a ‘glue’ binding the
different aspects of an object together.
How can we study cognition?
Experimental Cognitive Psychology
o Study the behaviour through experimental manipulations
o They measure the reaction times or accuracy rather than
looking at underlying brain mechanisms. This is due to them
seeing these indirect measures as reflecting cognitive
function.
o STROOP TASK – the actual word and colour of the word do not
match (GREEN)
o Experimental cognitive psychology has been successful in
making psychology an empirical discipline and establishing
theories that would need to be tested further.
o Limitations:
Ecological validity – difficult to see if the result is still
true outside of the lab
Only provides an indirect measure
Cannot tell us much about the brain – what is going on
inside the brain does not necessarily have to match a
theory.
What is cognition?
Cognition is a set of processes that can be used to gain
understanding about the world through thought, experience and the
sense. E.g.:
o Memory
o Perception
o Attention
o Language
o Reasoning
o Awareness
o Decision making
In early psychology, they saw the brain as a ‘super-computer’. This
is due to it starting with an input and then finishing with an output.
However, this idea is problematic in many ways:
o It does not allow for parallel or cascaded processing
o It assumes bottom-up processing (stimulus-to-response) and
ignores the influences that ‘the top’ (e.g. prior knowledge,
expectations) can have on the lower stages of processing. For
example, we expect strawberries to be red so when we see
them we automatically see them as red even if they are not.
Information processing approach
o We see humans as ‘stimulus-response machines’
o Information comes in through the senses
o The information is then processed through a series of modules
that change the information in a systematic way
o The output causes the observable response
o SERIAL PROCESSING – you do everything in order, only one
step at a time
o BOTTOM-UP PROCESSING – processing is driven by the
stimulus, all processes are directly triggered by the stimulus.
How the world is represented in our brains?
If you have thought it the ‘it’ must exist in your neurons because all
the thoughts happen in your brain.
This is known as a neural representation. E.g. a snapchat is
represented on your phone as zeros and ones, despite the fact that
it looks meaningful to you.
Mental representations are our own simulations and interpretations
of the world. They can be driven by external stimuli, but also purely
thought.
Neural representations are the patterns of brain activity that
represent the outside world.
, RATE CODING – greater rate of a neuron’s response is used to
code/represent information.
o A single neuron can change the rate in which it responds to
certain stimuli. Many of the neurons have a preferred stimuli
in which they respond to.
o Some single neurons resemble ‘Grandmother Cells’ in that
they code for one very specific concept, like your
grandmother. These often respond to the concepts
irrespective of sensory modality.
Some patients who suffer from severe epilepsy have to have brain
surgery in order to remove the part of the brain that causes the
seizures. However, before they can do this they have to identify the
part of the brain. They do this by implanting electrodes which record
the activity in the brain meaning that when the patient has a seizure
you are able to tell where about in the brain it came from.
TEMPORAL CODING – greater synchrony of the responses of several
neurons is used to code information.
o Neurons can also represent information in terms of temporal
coding. For example, if we watch a blue ball roll past us,
neurons in different parts of the brain code the colour,
direction etc. of the ball.
o All the neurons that code the information of the one object
may be in different parts of the brain but they all fire at the
same time. This way synchrony can act as a ‘glue’ binding the
different aspects of an object together.
How can we study cognition?
Experimental Cognitive Psychology
o Study the behaviour through experimental manipulations
o They measure the reaction times or accuracy rather than
looking at underlying brain mechanisms. This is due to them
seeing these indirect measures as reflecting cognitive
function.
o STROOP TASK – the actual word and colour of the word do not
match (GREEN)
o Experimental cognitive psychology has been successful in
making psychology an empirical discipline and establishing
theories that would need to be tested further.
o Limitations:
Ecological validity – difficult to see if the result is still
true outside of the lab
Only provides an indirect measure
Cannot tell us much about the brain – what is going on
inside the brain does not necessarily have to match a
theory.
