APPLIED
COGNITIVE
PSYCHOLOGY
Lecture Summary Summer Semester 2022 – Leiden
University
, Index
Week 1 - Introduction
Week 2 – Fundamentals:
Week 3 – Human Error & Safety
Week 4 – Courtroom
Week 5 – Attention & Distraction
Week 6 – Human Computer Interaction
Week 7 – Food & Drugs
Week 8 – Automated Vehicles
1
, APPLIED COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGYLECTURE 1 – INTRODUCTION
Education
o How can you motivate yourself to read that textbook instead of the
buying the summary?
o What is the optimal way to learn a new language or skill?
o Can we enhance our cognitive functions like memory or creativity
using videogames?
- Work place
o What is the influence of sleep or diet on human performance?
o Do we work better while sitting or while standing behind our desks?
o How can we optimize the interaction between users and the software
they use at work?
- Industry
o What can we do to prevent human errors in industry?
o What is the optimal sleep-work rhythm for (night)shift workers?
o May light-therapy be effective to influence their day-night rhythm in
a healthy pattern?
- Transportation
o What can we do to prevent pilot error?
o Will improving protocols do any good?
o Do we need a re-design of cockpit layout? What might help?
- Military
o How can we ensure soldiers are aware of all mission critical
information?
o How may drugs or food influence physical and mental endurance in
battle?
- Justice
o How can we evaluate the accuracy of witness statements in court?
- Care and cure
o How can we improve / maintain vitality in the elderly? • How can we
motivate patients to take their medicine?
- Health
o Do ‘superfoods’ give us ‘super cognitive abilities’?
o How can meditation influence our mental and physical fitness?
o How can we motivate people to get into shape?
, APPLIED COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGYLECTURE 1 – INTRODUCTION
o How to minimize the time we need for sleep?
- Sports
o How to push it the limit?
o How may food be of help?
The ACP model:
- Core: Outcome = Cognition + Environment
- Cognition: memory - attention - flexibility - inhibition - motivation -
enjoyment
- Environment: organizations – product – website - tools
- Goals are achieved through interaction between cognition and
environment
o Goals: vitality – productivity – performance – happiness – safety
- Indicators of outcome: Dependent Variables (aviation): errors, accidents,
emergencies, accuracy, speed, understanding, enjoyment…
- Factors are independent variables: design, lay-out, responsiveness, brain-
training, operating instructions, situational awareness
o Can change cognition or environment
-
1
, APPLIED COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGYLECTURE 2 – FUNDAMENTALS
Perception
- Bottom Up
- Top-Down
- Limitations
Human Information Processing
Sensory register: Perception
- Lower-level phenomena
o Herring Grid: Lateral inhibition in retina
o Motion-after-effect: Adaptation to motion
o Colour-after-Effect: adaptation to colours
- Bottom Up
o Saliency-driven (e.g., brightness, contrast)
- Top-Down
o Predictions and expectations
o As quality of stimulus decreases→ top down increases
- Limitations
o Cannot process 100% of info that is presented
Central Processing: Attention
- Broadband’s Perceptual Filter: Early selection on attended channel and
physical properties (pitch, colour, loudness…)
o Some semantic processing is still taking place
§ Cocktail Party Effect
§ Dichotic Listening Task (words in unattended ear influence/prime
processing still)
2
, APPLIED COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGYLECTURE 2 – FUNDAMENTALS
- William James – ‘grandfather of experimental Psi’: being aware comes at
the cost of not being aware of other thing
Covert Attention: (Posner) Overt Attention
directing attention without physical physical impact, e.g., moving eyes
movement → primed spotlight =
faster recognition rather than
stimulus on other side
Endogenous (from the inside): Exogenous (from the outside):
Intentional, targeted, controlled not intentional, untargeted,
(executive control), conscious, attracted by external stimuli,
limited, top-down (concept driven) automatic, bottom-up (stimuli-
driven)
Limited in how much can be - Use exogenous stimuli instead
understood/paid attention to → to draw attention to important
card trick factors, but can overwhelm
- Smart use:
- Text automatically read
- Make model look in
direction of product
- Visual Search
o Pop-Out Effect:
§ only one feature different (e.g., colour)
§ not affected by amount of stimuli/location
o Conjunction Search:
§ Identify object with more than one feature
§ affected by location and amount of stimuli
- Attentional Control
3
COGNITIVE
PSYCHOLOGY
Lecture Summary Summer Semester 2022 – Leiden
University
, Index
Week 1 - Introduction
Week 2 – Fundamentals:
Week 3 – Human Error & Safety
Week 4 – Courtroom
Week 5 – Attention & Distraction
Week 6 – Human Computer Interaction
Week 7 – Food & Drugs
Week 8 – Automated Vehicles
1
, APPLIED COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGYLECTURE 1 – INTRODUCTION
Education
o How can you motivate yourself to read that textbook instead of the
buying the summary?
o What is the optimal way to learn a new language or skill?
o Can we enhance our cognitive functions like memory or creativity
using videogames?
- Work place
o What is the influence of sleep or diet on human performance?
o Do we work better while sitting or while standing behind our desks?
o How can we optimize the interaction between users and the software
they use at work?
- Industry
o What can we do to prevent human errors in industry?
o What is the optimal sleep-work rhythm for (night)shift workers?
o May light-therapy be effective to influence their day-night rhythm in
a healthy pattern?
- Transportation
o What can we do to prevent pilot error?
o Will improving protocols do any good?
o Do we need a re-design of cockpit layout? What might help?
- Military
o How can we ensure soldiers are aware of all mission critical
information?
o How may drugs or food influence physical and mental endurance in
battle?
- Justice
o How can we evaluate the accuracy of witness statements in court?
- Care and cure
o How can we improve / maintain vitality in the elderly? • How can we
motivate patients to take their medicine?
- Health
o Do ‘superfoods’ give us ‘super cognitive abilities’?
o How can meditation influence our mental and physical fitness?
o How can we motivate people to get into shape?
, APPLIED COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGYLECTURE 1 – INTRODUCTION
o How to minimize the time we need for sleep?
- Sports
o How to push it the limit?
o How may food be of help?
The ACP model:
- Core: Outcome = Cognition + Environment
- Cognition: memory - attention - flexibility - inhibition - motivation -
enjoyment
- Environment: organizations – product – website - tools
- Goals are achieved through interaction between cognition and
environment
o Goals: vitality – productivity – performance – happiness – safety
- Indicators of outcome: Dependent Variables (aviation): errors, accidents,
emergencies, accuracy, speed, understanding, enjoyment…
- Factors are independent variables: design, lay-out, responsiveness, brain-
training, operating instructions, situational awareness
o Can change cognition or environment
-
1
, APPLIED COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGYLECTURE 2 – FUNDAMENTALS
Perception
- Bottom Up
- Top-Down
- Limitations
Human Information Processing
Sensory register: Perception
- Lower-level phenomena
o Herring Grid: Lateral inhibition in retina
o Motion-after-effect: Adaptation to motion
o Colour-after-Effect: adaptation to colours
- Bottom Up
o Saliency-driven (e.g., brightness, contrast)
- Top-Down
o Predictions and expectations
o As quality of stimulus decreases→ top down increases
- Limitations
o Cannot process 100% of info that is presented
Central Processing: Attention
- Broadband’s Perceptual Filter: Early selection on attended channel and
physical properties (pitch, colour, loudness…)
o Some semantic processing is still taking place
§ Cocktail Party Effect
§ Dichotic Listening Task (words in unattended ear influence/prime
processing still)
2
, APPLIED COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGYLECTURE 2 – FUNDAMENTALS
- William James – ‘grandfather of experimental Psi’: being aware comes at
the cost of not being aware of other thing
Covert Attention: (Posner) Overt Attention
directing attention without physical physical impact, e.g., moving eyes
movement → primed spotlight =
faster recognition rather than
stimulus on other side
Endogenous (from the inside): Exogenous (from the outside):
Intentional, targeted, controlled not intentional, untargeted,
(executive control), conscious, attracted by external stimuli,
limited, top-down (concept driven) automatic, bottom-up (stimuli-
driven)
Limited in how much can be - Use exogenous stimuli instead
understood/paid attention to → to draw attention to important
card trick factors, but can overwhelm
- Smart use:
- Text automatically read
- Make model look in
direction of product
- Visual Search
o Pop-Out Effect:
§ only one feature different (e.g., colour)
§ not affected by amount of stimuli/location
o Conjunction Search:
§ Identify object with more than one feature
§ affected by location and amount of stimuli
- Attentional Control
3
