INTRODUCTION TO COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY
PROGRAM
1. Mind, individuals, society
2. Perception
3. Memory
4. Reasoning
5. Language and communication
6. Presentations
Chapter 1: mind, individuals, society
1. Cognitive psychology and its scientific approach
2. Why are we doing psychology in a business school?
3. Individuals and society
4. Groups’ dynamics
A) Cognitive psychology and its scientific approach
Psychology is the scientific study of behaviours and its mental processes (mind).
Scientific It follows the experimental method, and I can be falsified.
Behaviour observable and measurable human actions.
Mental processes cognitive professes that allow us to acquire, treat and interpret
information.
The scientific method:
Psychology is a science and thus it follows an experimental method. It formulates and
verifies some hypotheses, through experiments.
Observations hypotheses experiments data interpretation
If many data interpretation converge, scientists formulate a theory, which is a model of
reality.
A theory is scientific if and only if falsifiable.
A concrete example of that is the theory of the flat Earth. The Earth is flat, and planets go
around it. Multiple observations and data seem to confirm this theory.
It is clearly written in the Bible. Stars are “fixed” in the sky. The sun and the moon turn
around us.
, New observations suggest that the Earth is not flat as we thought before, and it might be
almost spheric.
The sun does not always make the same travel in the sky. We cannot see beyond the
horizon. The sun and the moon do not turn around us.
These observations lead to new hypotheses: if it is spheric, we should verify if we move
further away from it.
If it turns around its axis, an abject that falls from a high tower should fall slightly beyond
than expected.
These hypotheses have been verified and a new theory is formulated.
What is not a science is the existence of God because it is not falsifiable.
Psychology scientifically investigates the capacities of our brain: memory, perception,
language, attention…
According to cognitive psychology, human beings should be seen and studied as systems of
information treatment.
Neuroscience:
Cognitive psychology strongly relies on neuroscience, which is the study of the “hardware”
of our cognitive system: the nervous system, the brain and its cells, called neurons.
In other words, the brain is what makes our mind possible.
B) Why are we doing psychology in a business school?
What is the link between psychology and statistics, economics, marketing or management?
They are all based on human behaviour.
We do statistical analyses on data produced by humans. Economics studies values’
exchanges between humans. Marketing aims at convincing humans to buy something.
Management controls the logical aspects of human production.
Psychology and statistics:
For example, you have created a start-up that sells a brand-new product, and you would
love to know if this product is going to be loved. You make a questionnaire, in which you ask
people if they think that it is a good product. It is very likely that people are going to
respond, “neither agree nor disagree”.
In psychology, we know that people love to stay neutral. If we avoid including the “I don’t
know”, you can investigate the real and spontaneous opinion on your product.
Psychology and economics:
PROGRAM
1. Mind, individuals, society
2. Perception
3. Memory
4. Reasoning
5. Language and communication
6. Presentations
Chapter 1: mind, individuals, society
1. Cognitive psychology and its scientific approach
2. Why are we doing psychology in a business school?
3. Individuals and society
4. Groups’ dynamics
A) Cognitive psychology and its scientific approach
Psychology is the scientific study of behaviours and its mental processes (mind).
Scientific It follows the experimental method, and I can be falsified.
Behaviour observable and measurable human actions.
Mental processes cognitive professes that allow us to acquire, treat and interpret
information.
The scientific method:
Psychology is a science and thus it follows an experimental method. It formulates and
verifies some hypotheses, through experiments.
Observations hypotheses experiments data interpretation
If many data interpretation converge, scientists formulate a theory, which is a model of
reality.
A theory is scientific if and only if falsifiable.
A concrete example of that is the theory of the flat Earth. The Earth is flat, and planets go
around it. Multiple observations and data seem to confirm this theory.
It is clearly written in the Bible. Stars are “fixed” in the sky. The sun and the moon turn
around us.
, New observations suggest that the Earth is not flat as we thought before, and it might be
almost spheric.
The sun does not always make the same travel in the sky. We cannot see beyond the
horizon. The sun and the moon do not turn around us.
These observations lead to new hypotheses: if it is spheric, we should verify if we move
further away from it.
If it turns around its axis, an abject that falls from a high tower should fall slightly beyond
than expected.
These hypotheses have been verified and a new theory is formulated.
What is not a science is the existence of God because it is not falsifiable.
Psychology scientifically investigates the capacities of our brain: memory, perception,
language, attention…
According to cognitive psychology, human beings should be seen and studied as systems of
information treatment.
Neuroscience:
Cognitive psychology strongly relies on neuroscience, which is the study of the “hardware”
of our cognitive system: the nervous system, the brain and its cells, called neurons.
In other words, the brain is what makes our mind possible.
B) Why are we doing psychology in a business school?
What is the link between psychology and statistics, economics, marketing or management?
They are all based on human behaviour.
We do statistical analyses on data produced by humans. Economics studies values’
exchanges between humans. Marketing aims at convincing humans to buy something.
Management controls the logical aspects of human production.
Psychology and statistics:
For example, you have created a start-up that sells a brand-new product, and you would
love to know if this product is going to be loved. You make a questionnaire, in which you ask
people if they think that it is a good product. It is very likely that people are going to
respond, “neither agree nor disagree”.
In psychology, we know that people love to stay neutral. If we avoid including the “I don’t
know”, you can investigate the real and spontaneous opinion on your product.
Psychology and economics:
