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Applied Cognitive Psychology - Leiden University (2019)
Lecture 2: Fundamentals of Cognition
Perception:
Any type of sensory information
Most of the information first comes in to the Thalamus, and then spreads e.g. visual cortex, primary sensory cortex...
For ACP: we are interested in only some low-level perceptual phenomena: hering grid, motion-after-effect, color-after-effect
Focus of ACP: what drives our perception?
Bottom-up driven processes drive our perception in an automatic way.
Top-down processing drives our perception through expectancies. Example: A I3 C or I2 I3 I4
If the information quality goes down, then the top-down influence increases
Limitations:
Broadbent’s Attentional Filter: Early selection on attended channel and physical properties (pitch, color, loudness). But: there must be some semantic processing left.
-Example: dichotic listening task ---> while people cannot recall what they heard, it still influences their actions
Attention
According to William James, attention is similar to consciousness, it implies concentrating on one thing.
Overt attention: Any kind of physical change that follows our attention - e.g. head turn
Covert attention: The focus of our attention changes without any phyisical change (Posner) - even if eye is centered in one place, we can focus on other things.
Endogenous attention: conscious, controlled effort (top-down)
Exogenous attention: automatic, e.g.: someone sneezes in the exam room and you automatically pay attention to it
Visual search:
Feauture integration process: Different feautures of an object are processed in different parts of the brain. When target and distractor differ in only one feauture, it is easier to notice.
Pop-out: target is seen automatially - e.g. green circle amongst pink circles
Conjunction: more difficult to note - e.g.: search for orange square amongst blue squares and orange triangles
Attentional control:
Example: learning to drive a car requires conscious attention, but once skill is mastered it becomes somewhat automatic
Disadvantage to things becoming automatic: difficult to deal with unexpected situations
Working memory
Limited capacity,limited duration
Primacy: you will remember better the first couple of letters in a sequence
Recency: you will remember better the last couple of letters in a sequence
Chuncking: Chuncking into information that makes sense to us so we remember it better.
Example: PASAAICIBF ---> FBI CIA ASAP
Interference: More difficult when two informations interfere with eachother. Example: Stroop task
There's 3 parts to working memory:
1. Central Executive: Manages Visuospatial sketchpad and Phonological loop
2: Visuospatial sketchpad: we interact with visual information
- Maintain and manipulate visual information
- Spatial insight, mental rotation
3. Phonological loop
-capacity of the phonological loop is fixed amount (duration) of speech sounds ~ 2.5 seconds
- articulatory loop: worse recall if articulation of words is suppressed by counting aloud.
-phonological store: similarity effect – letters that sound similar (BDPGV) are more difficult to retain than letters with distinctive sounds (BFHXR)
3 functions of the Central Executive (according to Miyake):
1. Inhibition: capacity to supress responses
-Simon effect: incongruent response-stimulus location
-Stroop effect: incongruent word-color
-Stop signal: halting response
2. Shifting: cognitive flexibility to switch between different tasks or rules
- Example: Wisconsin card sorting task
-Switching Cost: longer reaction time, lower accuracy
3. Updataing: the continuous monitoring and quick addition or deletion in your working memory
Long-term memory
-Semantic memory: knowing the meaning of something e.g.: denim = certain type of fabric
-Episodic memory: knowing where the information or knowledge comes from e.g. : a particular dye from Nîmes
-Explicit memory: conscious -->recall
-Implicit memory: unconscious --> familiarity
3 stages in long term memory
1. Encoding: encode a schema, better result with cues
2. Store: memory trace strong at first but decayes over time, eventually levels off. If there is interference, the storage is more difficult e.g.: 11th vs 12th birthday party
3. Retrieval: recognition is easiest (more trivial), spontaneous recall is hardest
Forgetting:
-Induced forgetting can occur when retrieving memory first time only strengthening one part of the memory and not the other, which in time makes you completely forget the second part
-Reconsolidation: remembering additional information than what actually happened
- Google effect: we don't store information because we assume it's stored somewhere else
--> those who think what they type is saved somewhere don't remember as well on their own
-Transactive memory: you know where to find info rather than having info
Decision making:
Higher order function
Part of brain that developed later
Functions:
- Problem-solving
- Reasoning and argumentation
- Making decisions and judgements
- making plans
Strategies:
-Heuristics: low effort, sloppy, biased
-Normative models: accurate but slow, using rules
Reasoning:
-Deductive: general to specific
-Inductive: specific to general
Situational awareness: you need to be aware of the situation you are in to react to it effectively
There is an optimal level of stress/arousal for memory. Too low: little alertness, too much: PTSD etc
Unconscious biases influence our behavior
Emotion
-Sesnsitivity: people differ in emotional awareness
-The level to which you are aware of your heart rate indicates how aware you are of your emotions
Morality
-Sometimes we make decisions that are not in our best interest but rather because of our feeling of justice -->e.g.: hunger strike
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