Cognitive Psychology: An Introduction

• Study notes compiled from a review of fifteen sources on cognitive psychology and related topics

Introduction to Cognitive Psychology

• Focuses on the scientific study of mental processes
• Began with structuralism, aiming to understand the mind's contents
• Functionalism then shifted focus to the process of though
• Pragmatism further emphasized the validation of knowledge through its usefulness
• Associationism investigated connections between mental elements in learning
• Hermann Ebbinghaus was the first associationist to apply quantitative methods, using the forgetting curve in memory research
• Behaviorism rejected the study of mental processes, concentrating on observable behaviors
• The Cognitive Revolution saw a resurgence of interest in mental processes, led by figures like George Miller and Ulric Neisser
• The information-processing model, inspired by computers, describes sequential stages of information handling
• It's vital to study cognition across diverse populations to understand influences such as culture and age

Pattern Recognition

• Template matching theory proposes object recognition by comparing sensory input to stored templates, but fails to account for recognition of new objects
• Prototype matching compares input to a generalized prototype, allowing flexibility but struggling with diverse categories
• Feature analysis theory suggests recognition results from recognizing and assembling distinct components, with hierarchical processing
• Recognition-by-components (RBC) theory suggests object recognition hinges on breaking objects down into basic 3D geometric shapes called geons
• Irving Biederman proposed the RBC theory
• RBC theory highlights the importance of edges and concavities
• Top-down processing is needed to fill in gaps and add content to sensory perceptions
• Seriation, the ability to order along a dimension, is a basic cognitive aptitude relevant in Piaget's cognitive development framework

Perceptual Organization

• Emphasizes recognizing wholes before individual parts
• The central idea is that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts
• Involves the process of gathering elements to give meaning
• Gestalt psychology emphasizes that we recognize the whole before its individual parts
• Perceptual multi-stability and visual illusions exemplify this field
• Gibson's theory of direct perception posits that perception is direct and requires no further interpretation of environmental input
• Gestalt psychology is limited by its emphasis on individual perception only

Visual Imagery

• Visual imagery is a form of mental imagery, involving creating mental representations without sensory input
• Enhances memory and decision-making
• Aphantasia is a condition where individuals can not produce mental images
• Mental imagery uses both analog-code and propositional-code approaches, with research suggesting reliance on language-like descriptions
• The speed and accuracy of visual images can be affected by factors like distance, shape, and interference
• Visually guided action contrasts with vision’s role in object recognition
• James Gibson suggested vision evolved for rapid environmental responses
• The ventral stream ("what" pathway) recognizes objects and uses allocentric coding (object-centered)
• The dorsal stream ("how" pathway) is responsible for visually guided action and uses egocentric coding (body-centered)

Planning-Control Model (PCM)

• The Planning-Control Model (PCM) of motor control contains two phases
• In the planning phase, an action strategy is developed before execution using feedforward predictions and allocentric visual information
• Key neural structures involved in planning include the prefrontal cortex and premotor cortex
• The control phase relies on feedback-based monitoring and egocentric visual feedback to make adjustments during and after movement
• Control involves the cerebellum and primary motor cortex
• The model has applications in motor learning, rehabilitation, robotics, and cognitive psychology
• It has a limited scope for complex movements

Human Perception of Motion

• The mechanisms of motion perception include neural selectivity for direction and speed
• Key brain areas include the primary visual cortex (V1), which detects edges, contours, and motion; the middle temporal visual area (MT or Area V5), which specializes in motion detection; and the medial superior temporal area (MST)
• Lesions in MT can cause motion blindness (akinetopsia)

Change Blindness

• Change blindness is the failure to perceive changes in a visual scene
• Change blindness occurs due to limits in attention and memory, not visual deficits
• Key factors influencing change blindness include visual attention, visual disruptions, cognitive load, and serial dependence
• Rensink's studies used the flicker paradigm to show that motion detection significantly increases the time needed to find changes
• Simons and Levin's door experiment demonstrated that focused attention can lead to a failure to notice substantial changes
• Change blindness has negative implications for driving safety, eyewitness testimony, and everyday social interactions

History of Cognitive Approaches

• Wilhelm Wundt's establishment is regarded as the starting point of experimental psychology
• Key figures include Hermann Ebbinghaus, Jean Piaget, and Lev Vygotsky
• Cognitive psychology declined in the early 20th century due to the rise of behaviorism
• The "Cognitive Revolution" was fueled by advances in neuroscience and computer science
• Cognitive neuropsychology, which studies the effects of brain damage on mental processes, also emerged

Cognitive Neuroscience

• Cognitive neuroscience is the field linking the brain and nervous system to cognitive processing and behavior
• The brain directly controls thoughts, emotions, and motivations
• The brain is divided into the forebrain, midbrain, and hindbrain, each with specific roles
• Early medical intervention is important for cognitive disorders resulting from illness or injury

Computational Cognitive Science

• Studies human cognition through computational modeling, behavioral experiments, and computer simulation
• Includes cognitive architectures such as ACT-R, SOAR, and EPIC
• Includes computational models such as connectionist models (neural networks), symbolic models, and production systems
• Has strengths such as a unifying framework and integration of data
• Limitations include Bonini's paradox - complexity vs. accuracy, generalization

Basic Processes in Visual Perception

• Describes light's journey from the eye to the cortex via the retina, optic chiasm, lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN), and visual cortex
• Describes the organization of the visual brain, including areas such as V1, V2, V4, and V5 (MT)
• The retina-geniculate-striate pathway is described
• Includes the magnocellular pathway (sensitive to movement, input from rods), parvocellular pathway (sensitive to color and detail, input from cones), and the koniocellular pathway
• Gestalt principles of perception emphasize that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts

Two Visual Systems & Color Vision

• Milner and Goodale proposed the two visual systems hypothesis
• The ventral stream ("what" pathway) in the temporal cortex is responsible for object recognition using allocentric coding
• Damage to the ventral stream can cause visual agnosia
• The dorsal stream ("where" or "how" pathway) in the parietal cortex is responsible for visually guided action, using egocentric coding
• Damage to the dorsal stream can cause optic ataxia
• The trichromatic theory (three cone types: red, green, blue) and the opponent-process theory outline color vision
• The nature of color is perceived wavelengths of light
• Factors influencing color perception include wavelength, intensity, and familiarity

Depth Perception

• Depth perception is the ability to perceive the world in three dimensions and judge distances
• Sir Charles Wheatstone was an early pioneer of research
• Binocular cues include binocular disparity and convergence
• Monocular cues include pictorial cues (e.g., linear perspective, texture gradient, occlusion) and motion parallax
• There are many applications of depth perception research, including virtual reality and 3D displays

Perception Without Awareness

• Perception without awareness challenges the belief that perception is always tied to conscious awareness
• It has examples such as subliminal perception, blindsight, and implicit learning
• Key neural mechanisms include dual processing systems, roles of the amygdala and the thalamus
• Multiple approaches to studying include dissociation logic, qualitative contrast logic, stimulus manipulation, and attention distribution
• Sidis' (1898) study demonstrated that participants could identify stimuli with no reported awareness
• Awareness can be controlled by stimulus conditions and attention focus

Human Perception of Motion Neural Basis

• The focus is on the neural basis of motion perception
• V1 is organized into orientation- and direction-sensitive columns
• MT or Area V5 specializes in motion detection
• MST is also involved in motion analysis
• Damage to MT is linked to motion perception deficits like Akinetopsia (motion blindness)