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Psychology
Study Notes Summary: Cognitive Psychology

Human Cognition
Defined as aiming to understand:
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Internal processes involved in making sense of the environment and deciding on an
appropriate action
Human cognition by observing the behavior of people performing various cognitive
tasks

The focus is on:
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Attention
Perception
Learning
Memory
Problem-solving
Language
Reasoning
Thinking

There are 4 main approaches when it comes to human cognition:
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Cognitive Psychology
o Understanding human cognition by behavioral evidence
Cognitive Neuropsychology
o Studying brain damage patients to understand “normal” human behavior
Cognitive Neuroscience
o Using evidence from behavior AND the brain to understand human cognition
Computational Cognitive Science
o Development of computational models to further understand human cognition

Due to the fact that all cognitive internal processes occur in the brain, neuroscientists
convincingly argue that we need to study the brain as well as behaviorism
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Case Study I
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Participants are presented with 5 words visually, then they were to repeat them
back

Conclusion:
Performance was notably worse when some words were longer than
others
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Case Study II
How could it be shown that verbal rehearsal is a process used in the task?
This led to Articulatory Suppression:
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Participants then repeated the digits 1 to 8 in order, during the presentation of the
word list to prevent rehearsal

Conclusion:
Performance was worse when articulatory suppression was used
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Case by Miyake et al (2000)
The focus of the case study was understanding the processes involved in deliberately inhibiting
a dominant response
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The Strengths of Cognitive Psychology
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It’s the engine room of progress in understanding human cognition
It led the importance of Cognitive Psychology’s advancement into Cognitive
Neuropsychology
Due to Cognitive Psychologists developing reasonable accounts of healthy cognition,
the performance of brain-damaged patients can be fully understood
It has been the predominant influence on the development of cognitive tasks and task
analysis
Cognitive Psychology has been a massive influence on theorizing across all 4 major
approaches of human cognition

The Limitations of Cognitive Psychology
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Participant behaviour in the laboratory may differ from that in real life
In most lab research, the sequence of stimuli presented to participants is based on the
experimenters predetermined plan and is uninfluenced by their behaviour
In contrast, our cognitive processing often involves deciding how to change the current
situation in everyday
Cognitive psychologists typically obtain speed and accuracy of task performance
o These measures only provide indirect evidence about internal cognitive
processes
o This makes it hard to understand whether the processes used in a complex task
occurs serially or in parallel
Theories are often only expressed in verbal terms, and they tend to be vague
This makes it hard to know precisely what predictions follow
The findings are often paradigm-specific and don’t generalize to other (apparently
similar) tasks
This means that they’re narrow in scop and applicability
o Once an experimental paradigm has been introduced, it turns from a tool of
research to a target of research
There is a lack of comprehensive theoretical architecture and framework that would
clarify the interrelationships

References
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Byrne, M
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(2012)
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Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews –
Cognitive Science, 3: 431–8
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Moran, J
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& Zaki, J
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Functional neuroimaging and psychology: What have
you done for me lately? Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 25: 834–42
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Patterson, K
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C
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“Shallow draughts intoxicate the brain”: Lessons
from cognitive science for cognitive neuropsychology
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This article identifies several key issues with respect to cognitive
neuropsychology
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& Cooper, R
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(2011)
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Oxford: Oxford
University Press
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Ward, J
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The student’s guide to cognitive neuroscience (2nd edn)
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The first five chapters of this textbook provide detailed information
about the main techniques used by cognitive neuroscientists
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N
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A
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Using fMRI to constrain theories of cognition
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Corey White and Russell
Poldrack indicate ways in which functional neuroimaging can help to resolve
theoretical controversies
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(2014)
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Hove: Psychology Press
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