History & Current Trends
This subfield of psychology focuses on mental processes such as attention, perception, memory, and decision-making.
What is Cognitive Psychology?
Nocturnal animals can see better at night compared to humans because they have more of these types of photoreceptors.
What are rods?
George uses this form of attention to focus on his current task of completing his homework, and ignoring his little brothers playing video games in the next room over.
What is selective attention?
Rather than remember each individual item Jessi needs at the grocery store, they remember what meals they're making this week. This technique helps Jessi have to remember less information. (Hint- this technique is also the reason phone numbers are set up the way they are)
What is Miller's Magic #7 or "chunking"?
What is 'Atkinson & Shiffrin's Modal Model' of memory?
"Tell me, how does that make you feel?" is an example of this trend of how we studied mental events in Psychology developed by Wundt & Titchener
What is Introspection?
The JellyBean/Skittles experiment showed us the importance of this (description is fine).
What is how our senses interact with one another (multisensory experiences)
Kaira played volleyball for 7 years. While walking down the beach, she was able to reflexively (without thinking) punt a ball that almost smacked her in the face due to this.
What is automaticity?
This explains why Michael could answer Matt's question even after Michael wasn't paying attention, and asked "what?", without Matt having to re-explain what he had said.
What is the "What?" Phenomenon? (phonological loop also acceptable answer)
We recognize objects based on a 3D-version of feature analysis. (i.e. a coffee mug is composed of an elbow macaroni-shape and a cylinder).
What is 'Recognition by Components Theory'?
Some psychologists believed we could observe mental processes directly through behavior. A researcher wants to understand perceptions of cilantro. They observe that some like the herb and some don't (as expected); however they get a small group of responses in which they were told "it tastes like soap". This is an example this type of limitation.
What are stimulus-response limitations?
If you see a donkey or seal in this photo, you are using this gestalt law to do that.
What is the Law of Closure?
A study found that many experts looking for nodules on lung x-rays totally missed the gorilla in the background due to this phenomenon.
What is Inattentional Blindness?
Professor Bell Recognizes Idina Menzel in "Wicked" the Movie (2024), but cannot remember who she played in "Wicked" the Broadway Musical (2003). This is an example of what in memory?
What is Retroactive Interference?
While watching a movie, film directors purposely capture your attention in certain places and not others. This way, you focus on the important parts to the story line, and not what background actors are doing. When recalling the moving, you focus on the main characters and their storylines, and can't remember anything else (including that the creature in Decent was in the background lurking WAY before the main character actually saw it). [memory theory]
What is 'Baddeley & Logie's Working Memory Model'?
This movement in psychology, occurring in the mid-20th century, marked a shift from focusing solely on observable behavior or using introspective methods to studying internal mental processes using both behavior and introspection.
What is The Cognitive Revolution
Benji is trying mole for the first time. Marissa tells Benji that it "tastes like hot sauce with chocolate" before they try it. Benji now is going in with expectations for the mole, meaning they are using this type of processing.
What is top-down processing?
When playing an ice breaker game in which they had to make a pun with a food that started with the same letter of their name, Emmy was so nervous, and thinking about if her introduction as "Eggcellent Emmy" was okay, that she then couldn't remember the person's name that went right after her. This is an example of an attentional phenomenon.
What is the Attentional Blink?
According to Baddeley, working memory uses this system when Josiah describes to his friend how to get to his house from the bike trails next to school.
What is Visuospatial sketchpad?
This model of memory helps explain how memory interacts with long term memory, our central executive, and how it is driven by the focus of attention.
What is 'Cowan's Embedded Process Model' of WM?
Name 1 of the 4 influential Women and/or BIPOC that influenced where Cognitive Psychology is today (100 point Bonus if you can name something they studied)
Who is Dr. Tsuruko Haraguchi (mental load & fatigue), Dr. Mamie Phipps Clark (consciousness of self), Dr. Patricia Goldman- Rakic (WM & pre-frontal cortex mapping), and Dr. Elizabth Loftus (false memories & misinformation).
You and your friend Giselle go to an art gallery and observe this painting. Your friend Giselle only sees fruit, whereas you can see a face. You realize that it's possible Giselle might have this disorder.
What is prosopagnosia?
In the following photo, the trolley tends to be the first thing spotted due to this effect in a visual search.
What is the Pop Out Effect?
According to Craig & Tulving's (1975) Levels of Processing Study, of the following words, which should be remembered best?
A) "Does the following word rhyme with 'pick'....'stick'?"
B) "Does the following word make sense in the sentence? The _______ drove over the snow bank after hitting an ice patch. 'cellphone' ?"
C) "Is the following word typed in small letters? 'CHALUPA' "
What is B) "Does the following word make sense in the sentence? The _______ drove over the snow bank after hitting an ice patch. 'cellphone' ?"
Subliminal Messaging in advertising focuses on how unconsciously processed stimuli can impact someone's behaviors or decisions. This theory can help explain how this works as things that aren't the focus of attention aren't lost forever, but just weakened.
What is "Treisman's Attenuation Model"?