Cognitive psychology Simply Explained

Summary

The video discusses cognitive psychology, focusing on mental processes like perception, attention, and memory. It highlights the multistore model of memory and studies like Glanzer and Kunit's 1966 experiment on recall effects. It also explores how mental representations guide behavior, referencing the schema theory and Loftus and Palmer's 1974 study on language's impact on memory.

Takeaways

• 🧠 Cognition refers to the processes and complexities of knowledge itself, encompassing how the mind perceives, attends, remembers, and retrieves information.
• 🔍 Cognitive psychology is the study of mental processes, contrasting with behaviorism which focuses on observable behaviors without considering intervening mental processes.
• 📚 Cognitive psychologists believe in studying mental processes scientifically to formulate and test theories, using models and scientific methods to understand the unobservable.
• 🔍 The use of cognitive, sociocultural, and biological levels of analysis allows for triangulation in studies, leading to a deeper understanding of subjects.
• 🧠 The multistore model of memory (MSM) is a cognitive psychology model that includes sensory, short-term, and long-term memory stores, each with different durations, capacities, and methods of coding.
• 📚 Iconic and echoic memory are types of sensory memory that capture visual and auditory information, respectively.
• 🔄 Attention is crucial for transferring information from sensory to short-term memory, with rehearsal helping to move information into long-term memory.
• 📈 The study by Glanzer and Kunit in 1966 demonstrated the primacy and recency effects in memory recall, showing that immediate recall emphasized the first items and delayed recall emphasized the last items.
• 🧠 Cognitive psychologists also support the idea that mental representation guides behavior, with cognitive mediators interpreting reality and influencing input-output processes.
• 📚 The schema theory explains how information is organized and clustered into scripts, self, and social schemas, affecting information processing and behavior.
• 📈 The study by Loftus and Palmer in 1974 showed how the wording of a question can influence eyewitness memory and judgments, demonstrating the impact of cognitive schemas on perception and recall.

Q & A

What is cognition?

Cognition is a term that describes the processes and complexes of knowledge itself, encompassing the mental processes involved in gaining and using knowledge.

What is cognitive psychology?

Cognitive psychology is the study of the mind and the processes such as perception, attention, memory, and information processing that are involved when we receive, collect, and retrieve information.

What is the main difference between cognitive psychologists and behaviorists?

Cognitive psychologists believe in studying mental processes scientifically, while behaviorists focus on observable behaviors and argue that nothing intervenes between stimuli and response in terms of mental processes.

What are the two basic principles that cognitive psychologists abide by?

Cognitive psychologists primarily believe that mental processes can and should be studied scientifically, and they utilize cognitive, sociocultural, and biologic levels of analysis for a more comprehensive understanding.

What is the multistore model of memory (MSM)?

The multistore model of memory (MSM) is a cognitive psychology model that proposes information processing approach to memory, consisting of three primary stores: sensory, short-term, and long-term memory.

How do the sensory, short-term, and long-term memory stores differ in terms of duration, capacity, and coding?

Sensory memory has a very brief duration, short-term memory has a limited capacity and is easily affected by rehearsal, while long-term memory has a much larger capacity and can store information for extended periods. Each store advances through different methods.

What is the significance of the study by Glanzer and Kunit in 1966?

The study by Glanzer and Kunit in 1966 is significant because it demonstrated the primacy and recency effects in memory recall, showing how immediate and delayed recall can affect the recall of the first and last items in a list.

What are the implications of the primacy and recency effects in memory recall?

The primacy effect indicates that the first items in a list are more likely to be recalled due to rehearsal, while the recency effect shows that the last items are more likely to be recalled when they remain in short-term memory. These effects support the multistore model of memory.

What is the schema theory in cognitive psychology?

The schema theory in cognitive psychology is a cognitive structure that explains how information is organized and clustered. It helps in processing efficiency and regulating behavior and responses, but can also lead to distortions when the wrong schema is activated.

What was the aim of the study by Loftus and Palmer in 1974?

The aim of the study by Loftus and Palmer in 1974 was to explore the interaction between language usage and memory by changing the phrasing of a question to see its influence on the judgment of speed in eyewitness accounts of traffic accidents.

What were the findings of the Loftus and Palmer study regarding the influence of verb choice on eyewitness memory?

The study found that more violent verbs (like 'smashed') led to higher estimated speeds of the cars in the accident, demonstrating a significant effect between wording and eyewitness answers, potentially due to the activation of different schemas.

How did Loftus and Palmer's follow-up experiment further support their findings?

In the follow-up experiment, Loftus and Palmer showed that participants who were asked about the speed using the verb 'smashed' were more likely to falsely recall seeing broken glass, even though none was shown in the film. This further supported the idea that schemas can distort memory.