Cognitive Psychology Assignment:

Question 1:

Define cognitive psychology and describe the domains of cognitive psychology

Cognitive Psychology: Cognitive psychology is the scientific study of mental processes such

as attention, language use, memory, perception, problem solving, creativity, and reasoning.[1]
Cognitive psychology originated in the 1960s in a break from behaviorism, which had held from
the 1920s to 1950s that unobservable mental processes were outside of the realm of empirical
science. This break came as researchers in linguistics and cybernetics as well as applied
psychology used models of mental processing to explain human behavior. Much of the work
derived from cognitive psychology has been integrated into other branches of psychology and
various other modern disciplines such as cognitive science, linguistics, and economics. The
domain of cognitive psychology overlaps with that of cognitive science, which takes a more
interdisciplinary approach and includes studies of non-human subjects and artificial intelligence.

Cognitive psychology involves the study of internal mental processes—all of the things that
go on inside your brain, including perception, thinking, memory, attention, language,
problem-solving, and learning. While it is a relatively young branch of psychology, it has
quickly grown to become one of the most popular subfields.

There are numerous practical applications for this cognitive research, such as providing help
coping with memory disorders, increasing decision-making accuracy, finding ways to help
people recover from brain injury, treating learning disorders, and structuring educational
curricula to enhance learning.

Learning more about how people think and process information not only helps researchers
gain a deeper understanding of how the human brain works, but it allows psychologists to
develop new ways of helping people deal with psychological difficulties.

For example, by recognizing that attention is both a selective and limited resource,

psychologists are able to come up with solutions that make it easier for people with attentional
difficulties to improve their focus and concentration.

Findings from cognitive psychology have also improved our understanding of how people
form, store, and recall memories. By knowing more about how these processes work,
psychologists can develop new ways of helping people improve their memories and combat
potential memory problems.

For example, psychologists have found that while your short-term memory is quite short and
limited (lasting just 20 to 30 seconds and capable of holding between five and nine items),
rehearsal strategies can improve the chances that information will be transferred to long-term
memory, which is much more stable and durable.

In addition to adding to our understanding of how the human mind works, the field of
cognitive psychology has also had an impact on approaches to mental health. Before the
1970s, many mental health approaches were focused more on psychoanalytic, behavioral,
and humanistic approaches.

The so-called "cognitive revolution" that took place during this period put a greater emphasis
on understanding the way people process information and how thinking patterns might
contribute to psychological distress. Thanks to research in this area by cognitive
psychologists, new approaches to treatment were developed to help treat depression, anxiety,
phobias, and other psychological disorders.

Cognitive behavior therapy and rational emotive behavior therapy are two methods in which

clients and therapists focus on the underlying cognitions that contribute to psychological
distress.

The field of cognitive psychology is a rapidly growing area that continues to add to our
understanding of the many influences that mental processes have on our health and daily
lives.

From understanding how cognitive processes change over the course of child development to
looking at how the brain transforms sensory inputs into perceptions, cognitive psychology has
helped us gain a deeper and richer understanding of the many mental events that contribute to
our daily existence and overall well-being.

Domain:
12 Domain of Cognitive Psychology

1. Cognitive Neuroscience 
2. Perception
3. Pattern Recognition
4. Attention
5. Consciousness 
6. Memory 
7. Representation of  Knowledge
8. Imagery 
9. Language 
10. Developmental Psychology 
11. Thinking and Concept Formation
12. Human and Artificial Intelligence.

In the last article, we learned about Research Methods in Cognitive Psychology, in

this article let's try to understand the various domains of Cognitive Psychology. Let’s
get started.

Modern cognitive psychology freely, draws theories and techniques; from twelve
principal areas of research Each area, in brief, is described below:

1- Cognitive Neuroscience:

Only within the past few years have cognitive psychologists and cognitive
neuroscientists formed a close working relationship. Thus far, this union has
produced some of the most provocative developments in the study of our mental
character. Cognitive psychologists are seeking neurological explanations for their
findings, and neuroscientists are turning to cognitive psychologists to explain
observations made in their laboratories. Every part of the cognitive process from
sensation to memory is supported by basic electrochemical processes taking place in
the brain and nervous system.

2. Perception:

The branch of psychology directly involved with the detection and interpretation of
sensory stimuli is perception. From experiments in perception, we have a good
understanding of the sensitivity of the human organism to sensory signals and more
important to cognitive psychology of the way we interpret sensory signals. The
experimental study of perception has helped identify many of the parts of this
process. However, the study of perception alone does not adequately account for the
expected performance; other cognitive systems are involved, including pattern
recognition, attention, consciousness, and memory

3. Pattern Recognition:

Environmental stimuli rarely are perceived as single sensory events; they usually are
perceived as part of a more meaningful pattern. The things we sense – see, hear,
feel, taste, or smell—are almost always part of a complex pattern of sensory stimuli.
Think about the problem of reading. Reading is a complex effort in which the reader
is required to form a meaningful pattern from an otherwise meaningless array of lines
and curves. By organizing the stimuli that makeup letters and words, the reader may
then access meaning from his or her memory. The entire process takes place in a
fraction of a second, and considering all the neuroanatomical and cognitive systems
involved, this feat – performed daily by all sorts of people – is wondrous.

4. Attention:

Although we are information-gathering creatures, it is evident that under normal

circumstances we are also highly selective in the amount and type of information to
which we attend. Our capacity to process information seems to be limited to two
levels – sensory and cognitive. If too many sensory clues are imposed upon us at
any given time, we can become overloaded; if we try to process too many events in
memory, we can become overloaded, which may cause a breakdown in
performance. All of us have felt the same way at one time or another.

5- Consciousness:

Consciousness is defined as “the current awareness, of external or internal

circumstances.” Rejected as being “unscientific” by the behaviorists, the word
consciousness and the concept it represents simply did not fade away. For most
people, consciousness, and unconscious thoughts (such as you might have on a first
date) are very real. For example, when you glance at your watch while studying and
it reads “10:42 (P.M.),” you are conscious, or aware, of that external signal. However,
your reading of the time also brings up another conscious thought, one that was
initially activated by reading the time but is from “inside.” That conscious thought
might be, “It’s getting late: I’d better finish this chapter and go to bed”. Consciousness
has gained new respectability recently and now is a concept studied seriously in
modern cognitive psychology.

6- Memory:

Memory and perception work together. The information available to us comes from
our perception, short-term memory, and long-term memory. Most obvious long-term
storage is the knowledge of the language. We draw words from LTM and use them
correctly. In a fleeting second, we can recall information about an event of years
before. Such information does not come from an immediate perceptual experience; it
is stored along with a vast number of other facts in the LTM.

7-Representation of Knowledge:

The fundamental of all human cognition is the representation of knowledge: how

information is symbolized and combined with the things stored in the brain. This part
of cognition has two aspects: the conceptual representation of knowledge in the mind
and the way the brain stores and processes information. The conceptual
representation in different individuals can be considerably different. Despite these
inherent dissimilarities between representations of knowledge, most humans do
experience and depict experience in similar enough ways to get along well in the
world. The content of this information is also hugely different. But our neurological
web entraps information and experiences and holds them in structures that are
similar in all human brains.

8- Imagery:

Cognitive psychologists are especially interested in the topic of internal

representations of knowledge. The mental images of the environment are formed in
the form of a cognitive map, a type of internal representation of the juxtaposed
buildings, streets, street signs, spotlights, and so on. From the cognitive maps, we
can draw out significant cues. Although the experimental study of mental imagery is
relatively new to psychology, some significant research has recently been reported.

9- Language:

One form of knowledge shared by all human societies is the knowledge of the
language. Language is the principal means by which we acquire and express
knowledge; thus, the study of how language is used is a central concern of cognitive
psychology. Human language development represents a unique kind of abstraction,
which is basic to cognition. Language processing is an important component of
information processing and storage. Language also influences perception, a
fundamental aspect of cognition.

10- Developmental Psychology:

Developmental psychology is another important area of cognitive psychology that

has been intensely studied. Recent studies and theories in developmental cognitive
psychology have greatly expanded our understanding of how cognitive structures
develop. As adults, we have all lived through childhood and adolescence and we
share maturational experiences with all members of our species.

11- Thinking and Concept Formation:

Thinking is the crown jewel of cognition. Thinking is the process by which a new
mental representation is formed through the transformation of information. Advances
in cognitive psychology have led to a formidable arsenal of research techniques and
theoretical models. The ability to think and form concepts is an important aspect of
cognition. Similar concepts help in the understanding and processing of information.
There is a considerable body of knowledge about the laws and processes of concept
formation.

12- Human and Artificial Intelligence:

Human intelligence includes the ability to acquire, recall, and use knowledge to
understand concrete and abstract concepts and the relationships among objects and
ideas, to understand a language, to follow instructions, to convert verbal descriptions
into actions, and to behave according to the rules, and to use knowledge in a
meaningful way.

Question 2:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_processing

Question 3:

Concept of IQ:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence_quotient

History of IQ testing:
https://www.verywellmind.com/history-of-intelligence-testing-2795581

Part 2:

Question 1:

https://www.fractuslearning.com/information-processing-theory/

Question 2:
Document downloaded

Question 3:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-factor_theory_of_intelligence#:~:text=Spearman's%20two
%2Dfactor%20theory%20proposes,a%20certain%20aspect%20of%20intelligence.

Question 4:
Define creativity:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creativity

Measurement of creativity:

https://www.allpsychologycareers.com/creativity/measuring-creativity/#:~:text=A
%20psychologist%20administers%20the%20test,thoughts%2C%20ideas%2C%20and
%20images.

Section 3:

Nature V/s Nurture

Nature versus nurture is a long-standing debate in biology about the balance between two
competing factors which determine fate: environment (nurture) and genetics (nature). The
alliterative expression "nature and nurture" in English has been in use since at least
the Elizabethan period[2] and goes back to medieval French.[3]
The complementary combination of the two concepts is an ancient concept (Greek: ἁπό φύσεως
καὶ εὐτροφίας).[4] Nature is what people think of as pre-wiring and is influenced by genetic
inheritance and other biological factors. Nurture is generally taken as the influence of external
factors after conception e.g. the product of exposure, experience and learning on an individual.
The phrase in its modern sense was popularized by the Victorian polymath Francis Galton, the
modern founder of eugenics and behavioral genetics when he was discussing the influence
of heredity and environment on social advancement.[5][6][7] Galton was influenced by On the Origin
of Species written by his half-cousin, the evolutionist Charles Darwin.
The view that humans acquire all or almost all their behavioral traits from "nurture" was
termed tabula rasa ('blank tablet, slate') by John Locke in 1690. A blank slate view (sometimes
termed blank-slatism) in human developmental psychology, which assumes that human
behavioral traits develop almost exclusively from environmental influences, was widely held
during much of the 20th century. The debate between "blank-slate" denial of the influence
of heritability, and the view admitting both environmental and heritable traits, has often been cast
in terms of nature versus nurture. These two conflicting approaches to human development were
at the core of an ideological dispute over research agendas throughout the second half of the
20th century. As both "nature" and "nurture" factors were found to contribute substantially, often
in an inextricable manner, such views were seen as naive or outdated by most scholars of human
development by the 21st century.[8][9][10][11][12]
The strong dichotomy of nature versus nurture has thus been claimed to have limited relevance in
some fields of research. Close feedback loops have been found in which nature and nurture
influence one another constantly, as seen in self-domestication. In ecology and behavioral
genetics, researchers think nurture has an essential influence on nature. [13][14] Similarly in other
fields, the dividing line between an inherited and an acquired trait becomes unclear, as
in epigenetics[15] or fetal development.

Cognitive Neuroscience:
Cognitive neuroscience is the scientific field that is concerned with the study of
the biological processes and aspects that underlie cognition,[1] with a specific focus on the neural
connections in the brain which are involved in mental processes. It addresses the questions of
how cognitive activities are affected or controlled by neural circuits in the brain. Cognitive
neuroscience is a branch of both neuroscience and psychology, overlapping with disciplines such
as behavioral neuroscience, cognitive psychology, physiological psychology and affective
neuroscience.[2] Cognitive neuroscience relies upon theories in cognitive science coupled with
evidence from neurobiology, and computational modeling.[2]
Parts of the brain play an important role in this field. Neurons play the most vital role, since the
main point is to establish an understanding of cognition from a neural perspective, along with the
different lobes of the cerebral cortex.
Methods employed in cognitive neuroscience include experimental procedures
from psychophysics and cognitive psychology, functional
neuroimaging, electrophysiology, cognitive genomics, and behavioral genetics.
Studies of patients with cognitive deficits due to brain lesions constitute an important aspect of
cognitive neuroscience. The damages in lesioned brains provide a comparable starting point on
regards to healthy and fully functioning brains. These damages change the neural circuits in the
brain and cause it to malfunction during basic cognitive processes, such as memory or learning.
With such damage, we can compare how the healthy neural circuits are functioning, and possibly
draw conclusions about the basis of the affected cognitive processes.
Also, cognitive abilities based on brain development are studied and examined under the subfield
of developmental cognitive neuroscience. This shows brain development over time, analyzing
differences and concocting possible reasons for those differences.

Miller’s magic number:

The Magic number 7 (plus or minus two) provides evidence for the capacity of
short term memory. Most adults can store between 5 and 9 items in their
short-term memory.  This idea was put forward by Miller (1956) and he called
it the magic number 7. He though that short term memory could hold 7 (plus
or minus 2 items) because it only had a certain number of “slots” in which
items could be stored.
However, Miller didn’t specify the amount of information that can be held in
each slot. Indeed, if we can “chunk” information together we can store a lot
more information in our short term memory.
Miller’s theory is supported by evidence from various studies, such as Jacobs
(1887). He used the digit span test with every letter in the alphabet and
numbers apart from “w” and “7” because they had two syllables. He found out
that people find it easier to recall numbers rather than letters. The average
span for letters was 7.3 and for numbers it was 9.3.

Encoding, storage and retrieval:

https://nobaproject.com/modules/memory-encoding-storage-retrieval#:~:text=Psychologists
%20distinguish%20between%20three%20necessary,information%20when%20you%20need
%20it.

Knowledge base in pass theory:

nowledge base is closely associated with the PASS model and all processes
are found within this framework. Knowledge base of the PASS model
represents all information obtained from the cultural and social background
and throws light on various parts of behaviour. Simultaneous Processing is
essential for organization of information into groups or a coherent whole.
The parieto-occipital-temporal brain regions provide a critical ability to see
patterns as interrelated elements. Planning processes provide for the
programming, regulation and verification of behaviour and are responsible
for behaviors, such as asking questions, problem solving, and the capacity
for self-monitoring.

Spatial Intelligence:
Spatial intelligence is an area in the theory of multiple intelligences that deals with spatial
judgment and the ability to visualize with the mind's eye. It is defined by Howard Gardner as a
human computational capacity that provides the ability or mental skill to solve spatial problems
of navigation, visualization of objects from different angles and space, faces or scenes
recognition, or to notice fine details. Gardner further explains that Spatial Intelligence could be
more effective to solve problems in areas related to realistic, thing-oriented, and investigative
occupations. This capability is a brain skill that is also found in people with visual impairment. As
researched by Gardner, a blind person can recognize shapes in a non-visual way. The spatial
reasoning of the blind person allows them to translate tactile sensations into mental calculations
of length and visualizations of form.
Spatial intelligence is one of the nine intelligences on Howard Gardner's theory of multiple
intelligences, each of which is composed of a number of separate sub capacities. An intelligence
provides the ability to solve problems or create products that are valued in a particular culture.
Each intelligence is a neurally based computational system that is activated by internal or
external information. Intelligences are always an interaction between biological proclivities and
the opportunities for learning that exist in a culture. The application of this theory in the general
practice covers a product range from scientific theories to musical compositions to successful
political campaigns.[1] Gardner suggested a general correspondence between each capability with
an occupational role in the workplace, for examples: for those individuals
with linguistic intelligence he pointed journalists, speakers and trainers; scientists, engineers,
financiers and accountants on logical-mathematical intelligence; sales people, managers,
teachers and counselors on the personal intelligence; athletes, contractors and actors on bodily-
kinesthetic intelligence; taxonomists, ecologists and veterinarians on naturalistic intelligence;
clergy and philosophers on existential intelligence and designers, architects and taxi drivers,
astronauts, airplane pilots and race car drivers and stunt men on spatial intelligence.[1]

Algorithms:
When solving a problem, choosing the right approach is often the key to arriving at the best
solution. In psychology, one of these problem-solving approaches is known as an algorithm.
An algorithm is a defined set of step-by-step procedures that provides the correct answer to a
particular problem.

By following the instructions correctly, you are guaranteed to arrive at the right answer.
While often thought of purely as a mathematical term, the same type of process can be
followed to ensure finding the correct answer when solving a problem or making a decision.

An algorithm is often expressed in the form of a graph, where a square represents each step.
Arrows then branch off from each step to point to possible directions that you may take to
solve the problem. In some cases, you must follow a particular set of steps to solve the
problem. In other instances, you might be able to follow different paths that will all lead to the
same solution.

Problem Space
Problem Space refers to the entire range of components that exist in the
process of finding a solution to a problem. This range starts with “defining the
problem,” then proceeds to the intermediate stage of “identifying and testing
possible solutions” and ends with the final stage of “choosing and implementing
a solution”. Plus, it includes all of the smaller steps that exist between these
identified stages.

A simple example of this might be realizing that you don’t have the right clothes
for a social event, identifying what you need and where to go to buy the
appropriate clothes and then buying those clothes and bringing them home. In
between these stages you also have to take into consideration other associated
concerns like "what can I afford? What stores carry what I want to buy?" and
then "how do I find the time to shop for what I'm looking for?"

Functional Distance
Functional distance describes to how likely (due to location or architecture)
that people will come into contact with each other. Propinquity,the increased
likelihood of developing a relationship with someone due to closeness in
proximity, is influenced by not only physical distance but functional distance as
well.

For example, a person in a city may be very close physically to the person that
lives across the alley from them in another building but the functional distance
is high in the fact that they are not likely to come into contact with the other
person very often. But that same individual would have a close functional
distance to a person who lives on the same floor as them and uses the same
lobby, mail room, laundry room, and gym making them more likely to develop a
social relationship with that person.
Backward Search:

refers to a problem-solving strategy whereby the solver works backward

from the end goal to the beginning state. For example, finding the path
through a maze by working from the end of the maze back to the
beginning. BACKWARD SEARCH: "A person conducting a backward search
would start at the end of the maze and work toward the beginning."