OUR LADY OF FATIMA UNIVERSITY — QC

COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCE — BS PSYCHOLOGY 2ND YEAR

PSYCHSOC EDUCATIONAL COMMITTEE

○ Reality lies only in the concrete

COGNITIVE/EDUC PSYCHOLOGY world of objects that our bodies
WEEK 1: INTRODUCTION TO COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY sense.
COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY ● How to investigate reality
● the study of how people perceive, learn, remember ○ the route to knowledge is through
and think. empirical evidence (obtained by
● Examples: experience and observation).
○ How people perceive various shapes. ○ observation of the external world
○ Why do they remember some facts and is the only means to arrive at the
forget others? truth.
○ How they learn language.
EMPIRICISM - JOHN LOCKE
DIALECTIC ● believed that humans are born without
● a developmental process where ideas evolve over knowledge and therefore must seek
time through a pattern of transformation. knowledge through empirical observation.
● Pattern in dialectic: ○ “Tabula rasa” - Blank slate
○ A thesis is proposed ○ the study of learning was the key
○ An antithesis is emerged to understanding the human
○ A synthesis integrates the viewpoints mind.

PHILOSOPHICAL ANTECEDENTS OF PSYCHOLOGY IMMANUEL KANT

TWO APPROACHES TO UNDERSTANDING THE HUMAN ● German philosopher
MIND: ● dialectically synthesized the views of
Descartes and Locke.
PHILOSOPHY ● argued that both rationalism and
● seeks to understand the general nature of empiricism should have their place.
many aspects of the world, in part through ● both must work together in the quest for
introspection, the examination of inner truth (most psychologists today accept
ideas and experiences. Kant’s synthesis).

PHYSIOLOGY Rationalism : Plato; Rene Descartes

● seeks a scientific study of life-sustaining Empiricism: Aristotle; John Locke
functions in living matter, primarily through
empirical (observation-based) methods. PSYCHOLOGICAL ANTECEDENTS OF COGNITIVE
PSYCHOLOGY
RATIONALISM VS. EMPIRICISM STRUCTURALISM
RATIONALISM - PLATO ● Goal of Psychology:
○ to understand the structure of mind and its
● the route to knowledge is through thinking
perceptions by analyzing those perceptions
and logical analysis. into their constituent components (e.i
● a rationalist who is interested in cognitive affection, attention, memory, sensation,
processes would appeal to reason as a etc.)
source of knowledge for justification. ● Method:
○ Introspection - looking inward at pieces of
information passing through
RATIONALISM - RENE DESCARTES (1596-1650) consciousness.
● the only proof of his existence is that he ● Proponents:
was thinking and doubting. ○ Wilhelm Wundt
○ Edward Titchener (student of Wilhelm
○ “Cogito ergo sum” - I think
Wundt)
therefore I am.
○ Innate ideas FUNCTIONALISM
● felt that one could not rely on one’s senses ● Goal of psychology:
because those senses are often deceptive. ○ to study the processes of mind rather than
its contents.
● Method:
EMPIRICISM - ARISTOTLE ○ Pragmatist - believed that knowledge is
● Nature of Reality validated by its usefulness.
○ Various methods - introspection,
observation, experiment

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 OUR LADY OF FATIMA UNIVERSITY — QC
COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCE — BS PSYCHOLOGY 2ND YEAR
PSYCHSOC EDUCATIONAL COMMITTEE

● Proponents: PSYCHOBIOLOGICAL ARGUMENTS AGAINST

○ William James BEHAVIORISM
○ John Dewey
KARL LASHLEY (1890-1958)
ASSOCIATIONISM ● considered the brain to be an active, dynamic
● Goal of psychology: organizer of behavior. None of these activities were
○ examine how elements of the mind can in his view, readily explicable in terms of simple
become associated with one another to conditioning.
result in a form of learning.
● Method:
○ Various methods - introspection, DONALD HEBB (1949)
observation and experiment ● proposed the concept of cell assemblies as the
● Proponents: basis of learning in the brain.
○ Herman Ebbinghaus ○ Cell assemblies - coordinated neural
○ Edwards Lee Thorndike
structures that develop through frequent
BEHAVIORISM stimulation.
● Goal of psychology:
○ study observable behavior EMERGENCE OF COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY
○ focuses only to the relation between NOAM CHOMSKY
observable behavior and environmental ● linguistic arguments against behaviorism.
events or stimuli. ● arguments from language acquisition
○ the idea was to make physical whatever ○ behaviorists cannot explain how children
others might have called “mental” can produce novel sentences they never
● Method: heard.
○ animal experiments, conditioning ○ infinite numbers of sentences we can
experiments. produce can not be learned by
● Proponents: reinforcement– there must be a cognitive
○ Ivan Pavlov algorithmic structure in our mind underlying
○ John Watson language.
■ Father of radical behaviorism
■ believes that psychologists should ALAN TURING
concentrate only on the study of ● development of first computers
observable behavior ○ his “Colossus” computer helped break the
○ B.F. Skinner German “Enigma” codes during World War
■ believed that virtually all forms of II.
human behavior, not just learning, ○ it has been estimated that this work
could be explained by behavior shortened the war in Europe by two years.
emitted. ● analogy between computers and human minds
■ Reward and Punishment. ○ hardware (brain), software (mind)
○ thinking can be described in terms of
GESTALT PSYCHOLOGY algorithmic manipulation of some
● Goal of psychology: information
○ to understand psychological phenomena as ○ these ideas gave rise to the information
organized, structured wholes processing paradigm in psychology –
○ the wholes differs from the sum of its cognitive psychology.
parts
● Method: RESEARCH METHODS IN COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY
○ Various methods - experiment, observation HOW DOES SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION WORK?
● Proponents: ➢ Theory development
○ Max Wertheimer, Wolfgang Köhler ➢ Hypothesis formulation
➢ Hypothesis testing
COGNITIVISM ➢ Data gathering
● the belief that much of human behavior can be ➢ Data analysis
understood in terms of how people think.
○ It rejects the notion that psychologists ECOLOGICAL VALIDITY
should avoid studying mental processes ● the degree to which a particular findings in one
because they are unobservable. context may be considered relevant outside of that
context.
● a synthesis of earlier forms of analysis (such as
behaviorism and Gestaltism) 1. Controlled laboratory experiments
○ Like behaviorism, it adopts precise ○ Characterization
quantitative analysis to study how people ■ an experimenter conducts
learn and think research in a laboratory setting,
which he controls as many
○ Gestaltism emphasizes internal mental
aspects of the experimental
processes. situations as possible.
○ Advantages

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 OUR LADY OF FATIMA UNIVERSITY — QC
COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCE — BS PSYCHOLOGY 2ND YEAR
PSYCHSOC EDUCATIONAL COMMITTEE

■ enables isolation of causal cognitive performance.

factors
■ excellent means of testing
hypothesis
○ Disadvantages
■ often lack of ecological validity
2. Psychobiological Research
○ Characterization
■ studies the relationship between
cognitive performance and
cerebral events and structures.
■ e.g postmortem studies, animal
studies, studies in vivo (PET, fMRI,
EEG)
○ Advantages
■ “hard evidence of cognitive
functions by relating them to
physiological activity.
○ Disadvantages
■ often very expensive
■ risk of making inferences based
on abnormal brain functioning.
■ AI: attempt to make computers
demonstrate intelligent cognitive
performance (regardless of its
resemblance to human cognitive
processing)
○ Advantages
■ clear testing of theoretical models
and predictions
○ Disadvantages
■ limits of hardware and software
WEEK 2: COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE
COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE
COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE
● is the field of study linking the brain and other
aspects of the nervous system to cognitive
processing and ultimately, to behavior
BRAIN
● the organ in our body that most directly controls our
thoughts, emotions and motivations

3. Self-reports LOCALIZATION OF FUNCTIONS

○ Characterization ● specific areas of the brain that controls specific
■ participant’s reports of own skills or behaviors.
cognition progress or as
recollected
COGNITION IN THE BRAIN
○ Advantage
■ introspective insight from a
participant's point of view, which NERVOUS SYSTEM
may be unavailable via other ● the basis for our ability to perceive, adapt to and
means. interact with the world around us.
○ Disadvantages
■ inability to report on processes
occurring outside conscious ANATOMY OF THE BRAIN
awareness
■ data gathering may influence
cognitive process being reported

4. Case studies
○ Characterization
■ intensive study of a single
individual
○ Advantages
■ richly detailed information about
individuals, including information
about historical and current
contexts
■ very good for theory development
○ Disadvantages
■ small sample; questionable
generalization to other cases

5. Naturalistic observation
○ Characterization
■ observing real-life situations, as in
classrooms, work settings, or
homes.
○ Advantages FOREBRAIN
■ high ecological validity ● Cerebral Cortex
○ Disadvantages ○ thinking and other mental processes
■ lack of experimental control ○
● Basal Ganglia
6. Computer Simulations and Artificial Intelligence
○ Motor movement
○ Characterization
● Limbic System
■ Simulation: attempt to make
○ Important to emotion, motivation, memory
computers stimulate human

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 OUR LADY OF FATIMA UNIVERSITY — QC
COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCE — BS PSYCHOLOGY 2ND YEAR
PSYCHSOC EDUCATIONAL COMMITTEE

and learning ○ controls respiration, cardiovascular

○ Allows us to suppress instinctive function, digestion, alertness, and sleep
responses ○ essential to regulation of consciousness
○ 3 interconnected cerebral structure; (sleep, wakefulness, arousal, and
■ Septum attention)
■ Amygdala ○ heartbeat and breathing
■ Hippocampus ● Brain stem
○ connect the forebrain to the spinal cord
○ vital in basic attention, arousal and
consciousness.

HINDBRAIN
● Medulla Oblongata
○ breathing, swallowing, and digestion
● Pons
○ Bridge (Latin)
○ Relay station
● Cerebellum
○ Little brain (Latin)
○ Motor coordination, posture, and
maintaining balance.

ANATOMY OF LIMBIC SYSTEM

● Septum & Amygdala
○ anger, fear and aggression
○ damage (lesions) or removal can result to
maladaptive lack of fear.

● Hippocampus
○ memories
○ Korsakoff’s syndrome, loss of memory
function.

● Thalamus
○ Relays sensory information to the cerebral
cortex
○ Helps in control of sleep and waking
○ Malfunctions, results can be pain, tremor, CEREBRAL CORTEX AND LOCALIZATION OF FUNCTION
amnesia, impairment in language and CEREBRAL CORTEX
disruption in waking
● plays an extremely important role in human
cognition.
● Hypothalamus
● 3 elements:
○ (survival) fighting, feeding, fleeing and ○ Fissures: large grooves
mating
○ Sulci: small grooves
○ malfunction, narcolepsy ○ Gyri: bulges between adjacent sulci and
fissures.

LOBES OF CEREBRAL CORTEX

● Frontal Lobe
○ front of the brain
○ Associated with motor processing and
higher thought processes (abstract
reasoning, problem solving, planning and
judgment)
○ critical for producing speech
○ Prefrontal cortex: motor control &
integration of information over time.
● Parietal lobe
○ back portion of the brain
○ associated with somatosensory processing
○ senses, limb position (perceiving space)
○ consciousness, paying attention
MIDBRAIN ● Temporal Lobe
● helps control eye movement and coordination ○ directly under the temple associated with
● reticular activating system

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 OUR LADY OF FATIMA UNIVERSITY — QC
COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCE — BS PSYCHOLOGY 2ND YEAR
PSYCHSOC EDUCATIONAL COMMITTEE

auditory processing and comprehending

language. perception
○ Retention of visual memory.
● Occipital lobe Logical/Analytical: Problem Synthetic: Problem solving
○ visual processing, including color, motion, solving through by combining whole forms.
location, and form. step-by-step processing.

Science and Math Intuition/Insight

Right-hand control Left-hand control

Written 3-D forms

SPECIALIZATION OF LEFT HEMISPHERE

● Wernicke’s Area (language comprehension)
○ Carl Wernicke - studied patients who are
language-deficient (people who can speak
but make no sense) traced the language
ability in the left hemisphere.
● Broca’s Area (speech)
○ Paul Broca - claimed that aphasic stroke
PROJECTION AREAS patient had a lesion in the left cerebral
● Are the areas in the lobes in which sensory hemisphere of the brain, in 1861.
processing occurs.
● Called as is because the nerves contain information
going to (projecting to) the thalamus.
● Primary Motor Complex
○ Specializes in planning, control and
execution of movement.
● Primary Somatosensory Cortex
○ Receives information from senses about
pressure, texture, temperature and pain.
● Visual Cortex
○ primarily in the occipital lobe.
○ Nerves from the right side of each eye’s
visual field send information to the left side
of the visual cortex.

LATIN WORDS (PARTS OF THE BRAIN)

● Rostral
○ front part of the brain (nasal region)
● Ventral Region
○ Bottom surface of the body/brain (side of
the stomach)
● Caudal
STRUCTURE OF A NEURON
○ tail
○ back part of the body/brain
● Dorsal
○ upside of the brain (back)

CEREBRAL CORTEX: LOCALIZATION AND

SPECIALIZATION
● Contralaterality
● Corpus Callosum
○ neural fibers connecting left and right lobes
○ allows communication between right and
left side of the hemispheres (brain)

Left-brain Functions Right-Brain Functions

Language: Speaking, Non-verbal: Music and art,

NEURONS
reading, writing and perceptual; face, pattern,
● individual neural cells
understanding language and melody recognition,
● transmit electrical signals from one location to
and some language skills.
another in the nervous system.
● may vary in their structure
Positive emotions Negative emotions:
emotion expression and

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 OUR LADY OF FATIMA UNIVERSITY — QC
COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCE — BS PSYCHOLOGY 2ND YEAR
PSYCHSOC EDUCATIONAL COMMITTEE

cells or receptors in the brain.

SOMA
● contains the nucleus of the cell (center portion that HUMAN STUDIES
performs metabolic and reproductive functions for ● Electrical Recordings
the cell). ○ Electroencephalograms (EEGs)
● responsible for the life of the neuron and connects ■ recordings of the electrical
the dendrites to the axon. frequencies and intensities of the
living brain,
DENDRITES ■ recorded over relatively long
● branch-like structures that receives information from periods
other neurons ○ Event-related Potential (ERP)
■ record of a small change in the
MYELIN brain’s electrical activity in
● white, fatty substance that surrounds some of the response to a stimulating event
axons of the nervous system, which accounts for ● Static Imaging Techniques
some of the whiteness of the white matter of the ○ Angiograms
brain ○ Computed Tomography (CT) Scan
○ Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Scan
NODES OF RANVIER ● Metabolic Imaging
● small gaps in the myelin coating along the axon. ○ Positron Emission Tomography (PET)
which serve to increase the conduction speed by ■ radioactive material is injected or
creating electrical signals inhaled
■ participant is then scanned to
produce an image of brain’s
TERMINAL BUTTONS
activity
● small knobs found at the ends of the branches of an
○ Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging
axon that do not directly touch the dendrites of the (fMRI)
next neurons
■ takes a series of images of the
brain in quick succession
SYNAPSE ■ brain areas with more blood flow
● serves as a juncture between the terminal buttons have been shown to have better
of one or more neutrons and the dendrites of one or visibility
more other neurons. ○ Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)
■ Temporarily disrupt functioning of
NEUROTRANSMITTERS a particular brain area
● chemical messengers ■ An electrical current passes
○ Acetylcholine through a coil on person’s head,
■ associated with memory functions generating a magnetic field
(loss may lead to Alzheimer’s ○ Magnetoencephalography (MEG)
disease) ■ Measures activity of the brain
○ Dopamine from outside the head by picking
■ associated with attention, up magnetic fields emitted by
learning, and movement changes in brain activity
coordination (schizophrenia and
Parkinson’s disease) BRAIN DISORDERS
○ Serotonin ● Stroke
■ associated with eating behavior ○ When flow of blood to brain undergoes a
and body weight regulation sudden disruption
○ Paralysis, pain, numbness, loss of speech,
VIEWING THE STRUCURES AND FUNCTIONS OF THE loss of language comprehension,
BRAIN impairment of thought process, loss of
POSTMORTEM STUDIES movement in parts of the body
● “Postmortem” - after death (Latin); “Vivo” - living ○ 2 kinds of stroke
(Latin) ■ Ischemic Stroke : build up fatty
tissues occurs in blood vessel
● dissection of the brain
○ brain damage ■ Hemorrhagic Stroke: occurs when
a blood vessel in the brain
○ lesions in the brain
suddenly breaks.
○ cases:
■ Phineas Gage ○ Symptoms:
■ Paul Broca ■ Numbness, Confusion, Vision
disturbance, dizziness, severe
headache
ANIMAL STUDIES
● Brain tumor
● single-cell recordings
○ Neoplasm
● selective lesioning
○ 2 types:
○ surgically removing or damaging part of the ■ Primary brain tumor
brain.
■ Secondary brain tumor
● genetic knockout procedures
○ either benign or malignant
○ create animals that lack certain kinds of ○ Symptom:

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 OUR LADY OF FATIMA UNIVERSITY — QC
COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCE — BS PSYCHOLOGY 2ND YEAR
PSYCHSOC EDUCATIONAL COMMITTEE

■ Symptom: headache, nausea or

vomiting, changes in speech,
vision or hearing, problem
balancing or walking, changes in
mood personality, problems in
memory, muscle jerking or
twitching (seizure, or convulsions,
numbness)
● Head Injuries
○ Car accidents, contact with hard objects or
bullet wounds.
○ 2 types:
■ Close-head injuries
■ Open-head injuries
○ Result:
■ Loss of consciousness, spastic
movement, difficulty of swallowing
and slurring of speech
○ Symptoms:
■ Symptoms; unconsciousness, THREE MAIN LAYERS OF RETINA
abnormal breathing, serous 1. Ganglion cells
wound fracture, bleeding , a. first layer of neuronal tissue
disturbance of speech or 2. Amacrine cells, horizontal cells, bipolar cells
paralysis, dizziness, neck pain or 3. Photoreceptors
stiffness, seizure, vomiting more a. Rods and Cones
than two or three times, loss of
bowel control. VISUAL PATHWAYS IN THE BRAIN
PATHWAY
WEEK 3: VISUAL PERCEPTION ● the path the visual information takes from its
PERCEPTION entering the human perceptual system through the
● set of processes by which we recognize, organize, eyes to its being completely processed
and make sense of the sensations we receive from
environmental stimuli 2 VISUAL PATHWAYS
● Where Pathway (Dorsal Pathway)
BASIC CONCEPTS OF PERCEPTION ○ responsible for processing location and
DISTAL OBJECT motion information
● object in external world ○ parietal lobe lesions in monkeys
● informational medium ■ can indicate what but not where
● What Pathway (Ventral Pathway)
PROXIMAL STIMULATION ○ responsible for processing the color,
● information travel from light waves come contact shape, and identity of visual stimuli
with the appropriate sensory receptors of the eyes ○ temporal lobe lesions in monkeys
● perceptual object ■ can indicate where but not what

Sensation is not equal to perception!

Distal Object
Light waves
Sound waves
Chemical molecules
Chemical molecules
Pressure/vibration
Proximal Stimuli
Photon absorption
conduction to basilar
membrane
absorption in olfactory
epithelium
contact with taste buds
stimulation of dermis
receptor cells
PERCEPTUAL BASICS
● sensory adaptation
○ Occurs when sensory receptors change
their sensitivity to the stimulus
● our senses respond to change
○ Ganzfeld effect
PERCEPTUAL CONSTANCY
● Object remains the same even though our sensation
of the object changes
○ Size constancy vs. shape constancy
DEPTH PERCEPTION

MENTAL PERCEPT MONOCULAR DEPTH CUES

● mental representation of a stimulus that is ● Texture gradients
perceived. ○ Grain of item
● Relative size
○ Bigger is closer
VISUAL SYSTEM
● Interposition
● electromagnetic light energy is converted into neural
● Closer are in front of other objects
electrochemical impulses.
● Linear perspective

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 OUR LADY OF FATIMA UNIVERSITY — QC
COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCE — BS PSYCHOLOGY 2ND YEAR
PSYCHSOC EDUCATIONAL COMMITTEE

○ Parallel lines converge in distance edges of them and then decomposing the
● Aerial perspective objects into geons (3-D geometric shapes;
○ Images seem blurry farther away geometrical ions).
● Motion parallax
○ Objects get smaller at decreasing TOP-DOWN THEORIES
speed in distance ● constructive approach
● Perception is not automatic from raw stimuli
BINOCULAR DEPTH CUES ○ making inferences
● Binocular convergence ○ guessing from experience
● Binocular disparity ● context effects
○ influences of the surrounding environment
PERCEPTUAL ILLUSIONS of perception
● Sometimes we cannot perceive what does exist
● Sometimes we perceive things that do not exist CONFIGURAL-SUPERIORITY EFFECT
● Sometimes we perceive what cannot be there ● objects presented in certain configurations
are easier to recognize than the objects
APPROACHES/THEORIES TO PERCEPTION presented in isolation
BOTTOM-UP THEORIES
● Direct perception OBJECT-SUPERIORITY EFFECT
● Template theories ● target line that forms a part of a drawing of
● Feature matching theories a 3-D object is identified more accurately
● Recognition-by-components theory than a target that forms a part of a
disconnected 2-D pattern
DIRECT PERCEPTION
● James J. Gibson theory WORD-SUPERIORITY EFFECT
● The information in our sensory receptors is ● when people are presented with strings of
all we need letters, it is easier for them to identify a
○ no complex thought or processes single letter if the string makes sense and
○ e.g use texture gradients as cues forms a word instead of being just a
for depth and distance. nonsense sequel of letters
● mirror neurons start firing 30-100 ms after
visual stimulus. PERCEPTION OF OBJECTS AND FORMS
VIEWER-CENTERED REPRESENTATION
TEMPLATE THEORIES ● the appearance of the object to the viewer not the
● highly detailed models for patterns we actual structure of the object
potentially might recognize.
● we recognize a pattern by comparing it with OBJECT-CENTERED REPRESENTATION
our set of templates. ● the individual stores a representation of the object,
independent of its appearance to the viewer.
FEATURE-MATCHING THEORIES
● Recognize objects by features LANDMARK-CENTERED
○ Detect elements and assemble ● information is characterized by its relation to a
them into more complex forms well-known or prominent item.
○ Brain cells respond to specific
features
GESTALT’S VIEW OF PERCEPTION
■ lines and angles
“The whole is more than a sum of its parts”
● e.g. Pandemonium Model
○ 4 kinds of demons: ● Law of Prägnanz
■ Image demons ○ Individuals organize their experience in as
simple, concise, symmetrical, and
■ Feature demons
complete manner as possible
■ Cognitive demons
■ Decision demons ● Figure ground
○ Organize perceptions by distinguishing
between a figure and a background
PHYSIOLOGICAL EVIDENCE FOR FEATURES
● Proximity
● Hubel & Wiesel (1979)
○ Elements tend to be grouped
● Simple cells together according to their nearness
○ bars/edges ● Similarity
● Complex cells
○ Items similar in some respect tend to be
○ bars/edges detect bars of grouped together
particular orientation
● Continuity
● Hypercomplex cells
○ Based on smooth continuity,which is
○ particular colors (simple and preferred to abrupt changes of direction
complex cells), bars, or edges of
● Closure
particular length or moving in a
○ Items are grouped together if they tend to
particular direction complete a figure
● Symmetry
RECOGNITION-BY-COMPONENTS THEORY ○ Prefer to perceive objects as mirror images
● quickly recognizing objects by observing the

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 OUR LADY OF FATIMA UNIVERSITY — QC
COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCE — BS PSYCHOLOGY 2ND YEAR
PSYCHSOC EDUCATIONAL COMMITTEE

PATTERNS AND FACES
PATTERN RECOGNITION SYSTEMS
● Feature analysis system
○ Recognize parts of objects
○ Assemble parts into wholes
● Configurational system
○ Recognize larger configurations
CONSCIOUSNESS
● the feeling of awareness and the content of
awareness, some of which may be under the focus
of attention
PRECONSCIOUS ATTENTION
● Items that lie outside our conscious awareness,
some may be made conscious, some not

EVIDENCE FOR SEPARATE SYSTEMS PRIMING

● Tanaka & Farah (1993) ● participants are presented with a first stimulus (the
○ Participants studied prime), followed by a break that can range from
■ Faces and names milliseconds to weeks or months. Then, the
■ Pictures of homes and home participants are presented with a second stimulus
owner s names and make a judgment (e.g., are both the first and
○ At test, given only a piece of face (e.g., the second stimulus the same?) to see whether the
nose), whole face, whole home, or a piece presentation of the first stimulus affected the
of the home (e.g., window) perception of the second
■ Asked to recall names
■ People have more difficulty MARCEL (1983)
recognizing parts of faces than
parts of houses Condition Subliminally Consciously
Present Prime Present Prime
FUSIFORM GYRUS IN TEMPORAL LOBE
● pattern recognition Prime PALM PALM
○ facial recognition
○ high expertise in any item (birds, cars) Mask XXXX
recognition
○ Expert individuation hypothesis Target PINE OR WRIST: PINE OR WRIST:
Found faster RT Found faster RT
EVIDENCE FOR SEPARATE SYSTEMS for both target for one of two
● Prosopagnosia words target words,
○ Inability to recognize faces after brain slower RT for the
damage other target
○ Ability to recognize objects is intact
● Associative agnosia Response Body part or Body part or
○ Difficulty with recognizing objects Plant Plant
○ Can recognize faces
Reaction Time How fast does How fast does
DEFICITS IN PERCEPTION the person react? the person react?
● Disruption of the what pathway
○ Agnosia: Inability to recognize and identify Interpretation Both meanings Only one meaning
objects or people were primed is primed, the
● Disruption of the what pathway other inhibited
○ Simultagnosic
RT= retention
■ Normal visual fields, yet act blind
■ Perceives only one stimulus at a
time single word or object FACILITATIVE PRIMING
● Prosopagnosia ● Target stimuli are processed faster if preceded by a
○ Inability to recognize faces, including one's related word
own ○ BUTTER = BREAD
● Disruption of the how pathway
○ Optic ataxia NEGATIVE PRIMING EFFECT
■ Cannot use vision to guide
movement ● Target stimuli is processed slower if preceded by a
■ Unable to reach for items word related to target’s alternate meaning
○ PALM relating to hand (not a tree)
PERCEPTUAL ILLUSIONS AND “CONSTRUCTION”
● Phantom limb DYAD OF TRIADS
● synesthesia ● Bowers, Regehr, Balthazard & Parker (1990)
● Participants were presented with pairs (dyads) of
WEEK 4: ATTENTION AND CONSCIOUSNESS three-word groups (triads). One of the triads in each
ATTENTION dyad was a potentially coherent grouping. The other
triad contained random and unrelated words.
● The concentration of mental energy that must be
used to process incoming information ● RESULTS:
○ Selective ○ Even if participants could not generate the
4th word, they still selected the coherent
○ Limited
triad
○ Both conscious and preconscious

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 OUR LADY OF FATIMA UNIVERSITY — QC
COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCE — BS PSYCHOLOGY 2ND YEAR
PSYCHSOC EDUCATIONAL COMMITTEE
AUTOMATIZATION
○ Results demonstrate preconscious
processing
TIP-OF-THE-TONGUE EXPERIENCES (TOT)
● You know that you know the word but you cannot
fully retrieve the word
● tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon is apparently
universal
● Paradigms used to generate TOT states
○ Show pictures of famous people or
politicians and have participants name
them
○ Ask general knowledge questions to
generate TOTs
BLINDSIGHT
● Person cannot consciously see a certain portion of
their visual field but still behave in some instances
as if they can see it
● Being aware of doing something is distinguishable
from doing something
ATTENTION AND CONSCIOUSNESS KEY THEMES
● Structures versus processes
○ the brain contains various structures and
systems of structures, such as the
reticular activating system, that generate
the processes that contribute to attention
● Validity of causal inferences versus ecological
validity
○ Should research on vigilance be conducted
in a laboratory to achieve careful
experimental control? Or should the
research of high-stakes vigilance situations
be studied ecologically?
● Biological versus behavioral methods
○ Blindsight is a case of a curious and as yet
poorly understood link. The biology does
not appear to be there to generate the
behavior.
CONTROLLED & AUTOMATIC PROCESSING
AUTOMATIC PROCESSING
● require no conscious control
CONTROLLED PROCESSING
● requires conscious control
● Integrated components theory (Anderson)
○ Practice leads to integration; less and less
attention is needed
● Instance Theory (Logan)
○ Retrieve from memory specific answers,
skipping the procedure; thus less attention
is needed
● Effects of Practice on Automatization
○ Negative-Acceleration Curve
■ Rate of learning slows as amount
of learning increases
HABITUATION
● Decrease in responsiveness when exposed
to a repeated stimulus
○ People who smoke do not notice
the smell of cigarettes on their
clothes, but nonsmokers do
○ People get used to hearing the
chiming of their clocks
DISHABITUATION
● Change in familiar stimuli causes one to
notice it again
○ Smokers who quit, suddenly
notice how much their clothes
smell of smoke
○ If clock breaks, suddenly owner
notices the clock isn’t chiming
HABITUATION/DISHABITUATION PARADIGM
● Allows psychologists to test abilities of
Infants and animals
● Measure subject’s arousal to see if a
change occurs when pattern or sound is
changed
○ If animal or infant dishabituated
to a change, then they can detect
the change
○ If the animal or infant does not
dishabituate to a change in
stimuli, they did not detect the
change
FUNCTIONS OF CONSCIOUS ATTENTION
1. Signal detection and vigilance
a. detect the appearance of a particular
stimulus.
2. Search
a. try to find a signal amidst distracters
3. Selective Attention
a. choose to attend to some stimuli and
ignore others
4. Divided Attention
a. allocate our available attentional resources
to coordinate our performance of more
than one task at a time
SIGNAL DETECTION AND VIGILANCE
Signal
Present Absent
Decision
Present Hit False
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 OUR LADY OF FATIMA UNIVERSITY — QC
COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCE — BS PSYCHOLOGY 2ND YEAR
PSYCHSOC EDUCATIONAL COMMITTEE

● Some findings cannot be explained by FIT

Alarm
GUIDED SEARCH
Absent Miss Correct ● conducted by Cave and Wolf (1990)
Rejection ● All searches have 2 phases
○ Parallel Phase
SDT IN CONTEXT ○ Serial Stage
● Attention
○ paying enough attention to perceive objects SELECTIVITY OF ATTENTION
that are there COCKTAIL PARTY PROBLEM
● Perception ● Colin Cherry (1953)
○ perceiving faint signals that may or may not ● the process of tracking one conversation in the face
be beyond your perceptual range (e.i high of the distraction of other conversations.
pitched tone) ● Shadowing:
● Memory ○ listen to two different messages (dichotic
○ indicating whether you have/have not been presentation)
exposed to stimulus before, as whether the ● Results:
word “champagne” appeared on a list that ○ Noticed in unattended ear:
was to be memorized. ■ Change in gender
■ Change to a tone
VIGILANCE AND SDT ○ Did not notice in unattended ear:
● Vigilance is attending to a set of stimuli over a ■ Changed language
■ Changed topic, same speaker
length of time in order to detect a target signal ■ If speech was played backwards
● Vigilance decreases rapidly over time (fatigue), thus
misses and false alarms increase MODELS OF SELECTIVE ATTENTION
● Broadbent’s Model
CONJUNCTIVE & FEATURE SEARCH ○ we filter information right after we notice it
at the sensory level
SEARCH
○ Only one sensory channel is allowed to
● Actively searching for a target
proceed
● Number of targets and distracters influence
accuracy
● Feature search versus conjunctive search BROADBENT’S MODEL COULD NOT EXPLAIN
● Participant’s name gets through
● Participants can shadow meaningful
DISTRACTERS
messages that switches from one ear to
● nontarget stimuli that divert our attention away from
another
the target stimulus.
● Effects of practice on detecting information
in unattended ear (e.g., detect digit in
CONJUNCTIVE SEARCH unattended ear for naïve and practiced
● look for a particular combination participants)
(conjunction—joining together) of features.

FEATURE SEARCH
● look for an item with a distinct feature like color or
shape
● simply scan the environment for that feature

TREIMAN’S FEATURE-INTEGRATION THEORY

● explains the relative ease of conducting feature
searches and the relative difficulty of conducting
conjunction searches.
● Individual Feature processing is done in parallel.
Simultaneous processing is done on the whole
display and if a feature is present– we detect it.
● Conjunctive searching requires attention to the
integration or combination of the features.
○ Attention to particular combination of
features must be done sequentially to ● Treisman Attenuation Model
detect presence of a certain combination. ○ Filter weakens the strength of unattended
information.
SIMILARITY THEORY ● Late Selection Theory
● Disagrees with Treisman’s FIT theory ○ All stimuli is processed to the level of
● Similarity between targets and distracters is meaning; relevance determines further
important; not number of features to be combined Processing and action, Deutsch & Deutsch
○ The more shared features among items in (1963)
display, the more difficult to detect a ● Multimode Theory
particular target ○ Johnston & Heinz (1978)

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 OUR LADY OF FATIMA UNIVERSITY — QC
COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCE — BS PSYCHOLOGY 2ND YEAR
PSYCHSOC EDUCATIONAL COMMITTEE

○ Difficulty of a task is ○ Protocol analysis

determined by when the selection takes ○ Change Blindness
place ■ an inability to detect changes in
objects or scenes that are being
NEISSER’S SYNTHESIS viewed
● Preattentive Processes ■
○ Parallel
○ Note physical characteristics FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE OUR ABILITY TO PAY
● Attentive Processes ATTENTION
○ Controlled processes occur ANXIETY
serially
● Being anxious, either by nature (trait-based anxiety)
○ Occur in working memory or by situation (state-based anxiety), places
constraints on attention.
● Attention-Resource Theories
○ People have a fixed amount of attentional
AROUSAL
resources (perhaps modulated by sensory
modalities) that they allocate according to ● Your overall state of arousal affects attention as
the perceived task requirements. well. You may be tired, drowsy, or drugged, which
may limit attention. Being excited sometimes
○ Stroop Effect
enhances attention
■ Reading interferes with your ability
to state the color and your
reaction time is slower TASK DIFFICULTY
● particularly influences performance during divided
attention.
DIVIDED ATTENTION
● engaging in one more task at a time
SKILLS
● The more practiced and skilled you are in performing
DUAL TASK PARADIGM
a task, the more your attention is enhanced
● Task 1 may require a verbal response to an auditory
stimulus
● Task 2 may require a participant to push a button in NEUROSCIENCE & ATTENTION: A NETWORK MODEL
response to a visual stimulus. ALERTING
● Results indicate that responses to the second task ● defined as being prepared to attend to some
are delayed incoming event, and maintaining this attention
● the process of getting to this state of preparedness.
REAL LIFE DUAL TASK
● Driving and: ORIENTING
○ Cell phones ● defined as the selection of stimuli to attend to
○ Adjusting music ● Dysfunction within this system can be associated
○ Watching the scenery with autism.
● Almost 80 % of crashes and 65 % of near crashes
involved some form of driver inattention within three EXECUTIVE ATTENTION
seconds of the event ● includes processes for monitoring and resolving
conflicts that arise among internal processes.
STRAYER & DREWS (2007) ● The neurotransmitter most involved in the executive
● Naturalistic Observation of cell phone use and driver attention process is dopamine
behavior
ATTENTION DEFICIT HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER (ADHD)
● have difficulties in focusing their attention in ways
Failed to stop Stopped properly that enable them to adapt in optimal ways to their
environment
on cellphone 82 28 ● 3 primary symptoms:
○ inattention
no cellphone 352 1286 ○ hyperactivity
○ impulsiveness
● Results: ● 3 main types:
○ Impact of hands free cell phone ○ hyperactive-impulsive
○ conversations on simulated driving: ○ inattentive
■ Cell phone conversation led to ○ combination of both
inattentional blindness ● Distinctive symptoms:
■ Even if they looked at an object, ○ They are easily distracted by irrelevant
participant did not remember the sights and sounds.
object ○ They often fail to pay attention to details.
○ They are susceptible to making careless
COMPLEX MENTAL PROCESSES mistakes in their work.
● Access to conscious Mental Processes ○ They often fail to read instructions
completely or carefully.
○ Some say we do (Ericsson & Simon)
○ Some say we do not (Nisbett & Wilson) ○ They are susceptible to forgetting or losing
things they need for tasks, such as pencils
● Evidence on both sides:

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 OUR LADY OF FATIMA UNIVERSITY — QC
COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCE — BS PSYCHOLOGY 2ND YEAR
PSYCHSOC EDUCATIONAL COMMITTEE

or books.
○ They tend to jump from one incomplete
task to another.

PREPARED AND ARRANGED BY:

GEUELLE ANNE G. GAAD

PSYCHOLOGICAL SOCIETY OLFU-QC,

EDUCATIONAL COMMITTEE

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