Cognitive Psychology: Applying the Science of the Mind » (2nd Edition)

This book brings cognition to life by demonstrating the endless application of cognitive psychology to everyday life. While introducing the current research in this rapidly changing field, the text also introduces critical thinking exercises that highlight important phenomena and provide an engaging firsthand view of the everyday relevance of research in cognition. The book has three main threads that serve as unifying themes for current research in the field: Cognition and Neuroscience; Cognition and Consciousness; and Cognition and Individual Differences. A “story” introduces the book and is continually referred to throughout in installments, highlighting the application of the information and providing a useful organizing tool.

Table of Contents:

Chapter 1--An Introduction to Cognition

What is Cognition?

The Omnipresence of Cognitive Processing

An Interdisciplinary Perspective

Psychology B.C. (Before Cognitive psychology)

Psychophysics

Structuralism: The Contents of Mental Experience

Functionalism: The Functions of Mental Experience

Behaviorism: The Rejection of Mental Experience

Laying the Foundation for Cognitive Psychology

The Emergence of Cognitive Psychology

S-R Explanations: Seriously wRong?

Technological Influences

PSYCHOLOGY A.D. (After Decline of behaviorism)

Behaviorism Reconsidered

Information-Processing: A Computer Metaphor for Cognition

Connectionism: A Brain Metaphor for Cognition

Alternative Approaches to Cognitive Psychology

Research Themes

Chapter 2--Research Methods in Cognition

Descriptive Research

Naturalistic Observation

Case Studies

Self-Report

Experimental Research

The Importance of the Computer

What Happens in an Experiment?

The Advantages and Disadvantages of an Experiment

The Cognitive psychology Experiment

How Can We See Thinking?: The Dependent Variable

What Variables Influence Cognition?: The Independent Variable

Confounding Variables

Assigning Participants to Conditions

The Factorial Design

Analyzing and Presenting Results

A Sample Experiment

Cognitive Neuroscience: Investigating Mind and Brain

An Overview of The Nervous System

The Tools of Cognitive Neuroscience

Chapter 3—Basics of Perception and Awareness

Basic Issues in Perception

Sensation and. Perception

Bottom-Up and Top-Down Processing

The Basic Tasks of Visual Perception

Perceptual Organizational Processes

Multisensory Interaction and Integration

Synesthesia

Comparing the Senses

Perception and Action

Consciousness

Varieties of Consciousness

Subliminal Perception

Perceptual Processing and Attention

Visual Attention

Auditory Attention

Chapter 4 – Attending to and Manipulating Information

Selection and Division: The Strategic Nature of Attention

Control of Selective Attention

Dividing Attention

Automaticity

Characteristics of Automatic Processes

Accounts of Automaticity

Costs of Automaticity

Processing in Immediate Memory

The Information Processing Approach to Memory

Short-Term Memory

A Modular Approach to STM: Working Memory

The Articulatory Loop

The Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad

The Episodic Buffer

Central Executive

Working Memory and the Brain

The Working Memory Model Re-Considered

Chapter 5 – Identification and Classification

Identification and Classifictation: An Overview

Identifcation: Recognizing from the Bottom, Up and from the Top, Down

Concepts and Categories: The Database for Recognition

Object Recognition

Effects of Orientation and Perspective

Effects of Context

Theories of Visual Object Recognition

Non-Visual Recognition

Recognizing Faces

Face Inversion

Configural Processing

So, Is Face Recognition Special?

Self-Recognition

Concepts and Categories

Types of Categories (“Categories” as a Category)

Functions of Concepts

Approaches to Concept Representation

Chapter 6 – Encoding and Retrieval Processes in Long-Term Memory

Fundamental Issues and Distinctions

Short-Term Memory vs.Long-Term Memory

Types of Long-Term Memory

A Descriptive Framework: Encoding, Storage, and Retrieval

Encoding Processes in Explicit Long-term Remembering

Attention and Repetition

Rehearsal

Remembering Actions

Retrieval Processes in Long–Term Memory

Availability and Accessibility

Encoding Specificity

Retrieval: An Effective Encoding Strategy?

Encoding, Retrieval, and Hemispheric Asymmetry

Memory and Consciousness

Remembering and Knowing

Implicit Memory

Chapter 7 – Memory Distortions

Sins of Memory

Eyewitness Memory

Encoding and Storage Factors

Retrieval Factors

Witness Factors

An Applied Triumph

Illusory Memories

Simple Events

Complex events

A Constructive Memory Framework

Social Influences and Constructive Remembering

The Recovered Memory Controversy

Can We Completely Forget and Recover Traumatic Events?

Can False Memories for Traumatic Events be Created?

What Constitutes Valid Evidence?

The APA Working Group

Chapter 8 —- Remembering the Past

Everyday Memory

Neisser’s Challenge: Ecological Validity and Memory Research

Autobiographical Memory: Basic Issues and Methodology

Memories versus Facts

Methods of Investigation

The Autobiographical Memory Retention Function

Childhood Amnesia

The Reminiscence Bump

Forgetting

Factors Affecting Retrieval of Autobiographical Memories

Encoding Specificity in Autobiographical Memory

Retrieval Cues for Autobiographical Memory

The Self-Memory System

Involuntary Autobiographical Memories

Emotion and Autobiographical Memory

Flashbulb Memories

Effects of Mood on Remembered Events

Conclusion: Functions of Autobiographical Memory

Communicative Function

Emotional Function

Directive Function

Chapter 9 – Knowledge Representation and Retrieval

Representing and Retrieving Words and Associates

Word Representation and Retrieval: The Mental Lexicon

Models of Word Recognition

Words Connecting with Words: Semantic Networks

Representing and Retrieving Everyday Knowledge

Knowledge Learned Through Formal Instruction

People’s Names

Songs

Analog Representation

The Study of Visual Imagery

The Imagery Debate

Chapter 10 –Language

Language: Basic Principles

Words and Rules

Design Features of Language

Is Language Modular?

Levels of Analysis

Speech and Spoken Word Recognition

Phonology

Morphology

Reading and Visual Word Recognition

Eye Movements

Visual Word Recognition

From Words to Sentences: Syntax and Semantics

Transformational Grammar

Sentence Parsing

Language: Learned or Innate?

Language Production

Stages in Language Production

Language in Non-Humans

Language Training Projects

What Makes Language Special?

Chapter 11 – Problem Solving

What is a Problem?

Well-defined and Ill-defined Problems

Routine and Non-routine Problems

Problem-Solving Research: Some Methodological Challenges

Approaches to the Study of Problem Solving

Behaviorism: Problem Solving as Associative Learning

Gestalt Psychology: Problem Solving as Insight

Cognitive Psychology: Problem Solving as Information Processing

Problem Representation

Rigidity in Representation

Stereotypes as a Threat to Problem Representation

Problem Solution

Algorithms

Heuristics

Experts: Masters of Representation and Solution

Expert Advantages

Expert Disadvantages: Costs of Expertise

Insight and Creativity

Insight

Creativity

Creativity, Insight, and the Brain

Chapter 12 – Reasoning, Judgment, and Decision Making

Complex Thinking: Reasoning, Judgment, and Decision Making

The Focus on Errors

Reasoning

Deductive Reasoning

Inductive Reasoning

Judgment

Basing Judgments on Memory: The Availability Heuristic

Basing Judgments on Similarity: The Representativeness Heuristic

Basing Judgments on Initial Estimates: The Anchoring and Adjustment Heuristic

Biased Evaluation of Our Judgments

Decision-Making

Expected Utility: A Normative Approach

Prospect Theory: A Descriptive Approach

References

Name Index

Subject Index