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Cognitive Psychology

Ella Gray

Ella Gray

6 min read

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Study Guide Overview

This study guide covers sensation, perception, and learning as foundational concepts in cognitive psychology. It explores memory, thinking, intelligence, and language. Key psychologists like Chomsky, Ebbinghaus, Köhler, Loftus, Miller, and Whorf are highlighted. Important vocabulary related to memory, problem-solving, and intelligence is defined. The final exam will focus on memory models, forgetting, problem-solving, language, and intelligence, using scenario-based, definition, research methods, and comparative questions.

Cognitive Psychology: A Deep Dive 🧠

Understanding the Core: Sensation, Perception, and Learning

  • Sensation: The process of receiving information through our senses.
  • Perception: How we interpret and make sense of sensory information.
  • Learning: The process of acquiring new knowledge or skills.

These three concepts form the foundation for understanding cognition. Cognitive psychology delves into how we gather, process, and use information to make sense of the world. 🌎

🤔 Guiding Questions for this Unit

  1. Memory and Thinking: What roles do memory and thinking play in our behaviors?
  2. Intelligence: What is intelligence, and how can we study it to understand it?

🕰️ Contextualizing Cognitive Psychology

  • Emerged as a major approach in the late 1950s.
  • Focuses on the study of the human mind and its mental processes.
  • Explores areas like language, perception, thinking, memory, and problem-solving. 🤔
  • Understanding these processes can help individuals with mental processing challenges.
  • Memory is the culmination of previous units: taking in information (sensation), processing it (perception), learning it, and then storing it.
  • This unit constitutes about 13-17% of the AP Psychology exam.

🤓 Key Psychologists and Their Contributions

Key Concept

🗣️ Noam Chomsky

  • Language Acquisition Device (LAD): Proposed that humans have an innate ability to develop language. 💡
  • Overgeneralization: Observed that children tend to overgeneralize language rules.
Key Concept

😟 Hermann Ebbinghaus

  • Pioneered the scientific study of memory.
  • First to study forgetting.
  • Forgetting Curve: Developed the concept of how memory loss occurs over time.
  • Ide...
Previous Topic - Social and Cognitive Factors in LearningNext Topic - Introduction to Memory

Question 1 of 12

Which of the following best describes the process of receiving information through our senses? 🤔

Perception

Sensation

Learning

Cognition