DIGITAL SCRAPBOOK

DIGITAL SCRAPBOOK

Decision Making

definition: choosing between various alternatives to to get to the best course of action for a specific task.

Problem Solving

Example:

definition: actively eliminating any obstacles in your way in order to reach a set goal.

Example:

This is an example of a couple laying bed about to engage in sexual intercourse. The woman is giving the man a condom. In this example the woman is using good decision making by deciding to practice safe sex. There are many people in the world everyday that fall prey to risky decision making when it comes to sex practices. People do not look at the facts regarding STI’s, HIV, or unwanted pregnancy before they make the decision not to use a condom. In this example the woman has decided to protect herself and her life by avoiding any risks.

Cognitive Neuroscience

definition: certain cognitive functions are performed by certain parts of the brain.

In this example I chose a Youtube video of a mother teaching her daughter how to ride a bike in seven steps. This problem has elements which are the tools on the bike that she has to work with, and operators which is how she is to use those tools on the bike in order to solve the problem. I believe that teaching a child to ride a bike for the first time encompasses divergent thinking because one must be creative in the strategies. There is no correct way to teach a child how to ride a bike but creating new ideas along with past experiences is thinking innovatively.

Example:

divergent thinking: using creativity to come up with many different solutions to problems.

For this example I chose a car being driven on the road to show how distributed processing is used. In order to be able to drive a car there are multiple areas of the brain that are being used. First, the frontal lobe is being used because driving a car entails organizing and sequencing action and managing movement. Second the parietal lobe is being used because one must be able to navigate while driving. Lastly, the occipital and temporal lobes are being used in order to process visual and auditory information while on the road. Using all of these areas make up one's ability to drive a car.

distributed processing: involves multiple areas of the brain and multiple neurons to process pieces of information. Darnell, K. (2013) Cognitive Psychology: Cognitive Neuroscience [Power point]

Language

definition: the way in which we express our thoughts, feelings and emotions by using sounds, words and symbols.

Seven Concepts of Cognitive Psychology

Cognitive Psychology

Dr.Darnell

Fall 2013

language is composed of arbitrariness - any symbol can be attached with any meaning.

For this example I chose a clip of a young girl and an orangutan communicating with each other in sign language. I chose this example to show how language is universal and arbitrary. A young girl was taught sign language and can communicate not only with other humans but with an animal as well. Language can be taught to humans as well as other species for means of communication. Both the orangutan and the young girl are able to distinguish between signs in order to effectively understand what they are representing. Although humans are capable of doing more with communication than an orangutan I thought it was interesting to see how language

could be taught to animals as well.

By: Natika Hudson

Perception

top down and bottom up processing:

definitions: top down processing involves things we already know. With top down we begin with general assumptions and use them to arrive at a particular conclusion. Bottom up processing involves new information. With bottom up we begin with a particular observation then generalize to broader principles.

Example:

For this example i chose a picture of a scene from the movie "Snakes on a Plane". This represents top down processing. A man comes in contact with a snake and because of information he already knows about snakes he is scared because the snake is trying to attack him. His general assumption is that the snake is going to bite him, it may be poisonous and he may die. This general assumption allowed him to come to the conclusion to make sure the snake does not attack him so he grabs it before it does trying to avoid danger

Memory

long term memory - memory that is stored for an infinite amount of time, managed and retrieved when information is needed.

Attention

Example:

definition: a mechanism for focusing on a subset of incoming stimuli reduces input to manageable levels. Darnell, K (2013) Cognitive Psychology: Attention [Power point].

Example:

For this example of long term memory I chose a picture of me as a bridesmaid in my best friend’s wedding. This event was

associated with strong emotion. This is an explicit memory containing episodic and semantic coding. Since this was my best friends wedding it was a personal event that took place which is episodic. I remember details about that day and I also perform narrative rehearsal when I talk about specific details from that day with my best friend and other people that were involved. This narrative rehearsal helps to reactivate those memories it making it easy to retrieve.

For this example I chose to use a woman driving which could be either and automatic process- familiar task or a controlled process - new and unfamiliar task depending on her destination. However, her attention is not focused on the road where it should be but instead she is distracted by a message she received on her phone. This distraction could cause her to hit any pedestrians crossing the street or another vehicle.This woman is choosing to selectively attend to her phone and not at the task in front of her.