Foundations of Cognitive Psychology

📋 Course Outline

1. Perception and Attention
2. Memory Processes
3. Problem Solving Strategies
4. Decision Making
5. Language and Thought
6. Cognitive Development
7. Intelligence Theories
8. Cognitive Biases

📖 1. Perception and Attention

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Perception: The process by which the brain organizes and interprets sensory information to form a mental representation of the environment.
• Attention: The cognitive process of selectively concentrating on specific stimuli while ignoring others.
• Selective Attention: Focusing on particular stimuli or tasks while filtering out irrelevant information.
• Divided Attention: The ability to attend to multiple tasks or stimuli simultaneously.
• Perceptual Set: A mental predisposition to perceive stimuli in a particular way, influenced by expectations, experience, and context.
• Bottom-up Processing: Perception driven by sensory input, where data from the environment influences perception.
• Top-down Processing: Perception driven by prior knowledge, expectations, and experiences influencing how sensory information is interpreted.

📝 Essential Points