Cognition (PSY 3377A)

Transcription

1 Cognition (PSY 3377A) Professor : Sylvain Gagnon, Ph.D. School of Psychology, University of Ottawa Vanier 3042 Ext 2515 sgagnon@uottawa.ca Teaching Assistant: Genevieve Monaghan gmona047@uottawa.ca Schedule: Tuesday 10h00 to 11h30 (SMD 428) Thursday 8h30 to 10h00 (SMD 428) Tuesday LAB- 13h00-14h30 (VNR 2015) 1. General course description Introduction to contemporary cognitive psychology. Origin of cognitive and symbolic processes. Historic foundations. Acquisition of various kinds of knowledge. Analysis of cognitive strategies. 2. Detailed description of the course and objectives Cognitive psychology is concerned with the understanding of the mental processes that are involved when one is confronted to various sources of external or internal information. Frequently, regularities can be extracted from these sources of stimulation and responses are generated accordingly. In this course, we will survey the foundations of cognitive psychology and we will examine various models of fundamental cognitive processes. Our capacity to abstract the available information and to act upon past and newly formed representations will be studied through concept formation, problem solving and decision making. The cognitive psychology perspective will also be integrated into a personal context, that is, how the cognitive processes interact with the intricacies of the self. Finally, a few examples of applied psychology will be given. In terms of fundamental processes, we will use a variety of empirical approaches to demonstrate how perception and shape recognition, attention, memory and visual imagery appear to be working. Conscious and non-conscious forms or processing will also be considered. Students will be introduced to classic paradigms in psychology. Innovative approaches will also be highlighted. The field of cognitive psychology cannot be dissociated from

2 PSY3377A, Cognition 2 neuroscience (and from emotions, personality, etc,). Consequently, space will be given to findings coming from other disciplines that integrate cognitive psychology principles and/or contribute to the evolution of the field. After successful completion of the Cognition course, students are expected to: make appropriate and meaningful links between cognitive psychology as a discipline and other related scientific disciplines such as neuropsychology, cognitive neuroscience, developmental psychology, cognitive aging (gerontology), social psychology, psychology of emotions, philosophy, education, etc. provide a summary of the recent history of cognitive psychology and describe some of the hot topics in the field. apply the scientific method for the purpose of empirical investigations in cognitive psychology. explain the properties of cognitive processes as perceived by the information processing and connectionist approaches. Describe and explain a number of paradigms that are considered as the hallmark of cognitive psychology research. the theories of object recognition. the relevance of the working memory concept and its history. various attention mechanisms and models; detail their commonalities as well as their differences; apply the modes to real life examples. the processes upon which effective encoding and retrieval of longterm information take place. how knowledge is conceptualized in semantic memory models. the important characteristics of mental images, including some of the evidences in support of mental imagery as well as the controversy over its existence. how cognitive maps operate. the contributions of the field to our understanding of problem solving abilities and the processes involved in deductive reasoning and decision making. the principles that govern language production and comprehension. 3. Required materials Goldstein, E.B. (2011). Cognitive Psychology: Connecting Mind, Research, and Everyday Experience. Belmont, CA: Thompson. This book is available at the University bookstore (approximately $180.50).

3 4. Course requirements and grades PSY3377A, Cognition 3 Student participation : I expect students to attend all classes. You must be aware that students who succeed the best are the ones who come to class, prepare themselves appropriately for the lectures (read the book chapters before coming to class, after coming to class, discuss and elaborate on its content with others), and participate actively to class discussions. If you wish to increase your chances of getting a high mark in this class, I advised you to tightly follow the previous advices. We are there to help and do whatever is possible to make this journey in cognitive psychology an interesting and fruitful one. Why attending classes? My teaching is often very spontaneous and I do my outmost to draw on your personal or scientific examples to facilitate the integration of the concepts. I use an enquiry-based teaching approach. I am more interested in the how and why than in answers. In the exams, I will use the examples studied in class which do not appear neither in the book nor in my slides. I will ask you questions! Attending labs is mandatory because you get marks for it; not your friends, brother, sister, cousin or neighbour! The TA will have to approve the completion of the selected experiment for each one of you. There will be a maximum of 10 tutorials over the semester for a total of 10 points. The remaining tutorial sessions will be used to help you prepare for each of the three exams. A short lap report will be requested. Its content will be detailed by the TA at the tutorials. Experiments are done online while atttending the tutorial session. The TA will comment the results of the experiments and you will partly base your report on the information provided. The textbook bundle comes with a password to Coglab experiments. However, if you buy a used textbook, you will have to register to Coglab online. Details will be provided on the first tutorial or in class. Grades Assessment will be based on three exams as well as your participation to the tutorials. Exams will be comprised of MCQs (between 40 and 75) and short essay questions (6-10 lines). Exams will assess complete and appropriate understanding of the topics as well as your memory of the specific vocabulary. Partial understanding/memory of the topics will definitely lead to partial grades. Exam questions will be based on the topics as they were discussed in class as well as the corresponding chapters from Goldstein s textbook. Material covered in the tutorials may also be covered in the

4 PSY3377A, Cognition 4 exams. More information about the exams will be provided in class the week prior to the exam. See the schedule below to find out when the three exams will take place. Dual tasking If you think that talking on a cell phone or texting while driving is dangerous, you can also easily imagine what the effect of surfing the web, chatting, ing, playing computer games, watching movies, texting is on your understanding of a lecture. We are now aware of its negative effect on attention, memory, and understanding. IT IS A SCIENTIFIC FACT! You paid qui a significant sum of money to register to this course. Do not waste it! Please, do not open your laptop, unless you take notes with it. Turn off all the other programs. The best is to turn it off and take a pen or pencil and write down what seems important to you. Sit back, relax, and ask questions (not necessarily outloud) about this mateirla. Computers, cell phones are a source of distraction for you, your classmates and myself. 5. Teaching methods Lectures and question period Lab demo

5 6. Detailed content and calendar PSY3377A, Cognition 5 Calendar First course January 7 Lab attendance and January 14 April 1st report (10%) 1st Exam (25) January 28 Study break February nd Exam (30%) February 27 Last class April 3 3rd Exam (35%) Between April 7 & and 24. Tentative course content 1. Introduction to cognition (Chapter 1) a. Thinking b. Cognition as it applies to a student daily life c. Elements of history 2. Brain and cognition (Chapter 2, not covered in class) a. Neurons and the brain b. How do neurons communicate c. Neural codes 3. Perception(Chapter 3) a. Top-down processes b. Bottom-up processes 4. Attention (Chapter 4) a. Types of attention : Classic models b. A review of today s attention mechanisms c. Automaticity and consciousness 5. Short-term and working memory (Chapter 5) a. Sensory memory b. Short term and working memory c. How do they differ d. Executive functions and working memory 6. Long-term memory (Chapter 6) a. Various forms of long-term memory b. Classic findings c. How is neuroscience helping? d. Comparative approaches to memory 7. Long-term memory (Chapter 7) a. Various approaches to encoding and retrieval b. Memory consolidation 8. Memory in the real life (Chapter 8) a. Everyday memory b. Memory errors

6 PSY3377A, Cognition 6 c. Controlling memory 9. Knowledge (Chapter 9) a. Categories b. Organizing knowledge c. From definitional to connectionist models 10. Visual Imagery (Chapter 10) a. Mental images: true or not? b. What does the brain have to say? c. Imagery and memory 11. Language (Chapter 11) a. What is it? Its universality. b. From phonemes to sentences c. A personal experience 12. Problem solving (Chapter 12) a. Representing a problem b. The Gestalt and the information processing approach c. Examples of problems (searching for a solution) 13. Reasoning and decision making (Chapter 12) a. Syllogisms b. Deductive and Inductive reasoning c. Heuristics d. Being a contestant 14. Cognition in the applied world a. Introduction to human factors b. The case of driving and being old