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Cognitive Processes
PSY 334
Nancy Alvarado, Ph.D.
What is Cognitive Psychology?
 How we process information about the
world.
 Normally we live without examining how
we experience our lives.
 Artists, engineers, product designers,
entertainers must consider how we
process our world – to do their jobs well.
 Consider The Rokeby Venus by Diego
Velázquez (British National Gallery)
What would she really see in
the mirror?
Does the Parthenon look square?
Perspective in Architecture
What’s wrong with this
picture?
 With the mirror in this position, it would
be impossible for her to see her face.


We would see our faces or the painter’s
face with the mirror at this angle.
See would see us or the painter.
 Her face is too large – it is actual size,
not smaller as it would really be.
 75% of people asked said she is looking
at herself.
What should the artist paint?
 Is it better to paint the woman’s own face
or what would really appear in the
mirror?
 Artist’s must understand how we
perceive in order to paint an image that
looks real.

If artists painted things the way they would
really appear, the painting would look
“wrong” to viewers.
Cognition is Full of Illusions
 Similar cognitive “illusions” exist in many
areas of cognition.
 Studying these mistakes and oddities of
thought give us insight into how people
process information.
 While illusions are interesting, the goal is
to understand how people think in a
more systematic way.
Mind as a “Black Box”
Input:
Sensation
Output:
Behavior
What happens inside the “box” to
produce the observed behavior?
Information Processing
A computer metaphor is used to
conceptualize mental activity:

Mental processes operate upon
mental representations
“Ops

on Reps”
Flowcharted steps
Flow Chart on Flow Charts
College Flow Chart
 http://www.collegehumor.com/article/6469581/fl
owchart-can-you-skip-class-today
 Luckily, this isn’t a morning class.
A Functional Approach
Mental activity is described in
functional terms.
Brain location, brain processes
and neural representation are
ignored.
 Neuroscience
allows us to test
functional ideas.
Functional Flow Chart
How are Models Tested?
 Because no direct observation of
mental processes is possible,
behavior is studied.
 Measurement of response time is
used to deduce the steps
performed.