Cognitive Psychology: The Basics PDF
Preview Cognitive Psychology: The Basics
COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY THE BASICS Cognitive Psychology: The Basics provides a compact introduction to the core topics in the field, discussing the science behind the everyday cognitive phenomena experienced by us all. The book considers laboratory and applied theory and research alongside technological developments to demonstrate how our understanding of the brain’s role in cognition is improving all the time. Alongside coverage of traditional topics in the field, including attention and perception; learning and memory; thinking, problem-solving and decision- making; and language, the book also discusses developments in interrelated areas, such as neuroscience and computational cognitive science. New perspectives, including the contribution of evolutionary psychology to our understanding of cognition, are also considered followed by a thoughtful discussion of future research directions. Using real-world examples throughout, the authors explain in an accessible and student-friendly manner the role our human cognition plays in all aspects of our lives. It is an essential introductory text suitable for all students of cognitive psychology and related disciplines. It will also be an ideal read for any reader interested in the role of the brain in human behaviour. Sandie Taylor is an experienced lecturer and author. Her DPhil in cognitive psychology focused on memory, in particular face recognition, and applied memory approaches to facilitate recognition of faces. She has previously published four books and many peer reviewed articles and book chapters. Lance Workman is Visiting Professor of Psychology at the University of South Wales. He was formerly Head of Psychology at Bath Spa University. Lance has published widely in psychology including over 100 articles and nine books. For seven years he was interviews editor for The Psychologist and regularly appears in the media. The Basics The Basics is a highly successful series of accessible guidebooks which provide an overview of the fundamental principles of a subject area in a jargon-free and undaunting format. Intended for students approaching a subject for the first time, the books both introduce the essentials of a subject and provide an ideal springboard for further study. With over 50 titles spanning subjects from artificial intelligence (AI) to women’s studies, The Basics are an ideal starting point for students seeking to understand a subject area. Each text comes with recommendations for further study and gradually introduces the complexities and nuances within a subject. Town Planning Tony Hall Women’s Studies (second edition) Bonnie G. Smith English Grammar Michael McCarthy Pragmatics Billy Clark World Prehistory Brian M. Fagan and Nadia Durrani For a full list of titles in this series, please visit www.routledge.com/ The-Basics/book-series/B COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY THE BASICS Sandie Taylor and Lance Workman First published 2022 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2022 Sandie Taylor and Lance Workman The right of Sandie Taylor and Lance Workman to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record has been requested for this book ISBN: 978-0-367-85686-1 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-367-85685-4 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-003-01435-5 (ebk) DOI: 10.4324/9781003014355 Typeset in Bembo by MPS Limited, Dehradun For Dafydd CONTENTS Acknowledgements viii 1 What is cognitive psychology? 1 2 Relationship between brain structure, function and cognitive modelling 24 3 Attention and perception 50 4 Memory and learning 84 5 Thinking: decision-making and problem-solving 127 6 Language and communication 164 7 Consciousness and metacognition 197 8 Cognitive neuropsychology 221 9 Future directions of cognitive psychology 243 Glossary 261 References 264 Index 295 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We would like to acknowledge Professor Ray Bull. Also to Sandie Taylor for 92 per cent of the figure work. • 1 WHAT IS COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY? Cognitive psychology is concerned with how we process in- formation. It has been eloquently defined by the American Psychological Association (APA) in 2020 as “the branch of psy- chology that explores the operation of mental processes related to perceiving, attending, thinking, language, and memory, mainly through inferences from behavior”. The exploration of mental processes is not new. For a very long time, philosophers and ‘sci- entists’ have been fascinated by the connection between our mind, mental processes and the brain. Studying the brain using ‘scientific’ methodology began during the Renaissance period; a time in European history arguably between 1400 and 1700. It was during this period that scholars became interested in studying nature, which included the mechanics of the human body. Great thinkers such as René Descartes pondered over the philosophical approach of ‘dualism’ to understand the difference between mind and body. He believed the two were separate from each other such that our body (including the brain) represented a physical entity while the mind represented a spiritual one. The implication of this is that the mind can exist independently of the body. Conversely, monism described the mind and body as coexisting. With the development of scientific technology used to map the brain, the notion of the mind existing separately from the physical brain became very un- likely. Nevertheless, Descartes helped expand our way of thinking about the mind and body interface. Even today with our extensive explorations inside the working brain, finding direct connections between structure and function is not always straightforward (see Chapter 2). It could be argued that ideas from dualism and monism DOI: 10.4324/9781003014355-1
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