Psy294

Perception o Use of receptors and bottom-up process and information to

activate perception
Definition: Experiences resulting from stimulation of the senses  Top-down processing: processing that originates in the brain of
the perceptual system
 Characteristics of Perception  Use of past knowledge to help build a perception of the
 Perception can change based on added information environment
 Perceptual rule: when object overlap, the one underneath  Allows rapid identification of objects and scenes
usually continues behind the one on top  Hearing words in a sentence
 Involves a process: a reasoning purposes  Speech Segmentation: the ability to tell when one world in
 Occurs in conjunction with action a conversation ends and the next one begins
 Central to ability to organize the actions that occur as we  Transitional probabilities: the likelihood that one sound will
interact with the environment follow another within a word
 Statistical learning: the process of learning about
 A human perceives objects and a scene transitional probability and about other characteristics of
 through the eye and the receptors of seeing, the human language
perceives The Four Conceptions of Object perception
 through context and experience can shape perception 1. Helmholtz’s Theory of Unconscious Inference
 Inverse projection problem: the task of determining the  Realised that the image on the retina is ambiguous:
object responsible for a particular image on the retina particular pattern of stimulation on the retina can. Be
 Involves starting with the retinal image and extending caused by a large number of objects in the environment
rays out from the eye  Likelihood Principle: we perceive the object that is most
 When light reaches the retina its often ambiguous likely to have caused the pattern of stimuli we have
 When objects are blurred or hidden people are still better received
at recognising than computers  Occurs by a process of unconscious inference of what is
 Objects look different from different viewpoints and likely
computers cant recognise them (Viewpoint Invariance) 2. The Gestalt Principles of Organization
 When adding more scenes—human use contextual cues to  Our perception of the face is created by adding up many
shape their perception senses
 Reject the idea that perceptions were formed by adding up
 Information’s for Human perception sensations
 Bottom-up Processing: begins at the moment the environment  Perceptions could not be explained by adding up small
energy stimulates the receptorss sensation that have been attributed to the experience
 1. Looking at something creates an image on the retina of psychologist
 2. Image generates electrical signals that are  Apparent movement: when there is a perception that
transmitted through the retina then to the visual something is moving but there is no observable movement
receiving area of the brain  Components to a stimuli
 1. One light flashes on and off  i.e more vertical and horizontal buildings and shapes in the
2. There is a period of darkness lasting a fraction of environment
a second  oblique effect: people can perceive horizontal and vertical
3. The second light flashing on and off separated by things more easily
period of darkness but we don’t see the  light-from-above assumption: assumption that the lights in our
darkness environment is coming from above
 Wertheimer 2 conclusions from apparent movement  Semantic regularities
 1. Apparent movement cannot be explained by sensation  Characteristics associated with the functions carried out in
because there is nothing in the dark space between the different types of scenes
flashing light  i.e what you do in the kitchen, lounge etc
 2. The whole is different than the sum of its part: (principle  scene schema: the knowledge that we have out different
of perceptual organization) kind of scenes and what belongs in those scene
Principle of perceptual organization (gestalt) 4. Bayesian Inference:
 these principles are intrinsic and built into the human system  restitates Helmholtz’s idea that we perceive what is most likely to
 Principle of Good continuation: have created the stimulation we have received in terms of probability
 Objects that overlap are perceived as continuing behind  Thomas Bayes proposal that our estimate of the probability of an
the overlapping object outcome is determined by two factors
 Points that connect to result in either a smooth or 1. The prior probability: our initial belief about the probability of
straight curling lines are seen as belonging together an outcome
 Type of good continuation: grouping in terms of colour, 2. Likelihood of a outcome: the extent to which the available
similarity and shape evidence is consistent with the outcome
 Principle of good figure (the law of pragnanz/ principle of
simplicity) Naïve realism:
 Every stimulus pattern is seen In such a way that the  the belief that we see the world objectively that everyone
resulting structure isas simple as possible
who sees differently is dumb
 i.e Olympic rings ( five circles rather than other more
complicated shapes that make up that image) Change Blindness
 Principle of similarity  not noticing that things have changed if you don’t
 Similar things appear to be grouped together (i.e shape, have any experience or paying attention
orientation or size) Change interpretation
 could be distressing and requires a lot of effort and
3.Taking regularities of the environment into Account
resources to realise and try to change that
 certain characteristics of the environment occur together
 2 types phiscial and semantic interpretation
 Physical regularities  thus hard to change
 Regularly occurring physical properties of the environment
Perceptual sets
 psychological factors that determine how you perceive
your environment (* Context *Expectation *emotion)
Form perception: figure ground relationship;
 the organisation of the visual field into object (the
figures) that stand out from their surrounding (the
ground)
rule of perception
 Rule of proximity: grouping things that are close
together
 Rule of continuity: tendency to pay attention to
patterns
 Rule of closure: fill in the gaps to build a larger picture
 Depth perception: estimation of an objects distance
by using binocular and monocular cues
 Motion perception and consistency of the object
Memory  Relating the information to something personal to you
so that it can be remember more easily
 the process involved in retaining, retrieving and using information
 Strategies of attention that help you focus on
about stimuli, images, events ideas and skills after the original
information that is particularly important for longer
information is no longer present
 basically representing of the original stimulus
 active at any time some past experience has an effect on the
way you think or behave in or in the future
Types of memory
 Sensory: the brief persistence of an image or sensation after
the stimuli has ended
 Short-term/ working memory: information that stays in the Sensory Memory
 memory for about 10-15 seconds Definition: the retention of the effects of the sensory stimulation for
 Long term memory: responsible for storing information for brief period of time. i.e the experience of seeing a field
long periods of time which can extend from minutes to lifetime  Persistence of vision: the continued perception of visual
 Encoding: the process of storing information in long term stimulus even after it no longer exists. i.e light trail of a
memory; process of retrieving information = Retrieval sparkler
 Episodic: memories of experiences from the past
 Procedural memory: the ability to do something that  Sperling conclusion on short-term memory
involves muscle coordination  Information that hits visual receptors decays quickly – within
 Semantic: memories of factual things less than a second
The Modal Model of Memory (Richard Atkinson and Richard  Brief sensory of visual stimuli = iconic or visual memory
Shiffrin)  Echoic memory: persistent sound memory, it lasts a few
 Three proposed types of memory (Structural features of the seconds
model) Short term memory: storage
1) Sensory Memory : initiail stage that hold information for  system involved in storing small amount of information
seconds for a brief period of time
2) Short term memory : it hold 5-10 bits of information for  Duration of Short-term Memory
between 15-20 Seconds  Last for 10-20 seconds
3) Long term memory : can hold large amount of  Items that can be held in short-term memory
information for years or even decades  Use of digital span measure amount of digits that be held in
 Proprosed Control purposes: dynamic process associated with short term memory
the structural features that can be controlled by the person.  Use of change detection to measure capacity of the STM
Basically allows movement between the features  Can hold 4-5 items in memory
 I.e Rehearsal: repeating of the stimulus to hold it in  Using chunking method: using small units to be combined
memory for longer into larger more meaningful units
 Amount of information that can be held in short-term memory.  possible explanation is primacy effect is due to
 the greater the amount of information in an image is stored, the rehearsal and transfer them to LTM
fewer items that can be held in visual short-term memory  recency effect: because word is still in STM so easier
to recall
Working Memory  done by presenting words to participants and getting
them to list them in any order they remember
 it is easy to modify and reconstruct events that occurred during
recollection to create and modify memories to become false memory How information is coded into Short-term and long-term memory
 Coding: refers to the form in which the stimuli was presented
o Visual coding
Multiple choice question  Representing information visually in the mind
 i.e visualizing a person or place from the past
What is one is component of phonological loop o Auditory Coding
a) phonological similarity effect  Phonological Similarity effect in STM
b) articulatory rehearsal process  LTM: occurs when you play a song in your mind
c) articulatory rehearsal process o Semantic Coding
d) chunking  Short term:
 The Wickens Experiment: Proactive Interference: the
decrease in memory that occurs when previously
learned information interferes with learning new
Long Term Memory information
 So basically when new information is similar to old
information- there is a reduction in remembering the
Comparing Short-term and Long-term Memory process old information
 Long-term: responsible for storing information for long periods  Release from proactive interference: an increase of
of time. Includes past events and past knowledge about live memory performance when information presented
 Includes information from 30seconds ago dissimilar to old information
 Provides an archive to be relied upon to interpret current  Long term memory semantic coding
experiences  The Sachs Experiment: measuring the recognition memory
 Distinction between STM and LTM measured through a to determine whether people remembers the exact
function called The Serial Position Curve wording of sentences or just general meaning
 Serial Position Curve
 suggests that memory is better for words at the Distinctions Between Episodic and Semantic Memory
beginning (Primacy effect) and end of the list (Recency Differences in Experience (Explicit Memories_
effect)  memories that we are aware of
 Episodic
  Involves Mental time travel How can we imagine the future:
 Going back in time to the event in your mind  Constructive episodic simulation hypothesis: episodic memories
 Maybe tied to the hippocampus are extracted and recombined to construct simulations of
 Semantic future events
 Access Knowledge about the worlds that does not have to
be tied to remembering a personal experience Implicit
 i.e facts, vocabulary, numbers and concept  memories that we are not aware
 accessing things that we are familiar with  Occur when learning from experience is not accompanied by
conscious remembering
Interactions between episodic and semantic memory  Include Procedural, priming and Conditioning memory
Knowledge affects experience
 past knowledge influences interpretation and remembering of an
experience
Autobiographic memory
 memory for specific experiences from out life (includes
semantic and episodic component)
 semantic parts of autobiographic memory = Personal semantic
Memories

Procedural Memory
What happens to episodic and semantic memories as time passes  Memory gained from learning skills
 Types of Remembering (Remember/know procedure)  Implicit in nature because you cannot recall learning the skill
 Familiarity: remembering that the person or thing is familiar per se
but cannot remember specific details about the person  Procedural memory and attention
 Associated with Semantic memory  Well learned procedural memories do require attention =
 Its not associated with circumstances under which Expert-induce amnesia
knowledge was acquired  A connection between procedural and semantic memory
 Recollection: remembering specific experiences related to the  Knowledge about different fields is linked to the ability to
person carry out various skills
 Associated with Episodic memory Priming
 Includes details about what was happening when  when one stimulus is presented and changes the way a person
knowledge was acquired and awareness of the event as it responds to another stimulus
was experience in the past  Include Repetition priming: when the test stimulus is the same
 Semanticitization of remote memories: loss of episodic details for as or resembles the priming stimulus
memories of long-ago events replaced with semantic (knowing about)\  Can occur even when participants are not able to remember
the original presentation of the priming stimuli
  Used in Propaganda effect: people rating something they have  is limited in resources (cannot focus on 2 or more things)
seen or heard before as more true. Weakness
Classical conditioning o limited resources
 occurs when a neutral stimulus that initially does not result in a o the more trying to make logic of something more likely
response and a conditioning stimulud that does result in a response to believe
 Usually linked to an emotional response types of operation
o 1) Complex computation: requires mental work (use of
short term working memory
o 2) self control : inhibiting impulses (i.e choosing the
right words that wont offend a person
Ways to boost learning
 Note: way of thinking is not easy to change
 Retrieval
o Testing self
o Interleaving: may cause spacing effect
o Telling somebody or discussing with someone else
 To improve need to know more
o Asking for help from experts
o Practising (so to gain more experience)
o Transference of skills (taking knowledge from one
domain and applying It into another)

Learning to learn
Video 1: Thinking fast and slow (inuationa and rationality) Why cramming doesn’t work
 System 1  Fluency problems: believing the ease of which information is
o Fast and automatic, effortless processed means that you have learnt it
o Do not need to think about it, it just occurs  Familiarity effect: the illusion of learning because something
o i.e recognising angry or sad faces or familiar faces looks familiar (i.e rereading same information so when see it
o occurs in illusion seems like you remember it)
weakness  Use of short term memory not reliable for long term retention
 prone to errors  Desirability difficulty: using other things that make it hard for
 usually 1st thought processing that not easy
 System 2 (computation)
 Slow and long Studying
 Takes deliberate effort elaborate: processing of elaborating on the meaning and link of new
 i.e searching for a specific face in a room full of strangers information to help retain it better
  May be disturbed by Proactive interference 1) Encoding specificity: matching the Context in which encoding
 Proactive interference: occurs when previously learned and retrieval occurred
information interferes with new information  People encode the information and also the context to
which the information was gained
 i.e returning to grandparents house to remember
Encoding information into long-term memory 2) State-dependent learning: matching the internal mood
– Maintenance rehearsal: repeating information over and over. present during encoding and retrieval and
Results in poor encoding and poor memory  learning that is associated with a certain internal state
– Elaborative rehearsal: connecting information to something (i.e mood or awareness)
else whilst repeating it (better memory)  so to better remember must be in the same internal
– Paired-associated learning: pairing words with mental picture state
to better remember it (type of deep processing) 3) transfer-appropriate processing: matching the cognitive task
– Self-reference effect: relating words to yourself so to better involved in encoding and retrieval
remember  retrieval is better if the same cognitive tasks are
– Generating effect: generating the information yourself is better involved during encoding and retrieval = Transfer-
for long-term retention rather than passively receive it appropriate processing
– Retrieval cue: a word or other stimulus that helps a person  i.e being able to remember the sound of words if that
remember information in that category what you were learning rather than remembering the
– Relating words to survival value: may enhance memory meaning.
because of evolution use of memory to forage and evade
predators
– Testing effect: the enhance performance in testing that occurs
through retrieval practise
Everyday memory and memory errors
 Autobiographical memory: memory for specific experiences from
Levels of processing theory
out life
 memory depends on the:
 can be semantic or episodic
 Depth of processing
 music-enhanced autobiographical memories (MEAMS)
 Shallow processing: requires no attention to meaning
 proust effect: smell and olfaction unlocking hidden
and only pay attention to the physical nature of the
memories
stimulus
 characteristics of autobiographical memories
 Deep processing: looking at meaning and its
 multidimensional
relationship to something else
 we remember some events better than others
 Multidimensional nature of autobiographical memory
Increasing encoding and retrieval
 Memories have spatial, auditory and visual and tactile
 matching the condition of retrieval and where encoding occurred
components to it
can increase retrieval (i.e going to the kitchen to remember something)
 Things like visual may serve as retrieval cues
 Ways to achieve matching:
  Life expectancy for autobiographical memory  Characteristics of memory based on how the memory was
 Reminiscence bump: the ability to remember information constructed based on knowledge, experiences and expectations
between the ages of 10-30 more  Source monitoring
Why does this occur?  Process of determining the origins of memories, beliefs and
 Self-image hypothesis: memory is enhanced for events that knowledge.
occur as a persons self-image or life identity is being formed  Source monitoring error: misidentifying the origins of a
 Cognitive hypothesis: periods of rapid change that are memory
followed by stability are better remembered  May be created by a sense of familiarity
 Cultural Life script hypothesis: distinguishing between a  Cryptomnesia: unconscious plagiarism of others work
personal life events and the cultural expected events of a  Illusory truth effect
certain age (Certain life script)  The increased probability of incorrectly evaluating a
 Comprises of the youth bias: tendency for most notable statement after repeated exposure
life events to be perceived to have happened during the  i.e fluency: the ease to which a statement can be
persons young life remembered and influence peoples judgement
 making inferences can influence how that memory is
Memory and emotion reported
 emotions are associated with better memory  pragmatic inference: the expectation of something not
 Importance of the amygdala explicitly stated when reading a sentence
 Emotions may trigger mechanisms in the amygdala that help  Misinformation effect
remember events associated with emotion  misleading information presented after a person witness an
 Flushbulb memories: highly memorable events that come up event can change how they describe that event later
when there is a link between emotion and memory  misleading information = misleading postevent information

 Flashbulb memories
 proposed by Brown and kulik
 A persons memory for events that are shocking or highly
emotionally charged and how they learnt about the event
and the event itself
 Repeated recall: the process of comparing memorised
immediately and memories after time has passed
 Narrative rehearsal hypothesis: we remember events
because we rehearse them rather than because they are
emotion
 Constructive nature of memory
  specific functions are served by specific areas of the brain
 Broca’s area: Left hemisphere and frontal lobe. Production
of language
 Wernicke’s area: left hemisphere, temporal lobe = language
comprehension
 Distributed representation
 Specific functions are also processed by many different
areas of the brain
 Complement localization of function
Ways that brain waves are measured
 Single Cell recording
 Most direct measure of neural activity
 Electrode is inserted to measure a single cell in the brain
whilst that neuron is stimulated
 Features detectors: neurons that responds to a certain
stimulation
Strengths
 Highly precise
 Systematically alter one aspect of the stimulus at a time to
Cognitive neuroscience determine which neurons in which brain area
relates to cognition and mental process Weakness
Neuroscience: the study of the nervous system and neurobiology and  Highly invasive
neuroanatomy and the brain  Use of animal subject
 May damage/destroy other neurons in the process
Part of the neuroscience  Functional magnetic resonance imaging
 Neuron: building block of nervous system  Uses to find out what structure in brain are nvolved in
 brain = 100 billion neurons processing a type of stimulus or enganing in a particular
 Has soma, axon and dendrite cognitive area
 Communication via electric charge and neurochemicals in  Measure of deoxygenation of blood in brain are to measure
the synaptic cleft magnetic resonance
 Will fire once the charge surpasses a threshold (-45) Strength
 ‘neurons that fire together, wire together’ = Hebbian  Non-invasive
Learning/ Correlation principle  Good spatial resolution
 Changes in the volume of activity in all area of brain
Relation between brain structures and function Weakness
 Location of function  Poor temporal resolution
  Expensive  Cartesian dualism
 Difficult to find out what cognitive processes are causing  Embodied Cognition
the change in volume activity  Denies the input-output model
 Electroencephalography  Related approaches include: situated cognition, inactivism,
 Recording electric activity at the top of the scalp extended mind
Strengths  Bodily experience is intrinsic to cognition
 Non-invasive
 Good temporal resolution Language and meaning
 Reveals earliest stages of processing – preconscious  meaning must be grounded in our physical environment of the
processes world
Weakness  Perceptual symbols theory
 Poor spatial resolution  Conceptual meaning is grounded in perception and action
 Cannot measure activity in subcortical structures system
 Transcranial magnetic stimulation  Activating word meaning involves activating perceptual and
 Send magnetic stimulation into the brain to interfere or motor information
excite part of the brain  Most research focus on concere concepts i.e cup
 Helps temporarily disrupts areas of brain to reveal the role
of each brain region in a particular process
 Measure connection between the brain and muscle using Embodied Cognition (cognitive task)
paired-pulse tms  performance on cognitive task can be explained without looking at
 Can induce neuroplasticity using repetitive TMS (sTMS) complex internal mental representation
Strengths  Brain is not the sole cognitive resources to solve problems
 Non-invasive  Behaviours emerges from the real time interplay of task-specific
 No limit to the frequency with which you can deliver tms resources distributed across the brain, body and environment,
OR REPEAT TO A PATIENT coupled together via out perceptual system
 Good temporal resolution Program of research:
Weakness Step 1: task analysis (embodied cognition soles specific tasks)
 No spatial resolution Step 2: identify resources available to solve problem
 Cannot measure subcortical structures Step 3: identify how resources should be assembled to solve
problem
Embodied Cognition Step 4. test whether a subject does sole the problem using
Definition: resources in the predicted way.
 The linkage of the entire body and its affect on cognition
 Traditional cognitivism Embodied Cognition
 Computational theory of mind Deep – learning
 Symbol manipulation
  Artificial neural network : inspired by biological neural  Divided attention: paying attention to more than one
networks stimulus or location at a time
 Learning throughout repeat random presentation fo facts to  Attentional capture: the rapid shift of attention that is
allow for detection of pattern and common feature caused by another more intense stimulus (i.e loud nose,
 Can be supervised; unsupervised and reinforcement light or sudden movement)
 Overt attention: the moving of attention from one place to
another place
 Covert attention: shifting of attention without moving eyes
(more about attention in the mind)

Attention as information processing:

 BROADBENT’S FILTER MODEL OF ATTENTION
 Early selection model: eliminates unnecessary information
right at the start of the processing of information
 Dichotic listening: presentation of different audio stimulus
to each ear
 Shadowing: participants told to only focused on one ear
and ignore the other ear’s auditory stimulus
 Found that messages in the other ear was lost, but other
Attention characteristics such as type of voice (female or male) was
attended to.
Definition: the ability to focus on specific stimulus or location
 showed the Cocktail party effect: the ability to focus on one
o Using precueing: found that attention is better improved if it is
stimulus whilst filtering out the other.
directed somewhere
o Distraction are what occurs to take our attention away from
 BROADBENTS MODEL (EARLY Selection model)
something
 Inattentional blindness: people are unaware of clearly
visible stimuli it they aren’t paying attention to it
 Inattentional deafness
o Can improve response to objects and enhanced effect can
spread to other places
 Better found in the same object ( Same-object  Stage 1: sensory memory hold information for a fraction of a
advantage) second and then transfers it to the filter
 Type of attention  Stage 2: The filter identifies the main message based on:
 Selective attention: attending to one stimulus whilst  Physical characteristics i.e voice, pitch, speed of talking and
ignoring other stimulus accent
 This is send to the detector
  Stage 3: The detector processes the important information o Processing capacity: refers to the amount of information
from the filter to determine the high level characteristics of the people can handle and set limit on their ability to process
information i.e the meaning incoming information
 Stage 4: The processed information from the detectors is send o Perceptual load: related to the difficulty of a task
to the short-term memory which will transfer to long-term  Low-load tasks that take little attention use a small amount
memory of processing capacity (Load theory of attention)
 Because there is still some capacity for attention, easier to
 TREISMAN ATTENUATION MODEL OF ATTENTION become distracted
 Believes that analysis of message proceeds only as far as is  Stroop effect: people having a hard time naming the colour
necessary to identify the attended message of a word of a colour
 Replacement of the Filter with an attenuator
 Stage 0: Receival of information and send to the attenuator Using vision
 Stage 1 :The attenuator analysis both attended and o Central vision: the area that you are looking at
unattended in terms of:  Object fall on the fovea has more detail vision
 physical characteristic  Fixation: brief pausing of the eyes to focus on a specific
 language object/ stimuli
 meaning  Saccadic eye movement: rapid, jerky movement from one
 to weaken the unattended information (but still present) fixation to another
and strengthened attended information  Overt attention: the moving of attention from one place to
 Stage 2: Dictionary unit another place
 Analysis of message by using the unit that contains words o Peripheral: everything to the side
that are stored in memory and have a threshold for being
activated Scanning based on stimulus salience (Bottom- up processing)
 Important and common words have a lower threshold o Stimulus salience: the physical properties of a stimulus i.e
colour, shape, movement or contrast
 LATE SELECTION MODELS OF ATTENTION  Basically what stands out
 incoming messages are processed to the level of meaning  Bottom-up processing: because focusing on physical thing
before ethe message to be further processed is selected. without considering the meaning
 When some information is presented after initial  i.e looking for people with blond hair
information may impact how the initial information is  creation of Saliency map: determining physical
processed further (i.e the meaning) characteristics of each location in the scene

Scanning based on cognitive factors

Processing Capacity and perceptual load  when scanning is influenced by knowledge (Schemas) and
preference of the person (top-down)
  i.e looking at things that are out of place from the context B. Expert categorisation: judgment made by experts on basis of
of which they exist in their training i.e airport security knowing what is dangerous
and what is not
Automatic Processing C. Common identification: common types of identification i.e who
a type of processing that occurs after practice and it occurs is this person – brad pitt
 without intention D. Expert identification: identification made by experts i.e
 at a cost of only some of the persons cognitive resources fingerprints analysis
 i.e locking the door of your house  Organisation of concepts
The gamblers fallacy:  Process of putting things into categories
  Allows for generalisation
2 Theories of categorisation
1. Family resemblance- prototypes
 Things within a family often resemble each other
 High family resemblance= if objects within a category have
many overlapping characterisation
 Prototype approach
 Determining if something fits a particular category by
comparing the object to a prototype of the category
 Prototype: typical or average member of the category --
Knowledge and categorisation  Object close to the prototype = more likely to be put in the
same categories
Conceptual categorisation  Prototypical objects are named faster = Naming effect
Def: Allows recognition of objects and infers about the properties and  Greater affected by priming
behaviours of the object  Typicality: the variations within a category prototype i.e types
 Behaviour = made form concepts: Allows recognition of the use of birds
of the property; what can be assumed about the object  Higher typicality = faster reaction time = Typicality effect
 Concepts: mental representations of thinking  Family = category which is either (a) closer to the genetic
makeup = put into that category = TYPE OF Similarity matching
Definitional approach to categorization: categories something in term  Use of Sentence verification technique to determine how
of if it fits in the definition of something. i.e a house is a cube etc rapidly people could ansewer questions about an objects
categroy
Categories: 2. Exampler theory (think a bit more specific i.e my cat rather than just
 Types of categorisation a cat)
A. Common categorisation: making distinct between category i.e  Basing similarity judgment on comparison to all previous
dog v cat examples in that category
 i.e the examples themselves describe the category
  Exemplar: actual members of a category that a person has  Subordinate: more specific i.e type of chair
encountered in the past  sub-subordinate  more specific i.e my office chair
 comparison to sum all instances  information that goes above basic = large loss of
 computing and processing demanding but occurs effectively in information
humans  going below = little gain of information
 explains the typicality effect: objects more like the exampler are Categorisation is affected by level of knowledge
classified faster  Experts tend to categorise focusing on more specific
Advantages: information
 it takes into account atypical cases not necessarily just the  Ability to categorise also is effected by what we have learnt
average case and been exposed to before hand.
 it doesn’t discard information that might be useful later Categorisation within the Mind
 however only requires what we remember  Semantic network approach: approach to understanding how
 though that people first learn using family resemblance and then concepts are organized in the mind that proposes that concepts
exampler associations become stronger over time are arranged in networks
 The use of nodes and lines to see how things are connected
 It is hierachal in nature, the higher it gets the more general the
information becomes
 Use of Cognitive economy: storing shared properties of
something at the higher-level node (i.e birds can fly rather than
every bird has to fly)
 Time it takes for someone to retrieve information may be
measured at how much distance through the network they
Dual processing have travelled
 System 1: unconscious, non-analytical. – similar to exampler  Spreading activation: activity that spreads out along any link
theory that is connected to an activated node - found through the
 system 2: conscious, analytical, looking at the underlying lEXICAL DECISION TASK
conceptual characteristics Disadvantage: cannot explain the typical effect
The connectionist Approach
Level of categorisation Why it has gained favour
1. Hierarchical (1) It is inspired by how infromation is represented in the brain and
 Superordinate (global representation i.e furniture (2) It can explain a number of findings
 level where 3 bits of info is lost  Connectionism: an approach to creating computer models for
 Basic: representing cognitive processes
 its above which much infromationnis lost and which little  Parallel distributed processing proporse that concepts are
info is gained represented by activity that Is distributed across network
 type of furnitute (i.e chair)  Input units: units activated by stimuli from the environment
  Hidden unity: info send by input unitys
 Output units: receives info from hidden units The language instinct and universality of language
 Connection weight: determine how signials send from units  Language is universal: cause there is a need to communicate
increase or decrease the activity of the next unit, kinda similar with others
to synapases . High connection weight = excite the next unit  Language development is similar across cultures
 Babies start to babble at 7 months
 there is an innate extinct to learn language
 all healthy people have the capacity to develop
language
 deaf children create their own language
 complex but people do not have awareness to it
 no known culture that does not have a language
 key people
 B.F skinner: language is learned through reinforcement
 Book = Verbal Behaviour
 Children are rewarded for using correct language and not
rewarded for using incorrect language
 Noam Chomsky: human language is encoded within genes; all
languages have common structure (universality)
Language  Book: Syntactic structure
 Human language is coded within genes
Language: A system of communication using sounds or symbols that
 People are genetically programed to to acquire and use
enables us to express out feelings, thoughts, ideas and experience.
language
Availability heuristic: previous stimuli that similar to current
 Disagreed with behaviourist idea that the mind is not a valid
stimuli is more likely to colour interpretation of current stimuli
topic of study for psychology
 Catapulted the study of language: Psycholinguistics
Why we can create range of sentences
focusing on:
Hierarchical nature of language consists of small components that
 Comprehension
can be combined to form larger units
 Representation
 Rule-based nature of language: there are certain rules permissible
 Speech production
to properly structure sentences and convey the appropriate meaning
 acquisition
Biological aspect of language
Mental Computation
 Broca’s area: language production
 Set of rules to retireve from memory store to make
- In frontal lobe
sentences
 Wernicke’s area: language comprehension
- In temporal lobe
  People have a mental algorithm to make sentences that People use the context of which the word appear to
have never been made before determine the meaning as there are many different
pronunciation speeds and clarity
PsychoLinguistic  Spoken normal conversation often does not have silence
Def: the scientific study of language i.e phonetics, syntax and grammar  People are hearing the words together rather than
 Component of words separated by silence
 Lexicon: all the words we know (mental dictionary)  Speech segmentation: the perception of individual words
 Phonemoes: perceptually distinct units of sound that can even though there are often no pauses between words
distinguish words  People often know when words are separate or come
 Spoon = 4; S-P-OO-N together i.e ‘pretty baby’ – pre-ty and ba-by
 Morphemes: The smallest units of meaning, cant be further  Knowledge of the meaning of words also help speech
divided segmentation i.e knowing the difference between
 Combinatorial: ability to combine multiple component to scream and cream or Girl and earl even though they are
produce sentences that have never been made before. Fine similar pronunciations
morphemes, infinite sentences
 Semantics: meaning of language i.e the meaning of words
(lexical semantics)
 Grammar: children learn grammatic statistical regularities
 Pragmatics: how people understand language in context Basically: Ability to understand spoken words depends on
using their knowledge about the world and how other 1. How frequently we have encounter a word in the past
people communicatie 2. The context in which the words appear
 language is not an invention – biological adaption to communicate 3. Our knowledge of statistical regularities of our language and
with others; not just a general capacity to manipulate symbols 4. Our knowledge of word meanings

Factors that challenge the perception and understanding of words Understanding Ambiguous words
 Frequency Lexical ambiguity: words having more than one meaning
 Word frequency: the frequency in which wourds appears in  To determine meaning people use the context in which the
the language word appears
 Word frequency effect: people respond to more high-  People often access the multiple meanings of things before
frequency words than low-frequency words. going to the context -found through Lexical priming
 Lexical decision task: people try to decide which are words  Meaning dominance: relative frequency of an ambiguous words
and non-words. High frequency words found faster than  Biased Dominance: when one meaning of the word is more
low-frequency words frequently accessed than another
 Research found that people pause more on high-frequency  Balanced dominance: when the meaning are equally accessed
words than low-frequency words when reading. and frequented
 Pronunciation of words
 Understanding Sentences Inference
Syntax: the structure of sentences  people use inference to understand texts and are important for
Parsing: the process of grouping words in sentences into phrases. How creating coherence
a sentence is parsed determines its meaning.  A narrative has to have coherence
 Requires accessing the meaning of each word as it occurs  Type of Inferences:
 Garden path sentences: they begin by appearing to mean one  Anaphoric inference: an inference that connects an object or
thing but end up meaning another thing person in one sentence to an object or person in another
 Temporary ambiguity: is illustrated by garden path sentences: sentence
when the meaning of the sentence is ambiguous cause of many  Instrument inference: an inference about tools or methods
different interpretation that occure while reading text or listening to speech
 Garden Path Model of parsing: as people read a sentence, their  Causal inference: inference about what caused what
grouping of words into phrases is governed by a number of Situation Models:
processing mechanism called heuristics:  A Mental representation of what the text is about – basically what
 Heuristics: a rule of thumb short cut that provides the best you see in your head when you are reading
guess solution
 They are fast
 Often provide wrong decision
 When we are wrong the GPMP proposes that we reconsider Given new Contract:
the initial parse and make the appropriate correction  in a conversation the speaker should include 2 kinds of information
 Principal of late closure: when a person encounters a new  Given infromation: information that the listener already knows
word, person parsings mechanisms assumes that the word is and
part of the current phrase so that each new word is added to  New information
the current phrase for as long as possible  Common ground: knowledge, beliefs and assumptions shared
 Realisation is something is wrong is when we begin the new between 2 speakers
phrase  Referential communication task: a task in which 2 people
 The constraint bases approach to parsing are exchanging information in a conversation, when this
 proposes that semantics, syntax and other factors operate information involves reference – identifying something by
simultaneously to determine parsing naming or describing it
 Context also plays a role  Entrainment: process of creating common ground
 Influenced by memory load and prior experience with  Syntactic coordingation: conversation partners
language coordination their grammatical constructions
 Use of subject-relative construction is easier to understand
than object-relative construction—requires more the
readers memory
 • as a result many factors in the environment and
ambiguities make it hard to predict behaviours of
people
 in science: try to isolate variable they believe will affect the
complexities and to help make better predictions in the future

The drift toward mediocrity (regression to the mean)

 there are things that might happen (good and bad) that might affect
how you feel to the thing
 Factors that impact behaviour (i.e how you impress job
interviewer)
 1) Multiple factors (Noise): easy to ignore and there is a lot of
them
 2) Independent: they are not linked together
 Regression to the mean: over the long run, things begin to
even out and become more mediocre. i.e smooth out

The Ebb and Flow of random events

Problem Solving and finding things out  Post hoc ergo propter hoc (informal fallacy): after this,
therefore because of this. Attributing the end result to an
intervention even though it might have not caused it. – may be
Conversation with Mythbusters related to curse etc
 People think that science is for smart people, I.e its no  Its hard to change the opinion after the connection has
accessible for other been made
 Science is thinking critically and problem solving
Resistance to change of opinion
Imperfect predictors  To change mind = evidence + Good story
 Bistable: seeing something as one way or another but cannot  Why are people resistant to changes of opinion
see it at the same time i.e the duckrabbit or old woman young  1) Source Amnesia: people have difficulty remembering
women. why they have a specific opinion, thus
• Require that the problem be ambiguous  2) Hard to reconcile what was first believed and new
 Everyday: people perceive photographs and stimuli differently evidence: it takes work and effort to reconcile new
and make judgements depending on their own experiences and information and new evidence.
exposure 6 Leads to reconcile opinion in face of new information
1. What do you believe anyway
  Find out what is important to you  Fixation: peoples tendency to focus on a specific characteristic
2.How well based is the opinion you have of the problem that keeps them from arriving from a solution
 i.e personal experience of the person or data  Functional fixedness: peoples fixation on familiar functions
 our personal experience may be tainted or uses of objects, stops them from problem solving
3. How good is the evidence  This is because of mental set: people already have a
 is based on person experience that is tainted preconceived perception of what certain objects are
 is there a legitimate reason to disregard the new information supposed to be used, its hard to solve a problem in a
that you have been given novel way then.
4. Does the current evidence actually contradict what you believe  i.e Candle problem: people not realising they could use a
 is there a way to restate the evidence in a way that allows you matchbox as a supporting structure rather than a typical
to use the new information container.
5. how much more information do you need to change you mind  Two string problem: people having to tie 2 strings together
 more data, more people using pliers and a chairs.
 if you cant find any evidence, maybe be catious to basis of the
belief Newell and Simon’s Approach
6. is it worth finding out about  Saw problems in term of Initial state: conditions at the
 is there more effort to persist in the belief, would it be more beginning of the problem and Goal state
ineffective in the life  Operators: Actions that take the problem from one state to
another
 Intermediate state: the set of sequences that a person has to
Gestalt Approach to problem solving: (Wolfgang Kohler) go through to solve a problem
1) How people represent a problem in the their mind  Problem space: all the states together (i.e goal state,
 how people represent a problem influences how they solve a intermediary and initial state)
problem  means-to end: a way to problem solve by reducing amount of steps
 the solution is depended on how the problem is represented taken form initial state to goal state by producing some subgoals that
2) How solving a problem involves a reorganisation or restructuring of are closer to the goal.
this representantion
 process of Restructuring: changing representantion leads to Analogical problem solving
better problem solving  using past solutions as guide as how to solve a similar and current
 Insight: any sudden comprehension, realization or problem problem.
solution that involves a reorganisation of a persons mental  in real world = In-vivo problem solving research
representation of a stimulus  requires
 Insight problem solving: occurs rapidly, person doesn’t really  Analogical transfer: the actual process of transferring problem
realise they are getting closer to the solution solving
obstacle to problem solving:  Source problem: the guiding problem
 Target problem: the current problem
 Process of analogical problem solving:  Double header: a general statement that cover wide range of
1. Noticing: that there is analogous problem, most people do things i.e both introvert and extrovert examples at the same
need prompting time
2. Mapping: notice the correspondence between the source  Throwing a number of predictions: if one goes well, people
problem and the target problem then remember that prediction
3. Applying: use the map to generate a parallel solution to the  Self-fulfilling prophecy:
target problem
 Analogical encoding: the process where 2 problems are compares Why do people believe in superstitious
and similarities are determined. 2 strategies to help this  It doesn’t take long to do the superstitious belief
 Trade off strategy: I will give you X if you give me Y  People want to believe it
 Contigency strategy: negotiations strategy where they get what  People were taught to learn
they want if something else happens  One trial learner: if it goes well once, we believe the causal link
that doesn’t necessarily exist
Expert v Novices  Uncertainity that drives
1) Experts know more about their field, leading to faster problem  Ambiguous information: the ambiguity of the stimuli make
solving how its interpreted depended on the context of the person.
2) experts organise their knowledge different from novices  Multifaceted expectation: there are more than one way to
3) Experts spend more time analysing the problem than trying to solve intertpret the information, that’s is where you see what you
 but often are not as creative as novice expect to see.
Health and Extraordinary Claims  Bafflegub (use of jargon): people use of jargon to try to
convince about something
 One sided event: i.e the phone always ring when im in the
Conversation with Susan Blackmore shower: when one salient even is paid more attention than
 1) Lab scientific method – by chance, its not telepathy in the ordinary events that have occurred.
real world  in a large population coincidences occurs all the time. However,
 She experience an out of body experience, was an avid believer people relate any coincide from their ow perspective i.e what
of paranormal psychology. She did experiment after are the chances that someone as has same birthday as each
experiment, but found that for things like taro and telepathy other, instead of how likely it is that someone has the same
there was no scientific backing up birthday as me
 More people who are upset or children who have had hard
loves = more vulnerable = more likely to believe in psychics
Psychological theories behind some magic
 Barnum statement: general statements that are true for
everyone but we believe they are specific for us
 

Emergency Management Naturalising Sensemaking Decision

Challenges and Complexity in Emergency
Support for Complexity (Cynefine Framework)
Management
 Changing Climate
Cynefine: Welsh for ‘ a place of your multiple Belongings’
 Recovery overlapping events
 Maladaptive transformation in effected
Emergency Management communities
 Emergency: occurrence of an imminent hazard of such a  Build back better – sustainably
nature that it requires significant and coordinated response  Reduction In Volunteerism – Majority of
 Hazard Management Agencies: responsible for the workforce
prevention, preparation, response and recovery of their  Recovery challenges (Resilience NSW)
prescribed hazards  TC Seroja 2021 >144Mil so far
 Management across the PPRR spectrum =  A – 31 Active disasters across 74 Local
Comprehensive model governments
 WA: comprised of Hazard Management Agencies,  Fed Govt is advancing 1.8 Billion to jurisdiction
Combat Agencies and Support Agencies. for advanced payment for recovery
Cynefine Frameworks  Pattern-based leadership no constraints
Complex (Disordered)  APPROACH
 CHARACTERISTICS:  Act, sense, respond
 Flux and unpredictability  Novel practice
 No right answers  Response phase: escalating dynamic and unusual
 Many unknown unknowns events
 Many competing ideas Simple (Obvious)
 There is a need for creative approaches  CHARACTERISTIC
 Pattern-based leadership  Repeating patterns and consisted events
 Enabling constrains  Clear cause and effect relationships evident to
 APPROACHES everyone
 Probe  Therer is a right answer
 Sense  There are known uknowns
 Respond  Fact-based management and fixed constraints
 Emergent practice: APPROACH
 Liaison during emergencies recovery actions  Sense
Complicated  Categorise
 CHARACTERISTICS:  Respond
 Requires expert diagnosis  Best practice
 Cause-and-effect relationships not apparent  PREPARATION AND RESPONSE PHASE; STANDARD
 More than one answer OPERATING PROCEDURE
 Known unknowns  Approach for Disorder Situations
 Fact-based leadership  Acknowledge the disorder – don’t panic and
 Might have governing constraints (i.e money) embrace the confused state
 APPROACH  Deliberately shift modes to aporia – solve the
 Sense puzzle
 Analyse  Gather more information
 respond  Define knowns and unknowns
 Type of Practise: GOOD practice  Divide into parts and progressive move each part
 Response phase – HAZMAT/CBRN incident into a category
Chaotic (Disordered)  Iterate and shift the problems toward simple
 CHARACTERISTICS  Approach for Simple/Obvious and complicated
 High turbulence  Cause and effect relationship
 No clear cause-and-effect relationship  Clear cause and effect relationship
 Unknowable  But non practitioners will not likely see it
 Many decisions to make and no time to think  Expert diagnosis may be required
 High tension  Good practice: investigation of several options
 Next least bad option  Often will contain multiple right answers
  Strong inductive arguments results in conclusion that are more
 Domain of Experts likely to be true, and weak arguments conclusion are not as
 Ordered, predictable, foreacastable likely to be true
 Expert Diagnosis required in most cases  Nature of Inductive reasoning
 Determined experts or process to resolve  Fast and automatic = type 1
 Create panels of expert but be aware of them.  Top-down processing
 Risk of entrained thinking:  Use of Heuristic: rules of thumbs that are likely to provide the
 Analysis paralysis correct answer.
 Unable to agree or ego  Factors that determine the strength inductive argument
Key:  Representativeness of observation: How well the observation
Sense: assess the facts of the situation about a particular category represent all the members of that
Categorise: organise the facts category
Respond: formulate a response based on established practise  Number of Observations: The more observation the stronger
Analyse: investigate options available the argument becomes
Prob: explore options  Quality of evidence: stronger evidence = stronger conclusions
 Damped the bad and amplify the good  Type of heuristics
Act: Take actions  Availability heuristic
 Events that come to the mind are judged to be more
probable than event that are less likely to be recalled
 Sometimes the most easily recalled time is not the most
common time
 Illusory correlation: when relationship between two events
appears to exist but in reality there is no or a weak
relationship
 i.e wearing a lucky shirt or lucky earings
Judgement, Decisions and reasoning  may results in Stereotypes: an oversimplified
generalization about a group or class of people that
Inductive Reasoning: often focuses on a negative
 Using in everyday life: every time I go to my nail lady, I always  Representativeness heuristic (Resemblance heauristic)
have good service, thus next time I go its likely that I will get  The likelihood that an instance is a member of a larger
good service. category depends on how well that instance resembles
 Process of drawing general conclusion based on specific properties we typically associate with that category
observation and evidence  PROBLEMS WITH REPRESENTANTIVE HEURISTIC
 One of the characteristic is that the conclusion is probably but  Conjunction rule:
not definitely true  the probability of the conjunction of 2 events cannot be
higher than the probability of the single constituents.
  Bank teller problem (Linda the feminist bank teller)  Benefit = there is a specific procedure that make it possible
 Base rate: to determine which choice is highest in monetary value. But
 The relative proportions of different classes in a people don’t always reflect this
population. How emotions affect decision
 If base rate is available people use it, however, if  Expected emotions: emotions that people predict that they will
there is description with it, people more likely to feel for a particular outcome
ignore the base rate  Risk aversion: the tendency to avoid taking risks
 Error of reasoning if failed to be acknowledged  May be caused by the prediction that a particular loss will
 The Law of Large Numbers have greater impact than a gain of the same size
 The larger the number of individuals that are randomly  People don’t use the various coping mechanism they have
drawn from a population, the more representative the to deal with adversity thus risk aversion
resulting group will be of the entire population  Inability to properly predict emotion can lead to inefficient
 Small numbers of individuals will be less representative decision making
of the population  Incidental emotions affect decision
 Representation does occur for small population  Incidental emotions: emotions that are not caused by
How attitudes can affect judgement having to make a decision
o Myside Bias  May be related to persons general disposition or
 People evaluate evidence in away that is biased towards something that has happened to them earlier in the day
their own opinions and attitudes or the general environment
 Past prior beliefs may cause people to attend information in  Incidental emotions have some affect on decision
a way that corresponded with their beliefs and disregard making
information that doesn’t Context can affect decision
 Type of Confirmation bias  If there is alternative option added changes the decision
 People look for information that conforms to their  Eating or lunch time also affect
hypothesis and ignore information that refutes it Decision can depend on the how the choices are presented
 More broad than myside bias  Opt-in procedure  low
 BACKFIRE EFFECT: when people being presented with opposing  Opt out  high
information may lead them to become more radical in their own belief.  Statute quo bias: the tendendency to do nothing when faced
with making a decision, people will often stick with the default
The utility approach to decisions  Framing effect: decision are influenced by how the choices are
 Expected utility theory: assumption that people are basically stated or framed
rational From the video
 If people had all the information, they will make a decision Think about thinking:
that results in the maximum expected utility  People don’t have time to weight up decisions
 Utility: outcomes that achieve a persons goals  After making decision = hard to evaluate the effect of that
decision
  Often there is no social or good feedback
 The effect of most decisions is not immediately apparent
because the word is ambiguous and complex
 People often rely on heuristics
 Mental shortcuts or rule of thumb – type of system 1
thinking
System 1 and 2 thinking
 System 1: decision are quick, easy and automatic
 i.e the use of heuristics
 initiative
 System 2: slow, deliberative and requires effort
 Pupil will dilate to show mental effort
 Inhibition of impulse
 Mental computation
 Use of ANCHORING: the phenomena of suggesting a
number and trying to make sense of it, this leads it to being
seen as believable or viable (Suggestive effect)