Verified Document

Cognitive Psychology Term Paper

¶ … Perception Cognitive Psychology

Perception and attention questions

Q1.Explain the relationship between perception and attention. Provide specific examples in your explanation.

Attention is defined as the "selection of information for specialized processing usually in the context of some goal or task" (Attention lecture, n.d., PSY 394). It is impossible to focus on everything within our sensory field; we must be selective, either consciously or unconsciously. Perception can be defined as "the active process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting the information brought to the brain by the senses" (Psychology class notes: Sensation and perception, 2012, Class notes). Attention applies the principle of selectivity to what we perceive.

It has been noted in several experimental psychology studies on working memory that "individuals with higher scores in such tasks also are better at controlling their attention, in ways such as counteracting the impulse to look toward a suddenly-appearing object or ignoring one's own name spoken in a channel irrelevant to the assigned task" (Cowan & Morey 2006). This does not necessarily mean that they have more acute perceptions than the average individual but rather the way in which they apply their attentive resources, is more skilled and better able to filter out irrelevant information.

Due to neurological problems (brain trauma) and physical problems (disabilities), perceptual abilities may be limited. But even people with the same perceptual data who are able to perceive it with equal acuity may remember...

"Low-capacity individuals might forego this extra processing because, for them, it is uncomfortably effortful or self-defeating (as the extra effort might drain too many resources from the consolidation process)" (Cowan & Morey 2006).
Q2. What role does attention play in this situation? How does attention help us filter out irrelevant information?

"In a dynamic environment stimulus task relevancy could be altered through time and it is not always possible to dissociate relevant and irrelevant objects from the very first moment they come to our sight. In such conditions, subjects need to retain maximum possible information in their WM [working memory] until it is clear which items should be eliminated from WM to free attention and memory resources" (Nasr, Moeeny, & Etek 2008). In the case of Where's Waldo, the creators of the book deliberately create a visual environment with many distractions to make filtering out such data more difficult and individuals must retain data about the picture in their working memory to find the elusive Waldo.

A recent study found that "people who are good at remembering things, even with distractions, have more activity in the basal ganglia on brain scans… a specific part of the basal ganglia -- the globus pallidus -- correlated with less unnecessary storage in another part of the brain, the posterior parietal cortex, which is sensitive to the amount of information held in memory" (Brain filter found for irrelevant data, 2007, Times of India)

In another scientific…

Sources used in this document:
References

Attention lecture. (n.d.) PSY 394. Retrieved:

http://homepage.psy.utexas.edu/homepage/class/psy394U/hayhoe/cognitive%20science%202011/readings/geisler/AttentionLecture.pdf

Brain filter found for irrelevant data. (2007). Times of India. Retrieved:

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2007-12-12/science/27968222_1_functional-magnetic-resonance-imaging-working-memory-filter
http://www.a2zpsychology.com/psychology_guide/perception.php
http://www.alleydog.com/101notes/s&p.html#ixzz2Cr8XHBu8
http://www.sciencedaily.com / releases/2009/03/090303161313.htm
Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Cognitive Psychology Absolutely Nothing Interests Humans More
Words: 964 Length: 3 Document Type: Essay

Cognitive Psychology Absolutely nothing interests humans more than humans. For this reason, numerous fields of study have arisen regarding humans. These fields of study include, but are not limited to, anatomy, anthropology, biology, sociology, and psychology. The focus here is the study of psychology, specifically the study of cognitive psychology. The American Psychological Association states that, "Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. The discipline embraces all aspects of

Cognitive Psychology Borrows Heavily From the Works
Words: 928 Length: 3 Document Type: Essay

Cognitive Psychology borrows heavily from the works of Alfred Adler, Albert Ellis, and Aaron Beck. In fact, it is founded on Alfred Adler's Individual Psychology. Freud had insisted that sexual impulses were the chief factor in formation of normal and neurotic personality something that made him part ways with Adler who went ahead and formed a new approach that became the basis for all cognitive psychologies. Behaviorism formed the basis of

Cognitive Psychology This Is the Branch of
Words: 729 Length: 3 Document Type: Essay

Cognitive Psychology This is the branch of psychology that is predominantly occupied by the mental process. These would include how people think, perceive ideas and things, recall and also learn. It is related to other disciplines like philosophy, neuroscience and linguistics. According to Kendra Cherry (2011), cognitive psychology has to do with acquisition, encoding and storage of information in the human brain. Milestones in development of cognitive psychology The history of cognitive psychology development

Cognitive Psychology Is Stated to
Words: 888 Length: 3 Document Type: Research Paper

If you fail to reproduce my findings, it is not due to some fault in your apparatus or in the control of your stimulus, but it is due to the fact that your introspection is untrained." (1878-1958) IV. Functionalism Structuralism resulted in a reaction that became known as Functionalism which was influenced greatly by the work of William James and the theory of Charles Darwin. Functionalism had as its emphasis intelligence

Cognitive Psychology: Emotions and Cognition
Words: 755 Length: 2 Document Type: Essay

There are also instances where the cognition comes in first before emotional response though the two often happen in tandem. For instance, one gets into a coffee shop and sees another person munching a chocolate cake. H recognizes that as a health risk and processes the various risks an associated with eating it, but still goes ahead to ask for a small piece just to taste. The cognition came in

Cognitive Psychology Is the Study of How
Words: 582 Length: 2 Document Type: Essay

Cognitive psychology is the study of how people perceive, learn, remember, and think about information. Cognitive psychology was shaped by several milestones but four of its most significant transitions that I will focus on are: Functionalism, Behaviorism, Psychobiology, and Computer Engineering (including Artificial Intelligence (AI)). Functionalism: Functionalism was a popular approach to the first school of psychology, Structuralism, that sought to understand that structure of the mind and its perceptions by breaking

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now