Introduction to Cognitive
Psychology and Information
Processing
PERTEMUAN 1
1.1 Cognitive processes
A definition of cognitive psychology
• the psychology of understanding and
knowing
• study of mental processes
The main sequential stages of
cognitive processing
The three main methods of
studying cognitive psychology
1.2 Experimental psychology
The first cognitive psychologists
• Wilhelm Wundt (1879), the first psychology laboratory
was set up by at Leipzig. Wundt’s research: perception,
visual illusions.
• Hermann Ebbinghaus (1885), published the first
experimental research on memory
• William James (1890), published Principles of
Psychology which proposed a number of theories; a
theory distinguishing between short-term working
memory and long-term storage memory.
Gestalt and schema theories
• Gestalt group (Gestalt is German for ‘shape’ or
‘form’), suggested that the perception of a whole
object is more than just the sum of its
component parts (Wertheimer, 1912, Kohler,
1925).
• Bartlett (1932), The schema theory proposes
that all new perceptual input is analysed by
comparing it with items which are already in our
memory store, such as shapes and sounds
which are familiar from past experience.
A shape recognised by most
observers
The generation of schemas for
comparison with new input
1.3 Computer models of
information processing
• The computer analogy
• Computer modelling of brain function
– Selfridge and Neisser (1960)
• feature detectors
• The limited-capacity processor model
The limited-capacity processor
model
• Broadbent (1958) carried out experiments
on divided attention, which showed that
people have difficulty in attending to two
separate inputs at the same time.
Sensory filter theory (Broadbent)
Stimulus
Sensory Register
Sensory FILTER
STM limited capacity
Response
LTM
Basic Information Processing
Stimulus
Sensory Register
STM (working Memory)
LTM
Response
1.4 Cognitive Neuropsychology
• The structure and function of the brain
• Neuropsychology is concerned with the
relationship between brain function and
cognition.
1.5 Minds, brains and computers
• The brain as an information processing
device
• Top-down and bottom-up processing
Top-down and bottom-up
processing
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