Cognitive Psychology Study Guide

History and Methods of Cognitive Psychology

Information processing approach, reaction time methods, and cognitive neuroscience techniques including fMRI, EEG, lesion studies, and TMS.

Perception and Object Recognition

Bottom-up versus top-down processing, Gestalt principles, template matching, feature analysis, recognition-by-components, and face perception.

Attention: Selection and Capacity

Filter models, attenuation theory, late-selection, divided attention, automatic versus controlled processing, and visual search paradigms.

Working Memory

Baddeley's multicomponent model, capacity limits, chunking, individual differences, and relationship to fluid intelligence.

Long-Term Memory: Encoding and Retrieval

Levels of processing, encoding specificity, transfer-appropriate processing, forgetting mechanisms, interference, and memory consolidation.

Memory Systems and False Memories

Episodic versus semantic, implicit versus explicit memory, autobiographical memory, DRM paradigm, misinformation effect, and source monitoring.

Knowledge Representation and Concepts

Prototype and exemplar theories, schemas, scripts, semantic networks, connectionist models, and categorization processes.

Mental Imagery

Dual coding theory, mental rotation experiments, image scanning, and debates about propositional versus depictive representations.

Language Processing

Speech perception, word recognition models, sentence parsing, language production, speech errors, and bilingualism effects on cognition.

Problem Solving and Expertise

Gestalt insight, means-ends analysis, analogical reasoning, functional fixedness, mental set, and expert-novice differences.

Decision Making and Reasoning

Heuristics and biases, prospect theory, framing effects, deductive and inductive reasoning, and dual-process theories.

Cognitive Neuroscience Foundations

Brain-cognition relationships, hemispheric specialization, neural plasticity, embodied cognition, and cognitive aging across the lifespan.