FOCP

 Define cognitive psychology. Explain its nature and scope.

 Fundamental ideas and key themes
 Cognitive revolution.
 Culture and cognition
 Define attention and nature.
 Two most appropriate theories
Illusion its types with examples
 What is a problem. explain the cycles and methods of problem solving?
 Barriers of problem solving.
 relationship between creativity and problem solving
 Nature of perception and
 laws of perception
with examples
Short note-
 determinants of attention
 early selection model of attention
 Differentiate b/w algorithm and heuristics
 Functional fixedness with examples
Answers-
1. The word cognition is derived from the Latin word “cognoscere”, meaning
“to know”. Cognitive psychology is the study of how people learn, perceive,
remember and think about information. In other words, cognitive psychology
focuses on the mental processes that underlie our ability to recognize, interpret,
and make sense of our surroundings. According to Ulric Neisser (1967) the
father of cognitive psychology- cognitive psychology is the branch of
psychology concerned with how people acquire, store, transform, use and
communicate information. Thus, Cognition includes the activities and processes
concerned with the acquisition, storage, retrieval, and processing of knowledge.
A cognitive psychologist may study how people perceive various shapes, why
they remember some facts but forget others or how they learn language. For
example- why do objects look farther away on a foggy day than they really are?
Understanding cognitive psychology can help us understand much of what goes
out in everyday lives.
(Agr sirf fundamental key themes ideas aaya to –cognitive psychology has
evolved from past few years and today is used in variety of fields which include
artificial intelligence, product designing, advertising, computer simulations,
educational institutions and much more. The processes studied under cognitive
psychology are also seen in our everyday life such as student using their
problem solving skills to solve arithmetic problems. Cognitive psychologists
generally use scientific methods to study these phenomena like case study,
psychobiological researches, self-report, observations etc.)
In the field of cognitive psychology, the approaches used to investigate
fundamental questions have evolved over time, but many of the fundamental
questions themselves remain largely unchanged. Researchers in this field aim to
understand the underlying mental processes that enable people to think by
examining how people think about thinking itself. Ultimately, the goal of
cognitive psychology is to gain insight into the nature of human thought and
how it operates. The progression of ideas often involves a dialectic. A dialectic
is a developmental process where ideas evolve over time through a pattern of
transformation. In a dialectic-
A thesis is proposed. A thesis is a statement of belief.
An antithesis emerges- An antithesis is a statement that counters a previous
statement of belief.
A synthesis integrates the viewpoints. Sooner or later, the debate between the
thesis and the antithesis leads to a synthesis. A synthesis integrates the most
credible features of each of two (or more) views.
Influences on the study of cognition- Physiology and Philosophy are two
important influences on cog psych. Philosophy seeks to understand the general
nature of many aspects of the world, in part through introspection (inward
looking), the examination of inner ideas and experiences. Physiology seeks a
scientific study of life-sustaining functions in living matter, primarily through
empirical (observation-based) methods.
Plato (a rationalist) believed that the route to knowledge is through thinking and
logical analysis and that they do not need any experiments to develop new
knowledge. It suggests cognitive processes would appeal to reason as a source
of knowledge or justification.
Aristotle (an empiricist) believes that we acquire knowledge via empirical
evidence— that is, we obtain evidence through experience and observation. In
order to explore how the human mind works, empiricists would design
experiments and conduct studies in which they could observe the behaviour and
processes of interest to them.
French rationalist René Descartes sought to introspective, reflective method as
being superior to empirical methods for finding truth. He stated "cogito, ergo
sum" (I think, therefore I am). Descartes felt that one could not rely on one's
senses because those very senses have often proven to be deceptive.
British empiricist John Locke sought to empirical observation. Locke believed
that humans are born without knowledge and therefore must seek knowledge
through empirical observation. He stated tabula rasa (meaning "blank slate" in
Latin). The study of learning was the key to understanding the human mind.
Kant offered a synthesis of these apparent opposites. He stated both have their
own implications and today most psychologists use Kant’s synthesis.

Structuralism and functionalism are two early approaches in the field of

psychology that have had a significant influence on the development of the
discipline. Structuralism, the first major school of thought in psychology,
focused on understanding the structure of the mind and its perceptions by
analysing them into their individual components, such as affect, attention,
memory, and sensation. In contrast, functionalism emphasised the study of the
processes of thought, rather than its contents, and sought to understand the
functions of the mind and behaviour. Functionalists were interested in the
practical applications of their research and believed that understanding the
processes of the mind was key to understanding human behaviour.
Emergence of cognitive psychology- The cognitive revolution, which took place
in the 1950s, was a response to behaviourism and focused on understanding
human behaviour in terms of how people think. This approach, known as
cognitivism, rejected the idea that mental processes should not be studied
because they are not directly observable. Cognitivism combines elements of
behaviourism, which uses quantitative analysis to study learning and thought,
and Gestaltism, which emphasises internal mental processes. It suggests that
much of human behaviour can be understood through the study of cognitive
processes.
Methods in cognitive psychology
Naturalistic observation - Naturalistic observation is a research method where
an observer watches people in their everyday environments while they go about
their cognitive activities.
Introspection - Introspection is a technique where the observer examines their
own mental processes.
Controlled observation and clinical interviews - Controlled observation is a
research method where researchers have some control over the conditions in
which observations are made, often by standardising the setting and
manipulating certain conditions to see their effect on the participants. In clinical
interviews, the investigator has even more control over the conversation by
asking open-ended questions and following up with additional questions based
on the participant's responses.
Experiments and Quasi-experiments - In an experiment, the investigator can
manipulate variables and randomly assign participants to different conditions in
order to minimise pre-existing differences between them. In some cases, it is not
possible to randomly assign participants to different experimental conditions,
such as when the independent variable is a fixed characteristic like gender or
ethnicity. These studies are known as quasi-experiments.
Fundamental ideas- Certain fundamental ideas seem to keep emerging in
cognitive psychology, regardless of the particular phenomenon one studies.
1.Empirical data and theories are both important - Data in cognitive psychology
can be fully understood only in the context of an explanatory theory, but
theories are empty without empirical data- theories give meaning to data. It
assists in prediction and explanation. Empirical testing of theories helps in
correcting theories which further generate data and thus both coexists together.
2.Cognition is generally adaptive but not in all specific instances- these
tendencies help to make cognitive processes much more efficient
3.Cognitive processes interact with each other and with non-cognitive
processes- although cognitive psychologists try to study and understand isolate
the functioning of specific cognitive processes but they know these processes
work together.
4.Cognition needs to be studied through a variety of scientific methods- all
cognitive processes are studied through variety of methods. All methods
however must be scientific.
5.All basic research in cognitive psychology may lead to applications, and all
applied research may lead to basic understandings- the basic finding has an
immediate implication to applications to study strategies.
Key themes- these key themes address the core of the nature of human mind and
keep appearing again and again in cognitive psychology.
1.Nature v/s nurture- synthesis is that we can explore covariations and
interactions in the environment adversely affect someone whose genes might
lead to variety of tasks.
2.Rationalism v/s empiricism- synthesis is that we can combine theory with
empirical methods to learn the most about cognitive phenomenon.
3.Structures v/s processes- synthesis is that we can explore how mental
processes operate on mental structures.
4.Domain generality v/s specificity- synthesis is that we can explore which
processes is domain general and which processes is domain specific.
5.Validity of causal inferences v/s ecological validity- we can combine variety
of methods including laboratory methods and more naturalistic ones, so as to
converge on findings.
Applied v/s basic research- synthesis is that we can combine researches
dialectically to apply results of basic research and further develop them.
Biological v/s behavioural methods- understanding cognitive phenomenon at
multiple levels of analysis requires both behavioural and biological methods.
Scope of cog psychology- cognitive psychology draw theories and techniques-
1. Cognitive Neuroscience: Only within the past few years have cognitive
psychologists and cognitive neuroscientists formed a close working
relationship. Cognitive psychologists are seeking neurological explanations for
their findings, and neuroscientists are turning to cognitive psychologists to
explain observations made in their laboratories. Every part of the cognitive
process from sensation to memory is supported by basic electrochemical
processes taking place in the brain and nervous system.
2. Perception: The branch of psychology directly involved with the detection
and interpretation of sensory stimuli is perception. From experiments in
perception, we have a good understanding of the sensitivity of the human
organism to sensory signals and more important to cognitive psychology of the
way we interpret sensory signals.
3. Pattern Recognition: Environmental stimuli rarely are perceived as single
sensory events; they usually are perceived as part of a more meaningful pattern.
The things we sense – see, hear, feel, taste, or smell—are almost always part of
a complex pattern of sensory stimuli.
4. Attention: Although we are information-gathering creatures, it is evident that
under normal circumstances we are also highly selective in the amount and type
of information to which we attend. Our capacity to process information seems
to be limited to two levels – sensory and cognitive.
5. Consciousness: Consciousness is defined as “the current awareness, of
external or internal circumstances.” For most people, consciousness and
unconscious thoughts are very real. Consciousness has gained new
respectability recently and now is a concept studied seriously in modern
cognitive psychology.
6.Memory: Memory and perception work together. The information available to
us comes from our perception, short-term memory, and long-term memory.
Most obvious long-term storage is the knowledge of the language. We draw
words from LTM and more or less use them correctly.
7. Representation of Knowledge: Fundamental of all human cognition is the
representation of knowledge: how information is symbolised and combined
with the things stored in the brain. This part of cognition has two aspects: the
conceptual representation of knowledge in mind and the way the brain stores
and process information. The conceptual representation in different individuals
can be considerably different.
8. Imagery: Cognitive psychologists are especially interested in the topic of
internal representations of knowledge. The mental images of the environment
are formed in the form of a cognitive map, a type of internal representation of
the juxtaposed buildings, streets, street signs, spotlights, and so on. From the
cognitive maps, we are able to draw out significant cues.
9. Language: One form of knowledge shared by all human societies is the
knowledge of language. Language is the principal means by which we acquire
and express knowledge; thus, the study of how language is used is a central
concern of cognitive psychology. Human language development represents a
unique kind of abstraction, which is basic to cognition.
10. Developmental Psychology: Developmental psychology is another
important area of cognitive psychology that has been intensely studied. Recent
studies and theories in developmental cognitive psychology have greatly
expanded our understanding of how cognitive structures develop.
11. Thinking and Concept Formation: Thinking is the process by which a new
mental representation is formed through the transformation of information. An
ability to think and form concepts is an important aspect of cognition. Similar
concepts help in the understanding and processing of information. There is a
considerable body of knowledge about the laws and processes of concept
formation.
12. Human and Artificial Intelligence: Human intelligence includes the ability to
acquire, recall, and use knowledge to understand concrete and abstract concepts
and the relationships among objects and ideas, to understand a language, to
follow instructions, to convert verbal descriptions into actions, and to behave
according to the rules, and to use knowledge in a meaningful way. The specialty
within the computer science called artificial intelligence has had a major
influence on the development of cognitive science.
Conclusion-In summary, cognitive psychology explores the intricate workings
of the human mind, aiming to understand how individuals perceive, process,
and respond to information. Its scope is broad, covering various mental
processes and employing a range of research methodologies to investigate and
explain cognitive phenomena.
Cognitive revolution- Despite the early attempts to define and study mental life,
psychology, especially American psychology, came to embrace the behaviourist
tradition in the first five decades of the 1900s. A number of historical trends,
both within and outside academia, came together in the years during and
following World War II to produce what many psychologists think of as a
“revolution” in the field of cognitive psychology. This cognitive revolution,
which took place in the 1950s, was a mainly a response to behaviourist
assumption that mental events and states were beyond the realm of scientific
study or that mental representations did not exist and focused on understanding
human behaviour in terms of how people think. This approach, known as
cognitivism, rejected the idea that mental processes should not be studied
because they are not directly observable. Cognitivism combines elements of
behaviourism, which uses quantitative analysis to study learning and thought,
and Gestaltism, which emphasises internal mental processes. It suggests that
much of human behaviour can be understood through the study of cognitive
processes. In particular, the “revolutionaries” came to believe no complete
explanation of a person’s functioning could exist that did not refer to the
person’s mental representations of the world. This directly challenged the
fundamental tenet of radical behaviourism, that concepts such as “mental
representation” were not needed to explain behaviour. One of the first of these
historical trends was a product of the war itself: the establishment of the field of
human factors engineering. Psychologists and engineers thus developed the
concept of the man–machine system, now more accurately referred to as the
person–machine system: the idea that machinery operated by a person must be
designed to interact with the operator’s physical, cognitive, and motivational
capacities and limitations. Psychologists learning of this work started to describe
human beings as “communication channels,” examining their capacities for
receiving, sending, and processing information and the circumstances under
which they distort the information they receive. Humans were quickly seen to
share properties with better known, inanimate communications channels and
came to be described as limited-capacity processors of information- it means
people can do only one thing at a time. Many landmark studies of cognitive
psychology—those that cognitive psychologists regard as “classics”—date from
just after World War II and clearly focus on exploring the nature of our capacity
limitations. For instance, George Miller, in his 1956 paper “The Magical
Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two”. Miller’s work thus exemplified how the
limits of people’s cognitive capacities could be measured and tested. At about
the same time, developments in the field of linguistics, the study of language,
made clear that people routinely process enormously complex information.
Work by linguist Noam Chomsky revolutionized the field of linguistics, and
both linguists and psychologists began to see the central importance of studying
how people acquire, understand, and produce language. In addition, Chomsky’s
early work showed that behaviourism could not adequately explain language.
Another strand of the cognitive revolution came from developments in
neuroscience, the study of the brain-based underpinnings of psychological and
behavioural functions. A major debate in the neuroscience community had been
going on for centuries, all the way back to Descartes, over the issue of
localization of function. To say a function is “localized” in a particular region
is, roughly, to claim that the neural structures supporting that function reside in
a specific brain area. However, research in the late 1940s and 1950s
accumulated to challenge that view. Work by Donald Hebb suggested that some
kinds of functions, such as visual perceptions, were constructed over time by the
building of cell assemblies—connections among sets of cells in the brain.
There is yet one more thread to the cognitive revolution, also dating from about
World War II: the development of computers and artificially intelligent systems.
computer metaphor: the comparison of people’s cognitive activities to an
operating computer. Both computers and people often store information and
must therefore have structures and processes that allow such storage. Computer
scientists working on the problem of artificial intelligence now study how to
program computers to solve the same kinds of problems humans can and
whether computers can use the same methods that people apparently use to
solve such problems.
Conclusion- The cognitive revolution had a profound impact on various fields,
including psychology, linguistics, neuroscience, artificial intelligence, and
philosophy. It paved the way for interdisciplinary research and contributed to
the development of cognitive neuroscience, which explores the neural basis of
cognitive processes. Overall, the cognitive revolution marked a paradigm shift,
redirecting the focus of psychological research toward the study of mental
processes and cognition.
Culture and cognition- Understanding culture is crucial part to cognitive
psychology as nature of human can work different in different cultures. Cultural
psychologists have consistently found different patterns of thinking and
perception in different societies, with some cultures demonstrating a more
analytic pattern and others a more holistic pattern.
Analytic cognition is characterized by taxonomic and rule-based categorization
of objects, a narrow focus in visual attention, dispositional bias in causal
attribution, and the use of formal logic in reasoning. What unites the elements
of the analytic style is a tendency to focus on a single dimension or aspect,
whether in categorizing objects or evaluating arguments, and a tendency to
disentangle phenomena from the contexts in which they are embedded, for
example, focusing on the individual as a causal agent or attending to focal
objects in visual scenes
In contrast, holistic cognition is characterized by thematic and family-
resemblance-based categorization of objects, a focus on contextual information
and relationships in visual attention, an emphasis on situational causes in
attribution, and dialecticism. What unites the elements of the holistic style is a
broad attention to context and relationships in visual attention, categorizing
objects, and explaining social behaviour.
Cultures also differ in their social orientations
1.independence
2. interdependence
Cultures that endorse and afford independent social orientation tend to
emphasize self-direction, autonomy, and self-expression. Independently-
oriented cultures tend to view the self as bounded and separate from social
others. In independently-oriented cultural contexts, happiness is most often
experienced as a socially disengaging emotion i.e. pride. In cultures which have
an independent social orientation, people are more motivated to symbolically
enhance the self at the expense of others.
Cultures that endorse and afford interdependent social orientation tend to
emphasize harmony, relatedness, and connection. Interdependently-oriented
cultures tend to view the self as interconnected and as encompassing important
relationships. Interdependently-oriented cultural contexts, happiness is most
often experienced as a socially engaging emotion (i.e. sense of closeness to
others).
 The proposition that cultures which differ in their social orientation
(independence vs. interdependence) also differ in their cognitive habits (analytic
vs. holistic cognition). Western societies tend to be more independent and more
analytic, whereas East Asian societies tend to be more interdependent and
holistic. On the basis of such evidence, it has been proposed that differences in
social orientation are the driving force behind cultural differences in cognition.
While the link between social orientation and cognitive style has been widely
accepted.
Psychological antecedents of cognitive psychology
Understanding the Structure of the Mind: Structuralism
= first major school of thought in psychology.
= seeks to understand the structure (configuration
of elements) of the mind and its perceptions by analysing those perceptions into
their constituent components (affection, attention, memory, sensation, etc.).
= Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) German psychologist
= used introspection
= emphasis in the study of the mind shifted from a rationalist
approach to the empiricist approach of trying to observe behaviour in order to
draw conclusions about the subject of study
= method of introspection has some challenges associated with it. First, people
may not always be able to say exactly what goes through their mind or may not
be able to put it into adequate words. what they say may not be accurate. 3rd
people being asked to pay attention to thoughts' action may be altered
= Follower Edward Titchener (1867-1927)
= Titchener viewed as the first full-fledged structuralist
= His experiments relied solely on the use of introspection, exploring
psychology from the vantage point of the experiencing individual.
= early psychologists criticized both the method (introspection) and the focus
(elementary structures of sensation) of structuralism.
=These critiques gave rise to a new movement—functionalism.
Introspection
is a deliberate looking inward at pieces of information
passing through consciousness. The aim of introspection is to look at the
elementary components of an object or process.
Understanding the Processes of the Mind: Functionalism
= counter structuralism
= seeks to understand what people do and why they do it.
= held that the key to understanding the human mind and behavior was to study
the processes of how and why the mind works as it does, rather than to study the
structural contents and elements of the mind.
= unified by the kinds of questions they asked but not necessarily by the
answers they found or by the methods
= functionalists believed in using whichever methods best answered a given
researcher's questions, it seems natural for functionalism to have led to
pragmatism.
= Pragmatists believe that knowledge is validated by its usefulness: What can
you do with it?
= concerned not only with knowing what people do; they also want to know
what we can do with our knowledge of what people do.
= leader in guiding functionalism toward pragmatism was William James
(1842-1910)
= John Dewey (1859-1952) was another early pragmatist
= Dewey is remembered primarily for his pragmatic approach to thinking and
schooling
= functionalists were interested in how people learn, they did not really specify
a mechanism by which learning takes place
An Integrative Synthesis: Associationism
= examines how elements of the mind, like events or ideas, can become
associated with one another in the mind to result in a form of learning.
=contiguity (associating things that tend to occur together at about the same
time);
= similarity (associating things with similar features or properties)
= contrast (associating things that show polarities, such as hot/cold, light/dark,
day/ night).
= associationist Hermann Ebbinghaus (1850-1909) was the first experimenter to
apply associationist principles systematically.
= Ebbinghaus studied his own mental processes. He made up lists of nonsense
syllables that consisted of a consonant and a vowel followed by another
consonant
= Through his self-observations, Ebbinghaus studied how people learn and
remember material through rehearsal, the conscious repetition of material to be
learned
= he found that frequent repetition can fix mental associations more firmly in
memory. Thus, repetition aids in learning
= Edward Lee Thorndike (1874-1949), held that the role of "satisfaction" is the
key to forming associations.
= principle the law of effect: A stimulus will tend to produce a certain response
over time if an organism is rewarded for that response.
= Thorndike believed that an organism learns to respond in a given way (the
effect) in a given situation if it is rewarded repeatedly for doing so (the
satisfaction, which serves as a stimulus to future actions).
Proponents of Behaviorism
(+) "father" of radical behaviourism is John Watson (1878-1958)
(+) Watson had no use for internal mental contents or mechanisms. believed
that psychologists should concentrate only on the study of observable behavior
(+) dismissed thinking as nothing more than subvocalized speech
(+) Behaviorism also differed from previous movements in psychology by
shifting the emphasis of experimental
research from human to animal participants.
(+) Historically, much behaviorist work has been conducted (and still is) with
laboratory animals, such as rats or pigeons, because these animals allow for
much greater behavioral control of relationships between the environment and
the behavior emitted in reaction to it
(+) One problem with using nonhuman animals, however, is determining
whether the research can be generalized to humans
(+) B.F. Skinner (1904-1990), a radical behaviorist, believed that virtually all
forms of human behavior, not just learning, could be explained by behavior
emitted in reaction to the environment.
(+) Skinner conducted research primarily with nonhuman
animals.
(+) He rejected mental mechanisms
(+) He believed instead that operant conditioning—involving the strengthening
or weakening of behavior, contingent on the presence or absence of
reinforcement (rewards) or punishments—could explain
all forms of human behavior.
(+) applied his experimental analysis of behavior
to many psychological phenomena, such as learning, language acquisition, and
problem solving. Largely because of Skinner's towering presence, behaviorism
dominated the discipline of psychology for several decades.
Criticisms of Behaviorism
(+) challenged on many fronts like language acquisition, production, and
comprehension.
(+) although it seemed to work well to account for certain
kinds of learning, behaviorism did not account as well for complex mental
activities such as language learning and problem solving
(+) more than understanding people's behavior, some psychologists wanted to
know what went on inside the
head.
(+) it often proved easier to use the techniques of behaviorism in studying
nonhuman animals than in studying human ones.
Gestalt psychology
states that we best understand psychological phenomena when we view them as
organized, structured wholes. According to this view, we cannot fully
understand behavior when we only break phenomena down into smaller parts.
Methods of research
1.Experimental research methods
= In controlled experimental designs, an experimenter will usually conduct
research in a laboratory setting.
= two kinds of variables in any given experiment.
= Independent variables are aspects of an investigation that are individually
manipulated, or carefully regulated, by the experimenter, while other aspects of
the investigation are held constant (i.e., not subject to variation).
= Dependent variables are outcome responses, the values of which depend on
how one or more independent variables influence or affect the participants in
the experiment.
= When the experimenter manipulates the independent variables, he or she
controls for the effects of irrelevant variables and observes the effects on the
dependent variables (outcomes).
= These irrelevant variables that are held constant are called control variables.
= Another type of variable is the confounding variable. Confounding variables
are a type of irrelevant variable that has been left uncontrolled in a study. For
example, imagine you want to examine the effectiveness of two problem-
solving techniques.
= In implementing the experimental method, experimenters must use a
representative and random sample of the population of interest.
2.Psychobiological research
investigators study the relationship between cognitive
performance and cerebral events and structures.
= Psychobiological researchers also study normal cognitive functioning by
studying cerebral activity in animal participants. Researchers often use animals
for experiments
involving neurosurgical procedures that cannot be performed on humans
because such procedures would be difficult, unethical, or impractical.
3.Self-reports- an individual's own account of cognitive processes.
Advantages: Allows direct access to individuals' thoughts and experiences.
Efficient for collecting large amounts of data from a large number of
participants.
Limitations: Relies on participants' ability and willingness to accurately report
their experiences. Susceptible to social desirability bias, where participants may
respond in a way they believe is socially acceptable.
4.Case studies- in-depth studies of individuals. Case studies are valuable for
exploring unique or rare cognitive phenomena, especially when studying
cognitive disorders or exceptional abilities. They provide a rich, holistic
understanding of individual experiences.
Advantages: Provides detailed, context-rich information about a particular
case. Allows for the exploration of complex and unique cognitive processes.
Limitations: Findings from case studies may not generalize to the broader
population. Lack of experimental control makes it challenging to establish
cause-and-effect relationships. Subject to researcher bias in data interpretation.
5.naturalistic observation- detailed studies of cognitive performance in everyday
situations and non-laboratory contexts . Naturalistic observation is often used to
study cognitive processes in real-world settings. For example, observing how
people navigate a complex environment or solve problems in their daily lives.
Advantages: Captures behavior in authentic, everyday settings. Reduces the
risk of artificiality that may occur in controlled environments.
Limitations: Lack of control over variables makes it challenging to establish
causation. Observer bias may influence the interpretation of observed behavior.
Ethical concerns may arise if individuals are unaware of being observed.
6.The use of computer simulations to study cognition
= Digital computers played a fundamental role in the emergence of the study of
cognitive psychology.
= One kind of influence is indirect—through models of human
cognition based on models of how computers process information.
= Another kind is direct—through computer simulations and artificial
intelligence.
= In computer simulations, researchers program computers to imitate a given
human function or process.
= Examples are performance on particular cognitive tasks (e.g., manipulating
objects within three-dimensional space) and performance of particular cognitive
processes (e.g., pattern recognition).

Attention and perception

Attention is the means by which we actively process a limited amount of
information from the enormous amount of information available through our
senses, our stored memories, and our other cognitive processes (De Weerd,
2003a; Rao, 2003). It includes both conscious and unconscious processes.
Automatic processes like writing your name involve no conscious control
(Palmeri, 2003). For the most part, they are performed without conscious
awareness. Nevertheless, you may be aware that you are performing them. They
demand little or no effort or even intention. Multiple automatic processes may
occur at once, or at least very quickly, and in no particular sequence. Thus, they
are termed parallel processes. You are able to read this text while at the same
time sharpening your pencil and scratching your leg with your foot. In contrast,
controlled processes are accessible to conscious control and even require it.
Such processes are performed serially, for example, when you want to compute
the total cost of a trip you are about to book online. In other words, controlled
processes occur sequentially. Three attributes characterize automatic processes
(Posner & Snyder, 1975). First, they are concealed from consciousness. Second,
they are unintentional. Third, they consume few attentional resources. An
alternative view of attention suggests a continuum of processes between fully
automatic processes and fully controlled processes. Attention allows us to use
our limited mental resources judiciously. By dimming the lights on many
stimuli from outside (sensations) and inside (thoughts and memories), we can
highlight the stimuli that interest us. This heightened focus increases the
likelihood that we can respond speedily and accurately to interesting stimuli.
Heightened attention also paves the way for memory processes. We are more
likely to remember information to which we paid attention than information we
ignored. Attention plays four main significant functions which are as follows-
Signal detection and vigilance- On many occasions, we vigilantly try to detect
whether we did or did not sense a signal a particular target stimulus of interest.
Through vigilant attention to detecting signals, we are primed to take speedy
action when we do detect signal stimuli. In a research submarine, we may watch
for unusual sonar blips; on a dark street, we may try to detect unwelcome sights
or sounds; or following an earthquake, we may be wary of the smell of leaking
gas or of smoke.
Search -We try to find a signal amidst distracters, we often engage in an active
search for particular stimuli. If we detect smoke (as a result of our vigilance),
we may engage in an active search for the source of the smoke. In addition,
some of us are often in search of missing keys, sunglasses, and other objects.
Selective attention -We constantly are making choices regarding the stimuli to
which we will pay attention and the stimuli that we will ignore. By ignoring or
at least deemphasizing some stimuli, we thereby highlight particularly salient
stimuli. The concentrated focus of attention on particular informational stimuli
enhances our ability to manipulate those stimuli for other cognitive processes,
such as verbal comprehension or problem solving. We may pay attention to
reading a textbook or to listening to a lecture while ignoring such stimuli as a
nearby radio or television or latecomers to the lecture.
Divided Attention-We prudently allocate our available attentional resources to
coordinate our performance of more than one task at a time, we often manage to
engage in more than one task at a time, and we shift our attentional resources to
allocate them prudently, as needed. Experienced drivers easily can talk while
driving under most circumstances, but if another vehicle seems to be swerving
toward their car, they quickly switch all their attention away from talking and
toward driving.
Conclusion - In sum, certain attentional processes occur outside our conscious
awareness. Others are subject to conscious control. The psychological study of
attention has included diverse phenomena, such as vigilance, search, selective
attention, and divided attention during the simultaneous performance of
multiple tasks. To explain this diversity of attentional phenomena, current
theories emphasize that a filtering mechanism appears to govern some aspects
of attention. Limited modality-specific attentional resources appear to influence
other aspects of attention. Clearly, findings from cognitive research have
yielded many insights into attention, but additional understanding also has been
gained through the study of attentional processes in the brain.
Factors/ determinants affecting attention-
Anxiety: Being anxious, either by nature (trait-based anxiety) or by situation
(state-based anxiety), places constraints on attention.
Arousal: Your overall state of arousal affects attention as well. You may be
tired, drowsy, or drugged, which may limit attention. Being excited sometimes
enhances attention
Task difficulty: If you are working on a task that is very difficult or novel for
you, you’ll need more attentional resources than when you work on an easy or
highly familiar task. Task difficulty particularly influences performance during
divided attention.
Skills: The more practiced and skilled you are in performing a task, the more
your attention is enhanced. (others in sk mangal pdf)
Introduction to theories of Selective Attention theories-
Selective attention refers to the phenomenon where we are constantly making
choices regarding the stimuli to which we will pay attention and stimuli that we
will ignore. The theories of selective attention are influenced by dialectical
process and theories here belong to the group of filter and bottleneck theories. A
filter blocks some of the information going through and selects only a part of
the total information to pass through and selects only a part of the total
information to pass through. A bottleneck slows down the information passing
through.
Early selective attention theories- early selection theories explain on how the
human mind processes information early and selects stimuli for conscious
awareness. The primary point is in the point at which the selection process
occurs in the cognitive processing stream. These theories filter out information
early based on physical characteristics. Theories suggest a limited capacity for
processing, leading to the filtering of information.
Broadbent’s model- According to one of the earliest theories of attention, we
filter information right after we notice it at the sensory level (Broadbent, 1958).
According to the theory of attention proposed by Broadbent, multiple channels
of sensory input are subject to an attentional filter that allows only one channel
of information to be processed and reach the level of perception. This filter is
influenced by the characteristics of the stimuli, such as loudness, pitch, or
accent. Other stimuli that are not selected by the filter may not reach the level of
perception. This theory was supported by Colin Cherry's finding in dichotic
listening task that unattended sensory information may be noticed if it does not
require elaborate processing, but information requiring higher levels of
perceptual processing will not be noticed if it is not attended to. After the theory
of attention proposed by Broadbent, evidence began to suggest that this model
was incorrect (Gray & Wedderburn, 1960). For example, it was found that
people could still recognize their own names even when they were ignoring
most other aspects of an unattended message (Moray, 1959; Wood & Cowan,
1995). This led to the suggestion that messages that are personally important or
meaningful may be able to "break through" the filter of selective attention,
while other messages may not. This idea modifies Broadbent's metaphor of the
selective filter by suggesting that the filter blocks out most information at the
sensory level, but some powerful or meaningful messages may be able to
overcome this filtering mechanism. Moray in 1959 found that the ability to
selectively listen and focus, known as the "cocktail party effect," is disrupted
when someone's own name is heard in either the attended or unattended
message, and that person remembers hearing it. This poses a challenge for filter
theory, which posits that unattended messages should be ignored and not
processed for recognition or meaning. The cocktail party effect illustrates that
people can still hear and pay attention to certain unattended messages, such as
their own name, and this has led Moray to conclude that only important
information can bypass the filter that blocks unattended messages, but it doesn't
explain how the filter can determine what is important.
For example - Here, we have a set of participants. In each ear, a new alphabet
list was shown to the participants. Participants tended to report all alphabets
presented to one ear first and then the alphabets presented to the second ear,
regardless of the order in which the alphabets were presented, when asked to
report the alphabets they heard. Their accuracy decreased when they were asked
to report the alphabets they heard in the order they were presented. After
reporting the information from one ear, participants switched filters to report the
alphabets from the other ear. As a result, participants had to constantly switch
filters in order to report the alphabets in the order they were presented, which
affected accuracy. This shows that the basic characteristics of the stimuli- such
as the ear in which it was presented- may filter information.
Attenuation theory (1960)- Anne Treisman conducted experiments to
investigate why some unattended messages were able to "break through" the
filter of selective attention. She found that participants were able to pick up on
the first few words of a message that they had been shadowing in the unattended
ear, and that they noticed the identity of the messages if they were identical or
slightly out of synchronisation. Treisman also observed that bilingual
participants were able to notice the identity of messages if they were translated
versions of the attended ones. These findings suggested that at least some
information about unattended stimuli was being analysed, and led Treisman to
propose a theory of selective attention that involves a later filtering mechanism.
Treisman argued that their “volume” was “turned down.” In other words, some
meaningful information in unattended messages might still be available, even if
hard to recover. She explained this idea as follows. Incoming messages are
subjected to three kinds of analysis. In the first, the message’s physical
properties, such as pitch or loudness, are analysed. The second analysis is
linguistic, a process of parsing the message into syllables and words. The third
kind of analysis is semantic, processing the meaning of the message. According
to this theory, the filter does not completely block out stimuli, but rather
weakens their strength. Stimuli that possess certain target properties, such as
loudness or pitch, are passed onto the next stage of processing, while others are
passed on in a weakened form. In the next stage, the meaning and relevance of
the stimuli are analysed, and even seemingly irrelevant messages from the
unattended ear can come into consciousness and influence our actions if they
have some personal meaning or significance. Some meaningful units (such as
words or phrases) tend to be processed quite easily. Words that have subjective
importance (such as your name) or that signal danger (“Fire!” “Watch out!”)
have permanently lowered thresholds; that is, they are recognizable even at low
volume. However, some words are primed that is ready to be recognized. This
explains why people in Treisman’s experiment “switched ears”. Hearing the
previous words in a sentence primed the participants to detect and recognize the
words that followed, even when those words occurred in the unattended
message.
For example, you are at the market buying some groceries and hear someone
shouting “Natasha” and you turn around to look to see that person but realise
that it was someone else being called out and not you. Words or phrases with
permanently lowered thresholds require little mental effort by the hearer to be
recognized. Thus, according to Treisman’s theory, the participants in Moray’s
experiments heard their names because recognizing their names required little
mental effort. This is why you recognised your name in such an environment
where there is a lot of commotion.
Late selection theories – Late selection theories process all information for
meaning, with selection for conscious awareness occurring later based on
relevance. Late selection theories also recognize a limited capacity for
conscious awareness but emphasize the full processing of all stimuli.
Deutsch and Deutsch’ s late section model (1963) - Deutsch and Deutsch
(1963; Norman, 1968) developed a model in which the location of the filter is
even later. They suggested that stimuli are filtered out only after they have been
analysed for both their physical properties and their meaning. This later filtering
would allow people to recognize information entering the unattended ear. For
example, they might recognize the sound of their own names or a translation of
attended input (for bilinguals). Note that proponents of both the early and the
late-filtering mechanisms propose that there is an attentional bottleneck through
which only a single source of information can pass. The two models differ only
in terms of where they hypothesise the bottleneck to be positioned. Broadbent's
filter theory suggests that when a message is not focused on, the information
about its meaning is not retained for later use. Treisman's attenuation theory, on
the other hand, suggests that some information about the meaning of an
unattended message can still reach conscious awareness. Deutsch and Deutsch's
late-selection theory goes further, proposing that all messages are initially
processed for their meaning to some extent, and the selection of which message
to respond to happens later in the processing. This theory, later expanded upon
by Norman, suggests that there is a bottleneck in processing at this point where
only the most "important" information is further elaborated and retained, while
less important information is forgotten. A message’s “importance” depends on
many factors, including its context and the personal significance of certain kinds
of content such as your name. Also relevant is the observer’s level of alertness:
At low levels of alertness (such as when we are asleep), only very important
messages (such as the sound of our new-born’s cry) capture attention. At higher
levels of alertness, less important messages (such as the sound of a television
program) can be processed. Generally, the attentional system functions to
determine which of the incoming messages is the most important; this message
is the one to which the observer will respond.
For example - a set of participants heard a mixture of numbers and words
presented to each ear, such as, "Happy – 2 – Rahul " in the left ear and, "4 –
Birthday – 5" in the right ear and were asked to report back what they heard.
The participants reported hearing, "Happy Birthday Rahul " and "2 – 4 – 5".
This shows that stimuli are not selected based on physical characteristics (e.g.,
location of sound) determined by the filter but according to meaning.
Norman (1968) revised this theory and also added that the strength of an input is
also an important factor for its selection. Pashler (1998) argues that the bulk of
the evidence suggests it is true that information in the unattended channel
sometimes receives some processing for meaning. At the same time, it appears
true that most results thought to demonstrate late selection could be explained in
terms of either to the attended message or special cases of particularly important
stimuli. The theory’s point of view which is that both attended and unattended
stimulus are processed is majorly criticized. The theory has been criticized on
the basis that it is not possible that unattended messages are processed for
meaning to the same degree as are attended messages. So, the statement – both
unattended and attended messages go under analysis for meaning is rejected.
Daniel Kahneman (1973) presented a slightly different model for what attention
is. He viewed attention as a set of cognitive processes for categorizing and
recognizing stimuli. The more complex the stimulus, the harder the processing,
and therefore the more resources are engaged. However, people have some
control over where they direct their mental resources: They can often choose
what to focus on and devote their mental effort to. Essentially, this model
depicts the allocation of mental resources to various cognitive tasks.
here, the individual “deposits” mental capacity to one or more of several
different tasks. Many factors influence this allocation of capacity, which itself
depends on the extent and type of mental resources available. The availability of
mental resources, in turn, is affected by the overall level of arousal, or state of
alertness. Kahneman (1973) argued that one effect of being aroused is that more
cognitive resources are available to devote to various tasks. Paradoxically,
however, the level of arousal also depends on a task’s difficulty. This means we
are less aroused while performing easy tasks, such as adding 2 and 2, than we
are when performing more difficult tasks, such as multiplying a Social Security
number by pi. We therefore bring fewer cognitive resources to easy tasks,
which, fortunately, require fewer resources to complete. Arousal thus affects
our capacity (the sum total of our mental resources) for tasks.
Allocation policy specify how we allocate our resources to all the cognitive
tasks that confront us. this policy is affected by an individual’s enduring
dispositions (for example, your preference for certain kinds of tasks over
others), momentary intention, and evaluation of the demands on one’s capacity
(the knowledge that a task you need to do right now will require a certain
amount of your attention). Essentially, this model predicts that we pay more
attention to things we are interested in, are in the mood for, or have judged
important.
In Kahneman’s (1973) view, attention is part of what the layperson would call
“mental effort.” The more effort expended, the more attention we are using.
Kahneman’s view raises the question of what limits our ability to do several
things at once. Effort is only one factor that influences performance on a task.
Greater effort or concentration results in better performance of some tasks—
those that require resource-limited processing, performance of which is
constrained by the mental resources or capacity allocated to it (Norman &
Bobrow, 1975). E.g.- Taking a midterm is one such task. On some other tasks,
one cannot do better no matter how hard one tries. An example is trying to
detect a dim light or a soft sound in a bright and noisy room. Even if you
concentrate as hard as you can on such a task, your vigilance may still not help
you detect the stimulus. Performance on this task is said to be data limited,
meaning that it depends entirely on the quality of the incoming data, not on
mental effort or concentration. Norman and Bobrow pointed out that both kinds
of limitations affect our ability to perform any cognitive task.

Perception-
According to cicccarelli - Perception is the method by which the brain takes all
the sensations a person experiences at any given moment and allows them to be
interpreted in some meaningful fashion.
The nature of perception is subjective as Perception has some individuality to it.
For example, two people might be looking at a cloud and while one thinks it’s
shaped like a horse, the other thinks it’s more like a cow. They both see the
same cloud, but they perceive that cloud differently. Therefore, different people
may perceive the same environment differently based on what particular aspects
of the situation they choose to selectively absorb. Perception is also influenced
by expectations known as perceptual readiness – people have a set of perceptual
readiness to perceive stimuli in a particular way. Perception is determined by
both psychological and physiological characteristics of the human. Thus it is a
much more complex process by which an individual selectively absorbs the
stimuli in the environment. Perception is selective. Attention involves two
process of selection – a focusing on a certain stimuli and filtering out other
information therefore sensory organs may sense every possible stimulus but
only few of them will be attended and perceived. Recognizing a stimulus
implies that we have a perceptual schema — a mental representation or image
containing the critical and distinctive features of a person, object, event, or other
perceptual phenomenon. Schemas provide mental templates that allow us to
classify and identify sensory input in a top-down fashion. To create our
perceptions, the brain carries out two different kinds of processing functions.
In bottom-up processing, the system takes in individual elements of the stimulus
and then combines them into a unified perception. bottom-up processing
involves the analysis of sensory input from the environment, starting with basic
features and building up to a more complex perception. In this approach, the
brain relies on the raw sensory data it receives, such as colours, shapes, and
textures, to construct a perceptual experience. Bottom-up processing is often
characterized by its data-driven nature, where the brain processes information
step by step, assembling the details into a coherent whole. For example, when
we look at a visual scene, our eyes capture individual elements, and our brain
integrates these elements to form a complete and meaningful picture.
In top-down processing, sensory information is interpreted in light of existing
knowledge, concepts, ideas, and expectations. Top-down processing refers to
the influence of higher-level cognitive processes, such as expectations,
knowledge, and context, on the interpretation of sensory input. In this approach,
our prior experiences and mental frameworks play a crucial role in shaping how
we perceive and make sense of the world. For example, if we see an ambiguous
image, our past experiences and expectations may guide us to interpret it in a
particular way. This top-down influence allows us to fill in gaps, recognize
patterns, and make rapid judgments based on our pre-existing knowledge.
Recognizing stimuli under varying conditions is another characteristics of
perception. Perceptual constancies refer to the ability of the human perceptual
system to maintain a stable and consistent perception of an object or a stimulus,
size constancy, the tendency to interpret an object as always being the same
size, regardless of its distance from the viewer. So if an object that is normally
perceived to be about 6 feet tall appears very small on the retina, it will be
interpreted as being very far away. Another perceptual constancy is the
tendency to interpret the shape of an object as constant, even when it changes
on the retina. This shape constancy is why a person still perceives a coin as a
circle even if it is held at an angle that makes it appear to be an oval on the
retina. A third form of perceptual constancy is brightness constancy, the
tendency to perceive the apparent brightness of an object as the same even when
the light conditions change. If a person is wearing white shirt it will reflect
shine different on broad daylight and night, we will perceive it with same
brightness.
The capability to see the world in three dimensions is called depth perception.
Various cues exist for perceiving depth in the world. Some require the use of
only one eye (monocular cues) and some are a result of the slightly different
visual patterns that exist when the visual fields of both eyes are used (binocular
cues). Monocular Cues Monocular cues are often referred to as pictorial depth
cues because artists can use these cues to give the illusion of depth to paintings
and drawings.
Linear perspective: When looking down a long interstate highway, the two
sides of the highway appear to merge together in the distance. This tendency for
lines that are actually parallel to seem to converge on each other is called linear
perspective. It works in pictures because people assume that in the picture, as in
real life, the converging lines indicate that the “ends” of the lines are a great
distance away from where the people are as they view them.
2. Relative size: The principle of size constancy is at work in relative size, when
objects that people expect to be of a certain size appear to be small and are,
therefore, assumed to be much farther away. Movie makers use this principle to
make their small models seem gigantic but off in the distance.
3. Overlap: If one object seems to be blocking another object, people assume
that the blocked object is behind the first one and, therefore, farther away. This
cue is also known as interposition.
4. Aerial (atmospheric) perspective: The farther away an object is, the hazier the
object will appear to be due to tiny particles of dust, dirt, and other pollutants in
the air, a perceptual cue called aerial (atmospheric) perspective. This is why
distant mountains often look fuzzy, and buildings far in the distance are blurrier
than those that are close.
5. Texture gradient: If there are any large expanses of pebbles, rocks, or
patterned roads (such as a cobblestone street) nearby, go take a look at them one
day. The pebbles or bricks that are close to you are very distinctly textured, but
as you look farther off into the distance, their texture becomes smaller and finer.
Texture gradient is another trick used by artists to give the illusion of depth in a
painting.
6. Motion parallax: The next time you’re in a car, notice how the objects
outside the car window seem to zip by very fast when they are close to the car,
and objects in the distance, such as mountains, seem to move more slowly. This
discrepancy in motion of near and far objects is called motion parallax.
7.Accommodation- accommodation makes use of something that happens inside
the eye. The lens of the human eye is flexible and held in place by a series of
muscles. the process of visual accommodation as the tendency of the lens to
change its shape, or thickness, in response to objects near or far away. The brain
can use this information about accommodation as a cue for distance.
Accommodation is also called a “muscular cue.”
Binocular cues -
1.Convergence: Another muscular cue, convergence, refers to the rotation of the
two eyes in their sockets to focus on a single object. If the object is close, the
convergence is pretty great (almost as great as crossing the eyes). If the object is
far, the convergence is much less.
 2. Binocular disparity: Binocular disparity is a scientific way of saying that
because the eyes are a few inches apart, they don’t see exactly the same image.
The brain interprets the images on the retina to determine distance from the
eyes. If the two images are very different, the object must be pretty close. If
they are almost identical, the object is far enough away to make the retinal
disparity very small. You can demonstrate this cue for yourself by holding an
object in front of your nose. Close one eye, note where the object is, and then
open that eye and close the other. There should be quite a difference in views.
But if you do the same thing with an object that is across the room, the image
doesn’t seem to “jump” or move nearly as much, if at all.
Perception has a structure and organization-The Gestalt laws of perception are a
set of principles that describe how humans tend to organize visual elements into
meaningful patterns and structures. These principles were developed by Gestalt
psychologists in the early 20th century. The term "Gestalt" itself is a German
word that roughly translates to "whole" or "form." These Gestalt laws help
illustrate the fundamental ways in which human perception organizes visual
information into meaningful patterns, allowing us to make sense of the complex
visual world around us. The Gestalt laws help explain how individuals perceive
and make sense of the visual world around them. Here are some key Gestalt
laws
Figure–ground relationships refer to the tendency to perceive objects or figures
as existing on a background. People seem to have a preference for picking out
figures from backgrounds even as early as birth. The illusions in Figures 3.16
and 3.17 are reversible figures, in which the figure and the ground seem to
switch back and forth.
Proximity Another very simple rule of perception is the tendency to perceive
objects that are close to one another as part of the same grouping, a principle
called proximity, or “nearness.” (See Figure 3.18.)
Similarity -Similarity refers to the tendency to perceive things that look similar
as being part of the same group. When members of a sports team wear uniforms
that are all the same colour, it allows people viewing the game to perceive them
as one group even when they are scattered around the field or court.
Closure- Closure is the tendency to complete figures that are incomplete. A
talented artist can give the impression of an entire face with just a few cleverly
placed strokes of the pen or brush—the viewers fill in the details.
Continuity- The principle of continuity is easier to see than it is to explain in
words. It refers to the tendency to perceive things as simply as possible with a
continuous pattern rather than with a complex, broken-up pattern. Look at
Figure 3.18 for an example of continuity. Isn’t it much easier to see the figure
on the left as two wavy lines crossing each other than as the little sections in the
diagrams to the right?
Contiguity- Contiguity isn’t shown in Figure 3.18 because it involves not just
nearness in space but nearness in time also. Basically, contiguity is the tendency
to perceive two things that happen close together in time as being related.
Usually the first occurring event is seen as causing the second event.
Ventriloquists* make vocalizations without appearing to move their own
mouths but move their dummy’s mouth instead. The tendency to believe that
the dummy is doing the talking is due largely to contiguity.
There is one other principle of perceptual grouping that was not one of the
original principles. It was added to the list by Stephen Palmer. In common
region, the tendency is to perceive objects that are in a common area or region
as being in a group. people could perceive the stars as one group and the circles
as another on the basis of similarity. But the coloured backgrounds so visibly
define common regions that people instead perceive three groups—one of
which has both stars and circles in it
Illusions - An illusion is a perception that does not correspond to reality: People
think they see something when the reality is quite different. Another way of
thinking of illusions is as visual stimuli that “fool” the eye. Illusions are not
hallucinations: An illusion is a distorted perception of something that is really
there, but a hallucination originates in the brain, not in reality. Research
involving illusions can be very useful for both psychologists and
neuroscientists. These studies often provide valuable information about how the
sensory receptors and sense organs work and how humans interpret sensory
input. Sometimes illusions are based on early sensory processes, subsequent
processing, or higher-level assumptions made by the brain’s visual system.
Another post detection, but still rather early, process has been offered for yet
another illusion.
The Hermann Grid
You probably see gray blobs or diamonds that fade away or disappear
completely when you try to look directly at them. This is the Hermann grid. One
explanation for this illusion is attributed to the responses of neurons in the
primary visual cortex that respond best to bars of light of a specific orientation.
Such neurons are called “simple cells” and were first discovered by David
Hubel and Torsten Wiesel (Hubel & Wiesel, 1959). They also discovered other
cells including “complex cells,” which respond to orientation and movement,
and “end-stopped cells,” which respond best to corners, curvature, or sudden
edges. Collectively these cells have been referred to as feature detectors because
they respond to specific features of a stimulus. Hubel and Wiesel were later
awarded the Nobel Prize for extensive work in the visual system. Other research
into the Hermann grid illusion has documented that straight edges are necessary
for this illusion to occur, as the illusion disappears when the edges of the grid
lines are slightly curved, and further suggests that the illusion may be due to a
unique function of how our visual system processes information.
Müller- Lyer Illusion One of the most famous visual illusions, The distortion
happens when the viewer tries to determine if the two lines are exactly the same
length. They are identical, but one line looks longer than the other. (It’s always
the line with the angles on the end facing outward.) illusion is so powerful
because that most people live in a world with lots of buildings. Buildings have
corners. When a person is outside a building, the corner of the building is close
to that person, while the walls seem to be moving away (like the line with the
angles facing inward). When the person is inside a building, the corner of the
room seems to move away from the viewer while the walls are coming closer
(like the line with the angles facing outward). In their minds, people “pull” the
inward-facing angles toward them like the outside corners of a building, and
they make the outward-facing angles “stretch” away from them like the inside
corners of the room. Marshall Segall and colleagues -1966) found that people in
Western cultures, having carpentered buildings with lots of straight lines and
corners are far more susceptible to this illusion than people from non-Western
cultures (having round huts with few corners. Richard Gregory (1990) found
that Zulus, for example, rarely see this illusion. They live in round huts arranged
in circles, use curved tools and toys, and experience few straight lines and
corners in their world.
The Moon Illusion Another common illusion is the moon illusion, in which the
moon on the horizon* appears to be much larger than the moon in the sky (Plug
& Ross, 1994). One explanation for this is that the moon high in the sky is all
alone, with no cues for depth surrounding it. But on the horizon, the moon
appears behind trees and houses, cues for depth that make the horizon seem
very far away. The moon is seen as being behind these objects and, therefore,
farther away from the viewer. Because people know that objects that are farther
away from them yet still appear large are very large indeed, they “magnify” the
moon in their minds—a misapplication of the principle of size constancy. This
explanation of the moon illusion is called the apparent distance hypothesis.
 Illusions of Motion Sometimes people perceive an object as moving when it is
actually still. One example of this takes place as part of a famous experiment in
conformity called the auto-kinetic effect. In this effect, a small, stationary light
in a darkened room will appear to move or drift because there are no
surrounding cues to indicate that the light is not moving.
Another is the stroboscopic motion seen in motion pictures, in which a rapid
series of still pictures will seem to be in motion. Many a student has discovered
that drawing little figures on the edges of a notebook and then flipping the pages
quickly will also produce this same illusion of movement.
Another movement illusion related to stroboscopic motion is the phi
phenomenon, in which lights turned on in sequence appear to move. For
example, if a light is turned on in a darkened room and then turned off, and then
another light a short distance away is flashed on and off, it will appear to be one
light moving across that distance. This principle is used to suggest motion in
many theatre marquee signs, flashing arrows indicating direction that have a
series of lights going on and off in a sequence, and even in strings of decorative
lighting, such as the “chasing” lights seen on houses at holiday times.
The “Rotating Snakes” illusion is one of many motion-illusion images designed
by Dr. Akiyoshi Kitaoka. There have been a variety of explanations for this type
of motion illusion, ranging from factors that depend on the image’s luminance
and/or the color arrangement, or possibly slight differences in the time it takes
the brain to process this information. When fMRI and equipment used to track
eye movements were used to investigate participants’ perception of the illusion,
researchers found that there was an increase in brain activity in a visual area
sensitive to motion. However, this activity was greatest when accompanied by
guided eye movements, suggesting eye movements play a significant role in the
perception of the illusion (Kuriki et al., 2008). Eye movements have also been
found to be a primary cause for the illusory motion seen in images based on a
1981 painting by Isia Levant, The Enigma. By using special eye-tracking
equipment that allowed them to record even the smallest of eye movement,
researchers found that tiny eye movements called micro saccades, are directly
linked to the perception of motion in Enigma and are at least one possible cause
of the illusion.
Conclusion- Understanding the nature of perception involves exploring these
intricacies and acknowledging the active role the brain plays in constructing our
conscious experience of the world. Researchers in fields such as psychology,
neuroscience, and cognitive science continue to investigate the mechanisms and
complexities underlying perceptual processes.
Nature
In psychology, a problem is generally defined as a situation or condition that
presents a challenge or difficulty for an individual, and it requires some form of
resolution or coping strategy. From birth onwards, everybody in this world is
beset with some problem or other. there are needs and motives that are to be
satisfied. For this purpose, definite goals or aims are set. In an attempt for their
realization one experiences obstacles. (sk mangal) till skinner.
problem solving, an effort to overcome obstacles obstructing the path to a
solution (Reed, 2000). people make the “mental leaps” that lead them from
having a set of givens to having a solution to a problem. working in groups
often facilitates problem solving. The solutions reached by groups often are
better than those reached by individuals. This benefit is seen most notably when
the group members represent a variety of ability levels (Hong & Page, 2004).
We engage in problem solving when we need to overcome obstacles to answer a
question or to achieve a goal. If we quickly can retrieve an answer from
memory, we do not have a problem. If we cannot retrieve an immediate answer,
then we have a problem to be solved. How people solve problems depends
partly on how they understand the problem (Whitten & Graesser, 2003).
Consider an example of how understanding the nature of the problem matters.
People are told the following about a drug ):
• 150 people received the drug and were not cured. • 150 people received the
drug and were cured. • 75 people did not receive the drug and were not cured. •
300 people did not receive the drug and were cured.
Will they understand exactly what they were told? Many people believe that the
drug in this instance is helpful. In fact, the drug described is not helpful at all.
On the contrary, it is harmful. Only 50% of the people who received the drug
were cured (i.e., 150 of 300). In contrast, 80% of the people who did not receive
the drug were cured (300 of 375).
An analysis of the above definitions brings out the following observations about
the meaning and nature of problem-solving behaviour. (sk mangal).
Processes and problem solving cycle
The problem-solving cycle includes: problem identification, problem definition,
strategy formulation, organization of information, allocation of resources,
monitoring, and evaluation (Sternberg, 1986).
In considering the steps, remember also the importance of flexibility in
following the various steps of the cycle. Successful problem solving may
involve occasionally tolerating some ambiguity regarding how best to proceed.
Rarely can we solve problems by following any one optimal sequence of
problem-solving steps. We may go back and forth through the steps. We can
change their order, or even skip or add steps when it seems appropriate.
Following is a description of each part of the problem-solving cycle.
1. Problem identification: Do we actually have a problem?
2. Problem definition and representation: What exactly is our problem?
3. Strategy formulation: How can we solve the problem? The strategy may
involve analysis—breaking down the whole of a complex problem into
manageable elements. in addition, it may involve the complementary process of
synthesis—putting together various elements to arrange them into something
useful. Another pair of complementary strategies involves divergent and
convergent thinking. In divergent thinking, you try to generate a diverse
assortment of possible alternative solutions to a problem. Once you have
considered a variety of possibilities, however, you must engage in convergent
thinking to narrow down the multiple possibilities to converge on a single best
answer.
4. Organization of information: How do the various pieces of information in the
problem fit together?
5. Resource allocation: How much time, effort, money, etc., should I put into
this problem. Studies show that expert problem solvers tend to devote more of
their mental resources to global (big-picture) planning than do novice problem
solvers. Novices tend to allocate more time to local (detail-oriented) planning
than do experts. For example, better students are more likely than poorer
students to spend more time in the initial phase, deciding how to solve a
problem, and less time actually solving it (Bloom & Broder, 1950). By spending
more time in advance deciding what to do, effective students are less likely to
fall prey to false starts, winding paths, and all kinds of errors. When a person
allocates more mental resources to planning on a large scale, he or she is able to
save time and energy and to avoid frustration later on.
6. Monitoring: Am I on track as I proceed to solve the problem?
7. Evaluation: Did I solve the problem correctly?
Our emotions can influence how we implement the problem-solving cycle
(Schwarz & Skurnik, 2003). In groups with participants with high measured
emotional intelligence—that is, the ability to identify emotions in others and
regulate emotions in oneself—emotional processing can positively influence
problem solving. In mathematicians, the ability to regulate their emotional state
(among other factors) is related to higher problem-solving ability (Carlson &
Bloom, 2005).
Process- sk mangal
Barriers of problem solving- sk mangal
Methods of problem solving/ strategies of problem solving
1.Trial and error-
2. Algorithms are sequences of operations in a problem space that may be
repeated over and over again and that, in theory, guarantee the solution to a
problem. Generally, an algorithm continues until it satisfies a condition
determined by a program. Suppose a computer is provided with a well-defined
problem and an appropriate hierarchy (program) of operations organized into
procedural algorithms. The computer can readily calculate all possible
operations and combinations of operations within the problem space. It also can
determine the best possible sequence of steps to take to solve the problem.
3. heuristics- however, the human mind does not specialize in high-speed
computations of numerous possible combinations. The limits of our working
memory prohibit us from considering more than just a few possible operations
at one time. Newell and Simon recognized these limits and observed that
humans must use mental shortcuts for solving problems. These mental shortcuts
are termed heuristics—informal, intuitive, speculative strategies that sometimes
lead to an effective solution and sometimes do not.
4. Working Backward-
5.Insight-
Problem solving occurs when a goal must be reached by thinking and behaving
in certain ways. Problems range from figuring out how to cut a recipe in half to
understanding complex mathematical proofs to deciding what to major in at
college. Problem solving is one aspect of decision making, or identifying,
evaluating, and choosing among several alternatives. There are several different
ways in which people can think in order to solve problems.
Trial and Error (Mechanical Solutions) One method is to use trial and error, also
known as a mechanical solution. Trial and error refers to trying one solution
afteranother until finding one that works. For example, if Shelana has forgotten
the PIN for her online banking Web site, she can try one combination after
another until she finds the one that works, if she has only a few such PINs that
she normally uses. Mechanical solutions can also involve solving by rote, or a
learned set of rules. This is how word problems were solved in grade school, for
example. One type of rote solution is to use an algorithm.
Algorithms Algorithms are specific, step-by-step procedures for solving certain
types of problems. Algorithms will always result in a correct solution if there is
a correct solution to be found and you have enough time to find it.
Mathematical formulas are algorithms. When librarians organize books on
bookshelves, they also use an algorithm: Place books in alphabetical order
within each category, for example. Many puzzles, like a Rubik’s Cube®, have a
set of steps that, if followed exactly, will always result in solving the puzzle.
But algorithms aren’t always practical to use. For example,if Shelana didn’t
have a clue what those four numbers might be, she might be able to figure out
her forgotten PIN by trying all possible combinations of four digits, 0 through 9.
She would eventually find the right four-digit combination—but it might take a
very long while! Computers, however, can run searches like this one very
quickly, so the systematic search algorithm is a useful part of some computer
programs.
Heuristics Unfortunately, humans aren’t as fast as computers and need some
other way to narrow down the possible solutions to only a few. One way to do
this is to use a heuristic. A heuristic, or “rule of thumb,” is a simple rule that is
intended to apply to many situations. Whereas an algorithm is very specific and
will always lead to a solution, a heuristic is an educated guess based on prior
experiences that helps narrow down the possible solutions for a problem. For
example, if a student is typing a paper in a word-processing program and wants
to know how to format the page, he or she could try to read an entire manual on
the word-processing program. That would take a while. Instead, the student
could use an Internet search engine or type “format” into the help feature’s
search program. Doing either action greatly reduces the amount of information
the student will have to look at to get an answer. Using the help feature or
clicking on the appropriate toolbar word will also work for similar problems.
REPRESENTATIVENESS HEURISTIC Will using a rule of thumb always
work, like algorithms do? Using a heuristic is faster than using an algorithm in
many cases, but unlike algorithms, heuristics will not always lead to the correct
solution. What you gain in speed is sometimes lost in accuracy. For example, a
representativeness heuristic is used for categorizing objects and simply assumes
that any object (or person) that shares characteristics with the members of a
particular category is also a member of that category. This is a handy tool when
it comes to classifying plants but doesn’t work as well when applied to people.
The representativeness heuristic can cause errors due to ignoring base rates, the
actual probability of a given event. Are all people with dark skin from Africa?
Does everyone with red hair also have a bad temper? Are all blue-eyed blondes
from Sweden? The representativeness heuristic can be used—or misused to
create and sustain stereotypes.

AVAILABILITY HEURISTIC Another heuristic that can have undesired

outcomes is the availability heuristic, which is based on our estimation of the
frequency or likelihood of an event based on how easy it is to recall relevant
information from memory or how easy it is for us to think of related examples.
Imagine, for example, that after you have already read this entire textbook you
are asked to estimate how many words in the book start with the letter K and
how many have the letter K as the third letter in the word. Which place do you
think is more frequent, the first letter or as the third letter? Next, what do you
think the ratio of the more frequent placement is to the less frequent placement?
What is easier to think of, words that begin with the letter K or words that have
K as the third letter? Tversky and Kahneman (1973) asked this same question of
152 participants for five consonants (K, N, L, R, V) that appear more frequently
in the third position as compared to the first in a typical text. Sixty-nine percent
of the participants indicated that the first position was the more frequent
placement and the median estimated ratio was 2:1 for the letter K—however,
there are typically twice as many words with K as the third letter as compared to
the first.
Working Backward A useful heuristic that does work much of the time is to
work backward from the goal. For example, if you want to know the shortest
way to get to the new coffee shop in town, you already know the goal, which is
finding the coffee shop. There are probably several ways to get there from your
house, and some are shorter than others. Assuming you have the address of the
store, for many the best way to determine the shortest route is to look up the
location of the store on an Internet map, a GPS, or a smartphone and compare
the different routes by the means of travel.
Sub-goals Sometimes it’s better to break a goal down into sub-goals so that as
each sub-goal is achieved, the final solution is that much closer. Writing a term
paper, for example, can seem overwhelming until it is broken down into steps:
Choose a topic, research the topic, organize what has been gathered, write one
section at a time, and so on. Other examples of heuristics include making
diagrams to help organize the information concerning the problem or testing
possible solutions to the problem one by one and eliminating those that do not
work.
Insight When the solution to a problem seems to come suddenly to mind, it is
called insight. Köhler’s (1925) work with Sultan the chimpanzee, which
demonstrated that even some animals can solve problems by means of a sudden
insight. In humans, insight often takes the form of an “aha!” moment—the
solution seems to come in a flash. A person may realize that this problem is
similar to another one that he or she already knows how to solve or might see
that an object can be used for a different purpose than its original one, like using
a dime as a screwdriver. Aha! Insight is not really a magical process, although it
can seem like magic. What usually happens is that the mind simply reorganizes
a problem, sometimes while the person is thinking about something else.
In summary, thinking is a complex process involving the use of mental imagery
and various types of concepts to organize the events of daily life. Problem
solving is a special type of thinking that involves the use of many tools, such as
trial-and-error thinking, algorithms, and heuristics, to solve different types of
problems.
Creativity, the ability to generate original ideas or solve problems in novel
ways. Several attempts have been made to develop tests that will measure
creativity in people. In one elaborate study (Guilford, 1967), a battery of tests
was constructed and carefully analysed. Out of this work came the concepts of
"convergent'' and "divergent thinking."
Convergent thinking is concerned with a particular end result. The thinker
gathers information relevant to the problem and then proceeds, by using
problem-solving rules, to work out the right solution. The result of convergent
thinking is usually a solution that has been previously arrived at by someone
else. Convergent thinking is not the type of thinking people primarily use when
they think creatively. Convergent thinking is thinking in which a problem is
viewed as having a single answer and which produces a solution that is based
primarily on knowledge and logic.
The characteristic of divergent thinking is the variety of thoughts involved.
When thinking creatively, people tend to think in a divergent manner, thus
having many varied thoughts about a problem. Divergent thinking includes
autistic thinking (some thinking is highly private and may use symbols with
very personal meanings, dreams are an example of autistic thinking) and some
convergent thinking. Divergent thinking is thinking that generates multiple and
unusual, although appropriate, responses to problems or questions. When we
use “out-of-the-box” thinking, we’re showing divergent thinking
The creative thinker may use convergent thinking to gather information and
thoughts as building materials for the ultimate creative solution. At times, the
person may drift into autistic thinking, or free association, in which the symbols
of thought have private meanings. In the process of this autistic thinking, some
useful ideas that would have been missed by concentrating strictly on the
problem may occur. highly creative individuals show divergent thinking.
Creative people also show cognitive complexity in their thinking. Cognitive
complexity is the preference for elaborate, intricate, and complex thoughts and
solutions to problems. For instance, creative people often have a wider range of
interests and are more independent and more interested in philosophical or
abstract problems than are less creative individuals. People who think creatively
seem to have some personality features in common. Evidence obtained from
objective and subjective personality tests indicates that "original," or creative,
people tend to have the following traits:
1. They prefer complexity and some degree of apparent imbalance in
phenomena.
2. They are more complex psycho-dynamically and have greater personal scope.
3. They are more independent in their judgments.
4. They are more self-assertive and dominant.
5. They reject suppression as a mechanism for the control of impulse. This
implies that they forbid themselves fewer thoughts, dislike policing themselves
or others, and are disposed to entertain impulses and ideas that are commonly
taboo.
A personality dimension called origence (Welsh, 1975) has been shown to be
related to creativity. A person high on this dimension "resists conventional
approaches that have been determined by others and would rather 'do his (or
her) own thing,' even if it is unpopular or seems to be rebellious or
nonconforming." Such a person "is more interested in artistic, literary, and
aesthetic matters that do not have a 'correct' answer agreed upon by consensus
and that allow a more individualized interpretation and expression" (Welsh,
1975).
One factor that is not closely related to creativity is intelligence. Traditional
intelligence tests, which ask focused questions that have only one acceptable
answer, tap convergent thinking skills. Highly creative people may therefore
find that such tests penalize their divergent thinking. This may explain why
researchers consistently find that creativity is only slightly related to school
grades and intelligence when intelligence is measured using traditional
intelligence tests (Jung).
Research suggests that we actually become less creative the older we get. One
reason may be that as we get older, we know more. Although this increased
knowledge is generally advantageous, it may hinder creativity because we are
more apt to ignore evidence that contradicts what we believe to be true.
Furthermore, when we get older, we already have developed a set of solutions
to common problems, and we are more likely to turn to them and avoid
exploring more creative ideas. In short, getting older is not helpful in finding
creative solutions to problems (Gopnik & Griffiths, 2017)
a number of creative people report that after conscious thought has failed them,
insight suddenly appears when they are doing something completely unrelated
to the problem. However, insights do not really appear out of nowhere; they
blossom in fields which have been thoroughly prepared by study of the various
aspects of a problem. Insights may also be incorrect; they require testing to see
if they really do represent new solutions to problems, and this leads us to a
discussion of the stages in creative thinking
STAGES IN CREATIVE THINKING- Many years ago, through interviews,
questionnaires, and the reminiscences of outstanding creative thinkers, Graham
Wallas studied the steps involved in their thinking. He found that though there
were individual differences in the ways these creative people thought, there was
a recurring pattern. One way of looking at creative thinking is that it proceeds in
five stages: preparation, incubation, illumination, evaluation, and revision. A
good modern-day example of creative thinking in which these stages can be
found is the account of the discovery of the structure of the genetic molecule
deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) by Watson and Crick.
In stage 1, preparation, the thinker formulates the problem and collects the facts
and materials considered necessary for the new solution. Very frequently the
creative thinker, like Watson, finds that the problem cannot be solved after
days, weeks, or months of concentrated effort. Failing to solve the problem, the
thinker either deliberately or involuntarily turns away from it, initiating stage 2,
incubation. During this period, some of the ideas that were interfering with the
solution tend to fade. In addition, the creative thinker may have experiences that
(although the thinker does not realize it at the time) provide clues to the
solution. The unconscious thought processes involved in creative thinking are
also at work during this period of incubation. If the thinker is lucky, stage 3,
illumination, occurs with its "aha!" insight experience; an idea for the solution
suddenly wells up into consciousness. Next, in stage 4, evaluation, the apparent
solution is tested to see if it satisfactorily solves the problem. Frequently, the
insight turns out to be unsatisfactory, and the thinker is back at the beginning of
the creative process. In other cases, the insight is generally satisfactory but
needs some modification or the solution of minor problems to be a really "good"
new idea. Thus, stage 5, revision, is reached. This stage description gives us a
general picture of the steps frequently involved in the solution of problems by
our most talented and creative people. Another approach to the study of creative
thinking is to see how it differs from the more routine kinds of thinking we do.
Creative thinking and problem-solving are closely related concepts in
psychology, often intertwined in the process of generating innovative solutions
to challenges. Here's how they are connected:
1.Flexibility of Thought: Creative thinking involves the ability to think outside
the box, explore different perspectives, and consider unconventional ideas.
Problem-solving often requires flexibility in thinking to consider alternative
solutions beyond the obvious or traditional approaches.
2.Divergent Thinking: Creative thinking often involves divergent thinking,
which is the ability to generate a variety of ideas or possibilities. When solving
problems, having a range of potential solutions is beneficial, and creative
thinking can facilitate the generation of diverse options.
3. Originality: Creativity is associated with originality and the ability to come
up with unique ideas. Problem-solving can benefit from original thinking,
especially when facing complex or novel challenges that may not have
straightforward solutions.
4. Adaptability: Creative individuals are often more adaptable and open to
change. In problem-solving, adaptability is crucial as it allows individuals to
adjust their strategies based on feedback and evolving circumstances.
5. Problem Framing: Creative thinking involves the ability to reframe problems
or view them from different angles. This skill is valuable in problem-solving
because how a problem is perceived can significantly impact the approach taken
to solve it.
6. risk-Taking: Creative thinking often involves a willingness to take risks and
experiment with unconventional ideas. In problem-solving, being open to taking
calculated risks can lead to more innovative and effective solutions.
7. Imagination: Creative thinking is closely linked to imagination, which allows
individuals to envision possibilities beyond the current reality. Imagination can
be a powerful tool in problem-solving, helping individuals conceptualize and
explore potential solutions.
8. Cognitive Processes: Both creative thinking and problem-solving involve
complex cognitive processes, such as cognitive flexibility, associative thinking,
and the ability to make connections between seemingly unrelated concepts.
In summary, creative thinking and problem-solving share common cognitive
processes and characteristics. Creativity can enhance problem-solving by
providing a broader range of potential solutions, encouraging flexibility in
thinking, and fostering the ability to approach challenges with an open mind.
Psychologists often emphasize the importance of nurturing creative thinking
skills to improve problem-solving abilities in various contexts.