hello 
i am naveen kashyap and i teach ah psychology
at indian institute of technology gauwhati
ah one of the subjects in psychology that
i teach here is cognitive psychology and so
i will be teaching you this course
this course on cognitive psychology ah will
be covered through eight modules we will start
with introduction to the history of psychology
cognitive psychology then moving on to ah
the methods of studying cognitive psychology
we will ah deal with perception the basic
process of taking in information then moving
to attention the filter or the barrier which
which lets information gets encoded
from there we will move into how whatever
information has been perceived or taken in
into our system how that is ah stored as memories
further on we will look into what are memories
what are the type of memories which are there
how many processes operate ah things like
how processes of encoding and retrieval really
work and what is the way in which information
is organized in in memory
once you are done with memory we will move
into something called thinking which is a
higher order cognitive processes and which
draws on from memory now thinking is a process
which will lead on to something called decision
making another important proper process in
cognition which is central to ah the idea
of how people ah actually make decisions in
real life or how people decide or make choices
in real life
we will also be venturing into a little bit
into something called language ah which is
how people ah use signs and symbols to communicate
ah ideas between them because communication
of ideas or whatever one thinks whatever cognition
ones have sharing that cognition with other
people is also ah central to the idea of psychology
so let us then move ah quickly into ah a brief
history of cognitive psychology psychology
developed from philosophy it came out of philosophy
and philosophers ah where the people who actually
first proposed a how knowledge is stored how
knowledge is dealt and how knowledge is acquired
and so they led to the development of the
science which is ah psychology and so before
moving on to the history of cognitive psychology
ah lets look at a a a brief history of the
philosophical inputs to cognitive psychology
so one of the brief inputs of philosophy or
one of the brief debates of philosophy which
led to the science of development of cognitive
psychology ah was the debate on something
called nativism and empiricism what is this
debate
empiricism explains that knowledge the idea
of knowledge or the idea of how knowledge
gets stored it comes from individuals experiences
so individual so their own experience to their
own interaction with people around them with
society around them or through memories or
through or other kind of experiencing systems
ah generate knowledge
whereas the nativist believed that the role
of heredity the role of biology or the role
of constitutional factors are responsible
for the generation of knowledge so what was
the debate all about on the empresses side
we have people like ah aristotle and people
like john locke now john locke for one who
was an en ah english philosopher ah from sixteen
thirty two to seventeen o four he talked about
knowledge or the basic of cognitive psychology
in terms of contents of the mind
so what is the content of mind and he said
that mind compose of thoughts it comprises
of thoughts and these thoughts are mental
images a series of mental images which are
associated together and they are what mind
is all about or knowledge is all about also
john locke proposed the idea that people at
the time of birth bo are born with a blank
state of mind so there is nothing written
in the mind itself and this debate that this
blank state or this idea that is bank state
with experience or true experience get written
up and that makes knowledge or that develops
knowledge or cognitions
similarly aristotle had a similar viewpoint
where he believe that personal experiences
of people is the reason how ah this knowledge
develops on the other hand people like plato
or people starting with plato other people
like rene descartes they believed that knowledge
actually comes from heredity or it comes from
the ah composition or biology and so they
basically are the descendants or they basically
progress from darwins point of view they believe
that knowledge is inbuilt or it comes as an
inbuilt mechanism and ah the fact that this
inbuilt mechanism is ah as the reason for
knowledge
specific to cognitive psychology rene descartes
who was a french philosopher he gave this
idea of mind and body plato believed that
memory is the first use of plato where that
memories were actually writings which were
on a wax tablet and he believed that this
mind that people have is actually a wax tablet
and the writings on this tablet is what our
memories and so what he goes ahead and says
is that these memories the way these memories
are written the way these writings are the
wax tablet the strength of these writings
actually explain or actually tell you how
strong or weak a memory is also the content
of this what is written on this wax tablet
will tell you about the content of memories
now the idea of john locke that this mental
images the series of mental images are actually
what are the contents of mind was contested
by someone called george berkeley now what
is george berkeley say he contested the idea
that thought processes or contents of the
mind cannot be mental images which are associated
together
the reasoning that he gave to this was that
abstract ideas like judgment or like truth
this cannot be conceptualized as mental images
as they cannot lead to this idea of the mental
images and so these were some of the ah some
of the basic ah philosophically passions or
philosophical view points of what psychology
ah in general and cognitive psychology in
special or in in particular are actually ah
comprised of or should comprise of
with the coming of someone con william wundt
in the year eighteen seventy nine the first
scientific school of psychology developed
william wundt developed this school at a place
in leipzig in germany and with his school
the first structural school of psychology
came into being the basic things or the basic
ideas that william wundt actually went ahead
and studied where the nature of consciousness
what is consciousness in the nature of consciousness
now consciousness as such has been one of
the basic materials or one of the basic ah
inputs which are the ah which are the subject
matter of cognitive psychology so what william
wundt was trying to do as a scientist as a
scientific school of psychology was studying
what consciousness is all about
for the first time william wundt was able
to explain psychology with a scientific viewpoint
now what was this scientific viewpoint and
what was william wundt actually trying to
do william wundt believe that any psychological
process can actually be broken down into sub
processes
now this idea of breaking a mental process
into his basic process is actually a hangover
which comes from the physical sciences and
since william wundt came from the basic sciences
this breaking of the mental process into sub
processes were actually hangover which he
had and what did he believe now william wundt
basically approached or described consciousness
as to ah two part system one he said that
cons describing a consciousness will require
two things characterizing the basic sensations
which is what are the sensations which characterize
the mental process things like ah the heat
the color the texture of the of the particular
ah ah sensation and also characterizing the
feeling what is the feeling associated with
now as you can see in this particular slide
what william wundt would want is to study
mental processes or mental ideas using the
basic ah process of of the hard sciences like
chemistry and physics on this slide you can
see that there is a structure of a ah chemical
or organic chemical compound and as you can
see this organic chemical compound is ah basically
composes of several parts and this chemical
compound in itself can be described by the
parts of our elements or ah the ba the elements
which comprising
what william wundt was attempting to do is
to study the idea of seeing this apple the
consciousness of staying this apple and break
it into processes greatly into basic processes
of how people see this apple as you can see
on the right hand side there is an apple and
there is a process to it
now the very ba the basic idea of apple what
william wundt said is comprised of these five
or six ideas what is the idea for example
it can be described the apple can be described
in color of in in terms of its color in terms
of its taste in terms of its of shape in terms
of its shine or in terms of how you feel after
eating it and that is what i was talking about
so what william wundt did was the idea or
the consciousness or the concept of apple
the mental image of apple the ah mental construct
of apple he described can be described over
can be broken down into its physical features
which is the shape color texture and things
like that and the feeling that we have after
eating an apple or how do we feel after eating
a particular apple
and the second thing is he also wanted they
also included so one thing was characterizing
the feeling and ah the basic sensations and
the second part of this was to deal with the
rules through which these sensations were
combined together what are the rules which
through which we combine the perceptions the
idea of an apple and the feeling of an apple
and so he he related that this could be done
through perception where in perception we
actually not only see the color shape and
size we combine them together to see a whole
apple
so in all what william wundt was trying to
do is trying to explain mental processes in
terms of the sensations or the the sensation
and feelings and also how these sensations
and feelings combined together to give you
the actual construct or the actual im ah image
of an apple this notion of taking a mental
image or taking a ah ah ah mental feeling
and breaking it into its part this led to
two major things
one he showed that mental activity mental
images can be broken down into basic operations
so when i see something or when i feel something
the feeling of a particular sunrise or sunset
can be broken down into its physical part
which is the heat that i feel or the cold
that i feel or the kind of feeling that i
feel and also the basic factors the basic
temperature the basic light intensity which
the sun gives off at sunset i would combine
these two two things together and then i get
this mental activity or the mental feeling
of what a sunset is
and this is the second thing that ah william
wundt was able to do was to develop an objective
method of studying mental activity up till
now most philosophers are talking about mental
activity as a process as etching on a tablet
or it could be in terms of consciousness but
none of these things could actually be studied
objectively could actually be studied or could
actually be measured as changes but what william
wundt did was take a mental activity was to
take from this mental activity and divide
it into its parts which can be measured and
which can which are observable in nature so
this is the the this is the contribution of
william wundt the problem with what william
wundt suggested was that mental images does
not gain guarantee a mental activity and so
the study of mental images in no way will
guarantee the study of mental activity
for example lets say i give you different
weights and ask you to compare two weights
one is ah lighter or whether one is lighter
than the other or when one is heavier than
the other its an easy task and most people
will be able to do it but the question is
do people actually realize that they are doing
this comparison or are people able to basically
center on those mental activities which are
required for doing this comparisons doing
this comparisons of mental weight and the
answer to this is no we do not have any idea
of what is the mental activity which is going
on what is the actual mental activity which
going on when comparing this face
obviously we will get answers on superficial
terms from people of whether two weights are
lighter or harder but what is the actual mental
activity which is acquire which is required
for doing this kind of calculation is not
possible lets take another example suppose
i asked you to describe ah the ear of a cat
what is the ear of a cat look like most people
will be able to do that but when i ask you
this question that when i said or when i asked
you what does the ear of a cat look like did
you actually bring forth an image of the cat
in your mind for answering this question not
many people will be able to answer it truthfully
saying that they do actually bring up the
idea or the image of a cat
why is that one reason is because we do predictions
and in terms of predictions we know how a
ear looks like and so how the cats ear would
look like it comes from semantic knowledge
and we really do not need to imagine a cat
and then look at its head and then look at
its ear in terms of mental activities to actually
come up with the idea of a ear of a cat or
describing the ear texture or shape of a cat
ear so these are some of the ah problems with
his theory or with his structuralism which
was a solution to that was attempted through
something called a new school which was functionalism
so the school of functionalism was started
by someone called william james and so william
james was ah off the idea that the nature
of mental activity is not the only solution
to ah studying cognition but rather the functions
of spec specific mental activities are what
require or or what is required what do i mean
by this
the functionalist perspective suggest that
the components of a mental activity are not
important but how those that mental activity
actually functions or actually is described
in in in a process is what is of interest
for example lets assume that we go to a lecture
now in a lecture for some people writing a
lecture down making note out of a lecture
down works that is how they learn and for
some other people listening to a lecture when
a lecture is being delivered is what is the
key is what is the key to ah to to understanding
ah of the contents of the lecture now the
people for whom listening a lecture or hearing
a lecture is the key to them for them to learn
what these people can do is find out what
aspects of listening in a lecture not writing
the lecture down actually helps them in understanding
the subject and lets suppose that they find
out or the reasons why they ah they subscribe
to listening a lecture is because when they
go into a lecture a listen to a lecture they
get a chance to ask questions or they get
a chance to see visual aids ah and learn things
these might be the reasons why listening to
a lecture is beneficial what they could do
is in future if they subscribe to a lecture
if they want to attend a lecture what they
can do is basically look at those lectures
which gives you opportunity to ask questions
they can look at teachers which give you opportunities
to ask more number of questions and then select
that particular lecture and learn for a while
so basically the functionalist approach says
that it is not the nature of mental activity
that is important what is important is how
the function of this is when this nature activity
actually ah takes place or when this the when
this nature activities are actually ah taking
place ah in in the real sense how does this
really ah go ahead and an explain mental process
so mental process is not just components of
ah mental images it is it is in terms of how
this mental process ah or how this the the
the acting out of this mental process actually
lets you gain knowledge
functionalism derives a lot from someone called
charles darwin ah who proposed that evolution
is ah the reason or the idea behind ah the
gaining of knowledge so basically the den
the the difference between functionalism and
structuralism in terms of explaining the history
of cognitive psychology is that structuralism
basically thought of mental processes thoughts
of mental images ah or prescribe the idea
that mental images are there and these mental
images can be broken down and then can be
studied and that is how a cognition or knowledge
is is generated
whereas functionalism talks about are not
these mental processes but rather how this
mental process operates the operation of these
mental processes is actually the way how people
generate ah knowledge
a third school which led or a third school
which led to the formation of cognitive psychology
was the get started school now this is a very
simple school and this school proposed two
rules one that the whole is always more than
the sum of its part what does it really mean
it subscribes to the idea that if we see something
as a whole and if you see a part ah the same
thing as parts they may not give us the combined
experience think of it in terms of a movie
when we go to a movie we not only see the
pictures but we also see the sounds the which
is coming from the pictures the whole movie
experiences combined together to give you
the idea of what a movie is well as you take
take the movie apart the picture the music
the sound ah the other effects everything
taken ah apart from it and then show you show
them one by one to you will you have the same
experience no you will have entirely different
experience
take another example the idea of a song now
song composed of lyrics it composes of music
which is there it composes of special effects
and so many other things into it now if i
take this apart if i first make you hear the
lyrics and later on add on or make you hear
ah the instruments which play with it and
later on come out show you or make make you
hear the basic effects or are the basic special
effects will you have the same experience
as when these combined together to form the
song no they are different and that is what
cognitive psychology or just all psychology
proposes of cognitive psychology
they say that the idea of studying cognition
is that cognitive psychology is that the experience
that you get from studying a whole process
is different from breaking the process apart
and so this school was in direct opposition
to william wundt school who proposed structuralism
where they said that the mental activity any
mental activity for that matter can be broken
down it is true parts studied and how knowledge
is gained her knowledge progresses can be
understood
another school which adds up or which basically
goes ahead and explains some of the basic
ideas about cognitive psychology or so one
of the basic ideas for cognitive psychology
is behaviorism now behaviorism was a school
which strictly proposed the idea that there
is a stimulus and there is a response and
each stimulus is bound to a particular kind
of a response so stimuluses leads to response
as the moon or main the optimal response is
always adapted as the effect of a stimulus
but behaviorism reasoned did was it didnt
subscribe to the idea of hidden mental states
rehesen behaviorism said since we are not
able to understand the mind we are since we
are not able to understand ah what is inside
somebodys head so let us look at what is observable
so one of the things one of the main propositions
of behaviorism was that lets look at what
is observable so if there is a stimulus and
it creates a response which can be observed
and this response could lead to a consequence
this is what it should be studied so study
a stimulus study a response and study a con
ah consequence to the response and this is
what should be the subject matter of cognitive
psychology cognitive psychologists should
not waste its time on what are the mental
processes what are the mental images what
is inside somebodys mind which and how they
direct the notions of knowledge gatherin
clark hull one of the behaviorist he proposed
that although mental events cannot be studied
through behaviorism but their existence can
be deduced by their effect on behavior and
so what he says is that although things like
motivation which is basically ah internal
behavior or is an internal even they it cannot
be studied but what can be done is that its
effect of motivation can be studied on ah
behavior can be studied ah ah can be studied
through what people do when they are motivated
so if somebody is motivated he will produce
most optimal responses and based on that his
efforts on doing that particular job or doing
that particular act will increase and that
is why this increase in the response when
he gets rewarded by doing that response basically
shows the presence of motivation skinner who
was another ah behaviorist he went so far
ahead and said that look there are nothing
called internal events there are nothing called
mental process and so the basic idea or the
basic subject matter of cognitive psychology
should be stimulus response and consequences
studying the relationship with what stimulus
says is to what response and optimizing understanding
what is the optimal response to a particular
stimulus and then studying how these responses
are strengthen or weaken and that basically
happens through studying of consequences
the problem with behaviorist or the problem
why behaviorists were not successful in understanding
cognition or in developing cognitive psychology
was that they couldnt go ahead and explain
some of the most interesting behaviors or
the existence are some of the most interesting
behaviors
for example the idea of language or how three
d perception and things like language or ah
death perception initiates in people this
led to the fall of behaviorism as a proponent
or as a school which ah explains you what
the subject matter of cognitive psychology
is or what cognitive psychology is all about
since most of these schools were trying to
understand what should we the subject matter
of cognitive psychology or what cognitive
psychology is all about none of the schools
could actually come up with a definitive answer
of what is the true subject matter of cognition
behaviorism to some extent did give some very
good inputs for developing of a a theory of
cognition but they to fail in some ways because
they were not looking at external ah ex ah
events what behaviorism contributed was that
they developed some of the most rigorous ah
idea or experimental techniques of studying
cognition
also they for the first time ah went ahead
and studied animal cognition and they said
that studying the way animals behave could
lead to understanding how people behave or
how people gathered knowledge or how information
or how cognition really works so they although
didnt provide with ah enough matter to the
development of ah cognitive psychology but
they ah did provide enough ah impetus to the
development of a new school of how knowledge
is gathered and what is mental activity questions
like ah these
a new school came in and they started explaining
what is the subject matter of the mind and
how is knowledge gathered and this school
was called the cognitive school or the cognitive
revolution now up till this point of time
we have been dealing with psychology we have
been dooling doing with experiments in psychology
where we are dealing with people who have
worked in psychology and ah they have been
giving ah several definitions of what psychology
is what it should do what cognitive psychology
should do what should be subject matter of
psych cognitive psychology how knowledge is
gained and those kind of things
but the new school that came in and that explained
what is cognitive psychology or what is ah
ah the basic way in which mental events or
mental processes a function was the cognitive
school this school started with the development
of the first computers and this school ah
came up or this school was proposed or came
out from the ideas of people like herbert
simon allen newell and noam chomsky
for the first time with the development of
computers psychologists got an opportunity
to model the working of the human mind in
terms of sets in terms of items which take
in information and process it and to understand
how thought processes or how human thinking
or mental processes are actually taken care
of by the mind
now the computer gave the cognitivist an ideal
medium to study the internal mechanism of
how information knowledge is grasped is processed
and is developed and is used so as i said
before people like hermans herbert simon and
newell who give ah the idea of computers gave
the idea of computer processing systems provided
a chance for the development of the field
of cognitive psychology
now the basic to understanding cognitive psychology
is studying the mind right up till now we
have been looking at schools or we have been
looking at viewpoints from various schools
of psychology and what do you think about
or how they ah affected the development of
cognitive psychology is a field
from now on we will be looking at what is
the subject matter of ah cognitive psychology
and how it should be studied what are the
processes and things like that so one of the
things that led or that is the core to understanding
cognitive psychology or human cognition is
understanding the working of the human mind
now with the development of computers or the
cognitive revolution there was a chance to
compare human mind working with the working
of the computers
but the problem was the working of the mental
activities which led to the working of the
mind of how mind generated knowledge or how
mind generated any activity and comparing
that to a computer program is not a correct
ah solution the reason is because the analog
of mental activities as computer programs
are wrong is because the mind and or the brain
and the computers are made up of in two different
kind of things or two different kind of elements
whereas the brain is made up of neurons and
biological structures the computers are made
up of hardware electronic circuits and several
other things ah which are not comparable on
any dimension also the mind the analogy which
says that the minds and computers are same
it proposes that the mind is the software
which runs on the hardware which is the brain
no as i said the comparison of ah the mind
and brain to an operating system and the computer
is not correct ah what are the reasons that
i gave is because they are made up of different
different kind of elements whereas the brain
is made up of neurons and neural structures
and biologic based materials ah the computers
on the other hand are made up of electrical
circuits
also if you look at the mind and the brain
the brain the mind works on top of the brain
right which means that the operating system
of the brain and the brain itself are one
and the same thing or is a spot off of the
same ah structure whereas computers dont have
this specificity the idea here is that computer
programs can be run on different kind of computers
if i have an operating system no matter what
computer i have no matter what kind of hardware
that i have i can run this operating system
on it and so the hardware the operating system
the mind in terms of a computer an analog
can run on different different hardwares
whereas the mind that a person has the brain
which generates the mind this cannot be transported
to other person up till now this is not possible
where i can take in somebodys mind and and
transplant it to somebody elses hardware brain
and make these people similar
now these are some of the this is actually
one of the most theoretical questions or i
would say ah thought experiments in philosophy
where ah it is described that if i take the
mind the brain of someone a part of brain
or someone and implant it to someone else
ah who who was having a malfunction brain
as brains can can function ah ah half brains
can function on their own will they be the
same person now that is that is a thought
experiment in philosophy and so this is the
question here
so if i take your mind and put this mind lets
lets assume that i can take your mind and
put this on somebody elses hardware the brain
will two of you function similarly because
the brain is more or less similar in most
people and so it doesnt but on the other hand
in terms of computers what really happens
is that if i take an os operating system and
i take it to any hardware it keeps on functioning
or it keeps on ah working in the same way
also some software programs are so basic that
at times we take these ah software programs
and convert them into some kind of hardware
some kind of ah hardware programs for example
the basic i c chips which allows ah certain
ah currents or ah certain signals ah certain
kind of gates which are there in electronics
engineering
so at times simple programs computer programs
can we actually ah converted it into a chip
and this chip can be later on used for used
for ah use as an hardware but basic human
programs or basic human processes cannot be
converted into a part of the brain and can
be or ah shifted so thats what ah this it
says that sometimes deputy programs can be
cut converted into electrical circuits whereas
for humans is not possible
so then what is the how do we differ between
the brain in the computer or the brain and
the mind this can be understood in terms of
the various levels of analysis what does this
really mean levels of analysis actually means
the point from where you are seeing something
the point from where you are analyzing a particular
feature for example in a computer program
the two levels of analysis can be in terms
of the basic electrical current the basic
circuits that the brain has and the physics
of ah the computer
so one level of analysis will be how current
flows through ah several hardwares in a computer
and how these leads to the functioning of
the computer on a second level on another
level of analysis computers can also be understood
in terms of what various programs do how these
various programs go ahead what kind of processes
they do that they have what kind of functions
that they do and how they go ahead and and
actually ah create an output from the input
given
so one level is the physical level in in terms
of computers understanding levels of analysis
could be understanding computers in terms
of the physics of it in terms of the in terms
of the electrical circuits that it has or
in terms of the programs that run on it and
that describe the computer now for understand
this with a more easy example
lets say we are looking at a building so what
i am trying to tell you is what are different
levels of analysis so lets think of a building
one level of analysis of a building would
be the architecture would be the way the building
is constructed the design of the building
how it is how it looks what kind of rooms
it has and so on and so forth so this is a
higher level analysis
a lower level of analysis or another level
of analysis of this building could be in terms
or the bricks that is used to make this building
the cement that is used the steel rods which
are used and so in terms of the basic components
we make up the building although both levels
of analysis are talking about the same building
but they have different different viewpoints
of it and so this building can be explained
with the analysis with the level of the architecture
architecture input or it could be understood
in terms of the level of the basic building
materials
so then this is how the distinction of the
brain and the mind can be ah done true through
different levels of analysis what this would
mean is that when we are looking at any ah
mental process we can look at a mental process
from both a functional view as well as a structural
view
lets look at emotions what is the functional
view of an emotion the functional view of
an emotion is it is an arousal state it is
a state of arousal which quickly clients and
ah gets back to normal and through which people
experience feelings this is more of functional
view but what is the structural view of looking
at an emotion
the structural view of an emotion could be
expressed in terms of the brain regions which
lead to the emotion and probably the areas
which are related to amygdala or areas near
to it which leads to generation of an emotion
so the same emotion that i am talking about
the same ah emotion that people have can be
expressed both on a functional level in terms
of what people feel and also in terms of the
structural level of which regions the brain
lead to the development of this particular
feeling or with this particular emotion
another interesting thing or another input
matter subject matter of cognitive psychology
are mental representation what a mental representation
whenever we think about something maybe it
could be a job it could be thinking about
a friend a particular vacation whenever we
think about this a lot of mental activities
takes place in the brain and so these mental
activities actually excess or actually use
something called mental representations
so generally what is a mental representation
a mental representation is basically a physical
state that conveys information specifying
an object event or category or its characteristics
in terms of paper and pen a mental representation
would be the ink which writes a particular
letter the way the particular letter is written
in terms the brain it could be the neural
connections which leads to a particular kind
of ah network connection a particular kind
of mental state disease generated or in terms
of computers it could be a particular kind
of magnetic field
so mental representation basically is a notion
is a represent the way something is stored
each mental representation or most mental
representations have two things in common
one is a form of the mental representation
and the second is the content of a mental
representation
what is the form of a mental representation
the form of a mental representation states
the way a particular message is conveyed the
format in which it is conveyed the way in
which it is encode and the content of a mental
representation is basically the meaning the
knowledge the idea which is being conveyed
to that representation
so basically mental representation is ah think
of it is a ah unit of knowledge and this unit
of knowledge has a form which is in which
format it has been encoded so it could be
encoded in visual format it could be encoded
in auditory format it could be encoded in
some other format a haptic format and the
content is what is the ah data bytes into
it what is the knowledge into it so mostly
representations are like that
let us understand what mental representations
are and when i say that a mental representation
is a unit of knowledge and it can it has a
form and and a particular kind of a form and
a particular kind of content let me explain
this a little bit more
for example i want to convey to you the following
sentence the ball is on the box this sentence
means or this idea means that there is something
on something a subject an object and a relation
between a subject an object or it represents
an idea now this idea has two parts one is
what is second is where and the third is on
what so the bodies of the box the idea of
a ball being in a box can be conveyed through
two kinds of representations we can use a
propositional representation and we can use
a quasi pictorial representation what is the
meaning of that prepositional response are
representations will tell you two ideas and
how are these ideas related together whereas
a quasi pictorial representation is going
to tell you show you a picture of how these
ideas are related together so when i look
at the proposition of representation looking
into it i have the ball which is on the box
right so ball and box are two ideas or two
representations which are connected by a representation
on which basically means that something on
something and in this case there is a ball
which is a circular in shape and which is
on top of a box which may be or rectangular
in shape
so then what this representation proportional
presentation explains is a relationship first
of all so the ball is in the box if i represent
it through prepositions it could be in terms
it could it could have in terms of proportional
disposition it should have a relation how
the two ideas are connected together that
undulation here is on
second an argument what representations or
what ideas are connected i have a connector
on which is connecting two ideas but what
are the ideas which is being connected the
ball in the box what is the syntax of connecting
now if i just write on ball box it is not
going to make any meaning there is a syntax
to it a syntax a is that one ball a ball it
could be anything on which is the connector
a box on one thing and the then the connector
is so this ball is basically on the box lift
up when i am saying that i am talking about
the particular ball the particular box then
the abstract what is the abstract the ball
in the box the shapes of the balls in the
box
then the propositional representation it doesnt
happen in a special media in spatial media
and the reason that it does not hap happen
in space it does not explain you in space
how these are related so in space you will
you will generate the idea in your head that
there is a ball and there is a box and the
ball is on the box but you cannot see the
picture of the ball on the box although you
will it will generate the same idea of the
ball being on the box and arbitrarily related
to repre represent objects it can be arbitrarily
related to it
when i use a quasi pictorial representation
for explaining the same idea the ball is in
the box i can draw a ball which is spherical
in shape and a box oh here i have to be very
specific i cannot draw a triangular ball neither
can i draw a cubical box ah ah hectagonal
box obviously it is allowed but then most
box will have rectangular or squarish surface
and so i have to be very strictly to that
also the preposition of on suggest that the
spherical shape has to be on top of the shape
of the box
and so in this case there is no distinct relation
there is no distinct arguments no clear syntax
no concrete ideas but then what happens is
it happens this can be expressed in a spatial
medium what does these mean what is the meaning
of this the meaning of this is mental representations
or mental ideas can not only be expressed
in terms of words or in terms of prepositions
in terms of ideas and connector connectors
connecting these ideas but it will also be
expressed in terms of just images and so images
are one way of conveying an idea
lets take another example ram is running if
i say the sentence ram is running the two
ways of showing it i can use running which
is a verb or i can and then i can use ram
which is the noun and then show the relation
between that running is done by ram this is
a propositional so making the preposition
or i can draw somebody running doing the act
of running or make a cartoon of it and running
and then i can show that ram is running by
that particular thing both these representations
both these formats will actually convey the
same meaning
so coming back to the idea that mental representations
have a particular format and a particular
idea or a particular content as you can see
both these ways of representations have a
format the first one has a propositional format
and the second one has the quasi representational
format which is a special format of encoding
ideas what is the content the content of the
first is there is a an object a which is on
top of object b similarly with the pictorial
representations also the same idea or the
same information is being conveyed that a
is on top of b
so then these mental representations that
we have can actually or how do these mental
representations work the working of these
mental representations takes place through
a process a processing system and algorithm
so once we see something once we form a mental
representation this mental representation
is taken by the mind and this then this mind
makes meaning out of it through using a process
or processing system and an algorithm
what does the process do the process takes
in basic information and produces specific
out of it so the process will look at the
mental representation whether it is in propositional
form or in special form encode it through
a ah ah through a system of pros perception
attention that kind of ah thing a processing
system will compose of several processes and
these several processes will combine with
one another to give a output to give us the
idea that a is on b or that this is what is
being conveyed
so a process is basically one part of a processing
system a process is basically a format or
is is basically a process through which something
is some information is taken and this information
is transformed into specific type of output
this specific output is later on combined
through or it is is pros is passed through
several processes and these several processes
generally are comprised in something called
a processing system
so for example going back to the original
thing looking at the quasi representational
description looking at this makes you understand
this knowledge that a ball is on the box now
for this for you to understand that the ball
is on the box there are several processes
responsible and there is a processing system
which is processing it one process the first
process i would say which is responsible as
attention you have to pay your attention to
this particular image the special image the
process of attention will take out everything
else from the the vicinity of this particular
picture and what it will do is it will only
concentrate your mental concentration onto
this box and and this ball
the process of perception will let you understand
this or encode this in a visual format and
then there will be process of memory through
which what will happen is there will be a
comparison of the size of this the shape of
this the relation between this and then there
will be a process of thinking of up ah decision
making will not be a process here but then
this is how you will develop the idea that
the ball is on the table
so the processing system comprises of several
processes and these several processes one
after another gives you the final output an
algorithm is basically a step by step procedure
of how the processing system should function
so any processing system should function in
a particular way in a particular in in a particular
direction and this algorithms tell you how
to where to start where to go from there what
to expect out of it and then where to go from
there again
for example in the idea of perceiving the
ball and the box the algorithm tells the mind
or the brain to first look at the shapes pay
your attention to the shapes cut out the or
separate the background from the foreground
perceive this in the through the eyes in the
visual format hold it into working memory
let the central executive and an episodic
buffer of working memory talk to long term
memory and make a comparison of what you are
seeing and based on that generating this output
that this particular figure shows a ball on
the table so this is how the algorithm says
so it starts the algorithm says that it starts
with attention goes to perception goes to
memory those to this kind of memory they are
retrievers and then make making the decision
of how this ball is on the table or how the
what this particular picture explains
so up till now what we have seen is what is
the history of cognitive psychology and we
have looked at the schools of area schools
which gave their inputs or which led to the
development of the field of cognitive psychology
and we have also looked at what is the subject
matter of cognitive psychology we looked at
what are mental representations how they can
be encoded what is the ah ah format in which
we can encode and things like that we will
continue our journey by understanding why
should we study the brain at all if mind is
of what is importance why should be studying
the brain and then following on following
this we will also look at the several paradigms
of cognitive psychology or what are the basic
bodies of knowledge of cognitive psychology
thank you
