10264 Cognitive Psychology

Credits: 6 intermediate credits in Psychology

Prerequisite: Participation in Psychological and Educational Research

Recommended: Introduction to Psychology, Introduction to Statistics for Students of Social Sciences I, Introduction to Statistics for Students of Social Sciences II, Research Methods in Social Sciences

Authors: Dan Zakai, Yonatan Goshen-Gottstein, Nurit Gronau, Eran Chajut, Lilach Shalev-Mevorach, Dekel Shalev. The materials include a multimedia CD on complex perceptual processes, which demonstrates some of the central perceptual phenomena.

The goal of the course is to present the main research methods in cognitive psychology, and to provide knowledge about fundamental issues related to perception and memory.

Topics: Introduction: The emergence of cognitive psychology - central scientific paradigms; the developments in the research of mental processes; the emergence of cognitive models; brain research. Memory: The multi-stage model of memory – what is memory?; memory tasks; the multi-stage model of memory; the short-term memory debate; the working memory model; dividing long-term memory into separate components; implicit memory tasks and repetition priming phenomena versus explicit memory. The declarative memory – semantic memory research; episodic memory research: principles and theories. Perception: Sense and basic perceptual phenomena – psychophysics; sensation, perception and the brain – visual perception, audition. complex perceptual processes – attention mechanisms and perception; form perception; spatial perception; perceptual constancies; geometrical illusions; movement perception; the developmental aspects of perception; the effect of contextual factors on perception; Discussion: Are perceptual mechanisms innate or acquired? Cognitive neuropsychology: Foundations of neuropsychological research; neuropsychological disorders of high-level visual perception; neuropsychological disorders of visual attention.