Cognitive Psychology 2
| Code | School | Level | Credits | Semesters |
| PSGY2005 | Psychology | 2 | 20 | Autumn UK |
- Code
- PSGY2005
- School
- Psychology
- Level
- 2
- Credits
- 20
- Semesters
- Autumn UK
Summary
This module will examine:
Perception, with particular emphasis on vision, but also hearing, taste, touch and smell;
The Psychology of Language, including linguistic theory, speech, parsing,word meaning, and language production;
The Psychology of Reading, including word recognition, theories of eye-movement control, and reading multi-media displays;
Human Memory, covering the basics of encoding, storage and retrieval with particular reference to real-world applications of memory research;
Thinking and Problem Solving, including heuristics, biases, evolutionary perspectives on human rationality, and group decision making.
Target Students
Second Year Psychology, Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience, Psychology and Philosophy students. Also available to Liberal Arts and Natural Sciences students.
Assessment
- 50% ExamSys (1-hour): In person ExamSys
- 50% Exam (1-hour): Written Exam
Assessed by end of autumn semester
Educational Aims
To provide students with an understanding of key findings in contemporary cognitive psychology. To demonstrate the ways in which psychological theories have developed to account for this range of findings. To provide specific knowledge about: human perception including visual psychophysics and links to neuroscience, studies of human memory including relationships between standard laboratory findings and real world memory phenomena, theories of language comprehension and production including reading and understanding, and human thinking and decision making, both individually and in groups. To encourage critical appraisal of empirical research and the models and theories based on such research. To encourage high-quality written communication skills.Learning Outcomes
1. Knowledge and Understanding
a. Generic Knowledge Benchmarks:
i. Demonstrate knowledge of the methodologies used in cognitive psychology and the way such paradigms are used to further scientific knowledge.
ii. Demonstrate understanding of the ways in which laboratory studies in cognitive psychology can generalise to help explain a variety of real world phenomena.
iii. Demonstrate understanding of the relationship between different types of psychological theory and the way in which empirical research is able to distinguish between competing theories and models.
b. Module-Specific Knowledge Benchmarks:
i. Demonstrate knowledge of the historical origin of cognitive psychology and its relationship with neuroscience.
ii. Demonstrate understanding of the principles of psychophysical studies of human perception, and knowledge of the known physiological bases of perception and basic psychophysical findings.
iii. Demonstrate knowledge of basic theories of psycholinguistics, with particular reference to theories and findings in parsing, word meaning, and language production.
iv. Demonstrate knowledge of contemporary cognitive models of human memory, the empirical evidence upon which they are based and the real world phenomena that they help to account for.
v. Demonstrate knowledge of our current understanding of human thinking and decision making, with particular reference to mathematical models of human behaviour and evolutionary perspectives on rationality.
2. Intellectual Skills
i. Supply evidence-based reasoning to establish merit of competing psychological theories in cognitive psychology.
ii. Handle primary source material critically.
iii. Evidence responsibility for own skill development though independent reading.
iv. Produce written work showing clear communication of ideas and research findings.
v. Locate library resources by electronic and conventional means.
3. Professional Practice Skills
i. Evidence of academic skills (essay writing; library research).
4. Transferable (key) Skills
i. Demonstrate evidence-based decision making.
ii. Produce well-organised written work.
iii. Ability to perform effective literature research.