1. Unit 6: Cognition WHS AP Psychology
Essential Task 6-1: Define cognition and identify how the following interact to form our cognitive life: schemata/concepts, prototypes, assimilation, accommodation, effortful processing, and unconscious processing. 
Logo Green is R=8 G=138 B= Blue is R= 0 G=110 B=184
Border Grey is R=74 G=69 B=64

2. Cognition We are here Unit 6: Algorithms Heuristics Biological Factors
Representativeness Heuristic
Compensatory Models
We are here
Problem Solving Techniques
Decision Making Techniques
Availability Heuristic
Unit 6:
Cognition
Obstacles to Problem Solving
Obstacles to Decision Making
Biological Factors
Acquisition and use of Language
Memory
Information Processing Model
Encoding
Storage
Retrieval
Cognitive Factors
Cultural Factors

3. Essential Task 6-1: Cognition definition
Outline
Cognition definition
Identify how the following interact to form our cognitive life:
schemata/concepts
prototypes
Assimilation & Accommodation
effortful processing & unconscious processing

4. Cognition Definition
Cognition, or thinking, refers to a process that involves knowing, understanding, remembering, problem solving and communicating.
Purposeful!
OBJECTIVE 1| Define cognition.

5. Cognitive Psychology
Cognition involves a number of mental activities, which are listed below.
Concepts
Problem solving
Decision making
Judgment formation
Language
Memory

6. Schema or Concept
The mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people. There are a variety of chairs but their common features make up your CHAIR schema
OBJECTIVE 2| Describe the roles of categories, hierarchies, definitions, and prototypes in concept formation.

7. Chair Schema Characteristics?
Furniture
Seat
Four Legs
Back
Arms
Sits one person
Cushioned
Made of wood

8. We organize concepts into category hierarchies.
Courtesy of Christine Brune

9. Schemata can get fuzzy Is a whale a mammal?
Are penguins and kiwis birds?
Are 17 year old people children or adults
People more easily detect male prejudice against females than female against males or female against female

10. Can I read your mind? State a color. Name or draw a triangle.
List the first type of motor vehicle that comes to mind.
Write a sentence
Give me a hero.
Describe a heroic act
Game
Philosopher
Writer
Pop Star

11. I gave schemata and tried to predict prototypes.
red or blue
a picture of an equilateral triangle
a car
a short declarative statement, e.g., “The boy an home.”
Superman, Batman, or possibly a fireman
a single act by a male, e.g. a rescue by a fireman
monopoly or some other board game
Socrates or Aristotle
Stephen King, or some other white male author
Spears or Tay Swift

12. Prototypes
A prototype is the BEST example or cognitive representation of something within a certain schema or concept.
Schema
List characteristics that make a place a college or university.
Prototype
Now list a specific college that BEST represents or embodies those characteristics.

13. Categories
Once we place an item in a category, our memory shifts toward the category prototype.
Courtesy of Oliver Corneille
A computer generated face that was 70 percent
Caucasian led people to classify it as Caucasian.

14. Schema
Developmental Psychologist Jean Piaget believed that children develop and modify schema by two processes:
Assimilation
Accommodation

15. Assimilation
Assimilation incorporates new experiences into existing mental structures and behaviors
Example: a toddler who has a chocolate lab at home would also incorporate Dalmatians into her schema of dog.
Assimilation lays the foundation for accomodation

16. Accommodation
Accommodation occurs when a child’s theories are modified based on an experience
Example- The baby with a theory of dogs is surprised the first time she sees a cat- it resembles a dog, but meows instead of barks and rubs up against her rather thank licking
The baby must REVISE her previous theory to include this new kind of animal

17. Why is this process important?
As adaptation continues, the child organizes his/her schemata into more complex mental representations, linking one schema with another.