Cognitive Psychology and Neuroscience: Core Concepts

Posted on May 21, 2026 in Psychology

Multitasking and Cognitive Performance

Performance decreases when doing multiple tasks simultaneously. Practice can improve performance but does not eliminate costs. Task switching incurs costs, specifically the time required to reconfigure the mental set. The multiple demand system is a network of brain regions activated during diverse cognitive tasks.

Feature Integration Theory

Early processing involves features (color, shape) detected automatically in parallel. Later processing requires features to be bound together by attention (serial). This explains the binding problem—how the brain combines features into a unified object.

  • Feature search: Find an item by a single feature (e.g., red X among blue X’s); this is fast, parallel, and exhibits a pop-out effect.
  • Conjunction search: Find an item by a combination of features (e.g., red X among red O’s and blue X’s); this is slow, serial, and requires attention.
  • Illusory conjunction: Without attention, features can be incorrectly combined (e.g., seeing a blue triangle when shown a blue square and a red triangle).

Spatial Attention

Posner paradigm: Used to measure covert attention. A cue indicates where a target will appear.

  • Valid cue: Correct location leads to faster reaction times.
  • Invalid cue: Incorrect location leads to slower reaction times due to the cost of reorienting.
  • Endogenous cues: Symbolic cues (like arrows) that are voluntary and slow.
  • Exogenous cues: Flashes that are automatic and fast.

Types of Memory

  • Short-term memory (STM): Limited capacity (~7±2 items), brief duration (~20-30 seconds), and maintenance via rehearsal.
  • Working memory: Active manipulation of information. The Baddeley model includes the central executive, phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad, and episodic buffer.
  • Long-term memory (LTM): Unlimited capacity and permanent storage.

Divisions of Long-Term Memory

  • Explicit/Declarative: Conscious recall. Includes episodic (personal experiences) and semantic (facts and concepts).
  • Implicit/Nondeclarative: Unconscious. Includes procedural skills, priming, and conditioning.
  • London taxi drivers: Research shows an enlarged posterior hippocampus and a smaller anterior hippocampus.

Memory Concepts

  • Retrograde amnesia: Loss of memories from before an injury or onset.
  • Anterograde amnesia: Inability to form new memories after an injury or onset.
  • Reconstructive processes: Memory is not a recording; it is reconstructed using schemas, inferences, and expectations.
  • Seven sins of memory (Schacter): Transience, absent-mindedness, blocking, misattribution, suggestibility, bias, and persistence.
  • Alzheimer’s disease: Progressive memory loss characterized by hippocampal and cortical degeneration, plaques, and tangles.

Neuroscience Methods

  • Lesion methods: Studying brain-damaged patients. Pro: Shows necessity. Con: Lack of control over location, brain reorganization, and individual differences.
  • TMS (Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation): Temporary disruption of a brain region. Pro: Causal, reversible, and precise. Con: Limited to surface regions and can be uncomfortable.
  • Single-unit recording: Recording individual neurons. Pro: High spatial/temporal resolution. Con: Invasive, usually limited to animals, and restricted sampling.
  • fMRI: Measures blood oxygen (BOLD signal). Pro: Non-invasive, good spatial resolution, whole-brain coverage. Con: Indirect measure, poor temporal resolution (~2 seconds), expensive, and loud.
  • EEG: Scalp electrodes measure electrical activity. Pro: Excellent temporal resolution (ms), non-invasive, and cheap. Con: Poor spatial resolution, limited to the cortical surface.
  • MEG: Measures magnetic fields. Pro: Better spatial resolution than EEG with good temporal resolution. Con: Very expensive and sensitive to movement.

Decision Making

Expected Value vs. Utility: Expected Value (EV) = probability × monetary value. Utility accounts for subjective value (diminishing marginal utility).

St. Petersburg Paradox: A coin flip game with infinite expected value, yet people will not pay much to play. This demonstrates that EV does not predict behavior, but utility does.

Normative vs. Descriptive: Normative models define how people should decide (rational), while descriptive models define how people actually decide.

Bayes’ Rule

Update beliefs based on new evidence: P(H|E) = P(E|H) × P(H) / P(E). This is the optimal way to combine prior knowledge with current sensory information.

Game Theory

  • Prisoner’s Dilemma: Mutual cooperation is the best joint outcome, but defection is the dominant strategy. Mutual defection results in a Nash equilibrium that is worse than cooperation.
  • Nash Equilibrium: A state where no player can improve their outcome by changing their strategy given the strategies of others.
  • Public Goods Game: Highlights the tension between individual and collective rationality regarding contributions to a shared pool.
  • Ultimatum Game: Proposer splits money; responder accepts or rejects. Rationality suggests accepting any offer, but humans often reject unfair offers due to fairness or punishment motives.
  • Dictator Game: Proposer decides the split with no rejection option, revealing altruism and fairness preferences.