Cognitive Psychology And Information Processing

First published in 1979. Basic research, at its essence, is exploration of the unknown. When it is successful, isolated pieces of reality are deciphered and described. Most of the history of an empirical discipline consists of probes into this darkness-some bold, others careful and systematic. Most of these efforts are initially incorrect. At best, they are distant approximations to a reality that may not be correctly specified for centuries. How, then, can we describe the fragmented knowledge that characterizes a scientific discipline for most of its history? A dynamic field of science is held together by its paradigm. The author’s think it is essential to adequate scientific education to teach paradigms, and believe that there is an effective method. The method emphasizes the integral nature, rather than the objective correctness, of a given set of consensual commitments. They believe that paradigmatic content can be effectively combined with the technical research literature commonly presented in scientific texts. This book represents the culmination of those beliefs.

First published in 1979. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Originally published in 1974, this volume presents seven detailed views of human information processing at the time. While no single volume can do justice to the breadth of the area, it was hoped that the present selections reflected both the content and methodological approaches currently used by experimental psychologists concerned with the issues and problems of human information processing. The organization of the book is simple, proceeding from the human performance end of the continuum, an overview of which is given in the first chapter. Successive chapters are progressively more concerned with human cognition, and the last chapter gives an overview of human cognition. The intervening chapters are devoted to more specific topics and yield a detailed portrait of the models, findings, and methodology of human information processing.

Survey researchers have long been aware that the way in which questions are asked determines the obtained responses. However, the exact processes that mediate response effects remained elusive. In the present volume, cognitive psychologists and survey methodologists explore the cognitive processes that underlie respondents' answers to survey questions. The contributors provide an introduction to information processing theories for survey researchers, review current knowledge of response effects in the light of recent theorizing in cognitive psychology, and report a number of experimental studies on question context and question wording. In combination, the chapters provide a theoretical framework for the analysis of response effects in surveys and raise a number of applied and theoretical issues that have so far not been addressed in cognitive psychology.

Originally published in 1976, the authors present a theory of cognitive development based upon an information-processing approach. This approach leads to the presentation of precise models of performance on a number of tasks derived from a set of critical quantitative concepts: elementary quantification, number concepts, conservation and transitivity. These models encompass both early and late developmental stages, and a process model of the developmental mechanism itself is outlined. Here is one of the first attempts to apply the information-processing view of cognitive psychology to developmental issues raised by empirical work in the Piagetian tradition. It includes an extensive analysis of the processing demands of several of the classic tasks and describes the development of a system capable of performing a wide range of other tasks, including the ability to be self-modifying. It provides an introduction to general concepts and detailed properties of cognitive models stated as production systems. It will be most valuable for students in cognitive development and related courses in developmental, cognitive, and educational psychology, as well as computer science.

The plan for this volume emerged during the international Leipzig conference commemorating the centenary of the death of Gustav Fechner. The contributors suggested that while many features of modern psychological theory were anticipated by Fechner, many new theoretical approaches owe much more to him than often is realized. As such, they decided to honor Fechner by evaluating his own contribution to the founding of psychology and psychoanalysis, by deepening the foundations of psychological theories of consciousness, perception, and choice, and by using the analysis of time to create a new appreciation of constraints that bind mental processes together. Thus, this volume spans an extraordinary range of psychological topics, from hermeneutics to the time-quantum basis for mental processes, in a way that would both amaze and delight Fechner. Moreover, the international reach of his pioneering ideas can be seen from the current locations of the contributors. The span from Japan to the United States to Holland to Germany and to Israel provides a global measure of Fechner's scientific legacy.

Originally published in 1988 Applied Cognitive Psychology draws on the psychology of perception, attention, and cognition to give an understanding of some everyday activities and skills. Paul Barber focuses on processes involved in selecting simple actions, face perception, reading, and tasks requiring attention skills. He uses practical problems as starting points for discussion, including mental overloading in air-traffic controllers, cooker-hob design, the use of Photokit/identikit, and reading from computer screens. The book also examines the strengths and limitations of the basic analytical approach of ‘information-processing’ in psychology. As well as providing a textbook for students of psychology and ergonomics, Applied Cognitive Psychology will still be welcomed by those from other disciplines – management studies, education, sports science – who need to understand skilled behaviour in applied settings.