Cognitive Psychology: Mental Representations (Angry Demons & Letter Recognition)

Описание: Cognitive Psychology: How We Represent Reality — Full university lecture series (introductory).

In this lecture, we dig into one of the most deceptively simple questions in cognitive psychology: how does the mind represent the world?

We’ll start with something so automatic you rarely notice it - recognizing a letter - and use it to unpack what cognitive psychologists actually mean by the mind. From there, we’ll build the information-processing approach, introduce David Marr’s three levels of analysis, and show why representations aren’t just descriptions of reality…they actively shape what problems are easy, hard, or even possible to solve.

And yes…we’ll end with a room full of very loud, very opinionated demons.

We’ll explore:
What cognitive psychologists mean by “the mind” (and why it’s not the same as the brain)
The information-processing approach: input → representation → output
Why models are tools for thinking, not mirrors of reality (and why a “perfect” model can fail)
David Marr’s three levels of analysis: computational, representational, and implementational
What a mental representation is... and why different representations privilege different questions
A worked example from perception: recognizing letters
Two classic models of representation:
1. Template matching
2. Selfridge’s Pandemonium Model (image demon, feature demons, cognitive demons, decision demon)

If you’re taking this as a student… or you’re a general learner who wants a rigorous introduction to how the mind works… you’re in the right place.

Course series: Cognitive Psychology: How the Mind Really Works
Instructor: Dr. Igor Juricevic (Indiana University South Bend)

Chapters / key moments:
00:00 Warm-up: how you instantly recognize a letter
00:00 What counts as cognition?
00:00 The information-processing approach
00:00 Why models matter (and when they fail)
00:00 Marr’s three levels of analysis
00:00 What a mental representation is
00:00 Letter recognition as a cognitive problem
00:00 Template matching explained
00:00 The Pandemonium Model (angry demons included)
00:00 Why representations determine what questions you can ask