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Short Paper Guidelines and Rubric.html

PSY 540 Short Paper Guidelines and Rubric

Twice during this course, you will assume the role of a psychology professional in an applied setting and apply theories to suggest solutions to contemporary problems through a short paper. The purpose of these papers is to help you identify gaps in and propose improvements for professional disciplines based on the strengths and limitations of human cognitive systems while assessing foundational theories of cognitive psychology for their relevance to real-world issues.

Short papers should be approximately 3 to 5 pages in length and should be directed toward someone with limited or no background knowledge of psychological concepts or terminology. Because of this, you will want to explain relevant terms and concepts as you work through your paper. Be sure to use proper APA formatting and citation.

Your paper should include all of the following elements:

• An explanation of two theories to support the paper and how they connect to the applied setting
• An explanation of concepts and terminology appropriate for someone with limited or no background knowledge of psychological concepts
• An application of actionable steps to improve cognition

What to Submit

12-point Times New Roman font, one-inch margins, APA-formatted citations for all sources used, and appropriate sentence structure. The paper should be 3 to 5 pages, not including references.

Short Paper Rubric

Criteria	Proficient (100%)	Needs Improvement (85%)	Not Evident (0%)	Value
Theories	Explains two theories to support the paper and directly connect them to the applied setting	Explains two theories to support the paper but does not directly connect them to the applied setting, or theories are incorrectly applied	Does not include theories to support the paper	35
Concepts and Terminology	Explains concepts and terminology using language appropriate for someone with limited or no background knowledge of psychological concepts	Explains concepts and terminology, but does not use language appropriate for someone with limited or no background knowledge of psychological concepts	Does not explain concepts and terminology	20
Application	Applies actionable steps to improve cognitive function	Applies steps to improve cognitive function, but steps are unrealistic and not actionable	Does not apply steps to improve cognitive function	30
Articulation of Response	Uses appropriate sentence structure and APA format and citations	Sentence structure and improper APA citations make the paper difficult to follow	Does not provide a readable paper	15
Total:	100%

Module Overview12.html

Visual Perception

Figure 3.1 (Kitaoka, 2003)

What do you see when you look at the above image? Do you see the circles rotating? What happens to the rotating circles when you look directly at them? Does the motion stop? What happens when you look at the image with peripheral vision?

The image above is called “Rotating Snakes” and was created by Akiyoshi Kitaoka. When you look at it, you should see that the circles are spinning. However, it is actually a static picture, with no motion. The image makes use of the peripheral drift illusion (Kitaoka & Ashida, 2003). In this illusion, illusory motion is perceived in peripheral vision. Thus, when looking directly at the circles, the motion appears to stop or slow down. However, looking at the illusion with peripheral vision enhances the effect and increases the amount of motion perceived. The illusion occurs because of the reflected luminance (the intensity of the light being reflected) of the different patches of color. For some reason, when this luminance profile is created, it activates motion-detecting neurons in the visual system, and the brain perceives motion. It is also possible to create this illusion using just black, white, and gray (Rogers-Ramachandran & Ramachandran, 2010).

There are a number of motion-inducing visual illusions like the one above. Additionally, many other types of visual illusions exist. Visual illusions use principles of visual processing to fool or trick us into perceiving something that is not there. Beyond being fun to explore, they also teach us something very important about visual perception. They show us that what we see is a product of what our brain creates, not what is actually there. Our brains use cues from the environment to create the best reality for us; however, we may interpret things a little differently than what is physically there. For example, in the image above, we see motion where no motion exists.

Because our visual reality is created by our brains, it follows that damage to the brain or to the visual system will result in changes to our visual perception. Cognitive psychologists are interested in studying these changes and disorders because they can help us identify different systems within the brain. For example, it is possible to have brain damage that leaves an individual without the ability to identify objects. However, that same individual will generally still be able to reach for and use the objects. This dissociation highlights the fact that there are different visual pathways in the brain. One pathway exists for identifying objects (the “what pathway”), while another exists for guiding movements to objects (the “how pathway”) (Sternberg & Sternberg, 2016).

The connection between cognitive psychology and understanding the principles of visual perception and the functioning of the visual system is important in two ways.

First, recall from Module One the concept of embodied cognition: Cognition is influenced by the body and the environment. In visual perception, our bodies and our environments influence what we are able to perceive or how we perceive things. Thus, visual perception is influenced by embodiment. Through understanding embodiment and the general ideas of cognitive psychology, we can gain a more complete understanding of what will influence visual perception. As a result, cognitive psychology offers a nice lens for examining visual perception.

Second, understanding visual perception can also provide clues into other areas of cognitive psychology. What we perceive in our environment will influence our attention, our memories, and our emotions. For example, a certain color standing out in the crowd might direct your attention to a certain area of a visual display. We will have a chance to explore attention and memory later in the course. Getting a good foundation in ideas such as top-down processing and feature matching theories now will help you have a complete picture of how cognitive processes work and interact with each other.

References

Kitaoka, A. (2003). Akiyoshi’s illusion pages. Retrieved from http://www.ritsumei.ac.jp/~akitaoka/index-e.html

Kitaoka, A., & Ashida, H. (2003). Phenomenal characteristics of the peripheral drift illusion. Vision, 15(4), 261–262.

Rogers-Ramachandran, D., & Ramachandran, V. (2010). A moving experience: Illusions that trick the brain. Scientific American Mind, 20(7), 22–24.

Sternberg, R.J. & Sternberg, K. (2016). Cognitive psychology (7th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.