Question:

The goal of this discussion forum is to offer you an introduction to the field of cognitive psychology. Cognitive psychology is a discipline within psychology that is concerned with the scientific study of the human mind. The mind is responsible for a variety of functions and abilities, including perception, attention, consciousness, memory, reasoning and decision making. Most of our mental life is unconscious. If the objects of our attention are equated to the objects of our consciousness, it is reasonable to assume that we are aware of only a limited number of events in our daily lives.

For your initial post, complete the following steps:

Watch the video entitled, The Magic of the Unconscious: Automatic Brain.

Select a "hot topic" of cognitive psychology based on what you have heard and/or seen in the media and your personal interests.

Look for a report in the media (e.g., newspapers, magazines, web pages of professional organizations, etc.) that refers to the selected topic such as "Defendant cannot remember what happened", "False memories explain UFO abduction stories," etc.

Describe the content of the selected report and offer your own perspective. Namely, use your critical thinking skills to examine the extent to which the claims made in the report and the evidence upon which the report relies are to be trusted. Then, discuss the real-life consequences of the evidence reported.

In your post, include a link to the selected report and explain to the members of the class why you have selected it. Support your points with evidence from at least one peer-reviewed research article. Your initial post must be a minimum of 500 words.