ABSTRACT
For cognitive psychologists, information processing implies the creation of an internal representation of external events. The properties of the internal representation of a given event depend on: 1) The physical parameters of the external event, 2) The properties of the sensory system involved, 3) The immediate objective context of the event (e.g. the events surrounding it), and 4) The larger context defined by the kind of task involved and the subject’s prior knowledge about the event being processed. In this last class of determinants, judgmental aspects lead the subject to emphasize or, on the contrary, to ignore some dimensions of the event, thus modifying their internal representation. Therefore, internal representations are never accurate copies of events, and mainly reflect steps 2, 3 and 4 of our non exhaustive list.
