C1 The science of cognition

What is cogsci?

The science of how the mind is organized to produce intelligent thought and how the mind is realized in the brain

brief history of cogsci

• Modern psychology begins 1879'

  • 1st psychology lab in Germany

  • Wilhelm Wundt

  • Method: introspection

    • no clear results duh

• America: action oriented psychology, functionalism

  • theory of learning, reward&punishment; Edward Thorndike ~1890

  • behaviorist revolution: 1920s-50s

    • John Watson

    • not dominant in Europe

• Germany: gestalt psych

  • how the brain perceives experiences and processes patterns, not individual components

• Cognitive revolution 1950-1970

behaviorism (1920s at least)

• psych should only be concerned with external behaviour, consciousness is not a usable concept

• let’s not talk about perception, image, desire, emotion etc

• = external behavior is the concern, not the mind

• created methods for experimental study

3 main influences of the cognitive revolution

• information theory

• computer science & AI

• linguistics

Cognition

information processing

great feats of intelligence are the result of…

basic cognitive processes

introspection

analyzing thought into its components through self-analysis; examination on one’s own thoughts, feelings and behaviors

information processing approach

• attempts to analyze cognition as a set of steps for processing info

  • =way to describe a cognitive process into components

• abstract

• aka component process approach

• Sternberg’s abstract information processing account

• not always to be taken literally; more abstract

information theory

abstract analyzing of information processing; the mathematical study of the coding of information

Cognitive neuroscience

how cognition is realised in the brain

biological processes

Neuron

• a cell that accumulates and transmits electrochemical activity in the brain

• key part of the makeup of the brain

neuron parts

dendrites, nucleus, soma (cell body), axon hillock, axon, myelin sheath, axon terminals (terminal boutons), synapses

+neurotransmitters, action potential, arborization

what is a myelin sheath comprised of

myelin, schwann cells and nodes of ranvier

central nervous system CNS

brain + spinal cord

cerebral cortex

• aka cortex

• most recently evolved

• gyri (gyrus)

• sulci (sulcus)

• divided (brodman areas, major sulci (lobes))

subcortical structures

• under the neocortex

• generally associated with low-level, primitive functions

  • breathing, heartbeat, basic drives (cerebellum), memory (hippocampus), basic emotions and threat responses (amygdala)

topographical organization

adjacent areas of the body (or visual field) are represented in adjacent brain areas

Neural imaging techniques

• single-cell recording

• EEG

• Magnetoencephalography MEG

• Positron emission tomography PET

• fMRI

• TMS

the methods differ in e.g. spatial and temporal accuracy

MEG

magnetoencephalography

PET

positron emission tomography