Cognition - Chapter 1: Intro to cognition

The mind

The system that creates mental representations of the world and controls mental functions

e.g. Perception, attention, memory, etc

The mind (con’t)

It can be used in many different contexts during conversations

e.g. In terms of memory, problem solving, creativity, etc

The mind (III)

Helps us store info as a representation so that it can be used and manipulated in the future

Cognition

The mental processes involved in perception, attention, memory, language, problem-solving, reasoning, and decision-making

Cognition (con’t)

It plays important roles in acting to achieve goals

Cognitive psychology

The study of mental processes, which includes determining the characteristics and properties of the mind and how it operates

i.e. Understanding and knowing, attention, memory, language, etc

Stages of cognitive processing

1. Perception

2. Memory

3. Retrieval

4. Thinking

Reaction time

How long it takes for a person to react to a stimulus’ presentation

Simple reaction time

Reacting to the presence or absence of a single stimulus

e.g. Pushing the ‘J’ key when a light comes on

Choice reaction time

Reacting to the presence or absence of multiple stimuli

e.g. Pushing the ‘J’ key when a light comes on the left, or the ‘K’ key when a light comes on the right

The conclusion of Donder’s reaction time experiment

Mental responses can’t be measured directly, but must instead be inferred from behaviour.

i.e. When measuring the relationship between the presentation of the stimulus and the participant’s response, he inferred how long they took from the reaction times instead of measuring responses

Structuralism

An approach to psychology that explained perception and experiences as the sum of small, elementary units called sensations.

Analytic introspection

A procedure used by early psychologists in which trained participants described their experiences and thought processes in response to stimuli.

e.g. Participants were asked to describe their experience of hearing all the notes of a 5-note chord played on the piano

Savings

A method Ebbinghaus used in his forgetting curve to determine the magnitude of memory remaining after initial learning; higher savings indicate greater memory.

Savings (con’t)

Is calculated by: Savings = (Original time to learn the list) − (Time to relearn the list after the delay)

e.g. If it took 1,000 seconds to learn the list the first time and 400 seconds to relearn the list after the delay, the savings would be 1,000 − 400 = 600 seconds

Savings curve

Plot of savings versus time after original learning

Savings curve (con’t)

Shows that memory drops rapidly for the first 2 days after the initial learning and then levels off.

William James’s observation on the nature of attention

Paying attention to one thing involves withdrawing from other things

Principles of psychology

A book published by William James in 1890 that proposed theories that are still broadly accepted today

Behaviourism

States that observable behavior provides the only valid data for psychology

A drawback of behaviourism

Consciousness and unobservable mental processes weren’t considered worthy of study by psychologists.

A drawback of behaviourism (con’t)

It derailed the study of cognitive psychology

Classical conditioning

A procedure in which pairing a neutral stimulus with a stimulus that elicits a response causes the neutral stimulus to elicit that response.

e.g. Pavlov’s meat powder experiment

B.F Skinner’s Operant conditioning

Focuses on how behaviour is strengthened by the presentation of positive reinforcer stimuli

e.g. Skinner showed that reinforcing a rat with food for pressing a bar maintained or increased the rat’s rate of bar pressing

The impact of impact conditioning

It influenced an entire generation of psychologists and dominated psychology in the United States from the 1940s through the 1960s, and saw multiple forms of use across classrooms, treatments, experiments, etc

Latent learning

Learning that isn’t visible until a later time

Cognitive map

A mental conception of a spatial layout

e.g. A rat makes a map of the path in a maze that contains food, regardless of where their starting position is

Gestalt and schema theories

When components of perceptual input are grouped into patterns and whole figures

Gestalt and schema theories (con’t)

Perception and stimuli of a figure depends on its meaning

Schema

A mental representation of people, places or things, based on past experiences coupled with interpretations of subsequent cognitions

Schema-driven (conceptually driven) processing

When schemas are sent down the nervous system for comparison with the incoming stimulus

Stimulus-driven (data driven) processing

When schemas progress up towards the higher cortical areas

Bottom-up processing

Processing that’s initiated by stimulation at the end of the nervous system

e.g. The sense organs

Top-down processing

Processing that’s initiated by generation of schemas by the higher brain structures

Broadbent’s 1958 divided attention experiments

Proposed that people had issues attending to more than one input

Broadbent’s 1958 divided attention experiments (con’t)

Certain stages acted as bottlenecks to info due to limited processing capacity

Schema theory

Proposed by Frederick Barlett in 1932, where different people may sometimes perceive stimuli differently based on their experiences

Skinner’s views on language development

Skinner argued that children learn language through operant conditioning

e.g. They imitate speech they hear, and that speech is rewarded

Noam Chomsky’s views on language development

He saw language development as being determined by an inborn biological program that holds across cultures, and as a product of the way the mind is constructed

Noam Chomsky’s views on language development (con’t)

Argued that kids don’t just learn language via imitation and reinforcement

Double dissociation

When either short-term or long term memory is impaired while the other remains intact, as they both involve separate mechanisms

How is information stored in the brain?

• Magnetic form

• Chemical form

• Connections between neurons

Cell assembly

When cells link together to form an eventual permanent network

Cell assembly (con’t)

Proposed by Hebb as a possible biological mechanism underlying the representation and storage of a memory trace

Cell assembly (III)

Temporary activation of a cell assembly may explain short term memory

Automatic processing

Activities or simple repeated tasks which take place with or without conscious awareness

e.g. Driving

Automatic processing (con’t)

Isn’t limited in capacity or resources nor is it available for conscious

Frontal lobe function and working memory

Central executive components of working memory may be responsible for consciousness

Controlled processing

Slow and voluntary activities that are under conscious control

Cognitive revolution

A shift in psychology, beginning in the 1950s, from the behaviourist approach to an approach in which the main thrust was to explain behaviour in terms of the mind

Cognitive revolution (con’t)

One of the outcomes of the cognitive revolution was the introduction of the information-processing approach to studying the mind.

Scientific revolution

A shift from one paradigm (dominant idea system) to another

Computer

Someone who’d “compute” complex mathematical problems in fields like astronomy and sea navigation

Information-processing approach

When the mind is described as processing information through a sequence of stages.

Information-processing approach (con’t)

The mind can receive, store, and use information

Cocktail party effect

The ability to focus on one stimulus while filtering out other stimuli

e.g. At a party where there are a lot of simultaneous conversations

Artificial intelligence (AI)

The ability of a computer to perform tasks usually associated with human intelligence

Logic Theorist

An AI program developed by Herb Simon and Alan Newell that could create proofs for problems in logic

When was the term ‘cognitive psychology' officially coined?

In 1967, with Ulrich Neisser’s textbook of the same

The impact of Ulrich Neisser’s textbook

It emphasized the information-processing approach to studying the mind

The content of Ulrich Neisser’s textbook

It covered:

• Vision and hearing

• How people search for information

• Capacity of memory

• Higher mental processes*

Higher mental processes had limited info in 1967

Atkinson and Shiffrin’s (1968) model of memory.

• Information is put into sensory memory and is held for a fraction of a second

• Most of this information is quickly passed to short-term memory, which has limited capacity and holds information for seconds (but is sometimes rehearsed)

• Info can be sent to long-term memory to be held for longer periods, or sent back to short-term memory to be recalled

The other facets of long-term memory

• Episodic

• Memory

• Procedural memory

Episodic memory

Memory for events, like“episodes” of your life

e.g. What you did last weekend, what happened on April 23rd, 2025

Semantic memory

Memory for facts

e.g. State capitals

Procedural memory

Memory for physical actions

e.g. How to ride a bike or play the piano

Neuropsychology

The study of the behavior of people whose brains had been damaged by traumatic injury

Neuropsychology (con’t)

Has been providing insights into the functioning of different parts of the brain since the 1800s

Electrophysiology

Measuring electrical responses of the nervous system, and made it possible to observe and measure the activity of specific neurons

Electrophysiology (con’t)

Most electrophysiology research was conducted on animals

Brain imaging

Techniques that result in images of the brain that represent brain activity

e.g. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)

Brain imaging (con’t)

In cognitive psychology, activity is measured in response to specific cognitive tasks.