Cognition: Introspection

Introspection in the history of psychology

• 1868: Donders

• 1879: Wundt

• 1890: James

• 1913-40s: behaviourism

• 1950s: cognitive revolution

What did Donders (1868) do?

asked how long does it take to make a decision

• compared simple RT to choice RT

• first cognitive experiment

What did Wundt (1879) do?

opened first scientific psychology lab

• used analytic introspection

• trained participants to describe their sensations, feelings and thought processes in response to stimuli

What did James (1890) do?

reported observations of his own experience - some still valid

Is introspection useful?

we could report

• intentional states

• emotional states

• processes

• causes

What is the problem of verification in introspection?

we cannot check an individual report, but if lots of individuals report the same thing we have to be very sceptical to doubt whether it is true

examples of introspection in cognitive psychology

• decision making research uses report of subgoals, hypotheses, partial solutions and intermediate products to infer a problem solving strategy

• visual illusions

What is the lack of access problem?

Where the conscious self does not have access to processes and causes for most basic cognitive skills e.g., object/face/word recognition, language comprehension and production

How does blindsight illustrate the lack of access problem?

blindsight patients have an area of blindness in the visual field due to V1 damage, have no conscious awareness of stimuli in the blind region

but they can point to a moving object in blind region and make some discriminations much better than chance

suggests that actions have an accurate representation while conscious mind does not

Is choice always associated with awareness? - Dutton & Aaron (1973) love bridge experiment

good looking female experimenter on rope bridge or concrete, sturdy bridge

asked to fill out survey then after done experimenter gave personal number for any questions if needed

• those on the rope bridge called more

• researchers concluded this was due to heightened adrenaline as a result of less sturdy bridge which was misinterpreted as arousal

Introspection conclusions

much happens in our heads to which we have no access, even mental processes often assumed to require awareness do not