Lecture 2: What is Cognitive Psychology?

cognitive psychology

• study of how people perceive, learn, remember, use, & think about information

• i.e. perception, attention, problem solving, memory, reasoning, decision making, & language (& how all these factors interact w/ each other)

henry molaison (HM)

• 1953: underwent surgery to correct severe epilepsy → hippocampus was removed

• consequences: unable to form new long-term memories → ≠ sense of self

rationalist

• acquire knowledge through thinking & logical analysis;

• born w/ built-in concepts

• senses can be easily deceived (i.e. optical illusions)

• innate to discover truths of world w/o sensory

empiricist

• acquire knowledge via sensory experience (observation, experimentation, & evidence)

• mind is tabula rasa or “blank slate”

• use specific experiences or instances to form rules (i.e. touch fire → it’s hot → all fires are hot)

cognitive revolution

• emerged in the 1950-1960s

• arose from the limitations of previous research traditions:

  • introspection

  • behaviorism

How did cognitive psychology first arise?

• started by wilhelm wundt (1832-1920), father of modern psychology

  • late 1800s: began the study of experimental psychology with student edward b. titchener

  • 1879: founded first psychology lab

• focused on studying conscious experience (feelings, thoughts, perceptions, & feelings)

• relied on introspection

introspection

• observing & recording your own thoughts & experiences

• required systematic training

  • using specific lingo

limits of introspection

1. only person who can directly experience or observe someone’s thoughts is that person themself

2. some thoughts are unconscious

3. often impossible to test claims

   • ≠ directly observe or measure thoughts

   • self-report accuracy is often unknown

4. methods are ≠ scientific

behaviorism

• first half of 20th century: dominated psychology

• focused on observable behaviors & stimuli, ≠ mental events (beliefs, expectations, goals, etc.)

• 1920: watson’s “little albert experiment” (classical conditioning)

• 1950s: b.f. skinner (operant conditioning)

• 1957: skinner (limitation + operant conditioning = learn language)

What occurred after introspection?

• john b. watson (1878-1958) proposed behaviorism

• eliminate the mind as a topic of study → directly study observable behavior

classical conditioning

neutral event + reflex = outcome

relfex

produce an automatic outcome & not learned (i.e. touching something hot → immediately removing hand)

“little albert” experiment

• led by watson in 1920

• classical conditioning of fear of furry things

• 9-month-old became frightened by a rat pariring a loud noise with every presentation of the rat (furry things + loud noise = fear of furry things)

operant conditioning

• voluntary behaviors

• shape behavior by rewards & punishments

• rewarded behavior: more likely to be repeated

• punished behavior: less likely to be repeated

• i.e. good for training dogs

How did behaviorists believe children learned languages?

• B.F. Skinner (1957): argued that children learn languages through imitation & operant conditioning

• children imitate speech they hear → correct speech is rewarded

limits with behaviorism

1950s: stimulus-response accounts ≠ enough to explain behavior (i.e. passing the salt) → need to study mental events

How did behaviorism decline?

noam chomsky (1959): argued imitation + reinforcements (operant conditioning) are ≠ only factors that influence language → children say things they’ve never heard before or are incorrect (not rewarded)

foundations of cognitive revolution

• study mental events indirectly

  • measure observable stimuli & responses

  • develop hypotheses about mental events

  • design new experiments to test these hypotheses

Other than change in behavior, behaviorists like Edward Tolman (1886-1959) argued that learning also involved what?

acquisition of new knowledge–learning could occur without changes (i.e. rats in maze)

rats in maze

• rats acquired a “cognitive map” of their location w/o changes in behavior (similar to how we find our way to class)

  • day 1-10: rats w/o food

  • day 11: food was added

  • day 12: rats ran to food

• conclusion: ≠ change in behavior needs to occur for learning to occur

schemas

• frederic bartlett (1886-1969): first professor of experimental psychology

• suggested that people spontaneously use these mental frameworks to interpret experiences & aid memory

research methods in cognitive psychology

1. form a hypothesis

2. derive predictions from the hypothesis

3. collect data to test predictions

4. confirm hypotheses or modify/reject the hypothesis

methods

1. performance/accuracy measures

2. response time (RT) measures

3. neuroimaging techniques

neuroimaging techniques

1. MRI

   • structural

   • functional

2. PET scans

3. CT

4. EEG

cognitive neuroscience

study of the brain & nervous system to understand mental functioning

clinical neuropsychology

study of brain function based on damaged brain structures

e.g. H.M. who was studied by Brenda Milner (1918–), the founder of this field

research methods

1. experiments (laboratory)

2. psychobiological studies

3. computer simulations (more popular)

4. associative claims (less popular)

   • self report

   • case studies

experiments

• goal: identify causal relationship by changing 1 variable & observing the effect

• assigning groups: start with 2 equal groups

  • experimental & control

  • randomly assign experimental & control trials

• manipulate independent variable (only difference between groups)

• control all other variables (& prevent confounds)

• measure dependent variable (outcome)

typical independent variables

• manipulating stimulus materials

• controlling how participants process materials

typical dependent variables

• reaction time (RT) in ms

• accuracy/error analysis

computer simulations

using computer programs to model human processes (mind & behavior)

• simulate how the mind performs tasks such as: memory storage & retrieval, problem solving, & language processing

• strengths: test complex theories in a controlled way & model processes we ≠ directly observe

• limitation: oversimplify real thinking → human experience is more that what an experimenter enters into a computer

associative claims

1. self report

2. case study

3. observation

self report

• participants are asked to report or record answers through surveys or interviews

• verbal protocol (participants describe their conscious thought)

e.g. diary study

case studies

• intensive studies of an individual (may have specific abilities or deficits…or an intense study of “normal” functioning)

• ≠ generalization

e.g. Phineas Gage: survived a long rod that pierced through his skull → damage to frontal lobes → changes in personality

observation

observe behavior with little interference/intervention

examples:

• pilots: monitor decision making

• developmental psychology: mirrors used to observe children but they ≠ see themselves

themes in cognitive psychology

1. nature vs. nurture

2. rationalism vs. empiricism

3. structures vs. processes

4. domain generality vs. domain specificity

5. causal inferences vs. ecological validity

6. applied vs. basic reasearch

7. biological vs. behavioral methods

nature vs. nurture

theme in cognitive study in which cognitive abilities is based on genetics or experiences

rationalism vs. empiricism

logic vs. sensory

applied vs. basic research

trying to solve the world’s problems (e.g. priming) or explain how cognition works (e.g. figuring out the common errors of 1st graders → explain how humans process mathematical information)