UNIT 1:

cognition:

the mental processes such as perception, attention, and memory which is what the mind creates

cognitive psychology:

the study of mental processes, which includes determining the characteristics and properties of the mind and how it operates - cognitive processes include many unconscious processes beneath our awareness

cognitive psychology examines what?

mental processes:

• neuroscience, perception, attention

• memory

• language

• problem-solving, decision-making

mind’s central role in various cognitive processes:

the mind creates/controls mental functions such as perception, attention, memory, emotions, language, etc

how the mind functions?

the mind is a system that creates representations of the world so we can act within it to achieve our goals

Franciscus Donders (1868): (5)

• dutch ophthalmologist and prof. of physiology

• objective: interested in how long it takes for a person to make a decision

• 1st to investigate reaction time

• methodology is still commonly practiced today by psychologists

• space of donders - part of nose/mouth named after him in dentistry

reaction time:

how long it takes to respond to the presentation of a stimulus

Donder’s reaction time study:

• simple reaction time study - see one item on screen, press J when light goes on; reaction time recorded

• choice reaction time study - your told to press one button for one decision and another button for another decision, J for left light and K for right light; reaction time recorded

measuring reaction time:

• choice reaction time - simple reaction time = time to make a decision

• donder’s takeaway: mental processes cannot be measured directly but must be inferred from observing behaviour

Wilhelm Wundt (1879): (4)

• father of experimental psychology

• est. first scientific psychology lab at a university in germany (Leipzig)

• developed approach called structuralism

• used method of analytic introspection

structuralism:

overall experience is determined by combining basic elements of experience called sensations; developed by Wundt

analytic introspection:

participants trained to describe experiences and thought processes in response to stimuli; method used by Wundt that has not been empirically verified

Donder’s interpreted the difference in reaction time between the simple and choice conditions of his experiment as indicating how long it took to:

a. perceive the stimulus

b. process the stimulus

c. attend to the stimulus

d. make a decision about the stimulus

b. process the stimulus

which of the following is a criticism of analytic introspection?

a. it infers mental processes based on objective data

b. it produces results that are too easy to verify

c. it produces variable results from person to person

d. it requires no training

c. it produces variable results from person to person

Hermann Ebbinghaus (1885): (3)

• german psychologist, with famous optical illusion

• objective: to determine the nature of memory and forgetting/memory loss (how learned information is lost over time)

• experiment: he was his own participant, he tried to remember a list of nonsense syllables

Ebbinghaus - memory & forgetting: (4)

• savings = (original time to learn list) - (time to relearn list after delay)

• smaller savings means more forgetting, thus longer the delay the more you forget

• saving curve shows function of how much is remembered over time

• most forgetting happens rapidly over the first 2 days; with 50% of info lost after just 40 mins

William James (1890): (4)

• american psychologist/philosopher

• introduced patchy as a university course in USA at Harvard in 1875

• reported observations based on his own experiences: covering habits, consciousness, emotions, willpower

• first psychology textbook - principles of psychology

John Watson (1913): (4)

• dissatisfied with Wundt’s method of analytic introspection

• graduate student at university of chicago

• paper: psychology as the behaviourist views it

• what we must do is start work upon psychology making behaviour not consciousness the objective point of attack

Watson & behaviourism:

• john watson noted two problems with method of analytic introspection: extremely variable results per person & results were difficult to verify due to focus on invisible inner mental processes

• proposed a new approach of behaviourism, eliminating the mind as a topic of study instead proposing the study of observable behaviour directly

behaviourism is inspired by? (3)

• ivan pavlov’s discovery in 1897 of classical conditioning

• set foundation for behaviourism by showing that learning could be described objectively (salivating dog experiment - conditioning behaviour)

• watson then wanted to know if pavlov’s conditioning could work on humans —> thus little Albert happened

Watson & Rayner: (3)

little albert experiment using classical conditioning approach

• little albert was not afraid of any animals, pairing white rat with a loud noise (noise created fear response alone); then once thru associations the rat alone made albert cry

• experiment demonstrated (1920) that behaviour can be analyzed without reference to the mind

classical conditioning approach: (5)

• NS - neutral stimulus

• UCS - unconditioned stimulus

• UCR - unconditioned response

• CS - conditioned stimulus

• CR - conditioned response

B.F. Skinner (1938): (4)

• american psychologist at Harvard uni

• introduced operant conditioning, a type of learning in which the consequences of a behaviour affect how likely we are to do that behaviour again

• behaviour that is rewarded is more likely to be repeated

• behaviour that is punished is less likely to be repeated

4 main concepts of operant conditioning:

• positive reinforcement

• negative reinforcement

• positive punishment

• negative punishment

positive reinforcement: w/ex

adding something desirable to increase behaviour - most effective of the four operant conditioning methods (most of the time)

• giving a child praise for cleaning their room

negative reinforcement: w/ex

removing something unpleasant to increase behaviour

• taking away a child’s chores when they complete their homework on time

positive punishment: w/ex

adding something aversive to decrease behaviour

• getting a speeding ticket

negative punishment: w/ex

removing something desirable to decrease behaviour

• taking away car keys when their child misses a curfew

Chace Tolman (1938): (3)

• one of the earliest cognitive psychologists (called himself behaviourist, but not like watson)

• prof. of psychology at uni. Cali, Berkeley

• tolmans experiment: behaviour cant always be explained by stimulus-response pairing; rats must be using cognitive maps

cognitive maps:

in the case of Chace Tolman, concepts within the rats mind of the maze’s layout

the cognitive revolution of the 1950s:

refers to the shift from behaviourist’s stimulus-response relationships to an approach that attempts to explain behaviour in terms of the mind

• information processing approach - computers become a powerful analogy for understanding the mind

conferences on AI and information theory (1956):

• John McCarthy organized conference, summer research on AI in 1956

• MIT symposium on information theory, where George Miller presented the magical number 7 plus or minus 2

Ulrich Neisser (1967): (4)

• german born american psychologist

• significant figure in dev. of cognitive science and the shift from behaviourist to cognitive models in psychology

• first cognitive psychology textbook written by Neisser 1967, Cognitive Psychology

• his textbook coined the term “cognitive psychology”

3 brief canadian psychology facts:

1. James Mark Baldwin est. first experimental laboratory at UofT in 1891

2. first psychology course offered in canadian universities was 1838 at Dalhousie university

3. first distinct academic department of psychology est. at McGill in 1924 and UofM in 1936

3 women pioneers in canadian psychology:

• Brenda Milner

• Mary Ainsworth

• Doreen Kimura

Brenda Milner: (3)

• crucial contributions to our understanding of memory and was one of the founders of neuropsychology in canada

• produced one of the most cited papers in neuroscience: patient H.M. (1957)

• attended McGill university

Mary Ainsworth: (3)

• one of the most important figures in developmental psychology

• strange situation experiment demonstrated attachment styles

• attended the university of toronto

Doreen Kimura: (3)

• significant contributions to the study of brain mechanisms in human communication and sex differences (left hemisphere & language)

• founding president of the society for academic freedom and scholarship

• attended simon fraser university

5 fun facts about the brain:

• size: put two of your fists together

• weight: ~3.5 lbs

• contains up to 100 billion neurons

• each neuron is connected to thousands of other neurons

• accounts for 2-3% of body weight but consumes 25% or body’s energy at rest

levels of analysis: (3)

a topic can be understood by studying it at a number of different levels of a system

• we do not examine topics of interest from a single perspective

• each viewpoint adds a bit of information that when considered together lead to greater understanding

example of levels of analysis: memory

• encoding: getting info into the brain

chemical processes —> neurons activated —> brain structures activated —> groups of brain structures activated —> perception

• retrieval: remembering

chemical processes —> neurons activated —> brain storage —> storage activated —> memory

cognitive neuroscience:

the study of the physiological basis of cognition

• integrates 3 fields: neurology/neuro-psychology, neuroscience and cognitive psychology

neurology/neuropsychology:

branch of medicine, function and pathology of the nervous system

neuroscience:

brain structure and brain mechanics (neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, neurochemistry)

nerve net theory:

proposed that signals were transmitted continuously like highways

neuron doctrine: (4)

nerve net theory was contradicted by this

• proposed by Ramon Y Cajal

• individual nerve cells transmit signals in the nervous system

• these cells are not continuously linked with other cells, as proposed by nerve net theory

5 parts of a neuron:

1. cell body

2. dendrites

3. axon

4. synapse

5. neurotransmitter

cell body:

metabolic centre of the neuron

dendrites:

multiple branches reaching from the cell body which receive electrical signals from other neurons

axon:

tube filled with fluid that transmits electrical signals from the cell body to the synapse at the end of the axon

synapse:

gap between the end of an axon and the dendrites or cell body of another neuron

neurotransmitter:

chemical released at the end of the axon

neural circuits:

neurons form connections only to specific neurons, forming groups of interconnected neurons

mind: tb

system that creates mental representations of the world and controls mental functions such as perception, attention, memory, emotions, language, deciding, thinking and reasoning

cognition: tb

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

cognitive psychology: tb

the branch of psychology concerned with the scientific study of the mental processes involved in perception, attention, memory, language, problem solving, reasoning and decision making, in short cognitive psychology is concerned with the scientific study of the mind and mental processes

reaction time: tb

time it takes to react to a stimulus - this is usually determined by measuring the time between presenting a stimulus and the response to said stimulus

simple reaction time: tb

reacting to the presence/absence of a single stimulus (as opposed to having to choose between a number of stimuli before making a response)

choice reaction time: tb

time to respond to one of two or more stimuli; for example in the donders experiment subjects had to make one response to one stimulus and a different response to another stimulus

structuralism: tb

an approach to psychology that explained perception as the adding up of small elementary units called sensations

analytic introspection: tb

a procedure used by early psychologists (such as Wundt) in which trained participants described their experiences and thought processes in response to stimuli

savings: tb

measure used by Ebbinghaus to determine the magnitude of memory left from initial learning - higher savings indicate greater memory

savings curve: tb

plot of savings versus time after original learning

Donders (1868): what/results/contibution

• simple reaction time vs. choice reaction time

• choice reaction time takes 1/10 seconds longer therefore it takes 1/10 to make a decision

• first cognitive psychology experiment

Wundt (1879): what/results/contibution

• analytic introspection

• no reliable results

• established first laboratory of scientific psychology

Ebbinghaus (1885): what/results/contibution

• savings method to measure forgetting

• forgetting occurs rapidly in the first 1-2 days after original learning

• quantitative measurement of mental processes

James (1899): what/results/contibution

• no experiments; reported observations of his own experience

• descriptions of a wide range of experiences

• first psychology textbook; some of his observations remain valid today

behaviourism: tb

the approach to psychology founded by John B. Watson which states that observable behaviour provides the only valid data for psychology, a consequence of this idea is that consciousness and unobservable mental processes are not considered worthy pursuits of study for psychologists

classical conditioning: tb

a procedure in which pairing a neutral stimulus with a stimulus that elicits a response causes the neutral stimulus to elicit that response (ex: baby albert)

operant conditioning: tb

a learning process by which behaviours are made more likely to recur by the inclusion of reinforcers or less likely to recur by the inclusion of punishments; operant conditioning can be used to shape behaviour toward a more desired outcome

cognitive map: tb

mental conception of a spring layout

cognitive revolution: tb

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, one of the outcomes of this revolution was the introduction of the information processing approach to studying the mind

scientific revolution: tb

occurs when there is a shift in thinking from one scientific paradigm to another

paradigm: tb

a system of ideas, which guide thinking in a particular field

paradigm shift: tb

a shift in thinking from one paradigm to another

information-processing approach: tb

the approach to psychology, developed beginning in the 1950s in which the mind is describes as processing information through a sequence of stages (think computers)

cocktail party effect: tb

the ability to focus on one stimulus, while filtering out other stimuli, especially at a party where there are a lot of simultaneous conversations

artificial intelligence (AI): tb

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

neuropsychology: tb

the study of the behavioural effects of brain damage in humans

electrophysiology: tb

techniques used to measure electrical responses of the nervous system

brain imaging: tb

techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) that results in images of the brain that represent brain activity - in cognitive psychology, activity is measured in response to specific cognitive tasks

cognitive neuroscience: tb

field concerned with studying the neural basis of cognition

levels of analysis: tb

a topic can be understood by studying it at a number of different levels of a system

neurons: tb

cell that is specialized to receive and transmit information in the nervous system

cell body: tb

part of a cell that contains mechanisms that keep the cell alive, in some neurons, the cell body and the dendrites associated with it receive information from other neurons

dendrites: tb

structures that branch out from the cell body to receive electrical signals from other neurons

axons (nerve fibres): tb

part of the neuron that transmits signals from the cell body to the synapse at the end of the axon

synapse: tb

space between the end of an axon and the cell body/dendrite of the next axon

nerve net: tb

a network of continuously interconnected nerve fibres

neuron doctrine: tb

the idea that individual cells are not continuous with other cells as proposed by the nerve net theory

neural circuits: tb

group of interconnected neurons that are responsible for neural processing

receptors: tb

specialized neural structures that respond to environmental stimuli such as light, mechanical stimulation or chemical stimuli

resting potential: tb

difference in charge (-70mV) between the inside and outside of a nerve fibre/axon when the fibre is at rest (no other electrical signals are present)

microelectrodes: tb

small wires that are used to record electrical signals from single neurons

recording electrode: tb

when used to study neural functioning, a very thin glass or metal probe that can pick up electrical signals from single neurons

reference electrode: tb

used in conjunction with a recording electrode to measure the difference in charge between the two; they are generally places where the electrical signal remains constant, so any change in charge between the recording and reference electrodes reflects events happening near the tip of the recording electrode

nerve impulse: tb

an electrical respinse that is propagated down the length of an axon - aka an action potential; the rate of neural firing is related to the intensity of the stimulus, thus firing rate is consistent with the quantity of a stimulus

action potential: tb

propagated electrical potential responsible for transmitting neural information and for communication between neurons - APs typically travel down a neurons axon or nerve fibre

neurotransmitters: tb

chemical that is released by the synapse in response to incoming action potentials

principle of neural representation: tb

everything a person experiences is based on representations in the person’s nervous system