Chapter 1 - Introduction to Cognitive Psychology

Cognitive Psychology

subdiscipline of experimental psychology focused on investigating the mental processes that give rise to our perceptions and interpretations of the world around is

Cognition

mental activity; refers to the acquisition, storage, transformation, and use of knowledge

Mental Processes

perception, memory, imagery, language, problem solving, reasoning, & decision making; knowledge through and not through the senses

Two meanings of Cognitive Psychology

(1) synonym for the word cognition, (2) theoretical approach in psychology

Cognitive Approach

theoretical orientation that emphasizes people's thought process

Goals of Psychology

describe, explain, predict, control

Learning

a relatively permanent change in behavior due to experience & maturation

5 Modern Approaches to Psychology

biological, psychodynamic, behavioral, cognitive, humanistic & phenomenological

Why do we study Psychology?

to know, understand, explain, predict, and manage behavior

Why do we study Cognitive Psychology?

to understand cognitive process and to apply such knowledge to improve things

Clinical Psychology

deals with memory & trauma; cognitive behavior therapy

Educational Psychology

stages of cognitive development; preparedness for learning

Geriatrics

care for the elderly; neurocognitive deterioration

Social Psychology

memory & perception; affecting social relaitons

Self-Development

better management of your own thoughts & behavior

Aristotle

examined topics such as perceptions, memory, and mental imagery; discussed how humans acquire knowledge through experience and observation; emphasized the importance of empirical evidence

Empirical Evidence

scientific evidence obtained by careful observation and experimentation

Wilhelm Wundt

father of experimental psychology; studies on reaction times, sensory processes, and attention; advocated for the use of introspection

Introspection

examination of one's own thoughts and feelings; where one systematically analyzes their own sensations and report them as objectively as possible

Hermann Ebbinghaus

pioneered the experimental study of memory, and is known for their discovery of the forgetting curve and the spacing effect; chose nonsense syllables during their experiments

Mary Whiton Calkins

reported the phenomenon called recency effect; first woman to be president of the American Psychological Association; developed guidelines for teaching college courses in introductory psychology

Recency Effect

recall is especially accurate for the final items in a series of stimuli

William James

father of American Psychology; known for his textbook Principles of Psychology

Functionalism

mental activity is to be evaluated in terms of how it serves an organisms in adapting to its environment

Pragmatism

find the simplest solution under the shortest time

Behaviorism

the view that psychology must focus on objective, observable reactions to stimuli in the environment

John B. Watson

most prominent early behaviorist; emphasis on external behaviors of people and their reactions on a given situation; famous for Little Albert study in which baby was taught to fear a white rat

Reductionism

Wilhelm Wundt

Structuralism

Edward B. Titchener

Functionalism

William James

Behaviorism

John B. Watson

Cognitive Maps

Edward Tolman

Operational Definition

a precise definition that specifies exactly how a concept is to be measured

Gestalt Psychology

a psychological approach that emphasizes that we often perceive the whole rather than the sum of the parts

Gestalt

an organized whole that is perceived as more than the sum of its parts.

Max Wertheimer, Wolfgang Kohler, Kurt Koffka

emphasized that organisms perceive entire pattern or configurations, not merely individual components

Wolfgang Kohler

Gestalt psychologist that first demonstrated insight through his chimpanzee experiments. He noticed the solution process wasn't slow, but sudden and reflective.

Insights

abrupt realization

Frederic Bartlett

forerunner of Cognitive Psychology; used materials such as lengthy stories

Schema Theory

human memory is an active, constructive process; we interpret and transform the information we encounter; we search for meaning, trying to integrate this new information so that it is more consistent with our own personal experiences

Jean Piaget

Known for his theory of cognitive development in children

Stages of Cognitive Development

sensorimotor, pre operational, concrete operational, formal operational

Noah Chomsky

Linguist; how internal processes affect our ability to consciously perceive, impact, and in the the world around us

Ecological Validity

The extent to which a study is realistic or representative of real life.

Cognitive Science

the interdisciplinary field that tries to answer questions about the mind; includes psychology, neuroscience, computer science, philosophy, and linguistics

Thinking

requires us to manipulate our internal representations of the external world

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

branch of computer science; seeks to explore human cognitive processes by creating computer models that show 'intelligent behavior' and also accomplish the same tasks that humans do

Pure Artificial Intelligence

an approach that designs a program to accomplish a cognitive task as efficiently as possible, even if the computer's processes are completely different from the processes used by humans

Computer Simulation or Computer Modeling

Attempts to take human limitations into account; the goal is to program a computer to preform a specific cognitive task the same way humans do

Computer Metaphor

a way of describing cognition as a complex, multipurpose machine that processes information quickly and accurately; our cognitive processes work like a computer

Information-Processing Approach

argued that (a) our mental processes are similar to the operations of a computer, and (b) information progresses through our cognitive system in a series of stages, one step at a time

How does the Information-Processing Model work?

Input -> Process -> Output or Sensation -> Intellectual Processes -> Behavior

Serial Processing

the system must complete one step before it can proceed to the next step in the flowchart

Connectionist Approach

Cognitive processes can be understood in terms of networks that link together neuron-like processing units; many operations can proceed simultaneously

Parallel Distributed Processing (PDP) Approach & Neural-Network Approach

terms interchangeably used with Connectionist Approach

Cerebral Cortex

outer layer of the brain that is essential for cognitive processes

Cognitive Neuroscience

combines the research techniques of cognitive psychology with various methods for assessing the structure and function of the brain

Social Cognitive Neuroscience

a new discipline that uses neuroscience techniques to explore the kind of cognitive processes used in interactions with other people

Brain Lesions

the destruction of an area in the brain, most often by strokes, tumors, blows to the head, and accidents

Positron Emission Tomography (PET) Scan

a visual display of brain activity that detects where a radioactive form of glucose goes while the brain performs a given task

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)

based on the principle that oxygen-rich blood is an index of brain activity; more precise than a PET Scan and is less invasive

Event-Related Potential (ERP) Technique

a procedure for recording the very brief, small fluctuations in the brain's electrical activity in response to a stimulus such as an auditory tone

Magnetoencephalography (MEG)

records magnetic field fluctuations produced by neural activity during the processing of stimuli presented to participants

Individual Differences

variations in the way that groups of people perform on the same cognitive task

Major Depression

psychological disorder in which feelings of sadness, discouragement, and hopelessness interfere with the ability to perform daily mental and physical functions

Bottom-up Processing

emphasizes the importance of information from the stimuli registered on the sensory receptors; uses a low-level analysis of the stimulus

Top-down processing

emphasizes how our concepts, expectations, and memory influence our cognitive processes; requires higher-level cognition