Human Cognition Chapter 1

The study of knowledge

How you perceive, attend, remember, communicate, gather information, and make decisions, etc

The study of the conscious and unconscious processes that give rise to the mind

Conscious and unconscious processes

Operate as a continuous, interacting system supported by both distribute modular networks and global brain coordination

Modular Networks

The idea that the brain is organized into specialized clusters that handle specific jobs and then talk to each other to get things done

Neural Mechanisms (the physical/biological brain)

Studies the physical hardwire in the brain, including brain cells (neurons), electric signals, and specific areas

Neural mechanism example

The biological way allows you to remember. How neurons and brain structures make remembering possible like neural mechanisms of memory involve changes in connections between neurons

Modular mechanism example

Searching for a friend in a crowd-enhancement of neural (activity)-Biological basis. It’s only a neural mechanism if the focus is on what happens in the brain while you’re searching

Cognition Mechanism

Uses both conscious, active thoughts and unconscious, automatic processes in the mind to perceive, learn and make decisions

Cognition mechanism example

The act of searching for your friend itself revolves a cognitive mechanism, particularly attention and visual perception.

Filtering to relevant information like only looking for red in a crowd if you know your friend is wearing a red hat

Who would you be if you suddenly lost the ability to form new memories?

Patient H.M is a famous example of this. A surgery to stop his seizures resulted in the unexpected loss of his ability to form new memories.
He didn’t know himself anymore, how to interact, and he had no sense of self

A brief History of Behaviourism

We (and by “we” I mean Wundt and Titchener) started studying Experimental Psychology in the late 1800s

Focused on the study of conscious mental events (feelings, thoughts, perceptions, and recollections)

First method of experimentation: trained introspection

Trained Introspection Example

Imagine looking for a friend in a crowd. The search was overwhelming and hard with all the people there. When guided by a feature, it was easier to imagine. The search changed when it was guided by space and calmer to find. The search without help is difficult but a smaller group would help. But __is subjective by nature, and thoughts aren’t observable

What about unconscious thoughts/experiences

Unconscious thoughts and experiences cannot be reached by introspection at all, because introspection only works on things we are activity aware of

Behaviourism

Rises as a response to criticisms of introspection

A learning theory stating that all human and animal behaviours are acquired through interaction with the environment rather than internal thoughts or feelings.

Only focusing on hevaiours is also inherently limited. Behaviours are shaped by mental events that we can’t see

Inference to explanation

We need to study mental processes to understand cognition, but we need a scientifically appropriate method

The solution burrows from Kant’s transcendental method

Kant’s transcendental method

Begin with observable facts and work backwards from there.

What caused this observable behaviour?

An ____is caused by underlying invisible mental processes and capacities (such as perception, memory, and decision-making) that researchers infer by working backwards from the visible data

Example of Kant’s transcendental method

Another way-Think of it like being a detective- you a=can see the footprints left behind, and you use logic to reconstruct the specific, unseen steps the person must have taken to leave them there

Trained Introspection Example

At first I was overwhelmed by the number of letters. I noticed that they all looked very similar. Many of the letters shared the same features (a combination of horizontal and vertical lines). I began to move my attention around the scene and select potential targets. Eventually, I moved my attention to the top-left of the scene and noticed that something felt different. I narrowed my attention on the thing that felt different and realized it was the “T”, so I clapped

Behaviourism Part 2

Time it takes to find the target

Inference to explanation

The amount of similarity across the scene feels overwhelming. I think that might have been easier if attention was guided more efficiently to the target. (Eg, if it “stands out” more). Hypothesis-Things that stand out capture attention

Time it takes to find the target when it blends in VS “pops out”

Unique features more “pop out” visually, making them easier to find

Hypothesis-Unqiue features “pop out” whether they’re relevant or not. If this is true, search would slow down if a non-target stood out. Unique features capture attention. This helps search when the target has a unique feature, but hurts search when a non-target has a unique feature

Another example of inference to explanation

Imagine you’re at a pinic, and you’re looking for a red frisbee on a green picnic blanket. The red frisbee really stands out, right? That’s like an unique feature that helps you find it quickly. Now imagine you’re looking for a red frisbee, but there are also red apples and red strawberries on the blanket. Now, the red frisbee doesn’t stand out as much because other red things are there too. This makes it harder and slower to find the frisbee. So, the unique feature (the red colour) helps when it’s only on the target (the frisbee), but it hurts your search if other things also have the same unique features

Cognitive Psychology

Roots of cognitive psychology grew from criticisms of behavioursm, a long with European methods that were popularized in North American in the early 20th century. Agreement that we need to understand what’s going on inside out minds to understand behaviour

Cognitive Psychology 1950s

Notcied similarities between the capabilities of the brain and the capabilities of computers-to this day, cognition borrows terms from computer science

Research Process for cognitive psychology methods and inference to explanation

Form a hhypthesis

Derive predictions from these hypothesis

Collect data to test predictions

Data may support (not “confirm”) a hypothesis, or not

Methods are diverse

Different populations (children, older adults), different stimuli (written words, pictures, videos), different talks with different measurable outcomes (clap when you see the “T” VS point to the “T”)
Measurement techniques are also diverse

Behavioural Measurement

Response times

Accurary

Introspection

The active process of looking inward to examine your own conscious thoughts, feelings and motivations

Scientific Method

A step-by-step process used to gather data, test ideas, and Ameican Psychological Assocaition understand human behaviour

Behavioural Methods

Scientific techinques used to study, measure, and modify observable actions by focusing on how people interact with their environment