Cognitive Psychology (Chapter 1: Introduction to Cognitive Psychology)

COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY

study of how people perceive, learn, remember, and think about information

- Memory, Attention, Perception, Reasoning, Problem Solving, Decision Making, Language

- A cognitive psychologist might study how people perceive various shapes, why they remember some facts but forget others, or how they learn language.

Dialectic

 developmental process where ideas evolve over time through a pattern of transformation.

THESIS

IS PROPOSED. 

•A thesis is a statement of belief.

ANTITHESIS

 IS PROPOSED. 

•A thesis is a statement of belief.

SYNTHESIS

INTEGRATES THE VIEWPOINTS. 

•A synthesis integrates the most credible features of each of two (or more) views.

2 approaches to understanding the human mind

Philosophy and Physiology

Philosophy

seeks to understand the general nature of many aspects of the world, in part through introspection, the examination of inner ideas and experiences (from intro-, “inward, within,” and -spect, “look”) 

Physiology

seeks a scientific study of life-sustaining functions in living matter, primarily through empirical (observation-based) methods.

2 Greek philosophers who have profoundly affected modern thinking in psychology and many other fields.

1. Plato (a rationalist) 

2. Aristotle (An Empiricist)

Rationalist

believes that the route to knowledge is through thinking and logical analysis.

Rene Descartes (1596-1650)

dualism between a material body and immaterial mind or soul 

- mechanistic explanations for the body’s functions.

Empiricist

• elieves that we acquire knowledge via empirical evidence (through experience and observation)

- would design experiments and conduct studies in which they could observe the behavior and processes of interest to them.

John Locke (1632–1704)

An English philosopher who theorized that the human mind was a tabula rasa at birth, and that all human knowledge comes through experience

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)  

2 domains of reality: noumenal and phenomenal 

• The phenomenal world is the world we are aware of; 

• The noumenal world consists of things we seem compelled to believe in, but which we can never know.

2 domains of reality

noumenal and phenomenal

phenomenal world

world we are aware of; 

noumenal world

consists of things we seem compelled to believe in, but which we can never know.

Psychology as science 

•It can be described spatially 

•It is not too transient to observe/measure 

•It can be manipulated experimentally 

•It can be described mathematically

The 2 “fathers” of psychology

Wilhelm Wundt and William James

Structuralism

What are the elementary contents (structures) of the human mind? 

Wilhelm Wundt (1832– 1920) 

• German Psychologist 

• Introspection

Functionalism

How and why does the mind work?

- focus on the processes of thought rather than on its contents.

- seeks to understand what people do and why they do it.

William James (1842– 1910)

• Principles of Psychology (1890/1970)

Structuralism

• seeks to understand the structure (configuration of elements) of the mind and its perceptions by analyzing those perceptions into their constituent components (affection, attention, memory, sensation, etc.)

Example of Structuralism

The perception of a flower 

• Structuralists would analyze this perception in terms of its constituent colors, geometric forms, size relations, and so on. 

In terms of the human mind 

• structuralists sought to deconstruct the mind into its elementary components 

 they were also interested in how those elementary components work together to create the mind

William James (1842–1910)

 A Harvard professor who established the first psychology laboratory in America. 

Pragmatism

 includes those who claim that an ideology or proposition is true if it works satisfactorily, that the meaning of a proposition is to be found in the practical consequences of accepting it, and that unpractical ideas are to be rejected.

Edward Lee Thorndike (1874–1949)

An American comparative psychologist who studied with James. 

• Studies the trial-and-error learning and formulation of the law of effect, and his studies with Woodworth on the transfer of training.

Law of Effect

Thorndike’s assertion that when certain stimulus response are followed by pleasure, they are strengthened, while responses followed by annoyance or pain tend to be “stamped out.”

Associationism

• - examines how elements of the mind, like events or ideas, can become associated with one another in the mind to result in a form of learning. 

Associationism may result from:

* contiguity

* similarity

* contrast

contiguity

(associating things that tend to occur together at about the same time)

similarity

(associating things with similar features or properties)

contrast

(associating things that show polarities, such as hot/cold, light/dark/, day/ night)

Hermann Ebbinghaus (1850–1909)

studied how people learn and remember material through rehearsal, the conscious repetition of material to be learned.

The Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve

shows that the first few repetitions result in a steep learning curve. Later repetitions result in a slower increase of remembered words.

Behaviorism

• What is the relation between behavior and environment?

John Watson (1878–1958)

The “father” of radical behaviorism. He believed that psychologists should concentrate only on the study of observable behavior

B. F. Skinner (1904–1990)

believed that almost all forms of human behavior, not just learning, could be explained by behavior emitted in reaction to the environment 

• Operant conditioning

Gestalt Psychology

• (The Whole Is More Than the Sum of Its Parts) 

•We best understand psychological phenomena when we view them as organized, structured wholes. 

•We cannot fully understand behavior when we only break phenomena down into smaller parts.

-  Cognitions should play an active role in psychology (Wertheimer, Kohler)

 In the early 1950s (“cognitive revolution”)

• Cognitivism is the belief that much of human behavior can be understood in terms of how people think. 

• 1950s: Development of computers

• Turing (1950)-(“Turing test”) a computer program would be judged as successful to the extent that its output was indistinguishable, by humans, from the output of humans. 

1956: Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) is the attempt by humans to construct systems that show intelligence and, particularly, the intelligent processing of information.

In the early 1960s  

 developments in psychobiology, linguistics, anthropology, and artificial intelligence, and reactions against behaviorism by many mainstream psychologists, converged to create an atmosphere ripe for revolution.

 1970s

Concept of modularity of Mind

 Jerry Fodor (1973)

• proposed the concept of modularity of Mind

• the mind has distinct modules, or special-purpose systems, to deal with linguistic and, possibly, other kinds of information.

Modularity

implies that the processes that are used in one domain of processing, such as the linguistic (Fodor, 1973) or the perceptual domain (Marr, 1982), operate independently of processes in other domains.

Psychobiology: Karl Spencer Lashley

• considered the brain to be an active, dynamic organizer of behavior. 

• sought to understand how the macro-organization of the human brain made possible such complex, planned activities as musical performance, game playing, and using language.

the monograph Brain Mechanisms and Intelligence (1929) contained two significant principles: 

mass action and equipotentiality

 Mass action

certain types of learning are mediated by the cerebral cortex (the convoluted outer layer of the cerebrum) as a whole, contrary to the view that every psychological function is localized at a specific place on the cortex.

Equipotentiality

associated chiefly with sensory systems such as vision, relates to the finding that some parts of a system take over the functions of other parts that have been damaged.

Alan Turing (1912-1954)

 Founder of computer science, mathematician, philosopher 

Ada, Countess of Lovelace (1815-1852)

 Daughter of the poet, Byron 

• Gifted mathematician 

• wrote first computer program – calculated sequence of Bernoulli numbers 

 The Lovelace Objection

Machines can only do what we know how to order them to do

Intelligence

is the capacity to learn from experience, using metacognitive processes to enhance learning, and the ability to adapt to the surrounding environment.

3 COGNITIVE MODELS OF INTELLIGENCE

1. Carroll: Three Stratum Model of Intelligence

2. Gardner: Theory of Multiple Intelligences

3. Robert Sternberg: The Triarchic Theory of Intelligence

Carroll: Three Stratum Model of Intelligence

-intelligence comprises a hierarchy of cognitive abilities comprising three strata

Stratum III

is just a single general intelligence (sometimes called g). 

Stratum II

includes various broad abilities 

Stratum I

includes many narrow, specific abilities

middle stratum

fluid ability and crystallized ability. 

Fluid ability

is speed and accuracy of abstract reasoning, especially for novel problems

Crystallized ability

accumulated knowledge and vocabulary

Caroll includes several other abilities in the middle stratum:

• learning and memory processes 

• visual perception 

• auditory perception 

• facile production of ideas (similar to verbal fluency) 

• speed (which includes both sheer speed of response and speed of accurate responding).

Gardner: Theory of Multiple Intelligences

Howard Gardner - intelligence comprises multiple independent constructs, not just a single, unitary construct

Type of Intelligence

1. Linguistic intelligence

2. Logical-mathematical intelligence

3. Spatial intelligence

4. Musical intelligence

5. Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence

6. Interpersonal intelligence

7. Intrapersonal intelligence

8. Naturalist intelligence

Linguistic intelligence

Used in reading a book; writing a paper, a novel, or a poem; and understanding spoken words

Logical-mathematical intelligence

Used in solving math problems, in balancing a checkbook, in solving a mathematical proof, and in logical reasoning

Spatial intelligence

Used in getting from one place to another, in reading a map, and in packing suitcases in the trunk of a car so that they all fit into a compact space

Musical intelligence

Used in singing a song, composing a sonata, playing a trumpet, or even appreciating the structure of a piece of music

Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence

Used in dancing, playing basketball, running a mile, or throwing a javelin

Interpersonal intelligence

Used in relating to other people, such as when we try to understand another person’s behavior, motives, or Emotions

Intrapersonal intelligence

Used in understanding ourselves—the basis for understanding who we are, what makes us tick, and how we can change ourselves, given our existing constraints on our abilities and our interests

Naturalist intelligence

Used in understanding patterns in nature

Robert Sternberg: The Triarchic Theory of Intelligence

• Creative abilities are used to generate novel ideas. 

• Analytical abilities ascertain whether your ideas (and those of others) are good ones. 

• Practical abilities are used to implement the ideas and persuade others of their value

Creative abilities

are used to generate novel ideas.

Analytical abilities

ascertain whether your ideas (and those of others) are good ones.

Practical abilities

are used to implement the ideas and persuade others of their value

Controlled Laboratory Experiments

Obtain samples of performance at a particular time and place

Correlational Study

An examination of the relationship between confidence and accuracy of eyewitnesses

Psychobiological Research

• investigators study the relationship between cognitive performance and cerebral events and structures. 

• Study animal brains and human brains, using postmortem studies and various psychobiological measures or imaging techniques

3 categories of Psychobiological Research

1. Postmortem studies

2. Brain-damaged individuals and their deficits

3. Monitor a participant doing a cognitive task

Self-Reports

• (Verbal Protocols, Self-Rating, Diaries) 

•Obtain participants’ reports of own cognition in progress or as recollected 

• An individual’ s own account of cognitive processes 

• Verbal protocol, diary study

Case Studies

• Engage in intensive study of single individuals, drawing general conclusions about behavior 

 In-depth studies of individuals 

• Genie, Phineas Gage, H.M.

Naturalistic observation

• Observe real-life situations, as in classrooms, work settings, or homes