Week 1 - Foundations of Cognitive Psychology

what is cognitive psychology?

• Earlier Days:

  • the scientific study of the acquisition, retention, and use of knowledge, focusing on observable behavior

• Recent Years:

  • The scientific study of the mind, focusing on mental processes

what is introspection? what are the limitations of introspection?

• the study of conscious mental events (feelings, thoughts, perceptions, and recollections

• “looking within”: observing and recording one’s own mental processes and experiences

• Limitations

  • no way to objectively test claims

  • not able to study unconscious thoughts

  • self-report accuracy and replicability are often unknown

what is behaviorism? what are the limitations of behaviorism?

• behaviorism: focuses only on observable behaviors and stimuli, not mental events

  • important in uncovering how behavior changes in response to stimuli

  • some behaviorists believe the mind is a “black box”

• Limitations:

  • many behaviors have a “mental” cause (the same stimulus can lead to different behaviors, and different stimuli can produce the same behavior)

what is the transcendental method?

• invisible processes have visible consequences

• reason backwards from observations to infer the underlying cause

what is the scientific method? what are the three steps?

• the systematic and iterative process of hypothesizing, predicting, and observing phenomena in order to generate new knowledge

• steps

  • 1) Pose a question

    • usually about the relationship between two or more variables

  • 2) Formulate a hypothesis

    • a proposed explanation, what you think the relationship is

  • 3) Generate a prediction

    • what we should observe if the hypothesis is true, if-then statements

  • 4) Make systematic observations

  • 5) Interpret observations to (dis)confirm or revise hypothesis

what are the three common approaches in cognitive psychology?

• 1) Experiments

• 2) Quasi-experiments

• 3) Correlational studies

how are experiments structured when studying cognitive psychology?

• Independent Variables

  • researchers manipulate (cause changes)

• Dependent Variables

  • measuring the impact of those changes

• Random Assignments

how are quasi-experiments structured when studying cognitive psychology?

• random assignment is NOT used

how are correlational studies structured when studying cognitive psychology?