Cognitive Psychology

History and Methodology

·      Cognition (definition)-is a field devoted to the study of cognitive of the science of mind, kind way said psychology- time period couldn’t use world psychology or cognitive so call scienftic.

·      Empiricism-observation as the basic for scientific inquiry (stimulus-> response associations)

Introspection-•1879 – 1^st psychology laboratory opened, Wilhelm Wundt (Germany, 1879),Used “scientific method” to explore conscious experience, Method of Inquiry = Objective Introspection , trained observers attended to their own sensations

Objective introspection-a research technique that involves analyzing one's thoughts, emotions, and memories in an objective and structured way

Behaviorism ( John Watson (1913)-a branch of psychology focus learn environment , cognitive

Ex: black box as through what in it

1956 – “Annus Mirabilus” (Pinker) – A “year of miracles”

WWII – practical concerns (attention, vigilance) unaddressed by behaviorism

Linguistics (Chomsky) - behaviorist perspective cannot account for language

Computer and information processing – Mind as information-processor

assumptions- Human beings are active information processors 

•Mental processes intervene between input (stimulus) and outcome (response)

anti-mentalism-the rejection of the idea that the mind is subjective, internal, causal, and nonbehavioral

Ebbinghaus, Chomsky – What is their major approach/interest-  human memory and cognition is as old as recorded history Scientific study of cognition is quite new

·      Assumptions of cognitive psychology

Ø  Cognitive Psychology

Ø  Experimentally observing people’s behavior

Ø  Cognitive Neuroscience

Ø  Combining evidence from behavior AND the brain

Ø  Cognitive Neuropsychology

Ø  The attempt to understand human cognition by studying brain-damaged patients

Ø  Computational Cognitive Science

Ø  Use of computational models to simulate and make predictions about human cognition

·      Cognitive Psych/Sci methods

§  Behavioral experimentation, EEG, fMRI, neuropsychology, computational modeling-scan it

•       -EEG- The brain’s electrical activity is conducted through the scalp, and can be measured non-invasively (can be use sleep)

•       ERPs- EEG activity occurring at a specific time relative to an event (e.g., a stimulus)

EEG/ERP

•       Access to internal (mental) operations

•       Temporal resolution very good (milliseconds) in that moment

•       Con/Limitation

•       Spatial resolution poor (centimeters) other moment

•       PET (position emission tomography)Radioactively labeled glucose in blood

•       FMRI (Functional magnetic resonance imaging) Exploits magnetic properties of hemoglobin (red blood cells) -big image that magnetic (example use for video games)

•       Pros

•       •Access to internal (mental) processes

•       •Non-invasive (not break skin) look brain

•       •Spatial resolution good (millimeters)

•       •Cons/Limitations

•       •Time resolution just OK (seconds)

•       •Expensive (e.g. compared to EEG) – How much?

•       •Provides correlational, not causal, evidence …

•       Hemodynamic = blood flow based measures

•       Active regions in the brain need/consume more energy (oxygen, glucose)

•       Blood flow increases to active brain regions in order to deliver energy

·      Variables (independent, dependent)-cause and effect

·      Reaction time (RT) and Accuracy/Error Rate-  same thing, and both refer to the time it takes to respond to a stimulus. 

Speed-Accuracy tradeoff- greater accuracy coincides with slower response times

Subtractive Logic/Method- a technique in psychology for measuring the duration of a mental process, or a method of thinking that involves removing something to solve a problem. 

·      Mental representation- the idea that a person's mind or body is taken over by a supernatural entity, such as a spirit, demon, or god

Stages of processing- Perceptual (example rose)

Processing

Semantic

Processing

Phonological

Processing

Motor

Processing

·      Serial vs. Parallel processing- executing tasks one after another, while parallel processing involves performing multiple tasks simultaneously, utilizing multiple processors to solve a single problem, essentially working on different parts of a task at the same time

·      Top-down/bottom-up processing (conceptually driven/data driven)-

Ø  Top-down

Ø  Conceptually-driven

Ø  Internally-driven

Ø  Bottom-up

Ø  Stimulus-driven

Ø  Data-driven

Ø  BOTTOM

Ø  Concepts

Ø  Knowledge

Ø  Goals

Ø  Context

Ø  The hint allows you to access top-down (internal, conceptual) information that supports recognition

·      evidence/example of top-down influence on perception/attention

-reaction something like lion front know back out

·      Basic functional neuroanatomy-

§  Lobes and major divisions (e.g. hippocampus, basal ganglia) and their function

 ”What” task

Impaired by Temporal damage

·       Temporal lesions

·       Visual  object agnosia- able to see put unkonw what it is like draw a pig but can’t tell it pid

·       Prosopagnosia- unknow of face as know have nose, eye but can’t tell who it is

”Where” task

Impaired by Parietal damage

·       Parietal lesions-uppary t of brain

·       Neglect (alien hand, only see one side as only right, draw house only draw half

·       Optic ataxia( reach to use hand as doorhand as able to get it)

§  Hemispheric specialization

·      Association, dissociation, double-dissociation

Ø  Perception – pattern recognition

Perception (definition)- •Processing that supports the interpretation of information arriving from sensory organs

•Focus on vision

·      The “problem of perception”-underconstriated ,see world as 3D like 2D and that always different as see box that go close not box can be different shaped

·      The binding problem- brain put together as synchros firing, put attention as complete what missing

What versus where/how in visual perception-  assign meaning to the objects in the visual field by recognizing or identifying them” (Eyesenck, 1993) 

·      Gestalt Psychology- a school of thought that focuses on how people perceive the world as a whole, rather than the sum of its parts

§  Gestalt principles (proximity, good continuation, similarity)

Law of Proximity -object close together as see 4 column

Law of similiary- object similarity, as simple color

Law of  Good continuation-see as  single figure as have two different line, put together

Perceptual constancy (types)- The tendency to perceive an object as having a constantqualities (e.g., shape, size, brightness, etc.) despite the changes that occur in how we view the object.

•Size constancy

•“growing smaller” or “moving away”?

Association-damage part brain cause some figure other brain

·      Depth perception- see 2d image world

Example: move finger close and far for you

Binocular (good near object)- Each eye receives differing information

•Stereopsis

Eye see different ( left and right different view)

Ex: magic eye picture ( show image as keep look)

§  occulomotor cues ( good near object)-muscle of eye

ex: move pencil far and close together

§  Monocular cues

Ø  Relative size

Ø  •Overlap (superimposition)

Ø  •Linear perspective (converging parallels)

Ø  •Cast shadows

Ø  •Relative brightness

Ø  •Motion parallax- see thing move as move far for like go train and see house even far away.

Example: see image as different shadow, close, light, overlap object

·      How do we parse a scene?

Ø  Integrating Cue Information?

Ø  Additivity

Ø  •All the information from different cues is simply added together

Ø  •Multiplication

Ø  •Information from different cues combine in a weighted (multiplicative) fashion

Ø  •Selection

Ø  •Information from a single cue is used, with information from the other cue or cues being ignored

Ø  Amees cues room as see image big than and other when real same size

§  Edge detection- boundaries of object

Global/local analysis (evidence from Navon)- Navon (1972) demonstrated global precedence

Prior experience

Viewing distance

From close up …

Einstein is the “whole” 

  (low spatial frequency information)

Monroe is the “parts”

  (high spatial frequency information)

Example: see first person than far part see different person

§  Holistic Processing- define whole or part of object, change face of two different or upside down

Ø  Example: see a lot of “H” or see big “E”

·      Constructivist (Gregory) vs. Direct Perception (Gibson) theories of perception

Illusions- – perceive lines where there are none

·      “Top-down” control processes can be used to intentionally alter how we see object

Ex: see a red dot close in cube of far in a draw

§  What do they tell us about perception? Examples.

Perception is NOT a problem!

·       Gibson’s (1950) “Ecological” approach

·       Perception and action are closely intertwined (embodied cognition)

·       There is rich information in real world scenes, supporting Direct Perception

·       Information “pick-up”

·       No need for complex cognitive processing (like top-down processing)

·       Real scenes are unambiguous – 

·       Invariants in the “Optic Array” – e.g., Texture gradients

·       Optic Flow

Example: use video games

There two different theories as perception is problem and not problem as made think object is not it as far part and perception is basic real world sconce

·       Object recognition (why is it difficult?)- Example: Identifying a letter

•Compare to templates stored in memory?

Example: change on light, angle as see chair dark or light basic on light

§  Template matching theory- a technique in image processing used to find portions of an input image (a larger image or target image) that matches a template image (reference image or s

Difficult see real worldmaller image)

Ø  Variation

Ø  Size, shape, color, location, viewing angle, etc.

Ø 

Feature matching theory- objects recognized by features (not by matching a complete template), see different part ( messier 1964, visual scanning exmperiment

§  Pandemonium (Selfridge)

Olive Seifer

·       Assumes pattern recognition involves detecting features

·       Assumes object recognition is bottom-up

·       Assumes visual object processing is parallel

§  RBC (Biederman)

Example: break down a mug different part

Ø  Object recognition should be viewpoint independent

Ø   Recognition is equivalent from all angles (Biederman & Gerhardsen, 1993)

Ø  Object recognition should be viewpoint independent

Ø  Evidence that recognition is equivalent from all angles (Biederman & Gerhardsen, 1993)

Ø  But, Tarr & Bulthoff (1995)

Limitations of RBC

·       Assumes only viewpoint-invariant representations

·       RBC, like pandemonium architecture, works in a principally bottom-up fashion, and thus neglects the role of context (top-down processing)

·       Cannot explain distinctions within a category?

·       At odds with evidence of holistic processing of familiar objects – words, faces, etc.

§  Top-down influences (context?)-  based on knowledge, expectations, and goals

§  Modularity (processing modules – e.g., FFA)-  the ability to break down a system into separate parts, or modules, that can be recombined in different ways

Example: break tools understand as look inside of what made it is

§  Face recognition (different from normal object perception? Evidence?)

 "face recognition" specifically refers to the ability to identify individual people based on their facial features, whereas

"object perception" is a broader term encompassing the recognition of any visual object, including faces, but also including things like chairs, cars, and other non-facial items

Ø  Module: automatic, fast processing system that is encapsulated from other cognitive systems.

Ø  The evidence:

Ø  Innate processing of faces

Ø  Specialized brain system

Ø  Holistic processing of faces

Ø  Marr’s Theory (1982)

Ø  •Primal sketch

Ø  •Provides 2-D description of main light-intensity changes, including information about:

Ø  •Edges, contours and blobs

Ø  •Observer-centered

Ø  •2 ½-D sketch

Ø  •Incorporates depth and orientation of surfaces

Ø  •Makes use of:

Ø  •Shading, texture, motion, binocular disparity, etc.

Ø  •Observer-centered

Ø  •3-D model representation

Ø  •Three-dimensional object shape

Ø  •Relative positions

Agnosia-  a neurological disorder characterized by the inability to recognize or interpret familiar objects, people, sounds, smells, or tastes despite having intact sensory functions. 

 Prosopagnosia-face blindness," is a neurological condition that impairs the ability to recognize and distinguish faces

Ø  Attention (Whodunnit)

·      Alternative types of attention- ability to switch your focus back and forth between tasks that require different cognitive demands. Divided attention is the ability to process two or more responses or react to two or more different demands simultaneously.

·      Surprising limits in perception/awareness

§  Demonstrations (what is the task? What do the findings suggest about attention/awareness/perception?)

·      Inattentional blindness

·       People don’t notice things outside their “attentional focus”Neisser & Becklen (1975)

·       Demo: Count the passes …

  Simons & Chabris (1999) – Gorilla’s in the Midst

·       Monitor white team

·       42% noticed

·       Monitor black team

·       83% noticed

Example: gorilla In middle of people go circle as unable see as force on something else

·       Change blindness-  phenomenon in psychology where a person fails to notice significant changes in their visual field, even when they are looking directly at them