Contemporary Developments in Psychology

Chapter 15: Contemporary Developments in Psychology

Topics

This chapter covers the following topics:

1. Chess Champion Capitulates to Cunning Computer

2. Schools of Thought in Perspective

3. The Cognitive Movement in Psychology

4. George Miller (1920-2012)

5. Ulric Neisser (1928-2012)

6. The Computer Metaphor

7. Artificial Intelligence

8. The Nature of Cognitive Psychology

9. Evolutionary Psychology

Chess Champion Capitulates to Cunning Computer

• Garry Kasparov, a chess grandmaster, competed in a chess match against IBM's Deep Blue.

• During the match, Kasparov exhibited uncharacteristic signs of confusion, doubt, dismay, despair, and loss of control, highlighting the psychological impact of competing with AI.

• After several games, marked by strategic errors, he eventually gave up, underscoring the machine's computational superiority in chess.

Schools of Thought in Perspective

• Each school of thought:

  • Prospered for a time, influencing psychological research and practice.

  • Became part of mainstream psychology, contributing lasting concepts and methods.

  • Drew strength from opposition to an earlier school, fostering intellectual debate and progress.

  • Was replaced by a new school, reflecting the evolving understanding of the human mind.

Structuralism

• Aimed to establish an independent science of psychology, free from the strictures of philosophy, by analyzing the basic elements of consciousness.

Functionalism

• Applies its findings to virtually every aspect of modern life, including education, business, and mental health.

• The functional, utilitarian attitude has significantly changed the nature of psychology, emphasizing practical applications and adaptation.

Gestalt Psychology

• Emphasizes a “wholes” approach and interest in consciousness, focusing on perception and problem-solving.

• Has influenced clinical psychology (therapy), learning, perception, social psychology, and thinking, promoting holistic approaches.

Behaviorists and Psychoanalysts

• Stand firmly opposed to each other and are still evolving today, representing different perspectives on human behavior and its underlying causes.

Influence

• Each school of thought has influenced contemporary psychology, shaping the field's theories, research methods, and clinical practices.

New Movements

• Cognitive psychology

• Evolutionary psychology

The Cognitive Movement in Psychology

Cognitive Psychology

• A return to the study of the mind, focusing on mental processes such as memory, problem-solving, and language.

Antecedent Influences

• E. R. Guthrie: Suggested that psychologists describe stimuli in perceptual or cognitive terms to be meaningful for the responding organism.

• E. C. Tolman: Recognized the importance of cognitive variables and contributed to the decline of the stimulus-response approach through his work on cognitive maps.

• Gestalt Psychology: Helped keep alive a token interest in consciousness, emphasizing holistic perception and insight.

• Jean Piaget: Worked on cognitive development but was never fully accepted in the U.S. due to the dominance of behaviorism.

• Changing Zeitgeist in physics: Scientific investigation shifted from an independent and objectively knowable universe to one's observation of that universe; totally objective reality was no longer considered attainable, influencing psychological research toward subjective experience.

The Founding of Cognitive Psychology

• A long process, not an overnight phenomenon or due to a single publication, reflecting a gradual shift in psychological thought.

• Lacked a single charismatic leader, indicating a collective effort by various researchers and theorists.

• Interest was pragmatic: simply getting on with the work of redefining psychology, focusing on practical applications and problem-solving.

George Miller (1920–)

• Initially accepted the behaviorist school of thought but became disillusioned with its limitations.

• Mid-1950s: Influenced by statistical learning theory, information theory, and computer-based models of the mind, broadening his perspective.

• Soon rejected behaviorism and shifted toward cognitive psychology, recognizing the importance of mental processes.

• Published: “The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on our Capacity for Processing Information.” This paper introduced the idea that short-term memory has a limited capacity, often referred to as $7 \pm 2$, influencing memory research significantly.

The Center for Cognitive Studies

• Established by Bruner & Miller to investigate the human mind, marking a significant step in the cognitive revolution.

• The center was not set up “for anything in particular” but was set up against behaviorism, representing a clear departure from behaviorist principles.

• Miller did not consider cognitive psychology to be a true revolution but rather an accretion, viewing it as a gradual accumulation of knowledge and insights.

• Research at the center investigated language, memory, perception, concept formation, thinking, and developmental psychology, contributing to a comprehensive understanding of cognitive processes.

Ulric Neisser (1928–2012)

• Trained under Maslow at Brandeis, where behaviorism was not as dominant, allowing for a broader intellectual perspective.

• 1967: Published Cognitive Psychology, considered a landmark publication that formalized the field.

• 1976: Published Cognition and Reality, expressing dissatisfaction with the reliance on laboratory situations instead of real-world settings for data collection, advocating for ecological validity.

• Insisted that cognitive psychologists should be able to apply their findings to practical problems, emphasizing the importance of relevance and application.

The Computer Metaphor

• The clock is no longer a useful example for the modern view of the mind; the computer provides a more apt analogy.

• The mind is now likened to a computer:

  • Storage capacity = memory

  • Programming codes = languages

  • New generations of computers are said to be evolving, reflecting the dynamic nature of cognitive processes.

• Computer programming became the basis for the cognitive view of human information processing, reasoning, and problem-solving, influencing research and theory in cognitive psychology.

The Development of the Modern Computer

• The need for calculations during combat spurred the development of the first giant computer, Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator (ENIAC).

• Took up three walls of a huge room, illustrating its massive size and complexity.

• Used for combat-related calculations, demonstrating its practical utility in wartime.

Artificial Intelligence

• Artificial intelligence: Machines display artificial intelligence and process information similarly to how people do.

• Demonstrated by the Turing test: Persuading a subject that the computer with which he or she is communicating is really another person, not a machine.

• Some objected via the Chinese room problem: No matter how many messages you receive and respond to, you still do not know Chinese, questioning the true understanding and consciousness of AI.

The Nature of Cognitive Psychology

Areas Where Cognitive Factors Are Considered

• Attribution theory in social psychology, cognitive dissonance theory, motivation and emotion, personality, learning, memory, perception, problem-solving, creativity, and information processing in human intelligence and in artificial intelligence.

• Clinical, community, school, and industrial-organizational psychology, reflecting the broad applicability of cognitive principles.

The Cognitive Focus

• The process of knowing rather than merely responding to stimuli, emphasizing active mental processing.

• How the mind structures or organizes experiences, focusing on cognitive organization and representation.

• The individual actively and creatively arranges the stimuli received from the environment, highlighting the constructive nature of cognition.

• Important factors: Mental processes and events, not stimulus-response connections, marking a departure from behaviorist principles.

Cognitive Neuroscience

• Goal: Determine “how brain functions give rise to mental activity” and to “correlate specific aspects of information processing with specific brain regions.”

• Sophisticated technology:

  • Electroencephalogram (EEG)

  • Computerized axial tomography (CAT)

  • Magnetic resonance imagery (MRI)

  • Positron emission tomography (PET)

The Nature of Cognitive Psychology (cont’d.)

The Role of Introspection

• Cognitive psychologists attempted to quantify introspective reports to render them more objective and amenable to statistical analyses.

• Subjects retrospectively evaluate the subjective experiences that occurred during an earlier period when they were asked to respond to a given stimulus.

• The most frequently used research method in contemporary psychology, reflecting the importance of subjective experience in cognitive research.

Unconscious Cognition

• The unconscious is able to accomplish many functions that were once thought to require deliberation, intention, and conscious awareness.

Unlike the unconscious Freud suggested

• The new unconscious: More rational than emotional and is involved in the first stage of cognition in responding to a stimulus.

• Studying nonconscious processing: Stimuli are presented below the subjects’ levels of conscious awareness.

Animal Cognition

• Developed from comparative psychology.

• The cognitive movement restored consciousness to animals as well.

• Animal memory has been shown to be complex and flexible.

• Animals can perform a variety of cognitive functions:

  • Cognitive maps

  • Sense the motives of others

  • Plan by taking into account past experiences

  • Understand the concept of numbers

  • Solve problems through the use of reason

Current Status of Cognitive Psychology

• Consciousness has made a substantial and vigorous return.

• Impacts more areas of psychology.

• Only shares one commonality with behaviorism: Use of the experimental method.

• Important topics:

  • Embedded cognition

  • Cognitive overload

Evolutionary Psychology

• The most recent approach to psychology.

• Argues that people are biological creatures that have been wired or programmed by evolution to behave, think, feel, and learn in ways that have fostered survival over many past generations.

• People with certain behavioral, cognitive, and affective tendencies were more likely to survive and bear and raise children.

Antecedent Influences on Evolutionary Psychology

• Charles Darwin: Theory of evolution.

• William James: Belief in a wide range of instinctive behaviors (e.g., fears of specific objects) that have obvious survival value.

• The cognitive revolution: The mind, like a computer, must be programmed to perform its multitude of tasks.

Antecedent Influences on Evolutionary Psychology

• Sociobiology: Genetic influences may be more important than cultural ones.

Current Status of Evolutionary Psychology

• Deals with evolved psychological mechanisms that are wired or programmed into human cognition and behavior because these have been successful in solving specific problems of survival and reproduction in the organism’s evolutionary history.

• Generated considerable criticism.

• Response to criticism: Humans are still free to choose. The evolved tendencies do not dictate behavior but rather influence it.