The History and Methods of Cognitive Psychology
What is Cognitive Psychology?
The branch of psychology that studies how we perceive, attend, recognize, remember what happens in our minds
Cognitive activities
Perception Attention Memory Language Reasoning/decision making
Some elements of cognitions
Often complex Occur rapidly Occur automatically (unconsciously) May occur with other cognitions
What is the mind ?
How can we study the inner workings of the mind when we cant see the mind?
Variables that could change a cognition
Age How well rested the subject is Cultural background
Experimental Design
Hypothesis
Test or Experiment
Independent Variable
Dependent Variable
Methods of Experimentation
Introspection Naturalistic observation Controlled observation Clinical interviews Experiments (and quasi-experiments) Brain imaging
Methods
Introspection
Insight
Ecological
validity
control
Experimenter
Observer
bias Can you really do something while doing it?
Types of Experiments
Naturalistic observation
Ecological
Little
validity
experimenter control Observer bias
Methods
Experiments
Experimenter
control Isolate causal factors
May
not be ecologically valid
Methods
Controlled observation / Clinical interviews
Ecological Only
validity
some experimenter control Observer bias
Methods
Brain Imaging
Methods
Brain Imaging
CAT/MRI shows anatomy Magnetic fields, not usable on some subjects Small, noisy location for subject Does not show function
PET - shows function Brain activity averaged over time fMRI shows anatomy Similar to MRI EEG/ERP
and function
overall general electrical activity of brain
The history of studying cognitions
Greeks 17-19 c.
Empiricism
Nativism
Schools
of psychology
Schools of psychology
Structuralism Functionalism Behaviorism Gestalt psychology Genetic epistemology Individual differences Cognitive psychology (cognitive revolution)
Schools of psychology
Structuralism
Attempted
to find simplest units of the mind (like a period table of elements) More complex behaviors explained by combining different elements (research never really got this far) Method: Introspection
Schools of psychology
Functionalism
Asked
the question Why?
Why does the mind work the way it does? Why does this behavior help a person adapt to their environment?
Method:
Observations in real life
Schools of psychology
Behaviorism
Goal:
to predict and control behavior
Method:
Observation of only visible, measurable behaviors (mental states cannot be studied)
Schools of psychology
Gestalt psychology
The
mind is not divisible The mind is a whole entity, and imposes its own structure on how to interpret stimuli It is the relationship between elements that matters
Method:
Experimentation with perception, problem solving
Gestalt psychology
Figure 1-1 (p. 11)
Examples of Gestalt figures.
Schools of psychology
Genetic epistemology the mind changes over time
The
mind goes through different stages, which can be separated from each other by the different cognitive abilities present at each stage (Piaget)
Schools of psychology
Individual differences
Tried
to determine if a mental characteristic (eg., intelligence) was inherited or acquired later from the environment Type of statistics typical used in cognitive psychology developed
Schools of psychology
Cognitive psychology
Proposed
that mental states could be studied (reaction to behaviorists)
Some results
Human
factors engineering Limited-capacity processors
The magical number seven, plus or minus two
Linguistics
More results
Localization
of function / plasticity of nervous
system Computer metaphor / artificial intelligence Cognitive neuroscience
Paradigms of Cognitive Psychology
Information Processing Connectionism Evolution Ecology
Figure 1-4 (p. 29)
A typical information-processing model.
Figure 1-5 (p. 31)
A typical connectionist model.
Paradigms of Cognitive Psychology
Evolution
Our
minds are biological systems which evolve and adapt to our environment, and is subject to the laws of natural selection For each type of problem, we therefore have specialpurpose programs to solve them
Ecology
Cognition
occurs in the context of culture, not in a
vacuum
Outline
Syllabus What is cognitive psychology? Elements of cognition What are experiments? History of cognitive psychology Current methods of study Paradigms of cognitive psychology
