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History and IntroductionChapter 1
Cognitive psychology
A definition:
The scientific study of mental processes such asperceiving, remembering, using language, reasoning,and solving problems.
The formal discipline of Cognitive Psychology startedin the mid-1900s during the cognitive revolution, andthe term cognitive psychology did not emerge until1967.
Its roots can be traced back much further. Intimatelyintertwined with the history of experimental psychology.
History
Timeline showing early experiments studying the
mind in the 1800s and events associated with the
rise of behaviorism in the 1900s
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Donders (1868)
Interested in how long it takes to make a decision.
Used Reaction Time (RT) to measure decision making.
ranciscus Donders1818-1889
Simple Task Choice Task
Simple RT = stimulus perception + response !220 ms
Choice RT = stimulus perception + decision + response !320 ms
Decision= Choice RT - Simple RT !320 ms - 220 ms = 100 ms
subtractive method
From philosophy to science
Donders experiment is important because it illustratesthat mentalprocess cannot be measured directly, theymust be inferred...
from behavior.
from biological changes.
from behavioral differences associated with biologicaldifferences.
We use multiple methodologies to triangulateanswers...
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Donders
Early experimental psychology:
Structuralism
Influential figures: Wundt & Titchner
Focused on identifying the basic building blocksof conscious experience.
Tried to make a periodic table of the mind.
Main method: Analytic Introspection under controlledconditions.
Contribution to Cognitive Psychology
Emphasized systematic, controlled observation.
Importance of the understanding the structure of themind and higher cognitive processes.
Limitation
Reliance on introspection. Too Subjective.
Wilhelm Wundt
1832-1920
Edward Titchner
1867-1927
Donders
Wundt
Titchner
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Early experimental psychology
Hermann Ebbinghaus
(1850-1909)
Read lists of nonsense syllables(e.g., ZIF, DAX) aloud many timesto determine number ofrepetitions necessary to repeatlist without errors
Independent Variable
Time between tests.
Dependent Variable Savings
= [(Initial repetitions)-(Relearning repetitions)] Initial repetitions
= [(4)-(2)] = 2 = 50% 4 4
(% Savings)
Donders
Wundt
Titchner
Ebbinghaus
Early experimental psychology:Functionalists
Guiding Principles: Function of the mind, not the structure of the mind, is paramount
Introspection still ok, but should be describing behavior
Contribution to Cognitive Psychology
Helped translate the relevance of experimental psychology toother human endeavors
William James
wrote Principles of Psychology, using introspection as hisprimary method, and presaged many of the things that wevestudied for the 100+ years since
John Dewey
Best known for impact on education. Popularized student-centered, non-traditional approaches to education.
William James
1842-1910
John Dewey
1859-1952
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James
Dewey
Donders
Wundt
Titchner
Ebbinghaus
Fechner
von Helmholtz
Psychophysics
Fechner color effect:
http://www.itp.uni-hannover.de/~zawischa/ITP/benhamtop.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benham%27s_top
Fechners Law: a subjective sensation (S) is proportional to thelogarithm of the stimulus intensity (I)
S = K Log I
S: Psychological sensation
I: Physical intensityof the stimulus
I * 3 = S + S
I * 3 * 3 = S + S + S
Geometric increase in stimulus intensity leads to an additive increasein sensation.
Gustav Fechner
1801-1887
Influenced Ebbinghaus, Wundt, Helmholtz
The mind and body are different sides of one reality.
Attempted to discover a mathematical relationbetween mind and body (mathematical modeling).Gustav Fechner
1801-1887
Every sensation presents itself as an indivisible unit;and it is quite impossible to read any clear meaninginto the notion that they are masses of unitscombined.
criticism: stimuli may be composite, sensations arenot. William James
1842-1910
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Unconscious inference (studying vision)
Some of our perceptions are the resultof unconscious assumptionswe
make about the environment
We infer much of what we know aboutthe world
mann von Helmholtz
1821-1894
James
Dewey
Donders
Wundt
Titchner
Ebbinghaus
Fechner
Helmholtz
ThorndikePavlov
Ivan Pavlov
(1849-1936)
Edward Thorndike
(1874-1959)
Law of effect (using cats)
Puzzle box
Precursor of operant orinstrumental conditioning
Alpha, Beta Tests(ASVAB; armed forces test)
Active Learning
Classical conditioning (using dogs)
CS
UCS
UCR
CR
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Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bringthem up in and Ill guarantee to take any oneat random and train him to become any typeof specialist I might select doctor, lawyer,artist, merchant-chief and, yes, evenbeggar-man and thief, regardless of histalents, penchants, tendencies, abilities,vocations, and race of his ancestors. I am
going beyond my facts and I admit it, but sohave the advocates of the contrary and theyhave been doing it for many thousands ofyears. [Behaviorism (1930), p. 82]
John Broadus Watson
1878-1958
The Decline of Behaviorism
A controversy over language acquisition
Skinner (1957)
Argued children learn language through operantconditioning
Children imitate speech they hear
Correct speech is rewarded
Opposition from Chomsky (linguist).
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The Decline of Behaviorism
Noam Chomsky (1959)
Argued children do not only learnlanguage through imitation andreinforcement, they generate.
Children say things they have neverheard and can not be imitating
Children say things that are incorrectand have not been rewarded for
Language must be determined by inbornbiological program (LAD)
Colorless green ideas sleep furiously
Syntax vs. semantics
What happens when the rats are placedin a different arm of the maze?
The rats navigated to the specific armwhere they previously found food
Supported Latent Learning, notstimulus-response learning
dward Chace Tolman
1886-1959
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Tolman (1938)
(a) Rat initially explores the maze
(b) Learns to turn right to obtain food at B when it starts at A
(c) when placed at C, the rat turns left to reach the food atB.
Limitations of Behaviorism Failures to account for aspects of human behavior
Over-emphasis on animal experimentation
Language
Skinner suggested language was learned through basicprinciples of operant conditioning (1957).
i.e., we learn to say what is rewarded
Fails to account for Generativityof language.
The creation of novel utterancesthat have never been rewarded in the past.
e.g., Chomsky (1959; linguist)
Failure to consider intervening mental
processes
Stimulus (memorize this list)
lion, onion, Bill, firefighter, carrot,zebra, John, clerk, Tom, nurse, cow
Response (recall)
lion, zebra, cow, onion, carrot,firefighter, clerk, nurse, John, Bill, Tom
Mental Processes
Strategies, grouping, reorganization, etc.
Behaviorism:
ognitive Psychology:
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The Cognitive Revolution
Throughout the 1950s there was a shift in emphasisfrom behaviorists stimulusresponse relationships to
an approach that attempts to explain behavior in termsof the mind
Overview of Different Approaches
Philosophy
Think about mental processes
Structuralism(Introspection)
Try to directly tap into mental processes
The Whatof experience
Behaviorism
Study stimulus-response relationships
Ignore mental processes
Cognitive Psychology
Study stimulus-response relationships
Make inferences about mental processes
The Howof experience
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The rebirth of the study of the mind
The digital revolution
Information Processing: inputs are transformed instages to generate outputs.
Flow diagrams for digital computers.
Flow diagrams for the mind Colin Cherry (1953): selective attention.
Broadbentsinformation processing model ofattention.
Broadbents filter model forselective attention (1958) How can you stay focused on
your conversation?
You must filter out extraneousinformation.
Hey Matt!
Attention can still be brokeninto (we will explore theseideas more in chapter 4).
Cocktail party (Cherry, 1953)
FilterDetector(semantic)
puts To memory
Studying the Mind
To understand complex cognitive behaviors:
Measure observable behavior.
Make inferencesabout underlying cognitive activity.
Consider what this behavior says about how themind works.
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Researching the Mind
Behavior approachmeasures relationship betweenstimuli and behavior.
Physiological approachmeasures relationshipbetween physiology and behavior.
Both contribute to our understanding of cognition.
Researching the Mind:Memory Consolidation
Memory for recent events is fragile.
If processing is disrupted, recent memories can fail tobe consolidated.
New information can interfere with memoryconsolidation.
Muller & Pilzecker (1900)
Two different groups learned 2 lists of items.
Immediate and delay groups.
Consolidation!
Interference!
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Gais et al. (2007)
Tested memory for word pairs in two groups: Sleep and awake
Sleep slept immediately after studying. Awake studied, stayed up for10 hours, then slept. Equally rested before testing.
Sleep group remembered more.
Injecting rats with protein synthesis inhibitors preventsthe formation of memories (Flexner et al., 1963).
The effect of sleep on memory consolidation in thehippocampus (Gais et al., 2006, 2007).
Memory consolidation:Physiology
Hippocampus
Synthesis essay
Memory impairment
Korsakoffs
Anterograde/retrograde amnesia
Neural processing
Mirror neurons
Disorders
Phantom limb syndrome
Prosopagnosia
Athletes and, e.g., memory disorders (TBI)
Memory savants
Autism
Attention
Cell phones and driving
ADHD
Language
AcquisitionDisorders (e g Brocas aphasia)