Introduction to Cognition

1. Introduction to Cognition • Cognitive processes are very familiar and taken for granted. • These processes are performed without effort so we perceive them as simple • Since they are perceived as simple people believe studying them must be easy • Unfortunately, they only appear easy once you know the answers

2. Examples • Two trains approaching each other, one moves at 20 mph the other 40 mph. A bird flies back and forth between the two trains at an average of 50 mph. 4 hours later the trains meet. How far did the bird fly? • He who hesitates is lost, but haste makes wastes and you should look before you leap.

3. Goals of the Course • To learn what is currently known about human memory and cognition • To learn how these discoveries were made and how are understanding of memory and cognition will change as new discoveries are made • To understand how our knowledge of human cognition can impact other fields of study and our own way of thinking and remembering

4. What is Memory? • Webster – the power, act, or process of recalling to mind facts previously learned or past experiences • Problem - circular definition • Cognitive definition – the mental process of acquiring and retaining information for later retrieval, and the storage system in which these processes operate.

5. What is Cognition? • The mental processes and activities used in perceiving, learning, remembering, thinking, and understanding, and the act of using these processes • Cognition involves semiautonomous mental processes

6. A Quick History of Cognition • Questions asked by cognitive psychologists are related to the same question ancient Greek and Roman philosophers were asking • What is the nature of the mind? • They attempted to answer these questions using deductive reasoning

7. Middle Ages • Rise of Christianity around 700AD led to the loss of all the works of the Greeks and Romans • It was felt all knowledge could be gained through the Bible or the works of Aristotle. Science and philosophy were seen as unnecessary

8. 16th and 17th Centuries • The use of empirical methods – observations – became important • While our sensory systems may not be perfect, we can still use them to learn about the world

9. 19th Century • Increased interest in the brain and measuring activity of the nervous system • 1850 – von Helmholtz measures the speed of a nerve impulse in a frog’s leg • 1879 – former lab assistant to von Helmholtz, Wilhelm Wundt, sets up a lab to study mental processes using the scietific method of physiology

10. Beginning of Psychology • 1879 – Wundt interested in how higher mental processes produce perceptions, memory, etc. • 1890’s – Titchner, a student of Wundt’s, attempts to describe the structure of the mind, starting structuralism

11. Behaviorism • American psychologists become unhappy with structuralism • Functionalism – psychology was to study the function of the mind • Watson and others criticized the sstudy of the mind as not being scientific. Psychology became the study of observable behavior

12. Return to the Study of Mental Processes - Cognition • 1950’s – Psychologists began to see that behaviorism was too rigid and didn’t let them study more interesting topics • Behaviorism unable to address relatively simple issues or more complex abilities such as language

13. The New Cognitive Psychology • 3 assumptions of cognitive psychology • Mental processes exist and need to be studied if psychology is to be useful • It is possible to infer an underlying mental process by measuring changes in behavior that occur when a mental process is used • Humans are active information seekers. They do not just respond to the environment

14. An important Issue in Using Inference • Caution that the jump from behavior to mental process isn’t too great • There may be alternative inferences that explain the data that need to be eliminated • Another definition of inference could be educated guess