robby edwardsen

1. Intro and History robby edwardsen

2. Cognitive Psychology Intro and History Introduction and History

3. Simple Questions 4 + 9 = Do without a calculator or paper – use your mind. You have 1000, add 40, add 1000, add 30 again 1000 add 20, add again 1000 and finally 10. What is the result? Intro and History

4. An Important Question!!!! Does the Pope Wear underwear? Intro and History

5. What is Cognitive Psychology? Cognitive Psychology is the scientific study “concerned with the processes involved in acquiring, storing and transforming information” (p.3).

6. Intro and History

7. History of Cognitive PSYCHOLOGY Cognitive Questions are as old as the dawn of human consciousness. • Where do my thoughts come from? • How do I know what is real and what is an illusion? • How does my mind work? • Do other people think as I do? Intro and History

8. Relationship between Mind and BodyThe first big Battle of Cognition Dualism - the belief that there are two kinds of reality: material (physical) and immaterial (spiritual). Material reality can be studied scientifically. Immaterial reality cannot be directly observed nor scientifically studied. Intro and History

9. Interactive Dualism René Descartes (1596-1650) Mind Body The relationship is lawful. Mind Effects Body and Body Effects Mind We can learn about the mind by studying behavior.

10. Interactive Dualism Allows us to study human behavior and physical interactions and infer processes of the mind (thoughts, intentions, reasoning etc.) Claudius Ptolemy Nicolaus Copernicus

11. Epistemology: Theories of knowledge acquisition Nativism ~ believe that knowledge is primarily (at least in some areas) acquired by a priori processes (e.g., innate or hardwired ; i.e., logic, wisdom, intuition, talents, innate abilities or disabilities). Empiricism ~ is generally a theory of knowledge emphasizing the role of experience, especially experience based on perceptual observations by the five senses. Nature Vs. Nurture Debate.

12. Philosophical Approaches (cont.) Ideas about Memory: Socrates - (Nativism) humans innately possessed knowledge, and that they only had to be led to discover what they already know. Aristotle – learning is through experience (empiricism ~ tabula rasa)

13. Is this an important Question? • What causes autism? • Is it genetic? • Is it due to damage caused by environmental factors? • Is it due to the upbringing? • If it is nature, is there a way to overcome it by education and nurturance? Intro and History

14. Associationism ~  is the theory that the mind is composed of elements -- usually referred to as sensations and ideas -- which are organized by means of various associations.  Aristotle counted four laws of association when he examined the processes of remembrance and recall. Intro and History

15. 1.  The law of contiguity.  Things or events that occur close to each other in space or time tend to get linked together in the mind.  If you think of a bowl, you may think of a spoon.  Intro and History

16. 2.  The law of frequency.  The more often two things or events are linked, the more powerful will be that association.  If you have a bagel with your coffee every day, and have done so for the last twenty years, the association will be strong. Intro and History

17. 3.  The law of similarity.  If two things are similar, the thought of one will tend to trigger the thought of the other.  If you recollect one birthday, you may find yourself thinking about others as well. Intro and History

18. 4.  The law of contrast.  On the other hand, seeing or recalling something may also trigger the recollection of something completely opposite.  If you think of the tallest person you know, you may suddenly recall the shortest one as well.  Intro and History

19. Association, according to Aristotle, took place in the "common sense."  It was in the common sense that the look, the feel, the smell, the taste of an apple, for example, came together to become the idea of an apple. Intro and History

20. Introspection Aristotle based much of this ideas about how the mind works on his observations of his own thought processes. Intro and History

21. Philosopher’s continued to address cognitive questions using introspection and logic. While they proposed interesting ideas, there was no method for testing theories to see if they explained real human cognitive processes. Intro and History

22. Beginning of Psychology 1879 – Wilhelm Wundt Father of the Science of Psychology - relationship between stimuli in the “real world” and our psychological experiences.

23. Wundt also used introspection, but of a different kind. Wundt's introspection was a rigidly controlled, arduous experimental procedure. Highly trained observers were presented with carefully controlled sensory events and asked to describe their mental experiences of these events e.g. metronome demonstration Intro and History

24. Wundt’s Lab Intro and History

25. Voluntarism: Wundt proposed that our conscious experiences are due to the power of the will to organize the mind’s content into higher-level thought processes. Apperception is considering a perception in relation to things you’ve perceived in the past. Intro and History

26. Apperception Example. A rich child and a poor child walking together come across the same ten dollar bill on the sidewalk. The rich child says it is not very much money and the poor child says it is a lot of money. The difference lies in how they apperceive the same event – the lens of past experience through which they see and value (or devalue) the money. —Christopher Ott Intro and History

27. Wundt felt that introspection could be used to study Apperceptions but could not be used to study Thought processes, memory processes , reasoning etc. Two of Wundt’s students (Külpe and Titchner) tried to use introspection to study the elements of thought rather than apperception which resulted in an argument about the existence of “imageless thought”. This debate demonstrated the limits of introspection and the technique was abandoned. Intro and History

28. Problems with Introspection. • - Many processes occur subliminally. • - Confabulation • If reports are retrospective, we may forget parts of the process. • - The process of introspection may effect the process.

29. In order to make sense of our thoughts, we often confabulate (make up) explanations for why we reach the conclusions we have. e.g., Subjects in a shopping mall were presented with an array of four sets of items (e.g., socks, nightgowns or pantyhose) and were allowed to choose one of them as a free sample. Even though they were all identical they tended to choose the item on the right (Nisbett & Wilson, 1977). Intro and History

30. When asked to explain why they chose the item they did, they came up with clearly confabulated explanations, such as their chosen item was softer or of better quality. Intro and History

31. Research also indicates that some factors that Influence our thought processes are subliminal (below the level of our conscious awareness). Intro and History

32. Pessiglione et al (2007) Intro and History The incentive force task. Successive screens displayed in one trial are shown from left to right, with durations in ms. Coin images, either one pound (£1) or one penny (1p), indicate the monetary value attributed to the top of the thermometer image. The fluid level in the thermometer represents the online force exerted on the hand grip. The last screen indicates cumulative total of the money won so far.

33. Two Conditions: • Coin Clearly Visible • Subliminal Presentation of coin Even when subjects cannot report how much money is at stake, they nevertheless deploy more force for higher amounts. FMRI Imaging showed similar patterns of activation of the basal forebrain region (associated with reward processing) between the two conditions. Findings reveal that expected rewards energize behavior, without the need for the subjects` awareness. Intro and History

34. How much can introspection tell us about cognitive processes? Let’s take a simple example of an everyday cognitive task. e.g., How do we read? Try this sentence. The lady hit the man with an umbrella. Intro and History

35. Several processes are involved in reading a simple sentence. Perception and Pattern Recognition

36. Attention - Automatic and controlled Processes

37. The Stroop (1935) effect demonstrates the interference that automatic processing of words has on the more "effortful" (controlled) task of just naming the colors. Many cognitive processes are automatic (i.e,  do not require attention and can often be performed along with other tasks without interference). Since the required task of naming the color of the word and the automatic task of reading the word conflict, people often make errors and are slower to respond. Intro and History

38. The task of selecting the appropriate response (conflict monitoring) has been located in the anterior cingulate (Barch, et al., 2001) and is involved in a wide range of thought processes and emotional responses.  Intro and History

39. Emotional Stroop Test Intro and History Automatic processes generally involve well learned, repeatedly practiced task (e.g., reading) or emotional reactions.

40. Language Cna yuo raed tihs? i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhotslpeling was ipmorantt.

41. Reasoning and Problem Solving Memory, Knowledge Representation (Semantics) & Imagery Who has the umbrella??

42. An UFO has been caught on tape! Intro and History

43. Early Influences on Cognitive Psychology William James – Functionalism Donders – Reaction Time Early Memory Research Ebbinghaus Munsterberg Applied Cognitive Research Bryan and Noble Intro and History

44. 1890 - William James Functionalism – understanding the mind requires an understanding of the purpose of the thought processes. Primary and Secondary Memory Habits Stream of Consciousness

45. Franciscus Cornelis Donders ‘(1868) Reaction time Experiment Simple RT and Choice RT Measured the time required to decide.

46. A modern version of Donders’ (1868) reaction time experiment. (a) the simple reaction-time task; and (b) the choice reaction-time task. For the simple time reaction text, the participant pushes the J key when the light goes on. For the choice reaction time test the participant pushes the J key if the left light goes on, and the K key if the right light goes on. The purpose of the Donders’ experiment was to determine the time it took to decide which key to press for the choice reaction time test. Donders’ Inference: decision took .1 second

47. 1885 - Ebbinghaus Memory for Nonsense syllables - looked at “pure memory” - found relationship between repetition and memory.

48. Hugo Munsterberg (1892) • - Forensic Psychology (Eyewitness Testimony) Intro and History

49. Bryan and Noble (1899) Acquisition of skill. Intro and History From http://www.gutenberg.org/files/31382/31382-h/31382-h.htm

50. Behaviorism (1913 – 1960) During this period studying cognitive Processes was very unpopular. Watson – Classical Conditioning Skinner – Operant conditioning Radical Behaviorism We cannot look inside the mind (introspect) so we cannot study these processes. To learn about human behavior we study ONLY observable behavior.