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Chapter 1: Introduction to Cognitive Psychology. Some Questions of Interest. What is cognitive psychology? How did psychology develop as a science? How did cognitive psychology develop from psychology?
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Some Questions of Interest • What is cognitive psychology? • How did psychology develop as a science? • How did cognitive psychology develop from psychology? • How have other disciplines contributed to the development of theory and research in cognitive psychology?
Some Questions of Interest • What methods do cognitive psychologists use to study how people think?
http://viscog.beckman.illinois.edu/flashmovie/15.php • http://viscog.beckman.illinois.edu/flashmovie/23.php
Cognitive Psychology Is… • The study of how people perceive, learn, remember, and think about information. Problem Solving Memory Decision Making Attention Reasoning Perception Language
Philosophical Antecedents • Rationalist • Acquire knowledge through thinking and logical analysis • Empiricist • Acquire knowledge via empirical evidence
Rationalism (Plato): René Descartes (1596–1650) • dualism between a material body and immaterial mind or soul • mechanistic explanations for the body’s functions • highest functions of consciousness, will and reasoning, were non-mechanistic
Descartes’s Early Life and the Development of His Method • Analytic Geometry—integrating algebra and geometry: numerical relationships of algebraic equations are expressed visually through the use of a coordinate graphing system (“cartesian” coordinates)
Empiricism (Aristotle) John Locke (1632–1704)—An English philosopher who theorized that the human mind was a tabula rasa at birth, and that all human knowledge comes through experience
Immanuel Kant 1724-1804 • Two domains of reality: noumenal and phenomenal • Kant’s noumenal world is indirectly “knowable” by the senses, but can it be scientifically studied?
Psychology as science • It can be described spatially • It is not too transient to observe/measure • It can be manipulated experimentally • It can be described mathemetically • so Kant provided the question, Helmholtz’ mechanistic models and Fechner’s math provided the solutions! • The younger Wundt would follow these two…
Psychological Antecedents:the two “fathers” of psychology? • Structuralism • What are the elementary contents (structures) of the human mind? • Functionalism • How and why does the mind work?
William James(1842–1910)—A Harvard professor who established the first psychology laboratory in America • 1890 textbook The Principles of Psychology • Philosophy of pragmatism
Edward Lee Thorndike (1874–1949) • —An American comparative psychologist who studied with James and went on to become the country’s best-known psychologist after James’s death. Thorndike became famous for his studies of trial-and-error learning and formulation of the law of effect, and his studies with Woodworth on the transfer of training.
Law of Effect—Thorndike’s assertion that when certain stimulus-response are followed by pleasure, they are strengthened, while responses followed by annoyance or pain tend to be “stamped out.”
Structuralism (Wundt) Functionalism (James) Synthesis: Associationism (Ebbinghaus & Thorndike)
Psychological Antecedents • Associationism • How can events or ideas become associated in the mind? • Behaviorism • What is the relation between behavior and environment?
Psychological Antecedents Gestalt Psychology - Cognitions should play an active role in psychology (Wertheimer, Kohler)
Emergence of Cognitive Psychology • 1950s: development of computers • artificial intelligence • A cognitive revolution occurred and increased interest in the study of mental processes (cognitions)
Alan Turing • Founder of computer science, mathematician, philosopher, • Broke German Enigma code in WWII • Openly gay in 1950s • Arrested and convicted • Likely committed suicide as a result (1912-1954)
Ada, Countess of Lovelace • Daughter of the poet, Byron • Gifted mathematician • wrote first computer program – calculated sequence of Bernoulli numbers • The Lovelace Objection (1815-1852)
Then and Now Witch (Wolverhampton Instrument for Teaching Computation from Harwell) 1951 CHARLI-2 2012
Research Methods • Controlled experiments • Psychobiological research • Self reports • Case studies • Naturalistic observation • Computer simulations and artificial intelligence
In an Experiment… • Manipulate the independent variable • The “cause” • Measure the dependent variable • The “effect” • Control all other variables • Prevent confounds
Typical Independent Variables • Characteristics of the situation • Presence vs. absence of a stimulus • Characteristics of the task • Reading vs. listening to words for comprehension • Characteristics of participants • Age differences
Typical Dependent Variables • Percent correct/error rate • Accuracy of mental processing • Reaction time (milliseconds) • Speed of mental processing
Correlational Studies • Cannot infer causation • Nature of relationship • Positive correlation • Negative correlation • Strength of relationship • Determined by size of “r”
Example: Correlational Study • An examination of the relationship between confidence and accuracy of eyewitnesses • What do you think the relationship is? Positive? Negative? Strong? Weak? It is not a strong positive correlation! Many studies indicate that high confidence does not mean high accuracy
Psychobiological Studies • Postmortem studies • Examine cortex of dyslexics after death • Brain-damaged individuals and their deficits • Study amnesiacs with hippocampus damage • Monitor a participant doing a cognitive task • Measure brain activity while a participant is reciting a poem
Other Methods • Self-reports • An individual’s own account of cognitive processes • Verbal protocol, diary study • Case studies • In-depth studies of individuals • Genie, Phineas Gage, H.M.
