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The History and Methods of Cognitive Psychology

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.

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The History and Methods of Cognitive Psychology

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  1. The History and Methods of Cognitive Psychology

  2. What is Cognitive Psychology? • The branch of psychology that studies how we perceive, attend, recognize, remember… what happens in our minds

  3. Cognitive activities • Perception • Attention • Memory • Language • Reasoning/decision making

  4. Some elements of cognitions… • Often complex • Occur rapidly • Occur automatically (unconsciously) • May occur with other cognitions

  5. What is the “mind” ? • How can we study the inner workings of the mind when we can’t “see” the mind?

  6. Variables that could change a cognition • Age • How well rested the subject is • Cultural background • …

  7. Experimental Design Hypothesis Test or Experiment Independent Variable Dependent Variable

  8. Methods of Experimentation • Introspection • Naturalistic observation • Controlled observation • Clinical interviews • Experiments (and quasi-experiments) • Brain imaging

  9. Methods • Introspection • Insight • Ecological validity • Experimenter control • Observer bias • Can you really do something while doing it?

  10. Types of Experiments • Naturalistic observation • Ecological validity • Little experimenter control • Observer bias

  11. Methods • Experiments • Experimenter control • Isolate causal factors • May not be ecologically valid

  12. Methods • Controlled observation / Clinical interviews • Ecological validity • Only some experimenter control • Observer bias

  13. Methods • Brain Imaging

  14. 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 and function • Similar to MRI • EEG/ERP – overall general electrical activity of brain

  15. The history of studying cognitions • Greeks • 17-19 c. • Empiricism • Schools of psychology • Nativism

  16. Schools of psychology • Structuralism • Functionalism • Behaviorism • Gestalt psychology • Genetic epistemology • Individual differences • Cognitive psychology (cognitive revolution)

  17. 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

  18. 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”

  19. Schools of psychology • Behaviorism • Goal: to predict and control behavior • Method: Observation of only visible, measurable behaviors (mental states cannot be studied)

  20. 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

  21. Figure 1-1 (p. 11)Examples of Gestalt figures. Gestalt psychology

  22. 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)

  23. 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

  24. 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

  25. More results… • Localization of function / plasticity of nervous system • Computer metaphor / artificial intelligence • Cognitive neuroscience

  26. Paradigms of Cognitive Psychology • Information Processing • Connectionism • Evolution • Ecology

  27. Figure 1-4 (p. 29)A typical information-processing model.

  28. Figure 1-5 (p. 31)A typical connectionist model.

  29. 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 special-purpose programs to solve them • Ecology • Cognition occurs in the context of culture, not in a vacuum

  30. Outline • Syllabus • What is cognitive psychology? • Elements of cognition • What are experiments? • History of cognitive psychology • Current methods of study • Paradigms of cognitive psychology

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