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

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

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

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

Experimental Design Hypothesis Independent Variable Dependent Variable Test or Experiment

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

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

Types of Experiments Naturalistic observation  Ecological validity  Little experimenter control  Observer bias

Methods Experiments  Experimenter control  Isolate causal factors  May not be ecologically valid

Methods Controlled observation / Clinical interviews  Ecological validity  Only some experimenter control  Observer bias

Methods Brain Imaging

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

The history of studying cognitions Greeks c.  Empiricism  Schools of psychology  Nativism

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

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

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”

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

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

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

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)

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

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

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

Paradigms of Cognitive Psychology Information Processing Connectionism Evolution Ecology

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

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

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

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