Approaches to Cognitive Psychology

 According to McMillan ◦ Cognitive Psychology is the scientific study of human thoughts and the mental process that underlie behavior  which includes memory, problem solving, perception and language. ◦ i.e. Cognitive Psychology focuses on internal psychological processes that involves in understanding human thoughts and mental processes that defines human behavior.

 Cognitive Psychology …. ◦ Help us to understand our environment more, & ◦ What internal process that are involved in making appropriate decision in life.  These internal processes includes:  Attention  Perception  Learning  Memory  Language  Problem solving,  Reasoning  Thinking

 Cognitive scientist have difficulties in studying cognitive process in human being because… mental process cannot be seen, unlike overt behavior.  Scientists need a general framework to guide them, a set of assumptions that tells them where to start, what to look for, what to be aware of.  Thus, various approaches to study human cognitive process were developed:  Experimental cognitive psychology  Cognitive science  Cognitive neuropsychology  Cognitive neuroscience

 Experimental cognitive psychology – foundation for all the approaches in cognitive psychology ◦ Involves:  Conducting experiments on normal individuals under laboratory studies.  Scientific method – system of established principles and processes of scientific inquiry  Identifying a problem  Formulating hypotheses  Collecting data  Analyzing the data  Disseminating findings

 Experimental Cognitive Psychologist would usually….  Identifying a problem (define a question of study).  Gather information and resources  Formulate hypotheses  Conduct scientific experiment  Collect data  Analyze data  Interpret data  Make conclusion (in order to build a starting point for new hypothesis) ◦ Results (findings) will be disseminate

 Sample  normal individuals under laboratory conditions ◦ Controlled environment – to understand human cognition/thinking process better

 People tend to behave differently when they are in the lab situation (when involved in experiment)  resulting in inaccurate findings because it does not represent the true process of human cognition.  Normally setting or design of the experiments is carried out in advance according to scientists needs/ requirement  little emphasize on respondent’s response.  Measurement on the speed and accuracy of performance provide only indirect evidence about the internal process involved in cognition.  Experimenter have the tendency to ignore the differences in respondents background (IQ, SES etc)  could affect the experiment result.

 Cognitive Science… ◦ Focus on the relationship between artificial intelligence and Cognitive Psychology  by developing computational models in order to understand human cognitions.  Artificial Intelligence is the study of human intelligence such that it can be replicated artificially. i.e. AI:- Systems that think like humans (focus on reasoning and human framework) Systems that think rationally (focus on reasoning and a general concept of intelligence) Systems that act like humans (focus on behavior and human framework) Systems that act rationally (focus on behavior and a general concept of intelligence)

 A good computational model can:- ◦ show us how a given theory can be specified in detail  allow us to predict behavior in new situations. ◦ Help to stimulate better specification of cognitive theories and generates new predictions.  3 main types of computational models:- ◦ Semantic networks ◦ Production system ◦ Connectionist network

 Normally computational models are used for/as prop for a theory, rarely used to make prediction  because often they have no real predictive function.  Connectionist models  claim to have neuro plausibility, do not really resemble the human brain.  Most computational model has been design to stimulate human performance on single task.

 Cognitive neuropsychology is a branch of cognitive psychology that aims to understand how the structure and function of the brain relates to specific psychological processes.  Emphasize on  study the cognitive effects of brain injury or neurological illness  by inferring to models of normal cognitive functioning (in order to understand the normal human cognition). ◦ Evidence is based on case studies of individual brain damaged patients who show deficits in brain areas

13  Setiap bahagian otak sangat penting dalam mempengaruhi perkembangan bayi  berintegrasi juga dengan integrasi dengan emosi dan tingkahlaku sosial. Otak Tengah: Limbic System mengawal emosi, ingatan, motivasi, t/l agrasif, kawal suhu badan, lapar, aktiviti sistem saraf, rembesan hormon, dan pusat kepuasan Otak Luar: Cortex & neocortex berlipat-lipat, disinilah letaknya ‘intelligence’ (tempat berfikir), kawasan yang mengawal penglihatan, pendengaran, rekacipta, percakapan dan pemikiran. Ia terbahagi kepada bahagian-bahagian (lobes) Pangkal Otak: Brain stem Kawal proses-proses hidup,spt bernafas, pergerakan jantung, proses ginjal, tidur, arousal, attention & keseimbangan badan (balance/movement), dll.

 Cognitive neuropsychologist assume that cognitive system consists of several modules or cognitive processors within the brain. ◦ i.e. the cognitive processors involved in understanding speech is different from actual talking.  So, some brain damage patients are good at language comprehension but poor at talking (or vice-versa).  From these studies researchers infer that different areas of the brain are highly specialized. 

 Cognitive neuropsychology also uses many of the same techniques and technologies from the wider science of neuropsychology and fields such as cognitive neuroscience (neuroimaging – e.g. PET scan/MRI/CT scan; electrophysiology & neuropsychology test) to measure either brain function or psychological performance 

 Assume that the cognitive performance of a brain damage patients provide direct evidence of the impact of brain damage (of previously normal cognitive system).  The whole cognitive neuropsychological approach is very complex  because every individual are different (in age, size, SES, educational background), but they have similar kind of brain damage. So????  The study of brain damage patients can lead to underestimates of brain areas involved in performing any given cognitive functioning

 Cognitive neuroscience is an academic field concerned with the scientific study of biological component underlying cognition  with specific focus on the neural component of mental processes.  It addresses the questions of how psychological/ cognitive functions are produced by the brain  focused on uncovering the neural mechanisms underlying cognitive processes. ◦ Includes studying about perception, attention, motor control, language, learning, memory, spatial and social cognition

 Cognitive neuroscience is a branch of both psychology and neuroscience, overlapping with disciplines such as biology, physiology, physiological psychology, cognitive psychology and neuropsychology.  Therefore, the Cognitive neuroscientists comes from various backgrounds, such as….. ◦ cognitive neuroscience, neurobiology, Bioengineering, ◦ Psychiatry, neurology, physics, computer science, linguistics, philosophy and mathematics. ◦

 Methods employed in cognitive neuroscience include experimental paradigms from psychophysics and cognitive psychology, functional neuro imaging, electrophysiology, cognitive genomics and behavioral genetics.  Scientist tried to understand the relationship between the brain and mind  from various aspects. ◦ Studies of the human brain are done scientifically  in controlled environment (lab) ◦ Studies of patients with cognitive deficits due to brain lesions constitute an important aspect of cognitive neuroscience ◦ Theoretical approaches include computational neuroscience and cognitive psychology.  Cognitive neuroscience relies upon theories in cognitive science, plus evidence from neuropsychology and computational.

 Relating to the validity of the data collected (results from the study). ◦ Can the result be generalized to other situation  since each individual (respondents) participated in the study have significant individual differences???