Lecture 2 – History of Cognition 1 Three topics: 1.Pre-history of study of cognition 2. Early history 3. Recent history

Lecture 2 – History of Cognition 2 Pre-history of study of Cognition

Lecture 2 – History of Cognition 3 Classical times 1.No integrated model of mind. Reference to many functions, but not to relations among these functions. Analogy: Homer has words for limbs, muscles, bones, joints, but not for body. Rich, complex behaviour seen as produced by an interaction among parts.

Lecture 2 – History of Cognition 4 Imagine describing a library – By listing the books it holds, or By describing its functions, or By developing a theory of what libraries are and how they work Homeric model of mind was like the list.

Lecture 2 – History of Cognition 5 Classical times 2.Causes of behaviour A. Gods and demons Basic idea: behaviour comes from outside the person, not from inside Note similar views today: e.g., television causes violence, or images cause anorexia.

Lecture 2 – History of Cognition 6 Classical times B. Internal organs e.g., “he doesn’t have the stomach for it.” “my heart is broken.” brain had no special status

Lecture 2 – History of Cognition 7 Early History of Study of Psychology 1.Rene Descartes 2.John Locke 3.19 th century German physiologists 4.Darwin

Lecture 2 – History of Cognition 8 Rene Descartes ( )

Lecture 2 – History of Cognition 9 Descartes Grew up during chaos of Thirty Years War. System and order were very important to him. Knew that animals share many psychological functions with humans (e.g., learning). But there are some things we do that animals do not do – these are the most interesting.

Lecture 2 – History of Cognition 10 Descartes We are conscious in a way that animals are not (we are self-aware) Our consciousness allows us to think and use language. This made how humans are different from animals the central issue for psychology.

Lecture 2 – History of Cognition 11 Descartes argued (a) animals do not have the same sort of consciousness we do, (b) animals do not have souls, (c) the soul is the seat of consciousness. The problem for a science that does not recognize the soul is, what is consciousness?

Lecture 2 – History of Cognition 12 John Locke ( )

Lecture 2 – History of Cognition 13 Locke: (1) Against divine right of kings to rule. (2) Against idea that some people are special, and should rule because of that. (3) All people are born as “blank slates,” and that knowledge comes from experience. (4) So, anybody with right experience can govern.

Lecture 2 – History of Cognition 14 Locke – two types of knowledge: Sensation sensory impressions of the world Reflection combining sensory impressions (association) only source of complex knowledge

Lecture 2 – History of Cognition 15 Interim summary: In classical Greece, complexity of behaviour seen as due to interaction of many parts & agencies. Descartes said most functions similar in humans and animals. Distinctively-human (complex) behaviour produced by thinking, which is done by the soul. Locke argued that behaviour is driven by knowledge and knowledge comes from experience

Lecture 2 – History of Cognition th Century German physiologists Physiology an established science Studied nerve conduction speed Developed psychophysics Showed you can have a science of behaviour Led to first psychology lab at Leipzig in 1879

Lecture 2 – History of Cognition 17 Darwin ( ) people, animals evolved from common ancestors. human functions evolved from animal functions.

Lecture 2 – History of Cognition 18 Darwin Continuity paradox: some human functions have no animal analogue (e.g., language). Descartes had made what was different about humans the central problem. After Darwin, Psychology focused on what was shared with animals – learning.

Lecture 2 – History of Cognition 19 Interim summary: 19 th century physiologists studied nerve conduction speed. This made study of mental states respectable. Darwin made continuity of function between humans and animals central tenet of psychology.

Lecture 2 – History of Cognition Recent history A.World War II – technology B. World War II – movements of refugees C.Computer science D. Linguistics

Lecture 2 – History of Cognition 21 World War II - technology More complex machines and weaponry Psychologists brought in to answer new questions E.g., how can fighter cockpit be designed to improve pilot’s information processing? How long can a radar operator be on station before performance falls off?

Lecture 2 – History of Cognition 22 Problem: Behaviourists had no relevant knowledge or research techniques. They studied learning in pigeons and rats. Accounts of behaviour involved life history, not current state of the organism. Behaviourists had to start all over again.

Lecture 2 – History of Cognition 23 World War II – Movements of refugees Many psychologists uprooted in Europe went to N. America Tended not to have Behaviourist biases Didn’t mind referring to mental events Met U.S. psychologists returning from military

Lecture 2 – History of Cognition 24 Computer Science Computers capable of sophisticated behaviour Program specifies processes that produce that behaviour Psychologists wanted to find the ‘program’ for human cognition

Lecture 2 – History of Cognition 25 Linguistics Two contributions from Noam Chomsky: 1.Attacked Behaviourism – devastating review of Skinner’s book Verbal Behavior (1959) 2. Developed Transformational Generative Grammar in the fifties.

Lecture 2 – History of Cognition 26 Chomsky’s Review of Verbal Behavior Showed language function cannot be explained in terms of reinforcement. Tranformational Generative Grammar Infinite # of utterances from finite set of words + finite number of rules for combining A theory of mental processes

Lecture 2 – History of Cognition 27 All these threads came together in the 1950s, a time of great change in North America…

Lecture 2 – History of Cognition 28 It was the 50’s. Fins were in. Vinyl was in demand. Elvis was thin. And governments were throwing money at the universities.

Lecture 2 – History of Cognition 29 Graduate schools opened up and turned out lots of young turks. Like all young turks, they thought the old farts were wrong about everything. Including psychology. Change was unavoidable.

Lecture 2 – History of Cognition 30 That change produced a new way of understanding human mental function. That new way focused on mental representations and the processes that operate on them. It was called Cognitive Psychology.

Lecture 2 – History of Cognition 31 Quick evaluation: On a piece of paper, please write down one or two sentences about each of: What you liked best about today’s lecture. What you still have some confusion about. Be constructive – but don’t put your name on the paper! (Please hand it in as you leave.)