cognitive psychology, sixth edition, robert j. sternberg chapter 1 chapter 1: introduction to...

Cognitive Psychology, Sixth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 1

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?

• 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.

Memory

Attention

Perception

Reasoning

Problem Solving Decision

Making

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)


Pineal Gland


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)


Psychobiology:Karl Spencer Lashley (1890–1959)

Cognitive Psychology, Sixth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 1Alan 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

CHARLI-2 2012Witch (Wolverhampton Instrument for Teaching Computation from Harwell) 1951


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


• Cannot infer causation

• Nature of relationship– Positive correlation

– Negative correlation

• Strength of relationship– Determined by size of “r”

Correlational Studies


• 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

Example: Correlational Study


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.

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