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Cognitive Psychology, Sixth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 1
Chapter 1: Introduction to
Cognitive Psychology
Cognitive Psychology, Sixth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 1
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?
Cognitive Psychology, Sixth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 1
Some Questions of Interest
• What methods do cognitive psychologists use to study how people think?
Cognitive Psychology, Sixth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 1
• http://viscog.beckman.illinois.edu/flashmovie/15.php
• http://viscog.beckman.illinois.edu/flashmovie/23.php
Cognitive Psychology, Sixth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 1
Cognitive Psychology Is…
• The study of how people perceive, learn, remember, and think about information.
Memory
Attention
Perception
Reasoning
Problem Solving Decision
Making
Language
Cognitive Psychology, Sixth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 1
Philosophical Antecedents
Rationalist•Acquire knowledge through thinking and logical analysis
Empiricist •Acquire knowledge via empirical evidence
Cognitive Psychology, Sixth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 1
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
Cognitive Psychology, Sixth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 1
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)
Cognitive Psychology, Sixth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 1
Pineal Gland
Cognitive Psychology, Sixth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 1
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
Cognitive Psychology, Sixth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 1
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?
Cognitive Psychology, Sixth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 1
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…
Cognitive Psychology, Sixth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 1
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?
Cognitive Psychology, Sixth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 1
•William James (1842–1910)—A Harvard professor who established the first psychology laboratory in America
•1890 textbook The Principles of Psychology
•Philosophy of pragmatism
Cognitive Psychology, Sixth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 1
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.
Cognitive Psychology, Sixth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 1
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.”
Cognitive Psychology, Sixth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 1
Structuralism(Wundt)
Functionalism(James)
Synthesis:
Associationism(Ebbinghaus & Thorndike)
Cognitive Psychology, Sixth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 1
Psychological Antecedents
Associationism•How can events or ideas become associated in the mind?
Behaviorism•What is the relation between behavior and environment?
Cognitive Psychology, Sixth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 1
Psychological Antecedents
Gestalt Psychology- Cognitions should play an active role in psychology (Wertheimer, Kohler)
Cognitive Psychology, Sixth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 1
Emergence of Cognitive Psychology
• 1950s: development of computers
• artificial intelligence
• A cognitive revolution occurred and increased interest in the study of mental processes (cognitions)
Cognitive Psychology, Sixth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 1
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)
Cognitive Psychology, Sixth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 1
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)
Cognitive Psychology, Sixth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 1
Then and Now
CHARLI-2 2012Witch (Wolverhampton Instrument for Teaching Computation from Harwell) 1951
Cognitive Psychology, Sixth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 1
Research Methods
• Controlled experiments
• Psychobiological research
• Self reports
• Case studies
• Naturalistic observation
• Computer simulations and artificial intelligence
Cognitive Psychology, Sixth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 1
In an Experiment…
• Manipulate the independent variable– The “cause”
• Measure the dependent variable– The “effect”
• Control all other variables– Prevent confounds
Cognitive Psychology, Sixth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 1
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
Cognitive Psychology, Sixth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 1
Typical Dependent Variables
• Percent correct/error rate – Accuracy of mental processing
• Reaction time (milliseconds)– Speed of mental processing
Cognitive Psychology, Sixth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 1
• Cannot infer causation
• Nature of relationship– Positive correlation
– Negative correlation
• Strength of relationship– Determined by size of “r”
Correlational Studies
Cognitive Psychology, Sixth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 1
• 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
Cognitive Psychology, Sixth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 1
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
Cognitive Psychology, Sixth Edition, Robert J. SternbergChapter 1
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.