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Introduction to Cognitive Psychology

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Title: Introduction to Cognitive Psychology


1
Introduction to Cognitive Psychology
  • Chapter 1

2
Questions to Consider
  • How is cognitive psychology relevant to everyday
    experience?
  • Are there practical applications of cognitive
    psychology?
  • How is it possible to study the inner workings of
    the mind, when we cant really see the mind
    directly?
  • What is the field of cognitive psychology?

3
Learning Objectives
  • Challenges of the Field
  • History of the Field
  • Modern Approaches to Studying the Mind
  • Strategies for Successful Learning

4
Cognition and Cognitive Psychology
  • Cognition
  • The mental processes that are involved in
    perception, attention, memory, problem solving,
    reasoning, and making decisions
  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Branch of psychology concerned with the
    scientific study of cognition

5
Challenges of Cognitive ?
  • Often times, the processes involved in cognition
    are complex and hidden from view
  • Take a moment and think about all that is
    happening around you (perception, attention,
    memory, reasoning)
  • Complexity examples
  • Stroop effect
  • Described by J.R. Stroop in 1935
  • Name of word interferes with naming of the
    colorsome stimuli influence us even when we
    dont want them to do so
  • Angela example in textrevisited grandparents
    and memories of childhood came back

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History of Cognitive ?
  • 1st cognitive psychology experiment, 1868
  • Franciscus Donders, Dutch physiologist
  • Used mental chronometry
  • What is mental chronometry?
  • What are 2 ways to measure reaction time?
  • ____________
  • ____________
  • Mental processes are ____________ from behavior

8
History of Cognitive ?
  • 1st cognitive psychology experiment, 1868
  • Franciscus Donders, Dutch physiologist
  • Used mental chronometry
  • Measures time-course of cognitive processes
  • Measured reaction time time b/w presentation of
    stimulus and persons response to that stimulus
  • Simple reaction time
  • Choice reaction time (push one of two buttons in
    response to a stimulus)
  • Inferred mental process of perception
  • Mental response cannot be measured directly, but
    can be inferred from behavior (choice reaction
    time simple reaction time length of time to
    make a decision)
  • All research in cognitive psychology deals with
    inferred mental processes

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  • Helmholtzs Unconscious Inference
  • Helmholtz developed the ophthalmoscope proposed
    theories of object perception, color vision, and
    hearing
  • Theory of unconscious inference some perceptions
    are the result of unconscious assumptions that we
    make about the environment past experiences with
    objects may impact our perceptions
  • 2 sheets of paper exercise

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  • Ebbinghaus
  • Learned lists of nonsense syllables (e.g., DAX,
    QEH)
  • Why nonsense syllables?
  • Repeated lists and noted how many repetitions it
    took to repeat the list with no errors this was
    called __________
  • Waited a period of time and then relearned the
    list
  • Computed a savings score
  • Savings (initial repetitions) relearning
    repetitions/initial repetitions then multiply
    by 100 for a
  • Forgetting curve (Figure 1.6)
  • Measured behavior to infer processes of memory
  • These early researchers were physiologists,
    physicists, and philosophers

14
  • Ebbinghaus
  • Learned lists of nonsense syllables (e.g., DAX,
    QEH)
  • Why nonsense syllables?
  • Did not want actual words to influence his
    ability to memorize or recall certain words
  • Repeated lists and noted how many repetitions it
    took to repeat the list with no errors this was
    called savings method
  • Waited a period of time and then relearned the
    list
  • Computed a savings score
  • Savings (initial repetitions) relearning
    repetitions/initial repetitions then multiply
    by 100 for a
  • Forgetting curve (Figure 1.6)
  • Measured behavior to infer processes of memory
  • These early researchers were physiologists,
    physicists, and philosophers

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  • Wilhelm Wundt
  • 1879, founded first laboratory of scientific
    psychology at the University of Leipzig, in order
    to study the mind scientifically
  • Carried out reaction-time experiments
  • Developed analytic introspection
  • Procedure used in which trained participants
    described their experiences and thought processes
    elicited by stimuli presented under controlled
    conditions
  • Problematic introspection did not seem to reveal
    the structure of thought results from different
    laboratories often disagreed

17
Decline and Rebirth
  • John Watson and Behaviorism
  • Developed new approach to psychology by studying
    actual behaviors in their own right and not
    worrying about consciousness
  • Argued behavior is observable and objective
  • Studied impact of stimulus conditions on behavior
    (stimulus-response)
  • Most famous study Little Albert
  • B.F. Skinner
  • Studied operant conditioning believe
    reinforcements, not free will, determined
    behavior
  • Published book on verbal behavior that claimed
    language developed through imitation and
    reinforcement

18
  • Noam Chomsky, linguist
  • Disagreed with Skinner, and believed language
    development was inborn and held across cultures
  • Defended his theory with
  • Children say sentences they have never heard
  • Incorrect grammar
  • Realization that to understand complex cognitive
    behaviors need to consider how the mind works in
    addition to S-R
  • Rise of the Information Processing Metaphor
  • Broadbents flow diagram depicted the mind as
    processing information in a sequences of stages
  • Information processing models conceive of
    cognitive activities as involving a series of
    steps, procedures, or processes that take time
    (e.g., 1/10 second)

19
Modern Approaches to Study the Mind
  • Behavioral Approach
  • Measure behavior and explain cognition in terms
    of behavior
  • e.g., reaction time
  • Measuring mental rotation exercise (Figure 1.10
    and Figure 1.11)
  • Physiological Approach
  • Measure both behavior and physiology and explain
    cognition in terms of physiology
  • e.g., reaction time and brain wave activity or
    brain activation
  • Davachi experiment Figure 1.12 (words that were
    remembered on the memory test had more brain
    activity when words were first exposed

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Cognitive Psychology
  • Scientific study of mental processes
  • Simply put it is the study of thought
  • Behavior is examined by cognitive psychologists
    the same way that physicists infer the force of
    gravity from the behavior of objects in the
    world.
  • Mental Processes remembering, attention,
    producing and understanding language, solving
    problems, and making decisions
  • Thinking is something that is constantly
    happening, yet we rarely stop to think about it

25
Omnipresence of Cognitive Processes
  • Perception and Sensory Memory
  • Organize and interpret incoming information
    (e.g., first lecture)
  • Sensory memory holds information, like an
    information buffer, just long enough to determine
    whether it seems worthwhile
  • Attention
  • Set of processes through which you focus on
    incoming information
  • Ability to attend is flexiblecan divert
    (cocktail party effect, police car)
  • Attention is also limited

26
  • Working Memory
  • Like a mental juggling act to fully process and
    understand facts and figures, have to repeat
    material/info and/or jot it down in your notes
  • Pattern Recognition and Concept Representation
  • Recognize the term s-y-l-l-a-b-u-s and that
    activates some concept in memory

27
  • Long-Term Memory
  • Have to store what is being said for later use
  • Memory Distortion
  • Forgetting, Misremember information
  • Trying to think of a persons last name
  • Autobiographical Memory
  • Research focuses on how we remember information
    about ourselves, our personal past

28
  • Knowledge Representation
  • Mental representations are representations of
    your stored knowledge, and you access them when
    necessary
  • Language
  • Your implicit knowledge of syntax (word
    arrangement rules) and semantics (rules for
    expressing meaning) allows you to comprehend
    instantly what makes sense and what does not

29
  • Problem Solving
  • Involves operating within constraints (such as
    time) and reaching a goal from a starting state
    that is nowhere near the goal
  • Decision Making
  • If I miss a class will it affect my grade?
  • How much time should I spend studying?

30
Cognitive Science
  • Cognitive Science
  • Study of the mind (mental processes) as carried
    out by many different disciplines
  • Disciplines cognitive psychology, and research
    on the mind within the fields of computer
    science, linguistics, neuroscience, anthropology,
    artificial intelligence, and philosophy
  • (Figure 1.14)

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Study Techniques
  • Elaborate
  • Organize
  • Associate
  • Take breaks
  • Matching learning and testing conditions
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