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Cognitive Psychology Definition

• Cognitive psychology studies how people perceive, learn, remember, and think about information.
• Cognitive psychologists study how people perceive shapes, why memories vary in retention, and how language is acquired.

Philosophical Antecedents of Psychology

• Philosophy seeks to understand the nature of the world through introspection.
• Introspection involves the examination of inner thoughts and experiences.
• Physiology seeks a scientific study of life functions in living matter through empirical methods.

Plato (ca. 428-348 B.C.)

• Plato was a rationalist who believed knowledge is gained through thinking and logical analysis.
• Rationalists develop new knowledge through reason, not experiments.

Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)

• Aristotle was an empiricist who believed knowledge is acquired through empirical evidence, i.e., experience and observation.
• Empiricists design experiments and conduct observations to explore how the human mind works.

Psychological Antecedents of Cognitive Psychology

• Psychology has recently emerged as a new and independent field of study.
• Psychology has developed in a dialectical way.
• Future approaches may integrate or reject features of past approaches.

Structuralism

• Structuralism was the first major school of thought in psychology; it seeks to understand the mind's structure and perception by analyzing perceptions into their constituent components.
• Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) was a German psychologist whose ideas contributed to developing structuralism.
• Wundt is viewed as the founder of structuralism in psychology.
• Wundt used introspection, a process of looking inward to examine one's own thoughts and emotions.
• Introspection shifted the study of the mind from a rationalist to an empiricist approach, emphasizing observation of behavior.
• Challenges for introspection include difficulties in expressing thoughts accurately or completely, potential inaccuracies, and process alteration due to attention.
• Edward Titchener (1867-1927), an American student of Wundt, is viewed as the first full-fledged structuralist who helped bring structuralism to the United States.
• Titchener's experiments relied on introspection, exploring psychology from the individual's perspective.

Functionalism

• Functionalism seeks to understand what people do and why they do it.
• Functionalists believe the key to understanding the human mind and behavior lies in studying the processes of how and why the mind works, rather than studying the mind's structural contents.
• William James (1842-1910) was a physician, philosopher, and brother of author Henry James.
• William James is regarded as among the greatest cognitive psychologists ever.
• James' main contribution was his book "Principles of Psychology" (1890/1970).
• John Dewey (1859-1952) was another early pragmatist who influenced contemporary thinking in cognitive psychology.
• Dewey is primarily remembered for his pragmatic approach to thinking and schooling.

Associationism

• Associationism examines how elements of the mind, like events or ideas, become associated with one another.
• Associations may result from contiguity, similarity, or contrast.
• Hermann Ebbinghaus (1850-1909) was the first to apply associationist principles systematically in the late 1800s.
• Through self-observations, Ebbinghaus studied how people learn and remember material through rehearsal.
• Edward Lee Thorndike (1874-1949) believed "satisfaction" is key to forming associations.
• Thorndike termed the law of effect (1905): a stimulus produces a response over time if an organism is rewarded for it.

Behaviorism

• Behaviorism focuses only on the relation between observable behavior and environmental events or stimuli.
• Nobel Prize-winning physiologist Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936) studied involuntary learning behavior in Russia
• Pavlov observed that dogs salivated in response to the lab technician that would feed them
• According to Pavlov, this response indicated a form of learning (classically conditioned learning), over which the dogs had no conscious control.
• Behaviorism is an extreme version of associationism focusing on the association between the environment and observable behavior.
• John Watson (1878-1958), known as the "father" of radical behaviorism, believed psychologists should concentrate only on observable behavior.
• Watson dismissed thinking as subvocalized speech.
• Behaviorism shifted experimental research emphasis from human to animal participants.
• Generalizing research from nonhuman animals to humans is a problem.
• B.F. Skinner (1904-1990) believed all forms of human behavior could be explained by emitted behavior in reaction to the environment.
• Skinner rejected mental mechanisms and believed operant conditioning could explain all human behavior.
• Criticisms include behaviorism's failure to account for complex activities like language and problem-solving..
• More than understanding people's behavior, some psychologists wanted to know what was going on inside the head.
• Behaviorism was easier to use studying nonhuman animals than humans.

Behaviorists Daring to Peek into the Black Box

• Some psychologists rejected radical behaviorism and were curious about the contents of the mysterious black box, the brain/mind.
• Behaviorists regarded the mind as a black box best understood via input and output, without observable processes.
• Edward Tolman (1886-1959) thought behavior understanding required accounting for behavior's purpose and plan.
• Tolman believed all behavior is goal-directed and is viewed as a forefather of modern cognitive psychology.
• Albert Bandura (1977b) noted that learning appears to result not merely from direct rewards for behavior, but it can also be social or by observations of rewards and punishments.
• People observe and model behavior after the behavior of others by example.

Gestalt Psychology

• Gestalt psychology emphasizes understanding psychological phenomena when viewed as organized, structured wholes.
• Behavior cannot be understood by only breaking phenomena into pieces.
• "The whole is more than the sum of its parts”.

Emergence of Cognitive Psychology

• In the early 1950s, the "cognitive revolution" occurred in response to behaviorism.
• Cognitivism is the belief that much human behavior can be understood by how people think.
• Cognitivism rejects not studying unobservable mental processes.

Early Role of Psychobiology

• Karl Spencer Lashley (1890-1958), one of Watson's students, challenged the behaviorist view; he suggested that the brain is not a passive organ.
• Lashley considered the brain an active, dynamic organizer of behavior.
• Donald Hebb (1949) proposed cell assemblies as the basis for learning in the brain.
• Cell assemblies are coordinated neural structures that develop through frequent stimulation, increasing a neuron's ability to stimulate firing in a connected neuron.

Engineering, Computation, and Applied Cognitive Psychology

• By the end of the 1950s, psychologists were intrigued by programming machines to intelligently process information.
• Alan Turing (1912-1954) suggested it would be hard to distinguish machines' communication from humans'.
• The Turing test tests for computer success in mimicking human output.
• In 1956 Artificial intelligence (AI) became part of vocabulary.
• AI is the attempt by humans to construct systems showing intelligence and intelligent information processing.
• Experts underestimated the difficulty of having a computer think like a human being.
• Many early cognitive psychologists became interested in cognitive psychology through applied problems.
• During World War II, cognitive psychologists consulted with the military to solve aviation problems and other fields.
• Information theory, understanding people's behavior in how they process bits of information by computer, grew out of engineering and informatics problems.
• Applied cognitive psychology was used in advertising; John Watson became an advertising executive after leaving Johns Hopkins University.
• By the early 1960s, developments in fields such as psychobiology, linguistics, anthropology, and artificial intelligence, converged to create an atmosphere ripe for revolution.

Cognitive Psychology Today

• By the 1970s, cognitive psychology was recognized as a major field of study.
• Jerry Fodor (1973) popularized the concept of the modularity of mind.
• Fodor argued that the mind has distinct modules, or special-purpose systems, to deal with linguistic and other information.
• The idea of modular mind goes back to Franz-Joseph Gall; he believed bumps and swells on the skull were tied to cognitive skills patterns.

Cognitive and Intelligence

• Intelligence is the capacity to learn from experience adapting to the environment.
• More intelligent people are superior in divided and selective attention, reasoning, making decisions, and creating concepts..
• Researchers have identified about 70 intelligence definitions.
• Cognitive psychologists emphasize metacognition (understanding and controlling one's thinking processes).
• Contemporary experts emphasize culture's role; intelligence may be considered stupid in another.
• Definitions of intelligence take an assessment-oriented focus.

Three Cognitive Models of Intelligence

Carroll: Three-Stratum Model of Intelligence

• Intelligence is a hierarchy of cognitive abilities, comprising three strata:
• Stratum I includes narrow, specific abilities like spelling and reasoning speed.
• Stratum II has a variety of broad abilities like fluid intelligence, crystallized intelligence, memory, retrieval, and processing speed.
• Stratum III is single general intelligence, or g.
• The middle stratum is the most interesting stratum that is neither too narrow nor too all-encompassing.
• Fluid intelligence is the speed/accuracy of abstract reasoning, especially for novel problems.
• Crystallized ability is accumulated knowledge and vocabulary.
• Carroll includes learning, memory, visual perception, auditory perception, and facile production of ideas.

Gardner: Theory of Multiple Intelligences

• Intelligence includes multiple independent constructs, not a unitary construct.
• Distinguishes nine relatively independent intelligences:
• Verbal-linguistic: thinking in words, using language to express meanings.
• Logical-mathematical: calculating, quantifying, considering hypotheses, and completing math problems. Visual-spatial: thinking three-dimensionally; includes mental imagery.
• Musical: the ability to distinguish pitch, rhythm, timbre, and tone.
• Kinesthetic: ability to manipulate objects and use physical skills and timing.
• Interpersonal: the ability to understand and interact effectively with others.
• Intrapersonal: the capacity to understand oneself, thoughts, and feelings, and to direct one's life.
• Naturalistic: ability to discriminate among living things and sensitivity to nature.
• Existential: tackling deep questions about human existence.
• Gardner's base evidence does not rely on factor analysis or various psychometric tests alone.
• Gardner's mind view is modular: different abilities originate from distinct brain modules.
• A major task is to isolate the brain portions responsible for intelligences.

Sternberg: The Triarchic Theory of Intelligence

• Robert Sternberg tends to emphasize the integration of which intelligence works in his triarchic theory of that.
• According to this theory, intelligence includes three aspects:
• Creative abilities generate novel ideas.
• Analytical abilities ascertain whether generated ideas are good ones.
• Practical abilities implement ideas and persuade others of their values.
• According to the triarchic theory of human intelligence, cognition is at the center of intelligence.
• Information processing in cognition can be viewed in terms of three different kinds of components: metacomponents, performance components, knowledge-acquisition components.
• All components are interdependent.
• Combining teaching of analytic, creative, and practical abilities improved school achievement for every student.

Goals of Research

• Data gathering
• Data analysis
• Application
• Theory development
• Hypothesis formulation
• Hypothesis testing

Research Methods in Cognitive Psychology

Experiments on Human Behavior

• Experiments designs are conducted in a laboratory setting.
• The experimenter controls as many aspects of the experimental situation as possible.
• Independent variables are individually manipulated aspects of investigation, while holding other aspects constant.
• Dependent variables are outcome responses, influenced by independent ones.
• Control variables – irrelevant variables that are held constant.
• Confounding variables are the variables that have been left uncontrolled in a study.
• Experimenters must use a representative and random sample of the population.
• Participants must be randomly assigned to the treatment and control conditions.
• Percent correct and reaction time are two common variables.
• In cognitive-psychological research, the dependent variables involve accuracy, response times, or both.
• The situation or task are manipulated via random assignment of participants to either the control or treatment group.
• Participant characteristics are not easily manipulated experimentally.
• Correlations express statistical relationships and can range from and includes: Pearson's r.--- -1.00 ( negative), 0 (neutral), 1.00 (positive).
• Correlational studies prevent deceiving subjects or when ethic factors cannot be manipulated.
• Statistical relationships are highly informative

Psychobiological Research

• Psychobiological research investigates the relationship between cognitive performance and cerebral events/structures.
• There are techniques for studying an individual's brain postmortem; they relate cognitive function to observable brain features, techniques for studying images showing brain structures or activities of individual with cognitive deficits.
• techniques for obtaining information about cerebral processes during normal performance cognitive activity.
• Postmortem studies offered initial insights into how specific lesions relate to cognitive deficits.
• Recent developments are enabling alive individuals with cognitive deficits to study/view in vivo.
• Animal brains are studied for normal cognitive function.
• Animals serve for experiments involving neurosurgical procedures unethical on humans.
• Technology permits studying dynamic cerebral activity of humans during cognitive processing.

Self-Reports, Case Studies and Naturalistic Observation.

• Self-reports involve an individual's own account of cognitive processes.
• Case studies are in-depth studies of individuals.
• Naturalistic observation includes detailed studies of cognitive performance in everyday situations.
• Though experimental research is most useful for testing hypothesis, research based on self-reports, case studies, and naturalistic observation is the best hypotheses.
• Certain circumstances are best studied through these methods.
• Traumatic brain injury cannot be manipulated in the laboratory setting and is bettered studied though case studies.
• Phineas Gage became an important study: he was railroads worked that survived a large metal strike in his frontal lobe that drastically changed his behavior.
• Data reliability in self-reports depends on the honesty of participants.
• A participant may misreport information about his cognitive processes.
• Study research uses complex processes like solving problems by asking people to describe their thoughts through a verbal protocol ( describing aloud all their thoughts and tasks in a verbal protocol.)
• Case studies & natural observations can be used to compliment findings from experiments.

Computer Simulations and Artificial Intelligence

• Digital computers have a fundamental role to play in cognitive psychology.

• They help to model humans process information.

• Computer simulations allow one to program computer to imitate a given human function or process.

• Some experts model complete cognitive thinking by building entire models of humans minds

• The lines may blur between simulations and AI.

• The method of controlled laboratory experiments obtains performance samples .

• Easy administration allows for statistical anaylsis and a high probability of inferences.

• Difficulties can stem from generalizations in specific times, and behaviors during real life.

• Psychobiological research includes studing post-mortem, living, or imaging techniques.

• Hard evidence exists to support the physiological activity and the alternative views on how process can lead to treaments.

• Many researchers or facilities may not have access as a result making these populations smaller, and generalizing the animal brains to humans.

• Self-reporting and verbal protocol consists of the own participants recollection or progression through recollection.

• This process lets researches find the access to their point of view.

• This prohibits the lack of understanding during conscious awareness unless reported with a self-rating/ diary. It has been shown that recollections can be different between recorded ones.

• Case Studies allow for engaging and intensive studies that helps in understanding how individuals will behave in the world.

• it allows for the detailed study of individuals including contexts for those to follow and create applications on special populations.

• Since this is based on specificity it can affect the applications and generalisability to other problems with sample sizes being small.

• Naturalistic observations allows observers to watch real-life situations like school or working environments.

• Since there is plenty of content to explore, this helps with the observations in real-time environments.

• Lack of control can influence observer on behavior.

• Computer simulation and Artificial Intelligences has increased the ability through artificial processing and computer analysis to create simulations involving explorations. This can allow for hypothesis as well as various applications that would other be unavailable in the real world settings.

• Because these programs aren't as fully functional to the human brain limitations can occur which may not be a fair representation of human nature.

Cognitively what we know

• Cognitive science – cross-disciplinary field that uses cognitive psychology, psychobiology, AI, philosophy, linguistics, and anthropology ideas.
• Cognitive scientists use these ideas to study how humans acquire and use knowledge.
• Cognitive psychologists profit from collaborations with other psychologists.
• There are also close exchange and collaboration with related fields.

Fundamental Ideas in Cognitive Psychology

1. Empirical data and theories are both important.
2. Cognition is generally adaptive.
3. Cognitive processes interact with each other and with noncognitive processes.
4. Cognition needs variety of scientific methods.
5. Research may lead to understanding and applications.

Activities/Assessment

1. Describe major historical schools of psychological thought leading up to the development of cognitive psychology.
2. Describe some ways philosophy, linguistics, and AI have contributed to the development of cognitive psychology.