Cognitive Psychology Overview

Cognitive Psychology

• Cognitive psychology explores mental processes related to perceiving, attending, thinking, language, and memory.
• It aims to understand how these processes influence behavior and interact with each other.
• It re-emerged in the 1950s, emphasizing unseen cognitive processes instead of solely observable behaviors.
• The relationship between stimulus and response is complex and mediated, rather than simple and direct.
• Dissatisfaction with behaviorism and psychoanalytic views, along with new experimental methods and the computer analogy of the mind, contributed to its re-emergence.

Key Figures in Cognitive Psychology's Reemergence

• Herbert Simon (1916-2001), economist and political scientist, pioneering AI and decision-making.
• Jean Piaget (1896-1980), focused on the development of thinking.
• Noam Chomsky (1928-Present), criticized behaviorism and emphasized language.

Cognitive Psychology is Empirical

• Empirical knowledge is based on observation, experience, or experiment, not theory.
• Research uses empirical evidence - data collected through observation or experimentation, which can be tested and verified.

Cognitive Science Spurred

• This includes experimental cognitive psychology (e.g., memory, attention, problem-solving, linguistics).
• The information-processing approach (e.g., artificial intelligence, computer simulations).
• Cognitive neuroscience (e.g., normal brain functioning, effects of brain damage).

Thinking

• Thinking is any mental activity or information processing.
• This encompasses learning, memory, perception, communication, problem-solving, and decision-making.

Information Processing

• Theories on cognition reflect varying levels of information processing.
• William James (1890) discussed associative and true reasoning as different cognitive levels.

Dual Process Theory

• Thinking comprises two systems:
  • System 1: Unconscious, quick, uses shortcuts, often relied upon but less precise.
  • System 2: Intentional, calculated, more accurate, requires effort, and is slower.

Cognitive Misers

• Due to limited cognitive resources (time, energy, mental resources), humans prefer less effortful problem-solving strategies over complex ones, regardless of intelligence level.

Dual Process Theory and Cognitive Efficiency

• System 1 (autopilot) comprises about 90% of thinking.
• System 2 (deliberate) is high-effort thinking.

Energy-Intensive Organ

• The brain uses 20% of the body's resting energy despite being only 2% of its mass, primarily via glucose use.
• Energy demands slightly increase during complex tasks.

System 1 Thinking (3 Methods for Energy Conservation)

• Heuristics: Mental shortcuts to make quick decisions with minimal effort (e.g., relying on brand recognition instead of analyzing all product options). Algorithms generate guaranteed solutions, but might be less efficient.
  • Heuristic Types:
    • Availability: Judging likelihoods based on how easily examples come to mind.
    • Representative: Judging categories based on similarity to a mental prototype.
• Cognitive biases, systematic deviations from rationality in judgments and decisions due to subjective factors (expectations, emotions, motivations).

Types of Cognitive Biases

• Confirmation Bias: Seeking and focusing on information that confirms existing beliefs while dismissing contradictory information.
• Hindsight Bias: Believing past events were more predictable than they actually were when they occurred.
• Ingroup Bias: Favoring individuals who belong to the same group (ingroup).
• Outgroup Homogeneity Bias: Perceiving less variance among individuals in out-groups compared to ingroups.

Attention

• Attention is a limited resource; the brain struggles to process multiple things thoroughly when attention is divided or overwhelmed.
• Divided attention leads to biased judgments or incomplete thinking.
• Examples like driving illustrate how attention focuses primarily on vital details, while ignoring others unconsciously.

System 2 Thinking

• Deliberate, conscious, and analytical thinking demanding effort and attention.
• Switched when situations are unfamiliar, consequential, or cognitively manageable (low load).

Uses of System 2 Thinking

• Requires cognitive resources and control.
• Involves breaking down problems, evaluating evidence, and reasoning logically.
• Useful in critical thinking and managing cognitive biases.

Linguistics

• The scientific study of human language encompassing physical, structural, functional, psychological, and social aspects and characteristics.

Language

• A method of communication (spoken or written) using structured words to transmit information.

Areas of Linguistic Interest

• Neuroscience: Focus on the anatomy and functioning associated with language.
• Clinical: The dominant words of individuals.
• Culture: Similarities and differences in language across cultures, including regional differences.

Language Acquisition

• The process of learning language.
• Empiricist Theories (B.F. Skinner): Language learned through imitation and reinforcement.
• Nativist Theories (Noam Chomsky): Innate capacity (Language Acquisition Device, LAD) and overregularization support this approach.
• Interactionist Theories: Language acquisition results from the interaction of innate capacities and experience.

Critical Periods

• Researchers study children with limited language exposure and bilinguals, which helps to understand language acquisition process timelines.

Language Development

• Infant vocalizations start similarly, evolving into babbling, phonemes, and morphemes.
• By one year, first words emerge across cultures, with comprehension preceding production.
• By age five, most individuals possess a vocabulary of around 1,000 words.

Can Animals Develop Language?

• Researchers attempted language teaching with various animals.
• The main challenge faced by animals is a lack of vocal apparatus, which often leads to using sign language as a substitute.
• Some animals (like Washoe) demonstrated learning specific words, but the ability to master syntax remained challenging.

Conclusion/Summary of Language

• Language is uniquely human, featuring complexity, structure, and conveying complex concepts, emotions, and ideas - this includes syntax and grammar, symbolization, and cultural transmission.

Timeline of Language Development

• Language evolved over a long period, estimated around 100,000 to 200,000 years ago in Homo sapiens.
• Early communication forms gradually evolved into complex language systems.

Neurological and Anatomical Evolution

• Increased neocortex (especially Broca's and Wernicke's areas), enabled complex language processing.
• Enhanced neural connectivity supported abstract thought, memory, and syntax.
• Evolved vocal tract, including a lowered larynx and fine motor control of vocal organs, allows complex speech.

Natural Selection

• Language enhanced survival by aiding communication, collaboration, finding mates, caring for offspring, and outcompeting others.