Lecture 1 (Introduction).pptx

An Introduction to Your Mind Lecture 1 Memory • The mental processes of acquiring and retaining information for later retrieval and the mental storage system that enables these processes. Memory Structure • Preserves the past (moments or years ago) Process • Acquiring and retrieving stored infor...

An Introduction to Your Mind Lecture 1 Memory • The mental processes of acquiring and retaining information for later retrieval and the mental storage system that enables these processes. Memory Structure • Preserves the past (moments or years ago) Process • Acquiring and retrieving stored information Three Activities included within Memory - Acquisition - Retention - Retrieval Cognition • The collection of mental processes and activities used in perceiving, remembering, thinking and understanding. Cognitive Psychology • The scientific study of the mind. • Psychology: The scientific study of behaviour, emotion and the mind. Everyday Experiences Everyday Experiences Cognitive Science • An interdisciplinary approach to the scientific study of the mind. • Philosophy, Artificial Intelligence, Linguistics Cognitive Psychology and Related Fields Assumptions • Materialism: The only thing that exists is matter and energy. Assumptions • Reductionism: A complex system is nothing but the sum of its parts, and that an account of it can be reduced to accounts of individual constituents. Assumptions • Empiricism: Emphasizes the role of experience and evidence, especially sensory experience, in the formation of ideas. Example: Experiments! History of Cognitive Psychology Before Cognition, Psychology and Philosophy Sentient Human: Why am I aware? What happens when I die? Why do I forget on some occasions and remember on others? Ancient Greek Philosophy: The Natural Perspective • Asked questions of the mind, such as: How much does perception reflect reality? How is sensation turned into perception? Ancient Greek Philosophy: Plato (428 – 348 BC) • The locus of the mind is in the brain. • “Wax tablet” analogy of perception Ancient Greek Philosophy: Aristotle (384 -322 BC) • The locus of the mind is in the heart. Doctrine of Association Human Mental Experiences have two Components: 1. Ideas: Elements in the environment 2. Associations: Links between the elements Laws of Association: 3. Similarity: Conceptually related 4. Contiguity: Similar time and space 5. Contrast: Opposites The Early Middle Ages (a.k.a. Dark Ages) Supernatural perspective dominates Divine Attributions and Explanations: -- Creationism -- Ptolemaic view of solar system Vitalism: Life requires a spiritual ‘life force’ Dualism: Mind is made of something qualitatively different from the physical. Dualism: The “Cartesian Catastrophe” Arguments Against - Evidence from Neuroscience - Evolution: What accounts for an immaterial mind? - Materialist Perspective: Mind is a label for what brain does. The Birth of Psychology • Wilhelm Wundt wanted to develop a scientific study of consciousness. • Started the first psychological laboratory at the University of Leipzig in 1879 • Insisted that psychological methods be as rigorous as the methods of chemistry & physics Other Early Schools of Thought o Edward Titchener and Structuralism o William James and Functionalism o Herman Ebbinghaus, the father of human memory research. Psychoanalytic Theory Psychoanalytic Theory attempts to explain personality, mental disorders & motivation in terms of unconscious determinants of behaviour. The Demise of the SUPERNATURAL - Even bizarre behaviour has a natural underlying cause Conscious versus Unconscious - Unconscious expressed in the form of dreams and slips of the tongue Behaviourism • John Watson, the founder of behaviorism • A response to Wundt’s introspection • The scientific study of observable behaviour only • Since mental processes cannot be seen, they have no place in psychology • Behaviorism is “antimentalistic” Behaviourism B.F. Skinner • “I submit that what we call the behaviour of the human organism is no more free than its digestion” • While mental processes may exist, they do not increase our explanatory power. • Human behaviour can be fully explained with an adequate understanding of Stimulus-Response relationships. Challenges to Behaviourism The Misbehaviour of Animals • Brelands: Teaching pigs to deposit wooden coins into a piggy bank failed as the pig eventually succumbed to instinctual rooting behaviours  instinct overrides learned behaviour • Garcia: Rats correctly associate nausea with fluid they ingested hours before they got sick, and did not associate the nausea with their current environment. Challenges to Behaviourism Learning Without Responding (McNamara et al., 1956) - In a T-maze, rat runs down central corridor and must then pick the correct side with the food in it. - If the food is always placed at the end of the right arm, over successive trials the rat will start making the correct response turn right. - Behaviourists’ S-R Explanation: S (The Maze) and R (Running Response) What happens if you remove R? Challenges to Behaviourism The Misbehaviour of Humans • Could not account for the behaviour / thought control relationship i.e., Theory of Ironic Processes The Rise of the Computer • This new invention helped to establish a new way to think about the mind. The Rise of Cognitive Psychology • Cognitive psychologists return to the of study mental processes: - Learning - Memory - Perception - Language, - Development - Problem solving Assumptions of Cognitive Psychology • Mental processes exist! • Mental processes can be studied scientifically (by using speed or accuracy as dependent variables). • Our minds are active information processors. Some Areas of Study • Perception • Attention • Memory • Reasoning and decision making • Categorization • Language Applications? • Classroom: How can we learn subjects faster? • Economics: How does human reasoning impact investment behaviours? • Personal Life: Why can I remember something sometimes and not others? • Skilled Behaviour: How dangerous is it to drive while talking on the phone? Why? Themes of Cognition 1. Data-driven vs Conceptually Driven Processing 2. Representation: Cognition is dependent on how information is represented 3. Implicit vs Explicit memory 4. Metacognition – our insight into how our mental system works. Can help guide how we make decisions. 5. Brain – All mental actions result from brain processes 6. Embodiment – Cognition is grounded in our actions and interactions with the world. 7. Future Orientation – We attempt to predict future events. The End …of the beginning