PsyBSc4: Introduction to Cognitive Psychology Lecture Notes 2023-2024 PDF

PsyBSc4: Allgemeine Psychologie I Introduction to Cognitive Psychology Session 1: 17.10.2023 Dr. Sandro Wiesmann We teach in English! ▪ English is the de facto language of science (articles, conferences, etc.) ▪ Good practice for your studies abroad, later jobs ▪ Accessible for international student...

PsyBSc4: Allgemeine Psychologie I Introduction to Cognitive Psychology Session 1: 17.10.2023 Dr. Sandro Wiesmann We teach in English! ▪ English is the de facto language of science (articles, conferences, etc.) ▪ Good practice for your studies abroad, later jobs ▪ Accessible for international students (e.g., Erasmus) ▪ English Language Credentials (if you complete lecture and exam in English) 2 Today’s menu Part 1: General Information ▪ Lecture & Moodle ▪ Textbooks & Exam ▪ Schedule Part 2: Introduction to Cognitive Psychology ▪ What is the mind? ▪ How can we study the mind/cognition? ▪ Some classic approaches ▪ Modern approaches 3 Some announcements ▪ Introduction of the Autonome Tutorien (autonomous tutorials) ▪ Moodle ▪ In case you don’t have access yet, please send an email to [email protected] ▪ SONA ▪ Frankfurt psychology students who have not received their account info yet, please send an email to [email protected] including your full name, matriculation number and university mail address 4 Part 1 General Information A disclaimer: I’m not a professor… Prof. Dr. Melissa Lê-Hoa Võ 6 A few words about myself ▪ 2012–2015 BSc Psychology (GU Frankfurt) ▪ 2015–2018 MSc Psychology (GU Frankfurt) ▪ 2019–2023 PhD Psychology (GU Frankfurt) (Research) Interests: ▪ Scene perception & categorization ▪ (Visual) Illusions ▪ “Failures” of the cognitive system 7 A disclaimer: I’m not a professor… ▪ This is my first lecture – please forgive me if… ▪ …I cannot answer all questions (I’ll try!) ▪ …I run out of time (I’ll promise to improve!) ▪ …things don’t run as smoothly as you’re used to ▪ I consider this lecture “work in progress” – please give me feedback (the sooner the better)! ▪ Most importantly: Please ask questions anytime in case you don’t understand something I say! ▪ Content ▪ English ▪ Acoustically 8 PsyBSc4: Module structure ▪ PsyBSc4 module consists of two parts: ▪ Winter semester: Lecture incl. exam (4 CP) ▪ Summer semester: Seminar (4 CP, small groups, student presentations, not graded) ▪ Exam determines grade of complete module (8 CP) ▪ Nebenfach-Studierende can do either part (for 4 CP each) or the complete module (for 8 CP) ▪ Important: You need to have a Belegschein from the Studienfachberatung (deadline 01.09.2023…) ▪ You still have to sign up for the lecture via LSF ▪ Please also have a look at the Regelungen für Nebenfach-Studierende 9 Lecture and Moodle ▪ Tue, 16:15–17:45, lecture hall SKW A ▪ Lecture slides will be uploaded to Moodle course (email me in case you don’t have access) ▪ Please attend the lecture and take notes – slides alone are not sufficient for the exam! 10 Textbooks ▪ Some exemplars available in the library (please share them!) ▪ I try to use book headings for easier orientation 2nd edition (2020) ▪ Lecture is based on Goldstein & van Hooff (2020) Cognitive Psychology (2nd edition) ▪ Older editions should be fine for the most part (more of these available in the library): 1st edition (2018) 11 Exam ▪ Multiple choice exam ▪ Exam preparation and questions in the last lecture session ▪ Some slides are not relevant for the exam (marked with a  in the top right corner) ▪ Date TBA (check website of the examination office) ▪ First appointment between 12.02.2024 and 23.02.2024 (sign-up deadline: 01.02.2024) ▪ Second appointment between 28.03.2024 and 12.04.2024 (sign-up deadline: 21.03.2024) ▪ Please note that you have to manually sign up for the exams! ▪ Psychology students (GU Frankfurt and Erasmus) via QIS ▪ Nebenfach-Studierende via email to Bettina Schultz ([email protected]) 12 Schedule Session Date Topic Goldstein Chapter 1 17.10.2023 Introduction to Cognitive Psychology 1 2 24.10.2023 Neural Basis of Perception 2 3 31.10.2023 Perception I 3 4 07.11.2023 Perception II 3 5 14.11.2023 Attention I 4 6 21.11.2023 Attention II 4 7 28.11.2023 Memory 5 8 05.12.2023 Knowledge 9 9 12.12.2023 Visual Imagery 10 10 19.12.2023 Language 11 11 09.01.2024 Problem Solving 12 12 16.01.2024 Reasoning and Decision Making 13 13 23.01.2024 TBA 14 30.01.2024 TBA 15 06.02.2024 Summary, exam preparation, questions 13 Questions? Some vocabulary abandon = etw. aufgeben property = Eigenschaft stimulus = sensorischer Reiz (z. B. Geräusch, Licht, Geruch) infer = schlussfolgern introspection = Selbstbeobachtung salivate = Speichelfluss anregen reinforcement = Verstärkung punishment = Bestrafung maze = Labyrinth dichotic listening = Hören von unterschiedlichen Audiosignalen mit dem linken und rechten Ohr reasoning = logisches Denken non-invasive = nichtinvasiv (ohne Eindringen in den Körper) non-intrusive = nicht unangenehm respiration = Atmung derive = ableiten revise = überarbeiten 15 Part 2: Introduction to Cognitive Psychology What is the mind? How can we study the mind/cognition? What is Allgemeine Psychologie I? ▪ Allgemeine Psychologie: Psychological functions that are common to all humans ▪ Compare to personality or clinical psychology: Study of differences or dysfunctions ▪ Internationally also Cognitive Psychology or sometimes Experimental Psychology ▪ Cognitive Psychology: Scientific study of the mind What is the mind? 17 What is the mind? “What did I have for lunch yesterday?” Memory “I must focus on what Sandro says” Attention “Damn those slides look ugly” Perception “How do I pretend not to fall asleep?” Problem solving “How long can I rock this haircut?” Decision making “Why does he keep speaking English?” Language 18 What is the mind? ▪ A system that creates and controls mental functions such as… ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ Perception Attention Memory Emotions Language Deciding Thinking Reasoning Mental representation ▪ The mind creates representations of the world to act within it and achieve our goals 19 The importance of understanding the mind Car design and traffic psychology: What is the capacity of our cognitive system? Education and learning: How do we acquire, remember and transfer knowledge? Basic research can have important implications for various real-world applications! 20 Goals of this module ▪ Show you that the mind is a fascinating place! ▪ Ease of daily tasks ▪ Power of our minds ▪ “Errors” of the cognitive system ▪ Provide you with a basic understanding of “how the mind works” Arieh Smith (Xiaomanyc) ▪ Give you an overview of how we can study the mind (methods of cognitive psychology) 21 A brief history of Cognitive Psychology ▪ Early pioneers of Cognitive Psychology ▪ Abandoning the study of the mind Don’t worry, I’ll keep it short! ▪ The cognitive revolution 22 One slide on philosophy… ▪ Psychology as a scientific discipline is young, but it has a lot of philosophical antecedents ▪ Rationalism: Acquire knowledge through thinking and logical analysis ▪ Empiricism: Acquire knowledge via empirical evidence (experience, observation) Modern psychology is mostly an empirical science! b Experiments 23 The first cognitive psychology experiments Franciscus Donders (1868): How long does it take to make a decision? ▪ 11 years before founding of the first psychology laboratory by Wundt! ▪ At the time, no scientific study of the mind (see for example criticism by Kant) ▪ “The mind cannot study itself” ▪ “Properties of the mind cannot be measured” a subjetire system cannot study a subjective ▪ Donders pioneered a scientific method to “make the mind measurable” ▪ Method is (in its essence) still widely used in experimental psychology today! 24 The first cognitive psychology experiments Franciscus Donders (1868): How long does it take to make a decision? Simple reaction time task Choice reaction time task Stimulus: Event or object to which a response is measured (e.g., here the light on the screen) Press A when light goes on. Press A for left light, B for right. 25 The first cognitive psychology experiments Franciscus Donders (1868): How long does it take to make a decision? Simple reaction time task S Stimulus detection Response organization Choice reaction time tasktime Reaction S 0 Stimulus detection 100 Time to make a decision = Choice RT – Simple RT ≈ 100 ms R (RT) Stimulus discrimination 200 Response organization 300 R Time (ms) 26 The first cognitive psychology experiments Assumptions of Donders’ (1868) subtractive logic: ▪ Mental operations occur in discrete (separate) stages ▪ Stages are independent ▪ Processing stages can be isolated ▪ Each stage takes time to complete ▪ Steps can be added/removed (e.g., by changing the task) ▪ These assumptions do not (always) hold – the story is not as simple! ▪ Nonetheless important experiment: Showed how mental processes can be indirectly measured by inferring them from behaviour 27 Inferring other mental functions from behaviour Hermann Ebbinghaus (1885/1913): What is the time course of forgetting? ▪ Self-experiment: Learnt lists of nonsense syllables by heart (e.g., QEH–ZIF–LUH…) ▪ Counted number of attempts to recall list correctly after different intervals of time: ▪ Initial learning: 10 attempts ▪ After 19 minutes: 4 attempts  60% savings ▪ After 2 days: 7 attempts  30% savings Hesaved still I 6times because he remembered 28 Inferring other mental functions from behaviour Hermann Ebbinghaus (1885/1913): What is the time course of forgetting? ▪ Memory drops within first two days, then levels off ▪ Results replicated (Murre & Dros, 2015) ▪ Showed that memory could be quantified ▪ As Donders, measured behaviour to determine property of the mind 29 The first psychological laboratory Wilhelm Wundt (1879): University of Leipzig ▪ Structuralism: Experience is made up of basic elements (sensations) ▪ Wanted to create “periodic table of the mind” including all basic sensations ▪ Method: Analytic introspection using trained participants describing their sensations in response to different stimuli ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ Crisp Sweet Juicy Round Hard Smooth 30 The first psychological laboratory Wilhelm Wundt (1879): University of Leipzig ▪ Method of analytic introspection criticized: ▪ Highly subjective ▪ Difficult to verify ▪ “Invisible” inner mental processes ▪ Important contributions: ▪ First laboratory for experimental psychology, shift from rationalism to empiricism in psychology ▪ Insisted on controlled experimental conditions (repetition, systematic manipulation of stimuli, etc.) ▪ Trained several PhD students 31 Outlining the study of the mind William James (1890): Principles of Psychology ▪ Taught first psychology course at Harvard University ▪ Wrote influential textbook based on introspections: Principles of Psychology ▪ While method is criticized, many of his observations remain influential ▪ Wide range of topics (thinking, consciousness, attention, memory, perception, reasoning,...) 32 Outlining the study of the mind James’ (1890) description and definition of attention  “ Millions of items of the outward order are present to my senses which never properly enter into my experience. Why? Because they have no interest for me. My experience is what I agree to attend to. […] Every one knows what attention is. It is the taking possession by the mind, in clear and vivid form, of one out of what seem several simultaneously possible objects or trains of thought. […] It implies withdrawal from some things in order to deal effectively with others. – James, W. (1890). Principles of Psychology, pp. 402–404. 33 Summary: Pioneers of cognitive psychology 34 Questions? A brief history of Cognitive Psychology ▪ Early pioneers of Cognitive Psychology ▪ Abandoning the study of the mind ▪ The cognitive revolution Behaviourism: Abandoning study of the mind John Watson (1913): Proposal of behaviourism ▪ Dissatisfaction with analytic introspection as a method ▪ Focus on “objectively” observable behaviour as a response to stimuli ▪ Studying “invisible” mental processes considered unscientific, thus abandoning the mind as a subject of research 37 Behaviourism: Abandoning study of the mind John Watson (1913): Proposal of behaviourism We can manipulate this (e.g., broccoli vs. ice cream) We cannot observe this! Stimulus We can objectively observe this (e.g., eating, smiling, disgust…) Response Mind “Black box” Focus on Stimulus  Response relationships (not interested in what happens “in between”) 38 Behaviourism: Abandoning study of the mind John Watson (1913): Little Albert experiment ▪ Based on Ivan Pavlov (1890s): Classical conditioning of a dog to salivate upon hearing a bell ▪ Apply classical conditioning to human behaviour: Creating fear of a rat by presenting loud noise every time Little Albert touches the rat ▪ Strongly criticized (scientifically and ethically)! 39 Behaviourism: Abandoning study of the mind B. F. Skinner (1938): Operant conditioning ▪ Shaping behaviour using rewards or punishments ▪ Rewards increase behaviour ▪ Positive reinforcement (e.g., food, social approval) ▪ Negative reinforcement (e.g., avoid electric shock) Operant conditioning chamber (“Skinner box”) ▪ Punishments decrease behaviour ▪ Positive punishment (e.g., electric shock) ▪ Negative punishment (e.g., take away food) 40 Influence of behaviourism ▪ Behavioural therapy (Verhaltenstherapie): e.g., treating fear using exposure to feared stimulus to “unlearn” conditioned response ▪ Tokens: Parents, teachers and therapists use tokens (e.g., sweets, stickers) to reinforce desired behaviour ▪ Animal training 41 Interim summary 42 A brief history of Cognitive Psychology ▪ Early pioneers of Cognitive Psychology ▪ Abandoning the study of the mind ▪ The cognitive revolution The decline of behaviourism (Part 1) Edward C. Tolman (1938) Phase I: Rat explores maze Phase II: Rat learns to turn right for food when placed at A Phase III: Rat is placed at C and turns left right right 44 The decline of behaviourism (Part 1) Edward C. Tolman (1938): The discovery of cognitive maps Phase I: Rat explores maze Phase II: Rat learns to turn right for food when placed at A Phase III: Rat is placed at C and turns left Mental representation Tolman’s conclusions: ▪ More than just stimulus-response connection (behaviourism) ▪ Rat must have developed a cognitive map of the maze’s layout 45  Sidenote: The relevance of cognitive maps 46 The decline of behaviourism (Part 2) B. F. Skinner (1957): Verbal Behavior ▪ Children learn language through operant conditioning ▪ Children imitate speech they hear; correct speech is repeated because it is rewarded by parents Noam Chomsky’s (1959) criticism of Verbal Behavior ▪ Children do not only learn language through imitation and reinforcement ▪ They say things they never heard anyone say/that were not rewarded (e.g., “I hate you mommy”) ▪ They develop incorrect grammar (e.g., “he hitted the ball”) Studying observable behaviour is not enough, we also need to consider what behaviour tells us about the mind! Skinner vs. Chomsky debate 47 The rebirth of the study of the mind The cognitive revolution (as of the 1950s) ▪ Limitations of behaviourism  New interest in understanding the mind ▪ Development of the digital computer as a new tool to describe the operation of the mind Flow diagram describing functioning of early computers “Stimulus” “Response” ▪ Information-processing approach: Mind as operating in sequences of mental processes ▪ Shift from behaviourism’s stimulus–response relationships to an approach that attempts to explain behaviour in terms of the mind 48 The mind as an information processing system James (1890): Attention as “withdrawal from some things in order to deal effectively with others” Colin Cherry (1953): Dichotic listening experiment ▪ Instruction: Focus on left ear, ignore right ear ▪ Result: Heard right message, but were unaware of contents Donald Broadbent (1958): Filter model of attention ▪ First flow diagram of the mind We’ll discuss this in more detail in the Attention sessions! 49 The mind as an information processing system John McCarthy (1955): Proposal of Artificial Intelligence ▪ “Making a machine behave in ways that would be called intelligent if a human were so behaving” Allen Newell, Herbert A. Simon & Cliff Shaw (1956): Logic Theorist ▪ Computer program able to solve mathematical problems using humanlike reasoning ▪ One of the earliest instances of AI 50  Compare modern AI systems DALL-E ChatGPT “An oil painting of a humanoid robot playing chess in the style of Matisse” 51 Interim summary (on artificial intelligence) 52  New methods to study the mind First MEG recordings First non-invasive EEG recordings 1937 1929 First non-intrusive eye tracker First fMRI scan measuring brain activity 1972 1968 First MRI scanner 1990 53 Modern cognitive psychology  54 Modern research in cognitive psychology ▪ Behavioural approach: Measure relationship between stimuli and behaviour ▪ Reaction time experiments, memory experiments, eye tracking, etc. ▪ Physiological approach: Measure relationship between stimuli and physiology ▪ EEG/MEG, fMRI, heart rate, respiration, etc. ▪ Measure observable behaviour/physiological response  Infer cognitive processes (compare Donders & Ebbinghaus) We still cannot directly observe or measure mental processes, but we have more sophisticated methods to get a glimpse into the “black box”! 55 Donders’ subtractive logic in neuroimaging Task “Look at fixation cross” + “Silently read word” apple “Read word aloud” apple “Say related verb” Neural activity represents… Stimulus apple Staring at computer screen Staring at computer screen and reading a word apple Staring at computer screen, reading a word and speaking word aloud eat Staring at computer screen, reading a word, searching for an associated verb and speaking word aloud greendot silently reddot lookingreading atscreen Subtraction of previous stage leaves neural activity related to processing step that was added! 56 Role of models in modern cognitive psychology Modern CP studies cognitive processes through the creation and evaluation of models Process model (Broadbent, 1958) Structural model Resource model (Wickens, 2008) Process models describe the mind (“software”), not the brain (“hardware”)! 57 Role of models in modern cognitive psychology ▪ Simplify complex phenomena (e.g., we don’t have to define processes at the level of individual neurons) ▪ Allow deriving testable hypotheses, inspire further research ▪ Are constantly updated, revised, and sometimes even falsified! 58 Questions? Summary ▪ Cognitive Psychology is the scientific study of the mind, the system that creates and controls mental functions such as perception, attention, memory, language, decision making, etc. ▪ CP has roots in the 19th century, but only emerged as an academic discipline in the 1950s. ▪ Mental processes cannot be observed directly, must be inferred from behaviour or physiology. ▪ Modern CP is an interdisciplinary endeavour incorporating approaches from different fields. ▪ Models are an important tool in CP, but they are constantly revised and do not necessarily correspond to areas in the brain. 60 Sample exam question The “cognitive revolution” occurred parallel to (and, in part, because of) the introduction of… a. William James’ famous textbook. b. analytic introspection. c. Skinner boxes. d. computers. 61 What I want you to take away from this We all “intuitively” use our mind everyday: We perceive, we remember, we speak, we solve problems and so on. To most of us, accessing the contents of our mind is a natural feat. However, we cannot access other people’s minds (unless you’re a mind reader). At first sight, it may therefore be a contradiction that cognitive psychology is considered an empirical science studying the human mind (after all, we cannot “observe” mental processes). In this session, I hope I could show you that, over the past 150 or so years, cognitive psychology has developed several means (both logical and methodological) that allow us to access the “black box” of the mind by inferring cognitive processes from behaviour and physiology. By the end of this lecture, you should be able to both appreciate this fundamental problem of empirical cognitive psychology and understand the approaches we have developed to tackle it. 62 If you want to know more ▪ Goldstein chapter 1, see also Benefits for science, society and you! section ▪ Neisser, U. (1967). Cognitive psychology. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts. ▪ Pinker, S. (1997). How the mind works. New York: Norton. Available in the library in English and German ▪ YouTube: ▪ History of Psychology and Cognitive Psychology explained in 5 minutes ▪ Pinker on the Cognitive Revolution (2 minutes) ▪ Skinner vs. Chomsky debate 63 64 Any questions? Feel free to ask questions or give me feedback after the lecture! Thank you for your attention – see you next week! “My mind keeps wandering into restricted areas…”