Cognitive Psychology, Chapter 1

Study animal brains and human brains, using postmortem studies and various psychobiological measures or imaging techniques.

It provides "hard" evidence of cognitive functions by relating them to physiological activity. It offers an alternative view of cognitive processes unavailable by other means.

May lead to possibilities for treating persons with serious cognitive deficits.

Limited accessibility for most researchers.

Requires access both to appropriate subjects and to equipment that may be extremely expensive and difficult to obtain.

Small samples.

Generalizability may be troublesome (from animal brains to human brains).

Obtain participants' reports of own cognition in progress or as recollected.

Information about Indvidual differences

Access to introspective insights from participants' point of view, which may be unavailable via other means.

Inability to report on processes occuring outside conscious awareness.

Verbal protocols & self ratings: Data gathering may influence cognitive processes being reported

Recollections: Possible discrepancies between actual cognition and recollected cognitive processes and products

Engage in intensive study of single individuals, drawing general conclusions about behavior.

Information about individual differences and highly ecological validity for indivual cases.

Access to richly detailed information about individuals, including information about historical and current contexts, which may not be available via other means.

Applicability to other persons; small sample size and nonrepresentativeness of sample generally limits generalizability to population.

Observe real-life situations, as in classrooms, work settings or homes

Access to rich contextual information, which may be unavailable via other means

Lack of experimental control.

Possible influence on naturalistic behavior due to the presence of the observer.

They are aspects of an investigation that are indvidually MANIPULATED, or carefully regulated, by the experimenter, while other aspects are held constant.

They are outcome responses, the values of which depend on how one or more independent variables influence or affect the participants in the experiment.

They are irrelevant variables that are held constant.

They are a type of irrelevant variable that has been left uncontrolled in a study.

They often use the substraction method, which involves estimating the time a cognitive process takes by substracting the amount of time information processing takes with the process from the time it takes without the process.

- A THESIS is proposed. A thesis is a statement of belief.

- An ANTITHESIS emerges. An antithesis is a statement that counters a previous statement of belief.

- The debate between thesis and antithesis leads to a SYNTHESIS.

Georg Hegel, a german philosopher.

Philosophy seeks to understand the general nature of many aspects of the world, in part through introspection (the examination of inner ideas and experiences).

Physiology seeks a scientific study of life-sustaining functions in living matter, primarily through empirical (observation-based) methods.

A rationalist believes that the route to knowledge is through LOGICAL analysis.

René Descartes believed that the introspective, reflective method was superior to empirical methods for finding truth (origins: Plato).

An empiricist believes that we aquire knowledge via empirical evidence - through EXPERIENCE and OBSERVATION.

British empiricist John Locke believed that empirical observation was the best way for finding truth (origins: Aristotle)

German philosopher Immanuel Kant synthesized both views. Both must work together.

Structuralism was the first major school of thought in psychology.

It seeks to understand the structure of the mind and its perceptions by

analyzing those perceptions into their constituent components.

Example: a flower; analyze colors,geometric forms, size, and so on

Wilhelm WUNDT used INTROSPECTION for analyzing our own perceptions.

One follower of Wundt was US scientist Edward TITCHENER.

It focuses on the processes of thought.

Functionalism tries to understand what people DO and WHY.

Natural functionalism has led to pragmatism.

They believe that knowledge is validated by its usefulness.

What can you DO with it? They also want to do what you can do WITH knowledge of what people do.

Pragmatists believe in the importance of psychology of learning and memory.

Important person: WILLIAM JAMES - book: Principles of Psychology

also: John DEWEY

Associationism examines how events or ideas can become associated with one another in the mind to result in a form of learning.

For example: associations may result from contiguity, similarity or contrast

important person: Hermann Ebbinghaus - the first experimenter to apply associationist principles systematically. Studied how people learn and remember. REHEARSAL is the conscious repetition of to-be-learned material.

Edward Lee THORNDIKE said that the role of "satisfaction" is the key to forming associations = law of effect

associating things that tend to occur together at about the same time

Associating things with similar features or properties

associating things that seem to show polarities, such as hot/cold, dark/light, day/night etc.

Behaviorism is a theoretical outlook that psychology should focus only on the relation between observable behaviour and environmental events or stimuli.

Russia: Ivan PAVLOV - dogs.

effective conditioning requires CONTINGENCY (the presentation of food being contingent on the presentation of the conditioned stimulus)!

Beh. may be considered as an extreme version of Associationism.

It focuses ENTIRELY ON THE ASSOCIATION between THE ENVIRONMENT and an OBSERVABLE BEHAVIOUR.

JOHN WATSON.

He only concentrated observable behaviour He dismissed thinking as subvocalized speech.

Most experimental research has been conducted with laboratory animals > problem; can the work be generalized to humans?

B.F. SKINNER

He believed that virtually all forms of human behaviour, not just learning, could be explained by behaviour emitted in reaction to the environment.

He conducted research primarily with nonhuman animals

He rejected mental mechanisms.

He believed that OPERANT CONDITIONING could explain ALL FORMS of behavior.

Involving the strengthening or weakening of behavior, contingent on the presence or absence of reinforcement (rewards) or punishments

Edward TOLMAN: thought that understanding behavior required taking into account the purpose of, and the plan for the behavior

He believed all behavior is directed toward some goal.

- Learning appears to result not merely from direct rewards for behavior. It also can be social by learning through observations.