Cognitive Psychology Unit 1

Describe the major factors that contributed to the development of contemporary cognitive psychology. (p. 7-11)

1. The disenchantment with behaviourism 2. new developments of lingustics 3. developments in research of human memory: prior knowledge alterations 4. Developmental psychology developments such as Piaget - object permanence etc

Why is the study of cognitive psychology important?

1. cognition occupies a major portion of human pschology 2. the cognitive approach has widespread influence on other areas such as clinical, educational and social psychology. 3. To learn about one's own mind

cognitive psychology

1. synonymn for the word cognitions referring to mental activities 2. refers to a particular theorietical approach to psychology

William James

1842-1910 - Principles of psychology, providing detailed descriptions of everyday experience. Emphasizes that the human mind is active. Forshadowed later topics of attention, perception, memory, reasoning and tip-of-the-tongue.

Hermann Ebbinghaus

1850-1909 factors influencing memory - nonsense syllables.

Mary Calkins

1863-1930 - recency effects, the observation tha tour recall is especially accurate for the final items in a series of stimuli

Frederick Bartlett

1886-1969 - rejected work of Ebbinhaus and used meaningful materials such as stories where he de discovered people made systematic errors when trying to recall these stories. Proposed human memory is an active, constructive proccess involving interpretation and transformation of information which makes it consistent with our own experiences.

Cognitive psychology began to emerge in the mid_____'s

1950

Define the "information-processing approach" as presented in Matlin.

1950s - Human though processes could be analysed from a similar perspective. 1. a mental process can b compared with the operations of a computer 2. a mental process can be interpreted as information progressing through the system in a series of stages, one step at a time.

the best known example of the information processing approach is the _________ _______ model which proposes three different memory storage systems.

Atkinson-Shiffrin

Suppose a psychologist writes an article on how children acquire gender stereotypes. Which of the following article titles would be most consistent with the cognitive approach?

Child memory for gender-consistent information

Define "cognition."

Cognition is a mental activity which involves the acquisition, storage, transformation and use of knowledge.

_______ ______ examines questins about the mind, it includes disciplines such as cognitive psychology, neuroscience, artificial intelligence philosophy, linguistics, anthropology, sociology and economics.

Cognitive science.

How does the functional magnetic resonance imaging technique (fMRI) compare with other imaging techniques?

Compared to PET scans, it provides the more precise information about the timing of various brain activities.

Explain why ecological validity has been used as a criticism in cognitive psychology. (p. 12)

Ecological validity is an important concept in psychology and can be applied to many different areas within psychology. However, that research low in ecological validity is not necessarily without value. Experiments test theories—theories that generate predictions about performance both inside and outside the lab.

______ _ ______ conducted memory research using long stories and other meaningful material

Frederick C Bartlett

____ _______ nd _____ ____ ______ conducted early research in human memory.

Hermann Ebbinghaus, Mary Whiton Calkins

Describe the "parallel distributed processing approach," including the origins of the approach, its basic characteristics, and reactions to the approach. (pp. 19-20)

It argues that the cognitive proceses can be understood in terms of networks that link together neuron-like units. Many operations can proceed simulateneously rather than one step at a time. Also called connectionism and neural networks. Grew out of developments in neuroscience and ai. Neuroscience - cerebral cortex, numerous connections, serial processing. Many psychologists welcomes the PDP aproach. as it can adequately account for a broad range of skills representd by our cognitive processes.

What is the computer metaphor and how is it related to artificial intelligence.

It describes our cognitive processes as working like a computer, a multipurpose machine that prcesses information quickly and accurately. Involves the structures and the processes to operate the structures.AI favour the analody because computer programs must be detailed, precise, unambiguous and logical.

Beginning in the early twentieth century, behaivourists such as ___ _ ______ rejected the study of mental processes, the behaviourists helped to develop the research methods used by current cognitive psychologists

John B. Watson

Describe the Atkinson-Shiffrin model of memory and explain how it is an example of the information-processing approach. (pp. 9-11)

Proposed that memory can be understood as a sequence of discrete steps in which information is transferred from one storage area to another. Sensory - Working - Longterm

Define and distinguish between "Pure AI" and "computer simulation."

Pure AI is an approach that seeks to accomplish a task as efficiently as possible even if the computer's processes are completly different from those used by a human. computer simulatin attempts to take human limitations into account.

"behaviorism" and the "Gestalt approach." Describe the contributions of each to the emergence of cognitive psychology.

The Gestalt approach - Emphasize importance of insight into problem solving. behaviourism emphasized the importance of the operational definition and controlled research. Both of these contributions would be included in modern cognitive psychology.

Which statement about the history of cognition is correct?

William James presented theories that were somewhat similar to current theories of cognition

_______ ______ examined everyday psychological processes and emphasized the active nature of the human mind.

William James.

Many historians aregue that _____ ____ is responsible for creating the discipline of psychology. He also developed the intrspection technique.

William Wundt

cognitive approach-

a theoretical orientation that emphasizes people's mental processes and knowledge.

Artificial intelligence is

a branch of computer science which seeks to explore human cognitive processes by creating computer models that accomplish the same tasks humans do

The term cognition refers to the _________, ____________, _________ and ___________ of knowledge.

acquisition, storage, transformation, use

Cognitive science is:

an interdisciplinary field that explores questions about the mind.

Theorists who are interested in _______ ______ appraoches to cognition typicall design computer programs that accomplish tasks as efficiently as possibly ( ) or programs that accomlish these tasks in a human-like fashion ( )

artificial intelligence(pure AI)(compure simulation)

Cognitive psychology was stimulated by _________ with behaviourism, and by a growth of interest in _______, ________ ________, ________ ________ and the _________ _________ _______.

behavioursm, memory, linguistics, developmental psychology information processing approach

cognitive neuroscientists do research based on

brain legion studiesPET scansfMRI ERPsSingle-cell recording

introspection -

carefully trained observers would systematically analyze their own sensations and report as objectively as possible.

Suppose you meet a professor who is trying to determine what portions of the brain are involved in trying to recall a word that is on the tip of your tongue. This person is likely to belong to the discipline of:

cognitive neuroscience.

cognitive neuroscientists search for brain-based explainations for _______ ________.

cognitive processes

Define "cognitive neuroscience."

combines the research techniques of cognitive psychology with various methods for assessing the structure and function of the brain. Explore the structures when performing cognitive tasks and processes used n interactions with other peoples.

Define "ecological validity."

conditions in which the research is conducted are similar to the natural setting where results will be applied. It is important as it is able to be applied to real world experiences.

An operational definition is most likely to:

describe precisely how the researchers will measure a particular concept.

cognitive psychology has a major infuence on the field of psychology. In the current era, cognitive psychologists are more concerned about _______ _______, than in previous decades.

ecological validity.

The Gestalt approach

emphasizes that humans have basic tendencies to actively organize what we see. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Objected to introspection of analysing experiences as separate components. Criticized behaviourists emphasis of breaking behaviour into individual stimulus-response units.

According to the theory by Atkinson and Shiffrin:

material in short-term memory is fragile and may be lost unless it is somehow repeated.

One of the characteristics of the human brain that is especially important in the parallel distributed processing approach is that the brain:

has many connections among the neurons.

According to the _______ ________ ______, mental processes operate like a computer, with information flowing through a series of storage areas.

information processing approach

Define "cognitive science." Explain its relationship to cognitive psychology. (pp. 20)

is a contemporary field that tries to answer questions about the mind. Includes 3 disciplines cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and artificial intelligence. focus on internal representation of the external world. Interdiciplinary.

During the 1950s, many psychologists were becoming discouraged with behaviorism, and cognitive psychology began to emerge. A major reason they were disappointed with behaviorism is that it:

only examined psychological processes that were observable.

According to the _____ ______ _____ approach, cognitive processes operate in a parallel fashion and neural activity is distributed throughout a realitively broad region of the cortex

parallel distributed processing

Gestalt psychology emphasized organization in _____ ______ and _______ into problem solving

pattern perception and insight

Wilhelm Wundt

proposed that psychology should study mental procesess using introspection

behaviourist approach -

psychology must focus on objective observable reations to stimuli in the environment.

event-related potential (ERP)

records the brief fluctuations in the brain's electrical activity in response to a stimulus. Researchers place electrodes on a person's scalp and each records the electrical activity generated by a group of neurons located directly underneath the skull. Can identify changes over a very brief period in a specific region of the brain.

brain lesions

refers to the destruction of tissue in the brain. Used to examine the relationship between damaged regions and cognitive deficits. Helped ot understand the organzation of the brain.

positron emission tomography (PET)

researchers measure blood flow by injecting the participant with a radioactive achemical just before performace of a task. The chemical travels though the bloodstream to the parts of the brain that are activated during the task. A camera make an image of the accumulated radioactive chemical throughout the brain to determine which parts of the brain are activated during the task. Used to study attention, memory and language. Requires several seconds to produce data so not precise.

single-cell recording technique

researchers study characteristics of an animal's brain and nervous system by inserting a thin electrode into or next to a single neuron. They then measure the electic activity generated by that cell. Major goal is to identify which variations ina stimulus produce a consistent change in a cingle cell's electrical activity.

Identify and describe the five themes of the textbook. (pp. 23-24)

the cognitive processes are active rather than passive the cognitive processes are remarkably efficient and accurate. the cognitive processes handle positive information better than negative information. the cognitive processes are interrelated with one another; they operate in isolation. Many cognitive processes rely on btoh bottom up and top up processing.

Cognitive psychology is sometimes used as a synonym for cognition and sometimes it refers to a _______ _________ to psychology

theoretical appraoch

According to Chapter 1 in your textbook, the computer simulation method

tries to create a program that performs a cognitive task in the same way that a human would perform it.

functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)

used changes blood flow to estiate the levels of activity in part of the brain during cognitive tasks. the participant reclines with his or her head surrounded by a large doughnut shaped magnet this magnetic field produces changes in the oxygen atmons. A scanning device takes a photo of the oxygen atoms while the participant performs a cognitive task.