Chapter 1: Introduction to Cognitive Psychology

Algorithm

A methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem, but may be slow to work through.

How did behaviorists deal with mental contents?

Behaviorism.

Nature vs Nurture (Nativism vs Empiricism)

The debate over which if heredity or environment is responsible for your behavior.

Phantom Limb Syndrome

Following limb amputation, some patients continue to feel sensations where the missing limb would be. Nerve damage and pain continues even after the limb is removed. Mirror box reflection helps cure "paralyzed" phantom limbs and pain is relieved. Phantom limb paralysis is learned. Is other paralysis learned? Like with stroke?

William James

Founder of functionalism

Phrenology

Franz Joseph Gall. A now abandoned study of the shape of skull as indicative of the strengths of different faculties.

Kids vs Adult Pre-frontal cortex

Frontal lobes play a big part in memory and reward in an infant brain. (Ex. Well test with infant baby) Kids will get confused. Attentional inertia: can't get their attention off what it was on before. (Ex. Shape and color game with 3 year old brain)

Wilhelm Wundt

Father of psychology; developed structuralism.

Functionalism

Psychological approach that studies the purpose mental processes serve in enabling people to adapt to their environment.

Case Study

Research study that focuses on intensive analyses of a single individual or more broadly on a single observation unit.

What would you like to do if you had truly unlimited memory?

I would study different languages and be able to speak fluently in a much more timely manner than how most people learn.

Embodied Cognition

Perspective in psychology that cognition serves for bodily interaction with the environment.

Biological Perspective

Perspective in psychology that describes cognition according to the mechanisms of the brain.

Behaviorism

Psychological approach that assumes all behaviors are either reflexes produced by a response to certain stimuli in the environment, or a consequence of that individual's history, including especially reinforcement and punishment.

Structuralism

Psychological approach that studies the conscious experience through introspective methods (that involved systematic self-reports of a person's thoughts); i.e. sensations and feelings. "Looking within"

Experimental Study

Research study that examines causal relationships between variables.

Correlational Study

Research study that examines relationships between measured variables.

What are two commonly used dependent measures in cognitive psychology?

Response Time Accuracy

The birth of the __________ ____________ came about during the Renaissance, which is defined as?

Scientific method;

Radiolab Story #2

The World Memory Championships. The people who compete in this championship are ordinary people who have trained their brains to such an extent to memorize a crazy amount of information. The difference between these people and Mr. S is that these people are completely ordinary. Ben Pridmore is the reigning champion. He can take a string of numbers 1400 long and commit it to memory instantly. He can memorize a deck of cards in 24 seconds.

Dependent Variable

The behavior that is measured in a research study.

The Cognitive Revolution

This was start of the modern scientific study of the mind.

What three problems with behaviorism influenced the development of cognitive psychology?

(1) Chomsky's arguments against a behaviorist description of language development, (2) the development of computer technology models of informa- tion processing (3) the publication of Ulric Neisser's book tying together different topics of study under the field of cognitive psychology.

Four Tenets of Waston's Behaviorism

1. 2. 3. 4.

What are the main differences between case study, correlational and experimental designs?

1. Case Studies: focus on unique individuals who display characteristics outside of the norm. 2. Correlational Studies: allows one to systematically observe groups record relations between variables as they exist naturally in the world. 3. Experimental Studies: In contrast to correlational studies, experiments intentionally involve the manipulation of variables. The logic is to ensure the only difference between the groups is the manipulated independent variable.

What are the three (3) basic assumptions (which came about in Ancient Greece)?

1. The world is predictable 2. Humans are part of the world (and therefore predictable...) 3. Explanations about human behaviors should rely on other events in the world, not "magic".

Perceptual Set

A mental predisposition to see one thing rather than another.

Confirmation Bias

A tendency to search for information that confirms one's preconceptions, while avoiding or ignoring evidence to the contrary.

What are the main advantages and disadvantages between case study, correlational and experimental designs?

Advantages 1. Case Studies: the sheer amount of intensive observations to be collected and examined. 2. Correlational Studies: Allow the observation of many variables at once 3. Experimental Studies: because researchers are more in control due to the explicit manipulation of the independent variable they can be more confident about testing cause and effect relationships between variables. Disadvantages 1. Case Studies: center on describing and explaining the behavior of a single individual and it is often difficult to make broad generalizations of the results to other individuals. 2: Correlational Studies: because the researchers are examining things how they naturally occur, determining causal relationships is difficult. 3. Experimental Studies: The decision of how and where variables coexist within the experiment can affect the outcome.

Belief Perseverance

Clinging to one's initial conceptions or beliefs despite proof to the contrary.

Why do cognitions present a problem for scientists?

Cognitions cannot be seen, measured nor manipulated.

Perception

Cognitive process of making sense of the world through the 5 senses and how we organize and interpret that sensory information.

Attention

Cognitive process that allows us to focus awareness on a particular stimulus in the environment.

Memory

Cognitive process that allows us to remember episodes, information, and intentions when we attempt to retrieve them.

Language

Cognitive process that helps us communicate our thoughts and ideas with others.

How did computers help us approach studying mental contents?

Computers have memories, goal states, and execute plans; if computers can do this and can be measured scientifically, then the human mind could be as well.

What problems does the Stroop Effect highlight? Describe the effect (and how we demonstrated it in class) for the test.

Delay in reaction time when color of words on a test and their meaning differ.

Briefly explain the logic used in Donders's subtractive method.

Donders combined two measurements: simple reaction time procedure (a single reaction stimuli) and choice reaction time procedure (multiple reaction stimuli). Both required same set of processes, however, the choice reaction time procedure involves decision making processes. This test provides a measurement of the time required (quantitative measurement) to perform discrimination and choice.

Core Principles of the Scientific Method

Empiricism Determinism Testability Parsimony

What topics are included in cognitive science?

Experimental Psychology Linguistics Computer Science/A.I. Neuroscience

Capgras syndrome

Face area of the brain. Once damaged, a person cannot recognize faces.

Independent Variable

Factor in an experiment that is manipulated by the researcher (e.g., randomly assigning subjects to a group in the experiment)

How does the representationalist perspective connect well with the biological approach?

It provides a model of cognition in sync with the physiological processes that occur in the brain.

Inductive Reasoning

Making and evaluating arguments from specific information to general information.

Concept

Mental grouping of similar objects, people, ideas or events.

Prototype

Mental images or pinnacle examples of a certain thing.

Heuristic

Mental shortcuts. A simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgements and solve problems efficiently, although more error-prone.

Scientific Method

Method of gaining knowledge in a field that relies on observations of phenomena that allows for tests of hypotheses about those phenomena.

Radiolab Story #1

Mr. S's photographic memory and the capacity of it. The brain is 3 lbs, how could there be no limits? This suggests the brain has the capability to store an incredible amount. He has little pictures running around in this mind. The downside? He was born this way. What I found most interesting was synaesthesia and how his senses were intermingled. He ended up filling up his mind too much.

In what ways are the biological features of the brain important in the study of cognition?

Neuron networks in association with models of memory.

John Broadus Watson

One of the fathers of behaviorism (along with Edward Thorndike); Established the four tenets of Watson's behaviorism

Behaviorist

One who adheres to perspective in psychology that focuses on observable behavior only.

Representationalism

One who adheres to the perspective in psychology that concepts can be represented in the mind.

Response Time

The measured amount of time it takes for a person to react to stimulus

Parsimony

The principle of preferring simple explanations over more complex ones.

Determinism

The principle that behaviors have underlying causes and that understanding involves identification of what these causes are and how they are related to the behavior of interest.

Empiricism

The principle that the key to understanding new things is through systematic observation.

Testability

The principle that theories must be stated in ways that allow them to be evaluated through observation.

Accuracy

The quantitative measurement of right and wrong responses.

Cognition

The study of mental processing

Mental Set

The tendency to persist in solving problems with solutions that have worked in the past.

Framing

The way an issue is posed; how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgments.

Mental Processing

These generally include attention, memory, perception, language, concept formation, imagery, and judgment and decision making.

What are the three problem solving strategies?

Trial and error Algorithms Heuristics

Availability Heuristic

When people are more likely to believe an event is more likely to occur due to how easily an event comes to mind.

Synesthesia

describing one kind of sensation in terms of another ("a loud color", "a sweet sound")

Phineas Gage

famous case study in neuroscience; railroad worker who sustained catastrophic damage to his frontal lobes. Changed his personality forever.

Frontal Lobes

involved in speaking and muscle movements and in making plans and judgements. Helps guide and plan our behaviors. Helps us make decisions. Helps us inhibit behaviors; or control behaviors.