Cognitive Psychology Ch.1
Parallel Distributed Processing
Book published in 1986 by James McClelland, David Rumelhart, and their colleagues. Approach contrasted with the raditional information-processing approach. human cognition is often parallel, not strictly linear emphasized the connectionist approach
Introspection
Carefully trained observers would systematically analyze their own sensations and report them objectively as possible under standardized conditions
Gernsbacher and Robertson (2005)
Found that the difference of saying sentences with the same meaning in sightly different ways can activate different region of the brain
What parts of human cognition did Greek philosopher Aristotle
Perception, memory, mental imagery, and how humans acquire knowledge through experiences and observation.
Behaviorism
Psychology must focus on objective,observable reactions to stimuli in the environment
When and why did cognitive science emerge?
Researchers begun to notice connections among a variety of different fields and begun to collaborate with one another
recency effect
That our recall is eapicalky accurate for the final items in a series of stimuli.
semantic memory (Ch.8)
actual knowledge about the world as well as knowledge about word meanings.
why are cognitive neuroscientific methodologies becoming more valuable?
advances in computer hardware, we have an ever increasing ability to process large datasets more quickly than ever before.
connectionist approach
argues that cognitive processes can be understood in terms of networks that link together neuron-like processing units; in addition, many operations can proceed simultaneously- rather than one step at a time.
computer simulation (computer modeling)
attempts to take human limitations into account.
Consciousness (Ch.3)
awareness of the external world, as well as your thoughts and emotions about your internal world.
When did psychology emerge
The late 1800s
In the 1970s, what did neuroscientists find out about the cerebral cortex and what does this finding mean?
numerous connections among neurons, a pattern that resembles many elaborate networks suggests that an item stored in your brain cannot be localized in a specific pinpoint-sized location of your cortex. neural activity for that item seems to be distributed throughout a section of the brain.
what are two other name for the connectionist approach?
parallel distributed processing (PDP) approach and the neural-network approach.
discourse (Ch.9)
part of language comprehension which refers to a long passage ofspoken or written language.
Visual and auditory recognition (CH.2)
perceptual processes that require linking the stimuli that are registered by your senses to the stored knowledge that you have about the world.
Memory (Ch. 4-6)
process of maintaining information over time - short-term (working memory) - long-term - metacognition
cerebral cortex
the outer layer ofthe brain that is essential for your cognitive processes.
why was the connectionist approach groundbreaking?
it provided a way to understand how populations of neurons worked together in order to represent knowledge gained through learning. Thus, unlike the classic information processing perspective, researchers who operate under a connectionist modeling approach create computational models of neural processing that do appeal to how the brain actually works. the sophisticated design allows the connectionist approach to achieve greater complexity, flexibility, and accuracy as it attempts to account for human cognitive processes.
Why is fMRI preferable to PET?
less invasive, with no injections and no radioactive material (Gazzaniga et al., 2009). In addition, an fMRI can measure brain activity that occurs fairly quickly-in about 1 second more precise than a PET scan in that it provides a more detailed image of an individual's brain. It also produces more robust illustrations of the parts of the brain that are involved in processing a stimulus. The fMRI technique can also detect subtle differences in the way that the brain processes language.
what are the topics that computer simulations research has been most active in?
memory, problem solving, language, and logical reasoning
Imagery (Ch.7)
mental representation ofthings that are not physically present.
social cognitive neuroscience
psychologists now use neuroscience techniques to explore the kind of cognitive processes that we use in our interactions with other people;
Cognitive Approach
theoretical orientation that emphasizes people's thought processes and their knowledge
During the first half of the 20th century what became the prominent theoretical perspective in the US
Behaviorism
what do classical information processing models have a hard time accouting for?
cognitive tasks that humans do very quickly, accurately, and without conscious thought.
William James (6 bullets)
(1842 - 1910) - theorized about our everyday psychological experiences - best known for his textbook Principles of Psychology -Description about people's everyday experiences. It also emphasizes that the human mind is active and inquiring. -Foreshadow various different topic that fascinate 21st century cognitive psychologist such as perception, attention, memory, understanding, reasoning, and tip of the tongue phenomenon. - book was published in 1890
Hermann Ebbinghaus ( 6 bullets)
(1850- 1908) - earliest systematic investigation of a cogntind process - interested in human memory - German - Examined a variety of factors that might influence peformance on memory tasks such as time between two presentation of a list of items - often used nonsense syllables which reduce the confounding variable of people knowledge with language
Mary Whiton Calkins (5 bullets)
(1863- 1930) - Reported the memory phenomenon called the recency effect - emphasizes that psychologists should should study how real people use their cognitive processes - first to be the president of the American Psychological Association - published 4 books and more than 100 scholarly articles
Theme 5: Many cognitive processes rely on both bottom-up and top-down processing.
- Bottom-up processing emphasizes the importance of information from the stimuli registered on your sensory receptors. Bottom-up processing uses only a low- level sensory analysis of the stimulus. -top-down processing requires higher-level cognition, for example, the kind of processes. It also emphasizes how our concepts, expectations, and memory influence our cognitive processes.
Theme One: Cognitive processes are active, rather than passive
- The behaviorists viewed humans as passive organisms. They wait for a stimulus to arrive from the envi- ronment before they respond. - cognitive approach proposes that people seek out information. Attentional and perceptual systems work together to facilitate your ability to strategically seek out and process information that is most relevant for your current goals. In addition, memory is a lively process that requires you to continually synthesize and transform information.
Theme 3: Cop;nitive processes handle positive information better than negative information.
- We also tend to perform better on a variety of different tasks if the information is emotionally positive (that is, pleasant), rather than emotionally negative (unpleasant). In short, our cognitive processes are designed to handle what is, rather than what is not
artificial intelligence
- branch of computer science - seeks to explore human processes by creating computer models that show intelligent behavior
What did behaviorist contribute to cognitive psychology
- contemporary research methods - emphasized operational definitions - values fully controlled research
Theme 4: Cogrlitive processes are interrelated with one another; they do not operate in isolation.
- decision making typically requires perception, memory, general knowledge, and language. In fact, all higher mental processes require careful integration of our more basic cognitive processes.
Gestalt Psychology
- develop in Europe in the 20th century - emphasizes that human have basic tendencies to actively organized what we see - the whole is greater than the sum of its parts
What have researchers in artificial intelligence tried to explain
- how humans recognize faces, create a mental image, and write a poem
What model did the researchers who came up with the connectionist approach?
- proposed a model that simulates many important features of the brain - designed based on the basic prin- ciples associated with how neurons pass electrical signals to each other. -Naturally, the model captures only a fraction of the brain's complexity. However, like the brain, the model includes simplified neuron-like units, numerous interconnections, and neural activity distributed throughout the system.
Ulric Neisser ( 5 bullets)
- published a book called Cognitive Psychology in 1967 - 1928 to 2012 - served as one of the first comprehensive treatment of cognitive processing. - the book is seen as one of the most important factors contributing to emerge of cognitive psychology. - been called the father of cognitive of psychology because he coined the term
Jean Piaget ( 7 bullets)
- research on children's thought processes - Swiss - 1896 to 1980 - his book begin to gain traction during the end of the 50s. - his perspective continue to shape developmental psychology - children actively explore their world in order to understand important concepts - children cognitive strategies change as they mature and adolescent often use sophisticated strategies in order to conduct their own personal experiments
Theme 2: Cop;nitive processes are remarkably efficient and accurate
- the amount ofmaterial in your memoryis astonishing - Speech unfolds at an extremely fast rate that a speaker controls, and yet most of the time, your interpretation ofthe speech signal is highly accurate. - cognitive systems are designed in such a way that they can limit the amount of information to which you have access at some point in time.
John B. Watson
- the most prominent early behaviorist - lived from 1878 to 1958 - emphasizes observable behavior and often studied animals
what has brain lesions help us learning about the brain
- the structure of it, but this can difficult at times because lesions are often not just in one part
What do Gestalt psychologists emphasize?
- why certain components of a pattern seem to belong - emphasized the importance of insight into problem solving
What did behaviorists believe and focus on?
-That it was inappropriate to study unobservable components of mental life - heavily focus on learning - particularly interested in quantifying the manner in which changes in an organism environment produced changes in its behavior - they would not acknowledge the fact that information of one environment is stored and can be accessed later on but this is pure behaviorism which is not practice now
What is the point of studying cognitive psychology
1. Cognition occupies a major portion of human psychology 2. Essential in every person's life and important to know and examine how our mental processes works 3. Cognitive psychology has a widespread influence on others areas of psychology. As well as interdisciplinary areas such as cognitive neuropsychology
What are the general assumptions for cognitive processes
1. Stimuli occur or are in one's environment. Information about those are transported to our sensory receptors through a physical medium such as light or sound waves. The receptores process the info and make sure that it gets to the brain. Similar to inputing data into a computer. 2. The info is then process and decorded over a course of different processing stages in incremental stages. This works similar to how an older computer would Specific subsystems process input based on rules (or algorithms). After the information gets processed in that subsystem, it is sent to another subsystem so that it can be further processed and interpreted. 3. Eventually after the stimuli is process enough for idnetified. A choice is then made how to respond to it. 4. You then initiate an actions that allows you to respond with info that was process. This is how a computer responds to specfic command such as displaying words on a screen when typing.
Two meanings for cognitive psychology
1. Synonym for the word cognition - variety of mental activities such acquisition, storage, and use of knowledge. 2. Other times it refers to particular theoretical approaches in psychology
When was Cognitive Psychology born?
1956, during this year researchers published various influential books and articles on attention, memory, language, concept formation, and problem solving
When was the FMRI developed?
1990s
Cognition
Acquisition,storage, transformation, and use of knowledge
Pure Artificial Intelligence
An approach that designs a program to accomplish a cognitive task as efficiently as possible
How are chapter organized?
Chapter outline Chapter Introductions - designed to emphasize the central components of the cognitive process discussed in each chapter. Demonstrtion informal experiments in these demonstrations require little or no equipment, and you can perform most of them by yourself. Students have told me that these demonstrations help make the material more memorable, especially when they try to picture themselves performing the tasks in a research setting. Individual Differences Focus - variation in the way that groups of people perform on the same cognitive task. Prior to about 1995, cognitive psychologists rarely studied how individual differences could influence people's thought processes. Instead, they focused quite strongly on measuring the behavior of multiple participants in an experiment and then calculating the statistical mean (average) performance per each condition of an experiment. Each chapter contains an overview of research that highlights some type of individual differences affect. Applications End of Chapter Summaries Section summaries Review Questions Keywords Further Readings
By the mid-1970s what approach had replaced behaviorist as the dominant theory in psychological research and how does it Stan now?
Cognitive Cognitive psychology as it exist today has been increasingly interdisciplinary pursuit. The psychological research has become supplemented with other theories and methodology borrowed from other fields
computer metaphor
During the 1970s to 1990s and to some degree, the thought that the human mind worked like a computer was a popular idea. Computers and human minds are both examples of complex, multipurpose machinery that can process information quickly, accurately, and in a similar fashion human brains and computers may operate according to similar general principles. For example, both humans and computers can compare symbols and can make choices according to the results of the comparison. Furthermore, computers have a processing machine with a limited capacity. Humans also have limited attention and short-term memory capacities.
When did human memory research start in psychology and why
End of 1950: people were not satisfied with behaviorist explanations. It was hard to explain complex human behavior using only observable stimuli, responses, and reinforcement. Psychologist proposed models of human memory because they found that an individual pervious knowledge alter their experiences. Reinforcement methods could not explain these changes
Noam Chomsky
In 1957, he emphasized that the structure of language was too complex to be explain in behaviorist terms. He and others argued that humans have an in born ability to master all the complicated and varied aspects of language. This contradicted the behaviorist perspective that language acquisition can be entirely explained by the same kind of principle that can be applied to lavatory animals
information processing approach
In the 1960s, psychologist begun to develop this approach. 1. Agrued that our mental processes are similar to computers 2.Information progresses in the steps, one at a time/
what did Carpenter and Just (1999) computer simulation model do?
It could read a sentence, similar to how a human would. It goes off the assumption that human have limited capacity for processing information thus slowing down the reading time.
How long have philosophers and other theorists about human thought processes
More than 23 centuries
what are the limitations of the computer metaphor?
The computer metaphor of the mind, and of information processing more generally, was never intended to be a model of how the brain processes information. Back in the 1960s and up until the early 1980s, the scientific community had a very limited sense of how the brain processed and interpreted complex stimuli in the environment. Most of the fancy neuroimag- ing equipment that we discuss at the end of this section was still in the early phases of development.
ecological validity
The extent to which a study is realistic or representative of real life. This is one of the most common complainants of cognitive psychology
What do cognitive scientist focus on and believe
They believe that thinking requires us to manipulate our internal representations of the external world. They focus on these internal representations. They try to build the gap between academic area. The research and theories make it impossible for a person to master it all.
Who was called the first cognitive psychologist
This is because the topic he studied are consist with the ones that cognitive psychologist would. He also emphasized empirical evidence.
Who was the first experimental psychology and tell about them ( 4 bullets)
Wilhelm Wundt - lived in Leipzig, Germany - between 1832 to 1920, student traveled from around the world to study with him - taught 28,000 courses in his life - proposed that psychology should study mental processes and advocated the use of introspection
operational definition
a precise definition that specifies exactly how a concept is to be measured
positron emission tomography (PET) scan
blood flow in the brain by injecting the participant with a low dose of a radioactive chemical just before this person works on a cognitive task. This chemical travels through the bloodstream to the parts of the brain that are activated during the tasks. While the person works on the task, a special camera makes an image of the accumulated radioactive chemical in various regions of the brain. PET scans can be used to study such cognitive processes as attention, memory, and language. method does not provide useful information about the time-course of processing a stimulus in the environment. If the activity in a specific brain region increases and then decreases within this brief period, the PET scan will record an average of this activity level
Cognitive neuroscience
combines the research techniques of cognitive psychology with various methods for assessing the structure and function of the brain
Why do people like comparing the human mind to a computer?
computer programs must be detailed, precise, unambiguous, and logical (Boden, 2004). Researchers can represent the functions of a computer with a flowchart that shows the sequence of stages in processing information.
brain lesions
destruction of an area in the brain, most often by strokes, tumors, blows to the head, and accidents. The formal research on lesions began in the 1860s, but major advances came after World War II, when researchers examined the relationship between damaged regions of the brain and cognitive deficits
eurological explanations for some cognitive processes are ________
elusive, meaning there is typically not one spot that controll say sight for example because it is more complex and requires several different region of the brain.
Why are PET scan less commonly used?
expensive and they expose people to radioactive chemicals
Schemas (Ch.8)
generalized kinds of information about situations.
Attention (Ch.3)
helps you determine which stimuli in the environ- ment you choose to focus on
Cognitive science
interdisciplinary field that tries to answer questions about the mind. Includes contributions from cognitive psychology, neuroscience, computer science, philosophy, and linguistic
FunctionalMagnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)
principle that oxygen-rich blood is an index of brain activity. The research participant reclines with his or her head surrounded by a large, doughnut-shaped magnet. This magnetic field produces changes in the oxygen atoms. A scanning device takes a "photo" of these oxygen atoms while the participant performs a cognitive task.
event-related potential (ERP) technique
records the very brief fluctuations in the brain's electrical activity, in response to a stimulus such as an auditory tone or a visual word. electrodes on a person's scalp (usually 32 or 64 electrodes, depending on the system). Each electrode records the electrical activity generated by populations of neurons located in the brain. The ERP technique cannot identify the response of a single neuron. However, it can identify electrical changes over a very brief period produced by populations of neurons in some regions of the brain. reasonably precise picture about changes in the brain's electrical potential while people perform a cognitive task.
serial processing
the system must complete one step or processing stage before information can proceed to the next step in the flow- chart. This one-step-at-a-time approach may capture the leisurely series ofoperations you conduct when you are thinking about every step in the process.
What can neither PET or fMRI measure?
when, or how quickly, certain processes occur. In addition, neither PET scans nor fMRis can tell us precisely what a person is thinking.