Chapter 1: Cognitive Psychology. Influences: Early. Influences: Structuralism. Introduction. Method 1/1/2015. Concerned with What/How Wilhelm Wundt

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1 Chapter 1: Cognitive Psychology History, Methods, and Paradigms 1 Introduction Structuralism Behaviorism Individual Differences Influences Early Functionalism Gestalt Cognitive Revolution History, Methods, & Paradigms Methods Experiments & Quasi Exp Naturalistic Observation Controlled Observation Introspection Neuroscience Paradigms Applications 2 Information Processing Connectionism Evolutionary Ecological Introduction 3 Influences: Early 4 What is cognitive psychology? "This book is about cognitive psychology - that branch of psychology concerned with how people acquire, store, transform, use, and communicate information. Put differently, cognitive psychology deals with our mental life - what goes on inside our heads when we perceive, attend, remember, think, categorize, reason, decide, and so forth. (Galotti) Elements Representation and Use of information/knowledge Diverse competencies and tasks that span multiple levels of complexity Lower: perceive, attend, remember, Higher: categorize, communicate, reason, think, Much interest in cognition since early times: from ancient Greeks through Enlightenment to modern day More sophisticated tools, but many of same questions Aristotle Empiricism vs Nativism Experience John Locke Blank slate Descartes Heredity & Biology Plato Influences: Structuralism Concerned with What/How Wilhelm Wundt Experimental psychology lab (1879) (+1) Introspection Titchener Content and Structure (vs. Function) Red 5 DondersSubtractive Method 6 Shiny Apple Juicy Round Tart 1

2 Influences: Functionalism Functionalism Concerned with Why William James Establish good habits and avoid bad ones Drew on Darwinian concepts of evolution and adaptation Preferred to study behavior in real world rather than sterile laboratory 7 Influences: Behaviorism Classical & Instrumental 8 (Operant) Conditioning Emphasis on learning processes Pavlov: CC learning of automatic (e.g., emotional) responses Watson: ban subjective, mental states; reject introspection; negative influence on theory (?), BUT promoted rigorous methods; reductionism Skinner: consequences; no mental representations Some early learning theorists accepted mental states: e.g., Tolman s cognitive maps Influences: Gestalt Psychology How people structure experience Wertheimer, Koffka, Kohler Figure Ground () Gestalt principles (F1.1 below) Whole greater than sum of parts 9 Influences: Individual Differences RED BLUE GREEN BLUE YELLOW Francis Galton 10 Cousin of Charles Darwin Measurement of intelligence, imagery, Invented many statistical techniques (e.g., r) to analyze data on heritability of eminence Binet Intelligence testing Much variation in human performance on cognitive tasks Stroop Task (, +1) Frequency Distribution of Stroop Results No Interference Interference 11 "Cognitive Revolution" 1950s-60s Reject behaviorist assumptions Multiple foundations Human Factors engineering (WWII) Concept of person-machine system Accidents (e.g., plane crash) Communications (limited capacity processor; Miller (7 2) Linguistics Chomsky, nativism, rules (generative grammar) Computers Turing, Artificial Intelligence Computer metaphor for mental processing Neuropsychology Localization of function (process) Influences: Cognitive Revolution 12 2

3 Research Methods Diverse methods used to study cognition Vary in Internal & External Validity Experiment Independent variable: presumed cause; manipulated by experimenter Dependent variable: presumed effect; measured by experimenter Between-subjects design Different people receive different conditions Within-subjects design Each person exposed to different conditions 13 Dual Coding Theory Imagery Memory Experimental Study Independent Variable Instructions: Between Subjects Group A: repetition instructions Group B: imagery instructions Dependent Variable: # words recalled (M = Mean) A: M = 7.00 SD = 2.45 B: M = SD = 1.22 Graph/Plot of Means above Significance of difference: t = 4.38, p =.000 Within-S: is it possible? 14 Factorial Studies & Interactions Mean Recall Repeat Image Many experiments involve more 15 than one independent variable IndVar1 - Instructions: Repeat words or Image to words IndVar2 - Word Type: Concrete or Abstract words Theoretical predictions No images for abstract words, therefore no help to image Repetition of concrete words should hinder generation of images Predict: C > A for imagery condition, C = A? for repetition Hypothetical results presented as Table of Means Abstract Concrete Repeat Image Or as graph of Means ( ) Research Methods Quasi-Experiment 16 Presumed cause cannot be controlled and randomly assigned by researcher Text examples: Gender?, Age?, Ethnicity?, Education Or some non-random manipulation (+1) Non-Experimental Studies Measure differences between pre-existing groups (e.g., gender) or pre-existing relationships (correlations) (+2) Regression-Discontinuity Design NZ alcohol use disorder monthly hospital admissions before and after drinking age reduced from 20 to 18 (vertical line) 17 Nonexperimental Study Nonexperimental (Correlational) Studies Two scores for each participant; both scores vary in value e.g., reported use of imagery and recall (N = 9 subjects) Correlation (r, +1) Subj Img Recall S#5 S#7 r =.81 r 2 =.66 p =

4 19 19 Research Methods Other Approaches 20 Naturalistic observation Watch people in everyday contexts High in Ecological (External) Validity But low in Experimental (Internal) Validity Controlled Observation & Clinical Interview Introspection Neuroscience Approaches Patients: e.g., Neglect ( ) Discussion No approach perfect: different strengths & weaknesses Cognitive psychologists use diverse approaches Paradigms of Cognitive Psychology What is a paradigm? Framework for conceptualizing particular domain (e.g., domain of cognitive psychology) Note other sense / meaning of task or method Body of knowledge structured according to what its proponents consider important and what they do not Assumptions, Research Methods, Appropriate Questions, Analogies, Currently, no single, unified paradigm for cognitive psychology (e.g., analogous to Evolution in biology) Galotti: 4 paradigms, but first 2 more emphasis Information Processing Connectionist Evolutionary Ecological 21 Paradigms: Information Processing Information passes through a system in stages Rooted in structuralism Analogy to factory or computer: inputs, processes, outputs F1.2 (below), or alternative (+1) 22 Nodes connected as neural network (below) Vary in activation level Activated by events in external world and activation spreads along Excitatory & Inhibitory connections Parallel vs. Serial processing Modelled on brain? 23 Paradigms: Connectionism 24 4

5 Paradigms: Evolutionary Approach Some basic human capacities very impressive Perceive objects despite change in size, orientation, details of shape, Language abilities Some functions still challenge powerful computers Yet acquired by most humans early in life Mind / Brain adapted to environmental pressures with special-purpose programs or modules Understanding cognition requires consideration of evolutionary pressures that produced modules Leads to special attention to individual differences & Environment (physical, ecological, social, ) 25 Paradigms: Ecological Approach Much cognitive research & theory based on laboratory tasks Do results generalize to real-world? Lave (and others) advocate Ecological approach that uses more natural tasks (e.g., shopping) Mathematics (arithmetic) in context: Some people cannot perform math in abstract (e.g., standardized tests) but perform well on equivalent version of same task (e.g., uneducated street vendor calculating change) Greater emphasis on applications But generalizability not easy to judge absent research e.g., Distributed practice operates same in lab and real-world (school) 26 Paradigms: Discussion Do paradigms compete or complement one another Address different facets of cognitive system? Different levels of abstraction: Boxes of Information Processing vs. Neural Networks Can be reconciled: Transitory (i.e., STM) changes in activation levels vs. Permanent (i.e., LTM) Some aspects of paradigms or models misleading Similar to any metaphor Neat boxes of Information Processing approach suggests independent modules: likely inaccurate Information Processing model suggests sequential, discrete processes, but cognition involves parallel operations 27 Applications 28 Cognitive Psychology many applied implications Cognitive Neuropsychology Effects of brain insult Human Factors Design of machines to minimize human error ( ) Education Individual differences Representation of knowledge e.g., (last slide) Gerontology Age & Cognitive Processes (attention, ), Driving & Age ( ) Autobiographical Memory Task Cue Word ND = Never depressed RD = Remitted Depression CD = Currently Depressed 30 Law Eye Witnesses (Loftus), Jury Decision Making, Medicine Memory for instructions, Decision Making (Fallacies, ), Clinical Psychology Depression & Memory ( ), Depression & Attention, Diagnostic Decision-Making, Business and Manufacturing Human Resources, Decision- Making, Advertising, Discussion of Applications Many examples of carefully-designed applications that DO NOT WORK! e.g., scared straight Importance of empirical evaluation of applications Also, applications benefit from more complete and accurate cognitive theories 31 Nine trials met criteria for the study. The results indicated the [Scared Straight] intervention to be more harmful than doing nothing. The program effect was nearly identical and negative in direction, regardless of the meta-analytic strategy. In other words, Scared Straight not only doesn t work, it may actually be more harmful than doing nothing. Another meta-analysis showed Scared Straight interventions could possibly worsen conduct-disorder symptoms (Lilinefeld, 2005). A metaanalysis by Aos and colleagues (2001) showed that Scared Straight and similar programs produced substantial increases in recidivism (chronic relapse into crime). 5

6 29 A cognitive map (network) for Introduction to Cognitive Psychology