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robby edwardsen

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Cognitive Psychology

Introduction and History

SIMPLE QUESTIONS

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Do without a calculator or paper – use your mind.

You have 1000,add 40,add 1000,add 30again 1000add 20, add again 1000and finally 10.

What is the result?

AN IMPORTANT QUESTION!!!!

Does the Pope Wear underwear?

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What is Cognitive Psychology? Cognitive Psychology is the scientific study “concerned with the processes involved in acquiring, storing and transforming information”(p.3).

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HISTORY OF COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY

Cognitive Questions are as old as the dawn of human consciousness.

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Where do my thoughts come from? How do I know what is real and what

is an illusion? How does my mind work? Do other people think as I do?

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MIND AND BODYTHE FIRST BIG BATTLE OF COGNITION

Dualism - the belief that there are two kinds of reality: material (physical) and immaterial (spiritual).

Material reality can be studied scientifically.

Immaterial reality cannot be directly observed nor scientifically studied. 8

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Interactive Dualism

Mind BodyThe relationship is lawful. Mind Effects Body and Body Effects Mind

René Descartes(1596-1650)

We can learn about the mind by studying behavior.

INTERACTIVE DUALISM

Allows us to study human behavior and physical interactions

and infer processes of the mind (thoughts, intentions, reasoning etc.)

Claudius Ptolemy Nicolaus Copernicus

EPISTEMOLOGY: THEORIES OF KNOWLEDGE ACQUISITION Nativism ~ believe that knowledge is primarily (at least in some areas) acquired by a priori processes (e.g., innate or hardwired ; i.e., logic, wisdom, intuition, talents, innate abilities or disabilities).

Empiricism ~ is generally a theory of knowledge emphasizing the role of experience, especially experience based on perceptual observations by the five senses. Nature Vs. Nurture Debate.

Ideas about Memory: Socrates - (Nativism) humans innately possessed knowledge,

and that they only had to be led to discover what they already know.

Aristotle – learning is through experience (empiricism ~ tabula rasa)

Philosophical Approaches (cont.)

IS THIS AN IMPORTANT QUESTION?

What causes autism?

Is it genetic?Is it due to damage caused by environmental factors?

Is it due to the upbringing?If it is nature, is there a way to overcome it by education and nurturance?

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Associationism ~ is the theory that the mind is composed of elements -- usually referred to as sensations and ideas -- which are organized by means of various associations. Aristotle counted four laws of association when he examined the processes of remembrance and recall.

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1. The law of contiguity. Things or events that occur close to each other in space or time tend to get linked together in the mind. If you think of a bowl, you may think of a spoon.

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2. The law of frequency. The more often two things or events are linked, the more powerful will be that association. If you have a bagel with your coffee every day, and have done so for the last twenty years, the association will be strong.

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3. The law of similarity. If two things are similar, the thought of one will tend to trigger the thought of the other. If you recollect one birthday, you may find yourself thinking about others as well.

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4. The law of contrast. On the other hand, seeing or recalling something may also trigger the recollection of something completely opposite. If you think of the tallest person you know, you may suddenly recall the shortest one as well.

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Association, according to Aristotle, took place in the "common sense." It was in the common sense that the look, the feel, the smell, the taste of an apple, for example, came together to become the idea of an apple.

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Introspection

Aristotle based much of this ideas about how the mind works on his observations of his own thought processes.

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Philosopher’s continued to address cognitive questions using

introspection and logic. While they proposed interesting ideas, there was no method for testing theories to see if they explained real human cognitive processes.

Beginning of Psychology1879 – Wilhelm Wundt

Father of the Science of Psychology- relationship between stimuli in the “real world” and our psychological experiences.

Wundt also used introspection, but of a different kind. Wundt's introspection was a rigidly controlled, arduous experimental procedure. Highly trained observers were presented with carefully controlled sensory events and asked to describe their mental experiences of these eventse.g. metronome demonstration

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WUNDT’S LAB

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VOLUNTARISM:

Wundt proposed that our conscious experiences are due to the power of the will to organize the mind’s content into higher-level thought processes.

Apperception is considering a perception in relation to things you’ve perceived in the past.

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APPERCEPTIONExample.

A rich child and a poor child walking together come across the same ten dollar bill on the sidewalk. The rich child says it is not very much money and the poor child says it is a lot of money. The difference lies in how they apperceive the same event – the lens of past experience through which they see and value (or devalue) the money.—Christopher Ott 26

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Two of Wundt’s students (Külpe and Titchner) tried to use introspection to study the elements of thought rather than apperception which resulted in an argument about the existence of “imageless thought”. This debate demonstrated the limits of introspection and the technique was abandoned.

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WUNDT FELT THAT INTROSPECTION COULD BE USED TO STUDY APPERCEPTIONS BUT COULD NOT BE USED TO STUDY THOUGHT PROCESSES, MEMORY PROCESSES , REASONING ETC.

Problems with Introspection.

- Many processes occur subliminally.

- Confabulation

-If reports are retrospective, we may forget parts of the process.

- The process of introspection may effect the process.

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In order to make sense of our thoughts, we often confabulate (make up) explanations for why we reach the conclusions we have.

e.g., Subjects in a shopping mall were presented with an array of four sets of items (e.g., socks, nightgowns or pantyhose) and were allowed to choose one of them as a free sample. Even though they were all identical they tended to choose the item on the right (Nisbett & Wilson, 1977).

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When asked to explain why they chose the item they did, they came up with clearly confabulated explanations, such as their chosen item was softer or of better quality.

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Research also indicates that some factors thatInfluence our thought processes are subliminal (below the level of our conscious awareness).

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Pessiglione et al (2007)

The incentive force task. Successive screens displayed in one trial are shown from left to right, with durations in ms. Coin images, either one pound (£1) or one penny (1p), indicate the monetary value attributed to the top of the thermometer image. The fluid level in the thermometer represents the online force exerted on the hand grip. The last screen indicates cumulative total of the money won so far.

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Even when subjects cannot report how much money is at stake, they nevertheless deploy more force for higher amounts.

FMRI Imaging showed similar patterns of activation of the basal forebrain region (associated with reward processing) between the two conditions.

Findings reveal that expected rewards energize behavior, without the need for the subjects` awareness.

Two Conditions:1)Coin Clearly Visible2)Subliminal Presentation of coin

HOW MUCH CAN INTROSPECTION TELL US ABOUT COGNITIVE PROCESSES? LET’S TAKE A SIMPLE EXAMPLE OF AN EVERYDAY COGNITIVE TASK.

e.g., How do we read?

Try this sentence.

The lady hit the man with an umbrella.

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Several processes are involved in reading a simple sentence.

Perception and Pattern Recognition

Attention - Automatic and controlled Processes

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The Stroop (1935) effect demonstrates the interference that automatic processing of words has on the more "effortful" (controlled) task of just naming the colors. Many cognitive processes are automatic (i.e, do not require attention and can often be performed along with other tasks without interference). Since the required task of naming the color of the word and the automatic task of reading the word conflict, people often make errors and are slower to respond.

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The task of selecting the appropriate response (conflict monitoring) has been located in the anterior cingulate (Barch, et al., 2001) and is involved in a wide range of thought processes and emotional responses.

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Emotional Stroop Test

Automatic processes generally involve well learned, repeatedly practiced task (e.g., reading) or emotional reactions.

Language Cna yuo raed tihs? i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt. 

Reasoning and Problem Solving

Memory, Knowledge Representation (Semantics) & Imagery

Who has the umbrella??

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An UFO has been caught on tape!

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Early Influences on Cognitive Psychology

William James – Functionalism

Donders – Reaction Time

Early Memory ResearchEbbinghausMunsterberg

Applied Cognitive ResearchBryan and Noble

1890 - William James

Functionalism – understanding the mind requires an understanding of the purpose of the thought processes.

Primary and Secondary Memory HabitsStream of Consciousness

Franciscus Cornelis Donders ‘(1868) Reaction time Experiment Simple RT and Choice RT Measured the time required to decide.

A modern version of Donders’ (1868) reaction time experiment. (a) the simple reaction-time task; and (b) the choice reaction-time task. For the simple time reaction text, the participant pushes the J key when the light goes on. For the choice reaction time test the participant pushes the J key if the left light goes on, and the K key if the right light goes on. The purpose of the Donders’ experiment was to determine the time

it took to decide which key to press for the choice reaction time test.

Donders’ Inference: decision took .1 second Donders’ Inference: decision took .1 second

1885 - EbbinghausMemory for Nonsense syllables - looked at “pure memory” - found relationship between repetition and memory.

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Hugo Munsterberg (1892)

- Forensic Psychology (Eyewitness Testimony)

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Bryan and Noble (1899)

Acquisition of skill.

From http://www.gutenberg.org/files/31382/31382-h/31382-h.htm

Behaviorism (1913 – 1960) During this period studying cognitive Processes was very unpopular.

Watson – Classical ConditioningSkinner – Operant conditioning

Radical Behaviorism

We cannot look inside the mind (introspect) so we cannot study these processes. To learn about human behavior we study ONLY observable behavior.

Psychology became the study of the relationship between Stimulus and Response

Thorndike – law of effect

Learning occurs because of the consequences (rewards & punishments).

. . . in hidden laboratories and Universities in out-of-the-way little places (like Europe) Scientists continued to ask questions about the workings of the mind.

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While Behaviorism held control over most of psychology in North America . . .

Bartlett (England, 1930's) - memory for stories – found that memory is reconstructive.

PiagetPiaget (1920’s Switzerland) - development of cognitive abilities with age.

Cognitive Revolution (1950's to 1970's)Dissatisfaction with Behavioral Theories: Neo-behaviorist (e.g., Tolman)

3 routes to the foodStrongest learning for ALeast for C

What if route is blocked atdotted line A?What if route is blocked atdotted line B?

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In both cases Behaviorists would predict that the rats would take route B because it has more “habit strength” than route C.

This is what happens when route is blocked at Block A. But what about when it is blocked at Block B? Taking Route B will not work.

When blocked at position B rats take Route C, indicating that the rat has developed a a metal representation (perhaps a cognitive map) of the maze.

Second Example: Latent LearningRat run a maze once per day for 17 days.

Group 1 - rewarded with food in goal box.

Group 2 – no reward in the goal box.

Group 3 - Day 1 to 10 - no reward Day 11 to 17 reward.

1 12 17 Days

Errors

Behaviorist’s Predictions

Learning begins when reward Begins

Actual Results

Learning happens without consequences!!!

The Law of Effect is not always True.

We do not simply repeat that which leads to rewards and avoid that which leads to punishment – we are constantly seeking patterns even if there are no immediate consequences.

Other Influences that prompted the Cognitive Revolution

WWII – questions that behaviorists did not feel were important- attention- decision making- how do humans process information?

Noam Chomsky (Linguist) - children’s language errors go through phases of errors e.g., “I goed to the store”.

Why? They have learned a concept about "past tenses" and they use it on all occasions.

Cognitive Science’s Official Birthday?

September 11, 1956

MIT Conference brought together people from very different areas, linguistics, anthropologists, psychologists, computer programmers and philosophers, neuroscientists. They were all asking the same kind of questions – and all agreed that Behaviorism simply was not giving them answers.

Cognitive science is a fairly new approach to psychology (1956).

Resulted due to:Resulted due to:• advances in technologyadvances in technology•new metaphors for thinking about the human new metaphors for thinking about the human mind (computer, networks) mind (computer, networks) •interdisciplinary efforts interdisciplinary efforts •most importantmost important ~ questioning of long held ~ questioning of long held ideas about human thought processesideas about human thought processes

Computer as Metaphor for Mind- both encode, store, manipulate and use info - programs define rules, steps and stages for

processing information.

Artificial Intelligence

INFORMATION PROCESSING APPROACH

Models that define the step by step processes within a cognitive system.

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Attention

Perception

Thought Processes

Decision

Response

Bottom-Up Processing – processing that is determined directly by environmental stimuli rather than the individual’s knowledge and expectations.

Serial Processing – one process occurs at a time.

GP M

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Long-Term Memory

S Se tn os ro er y

Short-Term Memory

Stage Model of Memory

Rehearsal

Loss

Encoding

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Long-Term Memory

S Se tn os ro er y

Short-Term Memory

Stage Model of Memory

Rehearsal

Loss

Encoding

Top-Down Processes – effects of expectations, Memory and Knowledge.

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Red Spade Experiment

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Parallel Processing – two or more processes occurring simultaneously.

One of the strengths of the Information processing approach is that it simplifies and clearly define processes. One of its weaknesses is that it oversimplifies the process.

CONTEMPORARY COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGYFour Approaches1.Experimental Cognitive Psychology2.Cognitive Neuroscience3.Cognitive neuropsychology4.Computational Cognitive Science

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EXPERIMENTAL COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGYEXPERIMENTAL COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY STUDY HEALTHY INDIVIDUALS UNDER STUDY HEALTHY INDIVIDUALS UNDER LABORATORY CONDITIONS LABORATORY CONDITIONS

• Often Involve Reaction Time and Accuracy Measures used to Infer cognitive processes.

• E.g., Dual Task procedures (ex. Stroop) Memory tests, problem solving.

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StrengthStrength: Laboratory allows highly controlled (internally valid) studies to be done.

WeaknessWeakness: Lack of Ecological Validity((the extent to which findings can be the extent to which findings can be generalized to the real world).generalized to the real world).

COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCECOGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCEBRAIN ACTIVITY DURING PERFORMANCE BRAIN ACTIVITY DURING PERFORMANCE OF COGNITIVE AND BEHAVIORAL TASKS.OF COGNITIVE AND BEHAVIORAL TASKS.

Systems for identifying Brain Areas4 Lobes

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BROADMAN AREA INDEX

Most widely known and frequently cited cytoarchitectural organization of the human cortex.

BA17 = Broadmann Area 17

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COGNITIVE NEUROPSYCHOLOGYCOGNITIVE NEUROPSYCHOLOGY

Study of Brain Damaged Patients

Assumption of Modularity Cognitive system is divided into a set of

functional units (named modules) that can be composed into a larger application.

E.g., several modules (color, motion, form) Contribute to visual processing.

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Dissociation – A patient performs at the same level as normals on one task but is impaired on other a second task.

E.g., Retrograde Amnesia – impaired LTM with normal STM.

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Double DissociationsDouble DissociationsPatients exist who are impaired on X but not Y.Others are impaired on Y but not X.

Evidence that X and Y are independent processes.

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)

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COMPUTATIONAL COGNITIVE SCIENCECOMPUTATIONAL COGNITIVE SCIENCE

Related to Artificial Intelligence

Uses computer (computational)modeling to mimic human cognitive functions.

John Anderson Adaptive Control of Thought-rational (ACT-R)

Diagrams functions of cognition according to modules.

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JOHN ANDERSON ADAPTIVE CONTROL OF THOUGHT-RATIONAL (ACT-R)

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CONNECTIONIST NETWORKSCONNECTIONIST NETWORKS

Computer programs that mimic human cognitive functions- Show evidence of learning (back-propagation)

- Parallel Distributed Models

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Reverse EngineeringFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

“the process of discovering the technological principles of a device, object or system through analysis of its structure, function and operation. It often involves taking something apart and analyzing its workings in detail, usually to try to make a new device or program that does the same thing”

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

. . . In cognitive psychology the purpose is to understand the human mind and its interactions with the body and the physical world.