Introduction to Cognitive PsychologyOutline:1. Cognitive Psychology Defined?2. From Plato to Cognitive PsychologySlide 6Slide 7Slide 8Slide 9Slide 10Slide 11Slide 12Slide 13Slide 14Slide 15Slide 163. Research Methods in Cognitive PsychologySlide 18Slide 19Slide 20Slide 21Slide 22Slide 23Slide 244. Key Themes in Cognitive PsychologySlide 26Slide 27Slide 28Introduction to Cognitive PsychologyChapter 1Outline:1. Cognitive Psychology Defined2. From Plato to Cognitive Psychology1. Philosophical Antecedents of Psychology2. Psychological Antecedents of Cog Psychology3. Emergence of Cognitive Psychology3. Research Methods in Cognitive Psychology4. Key Themes in Cognitive Psychology1. Cognitive Psychology Defined•Cognitive Psychology–The study of how people perceive, learn, remember, and think.–Examples•How people perceive various shapes•Why they remember some facts and forget others•How they learn language•Cognition (Ashcraft, 2002)–The collection of mental processes and activities used in perceiving, learning, remembering, thinking, and understanding, and the act of using those processes?If you wanted to understand how people think which method would you use? What would you focus on?2. From Plato to Cognitive Psychology2.1.Philosophical Antecedents of PsychologyPLATO (ca. 428-348 B.C) – Rationalism–Nature of reality•Reality resides not in the concrete objects we perceive but in the abstract forms that these objects represent–How to investigate reality•Observation is misleading•The route to knowledge is through logical analysis2. From Plato to Cognitive Psychology2.1.Philosophical Antecedents of PsychologyARISTOTLE (ca. 384-322 B.C) – Empiricism–Nature of reality•Reality lies only in the concrete world of objects that our bodies sense–How to investigate reality•The route to knowledge is through empirical evidence, obtained through experience and observation•Observations of the external world are the only means to arrive at truth2. From Plato to Cognitive Psychology2.1.Philosophical Antecedents of PsychologyRENE DESCARTES(1596-1650) – Rationalism–“Cogito ergo sum”–Mental representations •Descartes raised, directly or indirectly, virtually all the significant issues related to the foundations of the science of the mind•He had taken the principles from his writings on meteors, optics, mathematics, and mechanics and considered their applicability to human phenomena–Innate ideas2. From Plato to Cognitive Psychology2.1.Philosophical Antecedents of PsychologyJOHN LOCKE (1632-1704)– Empiricism–“tabula rasa” (“blank slate”)•both sighted and blind people ought to be able to learn the meanings of words like statue and feel but the blind ought to be unable to acquire words like picture and see…–Learning–Humans are born without knowledge •No innate ideas2. From Plato to Cognitive Psychology2.2.Psychological Antecedents of Cognitive PsychologyStructuralism–Goal of psychology•To understand the structure of the mind and its perceptions by analyzing those perceptions into their constituent components–Method•Introspection – looking inward at pieces of information passing through consciousness–Proponents•Wilhelm Wundt, Edward Titchener2. From Plato to Cognitive Psychology2.2.Psychological Antecedents of Cognitive PsychologyFunctionalism–Goal of psychology•To study the processes of mind rather than its contents–Method•Various methods – introspection, observation, experiment–Proponents•William James –Principles of Psychology (1890)2. From Plato to Cognitive Psychology2.2.Psychological Antecedents of Cognitive PsychologyBehaviorism–Goal of psychology•To study observable behavior•Any hypotheses about internal thoughts and ways of thinking are nothing more than speculation•We can not say anything meaningful about cognition–Method•Animal experiments, conditioning experiments–Proponents•John Watson, B.F. Skinner2. From Plato to Cognitive Psychology2.2.Psychological Antecedents of Cognitive PsychologyGestalt Psychology–Goal of psychology•To understand psychological phenomena as organized, structured wholes•The whole differs from the sum of its parts–Method•Various methods – experiment, observation–Proponents•Max Wertheimer, Wolfgang Köhler2. From Plato to Cognitive Psychology2.2. Emergence of Cognitive PsychologyKarl Lashley (1890-1958)–Psychobiological arguments against behaviorism–Playing piano•On a behaviorist, stimulus-response account, an activity such as rapidly playing a correct sequence of notes from memory on an instrument would involve an associative chain of stimuli and responses•Such associative chains can not explain the behavior; input is never put into a a static system, but always into a system which is actively organized2. From Plato to Cognitive Psychology2.2. Emergence of Cognitive PsychologyNoam Chomsky –Linguistic arguments against behaviorism–Arguments from language acquisition•Behaviorists can not explain how children can produce novel sentences they never heard•Infinite number of sentences we can produce can not be learned by reinforcement – there must be a cognitive algorithmic structure in our mind underlying language2. From Plato to Cognitive Psychology2.2. Emergence of Cognitive PsychologyAlan Turing –Development of first computers•His “Colossus” computer helped break the German “Enigma” codes during the World War II•It has been estimated that this work shortened the war in Europe by two years–Analogy between computers and human minds•Hardware (brain), Software (mind)•Thinking can be described in terms of algorithmic manipulation of some information•These ideas gave rise to the information processing paradigm in psychology – cognitive psychology?What can humans do that computers can not?What can computers do that humans can not?3. Research Methods in Cognitive PsychologyHow does scientific investigation work?–Theory development–Hypotheses formulation–Hypotheses testing–Data gathering–Data analysisEcological validity–The degree to which particular findings in one context may be considered relevant outside of that context3. Research Methods in Cognitive Psychology1. Controlled laboratory experiments•Characterization–An experimenter conducts research in a laboratory setting in which he controls as many aspects of the experimental situation as possible•Advantages–Enables isolation of