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U-M PSYCH 240 - Introduction to Cognitive Psych+History and Methodology
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PSYCH 240 1st Edition Lecture 1Outline of Last Lecture I. N/AOutline of Current Lecture I. What is Cognitive PsychologyII. Issuesa. How can one approach the study of cognition?b. How do cognitive psychologists study the mind?III. Historya. The big problem in studying the mindb. Solutions to the problemi. Introspectionism, behaviorism, cognitivismc. Cognitivismii. Computational view of mind, Information processingIV. Reaction Time Methodsa. A reaction testb. Dondersi. Mental chronometryii. Donders’ methodiii. Simple Reaction Time Taskiv. Choice Reaction Time Taskv. Subtractive Methodvi. Why Donders MattersV. Modern Cognitive Psychologya. Confirming evidence is weakb. Key methodological technique: eliminating alternative explanations*Key Terms in redCurrent LectureI. What is Cognitive Psychologya. The scientific study of the human mindi. How do we learn, perceive, remember, think…?b. The study of the structures and processes of the mind and brain that take in, transform, and use informationThese notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor’s lecture. GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes, not as a substitute.II. Issuesa. How can one approach the study of cognitionb. How do cognitive psychologists study the mindIII. Historya. The big problem in studying the mindi. The mind is unobservable. A stimulus is input into a “black box” and a response emergesii. All we can observe are the manifestations (products, output) of the mind:behavior and physiologyb. Solutions to the problemi. Introspectionism: just look inside and see what is going ona. Wilhelm Wundtb. Edward Titchener2. Problemsa. Difficult to verify – how do we know they weren’t lyingb. Private events, not publicc. End product, not the process itselfii. Behaviorism: ignore the mind totally1. Psychology is the “science of behavior”2. Emphasis on what can be directly observeda. Stimulib. Responsesc. Reinforcements/rewardsd. Rats in mazes3. Ignore the mind (unobservable) – just stimulus to responsea. Ivan Pavlov – classical conditioning w/ dogsb. John Watson – extreme: there was nothing in thoughtc. B.F. “Fred” Skinner – if you consistently reinforce an action then the response will follow4. Problemsa. Can’t account for diversity of human behaviori. Example: language1. We can hear a sentence that we have never have heard before and still understand it despite the fact we have not been conditioned to learn itb. Limiting science to the observable is a bad ideai. Who’s ever seen an electron?iii. Cognitivism1. Infer what’s going on inside the box2. Computational view of the mind: mainstream underlying assumption – the mind is somehow like a computer program3. Dependent variable: what you measure/analyzea. Reaction timeb. Accuracyc. Brain activity4. Independent variable: what you manipulatea. Number of items to be memorizedb. Amount of alcohol ingestedc. Passage of timeIV. Reaction Time Methodsa. A reaction testi. Assume the mind is a processing computerii. Lots going on inside the black box1. Raising hand in response to sentence (our brain responding to a stimulus)iii. How do you figure out what’s going on?iv. Reaction time methods are a powerful approach1. On a graph the independent variable is usually represented on thex-axis and the dependent variable is represented on the y-axis.2. Main effect: when changing the independent variable has an effect on the dependent variable. Occurs whenever you don’t have a horizontal line3. Interaction: two or more independent variables interact when theeffect of one independent variable is different depending on the level of the other independent Variable. Parallel lines indicate no interaction. Lines that are not parallel indicate interaction4. When the curves are not parallel then there is a reaction between the independent variablesb. Dondersi. Invented mental chronometry: the study of the time course of mental processes1. Until the mid 1800’s people thought that the nervous system conducted impulses at the speed of light and the mental processes were instantaneous2. Donders’ method had some problems but it was extremely influential in psychologyii. Stimulus  processingmore processingresponse1. Each stage a. RECEIVES information from the previous stageb. TRANSFORMS the informationc. SENDS information to the next stage**Two questions that must be answered**d. What are the stagese. What is the timing of the stagesiii. Simple Reaction Time Task (detection task): press the button when you see a red or green light1. This task involves perceiving the stimulus and then executing the response. All you have to do is detect the stimulus then press the keyiv. Choice Reaction Time Task (decision task): press left button for red light; right button for green light1. There are multiple possible stimuli and responses, and you have todecide which response to make based on which stimulus is presented2. Need both detection and decisionv. Subtractive method1. Using the detection and decision task, you can collect reaction times for both simple and choice/decision tasks2. Donders’ idea was to estimate the amount of time required by thedecision phase by subtracting the two reaction timesa. Ex.) simple RT = 197msec Choice RT = 285msecResults: detection = choice – detection = 285 – 197 = 88msec- This gives you an objective measure of some completely unobservable process. But, there are problems w/ this approach3. Problemsa. Assumption of pure insertion: All stages remain the same when the new one is addedi. Problem: adding the decision stage may influence another stage ( like detection)b. Assumptions of additivity: the durations of all stages add together to yield the reaction timei. Problem: stages might operate in parallel  underestimate decision timec. Assumes you already know what the stages arei. Problem: you probably don’t (the logic won’t work if you don’t know the stages)1. Stimulusdetectionmemory lookupdecisionresponse a. These are not the correct stages thatDonders uses but they make sense nonetheless. Donders’ method only works if his stages are usedvi. Why is Donders’ 1868 work important today? 1. There are similar assumptions in modern research and similar criticisms can apply2. Contributionsa. The idea that you can measure mental processesb. The choice reaction procedureV. Modern Cognitive Psychologya. Confirming evidence is weakb. Key


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