Chapter One: An Intro to Cog PsychChapter Introduction-Cognition: the area within psychology that examines how we acquire, store, transform, and use knowledge-Metacognition: thinking about your thought processes-Cognitive psychologyoSynonym for word cognition, refers to variety of mental activitiesoRefers to a particular theoretical approach to psychology-Cognitive approach: oTheoretical orientation that emphasizes people's thought processes and their knowledge A Brief History of Cognitive PsychologyThe Origins of Cog PsychWilhelm Wundt-Founder of psychology-Proposed that psych should study mental processes using introspectionoCarefully trained observers would systematically analyze their own sensations and report them as objectively as possible, under standardized conditions Early Memory Researchers-Hermann EbbinghausoFirst person to scientifically study human memoryoExamined a variety of factors that might influence performance-Mary Whiton CalkinsoRecency effect:-The observation that our recall is especially accurate for the final items in a series of stimuli oEmphasized that psychologists should study how real people use cog processes in real world, not in laboFirst woman president of APA William James-Preferred to theorize about our everyday psychological experiences -Principles of psychologyoEmphasizes human mind as active and inquiring Behaviorism-Psychology must focus on the objective, observable reactions to stimuli in the environment, rather than introspectionoJohn B Watson-Contributed significantly to contemporary research methodsoOperational definition-Precise definition that specifies exactly how a concept is to be measuredoAlso valued carefully controlled researchlThe Gestalt Approach-Development in Europe at beginning of 20th century-Emphasizes that humans have basic tendencies to actively organize what we see; furthermore, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts-Gestalt: an overall quality that transcends the individual elementsoOval and two horizontal lines: we tend to see a face-Valued the unity of psychological phenomena-Strongly objected to Wundt's introspective technique of analyzing experiences into separate components-Also criticized behaviorists emphasis on breaking behavior into observable stimulus response units and ignoring the context of the behavior-Importance of insight in problem solvingFrederic Bartlet-England-Research on human memory-Rejected carefully controlled research of Ebbinghaus oUsed meaningful materials such as lengthy stories -Discovered people made systematic errors when trying to recall storiesoProposed that human memory is an active, constructive process, in which we interpret and transform the infowe encounteroSearch for meaning and try to integrate this new info so it is more consistent with our own personal experiences The Emergence of Modern Cognitive Psychology-1956 Factors Contributing to the Rise of Cognitive Psych-Hard to explain complex human behavior using only behaviorist concepts like observable stimuli, responses, and reinforcement-Doesn’t tell us about numerous psychologically interesting processes, such as the thoughts and strategies that people use when they try to solve a problem -New developments in linguistics increased psychologists dissatisfaction with behaviorism oStructure of lang was too complex to be explained in behaviorist terms oBelieved that humans have an inborn ability to master all the complicated aspects of lang-Contradicts behaviorists theory of learning acquisition -Research in human memory began to blossom further increasing disenchantment with behaviorism -Research on children's thought processes The Information Processing Approach-Argued thatoOur mental processes are similar to the operations of a computeroInformation progresses through our cognitive system in a series of stages, one step at a time-Atikinson- Shiffrin ModeloProposed that memory involves a sequence of separate steps; in each step, information is transferred from one storage area to another oExternal stimuli first enters sensory memory-Storage system that records info from each of the senses with reasonable accuracyoInfo is stored in sensory memory for 2 seconds or less, and most of it is forgoten oSome material from sensory memory passes to short term memory (working memory)-Holds only the small amount of info that you are actively using-Can be lost within 30 seconds, unless somehow repeated -Only a fraction of short term memory passes on to long term memoryoLong term memory-Has enormous capacity-Info stored here is relatively permanent, compared to info in working memory-Most researchers consider this model to be diminishedoConsider sensory memory to be very brief storage process only a part of perception oQuestions distinction about short vs long term memory The Current Status of Cognitive Psychology-Cognitive approach has permeated most areas of psychology that had not previously emphasized people's thought processes-One common complains: ecological validityoStudies are high in ecological validity if the conditions in which the research is conducted are similar to the natural setting where the results are applied-Most cog psychologists acknowledge that the discipline must advance by conducting both ecologically valid and lab based research Cognitive Neuroscience Techniques-Cog neuroscienceoCombines the research techniques of cog psych with various methods for assessing the structure and functionof the brain-Social cog neuroscienceoUse neuroscience techniques to explore the kind of cog processes that we use in our interactions with other ppl Brain Lesions-Brain lesionsoDestruction of an area in the brain, often by strokes, tumors, blows to the head, and accidents oMajor advances after WWIIoHelp us understand the organization of the brain but results are often difficult to interpret cause lesions not limited to one brain area Positron Emission Tomography (PET Scan)-By measuring certain properties of the blood in different regions of the brain while people perform a cog task, we can determine which brain regions are responsible for that cognitive task -PET ScanoResearchers measure blood flow in the brain by injecting the participant with a low dose of a radioactive chemical just before this person works on a cog taskoExpensive and expose people to radioactive chemicalsoNot very precise because takes several seconds to produce data Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging-Based on the principle that oxygen rich blood is