1History of Cognitive PsychologyJanuary 11, 2001Reminders• www.psych.utah.edu/~sc4002/psych3120• Dave’s office hours• Modes of Learning• Daniel Dennett– Professor of Philosophy and Cognitive Science– Today, Jan 11, at 4 pm, Gould Aud., Marriot Lib.• Codes to add in20 Questions 20 Questions1. We use only about 10% of our brain.FALSE20 Questions2. Our expectations influence our perceptions and memories.TRUE220 Questions3. Studies have shown that eyewitness testimony is valid and accurate, especially with highly stressful (i.e., memorable) events.FALSE20 Questions4. When working in the dark (e.g., in an observatory), it is best to use red light to illuminate objects (e.g., a notebook).True20 Questions5. If a tree falls in the forest and nobody is around, it makes a sound.FALSE20 Questions6. Studies of divided attention have demonstrated that driving while using a cell phone is not impaired.FALSE20 Questions7. At birth, newborns see the world as adults, although they lack the experience to interpret it as we do.FALSE320 Questions8. Someone who learns something when they are drunk will subsequently remember it better when they are drunk than when they are sober.TRUE20 Questions9. Practice always improves performance.FALSE20 Questions10. You can move your focus of (visual) attention without moving your eyes.TRUE20 Questions11. If someone is blind in one eye, they will have no depth perception.FALSE20 Questions12. Freud's "free association" technique tells us something about the organization of memory.TRUE420 Questions13. Studies that carefully control for the amount of time studying have found that "cramming" for an exam is as effective as distributing the studying over time.FALSE20 Questions14. People are always biased.TRUE20 Questions15. Memory aids do not really improve our memory.FALSE20 Questions16. The arrangement of displays and controls in cars, airplanes, etc. is arbitrary because we can learn to use any configuration with practice.FALSE20 Questions17. With enough practice it is possible to do two things at the same time as well as doing each thing by itself.TRUE for some things, FALSE for other things20 Questions18. During the movement of the eyes while reading, the processing of visual information is temporarily suppressed.TRUE520 Questions19. Some of our memories are retrieved as mental images.TRUE20 Questions20. The difference between $500 and $1000 is psychologically greater than the difference between $10,500 and $11,000.TRUEGoal of Cognitive Psychology:To explain basic processes of thoughtA SIMPLE EXAMPLE:An ExampleHow many hands did Aristotle have?Cognitive perspectiveThink about what had to happen in order for you to answer that question.“How many handsdid Aristotle have?”Speech Interpretation6Speech interpretation• Pressure on eardrum• Segmentation--where are the breaks between words?– Where are the breaks between phonemes?– Variability in phoneme production between speakersSpeech Segmentation“How many handsdid Aristotle have?”Speech InterpretationInterpretation ofquestionInterpretation of question• Word order dramatically changes sentences. – Compare “John wished he had jumped higher” and “He wished John had jumped higher”• Surrounding context also matters.– Compare “He smiled” and “He slowly took out the gun. He smiled.”“How many handsdid Aristotle have?”Speech InterpretationInterpretation ofquestionFind answerin memoryFind answer in memoryWinter breakBoyfriend’s hat sizeWhat happens at carnivalDog’s favorite toyWhat a snowflake looks likeWhich side of a computer disk goes in firstHumans usually have two handsAristotle was a human beingWho John Dean is7“How many handsdid Aristotle have?”Speech InterpretationInterpretation ofquestionFind answerin memoryMake decision:answer or not?Answer or not• How confident am I that I know the answer?• What happens if I don’t answer?• Is this a trick? (Psych classes are full of tricks)“How many handsdid Aristotle have?”Speech InterpretationInterpretation ofquestionFind answerin memoryMake decision:answer or not?Phrase theanswerPhrase the answer• *Two• He had two hands• I’m not sure, but I’m guessing two• Two--what’s it to you?“How many handsdid Aristotle have?”Speech InterpretationInterpretation ofquestionFind answerin memoryMake decision:answer or not?Phrase theanswerCreate motorcommands to lips, tongue, etcSummary: this shows basics of cognitive perspective• Emphasizes information and how it is transformed.• Think in terms of stages in which information is transformed.• Stages communicate with one another, but one stage doesn’t know what the other is doing.8Where did this approach come from?Greek philosophy• How you acquire knowledge (perception)• How you maintain knowledge (memory)• Whether knowledge is innate or learnedGood questions!• Answers were pretty bad• Democritus: perception = small particles fly into your eye.• Aristotle agreed. Also thought women have fewer teeth then men, mice die if they drink in the summer. “Tabula Rasa”.• Socrates: all knowledge is innate.• Plato: perception is unreliable, therefore only logic is reliable and experiments are pointless.Assumptions Greeks Made• The world can be understood & predicted• Humans are part of this world• Explanations should be of this worldDark Ages• Almost nothing happened--decline of intellectualism• Rise of feudalism• Greeks dominated by Romans• Increasing emphasis on the soul, not the intellect.Renaissance, 15th-17thcenturies• “Rebirth” of modern science• Scientific method—observation• Still, hesitations to study mental processes– Some, not all, Greek assumptions brought back.9Renaissance, 15th-17thcenturies• Philosophers begin to consider the mind again, mostly in the nativist/ empiricist debate– Nativist: experience serves to “liberate” ideas that you’re born with– Empiricist: all knowledge comes from experienceRenaissance• Perception – to show that perception, which feelsinnate, is actually learned.• Memory – for the empiricists to show the mechanism by which experience is the teacher (associationism)Introspectionism, 1900• First attempt to apply scientific method to thought (1880s).• Wilhelm Wundt., E. Titchener• Goal: description of the contents of consciousness; find irreducible “elements of consciousness.”• Method: introspection.ExampleGenerate word and then