COGNITIVE

PSYCHOLOGY
BY: CLARIZE MAY R. VILLANUEVA, RPm
What is Cognitive Psychology?
• How people perceive, learn,
remember and think about
information
• Why study cognitive Psychology?
- We make judgments on the basis
of how easily we can call to mind
what we perceive as relevant
instances of phenomena
• Cognitive psychologists, hope to learn how people
think by studying how people have thoughts about
thinking.
• The progression of ideas often involves a dialectic.
• Dialectic is a developmental process where ideas
evolve over time through a pattern of transformation.
• Georg Hegel, German Philosopher, observed this
dialectical progression of ideas.
• In a dialectic progression of ideas,
• Thesis. A thesis is proposed. This is a statement of
belief. Antithesis. An antithesis emerges. A statement
that counters a previous statement of belief.
• Synthesis. A synthesis integrates the
viewpoints. The debate between the
thesis and the antithesis leads to
synthesis. Integrates the most credible
features of each of two or more views.
PhilosophicalAntecedents of
Psychology: Rationalism vs. Empiricism
• There are 2 approaches to understanding the human mind.
• 1.) Philosophy which seeks to understand the general nature
of many aspects of the world through introspection
• 2.) Physiology seeks a scientific study of life sustaining
functions in living matter through empirical methods
(observation based)
• Plato and Aristotle disagreed on how to investigate ideas.
• Plato was a rationalist, route to knowledge is through thinking
and logical analysis.
• Aristotle, (naturalist and biologist and a philosopher) was an
empiricist. An empiricist believes that we acquire knowledge
through experience and observation..
• Rationalism is important in theory
development. Rationalism without
connection to observation may not
be valid but observational data
without a theoretical framework may
not be meaningful
• Contrasting ideas of rationalism and
empiricism became prominent with the
French rationalist Rene Descartes( 1596-
1650) and the British Empiricist John Locke
( 1632-1704)
• Descartes viewed the introspective,
reflective method as being superior to
empirical methods for finding truth. The
famous expression “cogito ergo sum” ( I
think ,therefore I am).
• Locke in contrast, had more enthusiasm
for empirical observation. Humans are
born without knowledge through
empirical observation. Tabula Rasa (blank
slate). Life and experience write
knowledge on us.
• 18th century, German Philosopher
Immanuel Kant synthesized the view of
Descartes and Locke.
Psychological Antecedents of
Cognitive Psychology
• An early dialectic in the history of psychology is that
between structuralism and functionalism.
• Structuralism seeks to understand the structure of the
mind (configuration of elements) and its perceptions by
analyzing those perceptions into their constituent
components.
• Wilhelm Wundt, contributed to the development of
structuralism. Advocated the study of sensory
experiences through introspection (looking inward)
• Wundt had many followers, one was Edward Titchener,
who helped bring structuralism in the United States.
Psychological Antecedents of
Cognitive Psychology
• Functionalism seeks to understand what people
do and why they do it. It also focuses on the
processes of thoughts rather than its contents.
• Functionalism held that the key to understanding
the human mind and behavior was to study the
processes of how and why the mind works as it
does rather than to study the structural contents
and elements of the mind.
• Functionalism led to Pragmatism
Psychological Antecedents of
Cognitive Psychology
• Pragmatism, believe that the knowledge is
validated by its usefulness. They are concerned
not only with knowing what people do, they
want to know what we can do with our
knowledge of what people do.
• A leader in guiding functionalism to pragmatism
was William James, wrote the Principles of
Psychology.
• Another pragmatist was John Dewey, who
influenced contemporary thinking in cognitive
psychology
Psychological Antecedents of
Cognitive Psychology
• Associationism, examines how events or ideas can
become associated with one another in the mind to
result in a form of learning.
• Associations may result from
• a.) contiguity
• b.) similarity
• c.) contrast
• Hermann Ebbinghaus, first experimenter to apply
associationist principles systematically. He studied and
observed his own mental processes. Through his self
observation, he studied how people learn and remember
material through rehearsal.
Psychological Antecedents of
Cognitive Psychology
• Edward Thorndike, held the role of “satisfaction”
is the key to forming associations. He termed
this principle the “law of effect”. A stimulus will
tend to produce a certain response over time if
an organism is rewarded for that response.
Psychological Antecedents of
Cognitive Psychology
• Behaviorism, may be considered an extreme version of
associationism. It focuses entirely on the association
between the environment and an observable behavior.
• Ivan Pavlov studied involuntary learning behavior.
(Classical Conditoning) He began with the observation
that dogs salivated in response to the sight of the lab
technician who fed them.
• The father of radical behaviorism, John B. Watson,
believed that psychologist should concentrate only on
the study of observable behavior.
Psychological Antecedents of
Cognitive Psychology
• B.F. Skinner, a radical behaviorist, Proponent of
Operant conditioning, involving the
strengthening or weakening of behavior,
contingent on the presence or absence of
reinforcement (rewards) or punishments.
• Skinner applied his experimental analysis of
behavior to many psychological phenomena
such as learning, language acquisition and
problem solving.
Psychological Antecedents of
Cognitive Psychology
• Gestalt psychology, states that we best
understand psychological phenomena
when we view them as organized,
structured wholes.
• The maxim “ the whole is greater than/
differ from the sum of its parts”
Emergence of Cognitive
Psychology
• Karl Spencer Lashley, contradicts the view of behaviorist
where human brain is a passive organ which merely responds
to environmental contingencies outside the individual.
Instead, Lashley considered the brain to be an active, dynamic
organizer of behavior.
• Donald Hebb, proposed the concept of cell assemblies as the
basis of learning in the brain. Cell assemblies are coordinated
neural structures that develop through frequent stimulation.
They develop over time as the ability of one neuron to
stimulate firing in a connected neuron increases
Emergence of Cognitive
Psychology
• In 1957, B.F. Skinner wrote a entire book describing how
language acquisition and usage could be explained purely in
terms of environmental contingencies.
• In 1959, linguist Noam Chomsky wrote a scathing review of
Skinner’s ideas. He argued that our understanding of language
is constrained not so much by what we have heard, but rather,
by an innate language acquisition device (LAD) that all human
possess. Therefore, it is the structure of the mind rather than
the structure of environmental contingencies, that guides our
acquisition of language.
Emergence of Cognitive
Psychology
• By the end of 1950s some psychologist were intrigued by the
tantalizing notion that machines could be programmed to
demonstrate the intelligent processing of information.
• Turing test was introduced by which a computer program
would be judged as successful to the extent that its output
was indistinguishable, by humans, from the output of humans.
• By 1956, Artificial Intelligence entered, AI is the attempt by
humans to construct systems that show intelligence.
• By the early 1960s developments in psychobiology, linguistics,
anthropology and artificial intelligence as well as the reactions
against behaviorism by many mainstream psychologists,
converged to create an atmosphere ripe for evolution.
Emergence of Cognitive
Psychology
• In 1967, Ulric Neisser introduced his book cognitive
psychology, wherein he defined cognitive psychology as the
study of how people learn,structure, store and use
knowledge.
• By the 1970s cognitive psychology was recognized widely as a
major field of psychological study, with a distinctive set of
research methods.
Research Methods in Cognitive
Psychology
• Research goals include:
1. Data gathering
2. Data Analysis
3. Theory development
4. Hypothesis formulation
5. Hypothesis testing
6. Application
Research Methods in Cognitive
Psychology
Research Methods
1. Controlled Laboratory Experiments
• Typically in laboratory setting
• Obtain samples of performance at particular time and
place
• Ease of administration, scoring and statistical analysis.
• Not always possible to generalize results beyond a
specific place, time and task of setting; Discrepancies
between real life behavior and behavior in the
laboratory.
Research Methods in Cognitive
Psychology
2. Psychobiological Research
• Investigators study the relationship between cognitive
performance and cerebral events and structures
• Study animal and human brains using postmortem studies and
various psychobiological measures or imaging techniques.
• This technique have 3 categories. 1.) Postmortem, technique
for studying an individual’s brain after the death of an
individual. 2.) Technique for studying images showing
structures of activities in the brain of an individual who is
known to have a particular cognitive deficit. 3.) Technique for
obtaining information about cerebral processes during the
normal performance of a cognitive activity.
Research Methods in Cognitive
Psychology
3. Self Report
• An individual’s own account of cognitive processes
• Access to participant’s point of view which may be unavailable
via other means
• Inability to report on processes occurring outside conscious
awareness; possible discrepancies between actual cognition
and recollected cognitive processes and products
• Ex. Study of mental imagery of Stephen Kosslyn, asked
students to keep a weeklong diary recording all of mental
images in each sensory modality
Research Methods in Cognitive
Psychology
4. Case Studies
• In depth studies of individuals
• Engage in intensive study of single individuals, drawing general
conclusions about behavior
• Access to richly detailed information about individuals,
including information about historical and current contexts
which may not be available via other means; may lead to
specialized applications for groups of exceptional individuals
• Small sample size and non representativeness of sample
generally limits generalizability to population
Research Methods in Cognitive
Psychology
5. Naturalistic Observation
• Detailed studies of cognitive performance in everyday
situations and non laboratory contexts
• Observe real life situations as in classrooms, work settings or
home
• Access to rich contextual information which may be
unavailable via other means
• Lack of experimental control; possible influence on naturalistic
behavior due to the presence of the observer
Research Methods in Cognitive
Psychology
6. Computer Simulations and Artificial Intelligence
• Simulations: attempt to make computers simulate human
cognitive performance on various tasks
• AI: attempt to make computers demonstrate intelligent
cognitive performance, regardless of whether the process
resembles human cognitive processing
• Allow exploration of wide range of possibilities for modelling
cognitive processes; allows clear testing to see whether
hypothesis accurately predicted outcomes; may lead to wide
range of practical applications
• Limitations imposed by limit of the hardware
Domains of Cognitive
Psychology
1. Perception
Those studying perception seek to understand
how we construct subjective interpretations of
proximal information from the environment.
Perceptual systems are composed of separate
senses (e.g., visual, auditory, somatosensory) and
processing modules (e.g., form, motion) and sub-
modules that represent different aspects of the
stimulus information.
Domains of Cognitive
Psychology
2. Attention
refers to the process by which organisms select a
subset of available information upon which to
focus for enhanced processing (often in a signal-
to-noise-ratio sense) and integration.
Domains of Cognitive
Psychology
3. Learning
Learning improves the response of the organism
to the environment. Cognitive psychologists study
which new information is acquired and the
conditions under which it is acquired.
Domains of Cognitive
Psychology
4. Memory
the record of experience represented in the brain.
There are multiple forms of memory supported by
distinct brain systems. Specific forms of memory
are characterized by whether they last a short or
long period, by whether they involve unique
experiences or accumulated knowledge, and by
whether memory is expressed explicitly by
conscious remembering or implicitly through
changes in the speed or bias of performance in
particular tasks.
Domains of Cognitive
Psychology
5. Concept Formation
Concept or category formation refers to the ability
to organize the perception and classification of
experiences by the construction of functionally
relevant categories.
Domains of Cognitive
Psychology
6. Judgment and decision
Human judgment and decision making is
ubiquitous – voluntary behavior implicitly or
explicitly requires judgment and choice.
Domains of Cognitive
Psychology
7. ’’Reasoning:’’’ Reasoning is the process by
which logical arguments are evaluated or
constructed.
8. Problem Solving: The cognitive psychology of
problem solving is the study of how humans
pursue goal directed behavior.
Domains of Cognitive
Psychology
9. Language Processing: While linguistic
approaches focus on the formal structures of
languages and language use (Chomsky, 1965),
cognitive psychology has focused on language
acquisition, language comprehension, language
production, and the psychology of reading