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Module 1

Introduction to Cognitive
Psychology
human nature governs many
Lesson 1 - Cognitive Psychology aspects of human behavior (e.g.,
intelligence or personality;
Cognitive processes are Sternberg, 1999). After a while,
continuously taking place in your however, certain individuals notice
mind and in the minds of the apparent flaws in the thesis.
people around you. Whether you
pay attention to a conversation, An antithesis emerges.
estimate the speed of an Eventually, or perhaps even quite
approaching car when crossing the soon, an antithesis emerges. An
street, or memorize information for a antithesis is a statement that
test at school, you are perceiving counters a previous statement of
information, processing it, and belief. For example, an alternative
remembering or thinking about it. view is that our nurture (the
environmental contexts in which we
Cognitive psychology is the study are reared) almost entirely
of how people perceive (being aware determines many aspects of human
of something), learn (acquire behavior.
knowledge of skill), remember (recall
a memory), and think about A synthesis integrates the
information. viewpoints. Sooner or later, the
debate between the thesis and the
A cognitive psychologist antithesis leads to a synthesis. A
might study how people perceive synthesis integrates the most
various shapes, why they remember credible features of each of two (or
some facts but forget others, or how more) views. For example, in the
they learn language. debate over nature versus nurture,
the interaction between our innate
In cognitive psychology, the ways of (inborn) nature and environmental
addressing fundamental issues have nurture may govern human nature.
changed, but many of the
fundamental questions remain much The dialectic is important because
the same. Ultimately, cognitive we may be tempted to think that if
psychologists hope to learn how one view is right, another seemingly
people think by studying how people contrasting view must be wrong.
have thoughts about thinking.
If a synthesis seems to advance our
The progression of ideas often understanding of a subject, it then
involves a dialectic. A dialectic is a serves as a new thesis.
developmental process where ideas
evolve over time through a pattern of A new antithesis then follows it, then
transformation. What is this pattern? a new synthesis, and so on.
In a dialectic:
Georg Hegel (1770–1831) observed
A thesis is proposed. A this dialectical progression of ideas.
thesis is a statement of belief. For He was a German philosopher who
example, some people believe that
came to his ideas by his own environment) adversely affect
dialectic. someone whose genes oth- erwise
- He synthesized some of the might have led to success in a
views of his intellectual variety of tasks.
predecessors and contemporaries.
You will see in this chapter that 2. Rationalism vs Empiricism
psychology also evolved as a result Thesis/Antithesis: How should we
of dialectics: discover the truth about ourselves
Psychologists had ideas and about the world around us?
about how the mind works and Should we do so by trying to reason
pursued their line of research; then logically, based on what we already
other psychologists pointed out know? Or should we do so by
weaknesses and developed observing and testing our
alternatives as a reaction to the observations of what we can
earlier ideas. Eventually, perceive through our senses?
characteristics of the different
approaches are often integrated into Synthesis: We can combine theory
a newer and more encompassing with empirical methods to learn the
approach. most we can about cognitive
phenomena.
Key Themes in Cognitive
Psychology 3. Structures vs Process
Thesis/Antithesis: Should we study
Our understanding of the structures (contents, attributes,
cognition deepens when we consider and pro- ducts) of the human mind?
both basic research into fundamental Or should we focus on the
cognitive processes and applied processes of human thinking?
research regarding effective uses of
cognition in real-world settings. Synthesis: We can explore how
Syntheses are constantly evolving. mental processes operate on mental
structures.
1. Nature vs Nurture
4. Biological vs Behavioral
Thesis/Antithesis: Which is more Methods
influential in human cognition— Thesis/Antithesis: Should we study
nature or nurture? If we believe that the brain and its functioning directly,
innate characteristics of human perhaps even scanning the brain
cognition are more important, we while people are performing
might focus our research on studying cognitive tasks? Or should we study
innate characteristics of cognition. If people’s behavior in cognitive tasks,
we believe that the environment looking at measures such as per-
plays an important role in cognition, cent correct and reaction time?
we might conduct research exploring
how distinctive characteristics of the Synthesis: We can try to synthesize
envi- ronment seem to influence biological and behavioral methods
cognition. so that we understand cognitive
phenomena at multiple levels of
Synthesis: We can explore how analysis.
covariations and interactions in the
environment (e.g., an impoverished
experiments and conduct studies in
which they could observe the
Lesson 2 behavior and processes of interest to
Philosophical Origins of them. Empiricism therefore leads
Psychology directly to empirical investigations of
psychology.
Philosophy seeks to understand the
general nature of many aspects of In contrast, rationalism is
the world, in part through important in theory development.
introspection, the examination of Rationalist theories without any
inner ideas and experiences (from connection to observations gained
intro-, “inward, within,” and -spect, through empiricist methods may not
“look”); be valid; but mountains of
observational data without an
Physiology seeks a scientific study organizing theoretical framework
of life-sustaining functions in living may not be meaningful. We might
matter, primarily through empirical see the rationalist view of the world
(observation-based) methods. as a thesis and the empirical view as
an antithesis. Most psychologists
today seek a synthesis of the two.
Rationalism vs Empiricism They base empirical observations on
theory in order to explain what they
Plato and Aristotle have observed in their experiments.
- Two Greek philosophers, In turn, they use these observations
Plato (ca. 428–348 B.C.) and his to revise their theories when they
student Aristotle (384–322 B.C.), find that the theories cannot account
have profoundly affected modern for their real-world observations.
thinking in psychology and many
other fields. Rene Descartes and John Locke
The contrasting ideas of rationalism
Plato and Aristotle disagreed and empiricism became prominent
regarding how to investigate ideas. with the French rationalist René
Plato was a rationalist. A rationalist Descartes (1596–1650) and the
believes that the route to knowledge British empiricist John Locke (1632–
is through thinking and logical 1704). Descartes viewed the
analysis. That is, a rationalist does introspective, reflective method as
not need any experiments to develop being superior to empirical methods
new knowledge. A rationalist who is for finding truth. The famous
interested in cognitive processes expression “cogito, ergo sum” (I
would appeal to reason as a source think, therefore I am) stems from
of knowledge or justification. In Descartes. He maintained that the
contrast, Aristotle (a naturalist and only proof of his existence is that he
biologist as well as a philosopher) was thinking and doubting.
was an empiricist. An empiricist Descartes felt that one could not rely
believes that we acquire knowledge on one’s senses because those very
via empirical evidence— that is, we senses have often proven to be
obtain evidence through experience deceptive (think of optical illusions,
and observation. In order to explore for example). Locke, in contrast, had
how the human mind works, more enthusiasm for empirical
empiricists would design observation (Leahey, 2003). Locke
believed that humans are born structuralism. Wundt is often viewed
without knowledge and therefore as the founder of structuralism in
must seek knowledge through psychology (Structuralism,
empirical observation. Locke’s term 2009).Wundt used a variety of
for this view was tabula rasa methods in his research. One of
(meaning “blank slate” in Latin). these methods was introspection.
The idea is that life and experience
“write” knowledge on us. For Locke, Introspection is a deliberate looking
then, the study of learning was the inward at pieces of information
key to understanding the human passing through consciousness. The
mind. He believed that there are no aim of introspection is to look at the
innate ideas. elementary components of an object
or process.
In the eighteenth century, German
philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724– -The introduction of
1804) dialectically synthesized the introspection as an experimental
views of Descartes and Locke, method was an important change in
arguing that both rationalism and the field because the main emphasis
empiricism have their place. Both in the study of the mind shifted from
must work together in the quest for a rationalist approach to the
truth. Most psychologists today empiricist approach of trying to
accept Kant’s synthesis. observe behavior in order to draw
conclusions about the subject of
Structuralism study. In experiments involving
- Structuralism was the first introspection, individuals reported on
major school of thought in their thoughts as they were working
psychology. Structuralism seeks to on a given task. Researchers
understand the structure interested in problem solving could
(configuration of elements) of the ask their participants to think aloud
mind and its perceptions by while they were working on a puzzle
analyzing those perceptions into so the researchers could gain insight
their constituent components into the thoughts that go on in the
(affection, attention, memory, participants’ minds. In introspection,
sensation, etc.). then, we can analyze our own
- Consider, for example, the perceptions.
perception of a flower. Structuralists
would analyze this perception in The method of introspection has
terms of its constituent colors, some challenges associated with it:
geometric forms, size relations, and 1.people may not always be able to
so on. In terms of the human mind, say exactly what goes through their
structuralists sought to deconstruct mind or may not be able to put it into
the mind into its elementary adequate words.
components; they were also 2.what they say may not be
interested in how those elementary accurate.
components work together to create 3. the fact that people are asked to
the mind. pay attention to their thoughts or to
speak out loud while they are
Wilhelm Wundt (1832–1920) was a working on a task may itself alter the
German psychologist whose ideas processes that are going on.
contributed to the development of
Wundt had many followers. One was functionalism to have led to
an American student, Edward pragmatism. Pragmatists believe
Titchener (1867–1927). Titchener that knowledge is validated by its
(1910) is sometimes viewed as the usefulness: What can you do with it?
first full-fledged structuralist. Pragmatists are concerned not only
with knowing what people do; they
He certainly helped bring also want to know what we can do
structuralism to the United States. with our knowledge of what people
His experiments relied solely on the do. For example pragmatists believe
use of introspection, exploring in the importance of the psychology
psychology from the vantage point of of learning and memory. Why?
the experiencing individual. Other Because it can help us improve the
early psychologists criticized both performance of children in school. It
the method (introspection) and the can also help us learn to remember
focus (elementary structures of the names of people we meet.
sensation) of structuralism.
- A leader in guiding
Functionalism functionalism toward pragmatism
- An alternative that was William James (1842–1910).
developed to counter structuralism, His chief functional contribution to
functionalism suggested that the field of psychology was a single
psychologists should focus on the book: his landmark Principles of
processes of thought rather than on Psychology (1890/1970). Even
its contents. Functionalism seeks to today, cognitive psychologists
understand what people do and why frequently point to the writings of
they do it. James in discussions of core topics
- This principal question about in the field, such as attention,
processes was in contrast to that of consciousness, and perception.
the structuralists, who had asked
what the elementary contents John Dewey (1859–1952) was
(structures) of the human mind are. another early pragmatist who
Functionalists held that the key to profoundly influenced contemporary
understanding the human mind and thinking in cognitive psychology.
behavior was to study the processes Dewey is remembered primarily for
of how and why the mind works as it his pragmatic approach to thinking
does, rather than to study the and schooling.
structural contents and elements of
the mind. They were particularly Although functionalists were
interested in the practical interested in how people learn, they
applications of their research. did not really specify a mechanism
by which learning takes place. This
- Functionalists were unified task was taken up by another group,
by the kinds of questions they asked Associationists.
but not necessarily by the answers
they found or by the methods they Associationism
used for finding those answers. Associationism, like functionalism,
Because functionalists believed in was more of an influential way of
using whichever methods best thinking than a rigid school of
answered a given researcher’s psychology. Associationism
questions, it seems natural for examines how elements of the mind,
like events or ideas, can become time if an organism is rewarded for
associated with one another in the that response. Thorndike believed
mind to result in a form of learning. that an organism learns to respond
For example, associations may in a given way (the effect) in a given
result from: situation if it is rewarded repeatedly
for doing so (the satisfaction, which
- contiguity (associating things that serves as a stimulus to future
tend to occur together at about the actions). Thus, a child given treats
same time); for solving arithmetic problems
- similarity (associating things with learns to solve arithmetic problems
similar features or properties); or accurately because the child forms
- contrast (associating things that associations between valid solutions
show polarities, such as hot/cold, and treats. These ideas were the
light/dark, day/night). predecessors of the development of
behaviorism.
- In the late 1800s,
associationist Hermann Behaviorism
Ebbinghaus (1850–1909) was the - Behaviorism focuses only on
first experimenter to apply the relation between observable
associationist principles behavior and environmental events
systematically. Specifically, or stimuli. The idea was to make
Ebbinghaus studied his own mental physical whatever others might have
processes. called “mental” (Lycan, 2003). Some
of these researchers, like Thorndike
He made up lists of nonsense and other associationists, studied
syllables that consisted of a responses that were voluntary
consonant and a vowel followed by (although perhaps lacking any
another consonant (e.g., zax). He conscious thought, as in Thorndike’s
then took careful note of how long it work). Other researchers studied
took him to memorize those lists. He responses that were involuntarily
counted his errors and recorded his triggered in response to what appear
response times. Through his self- to be unrelated external events.
observations, Ebbinghaus studied
how people learn and remember In Russia, Nobel Prize–winning
material through rehearsal, the physiologist Ivan Pavlov (1849–
conscious repetition of material to be 1936) studied involuntary learning
learned. Among other things, he behavior of this sort. He began with
found that frequent repetition can fix the observation that dogs salivated
mental associations more firmly in response to the sight of the lab
imemory. Thus, repetition aids in technician who fed them.
learning.
This response occurred
- Another influential before the dogs even saw whether
associationist, Edward Lee the technician had food. To Pavlov,
Thorndike (1874–1949), held that this response indicated a form of
the role of “satisfaction” is the key learning (classically conditioned
to forming associations. Thorndike learning), over which the dogs had
termed this principle the law of effect no conscious control. In the dogs’
(1905): A stimulus will tend to minds, some type of involuntary
produce a certain response over learning linked the technician to the
food (Pavlov, 1955). Pavlov’s laboratory animals, such as rats or
landmark work paved the way for the pigeons, because these animals
development of behaviorism. His allow for much greater behavioral
ideas were made known in the control of relationships between the
United States especially through the environment and the behavior
work of John B. Watson (see next emitted in reaction to it (although
section). Classical conditioning behaviorists also have conducted
involves more than just an experiments with humans). One
association based on temporal problem with using nonhuman
contiguity (e.g., the food and the animals, however, is determining
conditioned stimulus occurring at whether the research can be
about the same time; Ginns, 2006; generalized to humans (i.e., applied
Rescorla, 1967). Effective more generally to humans instead of
conditioning requires contingency just to the kinds of nonhuman
(e.g.,the presentation of food being animals that were studied).
contingent on the presentation of the
conditioned stimulus; Rescorla & B. F. Skinner (1904–1990), a radical
Wagner, 1972; Wagner & Rescorla, behaviorist, believed that virtually all
1972). Contingencies in the form of forms of human behavior, not just
reward and punishment are still used learning, could be explained by
today, for example, in the treatment behavior emitted in reaction to the
of substance abuse (Cameron & environment. Skinner conducted
Ritter, 2007). Behaviorism may be research primarily with nonhuman
considered an extreme version of animals.
associationism. It focuses entirely on - He rejected mental
the association between the mechanisms. He believed instead
environment and an observable that operant conditioning—involving
behavior. According to strict, the strengthening or weakening of
extreme (“radical”) behaviorists, any behavior, contingent on the
hypotheses about internal thoughts presence or absence of
and ways of thinking are nothing reinforcement (rewards) or
more than speculation. punishments—could explain all
forms of human behavior. Skinner
Proponents of Behaviorism applied his experimental analysis of
The “father” of radical behaviorism is behavior to many psychological
John Watson (1878–1958). Watson phenomena, such as learning,
had no use for internal mental language acquisition, and problem
contents or mechanisms. He solving.
believed that psychologists should -Largely because of Skinner’s
concentrate only on the study of towering presence, behaviorism
observable behavior (Doyle, 2000). dominated the discipline of
He dismissed thinking as nothing psychology for several decades.
more than subvocalized speech.
Behaviorism also differed from Criticisms of Behaviorism
previous movements in psychology Behaviorism was challenged on
by shifting the emphasis of many fronts like language
experimental research from human acquisition, production, and
to animal participants. Historically, comprehension.
much behaviorist work has been
conducted (and still is) with
1. Although it seemed to work well to contingencies outside the individual
account for certain kinds of learning, (Gardner, 1985). Instead, Lashley
behaviorism did not account as well considered the brain to be an active,
for complex mental activities such as dynamic organizer of behavior.
language learning and problem Lashley sought to understand how
solving. the macro-organization of the human
brain made possible such complex,
2. More than understanding people’s planned activities as musical
behavior, some psychologists performance, game playing, and
wanted to know what went on inside using language. None of these
the head. activities were, in his view, readily
explicable in terms of simple
3.It often proved easier to use the conditioning.
techniques of behaviorism in
studying nonhuman animals than in In the same vein, but at a
studying human ones. different level of analysis, Donald
Hebb (1949) proposed the concept
4. Nonetheless, behaviorism of cell assemblies as the basis for
continues as a school of psychology, learning in the brain. Cell assemblies
although not one that is particularly are coordinated neural structures
sympathetic to the cognitive that develop through frequent
approach, which involves stimulation. They develop over time
metaphorically and sometimes as the ability of one neuron (nerve
literally peering inside people’s cell) to stimulate firing in a
heads to understand how they learn, connected neuron increases.
remember, think, and reason. Other
criticisms emerged as well, as - Behaviorists did not jump
discussed in the next section. at the opportunity to agree with
theorists like Lashley and Hebb. In
fact, behaviorist B. F. Skinner (1957)
Cognitivism wrote an entire book describing how
- In the early 1950s, a language acquisition and usage
movement called the “cognitive could be explained purely in terms of
revolution” took place in response to environmental contingencies. This
behaviorism. Cognitivism is the work stretched Skinner’s framework
belief that much of human behavior too far, leaving Skinner open to
can be understood in terms of how attack.
people think. It rejects the notion that An attack was indeed
psychologists should avoid studying forthcoming. Linguist Noam
mental processes because they are Chomsky (1959) wrote a scathing
unobservable. review of Skinner’s ideas. In his
article, Chomsky stressed both the
Early Role of Psychobiology biological basis and the creative
potential of language. He pointed out
- Ironically, one of Watson’s the infinite numbers of sentences we
former students, Karl Spencer can produce with ease. He thereby
Lashley (1890–1958), brashly defied behaviorist notions that we
challenged the behaviorist view that learn language by reinforcement.
the human brain is a passive organ Even young children continually are
merely responding to environmental producing novel sentences for which
they could not have been reinforced advertising. John Watson, after he
in the past. left Johns Hopkins University as a
professor, became an ex- tremely
successful
Add a Dash of Technology:
Engineering, Computation, and executive in an advertising
Applied Cognitive Psychology firm and applied his knowledge of
psychology to reach his success.
By the end of the 1950s, Indeed, much of advertising has
some psychologists were intrigued directly used princi- ples from
by the tantalizing notion that cognitive psychology to attract
machines could be programmed to customers to products.
demonstrate the intelligent
processing of information. Turing
(1950) suggested that soon it would
be hard to distinguish the
communication of machines from
that of humans. He suggested a test,
now called the “Turing test,” 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. In other words, suppose
you communicated with a computer
and you could not tell that it was a
computer. The computer then
passed the Turing test.

By 1956 a new phrase had


entered our vocabulary. Artificial
intelligence (AI) is the attempt by
humans to construct systems that
show intelligence and, particularly,
the intelligent processing of
information. Chess-playing
programs, which now can beat most
humans, are examples of artificial
intelligence. However, experts
greatly underestimated how difficult
it would be to develop a computer
that can think like a human being.
Even today, computers have trouble
reading handwriting and
understanding and responding to
spoken lan- guage with the ease that
humans do.

Applied cognitive psychology


also has had great use in

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