The History and Methods of Cognitive
Psychology
Cognitive PsychologySorenson
What is Cognitive Psychology?
The branch of psychology that studies how we perceive, attend, recognize, remember, reason, decide…
what happens in our minds
Cognitive activities Perception
Attention
Memory
Language
Reasoning and Decision making
What is the “mind” ?
How can we study the inner workings of the mind when we can’t “see” the mind?
Nativism
The history of studying cognitions
Greeks – 19th century
Empiricism
Donders simple reaction time vs. choice reaction time
stimulus
mental process
behavior
Reaction time
Ebbinghaus
Gestalt psychology
Behaviorism
Rejected mentalistic concepts
Dealt solely with observable behavior
Cognitive RevolutionProposed that mental states
could be studied (reaction to behaviorists)
Some results…Human factors engineeringLimited-capacity processors
The magical number seven, plus or minus two
Linguistics
A typical information-processing model.
Paradigms of Cognitive Psychology
A typical connectionist model.
Paradigms of Cognitive Psychology
So how do we study cognition?
Methods
Naturalistic observation
Ecological validity
Experimenter control Observer bias Observation causing changes in subjects’
behaviors
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Methods
Introspection
Insight Ecological validity
Experimenter control Observer biasCan you really observe something while doing
it?
http://paulbuckley14059.files.wordpress.com/2008/01/introspection.jpg
Methods
Experiments/Quasi-experiments
Experimenter control Isolate causal factors
May not be ecologically valid
http://www.lightalongthejourney.com/Images/labrat.jpg
Brain ImagingComputerized Tomography (CT)
CT scanners use x-ray technology to view brain structure
© Ribotsky/Custom Medical Stock Photo
Normal Twin Twin w/ Schizophrenia
detects strong magnetic fields from hydrogen atoms
Courtesy Todd A. Gould
Brain ImagingMagnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
http://lcni.uoregon.edu/images/gallery/Machine1500x375.png
http://www.sandybeardsley.com/images/mri2.jpg
Measures brain activity based on the utilization of radioactive glucose or oxygen.
Courtesy Dept. of Energy Office of Public Affairs
Brain ImagingPositron Emission Tomography (PET)
uses a series of images taken in a short period of time to analyze brain activity.
Brain ImagingFunctional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)
Issues with Brain Imaging
Subtraction method
Location of blood/nutrients
Interactivity
Scalp electrodes provide information about the activity of large populations of neurons.
Used to study states of consciousness (sleep/wake) and seizures.
Copyright © 2004 Allyn and Bacon
Other Recording TechniquesElectroencephalogram (EEG)
Series of EEG responses to environmental stimuli
Useful in studying perception
Other Recording Techniques Evoked Potentials (ERP)