IntroductionThe Cognitive Level of AnalysisMr. van OverFall 2013; Revised May 2015

IB PsychologyThe Core

The three levels of analysis focus on three fundamental influences on behavior:• biological• cognitive• socioculturalThe interaction of these influences substantially determines behavior.The three levels of analysis can be usefully compared to three microscope lenses of different magnification. Each lens reveals a different picture of the intricate structure that exists at a variety of levels, but no single picture explains the whole object; a synthesis is necessary Synthesis of the rich and diverse content of modern psychology is the chief aim of IB psychology.

0 The Scope of Cognitive Psychology

0 A Brief History

0 Research in Cognitive Psychology: An Example

0 Summary

0 Glossary

Chapter OneThe Science of Mind

The Scope of Cognitive Psychology

When the field of cognitive psychology was first launched, it was generally understood as the scientific study of knowledge.

How it is acquired, retained, and used

Betsy wanted to bring Jacob a present. She shook her piggy bank. It made no sound. She went to look for her mother.

Betsy’s story

H.M.

H.M. died in 2008, and the world then learned his full name, Henry Molaison. Throughout his life, H.M. cooperated with researchers in many studies of his memory loss. Even after his death, H.M. is contributing to science: His brain was frozen and has now been sliced into sections for detailed anatomical study.

Broadening the definition

0Cognitive psychology is the scientific study of the acquisition, retention, and use of knowledge

0Cognitive psychology can help us understand capacities relevant to virtually every moment of our lives

A Brief HistoryWhereas scientific psychology is about 135 years old, cognitive psychology is closer to 60 years old. Despite this relative youth,

though, cognitive psychology has had an enormous impact—so much so that many speak of the cognitive revolution within psychology.

The Years of Introspection

0 Introspection0 “look within” to observe

and record the content of our own mental lives

Problems with Introspection

0Some thoughts are unconscious; thus, introspection cannot be used to study them

0There is no way to test its claims

The Years of Behaviorism

Behaviorism cannot explain a lot of everyday behaviors

0 If a friend requests the salt, your response will depend on how you understand your friend’s words

How Behaviorists Explain Learning

Experience in the

Environment

Change in Behavior

How Cognitivists Explain Learning

Experience in the Environment

Change in knowledge &

beliefsChange in behavior

Roots of the Cognitive Revolution

0 To use Kant's transcendental method, you begin with the observable facts and then work backward from these observations

Two themes in the history of cognitive psychology

0We cannot study the mental world by means of direct observation

0We must study the mental world if we are to understand behavior

How do we combine these two themes?

0We must study the mental world indirectly. This inferential method is also used by other sciences, such as physics.

NextWe consider an example of research in cognitive

psychology to illustrate the types of data that psychologists consider and the logic they use in testing

their theories

Research in cognitive Psychology

An Example

Close Reading of a Text SelectionLiteracy Strategy: Snapshot Summary

CCR Anchor Standards for Reading 1 and 2Read the first nine paragraphs, which we break down into these three chunks:0 An Example (Introduction)—paragraphs 1-30 Working Memory: Some Initial Observations—

paragraphs 4-70 Working Memory: A Proposal—paragraphs 8-9

Literacy Strategy: Snapshot Summary

Instructions for Snapshot Summary

Directions: Write a short phrase or sentence (a snapshot summary) to describe what each text chunk is most importantly about.

Chunk 1—Paragraphs 1 through 3

Paragraph 1 Write

Paragraph 2 Write

Paragraph 3 Write

Succinctly combine or blend the snapshot summary statements to create a one-sentence text summary in the space below

Write

Literacy Strategy: Snapshot SummarySample Organizer for Snapshot Summary

Paragraph 1Cognitive psychologists begin with an observed performance and then hypothesize a series of unseen mental events that made the visible performance possible.

Paragraph 2There is more than one way to fashion a hypothesis; the important thing is to test the hypothesis to see if it can be confirmed or refuted using real-world data.

Paragraph 3The author will proceed with a concrete example to illustrate how the method works in practice.

Chunk (Paragraphs 1-3)A concrete example will be used to illustrate how cognitive psychologists conduct research by using inductive logic and the testing of hypotheses.Continue with chunks 2 and 3

Close Reading: Parts of WMSLiteracy Strategy: Weigh the Words

This section includes paragraphs 10-15.Paragraph 15 incorporates Figure 1.1 | The Working-Memory SystemCCR Anchor Standard 4 for Reading: Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone.

Literacy Strategy: Weigh the Words

Instructions for Weigh the Words

Step One: Identify a word/phrase that has weight or importance to understanding the content text.

Step Two: Identify the tool used by the writer to help unlock the meaning of the word

Tools include: context clues; connotative (literal) meaning; denotative (emotional) language; figurative language (analogy, simile, metaphor, personification); example, demonstration, details

Step Three: Write your understanding of the meaning of the word/phrase identified in Step 1.

Literacy Strategy: Weigh the Words

Sample Organizer for Weigh the Words

Paragraph 10

Step 1“assistants” (which the author writes in quotation marks)Step 2The writer uses the metaphor of a business office where the executive is helped by a number of low-level assistants who perform storage and other simple tasks.

Step 3By performing simple tasks, such as storage, the assistants in WM free the central executive to do more sophisticated tasks.repeat for paragraphs 11-15

Close Reading: Evidence for WMSLiteracy Strategy: Prove It!

This section includes paragraphs 16-22.Paragraph 18 incorporates Figure 1.2 | The Effects of Concurrent ArticulationCCR Anchor Standard 1 for Reading: Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to draw conclusions from the text.

Literacy Strategy: Weigh the Words

Instructions for Prove It!

Step One: Identify an (unproved) assertion the write makes at the beginning of a section of content text.

Step Two: For each paragraph 19-22, identify a hypothesis or prediction that when tested would support the assertion.

Step Three: For each paragraph 19-22, cite specific evidence from the text that proves the hypothesis or prediction.

Literacy Strategy: Weigh the Words

Sample Organizer for Prove It!

Step OnePeople make “sound-alike” errors in a span task because they’re relying on the rehearsal loop, which involves a mechanism ordinarily used for actual hearing. (paragraph 16)Step TwoConcurrent articulation should cut memory span drastically.Step ThreeSpan drops from 7 items to 4 or 5.

repeat for paragraphs 20-22

Summary

Cognitive psychology is concerned with how people remember, pay attention, and think. The importance of all these issues arises in part from the fact that most of what we do, think, and feel is guided by things we already know. One example is the comprehension of a simple story, which turns out to be heavily influenced by the knowledge we supply.

Cognitive psychology emerged as a separate discipline in the late 1950s, and its powerful impact on the wider field of psychology has led many to speak of this emergence as the cognitive revolution.

Psychologists soon became disenchanted with introspection for several reasons

0 Introspection cannot inform us about unconscious mental events

0 Even with conscious events, claims rooted in introspection are often untestable because there is no way for an independent observer to check on the accuracy or completeness of an introspective report

The behaviorist movement rejected introspection as a method, insisting instead that psychology speak only of mechanisms and processes that were objective and out in the open for all to observe.Evidence suggests that our thinking, behavior, and feelings are often shaped by our perception or understanding of the events we experience.

This is problematic for behaviorists:Perception and understanding are exactly the sorts of mental processes that the behaviorists regarded as subjective and not open to scientific study.

In order to study mental events, psychologists have turned to a method in which one focuses on observable events but then asks what (invisible) events must have taken place in order to make these (visible) effects possible.

Research in working memory provides an example of how cognitive psychologists use evidence. One theory of working memory proposes that this memory consists of a central executive and a small number of low-level assistants, including the articulatory rehearsal loop, which stores material by means of covert speech.

Many forms of evidence are used in supporting this account:0 measures of working

memory’s holding capacity in various circumstances

0 the nature of errors people make when using working memory

0 the speed of performance in working-memory tasks

0 evidence drawn from the study of people with brain damage, and

0 evidence drawn from brain-imaging technology

Glossaryworking memoryThe storage system in which information is held while that information is being worked onspan testA procedure used for measuring working memory’s holding capacityworking memory systemA system of mental resources used for holding information in an easily accessible form

0 central executive0 The hypothesized director of the working

memory system. This is the component of the system needed for any interpretation or analysis

0 articulatory rehearsal loop0 One of the low-level assistants hypothesized

as part of the working-memory system. This loop draws on subvocalized speech, which serves to create a record in the phonological buffer. Materials in this buffer then fade, but they can be refreshed by another cycle of covert speech

0 subvocalization0 Covert speech, in which you go through the

motions of speaking, or perhaps form a detailed motor plan for speech movements, but without making any sound

0 phonological buffer0 A passive storage device that serves as part

of the articulatory rehearsal loop. It serves as part of the mechanisms ordinarily needed for hearing. In memory rehearsal, however, the buffer is loaded by means of subvocalization

0 concurrent articulation task0 A requirement that someone speak or mime

speech while doing some other task. In many cases, the person is required to say “Tah-Tah-Tah” over and over, or “one, two, three, one two, three.” These procedures occupy the muscles and control mechanisms needed for speech, and so they prevent the person from using these resources for subvocalization

0 cognitive neuroscience0 The study of the biological basis for

cognitive functioning.0 anarthria0 A disorder characterized by an inability to

control the muscles needed for ordinary speech. Anarthric individuals cannot speak, although other aspects of language functioning are unimpaired.

0 neuropsychology0 The branch of psychology concerned with

the relation between various forms of brain dysfunction and various aspects of mental functioning. Neuropsychologists study, for example, amnesia, agnosia, and aphasia.