The History of (Cognitive) Psychology

Part A

Question 1: The Cognitive Revolution has won, how did thishappen?

Thomas Kuhn (1960). The structure of scientific revolutions.

The historic, cyclic progression of science (Kuhn, 1960) Period of normal science Period of crisis Paradigm shift Back to normal science

1 Normal science A stable period characterized by majority of scientists workingunder the rubric of an all-encompassing “paradigm”.

What is a paradigm? A mental framework that majority of scientists owe their

allegiance to

A committed point of view as to what the substantive issues of a field are what scientific questions ought to be raised and answered and what methodologies are appropriate in addressingthese questions

2 Period of crisis A chaotic period characterized by the “noticing” of anomaliesthat cannot be explained by the existing paradigms

How are the “anomalies” noticed?

Anomalies are noticed: via the development or refinements of new

tools technologies methodologies

How do scientists react to these anomalies?

First, denial

Then serious consideration

Then the rush to offer alternative (often competing) theories andexplanations for these anomalies

And majority of scientists shift their allegiance and commitment tothis new paradigm (Paradigm shift)

And research efforts will now be vigorously directed to verifying andstrengthening the theories associated with the new paradigm (back tonormal science but under a new regime!)

Part B

“Psychology has a long past and a shorthistory.”

H. Ebbinghaus

Question 2: Have there been paradigmatic shifts in psychology oronly metatheoretical progressions?

What is a theory? General explanation of a set of observations or facts

What is a metatheory? Specifies a domain for Psychology Develops a set of techniques for investigating that domain Elaborates on a research program to integrate the findings of

Psychology into the larger body of human knowledge and practice

Metatheories in scientific/experimental psychology Introspectionism Behaviorism Cognitive Psychology

A. Wilhelm Wundt’s metatheory = Introspectionism

“If psychologists are asked, what the business of psychology is, theygenerally make some such answer as follows if they belong to theempirical school: that this science has to investigate the facts ofconsciousness, its combinations and relations, so that it mayultimately discover the laws which govern these relations andcombinations.”

Wilhelm Wundt, 1912

Claimed that the domain of Psychology is conscious humanexperience

To be studied through the method of introspection

Note: Introspectionists believed that thought processes can bedecomposed into their simplest mental elements through the method ofsheer introspection or reflection

Wundt Up Close and Personal

He decided to transfer school instead, and did better.

He graduated summa cum laude, finished Medicine in 3 instead of4 years, and was the top notcher in the Medical Board Exams.

But instead of practicing Medicine, he decided to become aresearcher and academic.

In the very first course that he taught, only 4 students enrolled.

But at the time of his death, he had supervised & taught morethan 10,000 undergrad students and mentored 186 doctoraldissertations.

Many of his students became pioneering and profoundly influentialscientists and researchers.

What is the method of (objective) introspection?

The process of objectively examining and measuring one’s ownthoughts and mental activities

But why did Wundtian Introspectionism failed?

Because its method was UNSCIENTIFIC!

Because it could not find a way out of the mind-body problem(Dualism)

B. John Watson’s metatheory = Behaviorism

“The Behaviorist … recognizes no dividing line between man and brute.The behavior of man, with all of its refinement and complexity, formsonly a part of the behaviorist’s total scheme of investigation.”

Watson, 1913, p. 158

Claimed that the domain of Psychology is observable human (andanimal) behavior

To be studied through experimental techniques already in place inthe other established sciences

And Psychology was therefore purged (EXPUNGED!) of allmentalistic concepts which were considered unscientific to study

“Mind”, “consciousness”… these were now considered ephemeralphenomena that had no place in a scientific psychology

Note: Behaviorists believed that any complex behavior can bedecomposed into its constituent stimulus-response (S-R) elements

Watson Up Close and Personal

He came from a poor family, the son of an abusive andirresponsible father, who eventually left his wife and childrento live with two women (at the same time!).

His only hope for a decent education was to study in a communitycollege to become a Baptist Minister

But he did so well, and was so confident that he actually wrotethe President of the University of Chicago for a scholarship forgraduate studies, and was given one.

He wrote a brilliant dissertation on animal behavior and wasawarded in 1903, the very first PhD in Psychology at theUniversity.

He was only 25 years old --the youngest PhD that the Universityof Chicago had ever graduated.

Note: Although Behaviorism was a very productive and successfulmetatheory for Psychology for more than four decades … it was itselfchallenged on some fronts

C. Anomalies pointed out by Gestalt psychologists:

area of perception area of problem solving

They believed that… psychological functioning should always be viewed as a

patterned WHOLE; as a TOTALITY of EXPERIENCE;or as a GESTALT.

Super Motto: “The whole is more than the sum of itsparts!”

A. Try Reading This:

The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid

Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy it deosn't mttaer inwaht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is tahtthe frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae.

The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit aporbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter byistlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

Amzanig huh?

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdgnieg.

Basic Gestalt principle of perception:

Regardless of the form or the structure of an incoming physicalstimulus, the human perceptual system has a naturaltendency/preference to organize the perceptual experience in asatisfyingly wholistic way.

People seem to be “doing something” to transform the stimuli (inaccordance w/ the principles of WHOLISM and GOOD ORGANIZATIONor PRAGNANZ

B. How many circles are there? (Principle of Closure)

Insightful Problem Solving:The Gestalt psychologists conducted extraordinary experiments (duringtheir war-time exile) that led to the concept of “insightful”problem-solving.

Four characteristics of insight Suddenness

“Solution” precedes behavior (in contrast to Thorndike’s cats)

Smoothness (once solution is arrived at, executed fluently &unhesitatingly)

Novel (not just the application of existing habits, but a whole newway of looking at the problem)

C. Box Problem: Are You Smarter than a Chimpanzee?

These observations were problematic to Behaviorism because they could not be explained by conditioning principles

if we can attribute insightful-like behaviors to monkeys, it wouldseem illogical to deny them to humans

So the Gestalt project also failed! Inspite of the fact that these anomalous phenomena wereconvincingly demonstrated by the Gestalt psychologists, why did Westernpsychology NOT shift from Behaviorism to Gestalt Psychology?

D. Advent of Cognitive Psychology (Yehey!)

The tools & technologies that brought down behaviorism

the design and development of SERVOMECHANISMS

the invention of the COMPUTER

Servo-mechanisms Designed by Norbert Weiner (at MIT) to keep airplanes,

anti-aircraft artillery, & guided missiles on course

to perform this function, they had to correct themselves bycontinuously getting feedback from the environment

They worked by computing the difference between their goal stateand their current state

Cybernetics

The new science created by Wiener to study the concepts ofinformation, communication, feedback, and control - in both livingand non-living systems

View of human behavior

Opposed the behavioristic view…and claimed that human beings areACTIVE INFORMATION-PROCESSORS and not merely passivereceptors of stimuli

Humans process information in terms of their existing goals andadjust their responses so as to achieve these goals

Logico-mathematical basis of the computer

Boolean algebra in the 1800’s (ugh!)

Bertrand Russel & Alfred North Whitehead’s PrincipiaMathematica

The Turing Machine (by Allan Turing)

The Turing machine

Theoretically, it could execute any program or plan that can beexpressed in binary code (0/1; blank/slash)

Philosophically, the idea of a machine that can perform a taskusing binary code paralleled Boole’s idea that “thinking” or logic(deciding whether something was true or false) was itself a binaryprocess

The Turing machine embodied the notion that “thinking” (orproblem-solving) was a COMPUTATIONAL PROCESS

Convergences: Computer science & Psychology

Information theory (e.g. Claude Shannon)

the BINARY principles of logic (truth/falsity) parallel theBINARY states of electromagnetic relays (on/off;open/close)

Neurophysiology (e.g., Warren McCulloch, Walter Pitts)

human neurons also BINARY (they either fire or not fire)

neurons can then be seen as logical units carryinginformation

The Psychological Implications of the Computer Age

Computers are designed to process information actively andintelligently - according to their stored programs.

Servo-mechanisms and computing machines can be designed to begoal-directed and purposeful.

Computers can process many kinds of information and can solvemany types of problems so long as they have the appropriatesoftware. (Many software can work on any type of hardware.)

Result: The down-fall of behaviorism!