C1 foundations

Question 1

Introduce cognitive psychology

Answer 1

The scientific study of the mind, covering topics such as perception, attention, language, categorization, emotion, which are all cognitive processes. Studies try to fractionate these (isolate them - language studies not affected by emotion etc). Studies are also concerned with real life and not just what happens in the lab.

Question 2

Origins

Answer 2

Descartes/Locke discussed the nature of the mind.

Wundt established first psych lab in Leipzig and used introspection to gather data.

James set up teaching lab at Havard, explored adaptiveness of consciousness and behaviour using introspection, observation and analysis.

Ebbinghaus studied memory and perception using experimental methods on himself. Identified relationship btw independent/dependent variables.

Question 3

Behaviourism and cognitive psychology

Answer 3

Watson focused on the study of behaviour focusing on what happened outside the lab - developed in behaviourist perspective - studying how people act and are influenced rather than internal processes - focused more on basic behaviours than executive function (planning/memory/attention)

Question 4

Behaviourism key beliefs

Answer 4

Psychology should be scientific and objective, only studying what can be observed

Learning was seen to be behaviour resulting from chains of stimulus-response pairs. The likelihood of a response depends on whether it had been reinforced in the past.

There’s a clear link to the behaviourist view that psychological study should be scientifically grounded but cognitive psychology does not exclusively consider only what can be observed - to understand behaviour we must consider what causes it, not just the outcome.

Question 5

Criticisms of behaviourism - Lashley

Answer 5

What about complex actions?

Sentence formation - some words in sentences depend on much earlier ones not just immediately preceding.

Rapid motor action - tennis players/typists - complex sequences are planned in advance of being executed.

Question 6

Criticisms of behaviourism - Chomsky

Answer 6

Criticized Skinner’s account of language production

Children acquire first language too easily for it to needs lots of S/R learning - they must learn the rules of language not just all the possible combinations of words.

Question 7

Criticisms of behaviourism - Tolman

Answer 7

Rats learnt more than responses to a set of stimuli

They were still able to locate food in a maze even when the design of the maze was changed - suggests they have a cognitive spatial map of where the food was located not just the memory of a first left/turn right sequence.

Question 8

Criticisms of behaviourism - Bartlett

Answer 8

Investigation memory and mental representations

Found peoples memory of a story (War of Ghosts) was distorted according to their own experiences and preconceptions.

Contrasts with Ebbinghaus study of accuracy of recall - Bartlett was interested in how extracting meaning and storing it affected what was recalled later - eye witness testimony.

Question 9

Cognition and the brain

Answer 9

Phrenology suggested cognitive functions were located in physical parts of the brain (language in the front part) - no longer a valid theory but some parts of the brain are strongly associated with certain functions (Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas in language production)

Lesions show evidence of these links - damaged systems show how intact ones could work.

Question 10

Classical neuropsychology

Answer 10

Lesions can show what different physical structures (eg hippocampus) in brain are involved in

Question 11

Cognitive neuropsychology

Answer 11

Lesions can show which cognitive components (eg memory) are involved

Question 12

H.M.

Answer 12

Had medial temporal lobes removed to treat epilepsy, consequently had severely impaired short-term memory. Implies the medial temporal lobes are involved in STM - classical neuropsychology.

However he could learn new skills such as mirror writing, though couldn’t remember that he knew how to do these. Implies there are different types of long-term memory - cognitive neuropsychology.

Question 13

Cognitive psychology methods - experiments

Answer 13

Large participant groups

Generally quantitative

Participants volunteer with full awareness

Experimenter selects independent/dependent variables, randomly selects and assigns participants, identifies cause and effect

Question 14

Cognitive psychology methods - cognitive neuropsychology

Answer 14

Often single-case studies

Often qualitative as well as quantitative

“Participants” may not be able to give fully informed consent

Participant is ‘pre-selected’ due to their condition, so behaviour might be due to previous factors rather than brain damage

Question 15

Cognitive psychology methods - both assume

Answer 15

People work the same way - therefore samples can be generalised to the whole population

Cognition can be fractionated

Tasks can be used to test cognitive performance

Question 16

Computers and the mind

Answer 16

Craik suggested people construct mental models of the world, and these affect how they behave.

Turing and Von Neumann showed that computers could theoretically be programmed to implement processes that were similar to cognitive ones such as reasoning. This enables them to:
act as tools that help our understanding of the underlying processes
perhaps actually carry out the processes as well as just model them (i.e. think for themselves !)

Marr (1970s) studied computer models of vision, and proposed three levels of analysis that must be used to understand cognitive systems:

The computational level: this is the inputs to the system, and the output it creates. Example: 2D visual stimuli and the resulting visual perception of a 3D scene;

The algorithmic level: what processes and transformations must be applied to the inputs to create the outputs. Example: 2D visual images are compared, mapped, distances computed and previous knowledge synthesised into the feeling of seeing something;

The implementational level: how the hardware works. Example: receptors -> optic nerve -> visual cortex etc. (or tranducers -> transistors -> software -> image data).

Question 17

The Turing test

Answer 17

A test of a machine’s ability to exhibit behaviour indistinguishable from a human. If the judge cannot reliably tell the machine from the human, the machine is said to have passed the test

Question 18

Science, models and the mind - study of unobservable factors is not unscientific by default

Answer 18

Scientific theories often consider unobservable entities and processes (atomic research, force fields, genes)

Models bridge the gap between the unobservable factors and their effect: if a model can be created that consistently shows the same outcome from a group of invisible factors, the case for those factors being the cause is strengthened. Eg Newton suggested a gravitational force exists

New brain-imaging techniques suggest the unobservable (what the brain is doing) may not remain so

Question 19

Cognitive neuroscience and the mind (imaging studies)

Answer 19

Imaging techniques such as PET and fMRI can show which parts of the brain are active when particular tasks are undertaken.

This can show correlation not causation - activity may not cause the participant behaviour, it might equally be the result of the behaviour.

However if activity is common to a group of tasks, they probably require information to be processed in a similar way. This can help associate particular regions and specific functions.

Brain imaging also helps identify when processes happen in sequence or happen together.

As the technology and understanding improves, imaging may allow us to see direct neural correlates of cognitive processes (i.e. “know” when someone is thinking/remembering/learning/etc.)