Ch. 1 : Origins of Cognitive Neuroscience and Information Processing Flashcards
Definition of Cognition
The study of the act of thinking - thinking about thinking
Rationalism
- knowledge comes from observation, logical steps
- there is an innate nature to our minds
Plato
- earliest philosopher to consider the human mind
- rationalism
Empiricism
- All knowledge comes from experience and observation
- thought is associations based on observation
Aristotle
- combined philosophical and scientific approaches
- empiricism
Structuralism
- identify building blocks of consciousness through analytical introspection
- Wundt and Tichener
- emphasized controlled observation
- linked to empiricism
Wilhelm Wundt
- first psychology lab
- focused on introspection
- structuralist
Edward Titchener
- established american experimental psychology
- structuralist, used empirical methods
Functionalism
- why does the mind work
- how are the functions of the mind adaptive
William James
- Functionalist
- consciousness is personal and changing
- promoted experimentation
contribution of functionalism to cog psych
emphasis on functions applications and experimentations
behaviorism
- shifted focus from mind to behavior
- focus on the observable
- shifted to animal research
B.F. Skinner
- behaviorist
- thought behavior is contingent on reinforcement (rewards/punishments)
- OPERANT CONDITIONING
Operant Conditioning
Skinner; shows how behavior is determined thru reinforcement of rewards/punishments
Problems with behaviorism
- poverty of stimulus
- if we learn language through operant conditioning, how do we produce phrases we never heard
Ulric Neisser
father of cognitive psych
-internal mental processes could be studied and measured
tenants of cognitive revolution
-break cognition into information processing steps
assumptions of cognitive psychology
- the mind is a processing system, performs specific computations
- information flows from 1 step to the next
- processing takes resources and time
information theory
-function of info is to reduce uncertainty
-amount of info is inversely related to its probability of occurance
(less likely, more info)
William Hick
-established relationship btwn reaction time and information content
Hick’s experiment
display of ten lamps. more lamp possibilites = slower reaction time
Hick’s Law
equation showing that the more information contained in a signal, the longer it takes to make a correct response
Ray Hyman
similar to Hick’s light experiment. manipulated sequential probabilities.
- with more stimulus uncertainty, there was a slower reaction time
- lower sequential probability, slower reaction time
Decision Fatigue
too many options = bad choices
- the more choices, the more energy expended in choosing
- making a choice btwn lots of options has a cognitive energy depletion
Webster and Thompson
info processing has limits
- air traffic controllers, simultaneous messages, binaural messages
- could identify both call signals, only one of the other messages
information processing
actively select the info to process
Parts of the Broadbent Filter Model
- Senses
- Short term memory
- FILTER (selected on physical basis)
- Final input
channel capacity
refers to the maximum amount of information that can be processed.
Main idea of Broadbent filter model
- processing takes time and resources
- channel capacity; there is a maximum amount of into that can be processed
- ∆ must be stages and buffers before final selection
How does Broadbent filter model select information for processing?
What happens to the information not selected?
- selects based on physical characteristics
- information not selected by the buffer decays over time
Broadbent’s Dichotic listening test
- description
- results
- pairs of digits presented binaurally
- participants asked to repeat numbers back
- repeating binaural pairs much harder than mono
- ears are separate channels
- switching between ears consumes energy, decays information in buffer faster
Description of Waugh Norman Model
-informations and processed in stages
Primary memory: environmental stimulus
Secondary Memory: where rehearsed info from primary is sent
everything else forgotten
related to BROWN PETERSON
Brown Peterson task
related to Waugh Norman model of info processing, rehearsal is key
- given a set of nouns to remember, given intervening distractor task,
- without rehearsal, recall is much worse
Ecological Validity
- cannot study cognition in a laboratory. too many stimuli in the real world
- reaction against earlier info processing studies
- context affords what we can do/perceive
- J.J. Gibson
Schemas
Neisser again
- we have schemas of situations that direct our exploration of the environment
- unexpected outcomes are then incorporated into the schema
Perceptual Cycle
schemas guid exploration of world, and are in turn shaped by what is found
Cognitive Ethology
cognitive processes depend on specific situational context of the thinker
-environment matters
