Chapter 1 Flashcards
Cognition
to know
Cognitive Psychology
a general approach to psychology emphasizing the internal, mental processes
- behaviour explained in terms of underlying mechanisms
Rationalist: Plato
knowledge is obtained via thinking and logical analysis
Empiricist: Aristotle
knowledge is acquired through experience and observation
René Decartes
French renaissance rationalist
- “I think, therefore I am”
- coined the cartesian dualism
Cartesian Dualism
mind and body are distinct entities interacting in humans
John Locke
british empiricist
- coined “tabula rasa”: blank slate
Tabula Rasa
at birth, we know nothing and we acquire knowledge through empirical observation
Immanuel Kant
dialectally synthesized the views of Decartes and Locke
- contended that both rationalism and empiricism contribute to understanding
19th Century Psychology
focused on the scientific study of conscious experience
Structuralism
analyze conscious processes into their basic elements
- discover how elements become connected
- specify the laws of connection
Wilhelm Wundt
opened first psychology lab
- importance of introspection
Introspection
analyze your own conscious experience into sensations, images, and affections
- problems; low reliability and not independently verifiable
Functionalism
determine the adaptive significance of thought processes
- find how and why the mind works
- specify relationships between stimuli and responses
problems: not based on experimentation and theories did not make testable predictions
William James
published “The Principles of Psychology”, which foreshadowed much of cognitive psychology
Associationism
determine how events/ideas become associated ie; contiguity, frequency, similarity, contrast
- understand how association produces learning
F.C Donders
studied mental chronometry using reaction time and subtractions method
- assumed ‘pure insertion’; time to complete each stage is independent of the other stages
Pure Insertion
time to complete each stage is independent of the other stages
Problems with Subtraction Method
- motor response times may be different in different tasks, practice can cause your RT to be faster
- novice performance not comparable to expert performance
Hermann Ebbinghaus
used 2000 3 letter nonsense syllables to measure his memory; removed familiarity effects
- found forgetting curve in effect
problem; its hard to remember nonsense
Forgetting Curve (Retention Curve)
forgetting was rapid at first then more gradual
Psychoanalysis
develop psychological understanding of psychopathologies
- applied psychotherapeutic treatment
Sigmund Freud
proposed different levels of awareness- some items unavailable to consciousness
- methods included introspection, dream analysis, and hypnosis
problems; criticized as unscientific, unfalsifiable, and not based on experimental evidence
Early 20th Century Psychology
the science of observable behaviour
Behaviourism
study observable behaviours, how they are learned, and how they are modified by the environment
J.B Watson
shifted study of mind to study of behaviour
- saw the mind as a ‘black box’
Gestalt Approach
holistic approach that emphasized consciousness
- described how the whole is different from the sum of its parts
problems; described but did not explain consciousness
B.F Skinner
we are shaped by our environment, not by free will
problemL criticized for ignoring mental processes
Max Wertheimer
founded Gestalt Psychology
Mid 20th Century Psychology
science of behaviour and mental processes
The Cognitive Revolution/Renaissance
discussed the limits of behaviourism
- cognitive maps not just reinforcement
- inadequate explanations
- organization in language comes from within the organism (not the outside)
Edward Tolman
put rats in a maze to find food boxes
- the rats used a cognitive map when start location was different; contradicted behaviourist principles of learning
Karl Lashley
argued that behaviourist explanation of language, using stimulus response chains were inadequate
- spoonerisms
- organization in language comes from within the organism (not form outside)
Spoonerisms
ie; ‘our queer old dean’ instead of ‘our dear old queen’
- these are novel non habitual recombinations
Noam Chomsky
contributed to advancement in linguistics
- concluded that behaviourist accounts of language were lacking and language is not merely imitation
Emergence of Human Factors
- rapid technological advances in WWII led to problems with skills and performance
- engineering perspective on human information processing applied; important factors include; alertness, sensitivity to environmental conditions, distinguishing relevant vs. irrelevant information, multiple task performance
Rise of Constructivism; Jean Piaget
- explained children’s cognitive development via schemes which organize experience and knowledge which change through developmental stages
Schemes
mental structures that provide basis for thought
- contain information about actions one can perform on objects
Contributions from Computing Science
artificial intelligence related to cognition
The Scientific Method
goal of psychology was to describe, explain, predict, and control behaviour and mental processes
1. Asks Question
2. Theory
3. Hypothesis
4. Design Research
5. Gather Data
6. Analyze
7. Report and Peer Review
Cognitive Science
interdisciplinary field which includes anthropology, linguistics, psychology, philosophy, computing science
Tri-level Hypothesis
- Computational Theory
- Representation and Algorithm
- Hardware Implementation
Computational Theory
what does addition mean, what is the system doing?
Representation and Algorithm
how is the problem symbolized and what steps are being used to solve the problem?
- cognitive psychology almost exclusively lies here
Hardware Implementation
what physical components carry out these operations?
What level does cognitive psychology focus on?
- Representation and Algorithm
Artificial Intelligence
employs the computational metaphor in a simulation of behaviour or mental processes
- functionalist approach
Benefits of Building Bridges between Cog Psych and AI
- computational program in AI can serve as potential theoretical models in cognitive psychology
- both share common interests
- better understanding of human- AI teaming
