Chapter 3 Flashcards
Plato’s problem:
How can we know given our fragmentary limited experience
How do we seem to know more than what we are explicitly taught?
(meno –> no mathematical training)
Descartes believed:
knowledge is acquired from the senses but also put in the mind by god
Much of what we do is mechanical
Much is part of our creative endowment
Distinction between perception and judgement
Descartes: ___ are the only certainty we have of our existence
ideas/representations
introspectionism, (wundt but mostly titchener)
The early influences of introspectionism, largely attributed to Wilhelm Wundt but mainly developed by his student Edward Titchener, drew significant parallels between psychology and physics
In introspectionism
introspectionism focused on the observation of the mind. In this approach, individuals were tasked with the “inspection” of their own thoughts and mental processes.
behaviourism
Behaviorism (Watson, Skinner)
Psychology as the science of behavior -No introspection
-No “consciousness”
Behaviors are pairings between Stimuli and Responses
S/R
Learning by reinforcements and punishments
Language acquisition as a case in point Words are learned (by reinforcement)
Sentences are learned (idem)
main problems with introspectionism
There are many unconscious inferences, not available to “direct” inspection
Reports are faulty: memory & attention bottlenecks
The issue of implicit knowledge: How can I possibly know what kinds of knowledge enter into a given process?
E.g., Can I introspect on the actual grammatical processes involved in understanding a sentence?
Human factors in regards to the cognitive revolution
One critical area of research involved human factors, focusing on skill acquisition and performance in complex tasks. The challenges faced by individuals during wartime, such as operating machinery and making decisions under pressure, spurred interest in understanding how people process information and learn new skills.
The cognitive revolution: Theories of Communication and Attention
Theories of communication and attention also gained prominence during this period. Researchers began to explore how information is processed, leading to the development of new models in cognition. Attention studies became a focal point, with notable contributions from researchers like Colin Cherry, who introduced the dichotic listening paradigm. This experimental setup involved presenting different auditory stimuli to each ear and assessing how individuals selectively attended to one source of information while ignoring the other. These studies on attention laid the groundwork for understanding how humans manage and filter incoming information.
The cognitive revolution ,computers and computer science:
The Cognitive Revolution was significantly influenced by advancements in computers and computer science, which provided a new framework for understanding human cognition. Computers, as physical systems capable of storing, using, and transmitting information, offered a rich metaphor for human information processing. This comparison was bolstered by the work of figures like Alan Turing and John von Neumann, who conceptualized computational models that mirrored cognitive functions such as memory, decision-making, and problem-solving.
Drawing from communication theory, Miller sought to
quantify mental processes by measuring the amount of information transmitted and stored in the mind.
One of Miller’s most famous contributions is his work on
short-term memory (STM), where he demonstrated that people can hold approximately 7 ± 2 “chunks” of information in their working memory at a time. A “chunk” represents a meaningful unit of information, such as a word, a number, or a concept, and this limit on memory capacity became a fundamental insight into the structure of human cognition.
, Noam Chomsky revolutionized the study of linguistics by
distinguishing between competence (a speaker’s implicit knowledge of language rules) and performance (the actual use of language in real-life situations). Chomsky argued that language is a computational system, capable of generating an infinite number of sentences through finite rules, which could not be explained by behaviorist approaches. His work emphasized the innate structures of the mind that enable language learning and use.
Neisser’s book, Cognitive Psychology (1967)
Neisser’s work systematized many of the ideas of cognitive psychology, introducing new methods of investigation and placing an emphasis on experimental research. One of these methods was using reaction time as a measure of processing load or complexity. By measuring how long it takes individuals to respond to different cognitive tasks, researchers could infer the mental processes involved and the relative difficulty of the tasks.
flow diagrams:
he use of flow diagrams to model the stages of cognitive processes was a hallmark of the Cognitive Revolution and contributed to the development of cognitive psychology as an experimental science. These diagrams served as visual representations of how the mind processes information, similar to how computers handle data through sequential steps.
In these models, the mind was conceptualized as an information processor,
The model of word recognition represents a sample of…
The components involved in a given process n How a process can be conceived as a series of
stages (and interactions between these stages) n How one can make predictions with regards to
timing of events—and, thus, predict differences in response times as a function of these events
Reaction Time (RT) is a crucial metric for understanding cognitive processing complexity:
Donders’ Contribution: Donders was the first to systematically investigate RT, finding that decision-making tasks increased RT by about 100 milliseconds compared to simpler tasks. This led to the conclusion that approximately 100 ms is needed for decision-making.
Current Application: The same logic applies in modern RT studies. By comparing RT from complex tasks to a control condition, researchers can assess the impact of processing complexity
Reaction Time (RT) in lexical decision tasks is influenced by various factors related to processing complexity. Key determinants include:
- word morphological complexity
2.word frequenccy
other variables enter into determining the complexity of a stimulus as well
Reaction Time (RT) as a function of processing complexity is also explored through cross-modal priming, which involves the interaction between different sensory modalities. Key components include:
-visual lexical decision
-sentence/auditory stimulus presentation
- visual target related to some word in the sentence
-priming
Priming effect = RT to unrelated word - RT to related word
This approach illustrates how prior exposure to related information can facilitate word recognition, demonstrating the influence of contextual and associative factors on cognitive processing and RT.
Reaction Time (RT) as a function of perceived information is particularly evident in rapid categorization tasks. Key aspects include:
Overall, RT and accuracy in rapid categorization tasks reveal how quickly and effectively the brain processes perceptual information, reflecting the cognitive mechanisms involved in object recognition and classification.
Modern Methods in cognitive psychology integrate both:
traditional cognitive methods and contemporary neuroscience approaches, enhancing our understanding of cognitive processes.
Example of traditional cognitive methods:
RT (several)
-Simple, primed
Recall
Recognition n Etc.
Eye-tracking:
Precise timing, spatial resolution
Measures ongoing processes as evidenced by eye movements
Used mostly in language, vision, and attention
We move our eyes…
to get a clear image (fovea)
to get a ‘coherent’ picture (visual routines)
to track objects (pursuit)
to attend to “attention grabbers” (features)
-Saccades, involuntary
to serve intentions and actions
-Saccades, voluntary
