Intro

Question 1

L1:

What are the learning objectives of Cog Psych Lecture 1: “Intro”?

Answer 1

• Discuss the philosophical foundations of cognitive psychology and their legacy (behaviourism, informational processing)
• Understand the distinction between data and theory (data, paradigms and theories)
• Explain the centrality of representations in cognitive psychology (representation, processing)
• Recognise how theories are developed (prediction specificity)
• Understand Newell’s critique of psychology and his proposed solutions
• Understand the role of formal models in theory development (computational modelling)

Question 2

L1:

Define cognition

Answer 2

The conscious mental processes (such as thought, experience, and the senses) involved in knowing, learning, and understanding things

Cognition is a function of the brain

Question 3

L1:

Define cognitive psychology

Answer 3

the study of mental processes such as; attention, language, memory, perception, problem solving, decision making/ reasoning

Question 4

L1:

What is behaviourism? Definition and Examples

Answer 4

Building psychology by measuring only the observable.

E.g. Skinner, Harlow, Ainsworth etc

Question 5

L1:

What is behaviourism?

Legacies

Answer 5

Building psychology by measuring only the observable.
E.g. Skinner, Harlow, Ainsworth etc

This way of investigating psychology has left legacies…

• Measurement and explanation of phenomena in terms of behaviour
• Animal models
• Simple explanations
• NO introspective methods

Question 6

L1:

Outline information processing

Answer 6

The computer metaphor: seeing the mind as an information processor

A common idea as a way of understanding the mind. Idea that if you are going to talk about cognition and thoughts, a way of understanding thoughts is thinking of them as information and mental activity as computation/ calculation.

Information processing is a metaphor inspired by computers as a way of thinking about thoughts, but it’s also an approach – a way of asking questions.

Question 7

L1:

What is representationalism?

Answer 7

The basic aspect of the approach is that knowledge is represented in our minds such that cognitive processes can “operate” on the representations e.g. if we see a documentary on owls, we might update the representations that we have (images, connotations, the word, opinions etc).

The representationalist approach arose from computer and information processing models of cognition. Info is stored on computers as 0s and 1s, much like the way in which neurons operate, by either firing or not firing at any given moment.

…

Not as simple as straight input and output, you can convert representations into each other e.g. say the word owl, think about them, imagine them –> converting from auditory representation into visual image. You can also operate on representations – put them into or bring out of memory, connect them with other representations etc.

Example: phonological representation in working memory
Paradigm - test with dual-task interference or using similar sounding items, basically testing what form information is stored in ST/WM by trying to interfere with it using dual tasks/ similar info.

Two kinds of interference; visuospatial (tapping on desk) and auditory (duh, dah repeated).

When trying to remember a series of digits, stored in phonological code (sounds), process operating on it is rehearsal, if rehearsal is interfered with (with auditory interference) then recall is worsened. With phonologically similar words, it’s harder to form distinct memories of the words individually as they interfere with each other.

Question 8

L1:

Explain the distinction between data and theory

Answer 8

Data is the evidence

A theory is a claim about what the data means (about concepts, abstracts, predictions)

Question 9

L1:

Outline why theories require models

Answer 9

Can’t just ask yes or no questions about psychology, need to build theories

Question 10

L1:

What were Alan Newell’s suggestions for what psychologists should do?

Answer 10

1. Have formal models - not just box and arrow diagrams
2. Theories need to be about cognition, not tasks
3. Need general models that can be applied to multiple tasks.
4. Complete processing models - have formal, comprehensive models, with control processes, (rather than partial ones most commonly used) in order to specify subjects’ methods during experimentation
5. Analyse a complex task - accept a single complex task and do all of it (rather than designing small experiments to test small questions)
6. One program for many tasks - (different to 2) staying with the small experiments to solve small questions method, to improve this we could construct a single system to perform them all (all the small experiments).

Question 11

L1:

Outline the meaning of Empiricism

Answer 11

The principle that the key to understanding things is through systematic observation

Question 12

L1:

Outline the meaning of Determinism

Answer 12

The principle that behaviours have underlying causes and that understanding involves identification of what these causes are and how they’re related to the behaviour of interest.

Question 13

L1:

Outline the meaning of Testability

Answer 13

The principle that theories must be stated in ways that allow them to be evaluated through observation.

Question 14

L1:

Outline the meaning of Parsimony

Answer 14

The principle to prefer simple explanations over more complex ones.

Question 15

L1:

What are commonly used measures in cognitive psychology?

Answer 15

1. Accuracy - common where there are either right or wrong responses. Can be about the number and kinds of errors you make not just how many items you correctly recall.
2. Response Time - how long it takes to respond to a stimulus, techniques such as priming and eye movement measurements are regularly used.

Question 16

L1:

What is a paradigm?

Answer 16

A commonly used experimental design accepted universally as a good way of investigating a certain area of psychology

Question 17

L1:

Why is studying cognition a challenge?

Answer 17

Because you cannot directly measure the thing you are making theories about.

Question 18

L1:

Outline theory development

Answer 18

Theories are developed

Paradigms and models are then formed from these theories, in order to test the theory

Experiments are then designed to directly test experimental hypotheses

Question 19

L1:

What are prediction specificity and data certainty? Why do they matter?

Answer 19

Prediction specificity is how specific a prediction is… Vague or precise

Data certainty is how certain we can be that data collected is accurate… Certain or uncertain

Vague predictions and uncertain data lead to weak evidence

Precise predictions and certain evidence lead to strong experimental evidence for the theory

Question 20

L1:

Familiarise yourself with the exam for this module

Answer 20

Exam is worth 100% of final grade

45 MCQ and 3 short answers

Spend 90 minutes on multiple choice and 30 on short answer (2hrs overall)

75% of the marks are alloted to the MCQ, 25% to the short answer

Question 21

L1:

Summarise Newell’s critiques of Psychology as a symposium

Answer 21

Newell believed that…

• As psychological resolution of experimental Qs develops and grows, the need for more research grows… so as psychology as a science develops, it only gets more complex as opposed to increasing clarity of understanding of phenomena
• Believe psychology may never become a mature science
• Never just one answer to a phenomena
• Psychological research doesn’t fit together easily, lots of contradictory research and inter-referencing… doesn’t cumulate
• the focus of behavioural research is not the behaviour but the mechanisms behind the behaviour… what if the subject is using a mechanism never before thought about… how would we know?
• must establish a control structure when looking at behavioural mechanisms, in order to concieve of separate models however, this is overlooked (basically, without establishing a basic way in which a task is completed, there will always be alternative explanations put forward, meaning the issue will never be settled)
• hard to compare studies unless they blatantly clash
• beliefs are so loose that any new result can challenge them

Question 22

L1:

What is embodied cognition?

Answer 22

Views cognitive processes as a means for interacting with our environment. So here we are not just considering mental representations as images in the mind but as information allowing us to do things in the world e.g. catching a ball. This approach takes the view that cognitions should be studied according to the purpose they serve.

Studies in this area have shown that acting out textual information is more effective for recall than other learning strategies e.g. rereading, also been shown that people trying to recall information presented on a screen look in that same place on a blank screen, when asked to wear shoulder pads those with experience wearing them for sport walk through doorways accounting for space better than those without experience. Results show that our language, memory and perception processes depend on our interaction with the world around us.

Question 23

L1:

What is the biological perspective?

Answer 23

Some researchers have considered a biological perspective behind cognition beyond just the specific brain activity associated with different cognitive processes.

Build theories of cognition using a different metaphor for the mind, not based on a computer but rather on how the brain works. Propose theories based not on the manipulation of symbols but on networks of connection loosely analogous to networks of neurons – connectionist models.