Lecture 4: Human and animal

Question 1

Define cognition
Define cognitive psychology
Define cognitivism

Answer 1

Knowledge or the process through which it is obtained
It’s a field of psychology that explores thought
A meta-theoretical approach that explores analogies/similarities between humans and computing devices

Question 2

Define cognition
Define cognitive psychology
Define cognitivism

Answer 2

Knowledge or the process through which it is obtained
It’s a field of psychology that explores thought
A meta-theoretical approach that explores analogies/similarities between humans and computing devices

Question 3

Who birthed cognitive psychology?

When?

Answer 3

Neisser
1967 with the cognitive psychology book
However some people believe it started earlier than this

Question 4

Describe the word cognitive

Answer 4

It refers to the process in which sensory information is transformed, mediated, elaborated, stored and recovered before it appears in consciousness. It’s transformed by converting the stimulus into chemical signals

Question 5

Who influenced Neisser’s work?

What did this person propose?

Answer 5

Bartlett who wrote a book in 1932 called remembering
He proposed that memories aren’t literal copies, they are reconstructions of the event. It’s not important to remember every detail, you just need to get the essence and we then reconstruct from the gist. The traces exist in the mind.

Question 6

Who influenced Neisser’s work?

What did this person propose?

Answer 6

Bartlett who wrote a book in 1932 called remembering
He proposed that memories aren’t literal copies, they are reconstructions of the event. It’s not important to remember every detail, you just need to get the essence and we then reconstruct from the gist. The traces exist in the mind.

Question 7

State the implication of Bartlett’s idea

Answer 7

Memories aren’t literal copies, they are driven by expectations and experiences of what is typically there

Question 8

Define cognitive structures/schema

Answer 8

The non-specific but organised representation of previous experiences, e.g. our feel for driving or our intuitions for linguistic form. They’re the result of individual experiences but they are not seen separately.

Question 9

Describe the benefits of the cognitive approach

Answer 9

It doesn’t deny the mind which behaviourism can do

It emphasises the active part of cognition, e.g. the McGurk effect (hearing something different because of sight)

Question 10

List 2 strengths of the cognitive model

Answer 10

It deals with the abstract and accounts for individual differences
It focuses on function rather than structure so you don’t need to know the physical locations, just the sequence and what they’re required to do

Question 11

List 2 strengths of the cognitive model

Answer 11

It deals with the abstract and accounts for individual differences
It focuses on function rather than structure so you don’t need to know the physical locations, just the sequence and what they’re required to do

Question 12

What is functionalism?

Answer 12

The idea that we don’t need to know the specific neurological layout of the brain, in order to study the functions of it and different mental states. They might not have the same physical properties but they can still share the same function

Question 13

What moved the cognitive movement in an unhelpful direction?

Answer 13

The cognitivism approach that mind are like computers. It started because computers can do complex things and humans can learn to do complex things. So therefore computers can be used to model human processing.

Question 14

Describe the cognitivism idea of software vs hardware

Answer 14

The mind is the software and it runs on the brain which is the hardware.The program can be used as a theory to predict behaviour.

Question 15

Describe the cognitivism idea of software vs hardware

Answer 15

The mind is the software and it runs on the brain which is the hardware.The program can be used as a theory to predict behaviour.

Question 16

What was the cognitive revolution?

What happened to it?

Answer 16

Cognitivism, but it wasn’t really a revolution
It was hailed as a revolution and psychologists started focusing on the mind and consciousness like introspectionists did.

Question 17

List 3 psychologists that disagreed with cognitivisim

Answer 17

Newell, Feynman and Neiser. They said that the approach ignores emotions and social decisions. Human processes are much more complex.

Question 18

How is cognitivism similar to Tolman’s idea of behaviourism?

Answer 18

Because it believes there is a stimulus and a response with a mental process in between. However, behaviourism believe the middle section involved thought and intervening variables but the cognitivism approach suggest that mind is like a computer program in terms of processes.

Question 19

What’s the sequence of perception by cogntivists?

Answer 19

Input then sensory memory then working memory and then long term memory. This is similar to a computers sequence.

Question 20

What’s the sequence of perception by cogntivists?

Answer 20

Input then sensory memory then working memory and then long term memory. This is similar to a computers sequence.

Question 21

List some cognitivists’ models

Answer 21

Baddeley and Hitch 1974 came up with a working memory model
Bruce and Young 1986 also came up with a model of face perception
Broadbent’s 1958 model of attention

Question 22

List the critiques of the cognitivist model

Answer 22

It’s a reductionist approach
Ignores behaviour and focuses on internal processes
Minimises the effect of the environment
It’s a dualist theory because how can the software understand and control the hardware (body)

Question 23

Give an example study that slates the cognitvism approach

Answer 23

The chinese room experiment where an english person is given chinese characters and a rule book in english, he will be able to have a conversation in chinese. However, a computer is unable to think and comprehend so it wouldn’t be able to process this.

Question 24

How is cognitivism similar to Tolman’s idea of behaviourism?

Answer 24

Because it believes there is a stimulus and a response with a mental process in between. However, behaviourism believe the middle section involved thought and intervening variables but the cognitivism approach suggest that mind is like a computer program in terms of processes. This is still similar to mediational s-r behaviourists.

Question 25

Give an example study that slates the cognitvism approach

Answer 25

The chinese room experiment by Searle where an english person is given chinese characters and a rule book in english, he will be able to have a conversation in chinese but not understand it. However, a computer is unable to think and comprehend so it wouldn’t be able to process this as it wouldn’t understand what the characters mean. This is the symbol grounding problem, written by Costall 1991

Question 26

When looking at the cognitivism approach, is observed behaviour of secondary interest?

Answer 26

Yes because it’s only used as a clue to what the programme is doing

Question 27

When looking at the cognitivism approach, is observed behaviour of secondary interest?

Answer 27

Yes because it’s only used as a clue to what the programme is doing

Question 28

What approach became popular after the cognitive approach?

Answer 28

Neuroscience

Question 29

Describe the neuroscience approach

Answer 29

It measures the inner workings of the ‘computer’
However, the mind isn’t easy to work on as we can’t open it up and tamper with it like we can with a computer
Therefore, neuroscience measures changes in the electric field when the brain is working the program, we can then figure out what the program is.

Question 30

How does the cognitive neuroscience approach gather its data?

Answer 30

It uses expensive magnets to see or disrupt what’s inside the head. This is fMRI, functional magnetic resonance imaging. It measures the change in the magnetic field of blood as it becomes deoxygenated in particular sites in the brain. TMS, transcranial magnetic stimulation, this temporarily disrupts the functioning of an area of the brain via a magnetic field over the skill at the area of interest.

Question 31

How does the cognitive neuroscience approach gather its data?

Answer 31

It uses expensive magnets to see or disrupt what’s inside the head. This is fMRI, functional magnetic resonance imaging. It measures the change in the magnetic field of blood as it becomes deoxygenated in particular sites in the brain. TMS, transcranial magnetic stimulation, this temporarily disrupts the functioning of an area of the brain via a magnetic field over the skill at the area of interest.

Question 32

When was the decade of the brain?

What was researched during this time?

Answer 32

1990s
People were interested in the brain before this but it researched whether specific areas of the brain are associated with specific functions, this is based on the localisation hypothesis.

Question 33

What is the localisation hypothesis

Answer 33

That specific areas of the brain control specific functions like memory or thinking. This is a wide spread belief in and out of psychology and it is associated with some branches of evolutionary psychology.

Question 34

What is phrenology?

Answer 34

The idea that bumps on your head can be a valid measure of personality and mental ability. The basis of this idea is still popular but the idea itself is discredited.

Question 35

What is phrenology?

Answer 35

The idea that bumps on your head can be a valid measure of personality and mental ability. The basis of this idea is still popular but the idea itself is discredited.

Question 36

What is a lesion?
Give an example case study
Give another example
One more example

Answer 36

When a localised area of the brain is damaged
Phineas gage in 1848 he had an industrial accident which damaged his prefrontal cortical lobes. After this he could no longer plan ahead, pay attention and he became more impulsive.
Broca’s area; a patient had damage to this area which caused a speech defect called expressive aphasia or motor aphasia or Broca’s aphasia
Wernicke’s area; people who get damage to this area are unable to understand the content of words whilst listening and they can’t form meaningful sentences but it has grammatical structure.

Question 37

What is a lesion?
Give an example case study
Give another example
One more example

Answer 37

When a localised area of the brain is damaged
Phineas gage in 1848 he had an industrial accident which damaged his prefrontal cortical lobes. After this he could no longer plan ahead, pay attention and he became more impulsive.
Broca’s area; a patient had damage to this area which caused a speech defect called expressive aphasia or motor aphasia or Broca’s aphasia
Wernicke’s area; people who get damage to this area are unable to understand the content of words whilst listening and they can’t form meaningful sentences but it has grammatical structure.

Question 38

Describe the case study about neurosurgery by Scoville and miller 1957

Answer 38

The patient suffered epileptic seizures so they had surgery to remove parts of the limbic system (hippocampus). After the surgery he didn’t have explicit memory; new memories but he had implicit memory; learning new motor skills. Only one type of memory was impaired. This provided evidence that memories and skills are located in different parts of the brain.

Question 39

Describe the study by Penfield 1958

Answer 39

They used electrical stimulation on areas of the cortex of the temporal lobes and they then claimed that this evoked specific memories but this was criticised as only 7% had this and these were vague.

Question 40

List some problems with the localisation hypothesis

Answer 40

It’s hard to localise fear
Cognitive processes are always changing definitions
There are individual differences in brain structure
Is there distributive processing or are there modules
We can recover from damage via neuroplasticity

Question 41

Explain the problem ‘it’s hard to localise fear’ about the localisation hypothesis

Answer 41

Some components of the amygdala are activated by things like erotic scenes and happy faces which aren’t related to fear. Also there is more than one fear state; realistic and unrealistic. Other processes modulate fear like expectations and attentiveness. Therefore emotions aren’t localised to a single area.

Question 42

How do you define cognitive processes?

Answer 42

Do you use the idea that cognitive processes are what cognitive psychologists measure?
But how can you define this if there isn’t even a taxonomy of mental processes?

Question 43

How do you define cognitive processes?

Answer 43

Do you use the idea that cognitive processes are what cognitive psychologists measure?
But how can you define this if there isn’t even a taxonomy of mental processes?

Question 44

Describe the individual difference of brain structure

Answer 44

It’s almost a universal idea that brains aren’t homogenous and brain regions aren’t clearly demarcated, the different areas overlap

Question 45

Describe the modules vs distributed processing argument

Answer 45

Most processes involve multiple areas of the brain and a lesion in one region can therefore cause a deficit in performance. So the region is necessary for the function but not sufficient for it. For example oral communication involves four areas of the brain so damage to any area would cause similar impairments. (Kagan 2007)

Question 46

Describe neuroplasticity

Answer 46

After a stroke, patients can lose some cognitive functions but other areas of the brain can compensate for this; the same area in the opposite hemisphere or the area next to the damaged area.

Question 47

Finish this sentence

Despite the limitations of the localisation hypothesis…

Answer 47

… psychologists still investigate it
… the development of new technologies still leads us to unparalleled access into the brain
… has led to exciting new discoveries; lie detection, neuro-marketing.

Question 48

Finish this sentence

Despite the limitations of the localisation hypothesis…

Answer 48

… psychologists still investigate it
… the development of new technologies still leads us to unparalleled access into the brain
… has led to exciting new discoveries; lie detection, neuro-marketing.

Question 49

Has neuroscience been around for long?

Answer 49

It has a long history so yes and the decade of the brain started it again as there was new technologies. But is the research getting us any closer to the nature of consciousness?