Origins of Cognitive Psychology Flashcards
wundt 1879
- structuralist approach
- structure of the mind
- components of consciosness
- Introspection
William James 1800
- functionalist approach
- functions of conscious activity NOT components of consciousness
- Function of thought = behaviour
- study of mental operations not structures
- emphasis on overt, observable behaviours
John B Watson 1919
- introspection - seen as subjective
* behaviour - objective
what was cognitive psychology developed in response too
the perceived limitations of the behaviourist approach
key events on cognitive psychology
- Chomsky (1956) – theory of language
- Miller (1956) – theory of capacity of short term memory
- Newell & Simon (1958) – theory of human problem solving
cognitive psychology
understanding human cognition through behavioural evidence - experiments
cognitive neuroscience
using behaviour and the brain to understand human cognition - recording brain activity
cognitive neuropsychology
studying brain-damaged patients to understand normal human cognition
computational cognitive science
using computational models to understand cognition
information processing approach sees human information processing as
akin to that of a computer
data - inputted, stored and retrieved
what is human information processing influenced by
bottom up and top down processing
what are bottom-up processes influenced by
environmental stimuli
what are top-down processes influenced by
internal subjective factors
what was the early assumption about information processing
that it is serial
serial processing
one process completed before moving onto the next
parallel processing
two or more cognitive processes that occur at the same time
*will increase with practice
strengths of cognitive psychology (approach)
first systematic approach to understanding human cognition
strengths of cognitive psychology (theories)
led to numerous theories and tasks which have been adopted by other approaches
weaknesses of cognitive psychology (validity)
lacks ecological validity
weaknesses of cognitive psychology (evidence)
indirect evidence of the underlying processes (speed/accuracy)
weaknesses of cognitive psychology (test)
theories often hard to test
weaknesses of cognitive psychology (paradigms)
findings often paradigm-specific (aging and PM)
weaknesses of cognitive psychology (theoretical framework)
lack overarching theoretical framework of cognition
egs of cognitive neuropsychology
- localisation of brain cognition - Brocas area
- modal model of memory - info transferred from one store to the next
- shallice and warrington - brain damaged patient -no short term memory but LTM was still intact
cognitive neuropsychology assumptions (functional modulartity)
independent processing units in the brain
cognitive neuropsychology assumptions (domain specificity)
respond to only one class of stimul
cognitive neuropsychology assumptions (anatomical modularity)
each module is located in a specific brain region
cognitive neuropsychology assumptions (uniformity of functional architecture across people)
allow us to generalise findings to normal human cognition
single dissociation
- not necessarily indicative of modularity
* one task might be more difficult than other
double dissociation
*provides reasonable evidence of at least partial independence/modularity