Research Methods in Cognitive Psychology

Question 1

Define Cognitivism

Answer 1

an approach to studying behaviour (so you can have a cognitivist approach to cognitive psychology, social psychology and so on).

Question 2

Define Behaviourism?

Answer 2

Argues that a true science of Psychology strives for laws of behaviour couched in terms of physical events and physical processes

Question 3

What would be be the implications if we find these laws?

Answer 3

If we can find such laws (and they are correct) then we should be able to predict and control behaviour

Question 4

State a classic case of behaviourism?

Answer 4

Pavlovs dogs, using Conditioned and Unconditioned response with a stimulus

Question 5

What kind of statements can Behaviourist theories only contain?

Answer 5

Behaviorist theories can ONLY contain statements about observable “things”

Question 6

Can we study abstract “things” scientifically?

Answer 6

Other sciences studied the unobservable and abstract and made testable predictions (i.e. psychology)

Question 7

Give an example of a study into an abstract “thing”?

Answer 7

Gregor Mendel published work on genetic inheritance in 1866 long before DNA was discovered.

Question 8

So how is it feasible to study an abstract “thing”?

Answer 8

If the validity of our predictions are open to empirical tet, then we can test as many abstract “things” as we want scientifically.

Question 9

Is Psychology a “science” if it is concerned with the mental rather than the physical?

Answer 9

Yes, as we can use the scientific methods developed to study the physical world to study the mental world.

Question 10

How do you decide how many abstract concepts is enough?

Answer 10

There is a danger of deriving very complex accounts of even the simplest behaviours.

Question 11

How can we ever begin to study the mind – for a start everyone’s brain is different?

Answer 11

But even if we understood all possible patterns of neural firing in my brain, this would not be the same for your brain

Question 12

What do behaviourists argue about things we can “see”?

Answer 12

Behaviorists argued that because you could not “see” cognitive processes you could not study them scientifically.

Question 13

What do cognitivists argue about things we can “see”

Answer 13

Cognitive psychologists disagreed, arguing that you can study ‘abstract’ things as long as you follow the scientific method

Question 14

What is the metaphor that cognitivists use to describe cognitive processes

Answer 14

The computer analogy

Question 15

Describe the computer analogy cognitivists use to

Answer 15

> Naïve observer attempts to vary the input to the device to figure out a flow chart of hypothesised processes

> If the computer can be programmed to behave in the same way as a human then we might be able to say something about the mental processes of humans.

Question 16

What did information processing lead to about using the computer as an analogy of mental processes?

Answer 16

The information processing led to the widely held belief that mental states and processes can be understood by analogy with those that characterise the operation of a digital computer.

Question 17

Define Symbol Representation

Answer 17

Information input to a computer is converted to a series of 0’s and 1’s.
It is how the input (or stimulus) is represented by the computer (by symbols - 0’s and 1’s)

Question 18

What is the mind compared to in the computer approach

Answer 18

Software

Question 19

What is the body/brain compared to in the computer approach

Answer 19

Hardware

Question 20

How does the ‘hardware’ (brain/body) know what the ‘software’ (representation/ symbols) means?

Answer 20

Symbol grounding problem

Question 21

What is the symbol grounding problem

Answer 21

To have meaning, representations need to be ‘grounded’ in something beyond the themselves.

This is the ‘symbol grounding problem’ – the 0’s and 1’s don’t “mean” anything to the computer.

And ‘symbols’ can’t “mean” anything to the brain – they are just a way of expressing the flow of information

Question 22

By extension, can a computer running a program be said to “think” in the same way as a human does according to the Chinese (thought) experiment

Answer 22

It does not, because it does not “understand” what the symbols it is manipulating mean.

Question 23

Name an approach which attempts to explain the mind and mental processes in a cognitivist manner

Answer 23

The Computer Analogy

Question 24

Name another approach to explaining mental processes

Answer 24

Neuroscience

Question 25

Explain Cognitive Neuroscience

Answer 25

Psychologists sometimes use very expensive magnets to “see” what happens “inside” the head.
More specifically, these are attempts to see “where in the brain” specific cognitive functions occur (i.e., interested in function AND location).

Question 26

What does fMRI do?

Answer 26

fMRI is based on hemodynamic (literally ‘blood movement’) activity.
Neural processing consumes energy (oxygen, glucose etc.) that is carried by the blood to parts of our bodies.

Question 27

What do the measurements of the fMRI imply?

Answer 27

If this consumption can be measured at particular regions of the brain then we can infer that neural activity is occurring there.

Question 28

What are the 2 problems with the use of fMRI

Answer 28

1. Does metabolic / hemodynamic activity equal ‘cognitive’ activity.
2. Multiple statistical comparisons

Question 29

Is it logical to assume that metabolic activity at a particular brain location MEANS that the cognitive activity must be located there?

Answer 29

The area identified be inhibiting another area responsible for the cognitive process (Kagan, 2007)