The cognitive (r)evolution Flashcards
Who challenged Skinner’s operant approaches?
> Psychologists, argued the necessity to consider the role of unobservable psychological constructs
> Animal behaviourists - Neobehaviourists
Which movement did Edward Tolman represent in the 20th century?
What was his work and hypothesis?
Amercian psychologist - Neobehaviourism
- studied purposive behaviour of animals, wether their choices are cognitive
- using mazes
- Latent learning hypothesis
What is Edward Tolman’s latent learning?
Learning that is dormant, concealed
- exposure without reinforcement
- rapid learning when behaviour is reinforced
Why does Edward Tolman’s latent learning hypothesis represent a challenge for operant conditioning models?
> Latent learning = learning without reinforcement
> Simplest solution in latent learning is the one including cognition
-> debate behaviourists vs. neobehaviourists
How did Edward Tolman and colleagues fit their evidence to the strict, elaborate operant model without using cognitive constructs?
They broke the rule of scientific parsimony
- between multiple explanations, the didn’t choose the simplest one
What did the neobehavioural work of Edward Tolman and colleagues contribute to?
The transition from strict behaviourism to cognitivism during early to mid 20th century
What was the latent learning experiment of Tolman and Honzik (1930)?
> Support for idea of latent learning
> 3 groups of rats:
- Control: standard operant learning, continuous reinforcement schedule
- No reward, reinforcement not contingent on response
- Experimental group: ‘delayed reward’ condition
> Complex maze
- daily exposure for 17 days
- measure turns to reach food box (errors)
What were the results of Tolman and Honzik’s latent learning experiment (1930)?
> Group 1: control - standard operant learning
- quick learning over initial days
- average of 3 errors per run by day 11
- > expected operant learning with their continuous reinforcement schedule
> Group 2:
- limited learning because of the absence of reward (reinforcement) continent on response
> Group 3:
- same as group 2 for first 11 days
- behaviour changed immediately on day 12 when food placed in maze: accurate path from start to goal
-> they learned information during first 11 days about the maze, which layer dormant until behaviours reinforced
= latent learning
What suggested the detour mazes studies conducted by Tolman and Honzik, after the latent learning experiment (1930)?
Rats were learning spatial location rather than a specific route
=> internal representation, cognitive map
- used flexibly, according to specific environmental demands
What is the experimental evidence suggesting cognitive maps in humans (Maguire et al. 2006; Keller and Just, 2015)?
> Maguire et al. (2006)
- larger hippocampus in taxi drivers (learn to navigate vs. bus drivers learning fixed routes)
> Keller and Just (2015)
- structural changes in hippocampus after 45 minutes learning
- > neuroplasticity
- > information is stored and available for later use
How did Edward Tolman’s cognitive model of latent learning differ from the operant model?
> Tolman’s model was seen as stimulus-stimulus associations through an exploration process
- vs. Pavlov’s stimulus-stimulus classical conditionning
> Tolman saw the intervening variable/process as essential to explain observations of latent learning
- vs. radical behaviourists who denied existence of intervening processes, as unnecessary for exploration
> For Tolman: reinforcement drove animal’s behaviour as motivation by prospect of reward
- spatial learning
What was Edward Tolman’s cognitive theory and model?
The intervening variables/processes (mediating internal representations) fundamentally transform the input/ouput relationship:
- stimulus/environment processing; information storing; spatial representation / cognitive map
- processes to plan and execute an adaptive behavioural response - motivated by reward
How is Edward Tolman’s model of information processing and storage considered today?
> As a basis for many cognitive models of animal and human behaviour
How is Edward Tolman considered today?
As neobehaviourist and major influence of a cognitive behaviourist tradition still present today within cognitive psychology
What is studied in cognitive psychology?
> Mental structures
How knowledge is processed to enable adaptive behaviour
= Unobservable entities
- ‘black box’ between input-output
What is implied in the idea of “hypothetical constructs” in cognitive psychology?
Explicit acknowledgement that we do not know for sure whether these constructs exist or not
- empirically testable models
-> ‘surplus meaning’
How do behaviourists consider the “hypothetical constructs” of cognitive psychology?
As unnecessary “intervening variables”
-> no ‘surplus meaning’
What does the idea of ‘surplus meaning’ in cognitive psychology represent historically?
Answer to criticism of behaviourists in mid 20th century
What is the meaning of ‘surplus meaning’ in cognitive psychology?
We can use induction to position the construct’s existence and use scientific deduction to hypothesise and reveal new knowledge through experiments
-> new theories and models
What does Greenwood propose in his work “understanding the Cognitive Revolution in Psychology” (1999)?
‘Surplus meaning’ in science is essential to the development of theory and knowledge
- provided it’s open to empirical scrutiny that supports or refutes it
- theory without ‘surplus meaning’ is closed and sterile
What are the 3 cognitive building blocks on which cognitive psychology models are based?
- Cognitive domains (functions)
- perception, language, attention, learning, memory, decision making, problem solving, judgement and reasoning, action
- > Psychology seeks to encompass all of them in an overarching framework - Cognitive structures (forms and representations)
- knowledge, symbols, images, concepts, interpretations, appraisals, rules/heuristics (conscious/unconscious), schemas, beliefs - Cognitive processes (operations and transformations)
- association, comparison, discrimination, categorisation, evaluating, appraising, encoding, storing, retrieval
What is the link between cognition and the brain?
There is no need to assume that a particular cognitive structure or process has an equivalent physical representation within brain structures or systems
How did ‘surplus meaning’ launch cognitive neuroscience?
It stimulated brain science to investigate the biological basis of cognitive models of navigation and mental maps
