Week 1 Flashcards
Learning
Change in mental states associated with some environment or cognitive event
- creating memories (explicit or implicit), behavioral tendencies, and external associations
Memory
The total, lasting effects of your life experiences
- skill, facts, episodes, everything learned, etc.
Attention
The capacity for managing our limited co resources, so that we use (and learn) what is most relevant.
Ex: concentration, enhancing, selecting
Problem with computational complexity
There are too many stimuli and possible choices to process at each moment in time.
- We need internal biases or constraints that work with external cues to see what is most relevant
Ex. crossing lights/signs
Visually Salient Items
We are drawn to items that are high contrast, novel, moving, or different than the surrounding (reflexive saccades) [attention]
- bottom up processing
Problem of Indeterminacy of reference
When a situation “under specifies” a unique meaning for a single word
- we need constraints
Whole Object Constraint
Labels that refer to whole objects, rather than parts of an object
- kids tend to do this
- bias
Background Knowledge
Through social experience and cultural context we have learned where to look for relevant stimuli (volitional saccades)
- top down processing
Taxonomic assumption
Labels that can be extended to other objects of the same kind.
- bias
Cognitive Psychology
To characterize how each cognitive system operates; helpful to study the biases and tendencies of the system
Franciscus Donders cog psych experiments
How long would it take for a person to make a decision?
- simple RT: quickly push button in response to light
- choice RT: push one button is the light is on the right side, another button if it is on the left side
Dealing with complexity
We need internal (innate/learned) biases or constraints that work with external cues to tell us what is immediately relevant.
Mental chronometry
Use of a behavioral measure to infer a mental process.
Reasons why Donder’s reaction time were remarkable:
- First use of mental chronometry
- Assumption: mental processes were resource limited (need time wot work)
- The subtraction method (quantify/analyze different mental activities)
The subtraction method
A kind of analysis that puts teal events on the same basis as physical events. This allows you quantify and analyze different mental activities.
- this method is the basis of comparison for fMRI, EEG, MEG, and other modern recording methods.
Herman Ebbinhgaus (1885)
Wanted to understand the nature of memory and how we forget
- Used himself as subject, repeated nonsense 3 syl (ex; DAX, YAT, ZIC) to determine how long it took him to learn the entire list.
- Waited some time and measure how long it took him to relearn the list.
- how the length of the delay affected how much was forgotten/retained.
Savings
Time to learn list - time to relearn list = measure of memory
Ebbighaus conclusion?
Memory for the syllables dropped steeply with increasing time between learning.
First experimental quantification of memory and showed that mental properties could fir a mathematical curve (model)
What was the problem with Ebbinghaus experiment?
He used himself as a subject which limited the external validity of the experiments.
Cuz it might to be the same for other people.
Wilhem Wundt
- He founded the theory of structuralism
- Trained people to use analytical introspection
- Wanted direct access to mental phenomena and not need to infer processes from behavioral responses.
Theory of structuralism
Mental processes could be broken down into basic elements (sensations)
Analytic introspection
Descriptive technique that required subjects to describe their experiences and thought processes using a standardized vocabulary.
Result of Wilhem and Itrospectionism
Unfortunately results were highly variable between individuals. The method also could not give an account of unconscious inferences (intuitions).
William James
- taught the 1st Psyc course at Harvard in 1875.
- used introspection and his own observation as his primary methodology.
- his 1890 book The Principle of Psychology was very influential and helped popularized ideas like ‘stream of consciousness’ and the experience of emotion as a consequence of physiological arousal (rather than a cause)
John B Watson
- critical of analytical introspection due to its extreme variability in results. Questioned how results could be verified.
- internal processes are ‘invisible’ and cont be objectively measured.
- Behaviors can be directly observed by anyone and don’t require an inference to unseen mental states. ->behaviorism
Methodological behaviorism
All psychological topics of interest had to be given operational definitions (specific, behavioral operations that were objectively observable)
- Happiness = characteristic facial expression, or body movements. Positive responses to queries.
- Memory = repetition of a behavior, including speech after delay
Mental entities were no longer from the topics of study because they can’t be directly observed
Little Albert
Classical Conditioning
- a 9 month old became frightened of a rat and rabbit after a loud noise (innate fear response) was made every time they were presented.
~ the goal is to show that simple conditioned r esponses could explain human behaviors without appeal to mental processes.
~ fear of animal = crying in the presence of animal [caused by bad experiences. ]
B.F. Skinner
Believed that free will was an illusion - it cant cause behavior. Behavior was largely the result of external rewards and punishments.
- respondent behaviors are automatically triggered by stimuli, through reflex or classical conditioning.
- operant behaviors are shaped (trained) by rewards or punishment over a lifetime.
-his approach was know as operant conditioning. He experimentally mapped schedules of reinforcement to observable behavioral outcomes
Behaviorism was useful in very simple (improvised) stimulus conditions. It was less successful in dealing with_______ _____
Complex learning.
Ex. Often failed to overcome problems of computational complexity
Problems of behaviorism : difficulty explaining differences in learning by species
(recall that rats tase associations and pigeons learn visual associations)
- if learning is determined by reinforcements, what accounts for innate differences?
- learned taste aversion (Garcia effect) can also be acquired after only one trial and with a delay between food and the illness. This seems to go against the need for repeated exposure.
Problems of behaviorism: Difficulty explaining delayed responses (when the stimulus was no longer present) in other tasks
Otto had monkeys and chimps observe as food was placed under one of two cups.
- the chimp is out of the room and they replace banana with carrot.
- chimp returned, chose the correct cup but was confused by carrot.
Difficult to explain the confused behavior without the existence of memory/expectation
Edward Tolman
Experimented with rats.
- rats explored a maze
- were trained to turn right for food
- later they were placed in new position and went a new way to get food
Mental chronometry
