Week 1 - TextBook Flashcards
What is the Difference between Mind and Brain?
How does the Mind and Brain interact?
The interaction about what the mind perceives and does and how the brain processes external and internal stimulus
How Should I go About Thinking About the Mind
What Does Previous Research Tell us About the Mind
How should I, as a Psychologist, think about the mind?
Franciscus Donders
- Dutch Psychologist
- Founded first scientific laboratory to study the mind
- Did the first cognitive psychology experiment
- Cognitive Psychology did not become mainstream till 1967
- Measured Decision Making and Reaction times
William Wundt
- 1879 Leipzig Germany
- Structuralism
- combined basic elements of experience and coined term SENSATIONS
- Wanted to create “periodic table of the mind”
- Used Analytic Introspection - Describing their experience and thought processes in response to stimuli
Ebbinghaus’s Memory Experiment
- What is the Course of Forgetting?
- 1885-1913
- Used quantative measure method for measureing memory
- Interested in nature of memory and forgetting
- How quickly is learned information lost over time
William James’ Principles of Psychology
- Observations about the mind
- Paying attention to one thing involves withdrawing attention from other things
- reported on observations of his own experience
John Watson
- Abandoned the study of the mind
- Founded behaviourism which only studies observable behaviour
- Was frustrated by Analytical Introspection
Early Work in Cognitive Psychology
- Donders experiment: How long does it take to make a decision
- Wundt’s Psychology Laboratory: Structuralism and Analytic Introspection
- Ebbinghaus’s Memory Experiment: What is the time course of forgetting?
- William James’s Principles of Psychology
Abandoning the Study Of the Mind
- Watson founds Behaviourism
- Skinner’s Operant Conditioning
- Setting the Stage for the Reemergence of the Mind in Psychology
Rebirth of the Study of the Mind
- Paradigm Shifts
- Introduction of the Digital Computer
- Flow Diagrams for Computers
- Flow Diagrams for the Mind
- Artificial Intelligence and Informaiton Theory
- The Cognitive “Revolution” Took a while
The Evolution of Coginitive Psychology
- What Neisser Wrote
- Studying Higher Mental Processes
- Studying the Physiology of Cognition
- New Perspectives on Behaviour
What does the mind do? (7)
The mind creates and controls mental functions such as:
- Perception
- Attention
- Memory
- emotions
- Language
- Decision making
- Thinking & Reasoning
Definition of the Mind
A system that creates a representation of the world so that we can interact in it and set and achieve goals
How do the mind and brain interact
The interaction about what the mind perceives and does and how the brain processes external and internal stimulus
Two ways of thinking mind and brain
- The first is what the mind does such as perception, attention, memory etc
- A system that creates a representation of the experiences of the world
Donders Pioneering Experiment
- Studied Decision Making and Reaction times
- Simple Reaction Time = push button
- Choice Reaction time = time to choose which button to push
- Choice RT = CRT-SRT
- CRT was 1/10 second longer
- Mental Processes cannot be observed but can be inferred
Wundt Psychology Laboratory
- Structuralism
- Analytic Introspection
- Wanted to create a periodic table of the mind
Ebbinghaus Memory Experiment
- What is the Time Course of Forgetting?
- Studied himself
- Learned nonsense words and measured how long it took to learn
- After a period of delay measured how long it would take to memorise again
- Relearning was faster than the first time
- Savings = (Original time to learn the list) minus
- (Time to relearn the list after the delay).*
- Savings drops rapidly up to 2 days then levels off around 30 days
William James - Principles of Psychology
- Observed mental processes such as attention
- Used Analytic Introspection
*
Early Pioneers in Cognitive Psychology
- Donders 1868
- Wundt 1879
- Ebbinghaus 1885
- James 1890
Abandoning Study of the Mind
- Analytic Introspection was disregarded
- Psychology now focused on Behaviour that could be observed and measured
- Mental Processes were considered not relevant and should be ignored
Watson Found Behaviourism
- Was disillusioned by Analytic Introspection
- Wrote “psychology as the Behaviourist sees it”
- Sought to only study observable behaviour
- Little Albert Experiment
Problems with Analytic Introspection
- Results were widely varied from person to person
- Difficult to verify because they were “invisible” qualities
Ivan Pavlov
- Classical Conditioning
- Associations and pairing of stimulus can change behaviour
- Pavlov’s Dog Experiment
BF Skinner
- Operant Conditioning
- Made pigeons press a button
- Positive & Negative reinforcements
- Punishment & rewards
*
Edward Chace Tolman
- Early Cognitive Psychology pioneer
- Used behaviour to infer mental processes
- Demonstrated the Cognitive Map in rats
Noam Chomsky
- Challenged Skinner’s idea that children learn language through Operant Conditioning
- Children say things that they have not been rewarded for (I hate you Mummy)
- Children make similar grammar errors that have never been reinforced (he hitted the ball)
- Said language development was innate in the child
- Language development was biological in nature and existed across languages and cultures
Paradigm Shift in Psychology and the Mind
- We need to study observable behaviour AND ask what does behaviour tell us about how the mind works
- Study moved away from Behaviourism to Cognitive Psychology in a gradual way
Thomas Kuhn
- Wrote book “Structure of Scientific Revolutions”
- Devised a Paradigm Shift stating that a scientific revolution involves a shift from one System of thinking to Another
Introduction of the Digital Computer
- Flow diagrams for Computer Processing became analogies for Mental Processes
- A way to analyse mental operations through processing stages
Timeline - Cognitive Revolution
- 1948 - Tolman Cognitive Map
- 1953 - Cherry Attention Experiment
- 1954 - First Digital Computer
- 1956 - Dartmouth & MIT conferences on Artificial Intelligence
- 1957 - Skinner; Verbal Behaviour
- 1958 - Broadbent Flow Diagram
- 1958 - Chomsky: Review Skinners Verbal Behaviour
- 1967 - Neisser: First Cognitive Psychology textbook
Ulrich Neisser
- First Cognitive Psychology Textbook
- Mostly dedicated to vision and hearing
- Coined term Higher Mental Processes
- Did not study physiology and mental processes
Atkinson & Shiffrin’s Model of Memory
- Developed Sensory Memory, Short-term Memory & Long-term Memory
- Talked about Rehearsal for processing information in STM
- Some memory from STM can move into LTM
Tulving 1972
- Divided Long-term Memory into 3 subcategories
- Episodic - Life events
- Semantic - Facts
- Procedural - Physical actions
Studying Physiology of Cognition
- Neuropsychology
- Electrophysiology
Brain Imaging Techniques
- With new technology we became able to measure brain activity
- This created a new technology revolution of physiological study of the brain
*
Stephen Palmer 1975
- Created the Context Experiment
- Showed people could identify objects more easily if they were also given context for the object
Encoding
What is happening as we learn new material
Retreival
What is happening when You remember material
