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Cognitive Psychology > What is Cognitive Psychology? > Flashcards

What is Cognitive Psychology? Flashcards

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1
Q

What is cognitive psychology?

A

The scientific study of mental processes - a.k.a, “Information Processing Approach”

Based on the analogy of the mind as a computer

Von Neumann (1958); Marr (1982)

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2
Q

Anologies of cogntitive psychology

A
  • Hardware = Physical system (nervous system)

- Software = Mental processes (memory, attention, etc.)

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3
Q

Weakness of cognitive psychology

A

Reductionist

Often oversimplifies mental processes and the explanations often ignore other potential factors

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4
Q

Mental Representation

A

Cognitive science assumes that information is “represented” in your nervous system

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5
Q

Representational Account

A

Internal representation of external objects

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6
Q

Types of representational accounts

A
  • Propositional representations

- Indirect realism (representational)

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7
Q

What are propositional representations?

A

‘Token’ mental representations with semantic properties (tokens with meaning)

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8
Q

What is indirect realism?

A

We access external reality through representation

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9
Q

Issue with representational accounts

A

Not every cognitive psychologist supports the them

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10
Q

What is information (broadly)?

A

The amount of entropy (disorder) in a system
- Shannon & Weaver (1949)

I.e. information is the amount of surprise

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11
Q

What do cognitive processes do?

A

Aim to process the ‘surprise’ and filter out any noise

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12
Q

Environmental information

A

This is processed by a variety of different processing systems (this is known as modularity)

E.g. visual processes, memory, attention, etc.

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13
Q

What do processing systems do?

A

These discrete systems transform and osrt the info collected from the environment

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14
Q

Structuralist Approach

A

The start of cognitive psychology’s history

Introspection (Wundt, 1873)

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15
Q

Limitations of Structuralist Approach

A
  • Can’t be verified
  • Different reports
  • Can alter thought processes
  • Assumes mental events are conscious
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16
Q

Behaviourism

A

Second stage in cognitive psychology’s history

The study of observable, measureable events

The basis is that all human behaviour can be explained in terms of the learned relationship between stimulus and response

Argues that mental variables are unimportant - Epiphenomenal (mental events are caused by physical events in the brain)

This approach was hugely influential

17
Q

Who founded behaviourism?

A

Watson (1913)

  • There was a need for a scientific approach to psychology which had the same foundations as other physical sciences
18
Q

Examples of Behaviourism

A

Classical Conditioning (Pavlov; Watson)

Operant Conditioning (Skinner)

19
Q

Cognitive Revolution

A

This is when cognitive psychology became a prominent area of psychology

Behaviourism was thought to be too simplistic

This occurred around the 1950’s, although cognitive psychology was being studied before then)

20
Q

Examples of influential early cognitive psychology

A

Tolman (1948) - Cognitive maps

Cherry (1952) - Attention; Cocktail Party Effect

Chomsky (1957) - Language Acquisition is not a part of operant conditioning

Miller (1957) - Memory: Magic number = 7 +/-2

21
Q

The influence of information theory on cognitive psychology

A

Influenced by maths, engineering, computers

Developed new concepts (attention, skill, capacity, etc.)

22
Q

Information Flow/Theory

A

Information theory studies the quantification, storage, and communication of information

It is a mathematical theory

23
Q

Bottom - up processing

A

Data driven

Begins with an analysis of the sensory input (e.g. light on retina)
Perception is built up from low level information

Bottom-up processing refers to processing sensory information as it is coming in

24
Q

Top - down processing

A

Concept driven

High level cognitive influences
Knowledge and experience influence our perceptions of the world

Your brain applies what it knows and what it expects to perceive and fills in the blanks

25
Q

Serial processing

A

Piecemeal processing

  • Bottleneck
  • Sequential

…4, 3, 2… - 1 ——–> Stored Knowledge

26
Q

Parallel processing

A

Bulk processing

  • Late/No bottle neck
  • Consecutive

4 3
5 … 2 ——–> Stored Knowledge
6 1

27
Q

What are the approaches to studying cognition?

A

1) Experimental Cognition
2) Cognitive Neuropsychology
3) Cognitive Neuroscience
4) Computational Cognition

28
Q

Experimental Cognition

A

An approach to studying cognition

Experimenter controls the variables in an attempt to study only one particular variable or system

Theories, etc. are deduced indirectly as a result of measurements of accuracy and reaction time

(Traditional approach)

29
Q

Cognitive Neuropsychology

A

An approach to studying congition

How cognitive systems work is deduced based on on brain injuries or abnormalities
- This involves studying very small samples (i.e. 1 pp)

Assumes “modularity of mind” - Fodor (1983)

Relies heavily on double dissociations

30
Q

“Modularity of Mind”

A

Fodor (1983)

One area damaged = one particular function/set of functions will be affected

31
Q

Double dissociations

A

When two related mental processes are shown to function independently of each other

Example:
- Speech production and language comprehension are both involving the use of language but have been shown to correlate with different brain regions

32
Q

Cognitive Neuroscience

A

An approach to studying cognition

Brain imaging

33
Q

Brain imaging techniques

A
  • Single unit recording
  • EEG (Electroencophalograph
  • PET (Positron Emmission Tomography)
  • fMRI (Functional Magnetic Resonance Imagery)
  • TMS (Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation)
34
Q

Computational Cognition

A

An approach to studying cognition

  • Artificial intelligence - Physical electronics and computer programs
  • Connectionism
  • Abstract associative networks
35
Q

Connectionism

A

Connectionism is a movement in cognitive science that hopes to explain intellectual abilities using artificial neural networks (also known as “neural networks” or “neural nets”)

36
Q

Summary of cognitive psychology

A
  • 70(ish) years
  • Information processing account: Mind = computer analogy
  • Variety of approaches and applications
37
Q

Information processing - key concepts

A
  • Something is being represented (most accounts)
  • Modular and discrete systems
  • Information processing = chaos to order
  • Bottom-up vs. top-down processing
  • Serial vs. parallel processing

Cognitive Psychology (4 decks)

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