Cognitive Psychology
•The study of human mental processes and their role in
thinking, feeling, and behaving.
•Information processing—the mind is analogous to the
software of a computer and the brain to its hardware.
Overview
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What is Cognitive Psychology?
The History of Cognitive Psychology in Brief
Cognitive Psychology is about Processing Information
Metaphors, Models, Theories, and Perspectives
Cognitive Psychology and Cognitive Science
Research Methods
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2005
What is Cognitive Psychology?
 Scientific study of the thinking mind
 Attending to information
 Perceiving information from the world
 Storing information
 Processing information
 Retrieving information
 Solving problems, thinking, language
A Brief History…
 Early Thoughts on Thinking
 Two perspectives about how knowledge represented in the
mind:
 Empiricists
 Knowledge comes from Experiences gained through the lifetime
 Nativists
 Knowledge is based on the Innate characteristics of the brain
 Knowledge is defined as the storage and organization of information in
memory. This supports both sides of argument.
 Storage side suggests that experiences are important, and the organization
side suggests that some preexisting structural capacity exists in the brain.
A Brief History…
 The Rise and Fall of Behaviorism
 Stimulus-response
 Intervening variables
 Edward C. Tolman’s book “Purposive Behavior in Animas and Men”
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(1932)
Rats used alternate, novel (untrained) pathway when accessible to locate
the food.
The animal developed gradually developed a “picture” a picture of its
environment that was later used to find the food.
Sir Frederick Bartlett wrote “Remembering” (1932).
Important aspect of remembering a story was the participant’s attitude
towards the story
A Brief History…
 The Cognitive Revolution
 1956, symposium on information theory in MIT
 Interest turned again toward cognitive processes and how knowledge
is represented in the mind
Cognitive Psychology is about Processing
Information
 Involves total range of psychological processes
 How we attend to and perceive information in the world
 How that information is processed, stored and used
Metaphors, Models, Theories &
Perspectives
 Metaphors can be used to conceptualize a cognitive process (e.g.,
memory is like a video camera).
 Useful for understanding
 Not always accurate
 Models are organizational frameworks used to describe processes.
 Provides a representation of the character of the observation and aids
in making predictions
 Models help us understand the process by explicitly describing it.
 E.g. Ordering a take-and-bake-pizza;
 Encoding
Storage
Retrieval
Metaphors, Models, Theories &
Perspectives
 Theories attempt to explain some aspect of a process
 Used to test hypotheses
 Can be supported or disproven
 Perspectives guide scientists’ research questions and evaluation of
their findings
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Information processing
Neuroscience
Computer science
Evolutionary psychology
Information-Processing
 Time-ordered sequence of events
 Three assumptions
 Sequential stages
 Unique processes at each stage
 Each stage receives and passes on information
Neuroscience
 Focuses on brain structure and function that produces
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cognitive experience
Localization vs. distributed processes
Neurosurgeons findings during World War I. Particular areas
of brain were responsible for particular psychological
functions
Karl Lashley lesioned specific parts of the brains of rats after
they had learned to run a maze. He demonstrated that mazerunning performance declined according to the total amount
of the brain destroyed.
Both are correct!
Computer Science
 Brain as a computer
 Modeling brain function
 Computer scientist took what they knew about neural
networks in the brain and created computers with artificial
neural networks.
 Not only is the brain interconnected, the brain sends
excitatory and inhibitory signals within the network.
 Parallel Distributed Processing. These PD models assume that
information processing takes lace through the interactions of
large number of simple processing elements called units,
each sending excitatory and inhibitory signals to other units.
Evolutionary Psychology
 Cognition can be understood from a functionalist perspective
 What function does a particular cognitive process serve in
the context of physical and social evolution?
 Cognitive processes as adaptive
 Eg. If memory exists (has not been selected out), it must have
a function (William James)
 Ability to recognize other faces was so important that a
specific area of the brain was designated for that function and
process.
Cognitive Psychology and Cognitive Science
 Scholars from discreet disciplines come together to understand
cognitive processes
 Linguistics
 Computer science
 Developmental psychology
 Artificial intelligence
 Neuroscience
 Anthropology
Research Methods
 Observational studies
 Describe phenomena
 Experiments
 Explain phenomena (an Experiment). Through an experiment, cause
and effect can be determined, making this a useful tool of cognitive
psychologists.
 Definitions
 Conceptual vs Operational
 General understanding vs precise and concrete
 Unit of analysis: It is the primary entity or focus of your study
Measuring Psychological Correlates to the
Physical World
 Psychophysics
 Study of the relationship between stimuli and the sensations and
perceptions evoked by these stimuli
 Eg. Systematically increasing the intensity of light from absolute dark, up to
the point where the sensation was noticed by the observer.
 Single-cell studies
 Measuring the electrical activity of a cell and evaluating the perceptual
experience of that activity
 Eg. A very small probe with a meter on the end is entered into a cell
without damaging it. The probe would measure the electrical activity of the
cell, thus we could evaluate the perceptual experiences at the cellular level.
Measuring Psychological Correlates to the
Physical World
 Reaction-time studies
 Measures the amount of time to complete cognitive tasks
 Mental events correspond to the physical properties of the real
world.
 Priming studies
 Evaluates the impact of previously presented stimuli on a given
cognitive process or behavior
 Semantic priming effect
 Object priming effect
Measuring Psychological Correlates to the
Physical World
 Eye-tracking studies
 Evaluation of eye fixation and movement
 The assumption is that the brain directs the eyes to the locations in the
visual world important to carry out cognitive functioning.
 Lateralization studies
 Studies of how the 2 halves of the brain function differently
 The assumption underlying these types of studies is that if an object is
presented to the left hemisphere, but ultimately needs to be processed by
the right hemisphere, it will take longer to respond than if the object had
originally been presented directly to the right hemisphere.
Documenting Unique Cases
 Case studies
 Documents the often unique cognitive attribute or deficit of an
individual
 These are not experiments
 Imaging studies
 Shows structure and/or function to study cognitive processing,
developmental change, and effects of neurological damage
 It is presumed that the areas involved in cognitive activity will
require a greater amount of oxygen and generate a greater amount
of waste and thus more blood will be directed to that area.
Ethics
 Institutional Review Boards
 Animal and human subject protection
 Risk-gain assessment