1. An Introduction to Cognitive Psychology
Dr. P. Ansburg,Cognitive Psychology PSY 4570, MSU Denver

2. 1. Cognition
-- People think.
2. Cognitive Psychology
-- Scientists think about how people think.
3. Students of Cognitive Psychology
-- People think about how scientists think about how people think.
Cognition is the collection of mental processes and activities used in
perceiving, learning, remembering, thinking and understanding.
Cognitive Psychology deals with how people perceive, learn,
remember, think and understand.
-- (from Robert Sternberg, 2000)
Dr. P. Ansburg,Cognitive Psychology PSY 4570, MSU Denver

3. • Cognition occupies a major portion of human
existence.
• The cognitive approach has widespread
influence on other areas of psychology, as well as
disciplines outside psychology.
• Cognitive psychology provides an "owner's
manual" for your mind.
Dr. P. Ansburg, Cognitive Psychology PSY 4570, MSU Denver

4. The scientific study of cognition very new 1950's but the questions
addressed find roots in earlyWestern philosophy.
“Psychology has a long past, but a short history” Ebbinghaus (1908).
Aristotle (384 B.C.) outlined basic principles of memory and proposed a
theory of memory in De Memoria (Concerning Memory).
Plato tells that Socrates fretted over the invention of written language
b/c thought it would weaken reliance on memory and understanding.
Descartes (1637) cogito ergo sum -- the ultimate proof of human
existence was consciousness.
Philosophy combined with the empirical methods of natural sciences
formed psychology.
Dr. P. Ansburg,Cognitive Psychology PSY 4570, MSU Denver

5. Wundt (1832-1930): defined conscious processes and immediate
experience as the central topic for psychology (i.e., sensation &
perception).
employed introspection--one looks carefully inward, reporting on
immediate inner sensations & experiences.
Titchener founded a lab at Cornell 1892 and continued inWundt’s
tradition in the US
Ebbinghaus: Interested in the mind's process of association formation--
use material with no pre-existing associations nonsense syllables (cvc)
savings (relearning)
forgetting as a function of time
effect of meaning on memory
William James: more of a theorist than empiricist, conducted thought
experiments
argued for a short/long term memory distinction
Dr. P. Ansburg,Cognitive Psychology PSY 4570, MSU Denver

6. In the early 1910’s-1920’s JohnWatson founds behaviorism b/c of the
huge problems with introspection
Does the process of introspection influence the process under study?
Some processes we have no access to
Verbal descriptions are imperfect communicators
Behaviorism—overt behavior is only legitimate realm for psychology.
No need to describe internal processes, can predict behavior based on
stimuli present
S-R psychology (Skinner)
MostAmericans hopped aboard the behaviorism train, but there were
hold-outs in Europe (verbal learning tradition and Gestalt Psychologists)
“Psychology lost its head during the rule of behaviorism.”
Dr. P. Ansburg,Cognitive Psychology PSY 4570, MSU Denver

7. 1. Instinctive drift: conditioning could be overpowered by biology—
inconsistent with tabula rasa tenet held by behaviorists
2.WWII--academics put to task of making war
Why did pilots misidentify radar blips?
Decision making, signal detection
These problems made clear the "immpeccable peripherialism of S-R
behaviorism” (Bruner et al.1956)
Verbal learning tradition found that people were making associations to
nonsense syllables and clustering in recall suggesting that mental
processing was occurring and was important
Linguistics--Chomsky (1959) successfully challenged Skinner’s
explanation of verbal behavior
Dr. P. Ansburg,Cognitive Psychology PSY 4570, MSU Denver

8. Computers--1930-40'sThe notion that
computers behave like humans.They are both
information processors
The product reflects what occurred internal
processing
Symbol manipulating machine perform operations
on symbols in a series of stages
Watch a video summarizing the history about how the
cognitive approach overtook behaviorism (just watch
from the beginning until the time on the video read
5:27—the end of the video is not relevant)
Dr. P. Ansburg,Cognitive Psychology PSY 4570, MSU Denver

9. MOST DEFINITELY NOT USING INTROSPECTION!
Stephen Pinker discusses this question
All science is conceptual. Scientists develop concepts or
constructs and hypotheses or predictions.
Cognitive models/ theories—organize & summarize
empirical observations about how knowledge is acquired,
stored and used.
Models/theories allow predictions to test that test the
model/theory, when model is no longer describes empirical
information it is discarded in favor of another.
Dr. P. Ansburg,Cognitive Psychology PSY 4570, MSU Denver

10. 1. Mental processes exist, are lawful, systematic events
that can be studied scientifically.
2. Humans are active participants in the world—select
some information from the environment, relate it to
what is known and then may act on the world.
3. Measurements of how long it takes to perform a task
(i.e., reaction time) and how accurately that task is
performed informs us about the cognitive processes
and mechanisms that underlie the performance.
Dr. P. Ansburg,Cognitive Psychology PSY 4570, MSU Denver

11. The Emergence of Modern Cognitive
Psychology
 The Information-Processing Approach
a) Mental processes are similar to the operations of a
computer.
b) Information progresses through the cognitive
system in a series of stages, one step at a time.
Dr. P. Ansburg,Cognitive Psychology PSY 4570, MSU Denver

12. The Cognitive
Revolution
Watch Dr. Alan Baddeley discusses the Cognitive
Revolution
Dr. George Miller Recalls the Cognitive Revolution
Read about the “Father of Cognitive Psychology”:
Dr. Ulric Neisser
Photo of Dr. Ulrich Neisser from his
obituary published by New York Times
Photo of Dr. George Miller from
Princeton University
http://www.princeton.edu/pr/pictures/l-
r/miller_george/millerHiRes.jpg
2/25/2012
Dr. P. Ansburg,Cognitive Psychology PSY 4570, MSU Denver

13. • More complex models than the early information
processing models
• Has begun to address issues of ecological validity
• Widespread influence on the discipline of
psychology
• Social Psychology incl a subfield, “Social Cognition”
• Applications of the cognitive approach across
disciplines
• Basically anywhere humans are involved!
Dr. P. Ansburg,Cognitive Psychology PSY 4570, MSU Denver

14. With advances in neuroscience, cognitive
psychologists are able to add physiological
measures to the traditional measures of cognitive
processing. In addition to reaction time and error
rates, data collected from the following methods
help to test cognitive models.
Brain Lesions
Positron EmissionTomography (PET scan)
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)
Event-Related PotentialTechnique (ERP)
Dr. P. Ansburg,Cognitive Psychology PSY 4570, MSU Denver

15.  Artificial Intelligence
 The Connectionist Approach
• parallel distributed processing (PDP) approach
• neural network approach
• cerebral cortex
• serial processing
• parallel processing
Dr. P. Ansburg,Cognitive Psychology PSY 4570, MSU Denver

16.  Artificial Intelligence (AI)
 The Computer Metaphor
▪ structures and processes
 Pure AI
▪ Efficiency and accuracy of performance is emphasized
and no attempt is made to model human thought.
▪ Watch Dr. Ng (Stanford University) discuss the challenges of AI in
the context of robotics
 Computer Simulation
▪ computer modeling used as a method of investigating
how humans think
Dr. P. Ansburg,Cognitive Psychology PSY 4570, MSU Denver

17.  Cognitive Science
• Interdisciplinary—cognitive psychology,
neuroscience, and artificial intelligence PLUS
philosophy, linguistics, anthropology, sociology,
and economics
Read this resources for more on cognitive
science: Thagard, Paul, "Cognitive Science", The
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2012 Edition),
Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL =
<http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2012/entries/cogn
itive-science/>.
Dr. P. Ansburg,Cognitive Psychology PSY 4570, MSU Denver