1. Chapter 1
Lecture Outline
The Science of the Mind
© 2010 by W. W. Norton & Co., Inc.

2. Chapter 1: The Science of the Mind

Lecture Outline
 The
Scope of Cognitive Psychology
 A Brief History
 Introspection
 Behaviorism
 Cognitive
 Research
Revolution
in Cognitive Psychology: An
Example
 Working
Memory

3. The Scope of Cognitive Psychology

Cognitive psychology is the study of
knowledge
 How
do we study and memorize?
 How do we focus our attention and
concentrate?
 How do we make decisions?

4. The Scope of Cognitive Psychology

H.M.
 Unable
 Could
to form new memories
not grieve for a dead uncle
 Had little sense of himself
 Video

5. A Brief History: Introspection
Wundt and his student Titchener began the
study of experimental psychology in the
late 1800s.

6. A Brief History: Introspection

Introspection
 Observing
your own thoughts

7. A Brief History: Introspection

Problems with introspection
 Thoughts
are not directly observable
 Impossible to test objectively

8. A Brief History: Behaviorism

Behaviorism overcame the limitations
posed by introspection
 It
focused on observable behaviors

9. A Brief History: Behaviorism

Behaviorism uncovered principles of how
behavior changes in response to stimuli,
such as rewards and punishments

10. A Brief History: Behaviorism

Problems with behaviorism
 Stimulus-response
accounts are not enough
 Behavior has a “mental” cause

11. A Brief History: Behaviorism

Different stimuli elicit the same behavior
 Can
you please pass the salt?
 Salt, please.
 My food would be more palatable with sodium
chloride crystals.

Same stimulus elicits a different behavior
 My
friend asked his mother to please pass the
salt.

12. A Brief History: Cognitive Revolution

From introspection and behaviorism,
experimental psychologists learned that:
 Introspective
methods for studying mental
events are not scientific
 However, we need to study mental events in
order to understand behavior

13. A Brief History: Cognitive Revolution

Transcendental
method of Immanuel
Kant
 Work
backward from
observations to determine
cause

14. A Brief History: Cognitive Revolution
An analogy can be made to a police
detective using clues to figure out how a
crime was committed
 An analogy can also be made to a
physicist studying electrons, which cannot
be directly seen


15. A Brief History: Cognitive Revolution

Cognitive psychologists study mental
events, but do so indirectly
 Measure
stimuli and responses
 Develop hypotheses about mental events
 Design new experiments

16. Research in Cognitive Psychology: Working Memory

Working memory is temporary memory
storage

17. Research in Cognitive Psychology: Working Memory

The span test measures workingmemory (WM) capacity
Span scores
observable
WM capacity
Not observable

18. Research in Cognitive Psychology: Working Memory

Working memory is not unitary
 System
composed of a central executive
 Assistant
components

19. Research in Cognitive Psychology: Working Memory
Inner voice
Inner ear

20. Research in Cognitive Psychology: Working Memory

Evidence from cognitive neuroscience is
also brought into the model

Anarthria （構音障礙）


The inability to produce overt speech
Confusion between words with the same sound

21. Research in Cognitive Psychology: Working Memory

Evidence from cognitive neuroscience is
also brought into the model
Areas involved
In subvocal rehearsal

22. Research in Cognitive Psychology: Working Memory

Deaf people confuse
words with similar
hand shapes, not
similar sounds

23. Research in Cognitive Psychology: Working Memory
Multiple lines of evidence must be used
when hypothesizing mechanisms used to
explain observable data
 Often a single piece of data can be
explained by a variety of hypotheses


24. Research in Cognitive Psychology: Working Memory

Working memory is more than just the
span task
 It
is involved in many of the activities we
perform on a daily basis
 It is also important for learning

25. Research in Cognitive Psychology: Working Memory

Experiments allow cognitive psychologists
to understand internal complex
mechanisms in a simpler, more
constrained manner

26. Goals of Research
Data gathering
 Data analysis
 Theory development
 Hypothesis formation
 Hypothesis testing
 Application to real world


27. Research Methods
Controlled experiments
 Psychobiological research
 Self reports
 Case studies
 Naturalistic observation
 Computer simulations and artificial
intelligence


28. In an Experiment…

Manipulate the independent variable
 Create
experimental group
 Create control group
 Randomly assign participants

Measure the dependent variable
 Same

for all groups
Control all other variables
 Prevent
confounds

29. Typical Independent Variables
 Characteristics
 Presence
of the situation
vs. absence of a stimulus
 Characteristics
of the task
 Reading
vs. listening to words for
comprehension
 Characteristics
 Age
differences
of participants

30. Typical Dependent Variables

Percent correct/error rate
 Accuracy

of mental processing
Reaction time (milliseconds)
 Speed
of mental processing

31. Correlational Studies
Cannot infer causation
 Simply measure variables of interest
 Nature of relationship

 Positive
correlation
 Negative correlation

Strength of relationship
 Determined
by size of “r”

32. Example: Correlational Study
An examination of the relationship
between confidence and accuracy of
eyewitnesses
 What do you think the relationship is?

Positive?
Strong?
Negative?
Weak?
It is not a strong positive correlation!
Many studies indicate that high confidence does not mean high accuracy

33. Psychobiological Studies

Postmortem studies
 Examine

Brain-damaged individuals and their deficits
 Study

cortex of dyslexics after death
amnesiacs with hippocampus damage
Monitor a participant doing a cognitive task
 Measure
brain activity while a participant is
reciting a poem

34. Other Methods

Self-reports
 An
individual’s own account of cognitive
processes


Verbal protocol, diary study
Case studies
 In-depth

studies of individuals
Genie, Phineas Gage

35. Other Methods

Naturalistic observation
 Studies
of cognitive performance in
everyday situations outside of the lab

Monitor decision-making of pilots during flights

36. Computers in Research

Analogy for human cognition



The sequence of symbol manipulation
that underlies thinking
The goal: discovery of the programs in
human memory
Computer simulations of artificial
intelligence

Recreate human processes using
computers

37. Fundamental Ideas
•
Data can only be fully explained with
theories, and theories are insufficient
without data – thus creating the cycle
of science
Theory
Data

38. Fundamental Ideas

Cognition is typically adaptive, but errors
made can be informative
 Example:
Spoonerisms
A lack of pies (A pack of lies)
 It’s roaring with pain (It’s pouring with rain)

 Errors
can be used to infer how speech
production occurs

39. Fundamental Ideas

Cognitive processes interact with each other
and with noncognitive processes
–
–
–
Emotions may affect decisions
Working memory capacity contributes to reading
speed
Perception contributes to memory decisions

40. Fundamental Ideas

Many different scientific methods are used to
study cognition

Basic research often leads to important
applications, and applied research often
contributes to a more basic understanding of
cognition

41. Chapter 1 Questions

42. 1. Cognitive psychology is primarily concerned
with which of the following?
a) what we know
b) what we remember
c) how we think
d) all of the above

43. 2. The famous psychologist Edward
Titchener claimed to have identified and
catalogued nearly 10,000 sensations that
he observed within himself. What method
best describes his approach?
a) introspection
b) behaviorism
c) psychoanalysis
d) transcendentalism

44. 3. A psychologist who adheres to the
behaviorist school of thought would most
likely attribute someone being afraid of a
spider to
a) an interaction between memory and fear.
b) a chemical imbalance produced by a deficit
in nutrients.
c) a learned behavior in response to specific
environmental triggers.
d) inadequate maternal supervision and love
during infancy.

45. 4. Because psychology forms hypotheses
about processes that cannot be
observed directly it relies on _____
methods to describe the behaviors that
can be observed.
a) transcendental
b) inferential
c) both A and B
d) neither A nor B

46. 5. Which of the following is a similarity
between psychology and physics?
a) Both test their theories using the
scientific method.
b) Both do not allow for direct
observation of the causes of
phenomena.
c) Both base their theories on objective,
quantifiable data.
d) all of the above

47. 6. Which of the following is NOT TRUE of
the working-memory system?
a) The central executive serves coordinates
the role of the assistant systems.
b) Working memory has a limited capacity.
c) The assistants are responsible solely for
storage of information.
d) Working memory is a single entity with
virtually no peripheral mechanisms.

48. 7. Memory performance on a span task is
typically reduced when the participant
has to perform concurrent articulation.
This is due to
a) cognitive load
b) rhythmic movements.
c) subvocalization.
d) brain damage.