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IntroductionMind: System that creates mental representations of the world and controls mental functions such
as perception, attention, memory, emotions, language, deciding, thinking and reasoning.
Cognition: The mental processes involved in perception, attention, memory, language, problem
solving, reasoning and decision making.
The mind can be thought of in 2 different ways:
1. Different types of cognition.
2. How the mind operates (it creates representations) and its function (it enables us to act and
to achieve goals).
In the beginning, ideas about the mind were dominated by the belief that it is not possible to study
the mind (“properties of the mind cannot be measured”). First cognitive psychology experiment:
Donders’ experiment, how long does it take to make a decision. Experiment important, because one
of the first cognitive psychology experiments, but also because it illustrates that mental responses
cannot be measure directly, but must be inferred from behavior. The latter holds for all research in
cognitive psychology.
Structuralism: An approach to psychology that explained perception as the adding up of small
elementary units called sensations. Wundt (German researcher) wanted to describe this by using
analytic introspection: A procedure used by early psychologists in which trained participants
described their experiences and thought processes in response to stimuli. Structuralism is not a
fruitful approach. However, important because pioneer in studying the mind under controlled
conditions. Shifted the approach from rationalist to empiric (emphasizing the role of experiments in
gaining knowledge).
Savings: Measure used by Ebbinghaus to determine the magnitude of memory left from initial
learning. Higher savings indicate greater memory. Savings = (original time to learn the list) – (time to
re-learn the list after the delay).
Person Procedure Results and Contribution
conclusion
Donders (1868) Simple reaction time Choice reaction time First cognitive
vs choice reaction takes 100 milliseconds psychology
time longer; therefore, it experiment
takes 100 milliseconds
to make a decision
Wundt (1879) Analytic introspection No reliable results Established the first
laboratory of scientific
psychology
Ebbinghaus (1885) Savings method to Forgetting occurs Quantitative
measure forgetting rapidly in the first one measurement of
to two days after mental processes
original learning
James (1890) No experiments; Descriptions of a wide First psychology
reported observations range of experiences textbook; some of his
of his own experience observations are still
valid today
,At the beginning research on the mind was not something of high importance due to the reactions
on analytic introspection. Watson became dissatisfied with the method of analytic introspection,
because it produced highly variable results from person to person, and he proposed a new approach,
called behaviourism: The approach to psychology, founded by John B. Watson, which states that
observable behaviour provides the only valid data for psychology. A consequence of this idea is that
consciousness and unobservable mental processes are not considered worthy of study by
psychologists. Cognitive psychology accepts the existence of unobserved (cognitive) processes that
can be scientifically studied via the creation and evaluation of mental models.
Afterward, Skinner provided another tool for studying the relationship between stimulus and
response, namely operant conditioning: Type of conditioning championed by B. F. Skinner, which
focuses on how behaviour is strengthened by presentation of positive reinforcers, such as food or
social approval, or withdrawal of negative reinforcers, such as a shock or social rejection. Again, this
was focused on behavior.
Although focus was mainly on behaviorism, there were experiments that focused on the mind. For
example, Tolman’s cognitive map: let a rat explore the maze and placed food at certain point
place the rat at point A and he went right at the intersection (to the food), place the rat at point B
and he went left at the intersection (behaviorism would say right, but rat has a cognitive map of the
maze). Cognitive map: mental conception of a spatial layout.
Cognitive revolution: A shift in psychology, beginning in the 1950s, from the behaviourist approach
to an approach in which the main thrust was to explain behaviour in terms of the mind. One of the
outcomes of the cognitive revolution was the introduction of the information-processing approach
to studying the mind. Cognitive revolution did take some time.
As a result of the computers, the information-processing approach came to the attention: The
approach to psychology, developed beginning in the 1950s, in which the mind is described as
processing information through a sequence of stages. One of the first experiments with this
approach was how well people are able to focus their attention on some information when other
information is being presented at the same time. Idea: when we decide to attend to one thing, we
must withdraw attention from the other. Dichotic listening: the procedure of presenting one
message to the left ear and a different message to the right ear.
AI: the ability of a computer to perform task usually associated with human intelligence. Logic
theorist: computer program devised by Alan Newell and Herbert Simon that was able to solve logic
problems (one of the first “AI”). The notion that many of our cognitive functions have limited
capacity is a central theme in modern cognitive psychology.
Two kind of models:
- Structural models: Representation of a physical structure (that are involved in specific
functions). An example is a model of the brain or structures within the brain and their
connections. Such models however, do not tell you how these structures are involved in the
specific functions that cognitive psychology focuses on (to do so, beyond just considering
brain structure).
- Process models: A model that represents the processes involved in cognition. An example is
the flow diagram for Broadbent’s filter model of attention. The boxes do not represent the
different brain areas, rather functions that can be performed in different brain areas.
,Resource models: closely related to the process models, but these models focus on which type—and
how much mental effort certain processes or tasks use. When a process uses a lot of effort or can
only obtain this effort from a limited resource, a capacity problem can arise leading to ineffective
functioning of the process. Another idea that plays a role in these models is that processes often
share resources and therefore have to compete for them. Some tasks can be done simultaneously,
while others can’t. This led to the idea of a multiple resource model: This model suggests that there
are separate resources (like pools of energy) for different stages of information processing
(perception/cognition vs responding), different modalities (visual vs auditory) and different codes
(verbal vs spatial). The model consists of 3 dimensions: (1) stage of processing: distinguishing
between perception and cognition processes on the one hand and responding on the other
(suggests that we use a different set of resources for the intake and handling of information than for
responding to that information. (2) codes of processing: indicating that spatial activities require
different resources than verbal/linguistic activities. (3) modalities: indicating that auditory
perception uses different resources than visual perception.
Cognitive strategies in Enhancing Learning:
- Spacing and interleaving: repeated presentation and reviewing of information facilitates
learning and improves memory. Interleaving: intermixing different topics within a particular
domain. Interleaving enhances learning.
- Retrieval-learning: Learning based on the act of retrieving or recovering previously stored
information. Retrieving information from memory increases the chance that the same
information will be retrieved again.
- Note taking and elaboration: taking notes by hand and not with laptop (thinking about vs
just repeating). Written notes show less verbatim overlap with the lectures.
Chapter 2: Cognitive Psychology
Cognitive neuroscience: field concerned with studying the neural basis of cognition. To understand
how the mind words, we need to do both behavioral experiments and psychological experiments.
Levels of analysis: a topic can be understood by studying it at a number of different levels of a
system.
Neurons: cell that is specialized to receive and transmit information in the nervous system. Nerve
net: a network of continuously interconnected nerve fibers (as contrasted with neural networks, in
which fibres are connected by synapses). Nerve net: continuous, you can travel to each direction.
Turned out to be not continuous, rather individual units (neurons) connected together. The density
of cells in the newborn brain is small compared to the density in the adult brain. The discovery that
, neurons were the basic building blocks of the brain was the centrepiece of the neuron doctrine: the
idea that individual cells called neurons transmit signals in the nervous system, and that these cells
are not continuous with other cells (as proposed in by nerve net theory).
The cell body is the metabolic center of the neuron; it contains mechanisms to keep the cell alive.
The function of dendrites that branch out from the cell body is to receive signals from other
neurons. Axons (nerve fibers) are usually long processes that transmit signals to other neurons. The
neuron has a receiving end (dendrites) and a transmitting end (axons) and its role is to transmit
signals. The small gap between the end of a neuron’s axon and the dendrites/cell body of another
neuron is called a synapse. Neurons are not connected indiscriminately to other neurons, but form
connection to only specific neurons. This forms groups of interconnected neurons, which together
form neural circuits. Receptors are neurons that are specialized to pick up information from the
environment.
Resting potential: difference in charge between the inside and outside of a nerve fibre when the
fibre is at rest (no other electrical signals are present). The inside of the neuron has a charge that is
70 mv negative than the outside, as long as the neuron is in rest. If a neurons’ receptor is stimulated,
a nerve impulse is transmitted down the axon. Nerve impulse: an electrical response that is
propagated down the length of an axon (nerve fibre). Nerve impulse is also called an action
potential. The charge inside the axon rises to +40 mv compared to the outside. As the impulse
continues pass the electrode, the charge inside the fibre reverses course and starts becoming
negative again, until it returns to the resting potential. The action potential lasts about 1
millisecond. Each action potential travels all the way down the axon without changing its height or
shape no loss of information or energy.
When the action potentials reach the synapse at the end of the axon, a chemical called a
neurotransmitter is released. The signal is transmitted across the gap through these
neurotransmitters. A neurotransmitter is a biochemical substance. Whether the next neuron create
impulses or not is dependent on: (1) what and how much information is carried through by means of
the neurotransmitters (some information may get lost while other information is amplified) and (2)
what and how much information it receives from other neurons that also make connections with
this neuron. The shape and height of action potentials keep the same when a nerve should fire
“more loudly”, rather the frequency of firing is increased. The sensation is higher with a higher
frequency compared to a lower frequency.
Principle of neural representation: everything a person experiences is based on representations in
the person’s nervous system. Quality “across the senses” refers to the different experience
associated with each of the senses – perceiving light for vision, sound for hearing, smells for
olfaction… Quality “within a particular sense”, shape/color/movement/sweetness…. Feature
detectors: neurons that respond to specific visual features, such as orientation, size, or the more
complex features that make up environmental stimuli.
Neurons in the visual cortex respond to simple stimuli like oriented bars; neurons in the temporal
lobe respond to complex geometrical stimuli and neurons in another area of the temporal lobe
respond to hand shapes or faces. Hierarchical processing: processing that occurs in a progression
from lower to higher areas of the brain. Hierarchical processing in the case of vision: many of simple
stimuli neurons fire and hence more complex stimuli neurons also fire.
Sensory code: how neural firing represents various characteristics of the environment. Specificity
coding: the representation of a specific stimulus by the firing of neurons that respond only to that
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