Chapter 1: The Science of the Mind

The Scope of Cognitive Psychology

Everything we do is based on prior knowledge and experience

What do psychologists study?

attention, decision-making, language, memory, problem solving, perception and reasoning

Questions of cognitive psychology

-How is knowledge acquired?
-How is knowledge retained so that it's available when needed?
-How is knowledge used�whether as a basis for making decisions or as a means of solving problems?

Cognition

What you know, what you think and what recall

Disciplines aligned with cognitive psychology

Brain regions
Clinical neuropsychology
Cognitive neuropsychology
Cognitive neuroscience
Dementia
Human brain
Neuroanatomy
Neurophysiology
Neuropsychological assessment
Neuropsychological rehabilitation
Traumatic brain injury
Abnormal psychology
Social psy

Cognitive psychology is a science that uses these methods:

experimental method and empirical data

Hypothesis and Hypothesis Testing

When doing this kind of testing nothing is EVER proved

Wilhelm Wundt

-German psychologist
-established physiologist
-established psychology as the science of experience
-made first psychology laboratory in 1879
-chief method was introspection (internal perception)

Introspection

-what is it,who did it, what are the problems
-the process through which one "looks within" to observe and record the contents of one's own mental life
-what am I thinking, seeing, feeling?
-are my thoughts visual or language based?
-what steps do I take

Problems w/ introspection

-thoughts are not directly observable
-impossible to test objectively
-individual differences in subjective experience

John Watson

-founder of behaviorism
-psychology as an objective experimental branch of natural science
-study ONLY observable behaviors
-no mental processes
-goal is the prediction and control of behavior
-little Albert experiment (1920)
-showing empirical evidence o

B.F Skinner

-researcher of behaviorism
-principles of operant conditioning, and shaping
-animal cognition
-Skinner box w/rat

Behaviorism

-the theory that human and animal behavior can be explained in terms of conditioning, without appeal to thoughts or feelings, and that psychological disorders are best treated by altering behavior patterns.
-focused on stimuli and reaction.

Immanuel Kant

-created the transcendental method
-asked what qualities of the mind make experience possible

Transcendental method

A type of theorizing first proposed by the philosopher Immanuel Kant. To use this method, an investigator first observes the effects or consequences of a process and then asks: What must the process have been to bring about these effects?
-begin with obse

The verbal test (pass the salt)

-the interpretation of meaning is what determines the response
-important in understanding language

Hermann von Ebbinghaus

-father of memory research
-learning and forgetting curves
-serial position effect
-savings score

Working memory

-temporary memory storage
-information is held in working memory while it is currently being processed (worked on)
-the part of short-term memory that is concerned with immediate conscious perceptual and linguistic processing.

Span test

measures working memory capacity

Working memory system

A system of mental resources used for holding information in an easily accessible form.

Central executive

-director of the working-memory system
-This is the component of the system that is needed for any interpretation or analysis
-coordinates the activities in other "assistant" components

Articulatory rehearsal loop

One of the low-level assistants hypothesized as being part of the working-memory system.
-subvocalization
-phonological buffer

Subvocalization

silently pronouncing words

Phonological buffer

an auditory image of words

Concurrent articulation

-reduces memory span dramatically
-suggests that the working memory model needs to incorporate speech mechanisms
-tah tah tah
-A requirement that a research participant speak or mime speech while doing some other task. In many cases, the person is require

Cognitive neuroscience

The study of the biological basis for cognitive functioning.

Anarthria

inability to produce overt speech

Inner Hand

-shows us muscle movement is not needed for subvocal rehearsal
-deaf people use covert signing during verbal working-memory tasks
-concurrent hand movements can suppress rehearsal just as concurrent articulation does for spoken language

Functions of working memory

-working memory is more than just the span task
-these mechanisms are important during reading, reasoning, and problem solving
-the rehearsal loop plays an important role during development as we are learning new vocabulary

What kinds of errors do people make when recalling a list of letters?

When people make mistakes in this task, they generally substitute one letter for another with a similar sound. Having heard "S," they'll report back "F"; or having heard "D," they'll report back "T.

Limit of working memory

-limit in size
+/- 7

Procedural memory

memory for skills (riding bike or playing piano)

Henry Molaison (H.M)

-He had retrograde amnesia for years and had severe anterograde amnesia, provides evidence of different memory systems
-clearly, the hippocampus and amygdala are not necessary for procedural memory for adult language processing

Retrograde amnesia

Inability to recall old memories

Anterograde amnesia

inability to acquire new memories

Declarative memory

memories that can be explained and described

Brain structures that HM was affected by

Hippocampus and amygdala were removed, but clearly aren't necessary for procedural memory or for adult language processing
-he was able to learn new skills but didn't remember learning them, like tracing the star

The Scope of Cognitive Psychology

Everything we do is based on prior knowledge and experience

What do psychologists study?

attention, decision-making, language, memory, problem solving, perception and reasoning

Questions of cognitive psychology

-How is knowledge acquired?
-How is knowledge retained so that it's available when needed?
-How is knowledge used�whether as a basis for making decisions or as a means of solving problems?

Cognition

What you know, what you think and what recall

Disciplines aligned with cognitive psychology

Brain regions
Clinical neuropsychology
Cognitive neuropsychology
Cognitive neuroscience
Dementia
Human brain
Neuroanatomy
Neurophysiology
Neuropsychological assessment
Neuropsychological rehabilitation
Traumatic brain injury
Abnormal psychology
Social psy

Cognitive psychology is a science that uses these methods:

experimental method and empirical data

Hypothesis and Hypothesis Testing

When doing this kind of testing nothing is EVER proved

Wilhelm Wundt

-German psychologist
-established physiologist
-established psychology as the science of experience
-made first psychology laboratory in 1879
-chief method was introspection (internal perception)

Introspection

-what is it,who did it, what are the problems
-the process through which one "looks within" to observe and record the contents of one's own mental life
-what am I thinking, seeing, feeling?
-are my thoughts visual or language based?
-what steps do I take

Problems w/ introspection

-thoughts are not directly observable
-impossible to test objectively
-individual differences in subjective experience

John Watson

-founder of behaviorism
-psychology as an objective experimental branch of natural science
-study ONLY observable behaviors
-no mental processes
-goal is the prediction and control of behavior
-little Albert experiment (1920)
-showing empirical evidence o

B.F Skinner

-researcher of behaviorism
-principles of operant conditioning, and shaping
-animal cognition
-Skinner box w/rat

Behaviorism

-the theory that human and animal behavior can be explained in terms of conditioning, without appeal to thoughts or feelings, and that psychological disorders are best treated by altering behavior patterns.
-focused on stimuli and reaction.

Immanuel Kant

-created the transcendental method
-asked what qualities of the mind make experience possible

Transcendental method

A type of theorizing first proposed by the philosopher Immanuel Kant. To use this method, an investigator first observes the effects or consequences of a process and then asks: What must the process have been to bring about these effects?
-begin with obse

The verbal test (pass the salt)

-the interpretation of meaning is what determines the response
-important in understanding language

Hermann von Ebbinghaus

-father of memory research
-learning and forgetting curves
-serial position effect
-savings score

Working memory

-temporary memory storage
-information is held in working memory while it is currently being processed (worked on)
-the part of short-term memory that is concerned with immediate conscious perceptual and linguistic processing.

Span test

measures working memory capacity

Working memory system

A system of mental resources used for holding information in an easily accessible form.

Central executive

-director of the working-memory system
-This is the component of the system that is needed for any interpretation or analysis
-coordinates the activities in other "assistant" components

Articulatory rehearsal loop

One of the low-level assistants hypothesized as being part of the working-memory system.
-subvocalization
-phonological buffer

Subvocalization

silently pronouncing words

Phonological buffer

an auditory image of words

Concurrent articulation

-reduces memory span dramatically
-suggests that the working memory model needs to incorporate speech mechanisms
-tah tah tah
-A requirement that a research participant speak or mime speech while doing some other task. In many cases, the person is require

Cognitive neuroscience

The study of the biological basis for cognitive functioning.

Anarthria

inability to produce overt speech

Inner Hand

-shows us muscle movement is not needed for subvocal rehearsal
-deaf people use covert signing during verbal working-memory tasks
-concurrent hand movements can suppress rehearsal just as concurrent articulation does for spoken language

Functions of working memory

-working memory is more than just the span task
-these mechanisms are important during reading, reasoning, and problem solving
-the rehearsal loop plays an important role during development as we are learning new vocabulary

What kinds of errors do people make when recalling a list of letters?

When people make mistakes in this task, they generally substitute one letter for another with a similar sound. Having heard "S," they'll report back "F"; or having heard "D," they'll report back "T.

Limit of working memory

-limit in size
+/- 7

Procedural memory

memory for skills (riding bike or playing piano)

Henry Molaison (H.M)

-He had retrograde amnesia for years and had severe anterograde amnesia, provides evidence of different memory systems
-clearly, the hippocampus and amygdala are not necessary for procedural memory for adult language processing

Retrograde amnesia

Inability to recall old memories

Anterograde amnesia

inability to acquire new memories

Declarative memory

memories that can be explained and described

Brain structures that HM was affected by

Hippocampus and amygdala were removed, but clearly aren't necessary for procedural memory or for adult language processing
-he was able to learn new skills but didn't remember learning them, like tracing the star