The History and Methods of Cognitive Psychology Cognitive Psychology Sorenson

What is Cognitive Psychology? The branch of psychology that studies how we perceive, attend, recognize, remember, reason, decide… what happens in our minds

Cognitive activities Perception Attention Memory Language Reasoning and Decision making

What is the “mind” ? How can we study the inner workings of the mind when we can’t “see” the mind?

 Nativism The history of studying cognitions Greeks – 19 th century  Empiricism

Donders simple reaction time vs. choice reaction time stimulus mental process behavior Reaction time

Ebbinghaus

Gestalt psychology

Behaviorism Rejected mentalistic concepts Dealt solely with observable behavior

Cognitive Revolution  Proposed that mental states could be studied (reaction to behaviorists) Some results…  Human factors engineering  Limited-capacity processors The magical number seven, plus or minus two  Linguistics

A typical information-processing model. Paradigms of Cognitive Psychology

A typical connectionist model. Paradigms of Cognitive Psychology

So how do we study cognition?

Methods Naturalistic observation  Ecological validity  Experimenter control  Observer bias  Observation causing changes in subjects’ behaviors

Methods Introspection  Insight  Ecological validity  Experimenter control  Observer bias  Can you really observe something while doing it?

Methods Experiments/Quasi-experiments  Experimenter control  Isolate causal factors  May not be ecologically valid

Brain Imaging Computerized Tomography (CT) CT scanners use x-ray technology to view brain structure © Ribotsky/Custom Medical Stock Photo Normal Twin Twin w/ Schizophrenia

detects strong magnetic fields from hydrogen atoms Courtesy Todd A. Gould Brain Imaging Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)

Measures brain activity based on the utilization of radioactive glucose or oxygen. Courtesy Dept. of Energy Office of Public Affairs Brain Imaging Positron Emission Tomography (PET)

uses a series of images taken in a short period of time to analyze brain activity. Brain Imaging Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)

Issues with Brain Imaging Subtraction method Location of blood/nutrients Interactivity

Scalp electrodes provide information about the activity of large populations of neurons. Used to study states of consciousness (sleep/wake) and seizures. Copyright © 2004 Allyn and Bacon Other Recording Techniques Electroencephalogram (EEG)

Series of EEG responses to environmental stimuli Useful in studying perception Other Recording Techniques Evoked Potentials (ERP)