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Introduction to Cognitive Psychology
WHAT IS COG PSYC TO YOU? HOW WE THINK, DECIDE, REMEMBER, COMPREHEND LANGUAGE 1. Cognitive psychology: study of the human mind and mental activity Mental representation: physical state that conveys info, specifying an object, event, or category or its characteristics; serves to store info i. Form means by which info is conveyed (e.g. visual, auditory) ii. MEANS BY WHICH YOU GET IT iii. VISUAL (PPT SLIDES IN CLASS), TXT MSG, VOICE MAIL iv. Content meaning of what is being conveyed v. WHATS THE CONTEN/INFO/MEANING OF THE TXT MSG Mental processes involve interpretation and/or transformation of info that obey well-defined principles to produce specific output when given a specific input i. Processes operate on representations ii. Serial processing specific sequence of steps, where each steps sequence depends on the previous step; starting a car and driving to UH iii. Parallel several operations occurring at the same time; keeping a conversation flowing iv. ANY CONVERSAITON, COMPREHEND YOUR FRIEND, HOLDING INFO, +THINKING OF RESPONSE + TELLING YOUR FRIEND +YOU MAY BE WALKING 2. History: William James (1842-1910) i. Study of human mind in USA ii. What are the functions of mental activities? iii. Draws on Darwins theory of evolution: Best adaptive mental activities Wilhelm Wundt (18321920) : i. Head of the first modern psychology laboratory (Germany) ii. First scientific attempt to study the mind iii. Study contents of consciousness by introspection 1. Studying cognitive processes by looking inward 2. Experimenter may introspect, or may collect thoughts (or think-aloud protocols) from others iv. Legacy: 1. Mental activity can be broken down into more basic operations 2. Developed methods for assessing mental activity 3. First major step towards psychology as a behavioral science v. Introspection pros: data collection is easy and data can be interesting vi. Introspection cons: sensations differ across observers, cant explain perception, retrieval from memory, language, attention Behaviorism i. Only what can be observed is appropriate for study: stimulus and response ii. Hull (1884-1952) 1. Internal states can be inferred from behavior iii. Skinner (1904-1990) 1. Any allusion to internal states is rejected iv. Associations were the main explanatory processes v. Stimulus response consequence of response
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vi. Behaviorism: extensive work with animals in learning, decision making and methodology but could not explain most cognitive phenomenon Information processing i. Invention of computer serves as an analogy to the way the mind functions ii. The mind is not built like a computer, the mind computes and specific processes operate on specific type of data (representations) iii. Chomskys theory of language relies heavily in information processing approach iv. Info processing: Brought back to life scientific study of the mind, provided a metaphor for thinking about internal states
How we study cognition: Methodology
1. Converging evidence a. Different types of results that imply the same conclusion b. Different methods combined to establish dissociations, double dissociations, and associations i. Dissociation: establish that an activity or a variable affects the performance of one task (or aspect of one task) but not of another 1. Hypothesis: Occipital cortex is crucial for visual perception 2. Test: Lesion occipital cortex, give visual and auditory perception test 3. Result: visual perception is impaired but auditory perception is not ii. Double dissociation: an activity or variable affects one process but not another and a second activity or variable has the reverse properties. 1. Hypothesis: Occipital cortex is crucial for visual perception 2. Test: Lesion occipital cortex, lesion auditory cortex, give visual and auditory perception test 3. Result: visual perception is impaired with occipital lesion but auditory perception is not; auditory perception is impaired with auditory cortex lesion but visual perception is not iii. Association: the effects of an activity or variable on one task are accompanied by effects on another task 1. Dual task: counting backwards by threes and reading words is slower than either task done alone 2. Some of the processes and/or representations between these two tasks overlap 2. Behavioral methods a. Reaction time (RT) data b. Number of correct items c. Judgments/protocol 3. Neuroimaging - Correlates behavior to a pattern of brain activity; does not mean cause and effect a. What functions are performed? b. Where are they performed? i. Issue of spatial resolution c. When does the activity occur? i. Issue of temporal resolution 4. EEG/ERP/MEG a. EEG (Electroencephalography)
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b.
c. d. e.
i. Measures electrical activity produced by the brain as recorded from electrodes placed on the scalp ii. Records activity from beginning to end of experiment ERP (Event related potentials) i. Statistical analyses applied to EEG data; correlate brain activity with onset of specific stimulus MEG (Magnetoencephalography) i. Measures magnetic fields produced by electrical activity in the brain Poor spatial resolution since current must pass through scalp; localization can be problematic Excellent temporal resolution
5. PET (Positron emission topography) a. Traces path of radioactive substance put in blood and often measures glucose uptake b. Invasive c. Good spatial resolution d. Poor temporal resolution 6. MRI/fMRI a. MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) i. Image of the structure of the brain b. fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) i. Measures cerebral blood flow, probably related to neural activity c. Excellent spatial resolution d. Poor temporal resolution 7. Optical imaging: DOT (Diffuse optical tomography) with EROS (Event-Related Optical Signals) a. Shine an infra-red light into the skull and measure how it is reflected back from the brain; device picks up on quantities of hemoglobin in the brain b. Spatial resolution limited to outer cortex c. Temporal resolution as that of fMRI 8. Lesion studies a. Usu. with human patients suffering brain damage or laboratory experiments using animals b. If an area has a lesion and the person shows a specific deficit, then that area probably has something to do with that function. c. Could be hard to interpret data 9. TMS (Transcranial magnetic stimulation) a. Interrupt cortical activity for a short period of time and test performance on a behavioral task b. Limited to surface of cortex c. Non-invasive, used with humans 10. Other methods: a. Freeze a given area and test performance on a behavioral task; compare to the performance in non-freeze condition; reversible, invasive & done with animals b. Give drugs that target a given brain region and test performance on a behavioral task; invasive, used with humans and animals 11. Models put theories to test and practice a. Define explicit set of rules governing relations between representations and processes
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b. Computer simulations, flowcharts, mathematical equations and neural nets 12. Neural networks a. Implements key properties of how the brain actually works b. Sets of equations represent nodes, groups of neurons c. Weights, numerical values attached to equations, specify what the relation between different nodes is