Cognitive Psychology

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Cognitive Psychology

• Lecture 1 Introduction
• James Matthews and John Toner

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Course Layout

• Topics to be covered
• Memory
• Attention
• Mental Imagery
• Language
• Problem Solving Expertise
• Reasoning, Decision Making Judgements
• Consciousness
• Knowledge

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Course Completion

• Christmas Exam
• Format to follow.
• Class presentation
• Each student will have to give one 10 minute
  presentation over the course of the 12 weeks
  based on a set article.

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Course Completion

• Class presentation
• Short 10 mins, 10 - 15 slides
• Everyone expected to read the article over the
  course of the week
• Presentation should simply summarise the main
  methods (where relevant) and arguments of the
  article
• Presentation should finish with a points for
  discussion slide bringing in their own thoughts
  and facilitating debate

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Reading (Library GEN/SLC 153.4)

• Core text
• Eysenck, M., Keane, M. (2005).
• Cognitive Psychology A students handbook (5th
  ed.) Hove, East Sussex Psychology Press
• Other sources
• Reisberg, D. (2006) Cognition Exploring the
  Science of the Mind (3rd ed.) New York W.W.
  Norton Company
• Sternberg, R. (2003). Cognitive Psychology (3rd
  ed.) Fort Worth, Texas Harcourt Brace

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Article Search

• http//www.ucd.ie/library/
• ? Electronic Resources
• ? List of Library Databases
• ? PsychInfo

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Cognition

• The word cognition is derived from the Latin word
  cognoscere, meaning to know or to come to
  know.
• Cognition is therefore the activities and
  processes concerned with the acquisition,
  storage, retrieval and processing of knowledge.

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What is Cognitive Psychology?

• It is the scientific study of how the mind works
• ...cognitive psychology deals with how people
  perceive, learn, remember, and think about
  information.
• Sternberg (1999)
• Cognitive psychology is the study of processes
  underlying mental events
• Solso (2005)

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What do cognitive psychologists study?

• Memory Decision Making
• Attention Perception
• Learning Neurobiology
• Cognitive Development Concept Formation
• Emotion Artificial Intelligence
• Language Problem Solving
• Mental Imagery Animal Cognition

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Things which cognitive psychologists may seek to
explain. . .

• Why do we find it difficult to describe how to
  tie a shoelace without moving our hands or
  looking at our shoes?

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Things which cognitive psychologists may seek to
explain. . .

• What processes are involved in planning a novel
  route through familiar terrain.
• (e.g. How do I get from UCD to town via Dundrum)

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Things which cognitive psychologists may seek to
explain. . .

• How can we recognise a song from its first few
  beats?

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Things which cognitive psychologists may seek to
explain. . .

• Phenomena like that shown in this video
• http//gigglesugar.com/349186

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Approaches to Cognitive Psychology

• Experimental Cognitive Psychology
• Computational Cognitive Science
• Cognitive Neuropsychology
• Cognitive Neuroscience

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Experimental Cognitive Psychology

• Tightly controlled experiments carried out under
  laboratory conditions on healthy individuals.
• Experiments often designed to disrupt cognitive
  processes and thus reveal their workings.
• (e.g. Distracting participants attention)
• Findings lead to theories, which in turn lead to
  testable claims
• (e.g. Instrumental music does not disrupt
  reading)

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Experimental Cognitive Psychology

• Sample Experiment Effect of arousal level on
  reaction time.
• Reaction time assessed on a machine where buttons
  light up and time to respond is measured
• Arousal assessed through heart rate measurement
• Conditions 1) After rest
• 2) After cognitive load
• 3) After exercise
• 4) After caffeine
• 5) After exercise and caffeine

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Experimental Cognitive Psychology

• Some limitations
• Is behaviour in a laboratory fundamentally
  different to that in real world settings. Are the
  findings of experiments ecologically valid?
• Does not look directly at brain function, but
  rather the explicit behavioural results of brain
  function. Thus we may miss something.
• Tendency to negate individual differences by
  averaging many participants performances. Does
  not allow for the possibility of unique cog.
  function

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Computational Cognitive Science

• Computational modelling involves recreating some
  aspect of human cognition in the form of computer
  program, flow chart or formula in order to
  predict behaviour in novel situations

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Computational Cognitive Science

• Computational models can vary in complexity from
  relatively simple flow charts to highly detailed
  connectionist networks.
• In these latter models units or nodes are
  connected to many others.
• In a particular scenario units take the weighted
  sum of the inputs coming to it and produce a
  single output to another unit.
• Networks can be arranged in complex layered
  systems

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Computational Cognitive Science

• Some limitations
• There are usually many ways to model a particular
  cognitive phenomenon
• There is a lack of a definite method for relating
  a computational models behaviour to human
  behaviour
• It is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to
  take every cognitive factor into account when
  creating a model (e.g. Do models of language
  processing take into account the emotional
  connotations of particular sentences for
  particular individuals?)

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Cognitive Neuropsychology

• Concerned with the cognitive functioning of those
  who have suffered brain damage
• Damage to region X disrupts ability Y
• People who have lost ability Y also have problems
  with ability Z
• From studying people with brain injuries we make
  assertions about healthy brain function

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Cognitive Neuropsychology

• Sample Case Frontal Lobe damage
• People with frontal lobe damage often show little
  cognitive deficit when given IQ tests
• However they have extreme difficulty with things
  like
• Socially acceptable behaviours
• Cognitive flexibility
• Abstract thinking
• Frontal lobes are the area which differ to the
  greatest extent between human and ape brains

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Cognitive Neuropsychology

• Some limitations
• Ethically we cannot cause brain damage in humans
  so we have to work with what we find. This damage
  is rarely clean
• Interpretation of findings in relation to those
  suffering damage to several areas is very
  difficult
• If ability Y is disrupted by damage to region X,
  it does not tell us what role X has in Y. Is it
  the functional centre, or simply a vital stage?
  There are 50 billion interconnected neurons.
• What was cog. functioning before injury?

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Cognitive Neuroscience

• Using brain imaging and brain anatomy to study
  live cognitive functioning in healthy
  individuals
• As the technology improves, these studies are
  becoming more influential and potentially useful
• Methods include (Details to follow!)
• Single Unit Recording
• Event Related Potentials (ERPs)
• Positron Emission Tomography (PET)
• (Functional) Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI,
  MRI)
• Magneto-encephalography (MEG)
• Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)

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Cognitive Neuroscience
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Cognitive Neuroscience

• Some Limitations
• Techniques are of questionable use with
  high-order functioning which might not be
  organised in a concise way
• If data from several individuals is averaged the
  interpretations become accordingly blunt
• Tendency for research to be conducted for the
  sake of research. Papers can often be lacking any
  theoretical basis, and result in ad hoc
  hypotheses
• Threshold levels need to be set to disregard
  noise. These levels are a contentious issue!

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Cognitive Neuroscience

• Event Related Potentials (ERPs)
• Electrical brain activity (EEG) is measured on
  the scalp
• Several readings for the same stimuli are
  averaged to counteract spontaneous background
  activity

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Cognitive Neuroscience

• Event Related Potentials (ERPs)

Pros Best detail of the timeline of cognitive
events
Cons Only useful with simple, low-level
stimuli Skull and scalp distort emerging
electrical waves
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Cognitive Neuroscience

• Positron Emission Tomography (PET)
• Radioactive substance injected into the body and
  observed as it gathers in blood vessels of brain
• Activity levels are determined as (very mild)
  radioactivity levels are measured by subtracting
  activity levels at rest from activity levels
  during a particular task

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Cognitive Neuroscience

• Positron Emission Tomography (PET)

Pros Maps wide range of cognitive activities
including complex tasks Reasonable location of
active areas (3-4 millimeters)
Cons Scans indicate total amount of activity
over 60 seconds. Not sensitive to rapid changes
in activity How closely are changes in
distribution of radioactive water related to
neural activity?
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Cognitive Neuroscience

• Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)
• Radio waves produce neural activity picked up by
  a large magnet.
• If used to scan anatomy of brain for tumors etc.
  it is MRI. If used during tasks to detect brain
  function it is fMRI.

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Cognitive Neuroscience

• Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)

Pros No biological risks Provides anatomical and
functional information
Cons Poor temporal resolution of a few
seconds How closely are changes in oxygenated
haemoglobin related to neural activity?
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Basic Brain Terms

• Cortex The outer layer of brain tissue

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Basic Brain Terms

• Lobes

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Basic Brain Terms

• Directions

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Some experimental techniques

• Eyetracking
• Infrared cameras can detect where the eye is
  looking and for how long
• Used to study reading

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Some experimental techniques

• Eyetracking

Analysis of advertising, phobias, expert search
patterns etc
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Stimulus Presentation Software

• Experiments may require a computerised stimulus
  presentation of stimuli in order to create ideal
  conditions and accurately measure responses

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Reading

• Eysenck Keane Chapter 1
• Contact conor.omalley_at_ucd.ie