History of Cognitive Psychology

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History of Cognitive Psychology
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Psychology has a long past but only a
short history Ebbinghaus (1908)
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History of Cognitive Psychology Presentism
evaluation in terms of current knowledge
Historicism evaluation in terms of what was
known at the time
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Dialectical Progression (Hegel, 1770-1831) 1.
Thesis formed 2. Antithesis formed 3. Synthesis
occurs
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Dialectical Progression - Example 1. Thesis
formed - Nature 2. Antithesis formed - Nurture 3.
Synthesis occurs - Interaction b/w nature and
nurture
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History of Psychology Philosophical
Influences Ancient Greeks Aristotle (384-322
B.C.) credited as being the first
empiricist empiricism - knowledge via
observation tabula rasa blank slate
rationalism knowledge via logical
reasoning (Plato, 428-348 B.C.)
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Associationism - how ideas become associated in
the mind First associationist - Aristotle We
associate things in terms of 1. similarity -
(cows and horses)
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Associationism - how ideas become associated in
the mind First associationist - Aristotle We
associate things in terms of 1. similarity -
(cows and horses) 2. dissimilarity - (hot and
cold)
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Associationism - how ideas become associated in
the mind First associationist - Aristotle We
associate things in terms of 1. similarity -
(cows and horses) 2. dissimilarity - (hot and
cold) 3. closeness in time - (lightning and
thunder)
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Rich History of Association in Psychology classic
al conditioning - learn association b/w CS and
US operant conditioning - learn association
b/w behavior and consequences verbal
learning - paired associate learning semantic
priming - related primes facilitate
targets false memory - critical lure is
associated w/ list words
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food AoA 2.1 or 2.3 YOA of
associates 324
dance AoA 2.9 or 3.7 YOA of
associates 62
hem AoA 5.2 or 10.6 YOA of
associates 5
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History of Psychology Philosophical Influences
1600s Descartes - Rationalist
Locke - Empiricist
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1700s - Kant Argued that both rationalism and
empiricism are important - dialectical synthesis
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History of Psychology Influence from Physiology
von Helmholtz (1821-1894)
Broca (1824-1880)
Wernicke (1848-1905)
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Scientific Revolution (1550-1700) Copernicus
discovered that the sun was the center of
the universe.
later validated by Galileo and Newton
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Psychology as an independent discipline Wundt 1s
t laboratory - 1879 Leipzig, Germany 1st
Journal in Psychology 5400 pages in articles and
books

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Psychology as an independent discipline Titchner
student of Wundt championed structuralism -
introspection
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Schools of Psychology - Structuralism Structurali
sm attempt to break down conscious
perception into its basic elements. Introspection
technique
Titchner
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Schools of Psychology - Structuralism Struct
uralism attempt to dissect perception into
elements Introspection technique
introspection colors shapes size
texture
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Problems with Introspection 1. Subjective
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Problems with Introspection 1.
Subjective 2. The conscious mind does not have
access to basic perceptual processes meaning
sounds letters features BOOK
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Problems with Introspection 1.
Subjective 2. The conscious mind does not have
access to basic perceptual processes 3. The act
of introspecting may change the experience itself
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Verbal Learning The Ebbinghaus Tradition
von Ebbinghaus (1850-1909)
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Early Memory Research The Work of Ebbinghaus -
CVCs (NUG) - Relearning Task


kug bap fob lep dup etc.

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savings score
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Schools of Psychology Functionalism William
James Harvard Principles of Psychology
(1890) Still in print! Functionalism focus
is on the functions of the mind first to
distinguish b/w STM and LTM
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Schools of Psychology Psychoanalytic
Psychology Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) Major
Contribution thoughts and behaviors can be
influenced by unconscious processes.
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Schools of Psychology Gestalt Psychology
(early-mid 1900s) Gestalt Theme - The whole is
greater than the sum of its parts. - elements of
stimulus are processed in parallel - defined
basic perceptual principles - perceptual
constancy - principle of
similarity
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Schools of Psychology Behaviorism Watson
(1913) Psychology as the Behaviorist Views
it Behavior is the proper subject matter for
psychology. The mind is not.
Logical positivism All knowledge should be
expressed by statements that are directly
verifiable. Classical conditioning Operant
conditioning Law of Effect
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Schools of Psychology Behaviorism Watson
(1913) Psychology as the Behaviorist Views
it Behavior is the proper subject matter for
psychology. The mind is not.
"Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed,
and my own specified world to bring them up and
I'll guarantee to take any one at random and
train him to become any type of specialist I
might select--doctor, lawyer, merchant-chief,
and yes, even beggarman and thief, regardless of
his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities,
vocations, and race of his ancestors" (Watson,
1930).
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Schools of Psychology Behaviorism Operant
conditioning Law of Effect behavior
positive outcome repeat behavior
negative outcome do not repeat
E. Thorndike
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More than Conditioning? Latent Learning Tolman
(1930) Cognitive map Rats Group A - never
rewarded Group B - always rewarded Group C no
reward for first 11 days, on 12th day
always rewarded
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never rewarded
rewarded on Day 12
always rewarded
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Schools of Psychology Behaviorism Dominated
experimental psychology b/w 1920 and 1960 Then
psychologists started studying the mind again
Why? 1. Chomskys critique of Skinners book
Verbal Behavior
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Schools of Psychology Behaviorism Dominated
experimental psychology b/w 1920 and 1960 Then
psychologists started studying the mind again
Why? 1. Chomskys critique of Skinners book
Verbal Behavior 2. The invention of the
computer
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Schools of Psychology Behaviorism Dominated
experimental psychology b/w 1920 and 1960 Then
psychologists started studying the mind again
Why? 1. Chomskys critique of Skinners book
Verbal Behavior 2. The invention of the
computer 3. WWII
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History of Cognitive Psychology The Winds of
Change 1956 Miller - STM 1959 Chomsky
reviews Skinners book 1959 Selfridge -
pandemonium theory 1960 Sperling - iconic
memory 1960 Treisman - attention
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Cognitive Psychology later in the 60s Roger
Sperry hemispheric specialization Quillian
(1968) coins semantic memory Atkinson and
Shiffrin (1968) propose memory model Sternberg
establishes RT as important DV
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Cognitive Psychology the 70s Meyer and
Schvaneveldt (1971) semantic priming Craik and
Lockhart (1972) levels of processing Collins,
Quillian, Loftus spreading activation Baddeley
proposes STWM model Loftus and Palmer (1974)
car accident study Tversky and Kahneman
heuristics and decision making McClelland (1979)
cascadic processing Tulving encoding
specificity
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Cognitive Psychology the 80s Implicit Memory
Schacter, Roediger, Squire, Jacoby Modularity of
Mind Fodor (1983) McClelland and Rumelhart
interactive activation Seidenberg and McClelland
(1989) PDP
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Schools of Psychology Cognitive Psychology The
study of the mind and mental processes. What
about Logical Positivism? inference
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Assumptions of Modern Cognitive Psychology 1.
Mental processes exist 2. These processes can be
studied and "discovered" 3. It is possible to
infer a mental process from behavior 4. Mental
processes involve a series of steps 5. Mental
processes take time
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Current Trends 1. The study of the brain is big
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Current Trends 1. The study of the brain is
big 2. Connectionism is big
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Current Trends 1. The study of the brain is
big 2. Connectionism is big 3. Cognitive Science
interdisciplinary approach cognitive
psychology linguistics computer
science neuroscience and more
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Cognitive Science Interdisciplinary
approach cognitive psychology linguistics
computer science communication science
neuroscience
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Cognitive Science Interdisciplinary
approach cognitive psychology linguistics
computer science communication science
neuroscience
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Current Trends 1. The study of the brain is
big 2. Connectionism is big 3. Cognitive Science
interdisciplinary approach 4. Applications of
cognitive psychology - e.g., Testing Effect
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The End of History of Cognitive Psychology