Cognitive Psychology

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Cognitive Psychology Chapter 1.1 Introduction
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11/18/2009

• Outline
• Course and Instructor
• What is Cognitive Psychology?
• Where did Cognitive Psychology come from?

Study Question. Define and briefly describe
Cognitive Psychology.
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Introduction

• Course and Instructor
• Letter from the dean
• Course web site
• Cognitive Psychology
• Neissers (1968) definition
• Cognitive Psychology refers to all processes by
  which the sensory input is transformed, reduced,
  elaborated, stored, recovered, and used.

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Introduction

• Cognitive Psychology
• Ascrofts definitions
• Cognition the mental events and knowledge we use
  when we recognize an object, remember a name,
  have an idea, understand a sentence, or solve a
  problem.
• Cognitive Science the scientific study of
  thought, language, and the brain - in short the
  study of the mind.

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Introduction

• True or False

A canary can breath
A canary can fly

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Introduction

• Studying mental processes
• The sentence verification task

Dependent Variable - Measurement variable - Y
axis - E.g, RT,
Independent Variable - Manipulated variable -
X axis - E.g, Sentence type
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Introduction

• Read the following

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History of Cognitive Psychology

• Birth of Experimental Psychology
• The Longitude Prize of 1714
• The Chronological and the Lunar Method
• John Harrison and Nevil Maskelyne
• Greenwich mean time and star-transits
• The eye and ear method
• Interpolate the transit 4 measures
• The Royal Astronomer fires his assistant

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History of Cognitive Psychology

• Birth of Experimental Psychology
• Bessels solution
• Trained astronomers differed by as much 1.1 s
  (1820s)
• Introduced correction factors
• Introduction of chronometers
• Early investigations in cognitive processing
• Attending to two stimuli at the same time
• Willful Attention
• Reaction Time

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History of Cognitive Psychology

• The Birth of Experimental Psychology
• Neurophysiology - Helmoltz
• Finite timing of nerve impulses
• Subtractive method
• Donders (Reaction Time and Mental Processes,
  1865)
• A-task SRT
• B-task SRTCategorizationselection
• C-task SRTCategorization
• Wundts Experimental Laboratory at Leipzig
• Published over 53,000 pages
• Wundts Structuralism

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History of Cognitive Psychology

• The Death of Experimental Psychology
• Titcheners Structuralism
• Introspection as a method
• William James and Functionalism
• First Introductory textbook
• Influence of Darwin
• Freuds Psychodynamics hit America
• 1909 Clark University Lectures

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History of Cognitive Psychology

• Next time
• Two revolutions The death and resurrection of
  mentalism

Unbeknownst to most students of
Psychology, Pavlovs first experiment was to ring
a bell and cause The dog to attack Freuds cat.