Methods of Cognitive Science

1
Methods of Cognitive Science

• Theoretical, conceptual work
• Imagery debate reality of mental concepts
  capacities of home erectus
• Observation and clinical case studies
• Use of mental state verbs in 1-3 year olds
• Deceptive behavior of chimpanzees in the wild
• Autism, schizophrenia, lesion studies (e.g.,
  S.M., who lacks amygdalae and neither experiences
  nor recognizes fear)
• Surveys and questionnaires (rare)
• Judgments of intentionality

2
Methods continued

• Quasi-experiments and group comparisons
• Imaging work (e.g., planning/perceiving/performing
  act)
• False belief tests with 3-4 year olds
• Clinical group comparisons (e.g., face processing
  in autistic vs. other individuals)
• Controlled experiments
• Word learning under various conditions
• Boundaries of behavior stream
• Dishabituation paradigm
• The logic of causal inference
• The alternative explanations game

Valuable Resource http//faculty.ncwc.edu/tocon
nor/308/308lect06.htm
3
Vocabulary

• Independent/dependent variable
• Measurement, operationalization,Reliability and
  validity
• Experimental and control condition
• Cross-sectional vs. longitudinal
• Derive hypotheses, test predictions
• Sampling, representativeness generalizability

4
Basics of Statistics

• Descriptive vs. inferential
• Key concepts of
• sampling
• variance (standard deviation, SD)
• estimate (mean 95 confidence interval)
• Correlation coefficient
• Univariate and multiple regression
• Analysis of variance (ANOVA) designs
• Two or more groups in one factor (e.g., 3 x 1)
• Multiple factors (e.g., 2 x 2, 3 x 2 x 2)