How to investigate the Mind?

1
How to investigate the Mind?

• Ask your subjects (Introspectionism)
• First-Person Privileged Access

2
Edward Titchener (1867-1927)
First psychology lab, Leipzig
Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)
Introspection is not just casual thinking about
ones inner experiences.
3
Assets of Introspectionism

• It deals with the subjective feeling of mental
  life (qualia)
• Even today, some research depends on subjects
  introspective report (do you see the light?)
• It provides hints for future research
• articulatory loop in working memory

4
Problems of Introspectionism
Verbal report distorts and impoverishes the
experience
Instrospectionism lacks verification (public
scrutiny)
Provides access to products of thinking, rather
than the processes that underlie it (example).
Relies on conscious report Many interesting
mental events are unconscious (e.g. memory
retrieval, or visual processes that lead to
perceptual illusions).
5
(No Transcript)
6
(No Transcript)
7
How to investigate the mind

• Ask your subjects (Introspectionism)

Look at S-R patterns (Behaviorism)
- Reaction against Instrospectionism
- Restricts psychology to truly objective,
observable data
8
Cognitive Psychology
Introspectionism
Behaviorism
1900
1950
2000
9
Behaviorism
Study stimulus-response relations, but do NOT
attempt to understand unobservable mental
processes
10
Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)
11
Classical Conditioning

• Neutral stimulus becomes associated with a
  stimulus that already produces a response
• sight of food?salivation
• 3. bell and food seen together
• 4. bell? salivation

12
Behaviorism

• Psychology is the science of behavior.
• Emphasis on what can be directly observed.
• Stimuli ? Responses
• Reinforcements / Rewards
• Ignore the mind (unobservable).
• Goal predict behavior

13
Assets of Behaviorism

• rigorous scientific observation
• controlled laboratory settings.
• Applicable to certain areas (e.g., learning
  pairing of stimuli and responses)

14
Problems with Behaviorism

• Limiting science to observable things is a bad
  idea. Theories are about unobservable
• Cant account for much of human behavior.
• Language Attention

15
Rats learn to follow this path
later they can deduce the shorter path.
X
this ability cannot be explained only by links
between stimuli and responses. A better
explanation is to pose the existence of an
internal spatial map
16
Cognitive Maps in Bees, von Frisch 1967

• behavior of bees returning to hive after locating
  nectar
• Can use a symbolic form of communication
• Different patterns of dances represent different
  meanings
• Round dance source less than 100 yards from hive
• Figure 8 dance greater distances

17
Behaviorism
Study stimulus-response relations, but do NOT
attempt to understand unobservable mental
processes
Cognitive Psychology
Study stimulus-response relations to infer the
underlying mental processes. The contents of the
mind CAN be studied scientifically
18
How to investigate the mind

• Ask your subjects (Introspectionism)
• Look at S-R patterns (Behaviorism)
• Infer mental processes (Cognitive Psychology)
• from S-R patterns (Reaction Time, Accuracy)
• from neural patterns (cognitive neuroscience)