Cognitive Psychology EXP 3604

Ira Fischler

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Welcome to the course CP in the curriculum

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Web resources

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www.psych.ufl.edu/~fischler Course structure and requirements CP in science and society Scope and nature of CP

A COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGIST’S VIEW OF THE ACADEMIC WORLD neuropsychology evolutionary psychology developmental psychology social psychology anthropology neuroscience Cognitive Psychology philosophy education computer science humanities and arts sports & music

WHAT IS COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY?

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BY FORMAL DEFINITION

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the study of human mental processes and their role in perception, attention, memory,

thinking and decision-making (Goldstein)

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BY TOPIC

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attention and information processing memory: representation and dynamics Language and concepts thinking and problem solving

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BY ISSUES

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does “subliminal learning” work?

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What is the matter in dyslexia?

Do you use the cell phone and drive?

are “recovered memories” reliable?

What is insight? Intuition? Creativity?

Should you get a smallpox vaccination?

Can we increase IQ by training?

GOALS OF COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY

to describe human cognition in terms of

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PERFORMANCE

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how accurate? ..fast? ..much?

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PROCESS

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models of the stages and codes involved in a cognitive task

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PRINCIPLES

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what is the “functional organization of the mind?”

COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY

Course Goals

In EXP 3604, you will learn about...

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THE COGNITIVE APPROACH

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how to think about cognition like a cognitive psychologist

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THE METHODS OF THAT APPROACH

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understanding the interplay between theoretical and experimental tools

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THE NATURE AND LIMITS OF COGNITION

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how we do those things we do (e.g., perceive, attend, recall, think…)

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TIPS AND TECHNIQUES FOR ENHANCING COGNITION

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methods of improving your skills in learning, remembering and thinking

… and revive that childlike sense of awe

A CAPSULE HISTORY OF COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY

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A VIEW OF PROGRESS IN SCIENCE

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Thomas Kuhn (1962): THE STRUCTURE OF SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTIONS Normal science versus “Paradigm shifts”

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Revolutions in the natural sciences Revolutions in the social sciences Progress or “cultural construct”?

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PHILOSOPHICAL INQUIRY

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since 500 BC: From Greece to the Enlightenment

• Plato : innate, ideal “concepts” (

nativism

) and knowledge via reason (

rationalism

) • Aristotle : the role of experience in learning, and observation in science (

empiricism

) • Kant : innate concepts of space, time and causality; cognitive “schema” • Locke and the British Empiricist tradition

SCIENTIFIC PSYCHOLOGY IS BORN 1850’s: Psychophysics (e.g., Fechner) 1880’s: Introspection (e.g., Wundt)

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REACTIONS TO INTROSPECTION’S..

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Elementalism: vs. “global” aspects of perception > Gestalt Theory (Kohler )

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Accessibility: vs. “imageless thought” > Psychoanalysis (Freud)

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Structuralism: vs. the “purposiveness” of cognition > Functionalism (James)

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Scientific validity: vs. problems with replication & bias > Behaviorism (Watson)

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THE COGNITIVE REVOLUTION

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1950s: Information processing (e.g., Broadbent )

COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY IS BORN (1950 - 1965)

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BEHAVIORISM EVOLVES

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e.g., Lawrence (1952)

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HUMAN FACTORS

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e.g., Broadbent (1955)

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INFORMATION THEORY

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e.g., Shannon (1949)

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LINGUISTICS

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e.g., Chomsky (1957)

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COMPUTER SCIENCE

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e.g., von Neumann (1950) COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY - e.g., Neisser (1967)

THE INFORMATION PROCESSING FRAMEWORK

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STAGES OF PROCESSING

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The sequence of mental operations that occur as we do a task

• how many stages?

• do they require attention?

• are they obligatory?

• do any stages occur “in parallel”?

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CODES OF REPRESENTATION

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The form or nature of the information being processed

• visual or verbal?

• analog or conceptual?

Broadbent’s “structural” IP model (1955):

MEMORY STRUCTURES AND PROCESSES IN THE “MODAL MODEL”

(Atkinson & Shiffrin, 1968)

sensory inputs SENSORY REGISTERS visual auditory tactile SHORT-TERM STORE (STS) temporary, working memory

control processes:

- rehearsal - coding - decisions - retrieval strategies LONG-TERM STORE (LTS) permanent memory store

USING REACTION TIME TO STUDY PROCESSING STAGES

Letter-matching: Same or Different?

(Posner & Mitchell, 1967) Type of Pair Response RT AA, ff, LL etc… “yes” msec Aa, Gg, kK etc… “yes” msec Ad, gF, RM etc… “no” msec Aa

requires one additional stage, so

Aa - AA

gives the time of that stage

This difference correlates with verbal SAT scores!

(Hunt, 1975)

STAGES AND CODES IN A SIMPLE PROCESSING TASK

Letter-matching: Same or Different?

(Posner & Mitchell’s “task” IP model, 1967) Aa (stimulus appears) See the letters Compare the forms same form?

Name the letters NO YES Compare the names same names?

NO YES Select response

left key right key

STRATEGIES OF COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE

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The Coin of the Realm: correlations between psychological and neurophysiological events/structures

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Establishing two-way constraints between levels

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Cognitive psychology as the bootstrap Neuroactivity as the bootstrap

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Regions of interest (ROI’s) and localization of function

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Subtractive versus parametric designs Event related activation “dynamics”

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Covariation and functional networks

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Patterns of correlated activity among multiple regions of interest

EEG and EVENT-RELATED POTENTIALS (ERPs)

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Postsynaptic extracellular potentials vary with neuronal activity Masses of pyramidal cells generate a varying electrical signal, the EEG Changes in the EEG that are related to psychological events (ERPs) can be seen by averaging Various ERP “components” are sensitive to cognitive processes

M

AGNETO

E

NCEPHALO

G

RAPHY

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methodology

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Incredibly weak magnetic signal (femtoTeslas)

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Detected by SQUID ($3M, 16,000 lbs, minus 269 deg C

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Works for neural fields tangental to surface

MAGENTIC RESONANCE IMAGING (MRI)

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Align the spins of Water-based hydrogen atoms by powerful magnetic field Create a “gradient” in the field “pulse” the field with a strong radio frequency signal that perturbs the alignment

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Using an RF detector, track the return to alignment With really complex computing, reconstruct the 3D density of tissue in the brain

FUNCTIONAL MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING (fMRI)

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Oxygenated blood has different magnetic properties than deoxy So comparing MRI between target task and “control” task (a challenge) reveals areas of task-related activation

fMRI (cont’d)

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Event-related fMRI allows tracking of the “hemodynamic response” to individual events:

Source: Kwong et al., 1992

COLLECTING EEG

REACTION TIME AND UNCERTAINTY

(Hick, 1952) Reaction Time to Begin Movement to one of N targets

440 420 400 380 360 340 320 300 1 2 3 4 5 6 # of possible "targets" 7 8

A logarithmic function – as predicted By Shannon’s Information Theory (1949)

Davachi, Lila et al. (2003) Meaning, Brain activity, and Memory

Davachi, et al. (2003)

Increases in activation for Image vs.

Read

Davachi, et al. (2003) Difference

in activation (Image – Read) for

Remember

vs. Forget