EMERGENCE & RESEARCH METHODS OF COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY:

(COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY- PYB 201)

By

Dr. Shivani TomarAssistant Professor

Deptt. Of Psychology, SLA

NIU

Emergence of Cognitive Psychology

• William James (1890) in his classic book The Principles of Psychology, defined the whole of psychology as the “Science of Mental Life, both its phenomena and their conditions”.

• More than a century later, the field of cognitive psychology has fulfilled James’s vision.

• The cognitive approach to psychology pervades all areas of psychology today, and even some neighbor sciences.

• He included discussion of the pioneering work of Ebbinghaus, who systematically studied his own ability to learn lists of nonsense syllables.

• The early history of psychology was dominated by two major schools of thought: Structuralism and Functionalism.

• Structuralism aimed to describe the elemental components of consciousness, specifically sensations, images and feelings.

• Based on Introspection, pioneered by Wundt and developed by Titchener. Limitation-

• Limitation- different observers often give different explanation or introspective report.

• Also cognition does not necessarily register in consciousness.

• Functionalism arose as an alternative school of thought to deal with this problem and studied the mental processes that mediate between the environment and the organism.

• Functionalism addressed what the mind is for, rather than its structural components.

• Today’s cognitive psychologist are concerned with both the structural architecture of the mind and the mental operations that mediate between stimuli and responses.

• Behaviorism was a reaction to several schools of thought in psychology that emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as psychologists selected the study of behavior over the study of cognition.

• Watson introduced Behaviorism which tried to make psychology objective, like physics and chemistry.

• It eliminated the discussion of consciousness and introspective reports, also inferences about the cognitive operations that intervened between the stimulus and the response were regarded as unscientific.

• Pavlov pioneered what became known as classical conditioning, whereby a reflexive action became a learned response.

• Skinner greatly expanded the power of behaviorism by developing the concept of operant conditioning.

• This began with Thorndyke’s “Law of effect”, whereby a behavior followed by a reward increases in frequency.

• In operant conditioning, a response comes under the control of a stimulus.

• For Skinner, this history of reinforcement and punishment determined one’s present behavior.

• By the mid- 1950s, the concept of information processing had entered in psychology and reinvigorated an interest in the unobservable mental processes that mediate between a stimulus and response.

• Miller and Bruner founded the Center for Cognitive Studies, while Broadbend pioneered the study of attention and memory from the perspective of information processing.

• Chomsky led the revolution in understanding the cognitive underpinnings of language, rejecting Skinner’s behaviorism.

Research Methods in Cognitive Psychology

1. Naturalistic Observation-

• It consists of an observer watching people in family, everyday contexts going about their cognitive business.

• Observation studies has advantage of ecological validity.

• Disadvantage- lack of experimental control.

• Subjectivity is the another limitation of the naturalistic observation.

2. Introspection-

• Observing one’s own reactions and behavior may give one better insight into an experience and the factors that influenced it.

• Biasness is the disadvantage of this type of method.

3. Controlled Observation & Clinical Interview-

• Investigator using this method try to standardize the setting for all participants.

• In many cases, manipulating specific condition to see how participants will be affected.

• In clinical interviews, try to channel the process even more.

• Depending on the participant’s responding, the interviewer may pursue one or another of many possible lines of questioning, trying to follow each participant’s own thinking and experience while focusing on specific questions or issues.

4. Experiments & Quasi- Experiments-

• A true experiment one in which experimenter manipulates one or more independent variables (the experimental conditions) and observes how the recorded measures (dependent variables) change as a result.

• Experimenter can not reassign the participants into different gender, ethnicity, age or educational background.

• If a study has one or more of these factors as independent variables (or fail to become true experiment in other ways) are called quasi-experiment.

• Scientists value both types of experiment because they enable researchers to isolate casual factors and make better supported claims about causality than is possible using observation methods alone.

5. Investigation of Neural Underpinning (Neuropsychology)-

• This method involves the examining people’s Brain.

• Before the second half of 20th century, this kind of examination could be conducted only after a patient died, during an autopsy.

• Since the 1970s, many techniques of brain imaging have been developed. These are-

(a) Computerized Axial Tomography (CAT Scan)-

• A technique in which a highly focused beam of X- rays is passed through the body from many different angles.

• CAT scans depend upon the facts that structure of the different density shoe up differently.

(b) Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)-

• It provide information about neuroanatomy.

• MIR requires no exposure to radiation and often permits clearer pictures.

• Person lies inside a tunnel like structure that surrounds the person with a strong magnetic field.

• Radio waves are directed at the head and through hydrogen atoms in those structure, make the pictures of that area.

• These techniques provide static pictures and do not give information about the function of the brain.

(c) Positron Emission Tomography (PET)-

• It involves injecting radioactively labeled compound .

• PET scans measure the blood flow to different regions of the brain, allowing an electronic reconstruction of a picture of the brain, showing which areas are more active at a particular time.

(d) Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)-

• Relies on the fact that blood has magnetic properties.

• As blood is carried from the heart, it is maximum magnetic, as it is passes through, it becomes less magnetic.

• It shows that how brain functions make possible new connections and questions in cognitive psychology.

(e) Electroencephalography (EEG)-

• Is used to detect different state of consciousness.

• EEGs provide the researcher with a continuous measure of brain activity.

(f) Event Related Potential (ERP)-

• Measures an area of brain’s response to a specific event.

• Electrodes attached to the participant’s scalp and are presented with various external stimuli, than record the brain activity.

CAT & MRI scan- neuroanatomical information.PET & fMRI scan- provide dynamic information

about how blood flow duringvarious cognitive activities.

EEG & ERPs- measure electrical activity during cognitive activities.

SPECT- like PET, this technique measure cerebral blood flow known as single photon emission computed tomography, but does not require expensive equipment.

EMG- known as magnetoencephalography, measure changes in magnetic fields, generated by electrical activities of neurons, give more precise localization of brain region activity than does EEG.