INSTRUCTOR’S MANUAL Gabriel A. Radvansky University of Notre Dame
COGNITION 6th EDITION
Gabriel A. Radvansky University of Notre Dame
Mark H. Ashcraft
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
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Instructor’s Manual
Cognition, 6th ed.
Radvansky/Ashcraft
Chapter 1: Cognitive Psychology: An Introduction 1.0 Chapter Overview This is an overview chapter: an introduction to cognitive psychology.
1.1 Chapter Contents Thinking about Thinking Memory and Cognition Defined An Introductory History of Cognitive Psychology • • • •
Anticipations of Psychology Early Psychology Behaviorism and Neobehaviorism Dissatisfaction with Behaviorism: The Winds of Change
Cognitive Psychology and Information Processing •
The New Direction
Measuring Information Processes • • •
Getting Started Guiding Analogies Time and Accuracy Measures
Information Processing and the Cognitive Science Approach • • • •
The Standard Theory A Process Model Revealing Assumptions Cognitive Science
Themes 1.2 Chapter Summary Cognitive psychology is the scientific study of human memory and mental processes, including activities such as perceiving, remembering, using language, reasoning, and problem solving. The field is driven forward by research, the results of experiments, and the explanations provided by models and theories. Intuitive analysis of examples such as “How many hands did Aristotle have?” and “Does a robin have wings?” indicates that many important mental processes can occur very rapidly and below the level of conscious awareness; experimental evidence presented later in the book supports these conclusions. The field of cognition aims to provide an accurate assessment of human thought by a number of methods. The aim is to provide ecologically valid conclusions using a scientific approach to expose the underlying elements and processes of thought. “Psychology has a long past but only a short history” (Ebbinghaus, 1908): interest in psychological topics has existed for a long time, but the scientific study of human memory and cognition has only developed recently (e.g., Wundt established the first psychological laboratory in 1879). Early “scientific” investigations of psychologically relevant phenomena started in the late 1800s. These included investigations into the structure of thought (Wundt & Titchner via the first psychological approach: structuralism), as well as physiological (Helmholtz) and psychophysical investigations. The largely American behaviorist movement rejected the use of introspections and substituted the study of observable behavior as the true goal of psychology. Real-world problems of vigilance (performance decrements across time) and attention were not easily addressed with the tools afforded by stimulus–response (S–R) behaviorism; neither were problems of language acquisition and decision making. These shortcomings led to the demise of behaviorism. The movement in America from the behaviorist perspective to the cognitive perspective—the shift towards an objective examination of mental processes—is the cognitive revolution. Modern cognitive psychology retains many behaviorist viewpoints and assumptions, as well as behaviorism’s methodological rigor, but has dropped the antimentalistic stance and has incorporated viewpoints, assumptions, and methods from linguistics and the computer and information sciences. Among the common methods used to study thought are response time and accuracy measures. Among the common guiding analogies are the information-processing perspective and the computer metaphor.
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Instructor’s Manual
Cognition, 6th ed.
Radvansky/Ashcraft
The standard model of memory is introduced as a guiding theory of cognitive psychology. A process model is provided to give student a feel for how cognitive psychology conducts its business. Also provided are a number of assumptions cognitive psychologists may make when doing their research. The chapter concludes with a discussion of cognitive science to provide a broader perspective in which cognitive psychology fits. Cognitive science is viewed as the interdisciplinary approach used in the scientific study of thought, language, and the brain—the study of the mind. Seven themes for the entire book are also introduced in this chapter.
1.3 Key Terms Accuracy: how correct a person is in the responses given; often quantified in terms of both number correct and number incorrect. Separately, or paired with response time, it can give an indication of cognitive functioning. (p. 21) Attention: (one of the seven themes of cognition) this is an all-important but poorly understood mental process. It is limited in quantity, essential to most processing, but only partially under our control. Is it a mechanism? Is it a limited pool of mental resources? (p. 30) Behaviorism: the movement or school of psychology in which the organism’s behavior was the primary topic of interest, and the learning of new stimulus–response associations, whether by classical conditioning or by reinforcement principles, was deemed the most important kind of behavior to study. Experience is the primary factor in determining even the largest aspects of one’s behavior. Antimentalistic; associated with John B. Watson. ( p. 12) Channel Capacity: term borrowed from communications engineering: any channel—any physical device that transmits messages or information—has a limited capacity. (p. 18) Cognition: the collection of mental processes and activities used in perceiving, remembering, thinking, and understanding, as well as the act of using those processes. (p. 6) Cognitive Psychology: is an objective, empirical discipline that favors an experimental approach. The major assumptions are: 1) Mental processes exist (vs. behaviorist perspective); 2) Mental processes can be studied scientifically (vs. subjectivity of introspective method); 3) People are active information processors (vs. passive recipients of knowledge and experience). (p. 5) Cognitive Revolution: the movement away from behaviorism to re-embrace the study of memory and mental activity: instinctive drift, language, perception, judgment, and decision making. (p. 2) Cognitive Science: is the interdisciplinary (linguistics, computer science, neuroscience, and psychology) study of thought, language, and the brain; the text also defines cognitive science as “the scientific study of thought, language, and the brain—in short, the scientific study of the mind.” (p. 2) Computer Analogy: human information processing may be similar to the sequence of steps and operations in a computer program—similar to the flow of information from input to output when a computer processes information. (p. 19) Conceptually Driven Processing (top-down): when existing context or knowledge has an influence on earlier or simpler forms of mental processing. (p. 27) Context Effects: related concepts or processing can speed later processing; aA problem for process models, because there was not an easy way to accommodate context effects. (p. 27) Control Processes: the cognitive steps involved in manipulating information, such as rehearsal, in short-term memory. (p23) Data-driven (bottom-up) Processing: some processing relies heavily on the information we get from the environment. (p. 30) Ecological Validity: the extent to which experimental results provide insight into how people actually think and act in real-world situations rather than in sterile, very controlled, laboratory conditions. (p. 7) Embodiment: (one of the seven themes of cognition) the way we think about and process information reflects the fact that we need to interact with the world using our bodies. (p. 30) Empiricism: the philosophy that phenomena are to be investigated by careful objective observation. (p. 9) Explicit: direct and explicit awareness of certain types of memories (you remember the experience of buying this textbook, for example). (p. 30) Functionalism: the study of the functions of consciousness (rather than its structure); answered the questions: “What is it for?” “How does it adapt?” (p. 11) Implicit: some memories and memory processes are there, but not necessarily with conscious awareness, which raises the issue of whether (and how much) unconscious influences can affect your behavior. (p. 30)
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