2. Agenda for the week
• Introductions
• Syllabus
• Course “Orientation”
• Checklist
• Lecture material
3. Extra Credit: Free Blackboard
Orientation Course for Students
GSU offers a FREE orientation course on Blackboard
tools to all students enrolled in this semester
courses. This course is available to student NOW on
their Blackboard Courses list.
To encourage students to complete the Orientation, we
are offering a Certificate to students who successfully
complete the Blackboard Student Orientation
course. Students earn the Certificate by passing a 15-
question quiz on the course content, answering 75% of
the questions correctly.
4. Checklist for Week 1
• Review all sections of the course syllabus and
orientation.
• Familiarize yourself with the tutorials and support
available to you in the ‘Resources/Support’ tab.
• Read chapter 1 of your textbook.
• Upload a photo of yourself to your Blackboard
profile.
• Post your introduction & weekly threads to the
Discussion Board
6. Cognitive Psychology is…
• The study of how people perceive, learn,
remember, and think about information.
7. History of Cognitive Ψ
If you wanted to understand how people think which
method would you use? What would you focus on?
Rationalist
• Acquire knowledge
through thinking and
logical analysis
Empiricist
• Acquire knowledge via
empirical evidence
8. Decline and Rebirth
• John Watson and Behaviorism
–Studied impact of stimulus conditions on
behavior (stimulus-response)
–Most famous study: Little Albert
• B.F. Skinner
–Studied operant conditioning: believe
reinforcements, not free will, determined
behavior
9. • Noam Chomsky’s Language
Acquisition Device (LAD)
How do children acquire language?
–Behaviorist:
• Imitate adults and establish stimulus and
response connections.
• “Dog”
Chomsky disagreed with Skinner!
10. 'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that
catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"
Lewis Carrol
Cognitive Psychology To Behaviorism:
“This Should Not Be Possible”
11. Research Methods in Cognitive
Psychology
How does scientific investigation work?
–Theory development
–Hypotheses formulation
–Hypotheses testing
–Data gathering
–Data analysis
If you wanted to understand cognition? What would
you focus on?
12. Research Methods in Cognitive
Psychology
• Controlled laboratory experiments
– An experimenter controls as many aspects of
the experimental situation as possible
• Advantages
– Enables isolation of causal factors
– Excellent means of testing hypotheses
• Disadvantages
– Often lack of ecological validity
13. Modern Approaches to Study
the Mind
• Behavioral Approach
– Measure behavior and explain cognition in terms of
behavior
• Physiological Approach
– Measure both behavior and physiology and explain
cognition in terms of physiology
• Self-reports
– Participant’s reports of own cognition in progress or
as recollected
14. • 1st cognitive psychology experiment, 1868
– Donders, Dutch physiologist
– Used mental chronometry
– What is mental chronometry?
– What are 2 ways to measure?
• ____________
• ____________
– Mental processes are ____________ from behavior
Modern Approaches to Study
the Mind
• 1st cognitive psychology experiment, 1868
– Donders Experiment
– Used mental chronometry
– What is mental chronometry?
– What are 2 ways to measure?
• ____________
• ____________
– Mental processes are ____________ from behavior
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20. Modern Approaches to Study
the Mind
• Cognitive Psychology versus
Neurobiology
–Neurobiology: how does the brain do it?
–Cognitive Psych: how does the mind do it?
–Both can use neurons to describe mind
–The difference is behavior (the big picture)
22. Challenges of Cognitive Ψ
• Often times, “the processes involved in
cognition are complex and hidden from view”
• Take a moment and think about all that is
happening around you (perception, attention,
memory, reasoning)
• Complexity examples
23. Assumptions of Modern Cognitive
Psychology
1. Mental processes exist
2. These processes can be studied and "discovered"
3. It is possible to infer a mental process from
behavior
- can we infer a mental process from brain activity?
4. Mental processes involve a series of steps
5. Mental processes take time
