E lecture Cognitive Psychology: Then and Now

1. Cognition I: Basic Processes
E-Lecture for Learning Pack 2
Cognitive Psychology Methods: Then and Now
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What we call cognition means thinking and knowledge – from Latin
congoscere = get to know.
As a field of study, cognition refers to the mental processes behind our
experience and behaviour.
Information coming
from the world
through the senses.
Mental
processes
manipulate the
information
Behaviour:
things we do,
say, think, feel.
Input Output
What is Cognition?
Cognition

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Cognition starts as we acquire information about the world through our
senses –sensation.
Then, early cognitive processes manipulate the incoming information.
Perception – a process of interpreting information from the senses.
Attention – a process which selects a small amount of incoming
information.
Memory – a process by which information is manipulated, stored, and
retrieved depending on our goals.
Finally, once information from the senses has been mentally represented, it
is used to guide our behaviour and thinking & reasoning.
What is Cognition?

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The field of Cognitive Psychology studies cognition – the mental processes
behind our experience and behaviour.
We do this by studying and manipulating the input, observing the output, and
making inferences about what’s going on in our mind – the mental processes
behind our experience and behaviour.
Information coming
from the world
through the senses.
Mental
processes
manipulate the
information
Behaviour:
things we do,
say, think, feel.
Input Output
Cognitive Psychology

5. First ExperimentalMethods
in CognitivePsychology
The first steps in measuring the mind started in the mid-19th C, with two
main questions:
How fast does the mind work?
How well does the mind work?
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6. F.C. Donders(1868):Mental Chronometry
Donders pioneered a simple method to estimate
the speed of mental operations.
He invented the “subtractive method” which was
the basis for modern experimental studies.
He was the first to show that different mental
operations take different time.
Here is how:
Dutch psychologist
F.C. Donders (1868)
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7. Donderspioneeringexperiment:
How long does it take to make a decision?
Donders was interested in determining how long
it takes for a person to make a decision.
First he measured reaction time – how long it
takes to respond to presentation of a stimulus – in
this case a single light on the screen (see Figure).
This task is called a simple reaction time task.
Simple reaction time is the time between
presentation of the stimulus and the behavioural
response.
Press Z when you see the light.
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8. Donderspioneeringexperiment:
How long does it take to make a decision?
Then, he presented two stimuli (two lights), one on
the left and one on the right (see Figure).
Participants pressed a different key depending on
which stimulus was brighter– e.g., Z if it was the left,
and M if the right.
This is a choice reaction time task.
Choice reaction time is the time between
presentation of the stimulus combined the time taken
to make a decision, and the behavioural response.
Press Z if light on the left,
and M if on the right.
FigurefromGoldstein’sCognitive
Psychology,3rdedition
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9. Donderspioneeringexperiment:
How long does it take to make a decision?
Donders (1868) Findings
Time to make a decision = Choice reaction time (RT) minus Simple RT [200 minus 150 = 100].
So, it takes 1/10th of a second to make a decision.
RT in the simple reaction
time task can be about
150 milliseconds.
Reaction time (RT) in the
choice reaction time task can
be about 250 milliseconds.
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10. Donderspioneeringexperiment:
How long does it take to make a decision?
Donders concluded that mental operations cannot be measured directly. They
can only be inferred from behaviour.
This is a principle that holds for all research in cognitive psychology – that is all
research in the study of the mind.
Cognitive psychologists to this day measure behaviour to infer the mental
operations that give rise to that behaviour.
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11. Ebbinghaus (1885)
Measuring the rate of forgetting
Ebbinghaus focused on learning &
forgetting of information.
He used himself as a subject to find out
how long it took to forget information that
has been learned.
The techniques he invented are used even
today to study memory.
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German Psychologist
Hermann Ebbinghaus (1885)

12. Ebbinghaus (1885)
Measuring the rate of forgetting
Learned lists of nonsense syllables, e.g., KEB, QEB, ZIF, etc. to determine how many
repetitions are needed to recall all the syllables without errors.
After some time, he re-learnt the lists –varying the amount of time passing from first
learning them.
Each time he re-learned the lists, he retained some memory, i.e., each time he took
less time to learn the lists, E.g., after 19 min delay, after 1 hour delay, etc.
What he retained from the previous learning, he named savings.
If a short time passed from the first learning, then he had more savings (recalled
more information and needed fewer repetitions to re-learn the lists)
With longer time between learning and re-learning, he had fewer savings – he
recalled fewer items and needed more repetitions to relearn the lists. 12

13. The Forgetting Curve
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The forgetting curve shows that memory for the learnt material drops sharply after
first learning it, with the rate of forgetting decreasing more slowly after that.
Almost 50% of the
information learnt is
forgotten within the
first 20 minutes

14. The Forgetting Curve
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By day 1 Ebbinghaus found that he remembered less than half of the
material he learned – the rate of forgetting was rather steep as seen below.
About 70% of the
information learnt is
forgotten within a day

15. The Forgetting Curve and Savings
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The forgetting curve without any practice (red
line) shows memory to fall sharply after the first
study, and more more slowly after that.
But with each repetition of the studied material
(green lines) the savings (the material being
retained in memory) increase – more
information is retained over time.
But the forgetting curve can become flatter with more practice of the material.
Re-learning the material leads to memory consolidation, the process by which
information learned is strengthened and more resistant to forgetting.

16. Ebbinghaus(1885)
Measuringthe rate of forgetting
Ebbinghaus’ study on forgetting was the first evidence that memory can be
quantified and measured, just like any other physical phenomena.
So, just like Donders, Ebbinghaus, measured observable behaviour (errors in
recalling a list of syllables) in order to examine a mental operation (memory).
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17. Wilhelm Wundt (1879):Founderof Psychology
Wundt is best known for founding the first laboratory of
Psychology at the University of Leipzig in 1879.
Wundt’s fundamental question: What are the components of
the mind? He proposed that the mind is composed of
elements and compounds, as in chemistry.
The elements of psychology are sensations and feelings
(Wundt 1896) – e.g., at any moment we may experience the
taste of a fine food, the sound of some music, and a certain
pleasure. All these perceptions (elements) would merge into
a single experience (a compound).
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German Psychologist
Wilhelm Wundt (1879)

18. Wilhelm Wundt (1879)and the Introspection
Method
Wundt tested the idea about the components of the
mind by collecting data (evidence) – thus
demonstrating the possibility of meaningful research
in Psychology.
Wundt developed the introspection method –
presentation people with different kinds of lights,
sounds, textures, and asked them to report the
intensity and quality of their sensations.
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In a typical introspection
study, Wundt would ask
participants: “Looking at
this apple what do you
experience? What are
your thoughts? “What do
you feel?”

19. EdwardTitchener(1910)and Structuralism
Edward Titchener – a student of Wundt’s – went even further and would train
participants to look at an object and analyse its features separately – e.g., its
yellowness, shape, brightness, roughness, etc.
He described this approach structuralism, the attempt to describe the structures
that compose the mind, such as sensations, feelings, and images.
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Titchener would ask
participants: “Looking at
this lemon, how would
describe its shape? It’s
yellowness? Its texture?”

20. Introspectionand StructuralismCritique
The introspection method, and structuralism as a theoretical approach to the
human mind, were abandoned in the early 1900s , because there was no way
to check the accuracy of the participants’ responses
Specifically, the introspection method, and structuralism failed to account for
the fact that we have little conscious insight into our own mental operations.
The following is one of the many demonstrations of such failures.
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21. Payclose attention to those two faces and
decidewhichone youlike the best.
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22. Stare at this for a while until it disappears
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23. Typicallyonly about 30% of peoplechosethis face.
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24. Why do youthinkthe majorityof peoplechoose
this face? Comeup with 3 reasons now.
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25. We can be largely wrongaboutthe mental
processesthat giverise to our thoughts,
decisions,and behaviours.
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Did you notice that the face
you were asked to give
reasons for liking was not
among the two faces you
were shown earlier?
The original face was actually
the one of the right, but you
were asked to give reasons of
why you might like the face in
the middle.

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The majority of people tested in experiments like this tend to come up with reasons for why
they like something that they did not even choose. This phenomenon is known as choice
blindness – referring to our blindness to our own choices - and was first described by
Johansson Hall, Sikström, & Olsson (2005). It is strong demonstration that we can be largely
wrong about the mental processes that give rise to our thoughts, decisions, and behaviours. It
is also a demonstration that introspection is a limited method, when it comes to
understanding the mind.
We can be largely wrongaboutthe mental
processesthat giverise to our thoughts,
decisions,and behaviours.

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Petter Johansson gives this interesting talk on
choice blindness in this 16-minute TED talk.
We can be largely wrongaboutthe mental
processesthat giverise to our thoughts,
decisions,and behaviours.

28. Introspection and Structuralism Critique
Wundt and his students did a great service to psychology, by asking the
right question: What are the basic elements of our mental processes? In
other words, what processes are behind our thoughts and actions?
Modern cognitive psychology still asks questions (and occasionally finds
answers) about the basic elements of the mind.
Why?
By knowing the elementary units of something one can study it and
predict its behaviour, whether it is a particle, a chemical substance, or the
human psyche.
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29. Introspection and Structuralism Critique
Wundt and his students did a great service to psychology, by asking the right
question: What are the basic elements of our mental processes? What
processes are behind our experience and behaviour?
Modern cognitive psychology still asks questions about the basic elements of
the mind.
By knowing the elementary units of something one can study it and
predict its behaviour, whether it is a particle, a chemical substance, or the
human psyche.
But the introspection method, was abandoned in the early 1900s because it
failed to account for the fact that we have little conscious insight into our own
mental operations. The choice blindness is just one example of such failures.
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30. William James (1890): Functionalism
Unlike Wundt, William James focused was on what the mind
does, not what how is the mind structured–founding the
functionalism movement in the study of the mind.
William James is famous for his book Principles of Psychology
(1890) – where he defined many of the questions still asked
today in psychology.
How do people develop and maintain habits?
Can we attend to more than one thing at a time?
How do we recognise something, e.g., “this is a chair”,
which we have never seen before?
How does intention lead to action?
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American Psychologist
William James (1890)

31. William James (1890): Functionalism
William James proposed answers to his questions, but those
were based on observations in his own life and those around him
– no experiments.
Nevertheless, many of those observations hold true even today.
His key contribution was to inspire other psychologists to
examine the questions he posed.
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American Psychologist
William James (1890)

32. The Rise of Behaviourism –early 1900’s
Wundt’s introspection method was a subjective study of the mind.
This upset psychologists who wanted to make the study of Psychology more
objective, and thus more scientific.
Behaviourism rose as a response to Wundt’s subjective method of measuring
the mind.
As Watson, the accepted founder of Behaviourism, put it in his book
‘Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It’: “Psychology as the behaviorist views it
is a purely objective experimental branch of natural science. Its theoretical goal
is the prediction and control of behavior”(Watson, 1913, p. 158)
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33. Main Premises of Behaviourism
The main premises of Behavioursim as as follows:
Mental events are not observable.
The only observable evidence of mental life is behaviour.
By measuring observable evidence – i.e., behaviour – Psychology could become a
science.
According to behaviourists, the study of behaviour – and not the study of the
mental operations underlying it– should be the focus of psychology.
The study of Cognitive Psychology – the study of mental operations that govern
behaviour - virtually disappeared from scientific circles until the late 1900s.
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34. Main Premises of Behaviourism
By studying non-human animals (e.g., rats) learning, one could uncover basic
learning principles that can explain similar behaviours in humans.
Why?
Animals were easier to test because the experimenter has more complete
control of diet, waking/sleeping schedules, and so forth.
Non-human animal learning is simpler to understand and start from – just like
in physics one could uncover the laws of gravity by dropping an object on the
ground, early behavioural psychologists thought they could uncover principles
of behaviour by studying rats in mazes. 34

35. Quotes from EarlyBehaviouristsaboutthe
value of studyingRats in Mazes
“One of the most persistently baffling problems which confronts modern
psychologists is the finding of an adequate explanation of the phenomena of
maze learning” (Clark Hull, 1932, p. 25).
“I believe that everything important in psychology (except perhaps . . . such
matters as involve society and words) can be investigated in essence through the
continued experimental and theoretical analysis of the determiners of rat
behavior at a choice-point in a maze” (Tolman, 1938, p. 34).
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36. Clever rats to the rescueof CognitivePsychology!
Edward Chance Tolman
(1948) trained rats to find
food in a simple maze with
a single path.
Then, he placed the rat at a new
position. Where would the rat
go for food now? The trained
action was ‘turn right for food’.
He trained rats that when
placed at A they had to
‘turn right’ to find food.
The majority of the rats correctly turned left to find the food (not right as
they had been trained). Evidence that their behaviour was based on a
cognitive map of the maze and not simply on a trained association.
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37. Tolman’sfindingssuggestedthattheratshadamental
representation(acognitivemap)ofthemaze.
The rats’ behaviour was hard to explain only in
terms of stimulus-response associations.
Tolman explained this finding by introducing
the idea of a cognitive map.
Even though the rats had learned to turn right
for the food, when placed at a different starting
place, they used a cognitive map to turn left to
find the food.
The rats’ behaviour was based on a cognitive
map of the maze and not simply on a trained
association.
Tolman first proposed the idea of
a cognitive map as guiding
behaviour, as opposed to trained
stimulus-response associations
alone.
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38. CognitivePsychologyBackon the Map!
Modern day Cognitive Psychologists aim to understand
complex cognitive behaviours, using 3 basic steps:
Measure observable behaviour.
Make inferences about underlying cognitive activity.
Consider what this evidence says about how the mind
works.
To do this they use experimental and quasi-experimental
methods.
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39. Some of the earliest psychological researchers (e.g., Donders, or
Ebbinghaus) wanted to study the conscious mind but became
discouraged with Titchener’s introspective methods.
Since the 1960s, cognitive psychology (the study of thought and
knowledge) has gradually gained in prominence over behaviourist
approaches and now dominates experimental psychology.
These days, instead of asking people about their thoughts,
cognitive psychologists carefully measure the accuracy and speed
of responses under various circumstances to draw inferences
about the underlying processes.
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CognitivePsychologyBackon the Map!

40. Basic and AppliedCognitivePsychology
Modern Cognitive Psychology encompasses both basic and applied research.
Basic research seeks theoretical knowledge for its own sake, such as
understanding the cognitive processes of perception, attention, learning and
memory, thinking and reasoning.
Applied research seeks to understand cognitive processes in problem situation,
such as how to help children with learning disabilities, or adults with dementia.
The two kinds of research are mutually supportive.
Understanding the basic processes helps applied researchers develop
effective interventions.
Finding practical solutions can help the discovery of findings that are
theoretically important. 40

41. ExperimentalMethods
Detection (simple reaction time task)
Discrimination (choice reaction time task)
Visual search
Spatial cueing
Dot Probe task
Flanker task
Stroop task
Simon task
Think – No Think
Go – No Go
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There are as many experimental techniques possible as the scientist’s
imagination and creativity allows. A number of experimental methods stem
from those invented by Donders and Ebbinghaus.
Texture Segregation
Perceptual matching
Repetition Priming
Lexical Decision
Artificial Grammar Learning
Directed Forgetting
Yes / No recognition
Retrieval practice
Free recall
Cued Recall
Source monitoring
And many-many more…

42. Quasi-ExperimentalMethods
(Questionnaires& Surveys)
Quasi-experimental methods stem from the introspection method introduced
by Wundt – psychologists ask participants questions to infer the mental
operations behind behaviours.
Questionnaire formats:
Open-ended questions (“What does being British mean to you?”)
Closed / forced-choice questions
How hot are you?
0 = Very Cold, 100 = Very Hot
5- or 7-point scales are the most popular used in Social Cognition research.
“Being British is an important reflection of who I am”
Strongly disagree 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Strongly agree 42

43. Quasi-ExperimentalMethods
(Questionnaires& Surveys)
Advantages
Quick, easy, & inexpensive way to collect data from a large sample.
Measure perceptions & attitudes of people.
Get at sensitive issues, e.g., prejudice.
Potential Pitfalls
Social desirability responding – participants sometimes give the answer they think
the experimenter wants to see/hear.
Participants and experimenters are susceptible to cognitive biases.
Wording of the questions can sway results.
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44. Recommended Further Reading
Eysenck and Keane (any edition) Cognitive Psychology: A student’s handbook.
Any edition available in the library
Boring, E. G. (1953). A history of introspection. Psychological Bulletin, 50(3), 169.
Available in the E-Learning module 2: Brief History and Methods of Cognitive
Psychology. The pdf is available online here.
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