Class1_Introduction_And_Experimental_Design.pptx

Psychology C58:
Cognitive Psychology Laboratory
Instructor: PhD Lorna Garcia-Penton

1.0 CALENDAR DESCRIPTION
This course introduces conceptual and practical issues concerning research in
cognitive psychology. Students will be introduced to current research methods
through a series of practical exercises conducted on computers. By the end of the
course, students will be able to program experiments, manipulate data files, and
conduct basic data analyses.
2.0 COURSE INFORMATION
Prerequisite: [PSYB01H3 or PSYB04H3] and [PSYB07H3 or STAB22H3 or
STAB23H3] and [PSYB51H3 or PSYB57H3]
Exclusion: PSY379H
Recommended Preparation: PSYC08H3
Class Meeting Time: Lectures take place on Wednesdays between 9 am and 12
pm, in Room SW316 (there will be a few additional one-hour tutorials held after
lecture, in the same classroom, from 11 – 12 pm, days TBD).
Textbook: There is no textbook for this course. Rather, students will be required to
read a number of research articles relating to various topics in cognitive
psychology (see ‘Readings’ below)

3.0 INSTRUCTOR AND TEACHING ASSISTANT CONTACT
INFORMATION
Instructor: Lorna Garcia-Penton (email: lorna.garciapenton@utoronto.ca)
Office hours: To be determined (SW410M)
Teaching assistant (TA): Marco Sama (marco.sama@mail.utoronto.ca)
Office hours: To be determined.
4.0 ONLINE COURSE RESOURCES
Quercus: https://q.utoronto.ca/courses/61061/
Quercus will be used as the main online resource for this course. All important
course-related information (e.g. announcements, syllabus, class schedule,
assignment information, message boards, and grades) will be available via
quercus.

5.0 DETAILED COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course has three main objectives. First, you will be introduced to a number of different
methodological techniques used by cognitive psychologists to study the mind. Second, you will
be given hands-on experience collecting, preparing, and analyzing data, using computer
software that is commonly used in cognitive psychology experiments (E-Prime, Excel, and SPSS).
Third, you will develop your communication skills by presenting your results to others using
both oral (poster presentations) and written (formal APA research manuscript) methods. Thus, by
the end of this course you will have both increased your knowledge of some core principles in
cognitive psychology (objective #1), and will have gained valuable practical experience running
experiments, analyzing data, and presenting scientific results (objectives #2 and #3). These
objectives will be achieved through the combination of traditional lectures, hands-on laboratory
exercises, and tutorials. The first two formal lectures in the course (see table under ‘Class
Schedule and Readings’ below) will teach students about basic principles in experimental design
and data analysis in cognitive psychology. Next, a number of common research topics in cognition
will be covered, and for each topic I will provide an in-class lecture to familiarize students with the
history and current understanding of that topic in the field of cognitive psychology. Importantly,
four of these topics will be chosen for further study through the use of in-class laboratory
exercises (i.e., The Stroop Effect, The Global Precedence Effect, Priming & Spatial Cueing of
Attention). Specifically, after the lecture component, all students will take part in an actual cognitive
psychology experiment in class. The data collected from this exercise will be used by students to
create both a research poster (presented during the last or second-to-last class of the semester)
and a formal APA research paper (different components of the paper will be due at different points
in the semester; see ‘EVALUATION’ and ‘Important Dates’ below for more details). Finally, the TA
for this course, Marco Sama, will give a number of tutorials instructing students on how to design
(i.e., program), run, and analyze data from cognitive psychology experiments using the software
package E-Prime (from 11 – 12 pm in SW 316 after lecture, days to be determined).

5.0 DETAILED COURSE DESCRIPTION (CONTINUED)
As a student in this course, you can expect to develop and improve upon the following types of
skills, all of which are important for future academic or work-related endeavors: critical
reasoning, problem solving, public speaking, and effective scholarly writing. Moreover, you will
have developed knowledge of core topics in cognition and perception, and will be able to
relate this knowledge to the broader question of how information is represented in the human
brain. Finally, you will have gained valuable hands-on experience in multiple aspects of
scientific research, which is relevant not only to future academic course work, but also to
securing volunteer positions in a number of labs at UTSC and ultimately to applications for
graduate school.

Class schedule and readings:
Date Topic Reading
September 5 Introduction to the course and
Basics of Experimental Design for Cognitive
Psychology
E-Prime User’s Guide Appendix B
(posted on blackboard)
September 12 Basics of Data Analysis for Cognitive
Psychology
September 19 The Stroop Effect http://goo.gl/U8HOLO
September 26 The Global Precedence Effect http://goo.gl/QjN4Vj
October 3 Priming Effect (APA Introduction due) http://goo.gl/2IoSdX
October 10 READING WEEK, NO CLASS
(Data for Stroop, Global Precedence, &
Priming released)
October 17 Spatial Cueing of Attention http://goo.gl/yMN00K
October 24 Tips for Data Analysis and Writing Your
Methods/Results Section
(Data for Spatial Cueing of Attention released)
hand tutorial
October 31
Visual Search
hand tutorial
http://goo.gl/rZ70b6
http://goo.gl/fNOYhG
November 7 The Attentional Blink
Tips for Making your Poster and Writing your
Discussion Section
(APA Method and Results sections due for
Stroop, Global Precedence, and Priming)
hand tutorial
http://goo.gl/twrBhm
November 14 Change Blindness http://goo.gl/kTUats
November 21 Poster Presentations (Stroop and Global
Precedence Effect)
(Method and Results sections due for Spatial
Cueing of Attention)
November 28 Poster Presentations (Priming and Spatial
Cueing of Attention) (APA Discussion section
due)
To be determined Final Exam

References for readings:
The Stroop Effect: Stroop, J.R. (1935). Studies of interference in serial verbal reactions. Journal of Experimental
Psychology, 28, 643-662.
The Global Precedence Effect: Navon, D. (1977). Forest before trees: The precedence of global features in
visual perception. Cognitive Psychology, 9, 353-383.
Priming: Meyer, D.E., & Schvaneveldt, R.W. (1971). Facilitation in recognizing pairs of words: Evidence of a
dependence between retrieval operations. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 90, 227-234.
Spatial Cueing of Attention: Posner, M.I., Snyder, C.R.R., Davidson, B.J. (1980) Attention and the detection of
signals. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 109, 160-174.
Visual Search: (1) Neisser, U. (1964). Visual search. Scientific American 210(6), 94-102.
(2) Tresiman, A.M., & Gelade, G. (1980). A feature-integration theory of attention. Cognitive Psychology, 12, 97-
136.
The Attentional Blink: Raymond, J.E., Shapiro, K.L., & Arnell, K.M. (1992). Temporary suppression of visual
processing in an RSVP task: An attentional blink? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and
Performance, 18, 849-860.
Change Blindness: Rensink, R.A., O'Regan, J.K., & Clark, J.J. (1997). To see or not to see: the need for attention
to perceive changes in scenes. Psychological Science, 8, 368-373.

6.0 EVALUATION
• Participation in Laboratory Experiments (10%)
• Assignment 1: APA Introduction (10%)
• Assignment 2: APA Method and Results Sections (10%)
• Assignment 3: APA Discussion Section (20%)
• Assignment 4: Poster Presentation (20%)
• Final Exam (30%)

Participation in Laboratory Experiments (10%)
An integral component of this laboratory course is the opportunity to take part in four different cognitive
psychology experiments, conducted in class. These experiments will investigate: The Stroop Effect
(September 19), The Global Precedence Effect (September 26), Priming Effect (October 3), and the
Spatial Cueing of Attention (October 17). The data generated during these experiments will be used by
students to create both a research poster (presented on November 21 or November 28; see ‘Schedule’ and
‘Important Dates’ for more details) and a formal APA research paper (with the Introduction, Method and
Results, and Discussion sections due October 3, November 7 or 21, and November 28, respectively). Thus,
it is extremely important that students attend these four classes, as the quality of their own and their
classmates’ poster and research paper critically depends upon having an adequate sample size to conduct
statistical analyses. I will be taking attendance during these four classes, and each class missed carries a
penalty of 2.5% of the students’ final grade. No penalty will be applied if the student provides valid
documentation for their absence (e.g., documented family emergency, or UTSC medical certificate). If the
student does not wish to participate in the in-class experiments, they will be required to hand in four separate
research papers (each 1000 words in length), the topic of which will be selected by the instructor in a one-
on-one meeting with the student. The due dates of these four papers will be the date of each in-class
experiment.
6.0 EVALUATION
Assignment 1: APA Introduction (10%)
Assignment 2: APA Method and Results Sections (10%)
Assignment 3: APA Discussion Section (20%)
Assignment 4: Poster Presentation (20%)
Final Exam (30%)

6.0 EVALUATION
Final Exam (30%)
APA Introduction (10%)
On the first day of class, each student will select a topic for their research paper, choosing from the
four topics covered during the in-class experiments (i.e., Stoop, Global Precedence Effect,
Priming, or Spatial Cueing of Attention). If a student misses the first day of class, then the instructor
will select a topic for them. The first component of the formal APA research paper will be the
Introduction, which will be due on October 3. In general, the Introduction should be structured so
as to first introduce the research topic, then provide an in-depth review of the literature pertaining to
that topic, and finish by introducing the current study (i.e., brief description of the design of the
study and relevant hypotheses).

6.0 EVALUATION
Final Exam (30%)
APA Method and Results Sections (10%)
The second component of the formal APA research paper will be the Method and Results sections, which will be due on
November 7 (for Stroop, Global Precedence, and Priming) or November 21 (for Spatial Cueing of Attention). The purpose of a
Method section in a formal research paper is to provide the reader with enough information to understand the design of your
study, and to replicate your findings, should they want to pursue that avenue. A detailed and well-written Method section can
help a reader understand the results of a study, and typically includes separate sections describing the Participants who took
part in the study, the Apparatus and Equipment used to conduct the study, and the Design and Procedure of the study (i.e.,
the sequence of events that a participant encounters while taking part in the study). The TA will help you to obtain information
about the design and procedure of each in-class experiment by examining the E-Prime scripts used to run the experiments,
during the tutorial sections.
The Results section clearly describes the main findings in your study, and summarizes all of the relevant statistical tests that
you conducted. It should start with a brief description of how you analysed your data (e.g., the type of experimental design
you used, the type of statistical tests used), and then proceed to describe the results of the statistical tests in a clear and
organized manner (e.g., if describing results from more than 1 dependent variable, results from each dependent variable
should be grouped and separated from each other). A critical component of Results sections are figures and tables
summarizing findings. You will be expected to generate your own figures and tables, based on the analysis of your particular
data set (i.e., results from either the Stroop, Global Precedence, Priming, or Spatial Cueing experiment), and reference these
visual aids at appropriate points in the Results section. You will receive instruction on how to import your data from E-Prime
into Excel, how to appropriately organize and pre-process your data in Excel, and how to conduct relevant statistical tests in
SPSS.

6.0 EVALUATION
Final Exam (30%)
APA Discussion Section (20%)
The third component of the formal APA research paper will be the Discussion section, which will be due on
November 28. The purpose of the Discussion is to provide an interpretation of the data described in the
Results section. It should start with a brief summary of the main findings of your experiment, and then
provide detailed interpretations of these findings, in relation to previous research that both supports and
contradicts your interpretations. Near the end of your Discussion you should also discuss limitations of your
study, future directions that this research could be taken into, and conclude with a paragraph summarizing
your main results and interpretations.
Formatting: All components should be prepared according to APA format (see
http://www.apastyle.org/manual/ and https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/), should be written
in 12-point font, should be double-spaced with 1 inch margins, and should include both a title page and
reference list. The page limits for each section are (which do not include a title page and reference list):
Introduction: no longer than six pages double spaced
Method and Results: no limit
Discussion: no longer than eight pages double-spaced
While there is no upper limit for the amount of references used, you should use at least 10 references in the
Introduction (that are different from the references discussed in class) and 10 references in the Discussion
(different from both the references discussed in class and used in the Introduction).
Note: all papers are due in hard copy at the beginning of the specified class.

6.0 EVALUATION
Final Exam (30%)
Poster Presentation (20%)
In addition to written research papers, scientists communicate their findings to the academic community
through the use of oral presentations. In this laboratory course you will give one type of oral
presentation, a poster presentation, which will take place either on November 21 (if your research topic is
The Stroop Effect or The Global Precedence Effect) or November 28 (if your research topic is Priming or
the Spatial Cueing of Attention). Examples of poster presentations (made in PowerPoint) will be given in
class, but briefly, a research poster summarizes and presents all of the relevant information covered in a
research paper. Thus, there is an Introduction, Method, Results, and Discussion section. Good practices
for making posters will be covered in class, but in general, you should use a little text as possible, in
favour of multiple visual aids. Students will be able to team up with one or two additional students to
make and present their poster. A good strategy would be to form a group of 3, and allocate the work
evenly. For example, one student could make and present the Introduction section of the poster, a
second student could make and present the method and results, and the third student could make and
present the discussion section. Each presentation should be no longer than 10 minutes in length, and will
be followed by a five-minute question-and-answer period.
Note: a PDF version of the poster should be emailed to the instructor before class on the day of
your group’s presentation.

6.0 EVALUATION
Final Exam (30%)
Final Exam (30%)
The final examination will cover material from all of the lectures, laboratory experiments, tutorials,
and assigned readings. Since some of the material presented in class will not be covered in the
readings (and vice versa), it is important to both attend class and to read the required readings.

Important Dates
October 3: APA Introduction due
November 7: APA Method and Results sections due (for Stroop, Global
Precedence, and Priming)
November 21: First round of group poster presentations (The Stroop Effect
and The Global Precedence Effect)
APA Method and Results sections due (for Spatial Cueing of
Attention)
November 28: Second round of group poster presentations (Priming and
Spatial Cueing of Attention)
APA Discussion section due
TBD: Final exam

Important Dates
Policy on late assignments: late assignments will lose 10% for each day
past the deadline that they are not submitted. Extensions will only be granted
with proper documentation (i.e., documented family emergency, or UTSC
medical certificate). Please note, according to UTSC policy, I am not permitted
to extend the deadline for any assignment past the last day of classes for the
semester (December 4).

Policy on missed term work due to medical illness or emergency: All students citing a documented reason
for missed term work must bring their documentation to the Psychology Course Coordinator in SW427C within
three (3) business days of the assignment due date.
You must bring the following:
(1) A completed Request for Missed Term Work form (http://uoft.me/PSY-MTW), and
(2) Appropriate documentation to verify your illness or emergency, as described below.
Appropriate Documentation:
In the case of missed term work due to illness, only an original copy of the official UTSC Verification of Illness
Form will be accepted (http://uoft.me/UTSC-Verification-Of-Illness-Form). Forms are to be completed in full,
clearly indicating the start date, anticipated end date, and severity of illness. The physician’s registration
number and business stamp are required.
In the case of medical emergency, an original copy of the record of visitation to a hospital emergency room
should be provided.
In the case of a death of a family member, a copy of a death certificate should be provided.
In the case of a disability-related concern, an email communication should be sent directly to the Course
Coordinator (psychology-undergraduate@utsc.utoronto.ca) from your Disability Consultant at AccessAbility
Services, detailing the accommodations required. The Course Instructor should also be copied on this email.
For U of T Varsity athletic commitments, an email communication should be sent directly to the Course
Coordinator (psychology-undergraduate@utsc.utoronto.ca) from a coach or varsity administrator, detailing the
dates and nature of the commitment. The email should be sent well in advance of the missed work.
Documents covering the following situations are NOT acceptable: medical prescriptions, anything related to
personal travel, weddings/personal/work commitments.

Policy on missed term work due to medical illness or emergency (continued).
Procedure:
Submit your (1.) request form and (2.) medical/other documents in person within 3 business days of the
missed test or assignment. Forms should be submitted to SW427C between 9 AM - 4 PM, Monday
through Friday. If you are unable to meet this deadline for some reason, you must contact the Course
Coordinator via email (psychology-undergraduate@utsc.utoronto.ca) within the three business day window.
Exceptions to the documentation deadline will only be made under exceptional circumstances.
Within approximately one week, you will receive an email response from the Course Instructor / Course
Coordinator detailing the accommodations to be made (if any). You are responsible for checking your
official U of T email and Blackboard course announcements daily, as accommodations may be time-critical.
The Course Instructor reserves the right to decide what accommodations (if any) will be made for the
missed work.
Failure to adhere to any aspect of this policy may result in a denial of your request for
accommodation.
Note that this policy applies only to missed term work (assignments and midterms). Missed final exams are
handled by the Registrar’s Office (http://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/registrar/missing-examination)

Policy on missed examinations: students are expected to write the final
examination. If a student fails to write the final examination, they may petition
the Registrar’s office for permission to write a deferred exam, but note that the
Registrar’s office only grants these petitions under conditions of illness or
extreme emergency at the time of the examination (see
http://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/~registrar/current_students/deferred_exams for
more details). Thus, you must ensure that you have proper documentation to
support your petition (e.g., documented family emergency, or UTSC medical
certificate). Students who fail to provide proper documentation for missing the
final exam will receive a mark of 0% on that exam.

7.0 Additional Information
Help With Writing
If you would like help with academic writing, the following resources are available to
you:
- The Centre for Teaching and Learning (AC312) Writing Centre offers students one-
to-one appointments and supplementary materials to help improve upon their writing
skills.
http://ctl.utsc.utoronto.ca/home/
http://ctl.utsc.utoronto.ca/twc/
- The English Language Development Centre offers support and specialized writing
programs for students who do not speak English as their primary language.
http://ctl.utsc.utoronto.ca/eld/
- Advice on academic writing
http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice

Academic Integrity
Academic integrity is essential to the pursuit of learning and scholarship in a university, and to ensuring that a degree from the University of Toronto is a
strong signal of each student’s individual academic achievement. As a result, the University treats cases of cheating and plagiarism very
seriously. The University of Toronto’s Code of Behaviour on Academic Matters
(http://www.governingcouncil.utoronto.ca/Assets/Governing+Council+Digital+Assets/Policies/PDF/ppjun011995.pdf) outlines the behaviours that constitute
academic dishonesty and the processes for addressing academic offences. Potential offences include, but are not limited to:
In papers and assignments:
Using someone else’s ideas or words without appropriate acknowledgement;
Submitting your own work in more than one course without the permission of the instructor;
Making up sources or facts;
Obtaining or providing unauthorized assistance on any assignment.
On tests and exams:
Using or possessing unauthorized aids;
Looking at someone else’s answers during an exam or test;
Misrepresenting your identity; and
When you knew or ought to have known you were doing it.
In academic work:
Falsifying institutional documents or grades;
Falsifying or altering any documentation required by the University, including (but not limited to) doctor’s notes; and
When you knew or ought to have known you were doing so.
All suspected cases of academic dishonesty will be investigated following procedures outlined in the Code of Behaviour on Academic Matters. If students
have questions or concerns about what constitutes appropriate academic behaviour or appropriate research and citation methods, they are expected to seek
out additional information on academic integrity from their instructors or from other institutional resources.
Note:
You may see advertisements for services offering grammar help, essay editing and proof-reading. Be very careful. If these services take a draft of your work
and significantly change the content and/or language, you may be committing an academic offence (unauthorized assistance) under the Code of Behaviour
on Academic Matters.
It is much better and safer to take your draft to the Writing Centre as early as you can. They will give you guidance you can trust. Students for whom English
is not their first language should go to the English Language Development Centre.
If you decide to use these services in spite of this caution, you must keep a draft of your work and any notes you made before you got help and be prepared to
give it to your instructor on request.

Academic Integrity (continued)
Turnitin
Written assignments may be subject to submission for textual similarity review and
detection of possible plagiarism using the commercial plagiarism detection
software under license to the University (http://www.turnitin.com). If used, students
will allow their essays to be included as source documents in the Turnitin.com
reference database, where they will be used solely for the purpose of detecting
plagiarism. The terms that apply to the University’s use of the Turnitin.com service
are described on the Turnitin.com web site.

AccessAbility Services
Students with diverse learning styles and needs are welcome in this course. In
particular, if you have a disability/health consideration that may require
accommodations, please feel free to approach me and/or the AccessAbility Services
as soon as possible.
AccessAbility Services staff (located in Rm SW302, Science Wing) are available by
appointment to assess specific needs, provide referrals and arrange appropriate
accommodations 416-287-7560 or email ability@utsc.utoronto.ca. The sooner you let
us know your needs the quicker we can assist you in achieving your learning goals in
this course.
For Your Health
The Health and Wellness Centre (SL270, 416-287-7065) provides diagnostic,
treatment and referral services for all illnesses ranging from the medical to
psychological to health promotion. The professional staff of physicians, nurses and
counselors provides personal advice and assistance with family issues, eating
disorders, depression, stress, drug and alcohol abuse, relationship issues, a positive
space for gender/sexuality issues, and more.
http://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/wellness

Literature Searches
Students can use the following resources when conducting literature review to find
relevant articles for their presentation and final essay:
The UTSC Library (AC235)
http://www.library.utoronto.ca/utsc/
PubMed
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed
PsychINFO
http://www.apa.org/pubs/databases/psycinfo/index.aspx
Google Scholar
http://scholar.google.ca/

Basics of Experimental Design
for Cognitive Psychology
Experiments

Outline
1. What is cognitive psychology?
2. A brief history of cognitive psychology
3. Modern approaches in cognitive psychology
4. Key topics in cognitive psychology
5. Research methods in cognitive psychology

1. What is cognitive psychology?

Cognition and Cognitive
Psychology
• Cognition
– The mental processes that are involved in
perception, attention, memory, language,
problem solving, reasoning, creativity,
intelligence, thinking and making decisions
• Cognitive Psychology
– Branch of psychology concerned with the
scientific study of cognition/mental processes
– Simply put: it is the study of how people
perceive, learn, remember, and think

Lots of Cognitive Processes…
• Perception
– Organize, process, and interpret incoming information
(e.g., what you’re seeing on this slide)
– Visual, auditory, olfactory, somatosensory, etc.
• Attention
– Set of processes through which you focus on
incoming information
– Ability to attend is flexible – can constantly shift the
focus of your attention (e.g., cocktail party effect)
– Attention is also capacity limited

• Working Memory
– Like a short-term buffer that stores and processes
information that you’re currently focusing on (e.g., the
meaning of the words coming out of my mouth now)
– Also capacity limited
• Long-Term Memory
– Information that is stored in your brain for later use
• Pattern Recognition
– Recognize the word/term s-y-l-l-a-b-u-s that
activates some concept in memory

• Knowledge Representation
– Mental representations are the way we storage
our knowledge, and access them when
necessary
• Language
– Your implicit knowledge of syntax (word
arrangement rules) and semantics (rules for
expressing meaning) allows you to comprehend
instantly what makes sense and what does not

• Problem Solving
– Involves operating within constraints (such as time)
and reaching a goal from a starting state that is far
from the goal
• Decision Making
– Set of higher-level processes that work together allow
us functioning day to day
– If I miss a class will it affect my grade?
– How much time should I spend studying for the final
exam?

Emotions
Imagery
Attention
Perception
Intelligence &
Creativity
Thinking &
problem solving
Language
Memory
Cognitive
Psychology
Mental
Representation
Consciousness
Recognition

Cognitive Science
• Cognitive Science
– Study of the mind (mental processes) as carried out
by many different disciplines
– Disciplines: cognitive psychology, and research on
the mind within the fields of computer science,
linguistics, neuroscience, anthropology, artificial
intelligence, and philosophy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeoyzqmyWug

Complexities of Everyday
Cognitive Processes
You are walking towards your friend, who is waving in the distance. You are
aware of your friend, but have little awareness of the stranger who is passing on
your right, even though he is much closer.

What we are aware of…
The complexities of cognition are
usually hidden from our consciousness
How much are we aware of?
Cognitive
Processing

2. A brief history of cognitive psychology

• Early history – Philosophical roots
– Socrates – interested in the origins of knowledge
– Aristotle – interested in origins of knowledge &
memory
• Proposed first theory of memory
– Descartes – how is knowledge represented
mentally
History of Cognitive Psychology

• Recent history – Physiological
roots
- 1st cognitive psychology experiment conducted in
1868 by Franciscus Donders, a Dutch physiologist
• Mental chronometry: time-course of cognitive
processes
Measured reaction time: time between
presentation of stimulus and person’s response to
that stimulus
• Simple reaction time (push one button when
stimulus detected)
• Choice reaction time (push one of two
buttons in response to a stimulus)
Franciscus Donders
1818 - 1889

• Method of subtraction
- Mental operations cannot be measured directly, but can be
inferred from behaviour (choice reaction time – simple reaction
time = length of time to make a decision)
- All research in cognitive psychology deals with inferred mental
processes
Simple Reaction-Time Task Choice Reaction-Time Task

Sequence of Events in Donders’
Experiment
Mental chronometry:
reaction time
Simple RT
Choice RT
Choice RT– simple RT =
the length of time that takes to decide which response is appropriate.
Method of subtraction:

• Recent history – Physiological
roots
- Hermann von Helmholtz proposed
theories of object perception, color vision,
and hearing
– Theory of unconscious inference: some
perceptions are the result of unconscious
assumptions that we make about the
environment; past experiences with objects
may impact our perceptions
Hermann von Helmholtz
1821 - 1894

Helmholtz’s Unconscious
Inference
The display in (a) looks like (b) a gray rectangle in front of a light rectangle, but it could
be (c) a gray rectangle a six-sided figure that are lined up appropriately.

Helmholtz’s Unconscious
Inference

• Recent history – Psychological roots
- Wilhelm Wundt: father of experimental
psychology
– In 1879, he founded the first laboratory of scientific
psychology at the University of Leipzig, in order to
study the mind scientifically
– Carried out reaction-time experiments
– Developed analytic introspection
• Procedure used in which trained participants
described their experiences and thought
processes elicited by stimuli presented under
controlled conditions
• Problematic: introspection did not seem to
reveal the structure of thought and was
unreliable, as results from different laboratories
often disagreed
Wilhelm Wundt
1832 - 1920

• John Watson and Behaviourism
– Developed new approach to psychology by
studying actual behaviors in their own right and not
worrying about consciousness
– Argued behaviour is observable and objective,
inner mental processes are not and are subjective
– Studied impact of stimulus conditions on behaviour
(stimulus-response)
– Famous experiment with “Little Albert”
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMnhyGozLyE
• B.F. Skinner
– Studied operant conditioning: believed
reinforcements, not free will, determined behaviour
– Claimed language developed through imitation and
reinforcement
History of Cognitive Psychology:
Decline
John Watson
1878 - 1958
B.F. Skinner
1904 - 1990

• Noam Chomsky
– Disagreed with Skinner, and believed language development was
inborn and held across cultures
– Defended his theory by noting that children say sentences they have
never heard, and through the use of incorrect grammar
– Realization that to understand complex cognitive behaviors need to
consider how the mind works in addition to S-R
• Donald Broadbent
– Broadbent had an influential model of selective attention, which
outlined the processing of sensory information in a sequence of
stages
– Said we have limited processing capacity, and thus need to filter
incoming information by storing it in short-term memory and then
directing attention to process the most relevant details
– Paved the way for theories of information processing: cognition
involves a series of steps, procedures, or processes that take time
History of Cognitive Psychology:
Rebirth
Noam Chomsky
1928 - Present
Donald Broadbent
1926 - 1993

Emergence of Cognitive
Psychology
• 1950’s – 1970’s, no agreed upon date
• Ulric Neisser’s “Cognitive Psychology” text
published in 1967
• Why did Cognitive Psychology emerge?
– Two major factors
• Dissatisfaction w/ behaviorism’s account of complex behavior
(e.g., Chompsky’s new model of language)
• Convergence of several other fields during World War II
– Linguistics, Human performance, Artificial Intelligence

Summary
• Cognitive Psychology began with Wundt
– Cognitive issues of mental states
– But, introspection method not strong
– These fueled behaviorist movement
• Behaviorism was major paradigm from
1910’s to 1960’s
– Focus shifted to overt behavior
• Stimulus  response
• Mind considered a black box, can’t study what you can’t
see, hear, feel, or touch
– Psychologists need reason to abandon
behaviorism
• Linguistic’s criticisms provided the stimulus

Cognitive Psychology
• Information processing approach –
decomposition of mental processes
– Multi-component memory system
• Assumptions of Cognitive Psychology
– Mental processes exist
– People are active information processors
– Mental processes and structures can be
revealed by time and accuracy measures

3. Modern approaches in cognitive psychology

Modern Approaches to Study
the Brain and Mind
• Behavioural Approach
– Measure behaviour and explain cognition in terms of
behaviour
– e.g., reaction time
– Case study: mental rotation
• Physiological/Neural Approach
– Measure both behavior and physiology and explain
cognition in terms of both
– e.g., reaction time and brain activation
– Case study: recognition and recollection memory fMRI
experiment

Mental Rotation
Participant compares two 3D objects, rotated in some axis, and states if they are the
same or if they are different

• RT is linearly proportional to the angle of rotation from the original position.
(The more an object is rotated from the original, the longer it takes to determine if the
two images are the same objects).

Cognition Measured Using
Behavioural Approaches

Cognition Measured Using
Physiological/Neural Approaches

fMRI of Recognition and Recollection Memory
(in fMRI)
Davachi L et al. PNAS 2003;100:2157-2162
Read
backwards
Imagine
scene

(not in fMRI)
Recall source of
remembered
word (“place” or
“read” task)

Behavioural Performance
Relationship A
Accuracy
(Place)

Neural Activation During Encoding
Relationship B

Neural Activation Relating to Behavioural
Performance
Relationship C

• So, in this example, behavioural measures only
informed us that we remember words better when we
use them to imagine a scene, compared with
pronouncing them backwards
• But neural measures informed us that there are
different mechanisms for recognition memory and
recollection memory (i.e., perirhinal cortex for
recognition, hippocampus for recollection of context)
• We would not have learned this with behavioural
measures alone…

4. Key topics in cognitive psychology

1. Data without a theory is meaningless, theory
without data is empty
• Example: observation that people’s ability to
recognize faces is better than their ability to recall
faces
– This is an interesting observation but it does not explain
why there is such a difference (i.e., data without a theory)
• A theory provides
– An explanation of data
– Basis for prediction of other data
Key Topics in Cognitive
Psychology

2. Cognitive processes interact with each
other and with non-cognitive processes
• Although cognitive psychologists often try to
study specific cognitive processes in isolation,
they know that cognitive processes work together
• Examples
– Memory processes depend on perceptual processes
– Thinking depends on memory
– Motivation interacts with learning
Psychology

3. Cognition needs to be studied through a
variety of scientific methods
• There is no one right way to study
cognition
• Cognitive psychologists need to learn a
variety of different kinds of techniques to
study cognition
Psychology

Psychology
4. Basic research in cognitive psychology may
lead to application, applied research may lead
to basic understanding
• Basic research often leads to immediate application
– Example: finding that learning is superior when it is spaced
out over time rather than crammed into a short time interval
• Applied research often leads to basic findings
– Example: eyewitness testimony research has enhanced our
basic understanding of memory systems and of the extent
to which humans construct their own memories

5. Research methods in cognitive psychology

Research Methods in Cognitive
Psychology
Controlled laboratory experiments
– An experimenter conducts research in a laboratory
setting in which he 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

Research Involving Humans
• No Coercion- must
be voluntary
• Informed consent
• Anonymity
• No significant risk

Characteristics of Good
Psychological Research

Research Concepts
• Cognitive psychologists are interested in determining the
causes of mental events and behaviors
• “Why are people slower to recognize inverted compared with
upright faces?”
Comedian Bill Burr

Research Concepts
• Cognitive psychologists are interested in determining the
causes of mental events and behaviors
• “Why are people slower to recognize inverted compared with
upright faces?”
• Issues in Theory:
• A systematic way of organizing observations
• Hypotheses are proposed relations between variables (cause-
effect relationships)
• Variable: Any phenomenon that can vary along some
dimension
– Continuous: varies continuously (e.g., body weight, height)
– Categorical: can take on fixed values (e.g., biological sex)

Generalizability of Research
• Research studies take samples from a limited
portion of the entire population (sampling must
be representative, and random).
• Generalizability refers to whether your research
results can be applied to the entire population of
interest, and requires:
– Internal validity: Are the procedures of the study
sound or are they flawed?
– External validity: Does the experimental situation
resemble the situation found in the real world?

Measurement Issues in Research
• Measure: A concrete means by which to
determine the value of a variable
• The variable “illness” can be defined as the
number of times that a participant visits a clinic
• The variable “hunger” can be defined in terms of
how long a subject has gone without food
• Measures of variables must be:
• Reliable: Produce consistent measurements
• Valid: Actually measure the variable of interest

Three Techniques to Determine
the Reliability of a Measure
• Test-retest reliability: Does the test give
similar values if the same participant takes it
two or more times?
• Internal consistency: Different items that
measure the same variable should produce
similar answers.
• Inter-rater reliability: Two testers that rate the
same person on the same variable should
arrive at similar ratings

Issues in Validity
• Do the measures tap the appropriate
variable?
• Valid measures should allow for prediction of
behaviour
– Measure of depression: Does it predict risk for suicide in
the future?
– Measure of intellect (IQ): Does it predict future school
performance?

The Experimental Research Process

Two Important Types of Variables
• Experiments ask whether systematic variation in one
variable produces variation in another variable
• Independent variable (IV): Manipulated by experimenter
• Dependent variable (DV): Whatever is being measured (e.g.,
participants response; reaction time, accuracy)
• Example: Are people worse at naming inverted
compared with upright faces?
• IV: mode of face presentation (upright vs. interved)
• DV: performance on naming task (reaction time, accuracy)

Beware of Confounding Variables
• The objective of an experiment is to establish if IV (A)
causes changes in DV (B).
• A confounding variable is anything that could cause a
change in B, that is not A.
• Suppose you hypothesize that smoking cigarettes causes
heart disease. What are some confounding variables?

Other Confounding Variables
• Placebo effects: a participant’s expectations
can affect their performance in an experiment
• Order Effects: if condition A always precedes
condition B, then any difference in RT and/or
accuracy between condition A and B is
confounded with order of presentation

Limitations of Experimental Research
• Complex real-world issues may not be
easily studied in the laboratory
• Problems in external validity

Next Week
• Basics of data analysis for cognitive psychology

Class1_Introduction_And_Experimental_Design.pptx

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