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PYC3713: COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY
CHAPTER 1
Simple Detection (2): A simple reaction time task that measures how fast you react to the appearance of a dot.
Cognitive psychology
- concerned with the scientific study of the mind.
- Cognition: refers to the mental processes, such as perception, attention, and memory, that are what the mind
creates.
Cognition involves
– Perception
– Paying attention
– Remembering
– Distinguishing items in a category
– Visualizing
– Understanding and production of language
– Problem solving
– Reasoning and decision making
Cognitive psychology: Studying the mind
– involved in forming and recalling memories.
– solves problems, considers possibilities, makes decisions.
– for survival and functioning normally.
– symbol of creativity and intelligence.
– creates representations of the world so we can act in it.
Mind: The mind creates and controls mental functions such as perception, attention, memory, emotions, language,
deciding, thinking and reasoning.
Mind: The mind is a system that creates representations of the world so that we can act within it to achieve our goals.
Studying the mind: Early work in cognitive psychology
In the 1800s, the belief that studying the mind was impossible. This belief was based on the belief that the mind could not
study itself or that its properties could not be measured. However, some researchers, such as Franciscus Donders, defied
this belief and conducted one of the first cognitive psychology experiments in 1868. This early experiment, which is now
known as a cognitive psychology experiment, was conducted 11 years before the founding of the first scientific psychology
laboratory. The term "cognitive psychology" was not coined until 1967.
1868: Donders’ pioneering experiment: How long does it take to make a decision?
•Reaction Time (RT) experiment
– Measured how long it takes a person to make a decision
– Measures interval between stimulus presentation and person’s response to stimulus
Choice RT − Simple RT = Time to make a decision
Choice RT = 1/10th sec longer than Simple RT
, Page |2
Therefore: 1/10th second to make decision.
Mental responses cannot be measured directly but can be inferred from the participant’s behavior.
•Donders was interested in determining how long it takes for a person to make a decision
• Donders measured reaction time, the time it takes to respond to a stimulus (a stimulus is a sound, a light, a touch, a
smell)
• Two measures were used:
1. simple reaction time (push a button quickly when a light goes on)
2. choice reaction time (push left button when left light goes on, right button when right light goes on).
The steps that occur in the simple reaction time:
- stimulus (the light)
- causes a mental response (perceiving the light)
- which leads to a behavioural response (pushing the button).
The reaction time (dashed line) is the time between the presentation of the stimulus and the behavioural response.
The steps that occur in the choice reaction time:
an extra step (or mental response) is required, asking participants to determine whether the left or right light was
illuminated and then to decide which button to push.
reaction times in choice tasks take longer than those in a simple task.
• The difference in reaction time indicated the time it took to make the correct decision.
Donders' experiment is significant as it was one of the first cognitive psychology experiments and demonstrates that mental
responses cannot be directly measured but must be inferred from behaviour. The dashed lines in Figure 1.3 represent the
relationship between the stimulus (light flashes) and the participant's response (button presses). The experiment inferred
the duration of mental responses from reaction times, a principle that holds true for all research in cognitive psychology.
This highlights the importance of understanding the mind's response to stimuli.
*The dashed line indicates that Donders measured reaction time
1879: Wundt’s psychology laboratory: Structuralism and analytic introspection
• Wundt: First scientific psychology lab (Germany).
• Developed structuralism:
– experience is determined by combining basic elements of experience called sensations.
• Used analytic introspection method:
– Participants trained to describe experiences and thought processes in response to stimuli.
- Eleven years after Donders’ reaction time experiment, Wundt founded the first laboratory of scientific psychology.
Wundt’s approach was called structuralism.
, Page |3
- Structuralism: our overall experience is determined by combining basic elements of experience which
were called sensations.
- Wundt wanted to create a “periodic table of the mind,” which would include all of the basic sensations involved in
creating complex experiences.
- Wundt used analytic introspection, a technique in which trained participants described their sensations, feelings
and thought processes in response to stimuli.
- Analytic introspection required extensive training because it’s difficult to describe an experience in terms of basic,
fundamental elements,
- structuralism was abandoned in the early 1900s.
- Wundt is seen by many as leading the shift in the study of the mind from the rationalist to the empiricist approach,
1885: Ebbinghaus’ memory experiment: What is the time course of forgetting?
• Ebbinghaus memory experiment
• Repeated a list of nonsense syllables aloud to determine the number of repetitions necessary to repeat entire list without
errors.
• After a delay, he relearned the list.
• Learned many different lists at many different retention intervals.
• Findings:
– Short-break intervals = fewer repetitions necessary to relearn list.
- Hermann Ebbinghaus was using another approach to measuring the properties of the mind. He was interested in
determining the nature of memory and forgetting—specifically, how rapidly information that is learned is lost over
time.
- He used a quantitative method for measuring memory. Using himself as the participant, he repeated lists of 13
nonsense syllables such as DAX, QEH, LUH and ZIF to himself one at a time at a constant rate.
- He determined how long it took him to learn a list for the first time (recall correctly). He then waited for a specific
amount of time (the delay) and then determined how long it took him to re-learn the list for the second time.
- Because forgetting had occurred during the delay, Ebbinghaus did not perform perfectly in his first attempt after the
delay, but he was able to achieve correct recall quicker and with fewer attempts than before. Thus, something from
the original learning period must have been saved in memory to achieve this quicker learning.
- To determine how much information was retained after a particular delay, Ebbinghaus proposed a measure called
savings, calculated as follows:
Savings = (Original time to learn the list) − (Time to re-learn the list after the delay).
e.g. if it took 1,000 seconds to learn the list the first time and 400 seconds to re-learn the list after the delay,
1,000 − 400 = 600 seconds.
longer delays result in smaller savings.
* Savings decrease for longer delays. Decreasing savings provides a measure of forgetting.
– this reduction in savings provided a measure of forgetting, with smaller savings meaning more forgetting.
– The savings curve demonstrates that memory drops rapidly for the first two days after initial learning and then levels
off.
, Page |4
– This curve demonstrated that memory can be quantified and functions like the savings curve can describe a
property of the mind, such as information retention.
– this 130-year-old experiment was recently replicated, and an almost identical forgetting curve was found. Both
Ebbinghaus's savings method and Donders' reaction time method measured behaviour to determine a mind
property.
The decrease in savings (remembering) with increasing delays indicates that forgetting occurs rapidly over the first two days
and then occurs more slowly after that.
Savings curve: Shows savings as a function of retention interval.
1890: William James’ Principles of Psychology
• Early American psychologist – First psychology textbook.
• His observations are based on functions of his own mind, not experiments.
• Considered topics in cognition, including thinking, consciousness, attention, memory, perception, imagination,
and reasoning.
– He described significant observations about the mind.
– James’ observations were based not on the results of experiments but on observations about the operation of his
own mind.
– One of the best known of James’ observations implies withdrawal from some things to deal effectively with others.
– topics he considered: thinking, consciousness, attention, memory, perception, imagination and reasoning.
– One of the major forces that caused psychology to reject the study of (invisible) mental processes was a negative
reaction to the analytic introspection technique.
– This emphasis on studying the mind was to change, however, being largely replaced by a focus on “pure” observable
behaviour. This approach became known as behaviourism, devoting its efforts to the strict study of stimulus–
response or input–output relationships.
PYC3713: COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY
CHAPTER 1
Simple Detection (2): A simple reaction time task that measures how fast you react to the appearance of a dot.
Cognitive psychology
- concerned with the scientific study of the mind.
- Cognition: refers to the mental processes, such as perception, attention, and memory, that are what the mind
creates.
Cognition involves
– Perception
– Paying attention
– Remembering
– Distinguishing items in a category
– Visualizing
– Understanding and production of language
– Problem solving
– Reasoning and decision making
Cognitive psychology: Studying the mind
– involved in forming and recalling memories.
– solves problems, considers possibilities, makes decisions.
– for survival and functioning normally.
– symbol of creativity and intelligence.
– creates representations of the world so we can act in it.
Mind: The mind creates and controls mental functions such as perception, attention, memory, emotions, language,
deciding, thinking and reasoning.
Mind: The mind is a system that creates representations of the world so that we can act within it to achieve our goals.
Studying the mind: Early work in cognitive psychology
In the 1800s, the belief that studying the mind was impossible. This belief was based on the belief that the mind could not
study itself or that its properties could not be measured. However, some researchers, such as Franciscus Donders, defied
this belief and conducted one of the first cognitive psychology experiments in 1868. This early experiment, which is now
known as a cognitive psychology experiment, was conducted 11 years before the founding of the first scientific psychology
laboratory. The term "cognitive psychology" was not coined until 1967.
1868: Donders’ pioneering experiment: How long does it take to make a decision?
•Reaction Time (RT) experiment
– Measured how long it takes a person to make a decision
– Measures interval between stimulus presentation and person’s response to stimulus
Choice RT − Simple RT = Time to make a decision
Choice RT = 1/10th sec longer than Simple RT
, Page |2
Therefore: 1/10th second to make decision.
Mental responses cannot be measured directly but can be inferred from the participant’s behavior.
•Donders was interested in determining how long it takes for a person to make a decision
• Donders measured reaction time, the time it takes to respond to a stimulus (a stimulus is a sound, a light, a touch, a
smell)
• Two measures were used:
1. simple reaction time (push a button quickly when a light goes on)
2. choice reaction time (push left button when left light goes on, right button when right light goes on).
The steps that occur in the simple reaction time:
- stimulus (the light)
- causes a mental response (perceiving the light)
- which leads to a behavioural response (pushing the button).
The reaction time (dashed line) is the time between the presentation of the stimulus and the behavioural response.
The steps that occur in the choice reaction time:
an extra step (or mental response) is required, asking participants to determine whether the left or right light was
illuminated and then to decide which button to push.
reaction times in choice tasks take longer than those in a simple task.
• The difference in reaction time indicated the time it took to make the correct decision.
Donders' experiment is significant as it was one of the first cognitive psychology experiments and demonstrates that mental
responses cannot be directly measured but must be inferred from behaviour. The dashed lines in Figure 1.3 represent the
relationship between the stimulus (light flashes) and the participant's response (button presses). The experiment inferred
the duration of mental responses from reaction times, a principle that holds true for all research in cognitive psychology.
This highlights the importance of understanding the mind's response to stimuli.
*The dashed line indicates that Donders measured reaction time
1879: Wundt’s psychology laboratory: Structuralism and analytic introspection
• Wundt: First scientific psychology lab (Germany).
• Developed structuralism:
– experience is determined by combining basic elements of experience called sensations.
• Used analytic introspection method:
– Participants trained to describe experiences and thought processes in response to stimuli.
- Eleven years after Donders’ reaction time experiment, Wundt founded the first laboratory of scientific psychology.
Wundt’s approach was called structuralism.
, Page |3
- Structuralism: our overall experience is determined by combining basic elements of experience which
were called sensations.
- Wundt wanted to create a “periodic table of the mind,” which would include all of the basic sensations involved in
creating complex experiences.
- Wundt used analytic introspection, a technique in which trained participants described their sensations, feelings
and thought processes in response to stimuli.
- Analytic introspection required extensive training because it’s difficult to describe an experience in terms of basic,
fundamental elements,
- structuralism was abandoned in the early 1900s.
- Wundt is seen by many as leading the shift in the study of the mind from the rationalist to the empiricist approach,
1885: Ebbinghaus’ memory experiment: What is the time course of forgetting?
• Ebbinghaus memory experiment
• Repeated a list of nonsense syllables aloud to determine the number of repetitions necessary to repeat entire list without
errors.
• After a delay, he relearned the list.
• Learned many different lists at many different retention intervals.
• Findings:
– Short-break intervals = fewer repetitions necessary to relearn list.
- Hermann Ebbinghaus was using another approach to measuring the properties of the mind. He was interested in
determining the nature of memory and forgetting—specifically, how rapidly information that is learned is lost over
time.
- He used a quantitative method for measuring memory. Using himself as the participant, he repeated lists of 13
nonsense syllables such as DAX, QEH, LUH and ZIF to himself one at a time at a constant rate.
- He determined how long it took him to learn a list for the first time (recall correctly). He then waited for a specific
amount of time (the delay) and then determined how long it took him to re-learn the list for the second time.
- Because forgetting had occurred during the delay, Ebbinghaus did not perform perfectly in his first attempt after the
delay, but he was able to achieve correct recall quicker and with fewer attempts than before. Thus, something from
the original learning period must have been saved in memory to achieve this quicker learning.
- To determine how much information was retained after a particular delay, Ebbinghaus proposed a measure called
savings, calculated as follows:
Savings = (Original time to learn the list) − (Time to re-learn the list after the delay).
e.g. if it took 1,000 seconds to learn the list the first time and 400 seconds to re-learn the list after the delay,
1,000 − 400 = 600 seconds.
longer delays result in smaller savings.
* Savings decrease for longer delays. Decreasing savings provides a measure of forgetting.
– this reduction in savings provided a measure of forgetting, with smaller savings meaning more forgetting.
– The savings curve demonstrates that memory drops rapidly for the first two days after initial learning and then levels
off.
, Page |4
– This curve demonstrated that memory can be quantified and functions like the savings curve can describe a
property of the mind, such as information retention.
– this 130-year-old experiment was recently replicated, and an almost identical forgetting curve was found. Both
Ebbinghaus's savings method and Donders' reaction time method measured behaviour to determine a mind
property.
The decrease in savings (remembering) with increasing delays indicates that forgetting occurs rapidly over the first two days
and then occurs more slowly after that.
Savings curve: Shows savings as a function of retention interval.
1890: William James’ Principles of Psychology
• Early American psychologist – First psychology textbook.
• His observations are based on functions of his own mind, not experiments.
• Considered topics in cognition, including thinking, consciousness, attention, memory, perception, imagination,
and reasoning.
– He described significant observations about the mind.
– James’ observations were based not on the results of experiments but on observations about the operation of his
own mind.
– One of the best known of James’ observations implies withdrawal from some things to deal effectively with others.
– topics he considered: thinking, consciousness, attention, memory, perception, imagination and reasoning.
– One of the major forces that caused psychology to reject the study of (invisible) mental processes was a negative
reaction to the analytic introspection technique.
– This emphasis on studying the mind was to change, however, being largely replaced by a focus on “pure” observable
behaviour. This approach became known as behaviourism, devoting its efforts to the strict study of stimulus–
response or input–output relationships.
