Biological and Cognitive Psychology
Deel 1
Week Date Part 1 Topic Book
29/10 Lecture 1 Introduction (Cognitive & Car. 1; Syll. 1
Biological)
1
31/10 Lecture 2 Approaches in cognitive Syll. 2
neuroscience
05/11 Lecture 3 Structure and functions of Car. 2
cells in the nervous system
2
07/11 Lecture 4 From neuron to cognition Syll. 3
10/11 Lecture 5 Neurotransmission and Car. 2, 4
psychopharmacology
3
14/11 Lecture 6 From brain to cognition Syll. 4
19/11 Lecture 7 Biology of visual perception Car. 6
4
21/11 Lecture 8 Cognition of perception Syll. 5
26/11 Lecture 9 Biology of movement Car. 8
5
28/11 Lecture 10 Attention and action Syll. 6
03/12 Lecture 11 Biology of language Car. 14
6
05/12 Lecture 12 Cognition of language Syll. 9
10/12 Lecture 13 Overview: structure of the Car. 3
7
nervous system
, Introduction
Syllabus 1: intro biological and cognitive psychology
Introduction
Cognitive psychology and biological psychology are the 2 fundamental aspects of our
mental life and of our behavior
- All cognitive activity is the result of brain activity
- There is always a biological side to cognitive activity
Historical foundations of cognitive psychology
Psychology = the study of human behavior, which is controlled by the human mind
- The study of the mind is cognitive psychology
Cognitive psychology = the mind should not be ignored and can be studied
experimentally
At first we started to research cognitions through introspection (= ask subjects to report
what they observed)
This was under attack by Watson, who started behaviorism (= study observable behavior
and ignore the mind and mental processes)
- No way of verifying the results (how do we know its accurate?)
- The variability in such reports can be large (do they reflect differences in mind or
in the way the content of the content of the mind is reported?)
Skinner believed that everything, even language, was the process of operational
conditioning
Chomsky argued that humans have an innate ability to learn language
- This because of the universal characteristics of grammar
Tolman found that rats were able to form a mental map of the environment
- Studied by putting the rats in a maze
,The way in which the computer processes information became very influential in the
way our own mind was viewed (input, processing, output)
- From then on there was a shift from behaviorism to cognitive revolution (1960)
Our cognitive processes have a selective filter. This is influenced by attention:
Attention has a limited capacity and when it is directed to one channel, the message
from the other channel couldn’t be processed. The meaning of part of the message from
the unattended channel did get processed to some extent (Broadbent)
- Studied by the shadowing experiment
Sternberg looked at the short-term memory and found that the more things there are
stored in the short-term memory, the more the reaction time is (40 m/s per item)
- Shows that all the items in short-term memory are serially scanned before a
decision is made
- Studied by remembering digits and telling is a later shown number was in the
sequence you learned earlier
3 assumptions of cognitive psychology:
- Mental processes exist
- Mental processes can be studied in a scientific way (earlier there wasn’t much
focus on the brain, this changed cause of neuroscientific techniques)
- Humans are active information processors
To understand complex cognitive behaviors, we:
- Measure observable behavior
- Make inferences about underlying cognitive activity
- Consider what this behavior says about how the mind works
A history of biological psychology
Biological psychology = the study of the biological basis of behavior
- Studies the relation between psychological and physiological processes
- Also how psychological processes are implemented in the brain
, The most important is the development of Darwin’s theory of evolution
- Became clear that mental processes and brain regions evolved with a specific
function (survival of organisms and reproduction)
- Allows us to view other species differently: research into other animals became
relevant for our understanding of humans
There are 2 techniques that were used to understand the human nervous system
- Electrical stimulation technique (Penfield)
• Requires the removal of part of the skull
• It relies on introspection
- Experimental ablation technique: a brain region is removed
• Are performed in animals, so might not be generalizable
Broca: patient with left frontal lesion impaired in language production (red)
Wernicke: patient with left temporal lesion impaired in language comprehension (blue)
There are limitations to studies with lesion patients
- The extent of the damage is often not sure till examined after death
- If there are more brain regions (partly) damaged, it’s not easy to determine the
functions
- We must be careful making generalizations based on 1 case study
The speed of information processing
This has been explored both biologically and cognitively
The first to examine speed of neural transmission was Von Helmholtz
Deel 1
Week Date Part 1 Topic Book
29/10 Lecture 1 Introduction (Cognitive & Car. 1; Syll. 1
Biological)
1
31/10 Lecture 2 Approaches in cognitive Syll. 2
neuroscience
05/11 Lecture 3 Structure and functions of Car. 2
cells in the nervous system
2
07/11 Lecture 4 From neuron to cognition Syll. 3
10/11 Lecture 5 Neurotransmission and Car. 2, 4
psychopharmacology
3
14/11 Lecture 6 From brain to cognition Syll. 4
19/11 Lecture 7 Biology of visual perception Car. 6
4
21/11 Lecture 8 Cognition of perception Syll. 5
26/11 Lecture 9 Biology of movement Car. 8
5
28/11 Lecture 10 Attention and action Syll. 6
03/12 Lecture 11 Biology of language Car. 14
6
05/12 Lecture 12 Cognition of language Syll. 9
10/12 Lecture 13 Overview: structure of the Car. 3
7
nervous system
, Introduction
Syllabus 1: intro biological and cognitive psychology
Introduction
Cognitive psychology and biological psychology are the 2 fundamental aspects of our
mental life and of our behavior
- All cognitive activity is the result of brain activity
- There is always a biological side to cognitive activity
Historical foundations of cognitive psychology
Psychology = the study of human behavior, which is controlled by the human mind
- The study of the mind is cognitive psychology
Cognitive psychology = the mind should not be ignored and can be studied
experimentally
At first we started to research cognitions through introspection (= ask subjects to report
what they observed)
This was under attack by Watson, who started behaviorism (= study observable behavior
and ignore the mind and mental processes)
- No way of verifying the results (how do we know its accurate?)
- The variability in such reports can be large (do they reflect differences in mind or
in the way the content of the content of the mind is reported?)
Skinner believed that everything, even language, was the process of operational
conditioning
Chomsky argued that humans have an innate ability to learn language
- This because of the universal characteristics of grammar
Tolman found that rats were able to form a mental map of the environment
- Studied by putting the rats in a maze
,The way in which the computer processes information became very influential in the
way our own mind was viewed (input, processing, output)
- From then on there was a shift from behaviorism to cognitive revolution (1960)
Our cognitive processes have a selective filter. This is influenced by attention:
Attention has a limited capacity and when it is directed to one channel, the message
from the other channel couldn’t be processed. The meaning of part of the message from
the unattended channel did get processed to some extent (Broadbent)
- Studied by the shadowing experiment
Sternberg looked at the short-term memory and found that the more things there are
stored in the short-term memory, the more the reaction time is (40 m/s per item)
- Shows that all the items in short-term memory are serially scanned before a
decision is made
- Studied by remembering digits and telling is a later shown number was in the
sequence you learned earlier
3 assumptions of cognitive psychology:
- Mental processes exist
- Mental processes can be studied in a scientific way (earlier there wasn’t much
focus on the brain, this changed cause of neuroscientific techniques)
- Humans are active information processors
To understand complex cognitive behaviors, we:
- Measure observable behavior
- Make inferences about underlying cognitive activity
- Consider what this behavior says about how the mind works
A history of biological psychology
Biological psychology = the study of the biological basis of behavior
- Studies the relation between psychological and physiological processes
- Also how psychological processes are implemented in the brain
, The most important is the development of Darwin’s theory of evolution
- Became clear that mental processes and brain regions evolved with a specific
function (survival of organisms and reproduction)
- Allows us to view other species differently: research into other animals became
relevant for our understanding of humans
There are 2 techniques that were used to understand the human nervous system
- Electrical stimulation technique (Penfield)
• Requires the removal of part of the skull
• It relies on introspection
- Experimental ablation technique: a brain region is removed
• Are performed in animals, so might not be generalizable
Broca: patient with left frontal lesion impaired in language production (red)
Wernicke: patient with left temporal lesion impaired in language comprehension (blue)
There are limitations to studies with lesion patients
- The extent of the damage is often not sure till examined after death
- If there are more brain regions (partly) damaged, it’s not easy to determine the
functions
- We must be careful making generalizations based on 1 case study
The speed of information processing
This has been explored both biologically and cognitively
The first to examine speed of neural transmission was Von Helmholtz
