WEEK 1 levels of analysis. It is about how the brain
Chapter 1: what is cognitive psychology? physically enables the process of cognition
The 3 levels complement each other, there is no
Cognitive psychology is the scientific study of how
cognitive phenomenon that can be explained using a
the mind encodes, stores, and uses information, also
single one of the 3.
known as cognition. Cognitive psychology wants to
understand how we learn about the world, and how
we apply that knowledge, and aims to use objective
measures to scientifically test and understand the
mind.
The mind as an info processor
We only want to know how a process works, separate
from the context. A complementary idea is that of
mental representations, which are encoded and
1.2 Precursors to cognitive psychology
stored pieces of information from the environment.
The field emerged sometime between the 1950s and
They are intertwined with computations, which are
1960s, even though philosophers like Plato and
steps we take during information processing.
Socrates explored and talked about the nature of
knowledge centuries earlier.
An explanation of cognition at multiple levels
Perception and cognition can be examined at 3
Pre-cognitive revolution
different levels:
The 1950s and 60s are known as a revolutionary
1. Computational
period for cognitive psychology, even before the
The computational level of analysis aims to
emergence of it as a field.
understand what the mind is trying to
1. Researchers empirically investigated
compute and why. What the mind is trying to
cognition, even before they called
focus on and for what purpose.
themselves psychologists. Methods to
2. Algorithmic
conduct research on cognition involved
The algorithmic level of analysis seeks to
introspection, observing one’s own mental
understand rules, mechanisms, and
experiences.
representations the mind uses, in other
2. The cognitive revolution was made possible
words, how information is computed.
by more rigorous and objective methods.
3. Implementational
3. Behaviorists emerged by the 1920’s,
The neural implementation of cognition
claiming that true science would require
helps inform our understanding of the other
, outwardly observable behavior, over simply comes from combining signals of different nerve
looking at mental experiences. fibers. He believed the mind makes unconscious
4. Little investigation into those specific mental guesses to interpret sensory input. He also measured
mechanisms left. nerve speed using reaction time, helping start its use
5. Behaviorists became frustrated as other in psychology.
fields provided new tools and models of Donders – subtraction method
thinking Donders, in the 1860s, suggested that the speed of
thinking can be measured by reaction time. He
Cognitively oriented researchers compared tasks with and without preparation, using
Before the emergence of the field, cognitively the time difference to estimate mental processing
oriented experimentalists called themselves time. Though his method had limits, it helped explore
physiologists, interested in nerve impulses and their how we process information in stages.
effect on conscious experience.
The pioneering psychologists
Weber and his formula (Weber’s Law) In 1879, Wilhelm Wundt and his students performed
Weber’s law explains that the ability to notice a the first psychological experiment using reaction
difference between two stimuli depends on their times. This marked the start of psychology as a
original intensity. For example, bigger changes are science, later celebrated by the American
needed to notice the differences in brighter lights or Psychological Association.
longer lines. This idea is called the just-noticeable-
differences (JND). The Weber’s law is the first Wundt, structuralism, and introspection
formula specifying the relationship between a Wundt aimed to understand how physical sensations
physical environment and the brain’s ability to became conscious experiences. He developed
perceive it. structuralism, which focused on the basic parts of the
mind. He also used introspection, where trained
Fechner and psychophysics (Fechner’s Law) observers examined their own thoughts to explore
Fechner’s Law builds on Weber’s work, stating that the consciousness.
as a stimulus becomes more intense, it is perceived
more strongly. Fechner also founded psychophysics; Ebbinghaus: memory research
the study of how physical stimuli relate to mental Ebbinghaus used experiments to study memory,
experiences. unlike Wundt, who focused on consciousness. He
tested himself by repeating nonsense syllables to
Von Helmholtz and nerve physiology explore how repetition affects memory and
Von Helmholtz studied how nerves carry different forgetting, leading to the discovery of the forgetting
types of information and proposed that color vision curve.
,A shift away from Wundt’s structuralism easily, like how immigrant kids often learn faster than
Wundt’s structuralism lost popularity due to criticism their parents. He showed that mental processes are
that breaking consciousness into parts didn’t explain also important in language learning.
full experiences. Gestalt psychologists and William
James promoted broader views, like functionalism, Tolman and cognitive maps
which focused on how mental processes help us Tolman showed that rats could learn mazes by
adapt. Wundt’s method of introspection was also forming mental maps, not just through rewards. Even
rejected for being too subjective and unreliable, without rewards, they remembered the layout and
leading to the rise of behaviorism. found the right path, proving that thinking and
memory were involved in learning.
The rise of behaviorism
Behaviorism, led by John Watson, focused on Shannon and information theory
studying observable behavior instead of mental Shannon showed that we can study how information
processes. It used methods like classical and is processed – how it’s coded, sent, and understood –
operant conditioning to explain learning through without needing to know the message’s meaning. His
associations. Though behaviorism improved work led to information theory, which focuses on how
objectivity in psychology, its limits in ignoring mental we handle and transmit information.
processes led to the rise of cognitive psychology.
Turing, Simon, Newell, and Artificial Intelligence
1.3 The cognitive revolution (AI)
In the 1950s and 1960s, there was a big change in Turing, Simon, and Newell showed how computers
how people studied the mind. This change was called can help us understand how the mind works using the
the cognitive revolution. Before this, psychology information-processing approach. Turing created
mostly focused on behavior, but now it started the idea of a machine (Turing machine) that could
focusing more on how people think and process solve any problem using simple steps. Later, Simon
information. and Newell built early computers to model thinking.
A book by Ulric Neisser in 1967 helped explain and This started the field of AI and let to computational
shape this new way of thinking. At the same time, modeling, where computers are used to study how
psychology began connecting with other areas like people think.
AI, language, and brain science.
Influence of the information-processing approach
Chomsky and verbal behavior on psychology
Chomsky went against the behaviorist idea that The information-processing approach helped explain
language is learned through rewards. He said this how we store and use information, leading to ideas
doesn’t explain how children learn language so like short-term memory. Researchers like Broadbent
, and Treisman studied attention, while others like researchers see that emotions and thinking are
Bruner explored how thoughts and emotions shape closely connected. Some studies say thinking comes
what we see and think. This approach helped grow before feeling (cognitive primacy hypothesis),
cognitive psychology. others say the opposite. Brain research shows they
often happen together. Theories like the somatic
The Big Bang of cognitive psychology marker hypothesis (people learn the link between
In 1956, a famous meeting with Miller, Chomsky, and physiological responses and outcomes, guiding
Newell marked the start of modern cognitive decision-making) and constructed emotion (the
psychology. It was called the “Big Bang” because it experience of emotion stems from external cues)
sparked a wave of research that still matters today. show that emotions guide decisions and are shaped
by our body and experiences. Today, emotion is seen
1.4 Cognitive psychology concerning other as an important part of how we think.
areas
Cognitive psychology often overlaps with other fields The legacy of the cognitive revolution
like social, clinical, and even economics. What makes The cognitive revolution changed the focus of
it different is its deep focus on how information is psychology. earlier work looked more at senses like
processed. Other fields focus more on how these vision and hearing, but now there’s more focus on
processes affect behavior. There’s also ongoing memory, language, reasoning, and decision-making.
overlap with areas like cognitive science and
neuroscience. Limitations of the information-processing
approach
Cognitive science and cognitive neuroscience A key limitation of the information-processing
Cognitive science emerged as a formal effort to approach is that it focused too much on lab tasks and
synthesize insights across disciplines like computer computer-like thinking, not real-life meaning. Burner
science, philosophy, linguistics, etc., in the quest to and Neisser criticized this, saying that everyday
understand the mind. Each discipline had an experiences and meaning are important for
inherently different way of looking at cognition, all of understanding how we really think. Still, many
which helped each other solve problems together. researchers continue to connect cognition to real-
Another successful link was cognitive neuroscience, world situations.
focusing on the link between cognitive psychology
and neuroscience.
Emotion in cognitive psychology
Cognitive psychology used to ignore emotion
because it was hard to measure objectively. But now,
Chapter 1: what is cognitive psychology? physically enables the process of cognition
The 3 levels complement each other, there is no
Cognitive psychology is the scientific study of how
cognitive phenomenon that can be explained using a
the mind encodes, stores, and uses information, also
single one of the 3.
known as cognition. Cognitive psychology wants to
understand how we learn about the world, and how
we apply that knowledge, and aims to use objective
measures to scientifically test and understand the
mind.
The mind as an info processor
We only want to know how a process works, separate
from the context. A complementary idea is that of
mental representations, which are encoded and
1.2 Precursors to cognitive psychology
stored pieces of information from the environment.
The field emerged sometime between the 1950s and
They are intertwined with computations, which are
1960s, even though philosophers like Plato and
steps we take during information processing.
Socrates explored and talked about the nature of
knowledge centuries earlier.
An explanation of cognition at multiple levels
Perception and cognition can be examined at 3
Pre-cognitive revolution
different levels:
The 1950s and 60s are known as a revolutionary
1. Computational
period for cognitive psychology, even before the
The computational level of analysis aims to
emergence of it as a field.
understand what the mind is trying to
1. Researchers empirically investigated
compute and why. What the mind is trying to
cognition, even before they called
focus on and for what purpose.
themselves psychologists. Methods to
2. Algorithmic
conduct research on cognition involved
The algorithmic level of analysis seeks to
introspection, observing one’s own mental
understand rules, mechanisms, and
experiences.
representations the mind uses, in other
2. The cognitive revolution was made possible
words, how information is computed.
by more rigorous and objective methods.
3. Implementational
3. Behaviorists emerged by the 1920’s,
The neural implementation of cognition
claiming that true science would require
helps inform our understanding of the other
, outwardly observable behavior, over simply comes from combining signals of different nerve
looking at mental experiences. fibers. He believed the mind makes unconscious
4. Little investigation into those specific mental guesses to interpret sensory input. He also measured
mechanisms left. nerve speed using reaction time, helping start its use
5. Behaviorists became frustrated as other in psychology.
fields provided new tools and models of Donders – subtraction method
thinking Donders, in the 1860s, suggested that the speed of
thinking can be measured by reaction time. He
Cognitively oriented researchers compared tasks with and without preparation, using
Before the emergence of the field, cognitively the time difference to estimate mental processing
oriented experimentalists called themselves time. Though his method had limits, it helped explore
physiologists, interested in nerve impulses and their how we process information in stages.
effect on conscious experience.
The pioneering psychologists
Weber and his formula (Weber’s Law) In 1879, Wilhelm Wundt and his students performed
Weber’s law explains that the ability to notice a the first psychological experiment using reaction
difference between two stimuli depends on their times. This marked the start of psychology as a
original intensity. For example, bigger changes are science, later celebrated by the American
needed to notice the differences in brighter lights or Psychological Association.
longer lines. This idea is called the just-noticeable-
differences (JND). The Weber’s law is the first Wundt, structuralism, and introspection
formula specifying the relationship between a Wundt aimed to understand how physical sensations
physical environment and the brain’s ability to became conscious experiences. He developed
perceive it. structuralism, which focused on the basic parts of the
mind. He also used introspection, where trained
Fechner and psychophysics (Fechner’s Law) observers examined their own thoughts to explore
Fechner’s Law builds on Weber’s work, stating that the consciousness.
as a stimulus becomes more intense, it is perceived
more strongly. Fechner also founded psychophysics; Ebbinghaus: memory research
the study of how physical stimuli relate to mental Ebbinghaus used experiments to study memory,
experiences. unlike Wundt, who focused on consciousness. He
tested himself by repeating nonsense syllables to
Von Helmholtz and nerve physiology explore how repetition affects memory and
Von Helmholtz studied how nerves carry different forgetting, leading to the discovery of the forgetting
types of information and proposed that color vision curve.
,A shift away from Wundt’s structuralism easily, like how immigrant kids often learn faster than
Wundt’s structuralism lost popularity due to criticism their parents. He showed that mental processes are
that breaking consciousness into parts didn’t explain also important in language learning.
full experiences. Gestalt psychologists and William
James promoted broader views, like functionalism, Tolman and cognitive maps
which focused on how mental processes help us Tolman showed that rats could learn mazes by
adapt. Wundt’s method of introspection was also forming mental maps, not just through rewards. Even
rejected for being too subjective and unreliable, without rewards, they remembered the layout and
leading to the rise of behaviorism. found the right path, proving that thinking and
memory were involved in learning.
The rise of behaviorism
Behaviorism, led by John Watson, focused on Shannon and information theory
studying observable behavior instead of mental Shannon showed that we can study how information
processes. It used methods like classical and is processed – how it’s coded, sent, and understood –
operant conditioning to explain learning through without needing to know the message’s meaning. His
associations. Though behaviorism improved work led to information theory, which focuses on how
objectivity in psychology, its limits in ignoring mental we handle and transmit information.
processes led to the rise of cognitive psychology.
Turing, Simon, Newell, and Artificial Intelligence
1.3 The cognitive revolution (AI)
In the 1950s and 1960s, there was a big change in Turing, Simon, and Newell showed how computers
how people studied the mind. This change was called can help us understand how the mind works using the
the cognitive revolution. Before this, psychology information-processing approach. Turing created
mostly focused on behavior, but now it started the idea of a machine (Turing machine) that could
focusing more on how people think and process solve any problem using simple steps. Later, Simon
information. and Newell built early computers to model thinking.
A book by Ulric Neisser in 1967 helped explain and This started the field of AI and let to computational
shape this new way of thinking. At the same time, modeling, where computers are used to study how
psychology began connecting with other areas like people think.
AI, language, and brain science.
Influence of the information-processing approach
Chomsky and verbal behavior on psychology
Chomsky went against the behaviorist idea that The information-processing approach helped explain
language is learned through rewards. He said this how we store and use information, leading to ideas
doesn’t explain how children learn language so like short-term memory. Researchers like Broadbent
, and Treisman studied attention, while others like researchers see that emotions and thinking are
Bruner explored how thoughts and emotions shape closely connected. Some studies say thinking comes
what we see and think. This approach helped grow before feeling (cognitive primacy hypothesis),
cognitive psychology. others say the opposite. Brain research shows they
often happen together. Theories like the somatic
The Big Bang of cognitive psychology marker hypothesis (people learn the link between
In 1956, a famous meeting with Miller, Chomsky, and physiological responses and outcomes, guiding
Newell marked the start of modern cognitive decision-making) and constructed emotion (the
psychology. It was called the “Big Bang” because it experience of emotion stems from external cues)
sparked a wave of research that still matters today. show that emotions guide decisions and are shaped
by our body and experiences. Today, emotion is seen
1.4 Cognitive psychology concerning other as an important part of how we think.
areas
Cognitive psychology often overlaps with other fields The legacy of the cognitive revolution
like social, clinical, and even economics. What makes The cognitive revolution changed the focus of
it different is its deep focus on how information is psychology. earlier work looked more at senses like
processed. Other fields focus more on how these vision and hearing, but now there’s more focus on
processes affect behavior. There’s also ongoing memory, language, reasoning, and decision-making.
overlap with areas like cognitive science and
neuroscience. Limitations of the information-processing
approach
Cognitive science and cognitive neuroscience A key limitation of the information-processing
Cognitive science emerged as a formal effort to approach is that it focused too much on lab tasks and
synthesize insights across disciplines like computer computer-like thinking, not real-life meaning. Burner
science, philosophy, linguistics, etc., in the quest to and Neisser criticized this, saying that everyday
understand the mind. Each discipline had an experiences and meaning are important for
inherently different way of looking at cognition, all of understanding how we really think. Still, many
which helped each other solve problems together. researchers continue to connect cognition to real-
Another successful link was cognitive neuroscience, world situations.
focusing on the link between cognitive psychology
and neuroscience.
Emotion in cognitive psychology
Cognitive psychology used to ignore emotion
because it was hard to measure objectively. But now,
