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COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY
and Its Implications
The Science of
Cognition
1
The Science of Cognition
• Cognitive Psychology
– The science of how the mind is
organized to produce intelligent
thought and how it is realized in the
brain
The Science of Cognition
Considers:
•
•
•
•
Motivations
Implications for Other Fields
The History of Cognitive Psychology
Information Processing: The
Communicative Neurons
• Organization of the Brain
• Methods in Cognitive Neuroscience
Motivations
Intellectual Curiosity
- Artificial Intelligence
Implications for Other
Fields
• Practical Applications
– What does cognitive psychology tell us
about how to study effectively?
– How to improve problem-solving
– Improve education and learning
The History of Cognitive Psychology
Early History
• Traced to ancient Greeks
– Plato and Aristotle
– Philosophical discussions sparked a debate
– Two positions emerged:
1. Empiricism - knowledge from experience
2. Nativism - innate knowledge
The History of Cognitive Psychology
Psychology in Germany:
Focus on Introspective Observation
Wilhelm Wundt established the first
psychology laboratory (1879).
– A cognitive approach to psychology
– Introspection
• Sample introspective experiment
(Mayer and Orth, 1901)
– Free association task
The History of Cognitive Psychology
Psychology in America:
Focus on Behavior
• William James
– Principles of Psychology (1890)
• Edward Thorndike
– Learning theory applicable to classrooms
The History of Cognitive Psychology
Psychology in America:
Focus on Behavior
• John B. Watson
– Behaviorism
• Branch of psychology concerned with
external behavior
• pushed research on cognition into the
background
The History of Cognitive
Psychology
Gestalt Psychology
– activity of the brain and the mind is more
than the sum of its parts
– popular in Europe
The History of Cognitive Psychology
The Cognitive Revolution:
AI, Information Theory, and Linguistics
• Three main influences:
- Research on human performance
(World War II)
- Computer Science: Artificial Intelligence
(AI)
- Linguistics- study of the structure of
language (Noam Chomsky)
The History of Cognitive Psychology
Information-Processing Analyses
• Information-Processing Approach
• Sternberg Paradigm
The time needed
to recognize a digit increases
with the number of items in the
memory set. The straight line
represents the linear function
that fits the data best.
Sternberg’s analysis of the sequence
of information-processing stages in
his task
The History of Cognitive Psychology
Cognitive Neuroscience
• Cognitive Neuroscience
– The study of how cognition is realized in
the brain
Information Processing:
The Communicative Neurons
• Neuron
– A cell that accumulates and transmits
electrical activity in the nervous system
Some of the
variety of
neurons
Information Processing:
The Communicative Neurons
The Neuron
• Neurons come in a wide variety of
shapes and sizes
• Soma
– Main body of the neuron
Information Processing:
The Communicative Neurons
The Neuron
• Dendrite
– branch-like processes extending from
the cell soma
– receive info from terminal buttons of
adjacent neurons
Information Processing:
The Communicative Neurons
The Neuron
• Axon
– Long, thin tube extending from soma
– Vary in length (from a few millimeters to
a meter)
Information Processing:
The Communicative Neurons
The Neuron
• Terminal boutons
– Ball-like structures located at ends of
axon branches
– Contains neurotransmitters
– Form synapses with other neurons
Information Processing:
The Communicative Neurons
The Neuron
• Synapse
– The gap separating the terminal bouton
of one neuron and the dendrite (or
soma) of the next neuron in the chain
A typical neuron
Information Processing:
The Communicative Neurons
The Neuron
• Neurotransmitter
– A chemical that crosses the synapse
from the terminal bouton of one neuron
to alter the electric potential of the
membrane of the next neuron
– How one neuron communicates with the
next
Information Processing:
The Communicative Neurons
The Neuron
• Polarization (electric potential)
– Excitatory synapses
• Increase the likelihood of a cell firing
– Inhibitory synapses
• Decrease the likelihood of a cell firing
Information Processing:
The Communicative Neurons
The Neuron
• Action potential
– A brief electrical impulse by which
electrical info is transmitted along
the neuron’s axon
– When an action potential reaches
the terminal bouton, the bouton
secretes a chemical substance
called a neurotransmitter
Information Processing:
The Communicative Neurons
Neural Representation of Information
• Determinants of the representation of
information in the brain
- Membrane Potential
1. more or less negative
- Rate of Firing
1. the number of nerve impulses an
axon transmits per second
Organization of the Brain
• Lower brain regions – more
primitive function
– Medulla: breathing, swallowing,
digestion, and heartbeat
– Hypothalamus: basic drives
– Cerebellum: voluntary movement
– Thalamus: relay station
A cross-sectional view of the brain showing
some of its major components
Organization of the Brain
• Cerebral Cortex
– Most recently evolved area of the brain
– Most advanced cognitions
• Gyrus- bulge on the cortex
• Sulcus- crease on the cortex
Organization of the Brain
Four lobes of the cortex
• Frontal Lobe
– Involved in two major functions:
1. Back portion – primarily motor functions
2. Front portion (prefrontal cortex) – higher
level process (e.g., planning)
• Occipital Lobe
– Contains primary visual areas
Organization of the Brain
Four lobes of the cortex
• Parietal Lobe
– Sensory functions, especially those
involving spatial processing
• Temporal Lobe
– Primary auditory areas and recognition of
objects
Organization of the Brain
Sub-cortical Structures
• Hippocampus- Critical to memory
• Basal ganglia- Basic motor control and
in the control of complex cognition
Anderson, Cognitive Psychology and Its Implications,
Structures under the cortex that are part of the limbic system, which
includes the hippocampus (shaded in red).
The major structures of the basal ganglia (red-shaded areas) include
the caudate nucleus, the subthalamic nucleus, the substantia nigra, the
globus pallidus, and the putamen. The critical connections (inputs and
outputs) of the basal ganglia are illustrated.
Organization of the Brain
Localization of Function
• Left and right hemispheres
– Specialized for different types of
processing:
• Left – linguistic and analytic
• Right – perceptual and spatial
• Corpus callosum
– Broad band of neural fibers that
connects the two hemispheres
Organization of the Brain
Localization of Function
• Split-brain patients
– Have had an operation that surgically
severed the corpus callosum
– The two hemispheres differ in their
specialization.
Organization of the Brain
Localization of Function
• Aphasia
– Severe impairment of speech caused by
damage to the brain
Organization of the Brain
Localization of Function
• Broca’s area
– A region in the left frontal cortex that is
important for processing language,
particularly syntax in speech
–Broca’s aphasia: severe difficulties
in producing spoken speech
• Speech is short, ungrammatical sentences,
etc.
Organization of the Brain
Localization of Function
• Wernicke’s area
– A region in the left temporal lobe that is
important to language, particularly the
semantic content in speech
– Wernicke’s aphasia: serious disruptions
in comprehension
• Speak fairly grammatical sentences that are
almost devoid of meaning
A side view of the cerebral cortex showing the four
lobes of each hemisphere and other major components
Organization of the Brain
Topographic Organization
• In many areas of the cortex,
information processing is structured
spatially.
– Adjacent areas in the cortex represent
information from adjacent areas of the
visual field.
Evidence of topographic organization
A cross section of
the somatosensory
cortex, showing
how the human
body is mapped in
the neural tissue
EEG
profiles
Methods in Cognitive
Neuroscience
• Electroencephalography (EEG)
- event-related potentials (ERPs)
- magnetoencephalography (MEG)
• Positron emission tomography (PET)
• Functional magnetic resonance
imaging (fMRI)
• Transcranial magnetic stimulation
(TMS)
Areas in the lateral aspect of the cortex activated by
visual word reading. Triangles mark locations
activated by the passive visual task, squares the
locations activated by the semantic task.
Methods in Cognitive
Neuroscience
Using fMRI to Study Equation Solving
• Equation solving by Children (Qin et al.,
2004)
• Blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD)
response
The steps of an
information-processing
model for solving the
equation 7x+1=29
Regions of interest for the fMRI scan in the Qin et al.
(2004) equation-solving experiment
Responses of the motor region for different
equation complexities.
Responses of the parietal region for different
equation complexities.
Responses of the prefrontal region for different
equation complexities.
Conclusions