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EMERGENCE & RESEARCH METHODSOF COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY:(COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY- PYB 201)ByDr. Shivani TomarAssistant ProfessorDeptt. Of Psychology, SLANIU
Emergence of Cognitive Psychology William James (1890) in his classic book ThePrinciples of Psychology, defined the whole ofpsychology as the “Science of Mental Life, bothits phenomena and their conditions”. More than a century later, the field of cognitivepsychology has fulfilled James’s vision. The cognitive approach to psychology pervadesall areas of psychology today, and even someneighbor sciences.
He included discussion of the pioneering workof Ebbinghaus, who systematically studied hisown ability to learn lists of nonsense syllables. The early history of psychology was dominatedby two major schools of thought: Structuralismand Functionalism. Structuralism aimed to describe the elementalcomponents of consciousness, specificallysensations, images and feelings. Based on Introspection, pioneered by Wundtand developed by Titchener. Limitation-
Limitation- different observers often givedifferent explanation or introspective report. Also cognition does not necessarily register inconsciousness. Functionalism arose as an alternative school ofthought to deal with this problem and studiedthe mental processes that mediate betweenthe environment and the organism. Functionalism addressed what the mind is for,rather than its structural components.
Today’s cognitive psychologist are concernedwith both the structural architecture of the mindand the mental operations that mediatebetween stimuli and responses. Behaviorism was a reaction to several schools ofthought in psychology that emerged in the late19th and early 20th centuries as psychologistsselected the study of behavior over the study ofcognition. Watson introduced Behaviorism which tried tomake psychology objective, like physics andchemistry.
It eliminated the discussion of consciousnessand introspective reports, also inferences aboutthe cognitive operations that intervenedbetween the stimulus and the response wereregarded as unscientific. Pavlov pioneered what became known asclassical conditioning, whereby a reflexiveaction became a learned response. Skinner greatly expanded the power ofbehaviorism by developing the concept ofoperant conditioning.
This began with Thorndyke’s “Law of effect”,whereby a behavior followed by a rewardincreases in frequency. In operant conditioning, a response comesunder the control of a stimulus. For Skinner, this history of reinforcement andpunishment determined one’s presentbehavior.
By the mid- 1950s, the concept of informationprocessing had entered in psychology andreinvigorated an interest in the unobservablemental processes that mediate between astimulus and response. Miller and Bruner founded the Center forCognitive Studies, while Broadbend pioneeredthe study of attention and memory from theperspective of information processing. Chomsky led the revolution in understanding thecognitive underpinnings of language, rejectingSkinner’s behaviorism.
Research Methods in Cognitive Psychology1. Naturalistic Observation It consists of an observer watching people infamily, everyday contexts going about theircognitive business. Observation studies has advantage of ecologicalvalidity. Disadvantage- lack of experimental control.
Subjectivity is the another limitation of thenaturalistic observation.2. Introspection Observing one’s own reactions and behaviormay give one better insight into an experienceand the factors that influenced it. Biasness is the disadvantage of this type ofmethod.
3. Controlled Observation & Clinical Interview- Investigator using this method try tostandardize the setting for all participants. In many cases, manipulating specific conditionto see how participants will be affected. In clinical interviews, try to channel the processeven more.
Depending on the participant’s responding, theinterviewer may pursue one or another of manypossible lines of questioning, trying to followeach participant’s own thinking and experiencewhile focusing on specific questions or issues.4. Experiments & Quasi- Experiments A true experiment one in which experimentermanipulates one or more independent variables(the experimental conditions) and observes howthe recorded measures (dependent variables)change as a result.
Experimenter can not reassign the participantsinto different gender, ethnicity, age oreducational background. If a study has one or more of these factors asindependent variables (or fail to become trueexperiment in other ways) are called quasiexperiment. Scientists value both types of experimentbecause they enable researchers to isolatecasual factors and make better supported claimsabout causality than is possible usingobservation methods alone.
5. Investigation of Neural Underpinning(Neuropsychology) This method involves the examining people’sBrain. Before the second half of 20th century, this kindof examination could be conducted only after apatient died, during an autopsy. Since the 1970s, many techniques of brainimaging have been developed. These are-
(a) Computerized Axial Tomography (CAT Scan)- A technique in which a highly focused beam ofX- rays is passed through the body from manydifferent angles. CAT scans depend upon the facts that structureof the different density shoe up differently.(b) Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) It provide information about neuroanatomy.
MIR requires no exposure to radiation and oftenpermits clearer pictures. Person lies inside a tunnel like structure thatsurrounds the person with a strong magneticfield. Radio waves are directed at the head andthrough hydrogen atoms in those structure,make the pictures of that area. These techniques provide static pictures and donot give information about the function of thebrain.
(c) Positron Emission Tomography (PET) It involves injecting radioactively labeledcompound . PET scans measure the blood flow to differentregions of the brain, allowing an electronicreconstruction of a picture of the brain, showingwhich areas are more active at a particular time.(d) Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) Relies on the fact that blood has magneticproperties.
As blood is carried from the heart, it is maximummagnetic, as it is passes through, it becomes lessmagnetic. It shows that how brain functions make possiblenew connections and questions in cognitivepsychology.(e) Electroencephalography (EEG)- Is used to detect different state of consciousness. EEGs provide the researcher with a continuousmeasure of brain activity.
(f) Event Related Potential (ERP)- Measures an area of brain’s response to aspecific event. Electrodes attached to the participant’s scalpand are presented with various external stimuli,than record the brain activity.CAT & MRI scan- neuroanatomical information.PET & fMRI scan- provide dynamic informationabout how blood flow duringvarious cognitive activities.
EEG & ERPs- measure electrical activity duringcognitive activities.SPECT- like PET, this technique measure cerebralblood flow known as single photon emissioncomputed tomography, but does not requireexpensive equipment.EMG- known as magnetoencephalography,measure changes in magnetic fields, generated byelectrical activities of neurons, give more preciselocalization of brain region activity than does EEG.
Principles of Psychology, defined the whole of psychology as the “Science of Mental Life, both its phenomena and their conditions”. More than a century later, the field of cognitive psychology has fulfilled James’s vision. The cognitive approach to psychology pervades all areas of ps
