CGSC 1001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Animal Cognition, Comparative Psychology, Evolutionary Psychology
9 Dec 2016
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Broadly interested in cognitive functioning, even when it is erroneous. Methods: laboratory experimentation, statistical research, computer programing. Cognitive psychology: broad field of basic research in human internal mental processes. Human factors/human computer interaction (hci): how people psychologically interact with artifacts (human-designed things), such as user interfaces. Evolutionary psychology: how our evolutionary history has made our minds what they are. Comparative psychology: animal cognition, sometimes comparing it to human. Not enough model building: you cant play 20 questions with nature and win. Dustbowl empiricism: not enough theory, there are no theoretical psychologists. Methodologically limited: cognitive science is possible because psychology wont innovate to embrace the methods of the other fields. Subject matter: usually big questions, what our concepts mean, otherwise quite broad. Conceptual analysis: trying to figure out what people mean by certain words. Theorizing from evidence from other fields and common-sense. They do(cid:374)"t pay e(cid:374)ough atte(cid:374)tio(cid:374) to e(cid:373)pirical study.
