HPS203 Study Guide - Final Guide: Superior Colliculus, Paul Grice, Explicit Memory
HPS203 – Human Mind Notes
Topic 1: Introduction & Recognising Objects
Cognitive Psychology?
-Cognition: The collection of mental activities used in perceiving, remembering and thinking,
as well as the act of using those processes
- The scientific study of these mental processes
- How people remember, pay attention and think/feel guided by things we already know
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What does it involve?
-Perception: recognising an object
-Attention: focus in class
-Memory: remember phone number
-Concepts: have an idea
-Language: understand text
-Visual knowledge: getting to a certain building
-Judgement/decisions: party or study?
-Reasoning/problem solving: how can I graduate?
History
Introspection + & -
- Wihelm Wundt 1832-1920
- Edward Titchener 1867-1927, structuralism
- Mental processes: The study of conscious experiences
- The only way to study and observe thoughts is for each to look within and record the
content of our own mental lives and the sequence of our experiences
- Taught to be careful and complete with minimal interpretation
- + Influential for several years, but gradually became disenchanted with it
- - forced to accept that some thoughts were unconscious thus introspection inevitable limited
- - science needs to resolve disagreements, by testing claims unattainable with introspection
- - cannot be certain whether a person is distorting or exaggerating the facts
Behaviourism + & -
- John B Watson 1878 - 1958
- Moved to observing ‘objective data’ and behaviour
- Concerned how behaviour changes in response to various stimuli (rewards/punish)
- - cannot understand the real story if we just look at behaviours exchanged
- + easily to be objectively recorded
- Pass the salt idea: if we focus on observable, objective aspects of the stimuli they have little
in common
- - need to ask what the stimuli means to you
Roots in philosophy
- Aristotle 384-322 BC: empiricism, memory & learning
- Hermann Ebbinghaus 1850-1909, experimental study of memory, forgetting curve, learning
curve, savings in relearning
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- William James 1842-1910: everyday psychological experiences, functionalism, memory
divided based on functions
- Behaviourism 1910-1950, Watson, study observable behaviour, not the mind,
consciousness or thoughts
- Cognitive revolution late 1950’s: WW2, linguistics, artificial intelligence/computers
Kant’s Transcendental Method
- Allowed him to ask what qualities of the mind made experience possible
- The idea: Begin with observable facts, then work back to underlying causes
- Inference to best explanation as visible effects come from an invisible cause
- Great contribution to the cognitive revolution
- Idea that we need to study mental processes: learned from the limitations of behaviourism,
know that mental processes cannot be observed directly from the downfall of introspection:
thus moving forward to study mental processes indirectly relying on the processes being
invisible have visible consequences
- By examining effects produced by mental processes can develop and test hypotheses
Assumptions made
- Mental processes exist
- Mental processes can be studied scientifically: behaviour gives us insights into these
processes
- Humans are active information processors
Studying mental processes
- Our observations need to be reliable and valid
-Reliability: refers to a certain level of repeatability when things are measured more than
once using the same method
-Validity: refers to whether or not we have actually measured what we set out to measure
-The information-processing approach to test mental processes
The Working Memory System & Components
- Memory used for information you are actively working on
- Baddeley & Hitch composed this model to explain facts collected
- Holds information in an easily accessible form, instantly available when you need it
- Hypothesised to have a small capacity with a few items
- Can measure via the span test read a list of 4 items and has to immediately report back
- Memory items briefly stored as internal representations of sounds, errors occur are shaped
by this mode of storage
Components
-Central executive: main control centre, responsible for selection, initiation & termination of
processing (encoding, storage, retrieval),
- *Assistants to help CE below
-Articulatory Rehersal loop: rely on subvocalization (quiet speech) to remember the
numbers in your head while continuing reading, requires 2 elements in tandem, the inner
voice being subvocal speech and the phonological buffer inner ear, which can store
materials likely to be needed in a moment. Only for storage, incapable of sophisticated
operations.
-Phonological buffer: auditory image created in the inner ear, which will fade after a few
seconds but before it does subvocalization can be used to create a new image sustaining
the material.
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What do span tests show about memory?
- Say 4 items ex. Letters need to be reported back immediately in sequence, if successful
increase to 5, then 6 etc..
- Generally errors start around 7/8 letters
- Shows that working memory is limited in size
- Also provides an example of how we can learn about the memories properties by seeing the
(unseen) influences observable on performance
Concurrent articulation tasks affect on working memory capacity?
-Sound-alike errors: same mechanism for speech production ex. Testing saying tah-tah-tah
while doing the span test will not work out as same mechanisms are needed
- With concurrent articulation the loop isn’t available for use, thus measure capacity of
working memory without the rehearsal loop
- Drops to 4-5 items without the loop in working memory
-Complex visual shapes: shown the shapes then must echo the sequence back by drawing
what they have seen, if shapes not easily named are chosen then they cannot easily be
rehearsed via the inner voice/inner ear combination. If people aren’t using the rehearsal
loop shouldn’t be any cost attached to denying the use of the loop
- Blocks the use of the loop but has no effect of the ability to read brief sentences
Object Recognition
Form Perception & Object Recognition Importance?
Form Perception:
- Process of seeing the basic shape and size of an object
- Importance: able to understand visual information
Object Recognition:
- Process through which you identify what the object is
- Essential when wanting to APPLY your knowledge
- Crucial for learning
- Begins with visual inputs of features, and the pattern understanding depends on frequency
of viewing.
Form Perception: Going beyond the stimulus?
- Begins with detection of simple visual features
- Gestalt Psychologists noted perception of visual world is organised in ways the stimulus
input isn’t
- Argued that organisation must be contributed by the perceiver
- Claimed perceptual whole is different from the sum of its parts
- Overall the view that our theories need to emphasize the organisation of the entire shape
and not just focus on the parts
- The perceiver organises, interprets and supplements the visual input to determine what a
stimulus looks like & what it is seen to resemble
Form Perception: Parallel Processing & Large Scale Configuration
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Document Summary
Cognition: the collection of mental activities used in perceiving, remembering and thinking, as well as the act of using those processes. The scientific study of these mental processes. How people remember, pay attention and think/feel guided by things we already know. Visual knowledge: getting to a certain building. Mental processes: the study of conscious experiences. The only way to study and observe thoughts is for each to look within and record the content of our own mental lives and the sequence of our experiences. Taught to be careful and complete with minimal interpretation. + influential for several years, but gradually became disenchanted with it. Forced to accept that some thoughts were unconscious thus introspection inevitable limited. Science needs to resolve disagreements, by testing claims unattainable with introspection. Cannot be certain whether a person is distorting or exaggerating the facts. Moved to observing objective data" and behaviour. Concerned how behaviour changes in response to various stimuli (rewards/punish)
