Psy120: Cognitve Psychology

(1. The Cognitive Revolution)

The Cognitive The cognitive revolution is seen

Revolution as an instance of a paradigm
(Part 1) shift!
Niel Steve M. Kintanar
Psychology Department
University of San Carlos Cebu

Slides w ith this symbol Ψ a re fr om Dr . Emy Liwag. Thanks.

The historic, cyclic

progression of science.
Period of normal science
Period of crisis
Paradigm shift
Back to normal science
Ψ

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Psy120: Cognitve Psychology
(1. The Cognitive Revolution)

Normal science What is a

A stable period paradigm?
characterized by majority 1. A mental framework that
of scientists working under majority of scientists owe their
the rubric of an all- allegiance to
encompassing
“paradigm”.
Ψ
Ψ

What is a paradigm?
What is a paradigm?
2. A committed point of view 3. An all-pervasive viewpoint
 as to what the substantive issues of a field whose assumptions are rarely
are questioned.
 what scientific questions ought to be raised
and answered
 and what methodologies are appropriate in
addressing these questions
Ψ Ψ

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Psy120: Cognitve Psychology
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Ptolemy geocentric model of the

Period of crisis universe.

A chaotic period characterized by

the “noticing” of anomalies that
cannot be explained
by the existing
paradigms
Ψ

Galileo Galilei (1564 – 1642). Renaissance

The telescope used by the Italian astronomer astronomer, mathematician, and developer of the
Galileo in 1699 to observe the solarsystem. Ψ scientific method. Ψ

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Psy120: Cognitve Psychology
(1. The Cognitive Revolution)
Anomalies come
about:
Through the development of new
 tools
 technologies
 or refinements in methodology
Ψ Ψ
Paradigm shift
occurs !!
Majority of scientists now shift
their allegiance and
commitment from the old
paradigm to the new.
Ψ Ψ
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Scientists’ reactions
to anomalies
 First, denial
 Then serious consideration
 Then the rush to offer alternative
(often competing) theories and
explanations for these anomalies
 And research efforts are now
vigorously directed to verifying and
strengthening the theories
associated with the new paradigm
(back to normal science but under a
new regime!)
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Psy120: Cognitve Psychology
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“Psychology has a long past

and a short history. ”

H. Ebbinghaus

Psychology emerges from two distinct lines

of inquiry: philosophy and the natural
Ψ sciences of biology and physiology.

Plato Aristotle
(428 – 348 BC) (384 – 322 BC)
= mind is in the = mind and the seat
head, but mind of our feelings was
in the heart; mind
and body are
and brain were one
separate (monism) and that
(dualism). Truth the mind is entirely
not to our senses physical;
but through understand the
mind by studying
logic and
the brain.
reasoning.

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Psy120: Cognitve Psychology
(1. The Cognitive Revolution)

John Locke
Rene (1632-1704) =
Descartes mind and body are
two aspects of the
(1596-1650) = same phenomenon:
Human senses and The mind needs the
the body were body to gain
entirely mechanical experience through
and material but the senses and the
the mind was body needs the
something else; mind to store and
some ideas are use this experience;
innate (nativist = tabula rasa
NATURE) (empiricist –
NURTURE)

Charles
Darwin = The intellectual atmosphere when
proposed the psychology emerged as a science in the
principle of natural
selection, an
late nineteenth century was dominated by
evolutionary the work of Charles Darwin, whose On the
process which Origin of Species proposed the principle of
favors organisms
that are best
natural selection, an evolutionary process
adapted to which favors organisms that are best
reproduce and adapted to reproduce and survive.
survive.

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Psy120: Cognitve Psychology
(1. The Cognitive Revolution)
Metatheories
in scientific
psychology
Introspectionism
Behaviorism
Cognitive Psychology
Ψ Ψ
And the father of Psychology is
really…
 He failed his last year of
high school and was asked to
repeat the year.
 His guidance counselor told
him to just consider a job in the
Post Office where he wouldn’t
need a college degree.
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A
metatheory
 Specifies a domain for Psychology
 Develops a set of techniques for
investigating that domain
 Elaborates on a research program
to integrate the findings of
Psychology into the larger body of
human knowledge and practice
 But he decided to transfer
school instead, and did better.
 He graduated summa cum
laude, finished Medicine in 3
instead of 4 years, and was
the topnotcher in the Medical
Ψ
Board Exams. Ψ
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Psy120: Cognitve Psychology
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He is
But instead of practicing known as the
Medicine, he decided to Father of
become a researcher and Scientific
Psychology.
academic.
His name is
In the very first course that Wilhelm
he taught, only 4 students Wundt
(1832-1920).
enrolled. Ψ

Wilhelm Wundt (1879)

experimented on the time lag
between the instant when a
person heard a sound and the
instant that
the person pressed a telegraph
key to signal that he had
heard.
Ψ

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Psy120: Cognitve Psychology
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Wundt and his

At the time of his death, he collaborators
focused on trying to
had supervised or taught more discover and
than 10,000 undergrad describe basic
elements or
students and mentored 186 “structures” of
doctoral dissertations. mental processes -
STRUCTURALISM as
Many of his students became labeled by
pioneering and profoundly Edward Titchener
(1867-1927) in
influential scientists and Cornell University,
researchers. Ψ New York.

introspectionism In his own words

Claimed that the domain of
Psychology is conscious human
experience
To be studied through the
method of introspection (meaning,
“looking inside.”)
“If psychologists are asked, what the
business of psychology is, they generally
make some such answer as follows if they
belong to the empirical school: that this
science has to investigate the facts of
consciousness, its combinations and relations,
so that it may ultimately discover the laws
which govern these relations and
combinations.” Ψ

Ψ Wilhelm Wundt
1912

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Psy120: Cognitve Psychology
(1. The Cognitive Revolution)

functionalism
William
James’
Functionalism  suggested that psychologists should
in the late focus on the processes of thought (how
1870s, and why the mind works) rather than
Harvard its contents.
University.  Pragmatists knowledge is validated
by its usefulness.

Introspectionism
failed!
Because its method was
unscientific

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Psy120: Cognitve Psychology
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The Unconscious

What is important is the

unconscious.
Sigmund Freud in Vienna
Human behavior is deeply
influenced by unconscious thoughts
and impulses – especially those
concerning sex and aggression.
(PSYCHOANALYSIS)

Associationism
Edward Lee Thorndike’s
Law of Effect
1. Behaviors followed by positive
outcomes are strengthened;
behaviors followed by negative
outcomes are weakened.

2. Thorndike’s theory is called

Stimulus-Response (S-R) because
the organism’s behavior is due
to a connection between a stimulus
and a response.

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Psy120: Cognitve Psychology
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He came from a poor
family, the son of an
abusive and irresponsible
father, who eventually left
his wife and children to
live with two women (at
the same time!).
He studied in a community
college to become a Baptist
Minister.
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John B.
Watson’s
Behaviorism
in the early
1900s,
University of
Chicago.
But he did so well, and
was so confident that he
actually wrote the President
of the University of Chicago
for a scholarship for
graduate studies, and was
given one.
He had to work his way though his
PhD, with odd jobs, such as janitor of the
Psych Dept and the animal laboratory of
Ψ the U of C Hospitals. Ψ
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Psy120: Cognitve Psychology
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He wrote a brilliant
dissertation on animal
behavior and was awarded
in 1903, the very first PhD in
Psychology at the
University.
He was only 25 years old -- the
youngest PhD that Chicago had
ever graduated.
In his own words
“Psychology, as the
Behaviorist sees it, is a
purely objective,
experimental branch of
natural science. Its
theoretical goal is the
prediction and control of
behavior.
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In 1913, he wrote The
Behavioral Manifesto which
challenged the entire
Introspectionist metatheory.
In 1915, at the age of 37, he was
elected president of APA, then, as
now, the most powerful
psychological association in the
world – a clear signal of a
Ψ paradigm shift. Ψ
Watson = Behaviorism
Claimed that the domain of
Psychology is observable
human behavior
To be studied through
experimental techniques
already in place in the other
sciences
Ψ Ψ
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Introspectionists believed Watson = Behaviorism

that thought processes can be
decomposed into their simplest And Psychology was therefore
mental elements through the
method of sheer introspection or purged (EXPUNGED!) of all
reflection mentalistic concepts (thinking
and consciousness) which
Behaviorists believed that any were considered unscientific to
complex behavior can be study.
decomposed into its constituent
stimulus-response (S-R) elements
Ψ
Ψ

Behaviorism A Review of Behaviorism Concepts

1. Classical Conditioning
2. Operant Conditioning
As in classical conditioning an association is
learned, but rather than an association
between a stimulus and a response, in operant
conditioning, the association is between a
response and its consequences.

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Psy120: Cognitve Psychology
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Classical or Operant Conditioning?
1. RV loves spicy food! Last week he ate at
Tia Mexicana three times and literally
perspired from the hot spices. Yesterday,
as he drove past the restaurant, RV
began to perspire profusely.
What is the UCS, UCR, CS, CR?
Classical or Operant Conditioning?
3. Brian is learning to play the piano. His
teacher notices that Brian likes
basketball so she begins to give him a
basketball card every time he
successfully learns to play a new piece of
music. How is Brian being conditioned?
Reinforcement or punishment?
Positive or negative?
Prepared by Niel Steve M. Kintanar
Classical or Operant Conditioning?
2. Chesca fixed Maki her special recipe meatloaf—
convinced that he would beg for more. Several
hours later, Maki felt very ill. He immediately
blamed it on Chesca’s meatloaf. Now Cheska
brought burger steak from Jollibee but Maki
told her he would never eat any food Cheska
will bring.
What is the UCS, UCR, CS, CR?
Classical or Operant Conditioning?
4. Mirz’s parents were having a dinner party when
Inna decided to throw a tantrum at the table
because she didn’t want to eat her dinner. Her
parents immediately sent her to her room.
Angry about being in her room, Mirz
proceeded to throw her toys about, stomp on
the floor, and tear the sheets off the bed.
Embarrassed by their uncooperative daughter,
Mirz’s parents agreed to let her out of her
room. How was Mirz initially conditioned?
When her parents let her out of her room, how
was Mirz conditioned? How were Mirz’s parents
conditioned?
Rei nforcement or punishment? Positive or negative?
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