Psychology

Psychology is a discipline derived from philosophy which is the parent discipline. The word
psychology is derived from two greek words – ‘psyche’ meaning mind and ‘logos’ meaning
study. According to the American Psychological Association psychology is defined as the
scientific study of mind and behavior. Behavior stands for responses and actions that are
directly observed and mind is defined as the internal state and processes that aren’t
observable yet can be inferred through measurable responses

Psychology helps us to comprehend how are brain and body connected. As a scientific
discipline, it provides a very systematic approach without creating any possible biases which
leads to faulty observations.

Cognitive Psychology
The term ‘cognition’ means knowing. Cognitive psychology is a branch of psychology
dedicated to the study of how people perceive , learn, remember and think about information.
Cognitive psychology shares many research interests with ‘cognitive science’. Cognitive
processes are continuously taking place in our mind and in the mind of people around us.

Cognitive psychology is concerned with internal mental state as it uses scientific research
methods to measure mental processes. The term scientific study means it is based on
experimental methods, empirical and observative. Cognitive psychology concerned with how
people acquire, store, transform, use and communicate information (Neisser,1967)
Cognitivism adopts precise quantitative analysis to study how people learn and think like
behaviorism ;emphasizing internal mental processes like gestaltism. Tolman (1948) work on
cognitive maps-training rats in mazes; showed that animals had internal representation of
behavior.

Cognitive psychology hopes to learn how people think by studying how people have thoughts
about thinking. It involves a progression of ideas referred to as a Dialectic.
In a dialectic:
1) A thesis is proposed which is a statement of belief
2) An antithesis emerged which is counter statement to thesis
3) Synthesis wherein some ideas from thesis and some ideas from antithesis are merged
to formulate a theory.
The dialectic may tempt us to think if one view is right the other might be wrong. For
example; in the intelligence is either completely genetically defined or environmentally
defined. But ultimately both the views were synthesized to form a new viewpoint that both
nature and nurture plays an important role. Thus characteristic of different approaches are
often integrated into a newer and more encompassing approach.

HISTORY OF COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY

The roots of cognitive psychology lie in two disciplines:
1)Philosophy: It seeks to understand many aspects of the world through inspection
2) Physiology: It is the scientific study of life sustaining functions.
The history of cognitive psychology has developed from two main ideologies. Rationalist’s
ideologies where they believe that knowledge comes through thinking and logical analysis
and empiricist who believed that knowledge is acquired through empirical evidence and
observations. Empiricism therefore leads directly to empirical investigations of psychology
while rationalism is important for theory development thus these two ideologies maintain a
synthesis or balance. Renaissance philosophers considered that knowledge was acquired not
only through physical senses but also from divine sources. During eighteenth century when
philosophic psychology was brought to the point where scientific psychology could assume a
role and British empiricists suggested internal representation is of three types:
1)Direct sensory events
2)Faint copy of percepts
3)Transformation of these faint copies
During the nineteenth century early psychologists like Feshner,Helmholtz,Wundt and others
started to drift from philosophers and theories to more empirical results. By the end of
nineteenth century there was a clear dichotomy in the knowledge that emphasized structure of
mental representation (Wundt,Titchner) and process or acts(Bretano).
Only in recent times did psychology emerged as a new and independent field of study.
Cognitive psychology has its roots in many different ideas and approaches. An early dialectic
is structuralism (Leahey,2003; Morawski ,2000) which seeks to umderstand the structure of
mind and its perception by analyzing those perceptions into their constituent components.
Wilhem Wundt contributed to this field of structuralism through the method of introspection.
Functionalism developed after the criticism of structuralism which seeks to understand what
people do and why they do it . Functionalists believed in using methods that best answered
researcher’s questions lead to Pragmatism (Knowledge is validated by its usefulness).
William James was leading contributor to the development of pragmatism.
There was an emergence of an integrative school of thought named Associationism which
examines how elements of the mind like events or ideas can become associated with one
another in the mind to result in form of learning. Associationism may result from: contiguity,
similarity, contrast. In late 1800’s Hermann Ebbinghaus first applied the theories of
associationism.
During the beginning of 1900’s Behaviorism replaced the ideas of associationism. It focused
on relationship between observable behavior and environmental stimuli. Ivan pavlov (1849-
1936) studied involuntary learning behavior. Pavlov’s landmark work paved the way for the
development of behaviorism. As of the failure of behaviorism it generally studied overt
responses to stimuli, it failed to account for diversity of human behavior as in the case of
language. They missed topics which were profoundly related to human psychology like
attention, thinking and imagery. Of many critics of behaviorism Gestalt was most avid.
Gestalt psychology states that we best understand psychological phenomenon when we view
them as organized, structured and whole.

In the early 1950’s a movement named ‘cognitive revolution’ took place. Cognitivism is the
belief that human behavior should be understood in the way how people think. New
professional group were founded as psychologists rejected the notions that mental processes
cannot be studied as they are unobservable. As cognitive psychology developed with greater
clarity it was plain that this branch of psychology was different from that vogue during the
1930’s and 1940’s. Like behaviorism it adopted precise quantitative analysis to study how
people learn and think; like gestalt it emphasizes internal mental processes.

Areas of study in Cognitive Psychology

Cognitive Neuroscience: Only within the past few years have cognitive psychologists and
cognitive neuroscientists formed a close working relationship. Thus far, this union has
produced some of the most provocative developments in the study of our mental character.
Cognitive psychologists are seeking neurological explanations for their findings, and
neuroscientists are turning to cognitive psychologists to explain observations made in their
laboratories. Every part of the cognitive process from sensation to memory is supported by
basic electrochemical processes taking place in the brain
) Perception: The branch of psychology directly involved with the detection and
interpretation of sensory stimuli is perception. From experiments in perception, we have a
good understanding of the sensitivity of the human organism to sensory signals and more
important to cognitive psychology of the way we interpret sensory signals. The experimental
study of perception has helped identify many of the parts of this process. However, the study
of perception alone does not adequately account for the expected performance; other
cognitive systems are involved, including pattern recognition, attention, consciousness, and
memory
iii) Pattern Recognition: Environmental stimuli rarely are perceived as single sensory events;
they usually are perceived as part of a more meaningful pattern. The things we sense – see,
hear, feel, taste, or smell—are almost always part of a complex pattern of sensory stimuli.
Think about the problem of reading. Reading is a complex effort in which the reader is
required to form a meaningful pattern from an otherwise meaningless array of lines and
curves. By organising the stimuli that make up letters and words, the reader may then access
meaning from his or her memory. The entire process takes place in a fraction of a second, and
considering all the neuroanatomical and cognitive systems involved, this feat – performed
daily by all sorts of people – is wondrous.
iv) Attention: Although we are information-gathering creatures, it is evident that under
normal circumstances we are also highly selective in the amount and type of information to
which we attend. Our capacity to process information seems to be limited to two levels –
sensory and cognitive. If too many sensory clues are imposed upon us at any given time, we
can become overloaded; if we try to process too many events in memory, we can become
overloaded, which may cause a breakdown in performance. All of us have felt the same way
at one time or another.
v) Consciousness: Consciousness is defined as “the current awareness, of external or internal
circumstances.” Rejected as being “unscientific” by the behaviourists, the word
consciousness and the concept it represents simply did not fade away. For most people,
consciousness and unconscious thoughts (such as you might have on a first date) are very
real. For example, when you glance at your watch while studying and it reads “10:42 (P.M.),”
you are conscious, or, aware, of that external signal. However, your reading of the time also
brings up another conscious thought, one that was initially activated by reading the time but
is from “inside.” That conscious thought might be, “It’s getting late: I’d better finish this
chapter and go to bed”. Consciousness has gained new respectability recently and now is a
concept studied seriously in modern cognitive psychology.
vi) Memory: Memory and perception work together. The information available to us comes
from our perception, short-term memory, and long-term memory. Most obvious long-term
storage is the knowledge of the language. We draw words from LTM and more or less use
them correctly. In a fleeting second, we are able to recall information about an event of years
before. Such information does not come from an immediate perceptual experience; it is stored
along with a vast number of other facts in the LTM.
vii) Representation of Knowledge: Fundamental of all human cognition is the representation
of knowledge: how information is symbolised and combined with the things stored in the
brain. This part of cognition has two aspects: the conceptual representation of knowledge in
mind and the way the brain stores and process information. The conceptual representation in
different individuals can be considerably different. In spite of these inherent dissimilarities
between representations of knowledge, most humans do experience and depict experience in
similar enough ways to get along well in the world. The content of this information is also
hugely different. But our neurological web entraps information and experiences and holds
them in structures that are similar in all human brains. 11
viii) Cognitive Psychology Imagery: Cognitive psychologists are especially interested in the
topic of internal representations of knowledge. The mental images of the environment are
formed in the form of a cognitive map, a type of internal representation of the juxtaposed
buildings, streets, street signs, spotlights, and so on. From the cognitive maps, we are able to
draw out significant cues. Although the experimental study of mental imagery is relatively
new to psychology, some significant research has recently been reported.
ix) Language: One form of knowledge shared by all human societies is the knowledge of
language. Language is the principal means by which we acquire and express knowledge;
thus, the study of how language is used is a central concern of cognitive psychology. Human
language development represents a unique kind of abstraction, which is basic to cognition.
Language processing is an important component of information processing and storage.
Language also influences perception, a fundamental aspect of cognition.
x) Developmental Psychology: Developmental psychology is another important area of
cognitive psychology that has been intensely studied. Recent studies and theories in
developmental cognitive psychology have greatly expanded our understanding of how
cognitive structures develop. As adults, we have all lived through childhood and adolescence
and we share maturational experiences with all members of our species.
xi) Thinking and Concept Formation: Thinking is the crown jewel of cognition. Thinking is
the process by which a new mental representation is formed through the transformation of
information. Advances in cognitive psychology have led to a formidable arsenal of research
techniques and theoretical models. An ability to think and form concepts is an important
aspect of cognition. Similar concepts help in the understanding and processing of
information. There is a considerable body of knowledge about the laws and processes of
concept formation.
xii) Human and Artificial Intelligence: Human intelligence includes the ability to acquire,
recall, and use knowledge to understand concrete and abstract concepts and the relationships
among objects and ideas, to understand a language, to follow instructions, to convert verbal
descriptions into actions, and to behave according to the rules, and to use knowledge in a
meaningful way. The specialty within the computer science called artificial intelligence has
had a major influence on the development of cognitive science, especially since the design of
programs requires knowledge of how we process information. Cognitive psychology also
addresses to find out whether a perfect robot can simulate human behaviour.

Psychophysical Methods
Psychophysics is the earliest branch of experimental psychology. The field of psychophysics
addresses the lawful relationship between the measurable characteristics of the stimulus, on
one hand, and reportable attributes of sensory experience on the other. The theoretical value
of of psychophysics lies in the fact that it provides one important experimental approach to
the study of sensory processes and of judgement.
The basic problems of psychophysics

i) Detection of minimal stimuli: The minimal value of stimulation required will vary
with the conditioners of testing. To be barely detectable, a tone has to be less intense
in sound treated room than in noisy room.
ii) Detection of minimal stimulus difference: Minimum value of difference will vary
from one testing situation to another and from one subject to another.
iii) Judgement of relations among stimuli: The experimental problems of psychophysics
are not limited to study of stimuli and stimulus differences that are barely detectable.
For example: Are two stimuli judged to be equal or as standing in a certain relation to
 one another? What is the extent of error when subjects respond to a stimulus as being
half as intense or twice as intense as another stimulus? These are some issues that
arise as a judgment of relation among stimuli.

Basic concepts of Psychophysics

i) Sensitivity: The capacity of receptor organs and other reaction system in an
organism to respond selectively and differentially to physical stimulation we
designate as sensitivity. It is how strong the perception of stimulus is in an
individual. A person having higher sensitivity will perceive a stimulus more
strongly at a lower level than a person who is less sensitive to the stimulus. For
example: if two people are listening to the same sound then on increasing the
volume of the sound the one with higher sensitivity to the sound will close their
ears first as compared to the other. The receptors of eye are responsive to light
within a certain range of wavelength , the receptors of ear to sound waves within a
certain range of frequencies and so on. The action of these receptor organs
constitutes an important link in the chain of responses which occurs between the
application of stimulus and subject’s response. There are two types of sensitivity:
Absolute and Differential. Absolute sensitivity defines the limits of organism’s
capacity to respond to stimulation. It is inversely related to minimum stimulus
which can be detected reliably by the subject. Differential sensitivity defines the
organism’s capacity to respond to differences, both qualitative and quantitative
between stimuli. It is inversely related to minimum difference between stimuli
needed for reliable discrimination.
ii) Thresholds: A threshold is the point of intensity at which the participant can just
detect the presence of, or difference in, a stimulus. Stimuli with intensities below
the threshold are considered not detectable, however stimuli at values close to
threshold will often be detectable some proportion of the time. Suppose we wish
to measure a subject’s absolute sensitivity to sound we have to start with a very
low intensity sound which the subject fails to hear and eventually the intensity is
increased where the subject sometimes heard the sound and sometimes fail to
hear. Finally we increase the intensity of the stimulation to a level where the
subject never fails to report the presence of sound. Clearly then there is no one
stimulus value which represents the minimum necessary for a response. There are
two types of thresholds:
Absolute threshold: That stimulus value that yield a response half of the time ie 50
percent of the test trials. It is not inherently variable in time and the value of
absolute threshold must represent a statistical concept.
Differential threshold: It is defined as that stimulus difference which gives rise to
a judgment of different 50 percent of the time. For example: if we present two
lights with similar wavelength the subject will fail to report a difference most of
time but as we increase the wavelength difference between the lights so as to
obtain a judgment difference on half of the trials this is referred to as differential
threshold. Absolute and difference thresholds are sometimes considered similar
because there is always background noise interfering with our ability to detect
stimuli, however study of difference thresholds still occurs, for example in pitch
discrimination tasks
 iii) Point of subjective equality: In psychophysics, the point of subject equality (PSE)
is any of the points along a stimulus dimension at which a variable stimulus
(visual, tactile, auditory, and so on) is judged by an observer to be equal to a
standard stimulus. Sometimes stimuli whose physical characteristics are identical
may give rise to a judgement of difference and stimuli which differ physically
may be judged same. Thus there is no necessary correspondence between physical
equality of stimuli and judgments of sameness nor there is necessary
correspondence between physical differences and judgment of different.
Suppose we present a subject with a pair of stimuli one member of the pair being
fixed and other member varying from trial to trial sometimes being larger and
sometimes being equal or sometimes being smaller. The subject is required to
make a judgement of same or different in response to each pair. Under many
experimental conditions the stimuli most likely to be judged same are physically
equal ones. Sometimes however two stimuli which differ by a certain amount are
more likely to be judged same than physically equal ones.

iv) Variable and Constant errors: a) Variable Error: The degree to which judgments
differ from trial to trial provides an index of the amount of variable error. Error
here simply refers to the extent of fluctuation in judgments. b) Constant Error: A
systematic tendency on the part of the subject toward overestimation or
underestimation of the stimuli. Two frequently encountered constant errors: time
error and space error.
When two physically equal stimuli, A and B are presented to a subject he does not
always perceive them as equal. He may report a difference even though the
physical characteristics of the stimuli are same. If such judgements are merely a
manifestation of variable error A should sometimes be overestimated and
sometimes be underestimated. Frequently we find a systematic tendency on the
part of the subject toward overestimation and underestimation. Such a systematic
tendency is known as constant error.

Classical experiments in cognitive psychology

Various experiments are conducted in this field of cognitive
psychology. Some of them are:

Duration of Short term Memory by Peterson and Peterson (1959)

When a person tries to memorize words or numbers, they rehearse the item to
remember it for a longer time. In this experiment, rehearsal was prevented leading
to decay in memory.
Aim
To investigate the duration of short-term memory.
Lloyd and Margaret Peterson aimed to test the hypothesis that information which is not
rehearsed is lost quickly from short-term memory
Procedure
A lab experiment was conducted in which 24 participants (psychology students) had to recall
trigrams (meaningless three-consonant syllables), such as TGH, CLS.
The trigrams were presented one at a time and had to be recalled after intervals of 3, 6, 9, 12,
15 or 18 seconds respectively for each trial. No two successive trigrams contained any of the
same letters.
After hearing trigram participants were asked to count backwards in threes or fours from a
specified random number until they saw a red light appear (then they recalled the trigram).
This is known as the Brown Peterson technique, and the purpose was to prevent rehearsal.
The independent variable was the time interval between hearing the experimenter say the
trigram and the participant recalling the trigram (after seeing a red light), e.g. 3, 6, 9, 12, 15
or 18 seconds.
The dependent variable was the number of trigrams correctly recalled by the participants after
every trial. There were six trials in total.
Findings
Their results showed that the longer each student had to count backwards, the less well they
were able to recall the trigram accurately.

 After 3 seconds 80% of the trigrams were recalled correctly.

 After 6 seconds this fell to 50%.
 After 18 seconds less than 10% of the trigrams were recalled correctly.

Conclusion
Short term memory has a limited duration (of about 18 seconds) when rehearsal is prevented.
It is thought that this information is lost from short-term memory from trace decay.

Loftus and Palmer Experiment (1974)

Aim: To test their hypothesis that the language used in eyewitness testimony can alter
memory.
Thus, they aimed to show that leading questions could distort eyewitness testimony accounts
and so have a confabulating effect, as the account would become distorted by cues provided
in the question.
To test this Loftus and Palmer (1974) asked people to estimate the speed of motor vehicles
using different forms of questions. Estimating vehicle speed is something people are
generally poor at and so they may be more open to suggestion.

Experiment One
Procedure: Forty-five American students from the University of Washington formed
an opportunity sample. This was a lab experiment with five conditions, only one of which
was experienced by each participant (an independent measures experimental design
7 films of traffic accidents, ranging in duration from 5 to 30 seconds, were presented in a
random order to each group.
After watching the film participants were asked to describe what had happened as if they
were eyewitnesses. They were then asked specific questions, including the question “About
how fast were the cars going when they (smashed / collided / bumped / hit / contacted) each
other?”
Thus, the IV was the wording of the question and the DV was the speed reported by the
participants. Findings: The estimated speed was affected by the verb used. The verb implied
information about the speed, which systematically affected the participants’ memory of the
accident.
Participants who were asked the “smashed” question thought the cars were going faster than
those who were asked the “hit” question. The participants in the “smashed” condition
reported the highest speed estimate (40.8 mph), followed by “collided” (39.3 mph),
“bumped” (38.1 mph), “hit” (34 mph), and “contacted” (31.8 mph) in descending order.
Conclusion: The results show that the verb conveyed an impression of the speed the car was
traveling and this altered the participants' perceptions. In other words, eye witness
testimony might be biased by the way questions are asked after a crime is committed. Loftus
and Palmer offer two possible explanations for this result:

1. Response-bias factors: The misleading information provided may have simply

influenced the answer a person gave (a 'response-bias') but didn't actually lead to
a false memory of the event. For example, the different speed estimates occur because
the critical word (e.g. 'smash' or 'hit') influences or biases a person's response.
2. The memory representation is altered: The critical verb changes a person's
perception of the accident - some critical words would lead someone to have a
perception of the accident being more serious. This perception is then stored in a
person's memory of the event.

If the second explanation is right we would expect participants to remember other details that
are not true. Loftus and Palmer tested this in their second experiment.

Experiment Two
Procedure: 150 students were shown one minute film which featured a car driving through
the countryside followed by four seconds of a multiple traffic accident.
Afterwards, the students were questioned about the film. The independent variable was the
type of question asked. It was manipulated by asking 50 students 'how fast were the car going
when they hit each other?', another 50 'how fast were the car going when they smashed each
other?', and the remaining 50 participants were not asked a question at all (i.e. the control
group).
One week later the dependent variable was measured - without seeing the film again they
answered ten questions, one of which was a critical one randomly placed in the list: “Did you
see any broken glass? Yes or no?" There was no broken glass on the original film.
Findings: Participants who were asked how fast the cars were going when they smashed
were more likely to report seeing broken glass.
Conclusion: This research suggests that memory is easily distorted by questioning technique
and information acquired after the event can merge with original memory causing inaccurate
recall or reconstructive memory.
The results from experiment two suggest that this effect is not just due to a response-bias
because leading questions actually altered the memory a participant had for the event.
The addition of false details to a memory of an event is referred to as confabulation. This has
important implications for the questions used in police interviews of eye witness

Consequently, Loftus and Palmer support the reconstructive memory hypothesis - arguing
that information gathered at the time of an event is modified by data gathered afterwards.
Over time, information from these two sources is integrated to the degree that it is impossible
to separate them - in effect we only have one memory