cog_intro_08 - 1 Cognitive Bases of Behavior Introduction and Historical Background 2 Cognitive Psychology Concerned with full range of psychological

1 1 Cognitive Bases of Behavior Introduction and Historical Background August 28, 2008 2 Cognitive Psychology • Concerned with full range of psychological processes from sensation to knowledge representation • Dominated since 1970’s by the information processing model • Domains – experimental psychology – cognitive neuropsychology cognitive science – cognitive neuroscience • What does this have to do with clinical or counseling or developmental or school psychology or speech pathology or exercise physiology or…? 3 4 Key Themes/Continua in the Study of Cognitive Psychology Key Themes/Continua in the Study of Cognitive Psychology • Nature v. nurture • Rationalism v. empiricism • Structures v. processes • Domain generality v. domain specificity • Internal v. external (ecological) validity • Applied v. basic research • Biological v. behavioral methods 5 Structures vs. Processes • Structures – components of cognitive apparatus that represent the organization of mental entities – are largely metaphorical and static – examples: filters, lexicons, storage systems, trees • Processes – systems of operations or functions that analyze, transform, or change mental events – are active, dynamic – examples: inhibition, forgetting, encoding, problem-solving 6 Historical Antecedents Historical Antecedents • Philosophy : concerned with understanding experience through introspection - rational • Physiology: scientific understanding of life-sustaining processes in living matter - empirical 7 Rationalism vs. Empiricism • Plato: theory of forms, reality resides not in concrete objects, but in the abstract forms (ideas) they represent - forerunner of rationalism; this idea picked up again by Descartes in 17th century; idea of innate knowledge • Aristotle: reality resides only in concrete world of objects, abstract ideas are a derivation - forerunner of empiricism; this idea picked up again by Locke ; humans born without knowledge, experience writes on the mind