Maguire, gadian, johnsrude and frith 2000
cognitive maps
Taxi driver in London
Measure size of hippocampus
= larger in taxi drivers posterior hippocampus
Control = larger anterior hippocampus
Volume changes depending on amount of time as taxi driver
Taxi drivers memorize maps = cause differences in volumes in diff parts of brain
What did Clark hull do
- Student of Tolman’s
- Wanted to build a science of behavior (behaviour still separate from mind)
- Unlike Watson, used terms like drive and motivation= Wanted to link to stimulus and response
- Used mathematics to provide an interrelationship among different
concepts = Modernly referred to as mathematical psychology (sub branch cognitive psych) - Wanted psychology to be “predictive”
Transition between behaviourism and info processing theories - to predict outcome of exp, more sound theorization
Proposed theories that are simailr to modern theories in cognitive psych
ex of theory
Formula - sEr=sHr x D x V x K
Association framework, stimulus response equation, hull = wanted to precede how rat would behave in diff conditions
sEr= excitatory potential, probability of producing response r given stimulus s
sHr= habit strength (produced through prior conditioning trials, baseline probability of producing response given stimulus, referred to as response bias in modern terms - how likely to produce a behaviour irregardless of anything else)
D = drive strength (how much a response is wanted, ex = hours of deprivation of food, water etc, like how hungry rat its, how much do they want food)
V= stimulus intensity (strength of stimulus, how bright light is, how loud sound, bc empirical studies how shown that stimulus intensity has effect on learning)
K = incentive (how enticing reward is - how valuable like cocaine, certain foods more desirable,)
Integrative attempt to look at dynamic interaction between these diff things in learning
describe hulls work
- Demonstrated a movement towards integrating more cognitive concepts
- Not overly influential on behaviorists – found his theories too burdensome - not widely accepted
- Provided the basis for further quantification of human behavior
- Increased interest in his work as cognitive psychology developed
Early work integrating more cognitive and mental theorization into theories proposed
renewed interest in reaction times
- Behaviorists mainly focused on using rats as subjects- implied rejection
- Reaction time studies became popular again in the 40’s and 50’s - ww2, real turning point
- Renewed interest in F. C. Donder’s research
- Psychological Refractory Period (PRP; Welford, 1952) a common example - views on cognition aligns with mathematical info processing
Cog psych not actually a thing yet tho
what is prp
Psychologist = try to asses ppls mental capabilities = train soldiers
PRP: Responding to a first stimulus can sometimes delay a response to a second stimulus, especially if the stimuli are presented quickly, one after the other
mental chronometry
- Using measures of time to make inferences about cognitive processes = use reaction time to ensure amount of time it takes cognitive processes to operate
- Basic question: how fast can a nerve transmit a signal?
- Hermann von Helmholtz: measured speed of transmission of nerve in a frog - neurophysiology
- Found a range of 24.6 - 38.4 meters per second, determine speed at which signal sent down, idea = nerves doing something time based
fc donders 1818-1889
Figure out if thinking - cognition takes place in different stage of time
* Dutch Ophthalmologist
* Early work using mental chronometry to measure mental processing times
* Donders’ idea: Each processing stage takes time, Increased task complexity takes longer, By looking at difference between stages, can determine how long a single process takes (related to work in parallel vs serial processing)
* Used three main tasks:
* Simple reaction time
* Go-No Go
* Choice reaction time
simple reaction time test
- Simplest reaction time task
- Participants wait for ANY stimulus
- Respond as quickly as possible when the stimulus occurs (If see light = press button)
- Measures “physiological” reaction time
- Commonly used in psychophysics - like how do exp increase brightness until find level of brightness we cannot see - see how stimulus intensity affects reaction time
go no go
- Participants wait for a specific stimulus (GO)
- Respond only to the GO stimulus
- Withhold response to other stimuli
- Requires stimulus identification
More control than simple reaction time = have to process and differentiate stimuli = have to inhibit behaviour when see things you are not supposed to respond to
choice reaction time
- There are multiple possible stimuli
- Respond to each with a unique response
- Stimulus identification and response selection
Identify and discriminate between different stimuli and also discriminate across responses and learn
Increasing complexity - involve diff cognitive operations
Green square = press button 1
Red circle = press button 2
Yellow triangle = press button 3
Donders processing stages
Stimulus —> Sensory reception —> diff cognitive stages
= total processing time
Physiological time = time it takes to know stimulus is there
Mental processing time = identification time (discriminate between stimuli), response selection time = find correct response to particular stimulus
Then response
(Stimulus and sensory reception bad response = common, similar across tasks)
assumed mental times
Compare processes to separate out how long each cognitive process takes
donders subtractive logic = estimating identification times
Measure go no go = physiological time and identification time
MINUS
Simple = psychological time
= identification time
(Functionalism - brain separated into different operations, does diff things = identify tehse)
donders subtractive logic = estimating response selective times
Choice = physiological time, identification time and response selection time
MINUS
Go no go = physiological time and identification time
= get response selection time
issues with subtractive logic
assumes serial processing - one process happens after other - not true tho, like stimulus processing —> identification —> response selection
What about parallel processing = multiple processes at same time??
However = good way at staring to asses how long things takes and why some things more difficult than others
basic prp effect
Welford - simple reaction time task= make rapid decision
If have appropriate delay between stimulus being presented = no difffernce in rt
If short delay = amount of time it takes to make second response = increases compared to first
explanations of prp effect
- Could reflect hard-wired properties of signalling among nerve fibers (not true tho)
- Could reflect participants expectations
= Short delays might be more surprising, and the surprise lengthens the response - PRP reflects a central mechanism with a single-channel of limited capacity- proposed by welford, fundamental limitations to amount of something that flow through mind at a time
welford 1952
In its bare essentials this theory assumes, firstly, a number of sensory input mechanisms each capable of receiving data and storing it for a limited period so that, for example, a short series of signals can be received as a unit. Secondly, it assumes a number of effector mechanisms containing both central and peripheral elements and capable of carrying out a series of actions such as the pressing and release of a key or a series of taps (Vince, 1949) as a single unit. Thirdly, between these two it postulates a single-channel decision mechanism. This is regarded as being of limited capacity in the sense that it takes a finite time to process information and can thus only deal with a limited amount of information in a given time
Info, data, channels, not how behaviour taught tho, talking about it like computer
what happened??
Technological rev
Cognition is like a. Telephone network
Rely on metaphor available to us
Mathematics of how things work = integrated into how psychologist started to think about brain
where does this concept of info come from
Claude Shannon - mathematician at bell labs
Mathematical theory of communication - examination fo how to send info over a medium to receiver, quantify info being sent
describe information theory
- Widespread influence across sciences
- Information theory was NOT originally developed as a theory in psychology
- It is a set of mathematical formalisms to describe communicationsystems
- Measurement tools from information theory became popular in Cognitive Psychology beginning around 1950 - adapt to brain and mind
Info sent along medium - need to understand and control beginning of digital communication,developed to understand and produce better telecommunication systems
7+/- 2= short term memory can discriminate 7 things, idea came from information theory
what is an information channel
- An information channel has three parts:
- A sender, a channel (medium), and a receiver
Two questions= - How much information was sent?
- How much was received? - see how much info lost - how accurate it is
channel capacity central concept
Fundamental concept = amount of info that can be transmitted and received through communication - medium limited in amount of info transmitted at any time, capacity = limited
Welford says this about brain =prp - fundamental finding in capacity of processing
