Lecture 1 Intro 2020 Sem1 PDF

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PSYC2050: Learning and Cognition

School of Psychology The University of Queensland

Professor Thomas Suddendorf Psychology Room 455 Contact hours: Mondays 1-2pm Phone: 3365 8341 e-mail: [email protected] Web: https://www.psy.uq.edu.au/directory/index.html?id=39#_

Dr Jonathan Redshaw Email [email protected] Office Location 329 McElwain Office Hours 3-4pm Monday Web https://researchers.uq.edu.au/researcher/1

Undergraduate coordinators Jenny English & Meg Cridland Undergraduate Team Leader - Level 3 McElwain Building (24A) Phone: 3365 6368 email: [email protected] § Lead Tutor: § Kristy Armitage § e-mail: [email protected]

What’s up today? § Short lead up

§ Lectures: Introductions

PSYC2050: Learning and Cognition

Materials § The handbook § Download from blackboard

§ Recommended (not required) textbook: § PSYC2050: Learning and Cognition 4th edition § Chapters from Willingham (Cognition: The thinking animal) and Mazur (Learning and Behavior) § Supplementary readings (see handbook or slides) in the librarys high use section and on blackboard

PSYC2050: Learning and Cognition

Assessment (Handbook p. 3-4) §

1) 5 In-class quizzes are worth 45% in total (9% each): The quizzes take place during the lecture and each can assess all the content of lectures and tutorials up to that point. Each quiz comprises 6 multiple choice questions (worth 1% each) and 2 short answers (worth 1.5% each) §

2) Lab reports: 20% (Maximum 20 marks) The lab requires a number of reports, which relate to the experiments that are conducted in the tutorials. Each report will be marked as either pass or fail (4 marks for a pass). Note that all submissions must be of a hard copy format, submitted in the respective tutorial to the tutor. §

3) Self-monitoring project: 35% (Maximum 35 marks) Conduct and report a self-monitoring project (max 2500 words). The project report is due Monday 11th of May, 4pm. You will need to hand it in electronically via “Turnitin” which is available through our blackboard web page. You also need to submit your raw data to your tutor (failure to do so results in a loss of 50% of marks). PSYC2050: Learning and Cognition

Timetable for lectures

Handbook p. 2: Lecture timetable

LEARNING

COGNITION

TUTORIALS

Handbook p. 8: Tutorial timetable

Handbook p. 18: Major assignment marking criteria

PSYC2050 web pages § The blackboard web page § Information about tutorials § Lecture slides § Announcements § Assessment § Handy links § Lecture recordings PSYC2050: Learning and Cognition

Timing of lectures § Tuesday 4:00pm-5:50pm (Room 50- T203) § 5min break, give or take

PSYC2050: Learning and Cognition

Tutorials Sign-on (via mySinet) Email Jenny English if you are having troubles Apologies if you do not get your first choice

PSYC2050: Learning and Cognition

Tutorial this week § Do it yourself on Web § Blackboard --> Course Materials --> Tutorials --> Laboratory 1 § Check out computer labs § Login: myUQ username § Password: myUQ password PSYC2050: Learning and Cognition

Short lead up § § § §

Noise Responsibilities Rumours Security (Exits, etc.)

PSYC2050: Learning and Cognition

PSYC2050: Learning and Cognition Introduction § Today: § Learning: A bit of background § Cognition: A bit of background § How do they hang together?

§ Rest of semester: § 4 lectures on learning § 2 lectures on Pavlovian Conditioning (JR) § 2 lectures on Operant Conditioning (TS) § 4 lectures on Basic Cognition (JR) § 4 lectures on Higher Cognition (TS) PSYC2050: Learning and Cognition

What is Learning? § Fundamental process in living animals § One definition: an adaptive process where the tendency to perform a specific behaviour, emotion, and/or thought is changed by experience § What is experience? Any effects of the environment mediated by a sensory system § Textbook Reading 1: § History, background and basic concepts PSYC2050: Learning and Cognition

A few more definitions of learning § A more or less permanent change in behaviour potentiality which occurs as a result of repeated practice § Change in a subject’s behaviour or behaviour potential to a given situation brought about by the subject’s repeated experience in that situation

PSYC2050: Learning and Cognition

Common features of definitions § There is a change (may be invisible - thus the behaviour potential) § Change is lasting § Experience and practice § Learning situation is important

PSYC2050: Learning and Cognition

Two Major Ways of Learning § Each involve cause and effect relationships between behaviour (or thoughts or emotions) and the environment: § Non-associative: Habituation (discussed today) § Associative: (discussed in future lectures) *Majority of what we know about these two types of learning has focused on non-human animals PSYC2050: Learning and Cognition

Habituation (and sensitisation) § Habituation is a getting used to it response § What is the organism getting used to? § A NOVEL STIMULUS

PSYC2050: Learning and Cognition

At first, a Novel Stimulus will lead to... An orienting response: § Head turns toward the stimulus § Heart rate slows down § Person attends to the stimulus

PSYC2050: Learning and Cognition

After prolonged exposure, the stimulus is no longer novel...

No longer have an orienting response The organism has learned that this stimulus has no special significance a result of Not ations any associ

Habituation has taken place PSYC2050: Learning and Cognition

“The decline and eventual disappearance of a reflexive response when the same stimulus is repeatedly presented”

trial

Turk-Browne, Scholl, & Chun, 2008 – Frontiers in Human Neuro

Habituation § Is the simplest form of learning found in nearly every animal, even slugs and snails § Why is this adaptive? § Allows us to learn that a stimulus is not significant, and therefore you don’t have to be distracted by petty events § Sensitisation PSYC2050: Learning and Cognition

(Associative) Learning in psychology § Introduction: See Reading 1 in Your Text; § Habituation: Reading 2

PSYC2050: Learning and Cognition

Key Figures in The History of Associative Learning

Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936) PSYC2050: Learning and Cognition

John Watson (1878-1958)

B.F. Skinner (1904-1990)

Behavioural approach to Associative Learning: The Fundamentals § We measure behaviour to infer learning § Limited to observable effects of learning § Complex behaviours follow the same laws as small units of behaviour § But bear in mind behaviour is caused by § The goals of the organism § Environmental demands § Internal states PSYC2050: Learning and Cognition

The fundamentals: Associations § Associative learning = forming new associations § Connecting stimuli with each other and with behaviour § Avoid danger, find food, learn emotional responses to important situations and people/animals § Associative learning in animals § Simple learning and behaviour disorders in people – effects of rewards and punishment, phobias, addictions. § Associations are also fundamental in (human) abstract conceptual learning and thinking.

Changes in behaviour that are not due to associative learning § Habituation § Innate response tendencies § (reflexes, taxes, instincts) § Maturation § (regular stages, unaffected by practice) § Fatigue § (disappears after break) § Changes due to physiological/motivational state § Change due to evolution vs. change due to learning PSYC2050: Learning and Cognition

Learning in the Psychology Curriculum

§ §

Basic: Principles of acquisition and maintenance of behaviour Application: Behaviour modification

PSYC2050: Learning and Cognition

Learning in the Psychology Curriculum § PSYC1020: basic § PSYC2050: basic + applications § PSYC3082, 3102: application (clinical) § PSYC4121: application (clinical)

PSYC2050: Learning and Cognition

Cognitive Psychology § Cognitio - to know or to think § The study of MENTAL processes such as perceiving, attending, remembering and reasoning § Psychology as the science of the mind § The scientific approach (Herschel 1830): § 1) gathering of data through experimentation and observation; § 2) generation of hypotheses from these data; § 3) testing of the hypotheses to see if they can be disproved Textbook Reading 9: Cognitive Psychologists’ Approach to Research PSYC2050: Learning and Cognition

A very brief history of cognition § Wilhelm Wundt (1879) and the method of introspection § Hermann Ebbinghaus (1885) and the empirical study of memory § William James (1890) principles of psychology PSYC2050: Learning and Cognition

The rise of Behaviorism § Lack of progress through introspection § Watson (1913): psychology as objective study of behavior not mind § Introspection cannot be measured objectively § Theories should be as simple as possible § Metaphor of the black box- inner workings cannot be understood § belief in tabula rasa rather than nativism § belief in equipotentiality § 50 years of mindless psychology …with some notable exceptions: § Jean Piaget’s (e.g.,1926) cognitive development § Wolfgang Köhler’s (e.g.,1927) insight and gestalt § Frederick Bartlett’s (e.g., 1932) reconstructive memory § Edward Tolman’s (e.g.,1932) goal-directed behaviour PSYC2050: Learning and Cognition

Ethology § Ethology in the 1950s: Tabula rasa cannot be true. Different species have different genetic predispositions that determine behavior. § Fixed-action patterns such as stereotyped mating behavior, nest building, territory marking etc. (e.g., Niko Tinbergen) § Critical periods for specific learning such as chicks learning who mother is (ie., imprinting, Konrad Lorenz) § Tinbergen, Lorenz and Karl von Frisch (famous for studying the communication in bees) received the Nobel Prize in 1973 PSYC2050: Learning and Cognition

The Reemergence of Cognition § The generativity of human language cannot be explained in behaviorist terms (Chomsky) § Psychology as science of behaviour is like defining physics as science of meter reading (Chomsky) § Theories of the mind are needed to explain behaviour § The 1956 MIT conference (Chomsky, Miller, Bruner, Newell & Simon) § The computer metaphor § Information processing in theblack box became a legitimate topic of discussion as such processes are, after all, instantiated in a machine PSYC2050: Learning and Cognition

Noam Chomsky Norbert Wiener

The information-processing model § A computer uses symbols (series of 0 and 1) to represent something § Neurons can fire (1) or not fire (0) § Programs specify the rules for the manipulation of these symbols § Software is to hardware, as mind is to brain? § The computational theory of mind

§

From box and arrow models to parallel distributed processing § The rise of cognitive neuroscience § The rise of evolutionary approaches

PSYC2050: Learning and Cognition

Approaches to studying the mind § Experiments § Classic (a la Ebbinghaus) § Since cognitive revolution: e.g., reaction time as a measure of mental processing load – combining objective measures with introspection

§ Neuroscientific investigations § Brain imaging and recording (with introspection or task performance) § Lesion studies - Malfunctioning of the brain/mind

§ Modeling § Computer simulations of human performance

§ Comparative § Performance comparison across age groups, clinical groups and species PSYC2050: Learning and Cognition

The Domain of Cognitive Psychology § Cognitive Neuroscience § Perception § Attention* § § § §

Consciousness Memory* Imagery* Representation of knowledge

PSYC2050: Learning and Cognition

The Domain of Cognitive Psychology § Language* § Cognitive Development § Thinking* § Intelligence* § Comparative Psychology* § Evolutionary Psychology* * covered to some extent in this course

PSYC2050: Learning and Cognition

Basic and higher level cognition § For researchers in perception and cognition, their domain is a loosely defined continuum § From low to high levels of processing

§ Low = close to the input from our senses (vision, hearing, touch, taste and smell). § Mental representations correspond to objects and events in the environment

§ High = abstract, conceptual, relational § Abstract mental representations § Derived from many individual experiences

Lower-level cognition § The first step is the analysis of visual, auditory and other sensory input § Perception: How do people identify objects based on past experience? (PSYC2020, PSYC3192)

§ Selecting what is relevant to current goals from all of the sensory information available - “attention” § If we are to act and plan effectively, we must remember what we have seen and heard - “memory” § We will tell you about attention & memory in lectures 6 - 9.

Higher-level cognition § Dealing with environmental input that has been re-processed by the human cognitive system § How do people mentally represent and manipulate objects that they see – the role of “imagery” § Word-based concepts, communication of ideas, facts, and intentions to other people - “language” § The special human facility for manipulating abstract concepts and engage in reasoning – “intelligence”, “comparative & evolutionary cognition” § See lectures 10-13.

Past Conflicts - Learning & Cognition § Cognitivists complained that behaviourism § ignored basic mental processes like memory, attention, imagery etc. § assumed equipotentiality and could not properly explain different learning within individuals and across species

PSYC2050: Learning and Cognition

§ Behaviourists complained that cognitivism § made merely inferences about mental constructs § made no reference to physiology § ignored emotion and motivational valence

Modern Perspectives on Past Conflicts Learning & Cognition Modern learning theorists § appreciate biological constraints and preparedness § acknowledge the utility of cognitive constructs in theory and practice: e.g. cognitive-behavioural therapy PSYC2050: Learning and Cognition

Modern cognitivists § appreciate the utility and power of learning principles § apply associationism in theories of the mind § research relation between brain and cognition

How does it hang together? § Behaviour is mediated by cognition (e.g., perception, memory, etc.) § Learning is one of the basic processes that contributes to cognition

PSYC2050: Learning and Cognition

Summary § Learning objectives:

§ Topics § Philosophical background and history of psychology of learning and cognition § Scientific approaches to learning and cognition § Definitions of learning § What comprises cognitive psychology

§ to recount the basic historical stages and key contributions § to outline the information processing approach to cognition § to list the domains of cognitive psychology § to distinguish learning from related phenomena

Textbook Reading 1: Mazur – History, background and basic concepts Reading 9: Willingham – Cognitive psychologists approach to research Supplementary Reading Miller, G. (2003). The cognitive revolution: a historical perspective. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 7,141-144. PSYC2050: Learning and Cognition...