Welcome to the second lecture of the series
of this course called basic cognitive processes.
I am Dr. Ark Verma, assistant professor of
psychology in IT, Kanpur.
The title of today’s lecture is a brief
history of cognitive psychology.
In this lecture, we will talk about the historical
antecedents of cognitive psychology.
But even before we do that let us spend a
moment to think about why history of cognitive
psychology is important.
In today’s lecture, what I will do is I
will you through the development of the ideas
of cognitive psychology.
I will talk about how the ideas related to
mind and behaviour originated in the ancient
Greek schools of philosophy.
We will also see how later philosophers contributed
to the growth of this idea and then we will
going to various schools of thought that emerged
in psychology from their will go to the place
where the ideas about cognition and cognitive
psychology, the ideas about mental processes
take shape and that basically leads to the
kind and contemporary form of enquiry that
is cognitive psychology.
Now why is doing all of this necessary.
Why do I want to actually do this in today’s
lecture?
There are two simple reasons, one of them
is that going through this historical chart
of how these developed what we will be doing
this, we will be seeing how a particular idea
which seems to rather commonsensical has been
approached through a variety of perspectives
from ancient times to the times to the more
recent times.
We have to talk about also that how various
people contributed in the growth and the development
of this idea.
They have been contributors for variety of
disciplines towards this discipline of cognitive
psychology, and in this lecture today I would
ask you to make those connections.
So it will be very important that you pay
attention to how this particular idea of cognitive
psychology actually develops from philosophy
onwards, and it comes and with the inputs
from even feels like artificial intelligence
of computer science takes form of enquiry
which is known currently as cognitive psychology.
Let us go to the routes of this word called
psychology.
The word psychology basically derives from
the combination of two Latin words.
The first word basically is psyche or soul.
The second word is logia which is the study
off.
So psychology basically defined means the
study of the soul.
Now I would like you to take a moment and
wonder what soul would mean here.
Basically by referring to the soul, those
Asian Green philosophers were basically talking
about what we probably today refer as the
mind.
Anything that a person does we actually look
for causes, we actually look for reasons,
why and how the person is being able to do
that or accomplish that particular behaviour.
All of that in ancient times was basically
attitude to this thing called the soul.
So that is why it is logical to expect people
to start talking about the soul as the seat
of human behaviour.
We will see how that actually pans out in
ancient philosophy.
So origins of psychology then basically can
be actually trace down these two more basic
disciplines which are philosophy and physiology.
Now philosophy as you know is a discipline
that seeks to explore and explain human nature
through introspection.
It also uses the tools of thought like epistemology,
logic etc.
Now the subject matter of philosophy if you
see is basically thought okay.
So philosophy is concerned with how a human
behaviour, or how this world can be explained
by analysing and reanalysing what we think
okay.
And philosophy also uses tools to actually
analyse this process of thought.
Say for example, tools like logic.
Physiology on the other hand focuses on the
body.
It is a discipline that is dedicated to understanding
the functioning of the human body, the biological
aspects of it how a particular organ is constituted
how it functions and those questions.
So psychology you will see basically focuses
on the interaction of the mind and body.
That is why psychology takes into account
approaches both from philosophy and physiology.
So this is basically what the roots of psychology
are.
Now surprisingly actually if you go back in
time one of the first reported experiments
in psychology can actually be traced back
down to the Egyptian times.
There is no believe that similar experiments
were not being done in the different other
civilizations.
But had is this experiment.
An ancient king of Egypt, as far back as the
seventh century B.C actually wanted to conduct
the first experiment.
He had this idea that if children will race
in isolation from infancy and were given no
instruction in language of any kind.
The language that they actually end up speaking
will be the original language of man or the
language of the original human civilizations.
So you wanted to test this out okay.
So he actually raises a child in isolation
and does that and basically finds out that
the child ends up not speaking anything.
So this is hypothesis is actually not confirmed.
But even though, this experiment fails to
support the kings hypothesis observes that
it does illustrate perhaps the first evidence
in return history that as long as around 27
hundred years ago there was at least one individual
with this highly original notion that mental
processes could be systematically investigated
first.
And mental process could be in a studied and
we have something to do with the body okay.
So this is a very interesting piece of anecdotal
evidence that actually tells us that people
have been in treat with this subject matter
of human behaviour of human mind and that
is something which is basically been around
with us for a long, long time.
Now let us visit the philosophical Antecedent
of the psychology that basic thought processes
in psychology that actually gave rise to the
questions we ask now.
You might be aware that one of the basic,
one of the first things in earlier days when
we are, somebody was trying to explain a mental
illness of thought was that person aches who
is basically experiencing mental illness of
kind why he is basically effected by some
demon some ghost or some spirits.
Now those kind of explanations were very popular
in which led to things like which hunting
and people being prosecuted and those kind
of things.
Hypocrites as far back as 463 BC basically
one of the first to process that mental illness
was not cause by demons, but by genuine physical
conditions.
So you see hypocrites is basically where the
first who was making this connection between
the mind and the body.
Hypocrites actually worked by dissecting human
corpses and living organisms and through his
experiments in these kinds of physiology concluded
that it is the mind that control the body.
Further he proposes that mind basically resides
in the head or in the brain.
Now this is one of the first times that actually
behaviour is being link to something with
body.
Another person Plato, another philosopher
who is basically also one of the most influential
philosopher of all time suggest that reality
basically exists in our minds completely and
that head is the seat of the mind much like
hypocrites as observed recently.
Now Plato is basically suggesting that knowledge
is gained through thinking and analysis of
thought and this is what basically is our
effort to understand this world or the happenings
of this world.
So Plato basically suggests that minds and
body are different things, but they might
interact in some way or the other.
Due to his emphasis on this whole process
of thinking and thought as the source of knowledge,
Plato has been turned as a rationalist.
Moving ahead, Aristotle who is basically a
disciple of Plato actually felt quite the
opposite.
Aristotle felt that mind and body were one
in the same concrete to what his teacher Plato
is talked about.
Aristotle actually says that we can understand
the mind by studying the body.
So he is saying that mind and body are basically
the same thing, and if you studying the body
you might eventually end up studying the mind
as well.
He says that relying on concrete objects and
actions rather than thoughts should be our
scope of enquiry or should be our scope of
study.
He says that reality lies in the concrete
world.
His methods are basically built up on observations
of concrete fax numbers and those kinds of
things and that is why Aristotle was regarded
as an empiricist.
Now let us move a more modern bunch of thinkers
philosophers, but not from the Greek era,
but from somewhere close to us in time.
One of the most invention philosophers who
basically really shaped the subject matter
of psychology was Rene Descartes.
Rene Descartes basically was a French philosopher
and mathematician.
He said that introspection and reflection
are better methods than observation node.
Now Descartes you might want to know basically
believed that are observation are a result
of the working of our senses.
And he believe that the sense can actually
make mistakes.
He talked about particular kinds of illusions
where in your senses will end up making say
for example, if stare at point of light for
a few minutes and after that you will experience
sensation of darkness even though there is
no darkness outside.
So Descartes basically believe that because
our senses can be fooled or our senses can
actually make mistakes we should actually
reliable observation rather than the information
coming to us from our senses.
Descartes said that mind and body are two
separate things, though he said that these
two thing interact through seat in the head
will in a pineal gland.
Descartes relate so much importance on thought
and analysis and that importance can actually
be seen reflected in this statement that he
makes which is cogito ergo sum which basically
translates to I think therefore I am.
So for Descartes the source of reality of
this world basically lies in your thought
and in your analysis of the world.
Using which you understand the happenings
of the world.
John Locke came after Descartes, he basically
said that the relationship between the mind
and the body is sort of an equal relationship
wherein these two things are the forms of
one in the same thing.
Locke basically says that mind depends upon
the body through its senses and the body depends
upon the mind to process and store this information
that is gain through the senses.
So Locke actually is giving something which
is you might say rather evaluate study because
he is actually going on and saying that mind
and body are one in the same thing and there
is definite way through is this interaction
is taking place.
Locke was also an imperishes and he believed
in the thought of tabula rasa.
Tabula rasa basically means that all human
beings are born as blank slates in this world.
Everything that they learnt, everything that
they finally achieve or accomplish any kind
of behaviour is learnt by their interaction
with this world.
Another important philosopher was Immanuel
Kant.
Immanuel Kant.
Basically says the human have a set of faculties.
Things like mental functions we talked about
in the last class.
So you said that these faculties which are
your senses the faculties of understanding,
faculties of reason.
These are the tools which basically work together
to control this link between the mind and
body.
So by now it is clear that mind and body are
two things may be same, may be separate, but
there is an interaction certainly going on
between them.
And different people now are proposing different
ways in which this interaction is taking place.
So Immanuel Kant basically says that these
are the faculties these are the mental functions
through which there is interaction between
mind and body that is going on.
Now let us a brief pause, let us look back
and let us see where we have from ancient
Greece to more contemporary philosophers or
not only contemporary to modern philosophers.
So early thinkers, these early thinkers which
we talked about have basically laid out the
broad subject matter of what psychology is.
And the subject matter is nothing other than
this relationship between the mind the body.
We will elaborate upon this issue in more
detail when we actually talking about the
foundational assumption in cognitive psychology,
but by this point you should be clear that
this is something which is most important
to ask questions to cognitive psychologies,
even now people are constantly investigating
what is mind, how does it relate to the body.
Mind in the earlier days could be studied
through various ways, observable behaviour
was to be one of the more important ways.
Also body on the other hand could be studied
by the biological or the neural substrates.
So if you want to study the connection between
the mind and the body and say for example
you want to investigate the body which is
basically the brain, you have feels like neuroscience
which will actually tell you about how the
brain is constructed or how the brain really
effects your behaviour.
Mind on the other hand is this body of mental
functions which we will see how they evolve
and how they are actually structured.
Now this entire preface of philosophy actually
led to development of various kinds of thought
or various kinds of thought systems in psychology.
These thought systems have been organized
as vary as schools of thought each school
of thought has one or more prominent thinkers
and it is these thinkers whose opinion forms
the basis of this entire school of thought.
So we will see we will examine how these different
schools of thought contributed to the growth
and to the evolution of something that is
cognitive psychology.
One of the first and the foremost schools
of thought in psychology was structuralism.
Structuralism was found at by Wilhelm Wundt
who is basically a psychologist in Germany
who also established the first psychology
lab in Leipzig, in Germany.
Wilhelm Wundt basically focussed on the nature
of consciousness.
He actually wanted to explain what consciousness
is, he actually wanted to explain the components
which form human experience.
Wilhelm Wundt believed that it was possible
to analyse the basic elements of the mind
and conscious experience.
If you talk to one, he might be able to tell
you that the feeling of happiness is composed
of X, Y and Z smaller components, or the experience
of actually being in a particular place in
a particular time can actually be boiled down
to these smaller components.
On the basis of this main stream of thought
want found this a school which is basically
known as structuralism.
Now structuralism basically aimed to identify
the basic elements or of the cognitive psychological
experience.
They wanted to create something similar to
periodic table which basically had all of
these elements of consciousness.
Structuralism used the method of introspection
to attempt this map.
They basically in a typical want a lab if
you are a participant there the psychologist
might just ask you to relax to sit down, and
to report as truthfully as detailed manner
as possible whatever your experiencing at
any point in time.
Or for example whatever you are experiencing
while you are engaged in a particular task.
Say for example you have given a flower to
a see, and you are actually experiencing this
flower you might want to a record that you
are actually seen a shape you are seeing a
particular colour, you are smelling a particular
order and you actually feeling texture when
you touching or holding that flower.
This is the detail, this is the componential
structure of experience that the structuralism
were actually emphasizing on.
Further structuralisms were actually using
things like reaction times as a measure to
systematically assist the workings of the
mind.
So what they would do is they would actually
try and log while your experiencing certain
steps and with that they will did use how
much time a particular step took and they
could actually try and did use then that what
are the basic components of any experience
and how much time it took everyone to go through
those sets of experiences.
Say for example if I actually play a sound
in your head phones say for example if I play
a sound here and if I ask you to identify
that sound one of the first that you will
be able to register is that there is a sound
being plate.
So the first thing that you will do is actually
deduction of the fact there is a sound.
This basically refers to what sensation is.
The second thing that you might go on to experience
is that you might be able to actually recognize
the sound or the song let us say which I am
playing.
This recognition of that song is basically
identification that is what perception is
when the knowledge is in the scope of your
awareness.
So and the structuralism basically found that
identification took longer than detection.
You might logically try and connect that first
you detect it takes a bit of less time, and
then you try and identify what the song is,
it takes a bit more after you have really
deducted at there is a sound at least.
So this is how the school of a psychologist
distinguish between sensation and perception.
There actually following are other scientific
method.
Edward B. Titchener one of the disciples of
Wilhelm Wundt basically claims to identify
more than 40000 sensations such us vision,
hearing, taste and so many others.
This method or this approach followed by the
structuralism were other regress and very,
very scientific.
They were actually trying to quantifying mental
events.
They were actually trying to quantify the
human experience.
But they had a bit of problem because the
main method they were actually using was that
of introspection.
Now you may take a pass and ask yourself what
is wrong with introspection.
And might now tell you that introspection
basically one of the things that is wrong
with introspection is that knowledge gain
through introspection is not verifiable.
Science is about verifying proving to the
others that something exist, in that sense
introspection was probably known the best
of the methods to follow that is one of the
short comings that this structuralism schools
of psychologist were having.
Let us move to the next school Functionalism.
Many of few would have heard that William
James is sometimes refers to as the father
of psychology.
William James basically belongs to this school
of thought which is turned as functionalism.
Now functionalism is characteristic in a way
that functionalist seeks to not only understand
what people do which the structuralism were
also trying to do.
But the functionalist would also concern with
why people do certain things.
Why do certain behaviours take place okay.
So they are interested in studying how the
mind works, yes but also why the mind works
as it does.
So the questions this structuralist and the
functionalist were asking was slightly different
and let us say a bit more advance then the
questions earlier asked.
The functionalist believed in using whatever
methods that would have answer a particular
researcher’s questions.
They are not really too much about the methods
but more about the kind of questions that
are being asked.
Now this movement or this stands of functionalism
gradually leads to what is known as pragmatism.
Now pragmatism is also one of the popular
approaches in psychology which basically is
concerned about the fact that knowledge is
valuable only for what it is usefulness.
You might know certain thing you might have
certain skills, but what are you using there
before.
That is basically what is the functionalist
wanted to say.
So pragmatist wanted to say.
The pragmatist therefore would be interested
in studying phenomena in a way that how this
phenomena will help you do attain certain
things.
Say for example if you ask pragmatist to study
language pragmatist would want to study language
to actually understand how language helps
you communicate your thoughts.
So they would really want to study language,
but only to the extent that it tells you or
that it helps you accomplish particular kinds
of behaviour.
Now from structuralism and functionalism gradually
they are developed another school of psychology
or another school of thought in psychology
that is associationism.
Another influential way of thinking in psychology
was associationism basically examines how
the elements of the mind like ideas, feelings,
etc., can become associated with one another.
One of the way say for example how thing is
get associated with each other is contiguity
or happening close in time, say for example
some of you might while you are going somewhere
there is a cat that crosses your path.
May be just after the cat cross your path
you meet within accident.
Now just because these two events happen close
in time together, you might want to or some
of us might want to really link these two
events.
So this is one of the way is people generally
link two events that happen close in time
together.
Another way could be by virtue of contra.
So there could be feelings or ideas that could
be exact opposite of each other.
Say for example, feeling very elated or feeling
very depressed or feeling happy or feeling
sad, or say for example things like experience
of hotness or experience of coldness.
So this is also one of the ways we actually
link two ideas or two experiences together.
Hermann Ebbinghaus was the earlier psychologist
who basically use these associationism more
systematically.
He studied his own mental processes and made
up a list of nonsense syllables that consisted
of a consonant of vowel and then a consonant.
He basically constructed list of words like
these zat, cax, nad, etc., which basically
he try to later memorize.
He was basically he was very careful, he took
careful note of how long it took him to memorize
each of these list, how many errors he would
make and he recorded the response times as
well.
Through these self observations Ebbinghaus
studied how people learn to remember material
through process like rehearsal which is basically
the conscious repetition of material something
which we mostly in commonly do.
Through his experience Ebbinghaus actually
finds out that it is the first few repetitions
of the first early form of rehearsal that
actually leads to most learning by later times
at rehearsal basically do not give us that
kind of output.
Edward L. Thorndike was another psychologist
who was basically working with these principles
of associationism.
He basically was interested in investigating
the rule of satisfaction; he says that he
basically gives out of principle called the
principle of law of effect which says that
a stimulus will tend to produce a certain
response over time if an organism is rewarded
for that response.
So an organism basically learns to respond
to a particular stimulus in a given situation
if it is rewarded to behave like.
Say for example, if there is a kid and you
want to teach the kid something or say for
example if there is a animal or a pet and
you want to teach that animal something, you
might want to teach that animal to stand up
on his two hanging legs.
Now you will have to reward the animal repeatedly
over time to actually make him learn that
kind of behaviour.
Now we will wrap up over here and we will
in the next class talk about other aspects
in the history of psychology that finally
let to the shaping of what cognitive psychology
is.
Thank you.
