The Cognitive Revolution Psychology 4006 Introduction Psychology at

The Cognitive Revolution Psychology 4006

Introduction • Psychology, at least academic psychology, had become basically behaviourism • Especially in North America • There were holdouts • The Gestaltists • Bartlett

Really, what was the alternative? • Freud did have impact in academic settings, but it is pretty hard to do research using a theory that is not falsifiable • So you had physiological types, some social psychologists, some people doing stuff with testing, psychophysics and behaviourism • But the behaviourists influenced everyone

Then they got greedy…. . • Were people studying memory? Yeah • The verbal learners • Really just Skinner with people • Then Skinner publishes a thing that says language is just operant conditioning • Really • Even creates a clever demonstration where he ‘teaches’ pigeons language

Before he was a third rate political commentator…. . . • Noam Chomsky • Linguist • ‘Father of cognitive science’ • The idea of universal grammar • Language is special • It’s not just operant conditioning

The Case of HM • Scoville and Milner • You know this one • No new long term memories • But could learn stuff, didn’t remember it • Suggest different systems

Memory systems • Endel Tulving at U of T • Episodic and semantic memory • Craik and Lockhart at U of T • Levels of processing • Al Paivio at UWO • imagery

Even where the behaviourists were the strongest…. Even the animal learners took note Sara Shettleworth at U of T Bill Roberts at UWO Al Kamil at Nebraska The importance of biology and neuroscience, not just behaviour • The largest organization of people who study animal psychology is the Comparative Cognition society, not the use of the word Cognition…. • • • Follow them on twitter, you might know the guy who runs the account. .

Today • Can you imagine psychology without cognition? • Can you imagine psychology without say cognitive neuroscience? • Can you imagine studying memory without using the word ‘memory’? • Can you imagine psychology without ‘internal mental events’ and representations? • Did you notice the Canadian content?