Summary: Cognitive Psychology 3

Read the summary and the most important questions on Cognitive Psychology 3

• Animal Cognition

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• What is the purpose of studying non-human animal learning and cognition?

  It can inform us about the nature of intelligence in humans.

• What did Romanes (1881) propose?

  Romanes concluded that animals were rational, empathetic, reasoning creatures with many sides to their intellectual abilities. 
  
  His view of evolution was not as complex as Darwin's. Romanes saw a simple progression in the intellectual capabilities of animals by what he supposed to be their position on an evolutionary scale.  
  
  Linear progression: Insects - Birds - Apes - Humans 

• Who was Lloyd Morgan (1890s)?

  = he disagreed with Romanes’ view - thought it was too simplistic 
  
  He argued that because mind evolved from a lower to a higher mental state, the existence of the latter means that all others below it in the evolutionary scale also exist. To understand the minds of animals, therefore, it is necessary to proceed from the lowest and simplest to the highest and most complex forms, rather than assuming human mental processes for all animals. 

• Who was John Watson?

  He supported:
  - importance of learning
  - behaviourism -  he supported a science of behaviourism, in which only observable phenomena, such as behaviour, could be studied.  
  - use of animals
  
  Watson’s behaviourism movement became the basis on which cognition in animals and humans is studied to this day.

• What did Colwill and Rescorla find?

  Devaluing a reinforcer in the absence of the behaviour still had an effect on the intsrumental behaviour. This was a result not predicted by pure stimulus-response theory. i.e. Skinner's view
  
  That animals had some understanding of why they were carrying out a particular behaviour 

• Lecture 2

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• What is Pavlovian (classical) Conditioning?

  A neutral stimulus (e.g. a bell) initially has no effect on the animal.  When an unconditioned stimulus (US) (e.g. food) is presented, the animal makes an appropriate unconditioned response (UR) (e.g. salivation). During conditioning the bell (a conditioned stimulus, CS) is repeatedly paired with the US, leading to the UR. After a number of CS-US pairings the presentation of the CS alone is enough to produce salivation, which is now called a conditioned response (CR) because it is produced in response to the CS, not the US. 
  
  Classic Pavlovian Conditioning example = dogs and meat powder. 

• What is meant by Asymptote in Pavlovian Conditioning?

  The maximum number of the conditioned response e.g. drops of saliva 

• What is meant by the Spontaneous Recovery?

  After 24 hours of when extinction occurred, the re-presentation of the CS alone produces a CR
  
  (= this shows that when Extinction occurs, the relationship between the CS and the US is not simply forgotten otherwise the spontaneous Recovery would not occur)

• What did Pavlov show regarding the conditioned response and the properties of the conditioned stimulus?

  He showed that the conditioned response was sensitive to the properties of the conditioned stimulus. e.g. if a tone of 1200 Hz was used as the conditioned stimulus then conditioned responding was maximal when a 1200 Hz tone was presented. 

• How does Pavlov's study link to human studies?

  Acquisition, Extinction, Spontaneous Recovery and Generalisation decrement have all been shown in human studies e.g.  the sexual fetishism study by Rachman and the  cravings for food, cigarettes and drugs when they are associated with other cues.