The tale of Simonides the poet, as told by Cicero -- said to have invented the 'method of loci', which instructs you to connect the things you want to memorize with specific locations.
Middle Ages -- the Abbey Memory System, a medieval version of the same approach. See visual of abbey locations.
Comte's Paradox
French philosopher Auguste Comte, argued that one cannot observe the workings of one's own mind, because a single mind cannot be divided into two parts. "The observing and observed organ being identical, how could observation take place?"
Trained Introspection
Attempted to teach people to observe their conscious actions. Advocated by Wilhelm Wundt, and later his student E.B. Titchener. Simply ignored the notion of paradox by positing that the "observing organ" could indeed be divided. Modern neuroscience seems to validate this notion of divisibility, because self-reflection and memory retrieval are located in different systems of the brain.
Retrospective Introspection
Franz Brentano argued that concurrent observation can't occur -- intense emotions overwhelm, and introspecting can be misleading because observing inner processes may change them. Retrospective introspection is observing a mental process by recalling the events stored in memory that arose from that process.
| Trained Introspection | Retrospective Introspection | |
| Definition | Observe mind while the process is occurring | Go back and think about the process |
| Comte? | Disputes tenets; says mind can divide | Makes irrelevant; uses memory rather than simultenaeity |
Flaws in Introspectionism
- People tried to use it to understand the structure and function of the mind
- Believed to produce a "picture of the mind"
- called infallible, Brentano asserts "does not admit of doubt"
- Does not address processes that do not produce mental images or sensations
Oswald Kulpe
- Student of Wundt
- focused on introspective methods
- tried to resolve higher-order mental processes
- kept running into "imageless thoughts"
- ended up categorizing the misfit data instead of questioning the underlying method
Enter Behaviorism
- Defined by John B Watson
- did animal experiments and taught introspectionism
- Came to believe that psychology should focus more on behavior than with the mind
- disdain for notion of consciousness
- emphasis on what could be observed, proved, measured, etc.
- popularity grows through 1920s, becomes dominant
- shift toward metacognitive begins in 1960s
- produced a wealth of data and theory about how humans/animals behave
Resurgence of Cognitive Approaches
Why shift away from behaviorism?
- did not fully explain animal behavior
- more than "stimulus - response" was observed.
- Example: monkeys "expecting" a banana may reject something they want (lettuce).
- Expectation is an unobservable phenomenon, which behaviorism did not accept.
- E C Tolman explained that behavior is influenced by motivational factors - drive, incentive
- B.F. Skinner VS Noam Chomsky
- Skinner had simple behaviorist model for many significant human behaviors. Then he touched language and Chomsky pounced! Mine, cried Chomsky! All mine!!
- Skinner argued that language was a collection of stimulus/response reflexes
- Chomsky's counter:
- reading and understanding an unfamiliar sentence is more than associating/reflex responses to single words
- psycholinguists begin to postulate mental rules and syntax as the basis for language acquisition, generation, comprehension
- emerging theories about mental processes
- not enough to have 'unanswered questions' -- must have an alternative means to explore those questions
- computer science -- the computer as a model for the mind.
- Rules for symbol manipulation
- control and supervision
- provides cognitive psychologists with a language for discussing the mind language an interesting key here; need a model and a language for something if we are going to talk about it
- computer science -- the computer as a model for the mind.
three Alternatives to Behaviorism
The TOTE Loop
Test
Operate
Test
Exit
Miller, Galanter, and Pribram -- describe mind in terms of relationships and plans. Imagine future, make plans, use of working memory. (AKA "Miller et al.")
"A feedback loop in which the outcome of a test informs: whether the state being tested for is present ('congruity') -- if so, exit
while (congruity() != true) {
doStuff()
}
congruity() {
// assess whether desired state is achieved
}
doStuff () {
// whatever activity we think will lead to congruity. Use memory, reasoning, etc.
}
Human Memory
Atkinson and Shiffrin -- human memory is composed of a series of stores.
- sensory store
- short-term store (limited capacity)
- once in short-term store, can be operated on by control processes
- can rehearse it, elaborate on it
- presumably long-term store comes next but chapter does not go past sensory -> short term
Problem Solving
- Newell and Simon -- "a collection of information processes that combine a series of means to attain an end"
- means include:
- choosing a goal
- select a method to generate a solution
- evaluate the results of that method
- recursive in nature -- may choose a new method, or even a new goal
Return of Introspection/Rise of Metacognitive School
Lieberman in 1979 argues "for a limited return to introspection in the analysis of human thought and action." Introspection has limits but has value; some examples that this is true -- those who report rehearsing something remember it better, those who use the loci technique do better than those who don't rehearse.
Nisbett and Wilson in 1977 argue that introspections are invalid; in those occasions where people do report their processes accurately, it's due to educated guesses/inferences. Example: people tend to choose an object on their right.
Ericsson and Simon in 1980 try to reconcile: a theory of introspective reports that explains when they will be valid, and when they will not. They refer back to Atkinson & Shiffrin's 'stages' model of memory. If the information is in the short-term store, introspective will be valid (ex: asked to keep track of it as you go). If not currently in short-term store, may be valid, or may not have access to the information (ex: not asked to track, may have forgotten later). If the info never resided in short-term memory, then largely invalid (ex: what part of your cortex lights up when I....). Might make a correct guess.
Conclusion: people's introspective reports can be valid under well-specified conditions.
Jose T Hart - TOT phenomenon. Studied by testing people on trivia, then on whether they say they'd know the answer if they saw it. He calls this the 'Recall-Judge-Recognition' model (RJR).
- Step 1 - Recall. Try to pull answer from memory
- Step 2 - Judge. Can you recognize the correct answer?
- Step 3 - Recognize. Do you see the answer listed here?
The Metacognitive School
John Flavell -- coined the term 'metamemory'. Many metacognitive analyses. Example: ask children to study until they say they're ready to be tested -- they may say they're ready, when they're not. Significant paper defining metacognition in 1979.
Ellen Markman did a similar experiment with elementary school children and incomplete instructions
Ann Brown: "distinction between knowledge and the understanding of that knowledge is a valid and important distinction with great heuristic power"
Flavell further subdivides metacognitive knowledge
| about how oneself processes information | about a specific category of task "Math is hard" | what strategies are effective |
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