Lecture 1 What is cognition? · "The mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses" · "Cognitive processes use existing knowledge and generate new knowledge · Cognition: study of the mind and mental function. Looking at the process that support performed task s and how those processes are supported by the brain. Research for a number of reasons: answer questions about how we live. What is Consciousness? Where is it in the brain? Etc. Answer for curiosity, but also for scientific breakthrough and entertainment value. The way your brain works and is affected by gut bacteria. Changing in such bacteria can be linked in improving in thinking abilities. Interfacing the brain with a computer. Why research cognition: To learn why we think the way we do and why we do the thing we do? Help understand ourselves (perception, understanding, etc.). To learn why we think ... To be critical of research findings and cognition research more particularly. To make discoveries about conditions that affect cognitive processes: aging, mood illness, brain injury. To discover about cognitive conditions: The case of Clive Wearing. Less than 30s memory, can go up to 7s. Lessons from Clive Wearing: Cognitive activities can dissociate: episodic memory impaired, but other functions are spares. Cognition is a set of mental activities (abilities/processes): perception, attention, memory, language, decision making. Cognition doesn't occur in isolation (example of a lecture). HISTORY OF COGNITION
a In the research world, cognition is @ Studying the act of thinking (the mind) and how it affects our behaviors a Cognition as a research discipline has a history & From early philosophy to experimental psychology to the birth of cognition psychology in 1950/60 1. Philosophy: thinking about mental processes Goes back to ancient Greece - Plato: idea of the psyche: We use logic to understand the world & The world is a 'reflection of our reality'. « Rationalism & Knowledge comes from observation but is alsoa priori « There is an innate nature of our minds. - Aristotle: combination of philosophical and scientific approaches to thinking. @Empiricism @All knowledge comes from experience and observation. « The basis of thought is forming associations based on observations & The mind is nothing before forming associations Foundation of many psychological theories aKey debates between these philosophers are still around a Rationalism vs. empiricism a Innate vs. acquired abilities a Nature versus nurture aInfluence in Cognitive Psychology a Rationalism: Logical analysis (important for theory dev in cognition- suggest we have to think about the reasons why are mind are set up in certain ways) a Empiricism: Observation (influence on methods- ideas of observation and measurements). Link between studying cognition and philosophy. Studying Philosophy: asking questions about how and why we think Studying Cognition: gathering evidence to support the answers Philosophy from both Western and Eastern Countries are linked to Cognition Indian Buddhism : rejects the notion of a permanent self and suggests to study cognitive events that lead to experience
2. Structuralism and