Psychology - milestones
• Psychology was viewed as a part of philosophy
in the early days
• Psychology becomes a science in its own right
– 1879: Wundt established a laboratory for
psychological research at Leipzig University
• Introduced scientific methods into psychological research
– Experiments: measuring perceptual processes (vision, hearing
– Introspection (self observation)
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Psychology – Wundt’s laboratory
It all
started in
Leipzig
in 1879
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Psychology - milestones
• 1880s
– Laboratories in the USA (eg. William James,
Harvard University)
• How does consciousness work so that humans can adapt to
their environment? (ie. how do we learns?)
This basic question developed later into behaviourism
• What mental processes are there?
– Ebbinghaus and memory experiments (1885)
• Forgetfulness curve
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Ebbinghaus’ curve
NB. This applies to
learning lists of
nonsense syllables
We forget
quickly in the
beginning
Slower
later on
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Psychology - milestones
• Three main schools within psychology
become established in the 20th century:
– Behaviourism
– Gestalt-theory
– Psychoanalysis
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Behaviourism
• Behaviourism (Watson, Skinner, Pavlov)
– Basic notions:
• Our consciousness is private, not open to analysis
• What we can observe is behaviour
animals / humnas (facts)
• Stimuli (S) produce responses (R) (behaviour)
S→R
– Our behaviour is formed by stimuli around us
– Positive reinforcement encourages us to continue with the same
behaviour; negative reinforcement means we avoid certain
behaviours
• Reinforcement leads to conditioned reflexes
(a type of behaviour)
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Psychology - milestones
• 1910-50 Behaviourism is the main field of psychology
for the next 40 years
– Pavlov (Russia): experimented with dogs’ digestive systems
• a certain behavior can be achieved in animals
– Skinner (USA): best known for explaining how animals
learn (adapt their behaviour to stimuli)
• eg. rats in a maze
– Humans can be formed
• how do people behave in a group?
• what leads to improved performance?
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Behaviourism - Pavlov
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Behaviourism - Skinner
The mouse
has learned
an optimal
path through
the maze
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Behaviourism - Skinner
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Behaviourism
The pidgeons
have learned
to peck when
they see
something
orange
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Behaviourism - Skinner
Less talented
mice are paired
with each other
from generation
to generation –
they become
even less
talented
Average
number of
errors
Smart
mice get
smarter
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generations
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Behaviourism in 1960
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Psychology – the first women
– In 1905 Mary Whiton Calkins was the first female
president, American Psychological Association
Harvard University (James) refuses to let her do a Ph.D.
because she is female
– Margaret Washburn is also refused a doctorate at
Columbia University for the same reason.
She moved to Cornell University and in 1921 became
the first female doctor in psychology
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Mary Whiton Calkins
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Watson, Crick, Wilkins, Franklin 62
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Gestalt theory
• 1912 Gestalt theory in Germany
– Gestalt = form, shape, configuration
– Basic notions:
• To understand out environment we must be able to see
whole figures in it and the relationships among them
eg. To distinguish objects from each other and from
the background
• Our perceptual processes are based on patterns that
– partly come from stimuli (in the environment
– are partly organized on the basis of previous experience
• There are basic principles behind the organization of
perceptual stimuli
– Aim: to determine these principles
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Gestalt figures
We
experience
a whole
figure
We experience more
than we see
Continuity principle
Two crossing
lines – not two
V-shaped figures
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Gestalt figures – how we
organize reality
columns or
rows?
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columns
according to the
proximity
principle
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Gestalt figures – how we
organize reality
O O O O O
X X X X X
S S S S S
T T T T T
Rows according
to the similarity
principle
Gestalt-teori
Gestalt-teori
Gestalt-teori
Gestalt-teori
Gestalt-teori
Gestalt-teori
Behaviorism
Behaviorism
Behaviorism
Behaviorism
Behaviorism
Behaviorism
Psykoanalys
Psykoanalys
Psykoanalys
Psykoanalys
Psykoanalys
Psykoanalys
Columns (or rows?)
according to the
similarity principle
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Gestalt figures
STOP
WAR
STOP
WAR
PEACE
NOW
PEACE
NOW
Colour and shading
also contribute to how
we see ’wholes’
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Gestalt theory
What is object,
what is
bakground?
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Psychology - milstones
• 1910-talet - Psychoanalysis (Freud)
• Basic idea: the conscious is just a part of our mental
processes
– ’Neuroses’ are caused be memories of previous events that
have been suppressed, but which are still in our
subconscious.
– Forbidden desires from our childhood remain in our
subconscious
– These force their way forward and lead to abnormal
behaviour
Solution: Confront the patient with these memories
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Freud and daughter
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Psychology - milstones
• The cognitive revolution 1940-1960
– Information theory (machines)
• input-reaction-feedback loop
– Linguistics
• Language can not be described in behaviouristic terms
• Requires complex psychological mechanisms
– Computer science/ computer hardware
• Computers and software become avaialabe for non-experts
• A computer system accepts input, processes data, has a memory, can
react in different ways in different contexts
– Neurology
• Major progress made on the structure and functioning of the brain
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Psychology - milstones
• 1930s–1940s Information theory develops
(Shannon, USA)
– What is information?
– Communication of information via electromechanical
relays
– Definition: One bit of information halves the
uncertainty of possible outcomes
– Information is described on an abstract level (the model
is independent of any mechanism – human or machine)
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Shannon (1942) on information
X
njnjnn - 6 bits of information are required to lokalize the cross
(6 bits in another notation 010100)
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Information theory
• Psychologists compare humans and machines as
information processors
– Both accepts signals from the environment and react
accordingly (eg. a thermostat)
– Both have limited capacity (eg. telephone cables or the
ability to listen to several conversations
simultaneously)
– The human as ’information processor with limited
capacity’
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Psychology - milstones
• Linguistics
– Previously it was thought that a child learned a
language by imitating its mother
– This cannot explain how a child can produce its
own words and structures
– This cannot explain how we can be
linguistically creative
– The need for more than behaviourism grows
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Psychology - milstones
• Computer science
– Computers become available to non-experts
– Computers are like people
• A computer has a permanent memory
• A computer has a working memory (RAM) =
human short-term memory
• A computer has a CPU (the human has a central
processor - a mind)
• A computer receives data and processes it - a human
tar receives stimuli and precesses them
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Computer science
• Turing (1950) proves that all types of
calculations can be performed by a machine
with simple properties
• Computers perform symbol manipulation
– eg. a program that calculates wages
• Computers (programs) break down complex
behaviours to a sequence of yes/no
decisions
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Computer science
• Manipulating symbols
– What is 4 + 5?
– The answer is automatic - now
• Tables:
1+1=2
1+2=3
…
4+5=9
(compare programs for noughts and crosses)
• Given: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Look up 4. Move 5 steps to the right (the way children learn)
• Human behaviour can be imitated in a computer
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Computer science
– Human behaviour can be simulated in a computer
program
– To do this we need to know more about how humans
function
• Cognitive psychology needs both disciplines
– In 1956 Herb Simon says to his students: ” during the
Christmas break Allen Newell and I created a thinking
machine”
• It could do mathematical proofs, a field that had belonged only
to humans before
– Thinking machines have arrived
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Psychology - milstones
• World War Two shows the need for more
knowledge of (what will become) cognitive
psychology
–
–
–
–
Understanding night vision (visual perception)
Understanding coded messages (problem solving)
Designing alert signals (auditive perception)
Capacity limitations of pilots
• pilots only used a fraction of available information for
most taks
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Surplus of information
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Neurology
– New machines that can measure activity in the
brain
– Many brain injuries during the war (1939-45)
• Localizing functions in the brain, eg.
– Speech
» Aphasia (reduced language ability)
– Agnosia (reduced ability to recognize)
– Vision and hearing functions
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Neurology
Phineas Gage
injured in 1848
Caused
personality
changes
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Psychology - milstones
• 1940s-1950s Behavioral Science Research in
USA (Miller) and Human Factors Research in
Britain (Broadbent)
– Capacity limitations in out ability to process information
– What information do we attend to? (selective attention)
– We look for and react to feedback from the environment
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Psychology - milstones
• From 1950-1960 growing interest for models used
in computer science
– Flowcharts
– Working memory (short-term memory)
– Information processing – not just calculations
• Pattern recognition
• Planning
• Problem solving
– Testing hypotheses objectively (models of informations
processing)
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Broadbent’s flowchart (1958)
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The cognitive revolution
Linguistics
Computer
science
Cognitive
psychology
Artificial
intelligence
Neuroscience
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Examples of different fields in
psychology today
– Social psychology: how groups function
– Development psychology : from birth to adulthood
– Clinical psychology : patients with various problems, crisis
management
– Environmental psychology : we and out environment
– Work psychology : work, workplace, organization
– Parapsychology : the ’supernatural’
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Cognition
• The term cognition refers to the processes
by which we acquire knowledge:
– How do we receive information from the
environment
– How does the brain process and store
information
– How do we reason and solve problems
– How can we understand and use language
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Cognitive psychology
• Lat. gnoscere = to know
cognoscere = to get to know
• Definition:
Cognitive psychology is that part of pschology
that deals with information processes, ie. our way
of
– acquiring, processing, storing and using information
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Cognitive psychology and
interaction
• Better knowledge of cognition can help us to
produce better interfaces:
– What can we expect from users?
– How can we make the users’ taska as simple as
possible?
– Identify and explain problems the user has or will have
– Provide methods for creating interfaces that improve
the users’ capacity
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Cognitive psychology neural level and
cognitive level
• Mind-body-discussion (dualism)
– We live in two worlds at the same time
• A physical world, with physical laws: gravitation,
weather systems
• a mental world, with creative thinking, ideas, feelings,
memories
Psychological
world – The brain has physical characteristics such as
weight, location, blood circulation
– Our mind (mental world) is dependent on
processes take place in the brain
Physical
world
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Cognitive psychology
• Four main areas:
– perception processes (acquiring information via stimuli
from the environment: vision, hearing, touch, taste, smell)
– memory processes (learning = putting something in
memory, recalling facts = fetching from memory)
– thought processes(reasoning, analyzing, problem-solving)
– language processes (communication wih others)
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Neural level
Viewing brain
structure
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red - high activity,
blue - low activity
Eyes and ears
open
eyes closed,
ears open
CAT scans
eyes open,
ears
closed
Eyes
closed,
ears
closed
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Brain activity is distributed
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Male/female brain activity
Man (left)
and
woman
reading
same text
Red = high
intensity
Yellow = less
intense
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Open brain surgery - 1950s
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Affordance
• Affordance:
The features of an object that tell us what the
object is used for
Examples:
A chair is for sitting on
A table is for putting things on at a height where
we can sit and do something with these things
A door is for going through
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Affordance
Push or
pull?
What
does the
dorr ’tell’
us?
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Affordance
Push or
pull?
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Affordance
Push or
pull?
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Affordance
Which door is
which?
Does this door
opener work at
all?
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Att presentera information
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Visibility
• Make an object’s function clear
–
–
–
–
buttons on a telephone
keys on a keyboard
light switches in a room
handles on a door
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Mapping
• The relationship between two things where
by manipulating one, you simulate
manipulating the other
Example:
between system controls and system
behaviour
– in an elevator
– on a keyboard
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Affordance
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Affordance
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Affordance
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Mental models
• A mental model is a mapping in the mind
showing objects and relationships between
the objects in reality
• We can then manipulate the model
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Perception - hearing
concentration of
air molecules:
lower / higher
amplitude
long
wavelength =
low frequency
amplitude
short
wavelength =
high frequency
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Ear
air molecules
stimulate...
...stimulate
hearing
perception cells
in the cochlea
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Hair cells in the cochlea
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Normal in a
guinea pig
After 120 dB
for 24 hours
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Hearing – sound levels
Source
Sound level (dB)
Pain (rocket)
140
Rock concert
100 -120
Heavy traffic
100
Conversation
60
Quiet office
40
Whispering
20
Threshold
0
An increase of 20
dB corresponds to
an increase of 10
times the intensity.
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Hearing
• Sound and HSI
– informer about wrong input
– informer about illegal move
– informer about functionality
– possible to switch off sound?
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Perception – taste and smell
• Smell - perception of air-borne
chemicals
• Receptors in nose
• We can distinguish a smell from as
little as 50 molecules/l3 air
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Taste and smell
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Taste and smell
• vision – sensors are rods and cones (b/w, colour)
• Smell – about 1,000 different receptors, length of life 2
months
– Similar chemical compounds smell the same
– We can discriminate 10,000 different smells
– The smell receptors are closely connected to a the part of the
brain (amygdala) that affects our feelings and emotions
– Humans have 9m smell receptors, a dog has 225m.
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Perception – taste and smell
10,000
taste buds
on the
tongue
and roof
of the
mouth
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Perception – taste and smell
taste
distribution
on the tongue
no taste
bitter
sour
salt
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swe
t
Perception – taste and smell
• Taste and smell stimuli combine in the forehead in one
system (food tastes less when you have a cold)
• Sour is built-in at birth – other tastes and smells are
learned
• Heat can release taste substances (warm pizza has more
taste than cold)
• Strongly spiced food and strong heat stimulate pain
fibers in the mouth in the same way
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Perception - touch
• Sight - eyes; hearing - ears; taste/smell –
mouth and nose
• Touch - distributed over the whole body
– Touch provides much redundant information; it
is the change in the information which is
important
– A touch neuron quickly gets used to stimuli and
then only reacts to changes
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Perception - touch
Ttouch: 2 components
– location: where on the body
– intensity: higher intensity → more neurons react
• Use
– continuous information on our immediate environment
– temperature, texture, pain, pleasure
– eg. massage
• helps against astma, pain
• reduces stress, anxiety
• increases blood circulation - and performance
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Subliminal perception
• 1958. Report (in newspaper) on sales of
coke (16% increase) and popcorn (58% increase) at a
cinema using subliminal perception
• Intrest from industry
• No similar results have ever been obtained since
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Subliminal perception
• In familiar situations kan we often rely on unconscious
perception.
• Lazarus & McCleary, 1951.
– Five subjects were given electric shocks when learning
nonsense syllables. Five others were not given shocks.
– When the subjects ’saw’the syllables unconsciously (they
were presented too fast), they had electro-dermal reactions.
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Subliminal perception
• Greenwald, Draine, Abrams, 1996
– Part 1: Subjects were to decide if a name (presented
visually) was a male name or not as quickly as possible Del
Part 2: A namewas presented subliminally just before the
subjects say a name
– Result: subjects answered more quickly if it was a male
name presented subliminally before seeing a male name
This effect disappeared if the name was presented
subliminally more than 100 ms before the name presented
visually.
• Öhman & Soares, 1994
– Presented pictures of snakes and spiders subliminally
– Electro.dermal reactiones appearedin subjects who were
afraid of such creatures
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Unconscious perception
• Klinger &Greenwald 1995:
– Part 1: One word was presented to each eye
simultaneously
Subjects decided as quickly as possible if the words
were related in some way, eg.
– eagle-falcon
eagle-polka
– Part 2: Same as above, but another word was presented
f just before for 50ms.
– Result: when this first word was related to a related
pair of words (hawk, eagle-falcon) the subjects could
answer more quickly
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Subliminal perception
Experiment: Krosnick,
Jussim, Lynn, 1992
One group of
subjects ’saw’
this picture
Another group of
subjects’saw’ this
picture
Both groups really saw
this picture and were asked
whether the boy wasnice
or naughty
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Subliminal perception
Tröskeln bestäms av
kontrollgrupper – ej
absolut mått
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??Subliminal perception??
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??Subliminal perception??
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Degrees of perception
Subliminal
perception
Unconscious
perception
Aimed perception =
conscious attention
less
more
Stimulus us
oresent, but
not,
observable
We experience
that someone has
stopped drilling or
hammering
Read a book,
smell a flower,
participate in
conversation
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