Research Methods in Cognitive Psychology
Research Methods in Cognitive Psychology :
Cognitive psychology is the study of how people perceive, learn, remember, and think about information. A cognitive psychologist may study how people perceive various shapes, why they remember some facts but forget others, or how they learn language.
Cognitive Psychologists use various methods to explore how human think. These methods include:
1. Experiments on Human Behaviour: In controlled experimental designs, an experimenter conducts research, typically in a laboratory setting. The experimenter controls as many aspects o the experimental situation as possible. In implementing experimental method, the experimenter must use a representative and random sample of the population of interest. If those requisite of experimental method are fulfilled, the experimenter may be able to infer probable causality.
2. Psychobiological Research: Through psychobiological research, investigators study the relationship between cognitive performance and cerebral events and situations. The various specific techniques used in the psychobiological research generally fall into three categories. (i) The first category is that of techniques for studying an individual's brain post-mortem, relating the individual's cognitive function prior to death to observable features of the brain. (ii) The second category is techniques for studying images showing structures of or activities in the brain of an individual who is known to have a particular cognitive deficit. (iii) The third is techniques for obtaining information about cerebral processes during the normal performance of a cognitive activity ( by using brain imaging techniques).
3. Self-Report, Case Studies, and Naturalistic Observation: Individual experiments and psychobiological studies often focus on precise specification of discrete aspects of cognition across individuals. To obtain richly textured information about how particular individuals think in a broad range of contexts, researchers may use self-reports (an individual's own account of cognitive processes), case studies (in-depth studies of individuals), and naturalistic observation (detailed studies of cognitive performance in everyday situations and no laboratory contexts). These methods are also useful to generate descriptions of rare events or processes that we have no other way to measure.
4. Computer Simulations and Artificial Intelligence: Digital computers played a fundamental role in the emergence of the study of cognitive psychology. One kind of influence is indirect though models of human cognition based on models o how computers process information. Another kind is direct, that is through computer simulations and artificial intelligence. In computer simulations, researchers program computers to imitate a given human function or process. Some researchers even have attempted to create computer models of the entire cognitive architecture of the human mind. Their models have stimulated heated discussions regarding how the human mind may function as a whole.
Cognitive psychology is the study of how people perceive, learn, remember, and think about information. A cognitive psychologist may study how people perceive various shapes, why they remember some facts but forget others, or how they learn language.
Cognitive Psychologists use various methods to explore how human think. These methods include:
1. Experiments on Human Behaviour: In controlled experimental designs, an experimenter conducts research, typically in a laboratory setting. The experimenter controls as many aspects o the experimental situation as possible. In implementing experimental method, the experimenter must use a representative and random sample of the population of interest. If those requisite of experimental method are fulfilled, the experimenter may be able to infer probable causality.
2. Psychobiological Research: Through psychobiological research, investigators study the relationship between cognitive performance and cerebral events and situations. The various specific techniques used in the psychobiological research generally fall into three categories. (i) The first category is that of techniques for studying an individual's brain post-mortem, relating the individual's cognitive function prior to death to observable features of the brain. (ii) The second category is techniques for studying images showing structures of or activities in the brain of an individual who is known to have a particular cognitive deficit. (iii) The third is techniques for obtaining information about cerebral processes during the normal performance of a cognitive activity ( by using brain imaging techniques).
3. Self-Report, Case Studies, and Naturalistic Observation: Individual experiments and psychobiological studies often focus on precise specification of discrete aspects of cognition across individuals. To obtain richly textured information about how particular individuals think in a broad range of contexts, researchers may use self-reports (an individual's own account of cognitive processes), case studies (in-depth studies of individuals), and naturalistic observation (detailed studies of cognitive performance in everyday situations and no laboratory contexts). These methods are also useful to generate descriptions of rare events or processes that we have no other way to measure.
4. Computer Simulations and Artificial Intelligence: Digital computers played a fundamental role in the emergence of the study of cognitive psychology. One kind of influence is indirect though models of human cognition based on models o how computers process information. Another kind is direct, that is through computer simulations and artificial intelligence. In computer simulations, researchers program computers to imitate a given human function or process. Some researchers even have attempted to create computer models of the entire cognitive architecture of the human mind. Their models have stimulated heated discussions regarding how the human mind may function as a whole.
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