A recap of Kuhn

• Normal science is defined by a

paradigm.
• Normal science and research are
dedicated attempts to force nature into
the conceptual boxes provided by the
paradigm.

• Revolution! A new paradigm replaces

the old when it accounts for the
anomalies and previous findings of the
old paradigm, and proposes new
questions for the conduct of normal
 Revolutions in Psychology?
• Structuralism
o What are the elements--
basic structures--of
conscious experience?
o Introspection

2. Behaviorism
o How does the
environment shape
behavior?
o Experimentation (animals)
Revolutions in Psychology?
Emerging challenges to
Behaviorism:
Gestalt Psychology

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The whole is
greater than the
sum of its parts.

Humans have highly QuickTimeª and a

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organized cognitive
structures with which
they interpret the
world.
Emerging challenges to
Behaviorism
Neuropsychology
o Karl Lashley, Donald Hebb
o How are complex behaviors such as
musical performance or language
made possible by behaviorist
principles?
o The brain is an active, dynamic,
central organizer of behavior.
Behavior is not passively stimulated
by the environment. (Organismic vs
Emerging challenges to
Behaviorism
The Computer and Information Age!
Logico-Mathematical Precursors:
Boolean Algebra (eh?)
George Boole (1854)
Proposed that thought processes can be
represented within a system of logic, using
abstract symbols
Symbols as binary truth values (i.e.,
true/false)
Emerging challenges to
Behaviorism
Logico-Mathematical Precursors:
The Turing Machine
Alan Turing (1936)
Designed a hypothetical machine that uses
an infinite number of binary symbols (0/1
or blank/slash) to be able to execute ANY
program or function.
This is the precursor of the digital
computer!
The implication is that machines could be
programmed to do anything with a set of
rules expressed in symbols.

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One day ladies will take their

computers for walks in the park
and tell each other, ‘My little
computer said such a funny
thing this morning!’ ~ Alan
Turing (?)
 Such a machine could embody the notion
that thinking is a computational
process…
…and Voila! A new way of understanding
human intelligence is born!
What does this mean? This means that to the
extent that the world obeys mathematical
equations that can be solved step by step, a
machine can be built that simulates the world and
makes predictions about it. To the extent that
rational thought corresponds to rules of logic, a
machine can be built that carries out rational
thought. To the extent that a language can be
captured by a set of grammatical rules, a machine
can be built that produces grammatical sentences.
To that extent that thought consists of applying
any set of well-specified rules, a machine can be
Emerging challenges to
Behaviorism
Cybernetics (Control &
Communications Engineering)
Development of servomechanisms:
devices which kept planes and missiles
on course via planful, goal-oriented,
self-corrective (feedback) systems
These developments
reverberated in Psychology
and revived interest in the
study of the “mind”!
• Thinking can be “automated” and
carried out by machines.

• Information and information-processing

could be represented as abstractions or
symbols.

• Patterns of thinking could be described

as “programs” based on some symbolic
representation (i.e., software).
The Rise of the Cognitive
Metatheory
Birthday: 1955-1960
Psychology is the scientific study of mental,
representational constructs and processes
such as:

Thinking
Problem-solving
Images
Schemas
Concepts
Perceptions
Beliefs
Goals
The Cognitive Metatheory
• Assume that humans are active
information-processors, goal-oriented,
and responsive to feedback from the
environment.

• Concerned with studying how

information is represented and
processed to produce behavior.
Key Features of Cognitive
Science
1. Mental representations as a core
assumption
o Human cognitive activity is
described and explained in terms of
symbols, rules, images,
propositions, and the like
Key Features of Cognitive
Science
1. The computer as a model of
human mental processes
o The computer as “existence proof”:
if a machine can be said to be
“intelligent” when manipulating
symbols in rule-based ways, then so
can humans be descibed
o Computational theory of the mind:
symbols can carry meaning and
cause some chain of events to
Key Features of Cognitive
Science
1. De-emphasis on affect, culture,
and history
o But changing: call for an ecologically
valid cognitive psychology which
considers theories and models about
the tasks, issues, and problems that
humans encounter in everyday life