5 - Rise of Psychology and Behaviourism Flashcards
What is eugenics? Where and why did it start?
Came from Darwin’s evolutionary theory (tbf not very accurate), started in America.
= The social philosophy claiming that the fate of a nation can be improved by selective breeding (damn)
Positive vs. negative eugenics?
Positive = ppl with desirable features encouraged to have more children
(Galton)
Negative = prevent ppl with undesirable features to have more children
What is functionalism and why did it appeal to America?
= Focus on the examination of practical functions of the mind (i.e., mental states are what they do, not what they are made of)
Eugenics, importance of environment and a mistrust of intellectualism (knowledge for the sake of knowledge) lead to the rise of functionalism
Wundt’s research ran into a problem, which actually posed an opportunity for Americans, which was?
The large individual differences (which was a nuisance to Wundt, but was made to be proof for inherited variability for Americans)
“The steadfast rise of psychology in America” is a much discussed topic in psychological history, why is this not really true?
Not necessarily seen as a proper/useful science, established labs were often not expansive nor received finances, its break from philosophy was not really appreciated
aka it was not nearly what is was now, and would not be for a long time
What is phrenology? Attributed to?
person.
Joseph Gall (and Spurzheim)
= mental functions are localized in the brain (and capacity constitutes physical size).
What did phrenology give rise to?
Personality assessment (specifically through looking at the bumps on the head). + personality can be derived from personality
good fuckin job Gall
Why did the public not associate psychology with science?
In 1900s
Rise of phrenology (and use of it), mesmerism (hypno shit) and spiritualism (mediums)
What saw a rise in the second half of the 1900s and was a building block for later behaviourism?
Based on Darwin’s evolution
Animal research, done so by attribution of human-motives and intelligence to other creatures (anthropomorphic interpretation)
What changes did Thorndike make for animal research?
Reliance on careful observation in a controlled environment + conclusions based on animals’ behaviour
What did Thorndike’s puzzle box uncover
aka discovery lol
Law of effect: behaviours followed by positive consequences are strengthened and more likely to be repeated (and vice versa for negative cons.)
basically a learning effect that decreases time on consecutive trials
Instrumental conditioning?
also as a result of Thorndike’s puzzle box/experiments
Learning on the basis of the law of effect (aka association btwn situation and action/consequence?)
Called operant conditioning by Skinner
Comparative psychology?
study of behaviour of animals, with intention to shed light on human functions
within framework of evolutionary theory
What is another type of animal learning that contributed the rise of behaviourism?
Pavlov’s classical conditioning (coupling of unconditioned stimulus and unconditioned response with a neutral stimulus > make both conditioned on the neutral)
What is behaviourism and who catepulted it into importance?
Watson
= observable behaviours are the most important aspect of human functioning. Denies the importance of information processing in the mind
first half of 20th century in America + a hatred for introspection
How did behaviourism change the main method in psychology?
in the early 20th century
Introspection replaced (generally) with observation of others’ behaviour (as such, also not themselves as participant- I think?)
Watson’s “manifesto” is often seen as the instigator of behaviourism:
What were his biggest critiques against prior psychology?
The use of introspection; a focus on consciousness, structuralism and functionalism were bs (he saw this as the same bc of their focus on consciousness)
bit of an extremist huh, also became even less nuanced later in life
Three parts of which the message crafted from Comte’s positivism could be summarized as used by the scientific movement?
This is not Comte’s def. of positivism, of note.
- Science is based on observation/exp., so findings are always true
- Scientific theories are summaries of findings, by necessity, also true
- Scientific knowledge is infallible, it should motor all progress
What was distilled from philosophy of writing to advance psychological/behavioural science?
Three ways, specifically about the formulation
- Representation of elements as mathematical laws and numbers had to represent the essence of the variable (operational definitions aka kg or ms)
- Distinction of independent and dependent variables (S-R associations)
- Verification (proposition needed to be empirically verified)
What was a limit of precise predictions (especially those math. formulated)?
Limited to the controlled situation in which the (animal) functioned aka non-generalizable outside of the lab
Skinner’s radical behaviourism?
Extreme behaviourism; no place for information processing in the mind & all human behaviour is based on and can be understood through S-R associations
What was Skinner’s view on voluntary behaviour?
Basically that it was non-existent. Humans respond to events in the environment (without initiative- somehow?). No free will
Tolman did not agree with Skinner’s interpretation of operant cond:
Why was this the case/how did he test this?
just the general idea of the test.
Operant was not simply S-R associations (reinforcement based learning), but something he called “latent learning” (acquirement of knowledge, to be used when a goal requires it - purposive behaviourism)
> Through his maze experiments with rats and not presenting food until days later (rude btw)
note: Actually these were Blodgett’s experiments, I just made a mistake and Tollman based his theories on this
p. 200/201
Hull’s contribution to behaviourism?
Math. equations with operational definitions for each variable, this allows detailed predictions (in specific situations)
Post World War II saw a turn in psychological thinking (again):
Psychologists started to include mental processing in their models, because of which four developments did this come to be?
aka a turn to cognitive psychology
- Information presentation represented by a Turing Machine (binary units + Boolean operations).
- This information is independent of the devide (mostly- i.e., simple machines could simulate more complex ones based on the above)
- Evidence that the brain could function as a Turing machine
- S-R chains (Markov chains) could not produce the above effect and thus could not simulate behaviour (e.g., language)
the point = development of computers changed psychology
What is the homunculus problem?
A problem with accounting for humans’ clear goals they deliberately chose and direct behaviour without the assumption of an ultimate intelligent control centre
Long standing problem; “ghost in the machine”
How did computers pose a solution to the homunculus problem?
Information feedback; System can autonomously reach the “end-state” if given feedback on the discrepancy between the current and the end state (slowly and in steps, seemingly).
did not solve the whole problem (who sets the end-state)
What were two main ways cognitive psyhology differed from its predecessors?
- Acceptance of a separate level of mental representations to which algorithms (list of instructions converting given inputs to desired outputs)
- Introduction of more complex information manipulations than associations
Two major steps in the emergence of cognitive psychology?
Hint: Miller & Neisser
- Miller’s article on the limits of short-term memory (aka brain = computer w/ capacity limits)
- Neisser’s book on cognitive psychology (review of prior evidence)
point = their contribution and subsequent emergence of cog psych
What is meant by the “(separation of) mental representations”?
in context of cog psych
Information is independent of the transmission device and the outside world (information pattern in mind = obtained knowledge that can in theory be copied to another brain (?))
() is a bit confusing idk man
What is information processing?
context of cog psych…
Encoding of mental repr. > transforming them (through algorithms) > integration with existing knowledge = core of cog psychology
Two (main) approaches were used in the modelling of the workings of information processing, which were? Drawbacks/positives of them?
- Boxes and arrows diagrams outlining input/output shit for specific task (e.g., Broadbent’s selective attention model aka like a flowchart)
easy, but unspecific (quantitatively)/less insightful - Computational models; Computer program simulating the human information processing assumed in a specific task- requires quite immense specification
Also useful in the testing of said diagrams (I think)
What is a problem ran into when computer programs were wanted to make work (specifically for text translation), what was introduced on the basis of this and what did it mean for psychology/human brain?
soz for the questions im tired
The meaning of words were dependent on background information- something humands added automatically (?)
> > Top-down processes = information from higher processing stage is fed back to previous processing stages and influences them
(tbf also seemingly an interaction with bottom-up process, but I’m just kind of assuming rn)
(kind of like the transformer model from behavioural science?)
“Clarise saw the mountains flying to New York”
What method did Sperling introduce to cog. psychology?
listen, idk how to word this differently
Verification of models (e.g., Broadbendt’s) through performance measures (aka measures of performance on tasks in highly controlled situations)
He did not necessarily introduce this, but it is a good demonstration
Why is the notion of a “behaviourism revolution and subsequent cognitive revolution” a mostly incorrect view?
Neither approaches were ever all-encompassing + they are not necessarily incompatible + the continuity of time and science is ever-present
There are three main factors one could attribute to behaviourism coming to pass, which are these?
Learning theory (associative learning based on animal research), operationalism and positivism
“We are not an actor, but a lens: a point where influences come together. Behaviour is the outcome; free will an illusion.”
Who’s view is this?
Skinner
