Ch. 1, Cognitive Neuroscience Flashcards
Define cognitive psychology
Scientific study of the mind and mental processes
Mind vs. mental processes
Mind: useful for everyday functions, role in mental abilities
Mental Processes: perception, attention, memory, knowledge, and problem solving
Monism
Monism: mind and body (brain) are one
Mental events correspond to physical vents in th ebrain
Hobbes/Locke perspective
Hobbes/Locke: British empiricists, stated that how we gain knowledge is through scientific observatio
Donders Decision Making Experiment
Two conditions: both conditions involve the same perceptual and motor processes
Only difference is choice RT condition involves a decision
SIMPLE REACTION TIME: One condition asks participants to press J on a keyboard when the light goes on: tests sensory and motor
CHOICE REACTION TIME: press J for left light, K for right, TESTS SENSORY, DECISION AND MOTOR
Results and conclusion of the Donders Decision making experiment
RESULTS: Choice reaction time was about 0.1 seconds longer than simple reaction time condition
CONCLUSION: TAKES ABOUT 0.1 SECOND TO MAKE A SIMPLE DECISION
Example: inferring mental processes from behaviour
Hermann Ebbinghau’s Memory Experiment
Conducted first research into the nature of memory and “forgetting”
Made lists of nonsense syllables
Created the “forgetting curve”: memory decreases very quickly early on, and then slows down with time
Ebbinhaus’ forgetting curve was extremely fast, likely because he memorized 420 different lsists of non-words
Also interested in how quickly he could re-memorize a list
Structuralism and Wundt
What are the basic pieces of the mind/how do they fit?
Structuralism: mind can be studied by breaking it down into its tiniest components
Wundt: beginning of modern psychology, clear departure from philosophical approaches, ESTABLISHED FIRST PSYC LAB
Wund’ts Method: Analytic introspection TECHNIQUE WHICH TRAINED PARTICIPANTS TO DESCRIBE THEIR EXPERIENCES AND THOUGHT PROCESSES IN STIMULI
SENSATION IS INVOLVED IN CREATING EXPERIENCE
Functionalism and James
What does the mind do, and how is it useful?
Describe the adaptive/evolutionary function of the mind
James: wrote principles of psychology
James’ Method: naturalistic observation, influenced by Darwin’s theory of evolution, stressed how adaptions helped organisms survive and reproduce
Behaviorism
Watson
Study of overt/observable behaviours; argued that introspection was not scientific
DIRECTLY opposes “mentalism” of structuralism, functionalism, and of Freud’s psychodynamics (introspection is unreliable, consciousness is not directly observable empirically)
People are blank slates, and when behaviours are rewarded/punished they become less likely
Radical Behaviourism
Behaviour is governed by lawful principles
Good consequences=behaviour mor elikely
Skinner: we don’t need to resort to mental events as explanations of behavior
We can describe/understand/and predict behaviour without ever guessing if an animal was “hungry”
Cognitive Insight:
perception of a relationship between two seemingly disconnected ideas that helps solve a problem; remote association task and opposite of math questions
Cognitive Map
Mental map representation of space
Why do children not develop language abilities through reinforcement?
Children do not develop language abilities through reinforceement
Children are unlikely to be rewarded for saying “i hate you” to their parents
Noam Chomsky: language is not a product of reinforcement, inspired others to consider the possibility that complex behaviours may not be solely explained conditioning
How did early psychologists define humans as computers?
Earlier work used the laptop as a metaphor for how the mind works: complex, multipurpose machine that processes information in stages
Limited capacity processor
Humans are information processors whose behaviour is governed by thought
Forgetting curve
Savings Measure
Savings Measure = original time to learn the list — time to relearn the list after the delay
Savings Curve: plot percent of savings vs. time showed that memory drops rapidly for the first two days after learning and then level soff
Why does Watson rejects introspection as a measure>=?
Watson rejects introspection as a measure, observable behaviour, NOT CONSCIOUSNESSS is the main topic of study
Classical Conditioning: how pairing one stimulus with another previously neutral stimulus causes changes in response to the neutral stimulus
Skinner, Verbal Behaviour:
arguedthat children learn language through operant conditioning; imitate speech that they hear and repeat correct speech because it is rewarded
Chomsky’s criticisms of Skinner
disagreed strongly with Skinner; children are not reinforced for saying “bad things” yet they still do; viewed language as an inborn biological program that holds across cultures
Tolman Rat Experiment
Placed a rat in maze, watched them develop cognitive maps: conception within the mind of the maze’s layout
First needed to turn right to obtain food, but when placed in a diff location knew that it needed to turn left: CREATED COGNITIVE MAP
Kuhn, Scientific revolution:
shift from one paradigm to another, where a paradarigm is a system of ideas that dominate science at a particular time; MUST INVOLVE A PARADIGM SHIFT TO BE A SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION
Cognitive Revolution
Shift in psychology from the behavioruists focus on stimulus-response relationships to an approach of understanding the mind