Ch. 1 Intro to Cognitive Psychology- Sternberg

Question 1

What is Change Blindness

Answer 1

our occassional inability to recognize changes. The inability to detect changes in objects or scenes that are being viewed

Question 2

Cocktail Party effect

Answer 2

the process of tracking one conversation in the face of the distraction of other conversations

Question 3

define Cognitive Psychology

Answer 3

the study of how people perceive, learn, remember, and think about information

Question 4

availability heuristic

Answer 4

cognitive shortcut that occurs when we make judgements on the basis of how easily we can recal to mind what we perceive as relevant instances of a phenomenon (ex-buying an iPhone and thinking its the best choice bc it comes to mind easily)

Question 5

why study history of cognitive psych?

Answer 5

if we know where we came from, we may have a better understanding of where we are heading. In addition, we can learn from past mistakes.

Question 6

what is a “dialectic?”

Answer 6

a developmental process where ideas evolve over time

Question 7

describe the three steps to a dialectic

Answer 7

1. A thesis is proposed
2. an antithesis emerges
3. A synthesis integrates the viewpoints

Question 8

What is a thesis?

Answer 8

a statement of belief

Question 9

what is an antithesis?

Answer 9

a statement that counters a previous statement of belief

Question 10

what is a synthesis?

Answer 10

it integrates the most credible features of each of two (or more) beliefs- such as between a thesis and antithesis.

Question 11

What two philosophical approaches were the antecedents to psychology?

Answer 11

rationalists (such as plato) versus empiricists

such as aristotle

Question 12

define what a rationalist believes

Answer 12

they believe that the route to knowledge is through thinking and logical analysis. they don’t need experiments to develop new knowledge- instead they use reason. ex is descartes who said “i think therefore i am”

Question 13

define what an empiricist believes

Answer 13

they believe that we acquire knowledge via empirical evidence- aka we obtain evidence through experience and observation. they would design experiements and conduct studies where they could observe the behavior and processes of interest to them. ex is Locke, who termed “tabula rasa” and that we are born without knowledge, gain it through experience, and must seek knowledge through observation.

Question 14

Define Structuralism

Answer 14

seeks to understand the structure (configuration of elements) of the mind and its perceptions by analyzing those perceptions into their constituent components (affection, attention, memory, etc)

Question 15

Define introspection

Answer 15

looking inward at pieces of information passing through consciousness

Question 16

Define Functionalism

Answer 16

seeks to understand what people do and why they do it. functionalism led to pragmatism/pragmatists

Question 17

What is “Associationism?”

Answer 17

examines how events and ideas can become associated with one another in the mind to result in a form of learning. examples of learning through association would be instances of learning via contiguity, similarity, and contrast.

Question 18

what do pragmatists believe?

Answer 18

believe that knowledge is validated by its usefulness: what can you DO with it? Ex includes william james and john dewey

Question 19

what is “contiguity” under associationism?

Answer 19

associating things that tend to occur together at about the same time

Question 20

what is “similarity” under associationism?

Answer 20

associating things with similar features or properties

Question 21

What is meant by “Contrast” under associationism?

Answer 21

associating things that show polarities, such as hot versus cold, light versus dark

Question 22

What did Hermann Ebbinghaus create, and what techniques did he use to do so?

Answer 22

he was the first to apply associationist pinciples systematically. He studied how people learn and remember material through rehearsal, and created a “Forgetting Curve” where the first few repetitions result in a steep learning curve while later repetitions result in a slower increase of remembered words.

Question 23

Define Behaviorism

Answer 23

Behaviorism is the focus on only the relation between observable behavior and environmental events or stimuli. (It is an extreme version of associationism in that it focuses on the association between the environment and an observable behavior)

Question 24

Who were some early behaviorists?

Answer 24

Pavlov (with classical conditioning) and Watson.

Question 25

Who was the father of radical behaviorism?

Answer 25

John Watson- wanted to focus entirely on observable behavior.

Question 26

Skinner came up with what concept in behaviorism?

Answer 26

Operant Conditioning

Question 27

What is Operant Conditioning?

Answer 27

the strengthening or weakening of behavior, contingent on the presence or absence of reinforcement or punishments.

Question 28

What does Gestalt Psychology believe?

Answer 28

that we best understand psychological phenomena when we view them as organized, structured whole. we can not fully understand behavior when we only break phenomena down into smaller parts. have maxim “the whole is more than the sum of its parts”

Question 29

What is Cognitivism?

Answer 29

the belief that much of human behavior can be understood in terms of how people think. rejects the notion that psychologists should avoid studying mental processes because they are unobservable.

Question 30

How is cognitivism a combination of behaviorism and gestaltism?

Answer 30

it adopts precise quantitative analysis to study how people learn and think (behaviorism) and it emphasizes internal mental processes (Gestalt)

Question 31

define artificial intelligence (AI)

Answer 31

is the attempt by humans to construct systems that show intelligence and, particularly, the intelligent processing of information

Question 32

What is information theory?

Answer 32

it seeks to understand people’s behavior in terms of how they process the kinds of bits of information processed by computers.

Question 33

What is Chanel Capacity?

Answer 33

a concept introduced by George Miller where the upper limit with which an observer can match a response to information given to him or her.

Question 34

Define Intelligence

Answer 34

1. The capacity to learn from experience, using metacognitive processes to enhance learning, and 2. the ability to adapt to the surrounding environment.

Question 35

What is Carroll’s Model of Intelligence?

Answer 35

The Three-Stratum Model of Intelligence

Question 36

Define Three-stratum model of intelligence

Answer 36

intelligence comprises a hierarchy of cognitive abilities comprising three strata:
Strata I: many narrow, specific abilities
Strata II:various braod abilities (like fluid and crystallized intelligence)
Strata III: Just a single general intelligence (called g)

Question 37

Define Fluid Ability

Answer 37

the speed and accuracy of abstract reasoning, especially for novel problems (part of Carroll’s statum II)

Question 38

Define Crystallized ability

Answer 38

accumulated knowledge and vocabulary.

Question 39

Name Gardner’s Theory of Intelligence

Answer 39

His theory was called theory of multiple intelligences

Question 40

Define theory of multiple intelligences

Answer 40

a theory by Howard Gardner, in which intelligence comprises multiple independent constructs, not just a single unitary construct. In this theory, the mind is Modular, where different abilities can be isolated as emanating from distinct portions of the brain.

Question 41

name Sternberg’s Theory of Intelligence

Answer 41

Called the triarchic Theory of Intelligence

Question 42

Explain the triarchic Theory of Intelligence

Answer 42

human intelligence is made up of creative abilities (like generating novel ideas), Analytical abilities (ascertain whether certain ideas are good or bad ones) and Practical abilities (used to implement the ideas and persuade others of their value)

Question 43

define theory

Answer 43

is an organized body of general explanatory principles

Question 44

define hypotheses

Answer 44

are tentative proposals regarding expected empirical consequences of the theory, such as the outcomes of research

Question 45

define statistical significance

Answer 45

Significance indicates the likelihood that a given set of results would be obtained if only chance factors were in operation

Question 46

Define independent variables

Answer 46

are aspects of an investigation that are individually manipulated or carefully regulated by the experimenter

Question 47

Define Dependent variables

Answer 47

are outcome responses, the values of which depend on how one or more independent variables influence or affect the participants in the experiment.

Question 48

Define Control Variables

Answer 48

are variables that are held constant.

Question 49

Define Confounding Variables

Answer 49

are a type of irrelevant variable that has been left uncontrolled in a study.

Question 50

Define Correlation

Answer 50

is a statistical relationship between two or more attributes, such as characteristics of the participants or of a situation. Is expressed through “Pearson’s R.” a positive correlation (+1) means that as one variable increases, so does another. A negative correlation (-1) means as one variable increases, the other decreases. O means no correlation.

Question 51

Describe some of the ways we do psychobiological research

Answer 51

post-mortem, through lesions, and in-vivo studies.