ch.1 Intro to Cognitive Psych Flashcards
Cognitive Psych
the branch of psychology concerned with the scientific study of the mind
Behaviorism
the approach that observable behavior provides the only valid data for psychology
founded by John B. Watson
How are behaviorism and cog psych different?
one approach is how the mind works and the other is how we react to our environment
Wundt’s main ideas (1879)
- structuralism
- analytic introspection
- first laboratory
Structuralism
an approach to psychology that explained perception as the adding up of small elementary units called sensations
Analytical Introspection
a procedure used by early psychologists in which trained participants described their experiences and thought processes in response to stimuli
first laboratory
founded by William Wundt in the University of of Leipzig, Germany
Ebbinghaus main ideas (1885)
savings method to measure forgetting
Saving curves
memory drops rapidly for the first 2 days after the initial learning and then levels off.
What did Ebbinghaus contribute?
quantitative measurement of mental processes
Ivan Pavlov
dogs salivate when they see or smell food, without being told to eat
explained the unconditioned response or instinctual response we have to a certain stimuli
Thorndike (1874-1949)
is famous for his experiments with cats placed in a puzzle box. He observed how they learned to escape, and also if and when they found to lever to get out, if they would use it again.
Thorndikes Law of Effect
stated that any behavior that is followed by pleasant consequences is likely to be repeated, and any behavior followed by unpleasant consequences is likely to be stopped.
John Watson
proved in his work that humans could also be classically conditioned, discovered phobias from other associations
Little Albert Experiment
the experiment where a furry rabbit was presented to an infant followed by a loud noise. Over time, little Albert was scared and would cry at the sight of the rabbit or those similar even when the noise was not heard right after.
Skinner (1938)
the founder of Operant Conditioning
Operant Conditioning
type of conditioning which focuses on how behavior is strengthened by presentation of positive reinforcers, such as food or social approval, or withdrawal of negative reinforcers, such as shock or social rejection
Noam Chomsky (1965)
in opposition to BF Skinner’s idea of language acquisition, he argued the Universal Grammar theory
Universal Grammar theory
Universal Grammar: an idea of innate, biological grammatical categories, such as a noun category and a verb category that facilitate the entire language development in children and overall language processing in adults
Albert Bandura (1961)
best known for Bobo Doll Experiment
Argued against Skinner believes that humans are active information processors and think about the relationship between their behavior and its consequences. Observational learning could not occur unless cognitive processes were at work.
Social Learning Theory
behavior is learned from the environment through the process of observational learning.
Bobo Doll Experiment
An experiment that tested children’s aggression levels by giving one group an aggressive model to imitate and another no model. The children were told to hit the bobo doll with in various ways based on what they saw.
Bandura’s contribution
explained how individuals who are observed are models. Children in particular are influenced by their surrounding models like their parents, teachers and peers.
