Chapter 1 Flashcards
what is the mind
the system that creates mental representations of the world and controls mental functions
what is cognition
the mental processes involved in the mind
explain Donder’s developments
- measured decision speed by subtracting simple response conditions from complex (2 possible stimuli and 2 possible response) conditions
- we infer mind from behaviour
what were Wundt’s two Developments
- structuralism
2. analytic introspection
Explain Wundt’s structuralism
perceptions are composed of basic sensation elements
Explain Wundt’s analytic introspectin
attempted to train participants to recognize basic elements of perception (sensations) to categorize all the basic sensations
explain Ebbinghaus’ memory experiments
- learned a list of nonsense syllabus and measured how long to relearn the list after some delay
- ‘Savings’ = original time to learn - time to relearn
increase savings increases memory
explain the findings of ebbinghaus’ memory experiments
- longer delay means decreased savings
- savings curve - memory drops fast 2 days after learning, then maintains
- demonstrated memory could be quantified
Explain James’ methods and findings
- observed his own mental operations
- noticed attention was the withdrawal from other stimuli to just one
what is behavourism
idea that only overt behaviour is an acceptable object in psychology - consciousness and the mind are not scientific
- analytic introspection sucks - no data
Explain the litter Albert study and conclusions
- bang a thing every time the kid saw a white rat
- classical conditioning - stimulus-response pairing as the foundation of behaviour
explain skinner’s operation condition
investigates how behaviour is strengthened or weakened by reinforcers or punishers
explain Tolman’s findings on mental models and their relevance
placed rats in mazes with food in one spot
- rats find food from a point (A) after some trials
But also find food from a point (C) that is different
- rats must be making a cognitive map of the space to do this
- step away from behaviourism; there is stuff going on in the mind
Explain Chomsky;s rejection of Skinner
skinner - we learn language through operant conditioning
Chomsky - bs, kids over generalize linguistic structures and say things that they’ve never heard - gotta be some innate structures to it
what is the information processing approach
the mind processes information through several stages much like a computer
explain Cherry’s dichotic listening study
when people attend to thee message in one ear, they hear the form of the words in the other ear but do not process semantics
Broadbent’s flow diagram of attention
input to a filteer, to a detector, to memory
- provided a way to analyze the operation of the Mindi n terms of a sequence of processing stages - proposed a model that is further testable
Explain tehe developments of Newell and Simon
developed a program that could prove statements in prospotiional logic - a real thinking machine
Explain Miller’s ‘magical number seven, plus or minus two’
- STM has a max cap of 7 units plus or minus two
Explain Atkinson and Shiffrin’s model of memory
- input to sensory memory (holds incoming information for a fraction of a second)
- sensory memory to short term memory (holds information for a few seconds)
- sensory memory can bee rehearsed, output, or stored in LTM
- LTM can send info back to STM for rehearsal or output.
what is the relevance of Atkinson and Shiffrins model of memory
model distinguished different components of the memory process which opened the way to study each aspect separately
how did Tulving build on Atkinson and Shiffrins model of memory
further subdivided LTM into episodic, semantic and procedural memory
what are the three main methods of studying the physiology of cognition
- neuropsychology - study of behaviour of those with brain damage
- electrophysiology - measuring electrical responses of the NS to learn about single neurones
- Brian imaging
explain PET (plus 2 downsides)
positron emission tomography - see what areas of brain active during cognition
- disadvantages
1. expensive
2. injection of radioactive tracers
explain fMRI
functional magnetic resonance imaging - capable of higher resolution
what are the ‘new perspectives on behaviour?’
- early research was in the lab, now its done in real world situations more so
- humans are not blank slates - cognition influenced by knowledge
explain Palmer’s study on the influence of knowledge on cognition
presented an image of a kitchen, then flashed an image
- correctly identified the image 80% of the time if It was theme specific (bread)
- only right 40% of the time if not
- using knowledge of the scene to influence perception
