Chapter 1

Question 1

What is mind?

Answer 1

Private inner experience of perception
thoughts
memories
feelings

Question 2

What is behavior?

Answer 2

Observable actions of human beings

Question 3

What is cognition?

Answer 3

All mental processes that lead to:
thoughts
knowledge
awareness

Question 4

What are the cognitive processes?

Answer 4

Mechanisms that underly cognition (thoughts
knowledge
awareness)

Question 5

Give a few examples of cognitive functions.
(Cognitive functions are the ‘building blocks’ of all complex
behavior)

Answer 5

attention
memory
learning
decision-making
language
perception
motor-skills
imagination

Question 6

Cognitive neuroscience attempts to understand the
____________ foundations of cognition

Answer 6

Biological

Question 7

A technique of establishing a causal relationship
between variables

Answer 7

Experiment

Question 9

Continental rationalism argued that:

Answer 9

Knowledge is innate.

Innate - present from birth, native.

René Descartes
Benedict de Spinoza
Gottfried Leibniz

Question 10

British Empiricism argued that:

Answer 10

All knowledge is obtained through experience.

John Locke
George Berkeley
David Hume

Question 11

Dualism concept:

Answer 11

Mind and body are two distinct entities (systems) that interact.

Question 12

What is JND - just noticeable difference?
(Fechner)

Answer 12

The minimum difference in stimulation that a person can detect 50% of the time

Question 13

Mental Chronometry is the study of:

Answer 13

cognitive processing speed

1) Simple reaction time: press a button whenever you hear a syllable (RT = 198 ms). → DETECTION RT
(2) Differential/choice reaction time: press ‘k’ when you hear ‘ka’, press ‘t’ when you hear ‘ta’, press ‘p’
when you hear ‘pa’ (RT = 278 ms). → DETECTION RT + DISCRIMINATION RT + DECISION RT
(3) Go/No go reaction time: press ‘k’ when you hear ‘ka’, but do nothing when you hear ‘ta’ or ‘pa’ (RT =
269 ms). → DETECTION RT + DISCRIMINATION RT

The time you need for stimulus
discrimination = (3) – (1) = 71 ms,
and the time you need only for decision making = (2) – (3) = 9 ms.
Time you need to make a decision that includes discrimination = (2) – (1) = 80 ms.

Question 14

Structuralism is:

Can be achieved by:

(Wundt)

Answer 14

The analysis of the basic elements that constitute the mind.

Achieved by breaking down consciousness into sensations
and feelings via analytical introspection

Question 15

Behaviourism advocates that:
(Watson)

Answer 15

Advocates that psychologists should restrict themselves to the scientific study of objectively observable
behaviour - what people do.

Question 16

Logical positivism movement claims:
(Logical empiricism)

Answer 16

Only statements verifiable through direct observation or logical proof are meaningful

Question 17

Operational definition is

Answer 17

A description of an abstract property in terms of a concrete condition that can be measured.

ex:
Age - years
Height - meters

Question 18

What happens in classical conditioning
(Pavlolv)

Answer 18

A person or animal learns to associate a neutral stimulus (CS) with a stimulus (US) that naturally produces a behaviour (UR). As a result of this association, the previously neutral stimulus comes to elicit the same response (CR).

CS - conditioned stimulus
US - unconditioned stimulus
UR - unconditioned response
CR - conditioned response

Question 19

Operant conditioning
(Skinner)

Answer 19

Learning occurs through reinforcement and punishment,
that can both be positive (something is added) or negative
(something is removed)

Question 20

Gestalt psychology

Question 21

Phi phenomenon

Question 22

Cognitive revolution

Question 23

Empiricism

Question 24

Scientific method

Question 25

Falsifiability

Question 26

Deduction

Question 27

Induction

Question 28

Weber’s Law says this about JND:

Answer 28

The just noticeable difference of a stimulus is a constant proportion despite variations in intensity.