Chapter 1 Flashcards
Cognition
to know
Cognitive Psychology
a general approach to psychology emphasizing the internal, mental processes
- behaviour explained in terms of underlying mechanisms
Rationalist: Plato
knowledge is obtained via thinking and logical analysis
Empiricist: Aristotle
knowledge is acquired through experience and observation
René Decartes
French renaissance rationalist
- “I think, therefore I am”
- coined the cartesian dualism
Cartesian Dualism
mind and body are distinct entities interacting in humans
John Locke
british empiricist
- coined “tabula rasa”: blank slate
Tabula Rasa
at birth, we know nothing and we acquire knowledge through empirical observation
Immanuel Kant
dialectally synthesized the views of Decartes and Locke
- contended that both rationalism and empiricism contribute to understanding
19th Century Psychology
focused on the scientific study of conscious experience
Structuralism
analyze conscious processes into their basic elements
- discover how elements become connected
- specify the laws of connection
Wilhelm Wundt
opened first psychology lab
- importance of introspection
Introspection
analyze your own conscious experience into sensations, images, and affections
- problems; low reliability and not independently verifiable
Functionalism
determine the adaptive significance of thought processes
- find how and why the mind works
- specify relationships between stimuli and responses
problems: not based on experimentation and theories did not make testable predictions
William James
published “The Principles of Psychology”, which foreshadowed much of cognitive psychology
Associationism
determine how events/ideas become associated ie; contiguity, frequency, similarity, contrast
- understand how association produces learning
F.C Donders
studied mental chronometry using reaction time and subtractions method
- assumed ‘pure insertion’; time to complete each stage is independent of the other stages
Pure Insertion
time to complete each stage is independent of the other stages
Problems with Subtraction Method
- motor response times may be different in different tasks, practice can cause your RT to be faster
- novice performance not comparable to expert performance