Chapter 1

Question 1

cognitive psychology

Answer 1

the scientific study of the mind

Question 2

mind

Answer 2

1.)creates and controls mental functions such as perceptions, attention, memory, emotions, language, deciding, thinking and reasoning. 2.) A system that creates representations of the world so that we can act with in it to achieve our goals.

Question 3

cognition

Answer 3

mental processes such as perception, attention, and memory

Question 4

reaction time

Answer 4

the amount of time it takes to respond to the presentation of a stimulus. Ex: flash of light –> push of a button

Question 5

simple reaction time

Answer 5

the amount of time it takes to respond to a single stimulus

Question 6

choice reaction time

Answer 6

the amount of time it takes to respond to one of two stimuli presented.

Ex: A request to push J for a left light stimulation and K for a right light illumination.

Question 7

structuralism

Answer 7

explains perception as being made up of basic elements known as sensations

Question 8

analytic introspection

Answer 8

a structuralist technique in which trained subjects described their experiences and thought processes in response to stimuli

Question 9

savings

Answer 9

a calculation to determine how much is forgotten after a specific delay

savings = (original time to learn) - (time to relearn after delay)

Question 10

savings curve

Answer 10

a plot of data illustrating savings vs. time after original learning

Question 11

behaviorism

Answer 11

views psychology as an objective, experimental branch of natural science. Observable behavior, not consciousness is the main study. John Watson of the University of Chicago.

Question 12

classical conditioning

Answer 12

the pairing of one stimulus with another, previously neutral stimulus causes changes in the response to the neutral stimulus.

Ex: Pavlov’s dog experiment of bell + presentation of food = salivation at the sound of a bell

OR

Ex: Baby Albert experiment of loud sound + presentation of rat = fear of rat

Question 13

operant conditioning

Answer 13

the study of how behavior is strengthened by the presentation of positive reinforcers.

Ex: pressing of bar = food; results in increased behavior of pressing the bar.

Question 14

cognitive revolution

Answer 14

A shift in psychology, beginning in the 1950s, from the behaviorist’s stimulus-response relationships to a desire to want to understand the operation of the mind.

Question 15

cognitive map

Answer 15

a mental map; like the one of your house

Question 16

information-processing approach

Answer 16

traces sequences of mental operations involved in cognition.

Question 17

artificial intelligence

Answer 17

introduced by John McCarthy of Dartmouth College in the 1950s as “making a machine behave in ways that would be called intelligent if a human were so behaving.”

Question 18

logic theorist

Answer 18

a program introduced at the Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence at Dartmouth College in 1956 by Herb Simon and Alan Newman of Carnegie Institute of Technology that was able to create proofs of mathematical theorems that involve principles of logic.

Question 19

structural models

Answer 19

representation of a physical structure. Ex: plastic model of the brain

Question 20

process models

Answer 20

represent the processes that are involved in cognitive mechanisms

Question 21

Franciscus Donders

Answer 21

Dutch physiologist, who in 1868, conducted the first “cognitive psychology” experiment.

He explored: how long does it take to make a decision?

(reaction time; simple reaction time; choice reaction time)

Question 22

Wilhelm Wundt

Answer 22

founded the first laboratory of scientific psychology study in 1879 at the University of Leipzig in Germany.

(structuralism; analytic introspection)

Question 23

Herman Ebbinghaus

Answer 23

German psychologist from the University of Berlin with an interest in memory and forgetting.

(savings; savings curve)

Question 24

William James

Answer 24

American psychologist who taught Harvard’s first psychology course; wrote “Principles of Psychology” in 1890.

Question 25

Early Pioneers of Cognitive Psychology

Answer 25

Donders - first cognitive psychology experiment

Wundt - first laboratory of scientific psychology

Ebbinghaus - quantitative measurement of mental processes

James - first psychology text book

Question 26

John Watson

Answer 26

founded behaviorism during his time at the University of Chicago as a graduate student.

(behaviorism; classical conditioning)

Question 27

B. F. Skinner

Answer 27

Received his PhD in psychology from Harvard University

operant conditioning

Question 28

Edward Chance Tolman

Answer 28

associated with the University of California Berkeley from 1918 - 1954 and was one of the early cognitive psychologists.

(cognitive map)

Question 29

Noam Chomsky

Answer 29

A linguist from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology published a negative review of Skinner’s book, “Verbal Behavior”, sparking psychologists to reconsider the idea that language and other complex behaviors can be explained by operant conditioning.

Question 30

Donald Broadbent

Answer 30

A British psychologist; the first to propose the flow diagram of the mind.

Question 31

Colin Cherry

Answer 31

British psychologist; studied the cognitive process of two auditory messages delivered simultaneously.

Question 32

John McCarthy

Answer 32

A professor of mathematics at Dartmouth College during the 1950s; the first to introduce the term “artificial intelligence”

(artificial intelligence)

Question 33

Herb Simon

Answer 33

from Carnegie Institute; one of two people to present the first artificial intelligence at the Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence conference.

(logic theorist)

Question 34

Alan Newall

Answer 34

from Carnegie Institute; person two of two to present logic theorist

(logic theorist)

Question 35

George Miller

Answer 35

A Harvard psychologist to propose the idea that there are limits to the human’s ability to process information at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Symposium on Information Theory.