Chapter 1 Flashcards
cognitive psychology
the scientific study of the mind
mind
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.
cognition
mental processes such as perception, attention, and memory
reaction time
the amount of time it takes to respond to the presentation of a stimulus. Ex: flash of light –> push of a button
simple reaction time
the amount of time it takes to respond to a single stimulus
choice reaction time
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.
structuralism
explains perception as being made up of basic elements known as sensations
analytic introspection
a structuralist technique in which trained subjects described their experiences and thought processes in response to stimuli
savings
a calculation to determine how much is forgotten after a specific delay
savings = (original time to learn) - (time to relearn after delay)
savings curve
a plot of data illustrating savings vs. time after original learning
behaviorism
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.
classical conditioning
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
operant conditioning
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.
cognitive revolution
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.
cognitive map
a mental map; like the one of your house
information-processing approach
traces sequences of mental operations involved in cognition.
artificial intelligence
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.”
logic theorist
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.
structural models
representation of a physical structure. Ex: plastic model of the brain
process models
represent the processes that are involved in cognitive mechanisms
Franciscus Donders
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)
Wilhelm Wundt
founded the first laboratory of scientific psychology study in 1879 at the University of Leipzig in Germany.
(structuralism; analytic introspection)
Herman Ebbinghaus
German psychologist from the University of Berlin with an interest in memory and forgetting.
(savings; savings curve)
William James
American psychologist who taught Harvard’s first psychology course; wrote “Principles of Psychology” in 1890.
Early Pioneers of Cognitive Psychology
Donders - first cognitive psychology experiment
Wundt - first laboratory of scientific psychology
Ebbinghaus - quantitative measurement of mental processes
James - first psychology text book
John Watson
founded behaviorism during his time at the University of Chicago as a graduate student.
(behaviorism; classical conditioning)
B. F. Skinner
Received his PhD in psychology from Harvard University
operant conditioning
Edward Chance Tolman
associated with the University of California Berkeley from 1918 - 1954 and was one of the early cognitive psychologists.
(cognitive map)
Noam Chomsky
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.
Donald Broadbent
A British psychologist; the first to propose the flow diagram of the mind.
Colin Cherry
British psychologist; studied the cognitive process of two auditory messages delivered simultaneously.
John McCarthy
A professor of mathematics at Dartmouth College during the 1950s; the first to introduce the term “artificial intelligence”
(artificial intelligence)
Herb Simon
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)
Alan Newall
from Carnegie Institute; person two of two to present logic theorist
(logic theorist)
George Miller
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.
