Chapter 1 - Intro

Question 1

Cognition

Answer 1

The mental processes, such as perception, attention, and memory, which is what the mind creates

Question 2

Cognitive Psychology

Answer 2

• the scientific study of the mind and mental processes
• ways the human mind receives external impressions and interprets them
• refers to all processes by which the sensory input is transformed, reduced, elaborated, stored, recovered, and used

Question 3

Simple Reaction Time

Answer 3

Measurement of how long it takes to respond to a single stimulus

Question 4

Choice Reaction Time

Answer 4

Measurement of how long it takes to react to one of multiple stimuli

Question 5

Reaction Time

Answer 5

Measurement of how long it takes to respond to presentation of a stimulus

Question 6

Structuralism

Answer 6

• Wundt’s approach to studying the mind
• our overall experience is determined by combining basic elements of experience called sensations
• “periodic table of the mind”
• breaks down mental processes into the most basic components

Question 7

Analytic Introspection

Answer 7

• a technique in which trained participants described their experiences and thought processes in response to stimuli

Question 8

Savings Curve

Answer 8

plot showing the amount remembered versus the time between initial learning and testing
- forgetting happens quickly then evens out over time

Question 9

Savings

Answer 9

measure used by Ebbinghaus to determine the magnitude of memory left from initial learning

Question 10

Behaviourism

Answer 10

approach by John Watson stating that observable conduct provides the only valid data for psychology
- don’t care about the mind
- just observe behaviour

Question 11

Classical conditioning

Answer 11

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

Question 12

Operant conditioning

Answer 12

• how behaviour is strengthened by the presentation of positive reinforcers

Question 13

Cognitive map

Answer 13

• conception within the mind (ex. picture of a maze in Tolman’s rat’s head)

Question 14

Kuhn

Scientific revolution

Answer 14

• a shift from one paradigm to another
• “paradigm shift”
• involves a shift in the way people think about a subject

Question 15

Kuhn

Paradigm

Answer 15

• system of ideas that dominate science at a particular time

Question 16

Information-processing approach

Answer 16

• the approach to psych in which the mind is described as processing information through a sequence of stages

Question 17

Neuropsychology

Answer 17

• study of the behaviour of people with brain damage

Question 18

Electrophisiology

Answer 18

• measuring electrical responses of the nervous system
• made it possible to listen to the activity of single neurons

Question 19

Mental chronometry

Answer 19

• determining the amount of time needed to carry out a cognitive task
• forms the dependent variable in many cog psych experiments

Question 20

savings score

Answer 20

• the reduction in the number of trials necessary for relearning as compared with original learning

Question 21

logical positivism

Answer 21

• only through observation can the truth of statements of fact be established

Question 22

Who wrote the first psych textbook

Answer 22

William James

Question 23

Who performed the first psych experiment?

Answer 23

Franciscus Donders

Question 24

Who studied the quantitative measurement of mental processes?

Answer 24

Hermann Ebbinghaus

Question 25

Who established the first lab of scientific psych?

Answer 25

Willhelm Wundt

Question 26

Brain imaging

Answer 26

• technique like fMRI that results in images of the brain that represent brain activity. In cog psych, activity is measured in response to scientific cognitive tasks

Question 27

Mind

Answer 27

• system that creates mental representations of the world and controls mental functions such as perception, attention, memory, emotions, language, deciding, thinking, and reasoning

Question 28

Paradigm shift

Answer 28

• a shift in thinking from one paradigm to another

Question 29

What are the 2 scientific revolutions?

Answer 29

1) behaviourist
2) cognitive