Chapter 1 - Intro Flashcards
Cognition
The mental processes, such as perception, attention, and memory, which is what the mind creates
Cognitive Psychology
- 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
Simple Reaction Time
Measurement of how long it takes to respond to a single stimulus
Choice Reaction Time
Measurement of how long it takes to react to one of multiple stimuli
Reaction Time
Measurement of how long it takes to respond to presentation of a stimulus
Structuralism
- 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
Analytic Introspection
- a technique in which trained participants described their experiences and thought processes in response to stimuli
Savings Curve
plot showing the amount remembered versus the time between initial learning and testing
- forgetting happens quickly then evens out over time
Savings
measure used by Ebbinghaus to determine the magnitude of memory left from initial learning
Behaviourism
approach by John Watson stating that observable conduct provides the only valid data for psychology
- don’t care about the mind
- just observe behaviour
Classical conditioning
- pairing one stimulus with another, previously neutral stimulus, causes changes in the response to the neutral stimulus
Operant conditioning
- how behaviour is strengthened by the presentation of positive reinforcers
Cognitive map
- conception within the mind (ex. picture of a maze in Tolman’s rat’s head)
Kuhn
Scientific revolution
- a shift from one paradigm to another
- “paradigm shift”
- involves a shift in the way people think about a subject
Kuhn
Paradigm
- system of ideas that dominate science at a particular time
Information-processing approach
- the approach to psych in which the mind is described as processing information through a sequence of stages
Neuropsychology
- study of the behaviour of people with brain damage
Electrophisiology
- measuring electrical responses of the nervous system
- made it possible to listen to the activity of single neurons
Mental chronometry
- determining the amount of time needed to carry out a cognitive task
- forms the dependent variable in many cog psych experiments
savings score
- the reduction in the number of trials necessary for relearning as compared with original learning
logical positivism
- only through observation can the truth of statements of fact be established
Who wrote the first psych textbook
William James
Who performed the first psych experiment?
Franciscus Donders
Who studied the quantitative measurement of mental processes?
Hermann Ebbinghaus
Who established the first lab of scientific psych?
Willhelm Wundt
Brain imaging
- 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
Mind
- system that creates mental representations of the world and controls mental functions such as perception, attention, memory, emotions, language, deciding, thinking, and reasoning
Paradigm shift
- a shift in thinking from one paradigm to another
What are the 2 scientific revolutions?
1) behaviourist
2) cognitive
