Chapter 1 - Intro

Question 1

Does cognitive psych study what happens in the brain or the result of it?

Answer 1

The result. We can’t see what’s going on.

Question 2

What are the Greek philosophers’ contributions to cognitive psychology?

Answer 2

Hippocrates: we should study the brain
Socrates: self questioning
Aristotle: interact with the world to gain knowledge. Heart is mind. Empirical data. First cognitive philosopher.

Question 3

What is Wundt’s contribution to cognitive?

Answer 3

Separated philosophy from psychology
Introduced empiricism
Introspection
Tried to train observers to objectively report basic responses when they experienced something not relying on previous knowledge
Wanted to create a catalogue of conscious responses
Every experience can be broken into basic perceptions

Question 4

What is James’s contribution to cognitive psychology?

Answer 4

The mind is active
When you see you can act
First textbook. It started the discipline
Foreshadowed many psych phenomena like perception, tip of the tongue
Focus on everyday

Question 5

What is Ebbinghaus’s contribution to cognitive psychology?

Answer 5

Studied himself
Created Trigrams
Memorized 1000-2000 trigrams, nonsense 3-letter combinations
Criterion: reproduce 2x flawlessly, then retain it over an interval
Forgetting Curve:
100% immediate
58% 20 mins
44% 60 mins
21% 31 days
Spacing effect discovered

Question 6

What is Mary Calkins’s contribution to cognitive psychology?

Answer 6

Making lists, studying one person doesn’t make sense
Used Method of Paired Associations
Early presented = primacy
Later presented = recency
Tend to be remembered better early and late
Vividness created stronger memories «strawberry52»
Frequency created stronger memories
«Violet» 3x

Question 7

What is Bartlett’s contribution to cognitive psychology?

Answer 7

We don’t study lists we adjust stories bases on cultural expectations and previous knowledge/values bias
Memory is active process
NA Native story transformed into UK fairy tale
Schema dictates memory, ie. what we expect to be in classroom when we walk in

Question 8

What was Behaviourism?

Answer 8

Why talk about the brain? We can’t study it
Focus on observable data ie. Stimuli
Measurable only
Animal research
Ignore Processes, input/output only
Less influence in Europe, where Bartlett popular

Question 9

What is Gestalt?

Answer 9

Pieces form a whole
Eureka moment
Unifying tendency of humans

Question 10

What is ecological validity?

Answer 10

Concept generalized to how it works in the real world

Low in cognitive psych experiments

Question 11

What is Operational Definition?

Answer 11

I define it as this.

Equiv to External Validity

Question 12

How wouldn’t Behaviorists interpret a rat learning a maze?

Answer 12

That a rat is storing information about the spatial layout of the maze

Question 13

What is Neisser known for?

Answer 13

Father of cognitive psychology

Wrote Cognitive Psychology

Question 14

What’s the problem with behaviorism?

Answer 14

Tells nothing about thoughts and strategies people use when they try to solve a problem
How people access memories about language to produce speech
Material is altered by previous knowledge gained through life experiences
Piaget
Chomsky

Question 15

What is the information-processing approach?

Answer 15

1. Information about stimuli transported to sensory receptors via physical medium
2. Info is processed and decoded, matched to stored knowledge
3. After identified and interpreted, decision about how to respond
4. Motor commands sent to parts of system responsible for commanding body, and action initiated to respond to stimulus

Question 16

What’s the problem with the computer model?

Answer 16

Humans do tasks quickly and without conscious thought

We process millions of signals at the same time

Question 17

What’s the connectionist approach?

Answer 17

Neurons are linked together in networks
Many operations simultaneously
Parallel distributed processing and neural-network approach
An item stored in brain can’t be localized in cortex

Question 18

What is social cognitive neuroscience?

Answer 18

Processes we use in interactions with other people

Deciding trustworthiness

Question 19

What is PET
fMRI
Event-related potential technique

Answer 19

Positron Emission Tomography
Inject radioactive chemical
Active brain parts visible on camera
Compare images

Magnet produces changes in oxygen atoms
More detailed image than PET
Detects more subtle differences in way brain processes language
Can’t say when certain processes occur
Can’t tell what a person is thinking

ERP: electrodes to measure fluctuations
Mouth opening closing