Chapter 1, Intro to Cog Psych/Research Methods Flashcards
What is the mind?
- The mind is involved in memory
- The mind is a problem solver
- The mind is used to make decisions and or consider different possibilities
What is the first notable definition of the mind?
The mind creates and controls mental functions such as perception, attention, memory, emotions, language, deciding, thinking, and reasoning.
What is the second notable definition of the mind?
The mind is a system that creates representations of the world so that we can act within it to achieve our goals
What is cognition?
The mental processes the mind creates
What is Cognitive Psychology the study of?
It is the study of mental processes, which includes determining the characteristics and properties of the mind and how it operates.
What did the very first cognitive psychology experiment test?
Reaction time
What did the first Cognitive Psych experiment illustrate?
Mental processes cannot be measured directly but must be inferred by the behavior
What is Structuralism?
The opinion is that our overall experience is determined by combining basic elements of experience called sensations.
Who was the first Structuralist?
Wilhelm Wundt
What method did Wundt use to describe components of experience?
Analytic Introspection
What is analytic introspection?
A technique in which trained participants described their experiences and thought processes in response to stimuli
Who tested the properties of memory?
Hermann Ebbinghaus
What did Ebbinghaus use to measure his results?
he used a measurement called savings and it looked like this:
Savings = (original time to learn the list) - (Time to relearn the list after the delay)
What was the study of the mind abandoned for?
Behaviourism
Why did John Watson become dissatisfied with analytic introspection?
(1) it produced extremely variable results from person to person
(2) these results were difficult to verify because they were interpreted in terms of invisible inner mental processes.
What two key points did Watson make with Behaviourism?
(1) Watson rejects introspection as a method
(2) observable behavior, not consciousness, is the main topic of study
What were Watson’s ideas related to?
Classical Conditioning
What is classical conditioning?
pairing one stimulus with another, previously neutral stimulus causes a change in the response to the neutral stimulus
What is Operant Conditioning?
Focusing on how behavior is strengthened by the presence of positive and negative reinforcers (positive reinforcers were things like food or social approval, while negative reinforcers were electric shock or social rejection)
What was the approach in cognitive psychology that stemmed from the digital computer?
information-processing approach - an approach that traces sequences of mental operations involved in cognition
What was William James’s idea about attention?
When attention is focused on one specific incoming information all other information outside of the focus is disregarded
What does Sensory memory do?
Sensory memory holds incoming information for a fraction of a second and then passes most of the information to the next stage
What does Short term memory do?
The short term memory which has a limited capacity holds the sensory information for seconds
What does long-term memory do?
It takes some of the short-term memory information to be passed along to the long-term memory, a high-capacity system that can hold information for longer periods of time. Now some of this information can be returned to the short-term memory for recall.
What are the three components of Long-Term memory?
Episodic Memory - for events of your life
Semantic Memory - for facts and information
Procedural Memory - for physical actions
What are two kinds of models to be aware of in Cognitive Psychology?
- Structural Models
- Process Models
What is a structural model?
- Representations of a physical structure
- Mimic the form or appearance of a given object
What is a process model?
represents the processes involved in cognitive mechanisms.
What is the purpose of an experiment?
Compare two or more groups
- experimental group - control group
What is the purpose of an independent variable?
It is the variable being controlled or manipulated.
What is the purpose of an dependent variable?
It is the variable being affected by the manipulation of the Independent variable.
What is the goal of Cognitive Science?
Finding ways to study and understand the inner workings of the mind
What is the purpose of an Extraneous variable?
Any variables other than the Independent variable that seem likely to influence the dependent variable.
What is the purpose of the Confounding Variable?
Occurs when two variables are linked together in a way that makes it difficult to sort out their specific effects.
How do you control for extraneous variables?
Random selection or random assignment
What is random selection?
Drawing the sample from a broad population
What is random assignment?
When all subjects have equal chance of being assigned to any group or condition in the study.
What is a variation in experimental designs?
It is between subject designs and can also be two groups being treated differently.
What is Within-subject Design?
Participants serves as both the experimental and control groups with each participant being exposed to each condition.
What is a variation in experimental designs (pt.2)?
- Manipulating more than one Independent variable in an experiment. Can cause interaction effects
- Using more than one Dependent Variable in an experiment. Can affect the reaction time and accuracy.
What is a Correlation/Descriptive studies?
it has not manipulation of the variables. It searches for the relationship between variables. It is carried out through naturalistic, case studies, and surveys.
