Chapter 1: introduction to Cognitive Psychology

Question 1

Define Cognitive Psychology

Answer 1

Study of cognitive processes involved in the acquisition, representation and application of human knowledge

Question 2

Describe Donder’s reaction time (RT) experiment.

How are simple versus choice RT tasks different?

What does the subtraction method reveal in this context?

Answer 2

• A behavioral measure of how long it takes an individual to respond to a stimulus
• Technique: Mental Chronometry, know how long it takes to make a decision

-Difference: Choice RT task have to make a decision , choose left or right button to press

-Subtraction method: Choice (1/10 longer) - Simple = Time taken to make a decision
-Mental responses cannot be measured directly but can be inferred from the participant’s behavior

Question 3

Describe the Tolman and colleagues’ (1930; 1938) maze studies. What is a cognitive map and how does it serve as counter-evidence to Behaviorist perspectives?

Answer 3

Cognitive map: mental representation, or picture, of the environment

Counter evidence to Behaviourist perspectives:
-develop naturally through experience with the world (even with no overt response or reinforcement)

Question 4

What was the significance of Ebbinghaus’s study on memory and forgetting?

Answer 4

-Quantitative and less introspective
-Used controlled scientific methodology rather than introspection
-tested on himself (change syllabus pronunciation)

Question 5

What was the “Cognitive Revolution”? How did the advent of computers fit into this movement?

Answer 5

Information-processing approach
-A way to study the mind created from insights associated with the digital computer

Process model
-illustrates what happens in a person’s mind when attention to a stimulus in the environment
(model not important but illustration/framework used to simplify)

Question 6

Differentiate between Process versus Structural models

Answer 6

Process models: Represent the processes that are involved in cognitive mechanisms, with boxes usually representing specific processes and arrows indicating connections between processes (Broadbent’s Model of Attention)

Structural Models: Representation of a physical structure of the brain (mimic form or appearance of given object)