Chapter 1: The Psychology of Learning and Memory Flashcards
What is learning?
Process by which changes in behavior arise as a result of experience interacting with the world.
What is memory?
The record of our past experiences, acquired through learning
What were Aristotle’s two main ideas?
empiricism associationism
What is associationism?
Aristotle’s Theory; memory depends on formation of linkages between pairs of events, sensations, ideas so that recalling or experiencing one member of the pair elicits a memory or anticipation of the other ex: hot, cold chair, table
3 Principles of Association?
- contiguity 2. frequency 3. similarity SFC (SanFran, Calif)
Contiguity?
Nearness in time and space temporal, spatial contiguity linked together. “Chair”, “table” linked because we see them together.
Frequency
more we experience events that are contiguous, more strongly we associate them -more we see table and chairs together, the stronger the association becomes
Similarity
Two things similar, the thought or sensation of one will trigger the other, chairs and tables made of wood, both found in the kitchen, both function associated with eating meals
Aristotle concluded that?
contiguity, frequency, similarity- basic ways humans organize sensations and ideas
Empiricism?
all ideas we have are a result of experience. newborn’s mind: blank slate
Nativism?
Plato. Bulk of knowledge is inborn, acquired through past lifetimes of our external souls Republic: idealized society in which people’s innate differences in skills, abilities, and talents form basis for their fixed roles in life; some rule while others serve
nativism vs empiricism same as?
nature vs nurture argument
Descartes believed in?
Dualism–the principle that the mind and body exist as separate entities each with different characteristics governed by their own laws. body: self regulating machine
hollow areas-animal spirits in ventricles allow body to move about-for every action there must be a stimulus
every structure-has duplicate besides pineal gland-pineal gland-involved in movement
Cogito ergo sum
I think therefore i am. Only evidence he himself even existed was his ability to to think.
According to Descartes how did the body work?
process begins when stimulus- sensory event from the outside world, enters the system light reflected off a bird enters the eye as a visual stimulus- stimulus causes fluids (spirits) to flow through hollow tubes from the eyes to the brain and then to be reflected back as an outgoing motor response (behavior)
Descartes- ideas on reflexes were wrong, but…
first to show how the body might be understood through the same mechanical principles that underlies physical machinery
Descartes was a _______
nativist much of what we know is innate
Locke was inspired by Newton to?
Newton– white light can be refracted into component colors by prism lens -Locke hoped to show that the mind can be broken down into elements that when combined produced the whole of consciousness. complex ideas similarly formed from combination of more elementary ideas that are passively acquired through the senses. “red”, “sweet”– acquired automatically by our senses of sight and taste- “cherry” (more complex-acquired by combining simpler components)
According to Locke- how is knowledge acquired?
experience and experience alone tabula rasa worth not determined at birth -influenced Dec. of ind
Leibneiz?
3/4 knowledge acquired, 1/4 born and innate habits, potential for success or failure, predispositions—->inborn and innate
