chapter one Flashcards
1
Q
cognitive psychology
A
the study of mental processes, which includes determining the characteristics and properties of the mind and how it operates
2
Q
donders
A
- conducted first cognitive psychology experiment
- reaction time (RT) experiment: interval between the onset of a stimulus and a response is measured
- compared reaction times on simple RT task and choice RT task (different reflects the time it takes to make a decision)
- found that choice reaction task resulted in slower times (inferred that something is happening mentally that is slowing you down)
3
Q
wundt
A
- established the first psychology laboratory and adopted structuralism
4
Q
structuralism
A
- approach to studying the mind using analytic introspection (participants describe their thoughts when presented various stimuli)
- flawed because highly subjective
4
Q
ebbinghaus
A
- measured rate of forgetting
- used 13 nonsense syllabus
- learned the list of syllables and then relearned the list after various intervals of time to determine “savings” in relearning
- found greater savings after shorter relearning period
- used nonsense syllables so they were less meaningful (ensures the stimuli were on equal footing)
5
Q
savings
A
the amount of time saved from having to relearn the list of nonsense syllables
6
Q
james
A
- wrote the first psychology textbook
- self-reported observations of experience (ie. consciousness, emotion)
7
Q
watson
A
- founder of behaviourism
- behaviours > consciousness
disagreed with wundt’s “analytical introspection” in favor of classical conditioning - little albert!
8
Q
classical conditioning
A
learning based on a paired associated stimulus (ie. dog and bell experiment)
9
Q
skinner
A
- focused on operant conditioning
- wrote a book on verbal behaviour
10
Q
operant conditioning
A
- stimulus-response relationship based learning
- behaviour increasing/decreasing based on reward/consequences
11
Q
tolman
A
- development of the “cognitive map” concept
- rat and mazes experiment
12
Q
tolman’s rat experiment
A
- rat explored the maze
- rat was placed at point A, food placed at point B, rat learned to turn right at the intersection of the maze to get the food
- tolman places rat at point C and rat turns left at the intersection to reach the food at point B
tolman explained that this was because when the rat initially explored the maze, it was developing a cognitive map of the maze
13
Q
cherry
A
- directed attention study
14
Q
cherry’s directed attention study
A
- participants presented with two different auditory messages in each ear
- participant asked to attend to one ear’s message
- found that when participants focused on the attended message, they could hear the sounds of the other message but were unaware of its contents
15
Q
computers
A
- used in research laboratories
- information-processing approach
- computers processing in stages used as a metaphor for how the mind processes information
16
Q
information-processing approach
A
“the operation of the mind can be described as occurring in a number of stages”
17
Q
ai conferences
A
- dartmouth and massachusetts conferences
- newell and simon’s computer program the “logic theorist”
- the logic theorist solved problems based on how humans solve these same problems
18
Q
broadbent
A
- first diagram of the mind
19
Q
chomsky
A
- critiqued skinner’s verbal behaviour beliefs and book
- instead saw language as being determined by an inborn biological program that holds across cultures (a product of the way the mind is constructed)
- contradicted skinner’s view that language is learned by imitation/reinforcement
20
Q
niesser
A
- wrote the first cognitive psychology textbook
- vision and hearing, memory retention, thinking and problem solving
21
Q
what niesser wrote: vision and hearing
A
- descriptions of how information is taken in by vision and held in memory for short periods of time
- how people use visual information to see simple patterns
- how people can remember sounds
22
Q
what niesser wrote: memory retention
A
- the intake of information and how long people can remember
23
Q
what niesser wrote: thinking and problem solving
A
- “higher mental processes” such as thinking, problem solving and long-term remembering
24
atkinson and shiffrin
- model of memory
- sensory memory, short-term memory and long-term memory
25
sensory memory
holds incoming memory for a fraction of a second and then passes information
26
short-term memory
- has limited capacity
- holds information for seconds
- some information can be transferred into long-term with rehearsal
27
long-term memory
- high-capacity system that can hold information for long periods of time
- some information from long-term memory can be returned to short-term memory (remembering something involved bringing it back into short-term memory)
28
tulving
- divided long-term memory into 3 components
- episodic, semantic and procedural memory
29
episodic memory
memory of life events (ie. what you did last weekend)
30
semantic memory
memory of facts (ie. capital cities of provinces)
31
procedural memory
memory of physical actions (ie. how to ride a bike or play the piano)
