chapter one

Question 1

cognitive psychology

Answer 1

the study of mental processes, which includes determining the characteristics and properties of the mind and how it operates

Question 2

donders

Answer 2

• 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)

Question 3

wundt

Answer 3

• established the first psychology laboratory and adopted structuralism

Question 4

structuralism

Answer 4

• approach to studying the mind using analytic introspection (participants describe their thoughts when presented various stimuli)
• flawed because highly subjective

Question 4

ebbinghaus

Answer 4

• 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)

Question 5

savings

Answer 5

the amount of time saved from having to relearn the list of nonsense syllables

Question 6

james

Answer 6

• wrote the first psychology textbook
• self-reported observations of experience (ie. consciousness, emotion)

Question 7

watson

Answer 7

• founder of behaviourism
• behaviours > consciousness
  disagreed with wundt’s “analytical introspection” in favor of classical conditioning
• little albert!

Question 8

classical conditioning

Answer 8

learning based on a paired associated stimulus (ie. dog and bell experiment)

Question 9

skinner

Answer 9

• focused on operant conditioning
• wrote a book on verbal behaviour

Question 10

operant conditioning

Answer 10

• stimulus-response relationship based learning
• behaviour increasing/decreasing based on reward/consequences

Question 11

tolman

Answer 11

• development of the “cognitive map” concept
• rat and mazes experiment

Question 12

tolman’s rat experiment

Answer 12

1. rat explored the maze
2. 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
3. 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

Question 13

cherry

Answer 13

• directed attention study

Question 14

cherry’s directed attention study

Answer 14

1. participants presented with two different auditory messages in each ear
2. participant asked to attend to one ear’s message
3. found that when participants focused on the attended message, they could hear the sounds of the other message but were unaware of its contents

Question 15

computers

Answer 15

• used in research laboratories
• information-processing approach
• computers processing in stages used as a metaphor for how the mind processes information

Question 16

information-processing approach

Answer 16

“the operation of the mind can be described as occurring in a number of stages”

Question 17

ai conferences

Answer 17

• 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

Question 18

broadbent

Answer 18

• first diagram of the mind

Question 19

chomsky

Answer 19

• 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

Question 20

niesser

Answer 20

• wrote the first cognitive psychology textbook
• vision and hearing, memory retention, thinking and problem solving

Question 21

what niesser wrote: vision and hearing

Answer 21

• 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

Question 22

what niesser wrote: memory retention

Answer 22

• the intake of information and how long people can remember

Question 23

what niesser wrote: thinking and problem solving

Answer 23

• “higher mental processes” such as thinking, problem solving and long-term remembering

Question 24

atkinson and shiffrin

Answer 24

• model of memory
• sensory memory, short-term memory and long-term memory

Question 25

sensory memory

Answer 25

holds incoming memory for a fraction of a second and then passes information

Question 26

short-term memory

Answer 26

• has limited capacity
• holds information for seconds
• some information can be transferred into long-term with rehearsal

Question 27

long-term memory

Answer 27

• 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)

Question 28

tulving

Answer 28

• divided long-term memory into 3 components
• episodic, semantic and procedural memory

Question 29

episodic memory

Answer 29

memory of life events (ie. what you did last weekend)

Question 30

semantic memory

Answer 30

memory of facts (ie. capital cities of provinces)

Question 31

procedural memory

Answer 31

memory of physical actions (ie. how to ride a bike or play the piano)