Cognitive Psychology Chapter I (1-8) Flashcards
Definition of cognitive psychology:
The science of mental functions (implies empirical research)
Areas of cog psy:
Perception, attention, action, thinking, reasoning, memory, problem solving, decision making, language
What was passed down from behaviorism to cognitive psychology?
Very rigor empirical methods.
Cognitive Psychology as it is defined in the book:
Cognitive Psychology is the study of how people perceive, learn, remember and think about information.
The progression of ideas often invloves a dialectic. What is meant by dialectic?
A developmental process:
Thesis - Antithesis - Synthesis
The dialectical progress of ideas was first described by …
Hegel (1770 - 1831)
A rationalist believes …
… that the route to knowledge is through logical analysis.
A empiricist believes …
… that we acquire knowledge via empirical evidence.
A famous French rationalist:
René Descartes (1596 - 1650)
A famous British empiricist:
John Locke (1632 - 1704)
Locke’s tabula rasa stands for which believe?
Humans are born without knowledge and therefore must seek knowledge through empirical observation.
Who synthesized Locke’s empiricism and Descartes rationalism?
Kant (1724 - 1804)
An example of an early dialectic in the history of psychology:
Structuralism vs. Functionalism
A famous proponent of Structuralism:
Wilhelm Wundt (1832 - 1920)
One of the methods Wundt used in his research:
Introspection
A Wundt student that helped to bring Structuralism to the US:
Edward Titchener
Structuralism seeks to …
… understand the structure of the mind and its perceptions by analyzing those perceptions into their constituent components.
Functionalism focuses on _______ and seeks to …
Functionalism focuses on PROCESSES rather than content and seeks to understand how and why the mind works as it does.
Did functionalists use a unifying method?
No!
Pragmatism believes that knowledge is validated by its …
… usefulness! (What can you do with it?)
Who was a leader in guiding functionalism toward pragmatism?
William James (1842 - 1910)
William James’ landmark book:
Principles of Psychology (1890)
Another early pragmatist (besided James) was …
He is remebered primarily for his pragmatic approach to …
… John Dewey (1859 - 1952).
.. thinking and schooling.
Another influencial way of thinking was Ass…
.. Associationism.
Associationism studies how events/ideas can become …
… associated.
Example for an associationist (with E):
Hermann Ebbinghaus (1850 - 1909)
Associations may result from:
- contiguity (associating things that tend to occur together)
- similarity
- contrast
One of Ebbinghaus findings:
Rehearsal fixes mental associations more firmly.
Example for an associationist (with T):
Edward Lee Thorndike (1874 - 1949)
Thorndike’s Law of Effect (1905):
A stimulus will tend to produce a certain response over time if an organism is rewarded for that respons.
What is contiguity?
A contiguity is a continuous mass, or a series of things in contact or in proximity.
