Cognitive Psychology Chapter I (8-12)

Question 1

What did contemporary researchers of Thorndike use that led from Associationism to Behaviorism?

Answer 1

Animal Experiments to probe stimulus-response relationships

Question 2

Russian Nobel Prize winning physiologist:

Answer 2

Ivan Pavlov (1849 - 1936)

Question 3

Effective conditioning requires …

Answer 3

… contingency (eg. between food and conditioned stimulus)

Question 4

The “father” of radical behaviorism:

Answer 4

John Watson (1878 - 1958)

Question 5

According to John Watson psychologists should concentrate only on …

Answer 5

… observable behavior.

Question 6

According to John Watson thinking is mere ..

Answer 6

.. subvocalized speech.

Question 7

Who believed that all forms of human behavior could be explained by behavior emitted in reaction to the environment?

Answer 7

Burrhus Frederic Skinner (1904 - 1990)

Question 8

Behaviorism dominated psychology for decades largely because of:

Answer 8

Burrhus Frederic Skinner (1904 - 1990)

Question 9

Who started to peak into the “black box” by highlighting the importance of the purpose and the plan for behavior?

Answer 9

Edward Tolman (1886 - 1959)

Question 10

Sometimes viewed as a forefather of cognitive psychology:

Answer 10

Edward Tolman (1886 - 1959)

Question 11

The fact that learning through observation (social learning) is possible is used as another criticism of …

Answer 11

… behaviorism.

Question 12

What maxim can be said to sum up the Gestalt perspective?

Answer 12

“The whole differs from the sum of its parts” (To understand the perception of a flower, for example, we would have to take into account the whole of the experience.)

Question 13

What does Cognitivism have in common with Gestaltism?

Answer 13

The emphasize lies on internal mental processes.

Question 14

What does Cognitivism have in common with Behaviorism?

Answer 14

The use of precise quantitative measures and analysis.

Question 15

Who challenged the behaviorist view that the human brain is a passive organ responding to environmental stimuli?

Answer 15

the Watson student Karl Spencer Lashley (1890 - 1958)

Question 16

Lashley considered the brain to be …

Answer 16

… active and dynamic.

Question 17

Who and when proposed cell assemblies as the basis of learning?

Answer 17

Donald Hebb 1949

Question 18

Skinner wrote a book (1957) on how language acquisition and usage could be explained purely in terms of environmental contingencies. What happened next?

Answer 18

This book stretched Skinner’s framework too far and Noam Chomsky (1959) wrote a scathing review of Skinner’s ideas.

Question 19

One notion Chomsky used to smash Skinner’s ideas:

Answer 19

The ability to produce an infinite number of sentences that could not have been learned by reinforcement.

Question 20

What is the name (and abbreviation) of the internal structure that guides our acquisition of language?

Answer 20

language acquisition device (LAD)

Question 21

When did Turing propose his Turing test?

Answer 21

1950

Question 22

Name one of the most famous early articles of cognitive psychology!

Answer 22

“the magic number seven” - George Miller (1956)

Question 23

What was (among other) introduced in Miller’s “the magic number seven”?

Answer 23

the concept of “channel capacity”

Question 24

How did Ulric Neisser define cognitive psychology in his book “Cognitive Psychology”?

Answer 24

The study of how people learn, structure, store and use knowledge/information.

Question 25

Who proposed detailed models of human thinking in 1972?

Answer 25

Allen Newell and Herbert A. Simon

Question 26

Who and when did popularize the concept of modularity of mind?

Answer 26

Jerry Fodor (1973)

Question 27

What does the modularity of mind by Fodor imply?

Answer 27

Modularity implies that processes are domain specific and operate independently of processes in other domains.

Question 28

The idea of modularity can be traced back to …

Answer 28

… phrenologist Franz-Joseph Gall. Phrenology: the detailed study of the shape and size of the cranium as a supposed indication of character and mental abilities.