Cognitive science Flashcards
History of Cognitive science
What was the goal of structuralism, and what method did it employ?
Structuralism aimed to identify the basic elements or “atoms” of thought through the method of introspection, where individuals would try to describe their conscious experiences in detail
Who developed the idea of functionalism, and what was its central focus?
William James developed functionalism, which focused on understanding the different functions or processes of the mind, such as perceiving, remembering, and imagining, rather than its structures.
What was the central tenet of behaviourism, and who was one of its key proponents?
Behaviourism argued that psychology should focus solely on observable behaviour, as the mind is a “black box” that cannot be studied scientifically. John Watson was a key proponent of behaviourism.
What was the significance of Franciscus Donders’ experiment in 1868?
Donders conducted one of the first psychology experiments to measure the time it takes to make a decision, laying the foundation for experimental methods in cognitive psychology
What did Hermann Ebbinghaus discover through his experiments on human memory?
Ebbinghaus discovered the forgetting curve, which shows how we tend to forget information over time unless it’s reviewed and reinforced, as well as the spacing effect, where distributing practice and review over time leads to better long-term retention.
What factors contributed to the cognitive revolution in the 1940s-1950s?
Factors such as decision-making situations in World War II, information theory, the emergence of artificial intelligence, and Noam Chomsky’s work on language acquisition all contributed to the resurgence of interest in studying the mind.
How did the cognitive approach differ from previous approaches in psychology?
The cognitive approach adopted the experimental methods of behaviourism but used them to study mental processes, rather than just observable behaviour, marking a shift towards understanding the mind’s workings.
What is cognitive science, and why is it considered an interdisciplinary field?
Cognitive science is the study of the mind, and it is considered an interdisciplinary field because it involves contributions from multiple disciplines, such as psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, computer science, and linguistics, to understand the mind’s complexity.
What is the significance of Noam Chomsky’s work in linguistics for cognitive science?
Chomsky’s work demonstrated that children’s language development could not be explained solely by imitation, as they follow internal rules to generate novel sentences they have never heard before, highlighting the importance of language in understanding the mind’s capacity for generating and comprehending complex structures.
How did World War II decision-making situations contribute to the cognitive revolution?
Engineers training radar operators found that people sometimes made mistakes in distinguishing between enemy aircraft and other signals, leading to the development of signal detection theory, which required understanding the thought processes and expectations influencing people’s judgments.
What was the significance of Claude Shannon’s work on information theory for cognitive science?
Shannon’s work on transmitting signals from a sender to a receiver inspired psychologists to think about the mind as an information processing system, with information flowing in, being transformed, and coming out as actions or language.
How did artificial intelligence contribute to the study of the mind in cognitive science?
The emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) created a cross-talk between AI researchers trying to model human-like intelligence and psychologists studying human minds, with AI providing a way to test ideas about how the mind works by creating simplified artificial “minds.”
What was the central idea behind the functionalist approach in the study of the mind?
The functionalist approach focused on understanding the different functions or processes of the mind, such as perceiving, remembering, and imagining, rather than its structures.
Who conducted one of the first experiments on human memory, and what did they discover?
Hermann Ebbinghaus conducted the first experiments on human memory using nonsense syllables, and he discovered the forgetting curve and the spacing effect.
What was the significance of Paul Broca’s work in the mid-1800s?
Paul Broca’s work with patients who had suffered strokes and lost the ability to speak was one of the first discoveries that different parts of the brain are responsible for different functions, laying the groundwork for understanding the brain’s role in cognitive processes.