Early Work in Cognitive Psych Flashcards
Exam 1
What did Donders bring to the psych world?
He measured how long it takes a person to make a decision. This was the first ever cognitive psych experiment.
What is reaction time? *
The interval between a presentation of a stimulus and a person’s response
What was Donders conclusion?
Mental responses cannot be measured directly but must be inferred from behavior.
Donders Hypothesis (math)
Choice RT - Simple RT = Time of Decisions
What did Wundt bring to the psych world?
Established the first-ever psych lab in Leipzig, Germany. Developed the approach “structuralism”.
What is structuralism?
Overall experience is determined by combining basic elements of experience called sensations.
What did Ebbinghaus bring to the psych world?
He quantified mental measures. He read lists of nonsense syllables to determine the number of repetitions necessary to be perfect.
Ebbinghaus Conclusion
Short break intervals = less time to memorize
Long break intervals = more time to memorize
What are savings?
Original time to learn list - Time to relearn the list after the first delay.
What is the purpose of savings?
It illustrates the forgetting curve.
What did William James bring to the psych world?
Taught the first psychology course at Harvard. He also published the first psychology textbook called Principles of Psychology.
What did William James study?
Observations were based on functions of his mind, not experiments. Dabbled in topics of cognition, language, and attention
What did John Watson bring to the psych world?
He founded behaviorism.
What are the problems with the analytic introspection method?
- Extremely variable results per person
- Results difficult to verify due to focus on invisible inner mental processes.
What were the goals of behaviorism?
- Eliminate the mind as a topic of study
- Study directly observable behavior
What did Watson and Rayner bring to the psych world?
The “Little Albert” Experiment
The “Little Albert” Experiment
9-month-old Albert became frightened by a rat after a loud noise was paired with seeing the rat.
What was the Conclusion of “Little Albert?”
Examined how pairing on stimulus with another affected behavior. Demonstrated that behavior can be analyzed without any reference to the mind
What kind of conditioning did “Little Albert” use?*
Classical Conditioning
What is classical conditioning?
Pair a neutral event with an event that naturally produces an outcome. After Pairings, Neutral event will develop an outcome.
Pavlov’s experiment
Meat = Saliva
Bell no response
Pair the two together and the bell produces saliva after a while.
What did B.F. Skinner bring to the psych world?
Operant Conditioning- Shape behavior by rewards or punishment
What did Tolman bring to the psych world?
Proved that cognitive maps exist through rats finding food in a four-armed maze.
Skinner’s Verbal Behavior
Argued Children learn language through operant conditioning.
