Early Work in Cognitive Psych

Question 1

What did Donders bring to the psych world?

Answer 1

He measured how long it takes a person to make a decision. This was the first ever cognitive psych experiment.

Question 1

What is reaction time? *

Answer 1

The interval between a presentation of a stimulus and a person’s response

Question 2

What was Donders conclusion?

Answer 2

Mental responses cannot be measured directly but must be inferred from behavior.

Question 3

Donders Hypothesis (math)

Answer 3

Choice RT - Simple RT = Time of Decisions

Question 4

What did Wundt bring to the psych world?

Answer 4

Established the first-ever psych lab in Leipzig, Germany. Developed the approach “structuralism”.

Question 5

What is structuralism?

Answer 5

Overall experience is determined by combining basic elements of experience called sensations.

Question 6

What did Ebbinghaus bring to the psych world?

Answer 6

He quantified mental measures. He read lists of nonsense syllables to determine the number of repetitions necessary to be perfect.

Question 7

Ebbinghaus Conclusion

Answer 7

Short break intervals = less time to memorize

Long break intervals = more time to memorize

Question 8

What are savings?

Answer 8

Original time to learn list - Time to relearn the list after the first delay.

Question 9

What is the purpose of savings?

Answer 9

It illustrates the forgetting curve.

Question 10

What did William James bring to the psych world?

Answer 10

Taught the first psychology course at Harvard. He also published the first psychology textbook called Principles of Psychology.

Question 11

What did William James study?

Answer 11

Observations were based on functions of his mind, not experiments. Dabbled in topics of cognition, language, and attention

Question 12

What did John Watson bring to the psych world?

Answer 12

He founded behaviorism.

Question 13

What are the problems with the analytic introspection method?

Answer 13

1. Extremely variable results per person
2. Results difficult to verify due to focus on invisible inner mental processes.

Question 14

What were the goals of behaviorism?

Answer 14

1. Eliminate the mind as a topic of study
2. Study directly observable behavior

Question 15

What did Watson and Rayner bring to the psych world?

Answer 15

The “Little Albert” Experiment

Question 16

The “Little Albert” Experiment

Answer 16

9-month-old Albert became frightened by a rat after a loud noise was paired with seeing the rat.

Question 17

What was the Conclusion of “Little Albert?”

Answer 17

Examined how pairing on stimulus with another affected behavior. Demonstrated that behavior can be analyzed without any reference to the mind

Question 18

What kind of conditioning did “Little Albert” use?*

Answer 18

Classical Conditioning

Question 19

What is classical conditioning?

Answer 19

Pair a neutral event with an event that naturally produces an outcome. After Pairings, Neutral event will develop an outcome.

Question 20

Pavlov’s experiment

Answer 20

Meat = Saliva
Bell no response
Pair the two together and the bell produces saliva after a while.

Question 21

What did B.F. Skinner bring to the psych world?

Answer 21

Operant Conditioning- Shape behavior by rewards or punishment

Question 22

What did Tolman bring to the psych world?

Answer 22

Proved that cognitive maps exist through rats finding food in a four-armed maze.

Question 23

Skinner’s Verbal Behavior

Answer 23

Argued Children learn language through operant conditioning.

Question 24

What did Chomsky bring to the psych world?

Answer 24

Language must be determined by inborn biological program.

Question 25

What does it take to study the mind?

Answer 25

1. Measure observable behavior
2. Make inferences about underlying cognitive activity
3. Consider what this behavior says about how the mind works

Question 26

What is the information-processing approach?

Answer 26

A way to study the mind based on insights associated with the digital computer. States that the operation of the mind occurs in stages.

Question 27

What did Cherry bring to the psych world?

Answer 27

He built on James’s idea of attention.

Question 28

What did Broadbent bring to the psych world?

Answer 28

Developed a flow diagram to show what occurs as a person directs attention to one stimulus

Question 29

What was Cherry’s experiment?

Answer 29

Presented separate messages in separate ears. Found that subjects could understand message A while also hearing message B

Question 30

What was Broadbent’s conclusion?

Answer 30

Unattended information does not pass through the filter

Question 31

What did Neisser bring to the psych world?

Answer 31

Wrote the first cognitive psychology textbook

Question 32

What did Atkinson and Shiffrin bring to the psych world?

Answer 32

Developed the three-stage model of memory

Question 33

Three-Stage Model of Memory

Answer 33

1. Sensory memory
2. STM
3. LTM

Question 34

What did Tolvin bring to the psych world?

Answer 34

Broke LTM into episodic, semantic, and procedural memories

Question 35

What is neuropsychology? *

Answer 35

Studies behavior of people with brain damage

Question 36

5 ways that showed the rise of cognitive psychology

Answer 36

Chomsky’s language acquisition, behaviorism limitations, cognitive mapping, development of the computer, development of tech