history Flashcards
what is cognition?
the act of thinking and how it affects our behaviours
what is rationalism and who is associated with this school of thought
our knowledge requires prior knowledge and plato is associated with it
what is empiricism and who is associated with it
learn from what you see, aristotle
focusing on basic elements of thought and how they combine to form complex thoughts describes what?
structuralism
measuring the threshold for feeling the touch of a feather describes what?
psychophysics
Wilhelm Wundt followed what school of thought and practiced what?
structuralism, experimental introspection
what exactly did Edward Thitchener study?
how complex thoughts can be broken down into parts
what is functionalism, who is the leader of it, and what is a criticism of it?
focuses on why the mind works and the usefulness of knowledge, William James, hard to study if cognition is always changing
what is behaviourism and what is a criticism of it
behaviours are acquired through conditioning, it does not explain cognitive phenomenons like learning language in which children are not conditioned
what does information processing state?
our mind works like a computer. we perform computations and the more time it takes the longer the task takes the more energy we expend
what is information processing theory?
we process information to reduce uncertainty
what is hick’s law?
the more options makes for more information processing thus the task takes longer
a mentally taxing task affecting subsequent cognitive tasks describes what?
decision fatigue
A person’s knowledge will affect their perception of the environment describes what?
neisser’s perpetual cycle
Recognizes the benefit of standard lab test, but suggests that these alone will not result in ecologically valid theories of cognition describes what
cognitive ethology
