History, Methods, & Paradigms

Question 1

Cognitive Psychology

Answer 1

How sensory input is acquired, transformed, reduced, elaborated, stored, recovered, and used
Mental life
Attention, perception, pattern recognition, memory

Question 2

Empiricism

Answer 2

Locke, Hume, Stuart Mill
Knowledge comes from an individual’s own experiences/learning
Mental association

Question 3

Nativism

Answer 3

Plato, Descartes, Kant
Emphasizes role of that which is innate
Certain functions of the minds are attributed to innate structures and are present in rudimentary forms at birth (e.g. short term memory)

Question 4

Mental Association

Answer 4

Component of Empiricism
Two distinct ideas or experiences can be joined in the mind if they are presented at the same time

Question 5

Structuralism

Answer 5

Baldwin & Wundt
Establish science of mind to explain conscious experience (elements of mind)
Every conscious experience could be broken down into 4 elements: mode (auditory, visual), quality (colour, shape, texture), intensity, duration
Method: introspection
Want to study mental phenomena in the lab

Question 6

Functionalism

Answer 6

William James
Wanted to know why the mind worked in certain ways
Method: introspection in natural settings
Draw from Darwinian concepts of evolution

Question 7

Introspection

Answer 7

Not internal perception but experimental self observation
Must be done in laboratory under controlled conditions
Report on the basic elements of consciousness
Present highly trained observers with stimuli and ask them to describe their experience

Question 8

Behaviourism

Answer 8

Watson & Skinner & Tolman
Prediction and control of behaviour
Inspired by problems with functionalism
Classical & instrumental conditioning
Emphasis on learning (relation between input and output)

Question 9

Edward Tolman & Behaviourism

Answer 9

Even rats have goals and expectations
Rats learning mazes have the goal of food and have internal representation of maze

Question 10

Gestalt Psychology

Answer 10

Wertheimer, Koffka, Kohler
Focus on the holistic aspects of conscious experience (wholes not parts)
How do people impose structure and order on their experiences
Psychological phenomena can not be reduced to the simple elements but have to studied in their entirety
Mainly study perception and problem solving
Rejected structuralism, functionalism, and behaviourism
Method: introspection

Question 11

Individual Differences

Answer 11

Galton
Intelligence, morals, and personality were innate (nativism)
Measured individual differences in cognitive faculties
Compared individual differences of mental images
Can intellectual talents be inherited (drew on Darwin’s evolution)

Question 12

Cognitive Revolution

Answer 12

Human factors engineering presented new problems
Limited capacity processors
Behaviourism failed to adequately explain language
Localization of function in the brain forced discussion of mind
Development of computers and artificial intelligence gave a dominant metaphor

Question 13

Human Factors Engineering (cognitive revolution)

Answer 13

During war time: equipment design required knowledge of human cognition
Focus: what is the optimal way to design a machine for human use
Person-machine system: machinery operated by a person must be designed to interact with the operators’ physical, cognitive, and motivational capacities
E.g. with planes that had handles for brakes and landing gear too close together

Question 14

Limited Capacity Processors (cognitive revolution)

Answer 14

Humans share similarities with other inanimate communication channels
Can only do so many things at once

Question 15

Behaviourism’s Failure to Explain Language (cognitive revolution)

Answer 15

Skinner (1957): children learn language by imitation and reinforcement (behaviourism)
Chomsky (linguistics, 1959): questioned operant conditioning explanation of language

Children say sentences they never heard before
Children use incorrect grammar even though it is not reinforced
Because parents respond to content and not form of language utterances in children
Generative grammar

Question 16

Localization of Function (cognitive revolution)

Answer 16

Localization of function (Descartes): neural structures supporting a function reside in a certain brain area
Donald Hebb: some functions (ex. perception) are based on cell assemblies

Question 17

Computers & AI as a Metaphor (cognitive revolution)

Answer 17

Computer metaphor: comparison of people’s cognitive activities to a computer
Both have to acquire information, store info using different structures and processes, recode info, manipulate info, etc.

Question 18

Generative Grammar

Answer 18

Underlying implicit system of rules
Not all rules of language are consciously accessible to speakers, rules operate implicitly

Question 19

Hubel & Wiesel (localization of function)

Answer 19

Demonstrated importance of early experience on development of nervous system
Discovered specific cells in the visual cortex of cats specialized to respond to specific kinds of stimuli (orientation of lines, particular shapes)
Kittens experimentally restricted to environment with only horizontal lines would fail to develop ability to perceive vertical lines

Question 20

Cognitive Neuropsychology

Answer 20

Study cognitive deficits in certain brain damaged individuals

Question 21

Patient DF

Answer 21

Could make visually guided motor movements but impaired in spatial vision
Vision for action and vision for perception are different

Question 22

Patient PH

Answer 22

Normal language abilities and short and long term memory
But couldn’t recognize faces (prosopagnosic)

Question 23

Naturalistic Observation

Answer 23

Observer watching people in everyday contexts
Remain unobtrusive to ensure people being observed are comfortable and not performing

Question 24

Ecological Validity

Answer 24

How well the things studied apply in the real world
High in naturalistic observation

Question 25

Experimental Control

Answer 25

Ability to isolate the causes of different behaviours
Low in naturalistic observation

Question 26

Experiment

Answer 26

Experimenter manipulates independent variable(s) and observes how recorded measures (dependent) change

Question 27

Between Subjects Design

Answer 27

Different experimental participants assigned to different experimental conditions and researcher looks at differences between groups

Question 28

Within Subjects Design

Answer 28

Same participants exposed to more than one condition

Question 29

Quasi Experiment

Answer 29

Appear to be experiments but have one or more factors as independent variables (e.g. independent variables that cannot be randomly assigned like age)

Question 30

Paradigm

Answer 30

Body of knowledge structured according to what its proponents consider important
Include assumptions made by investigators
Specify what kinds of experimental methods and measures are appropriate

Question 31

Serial Processing

Answer 31

Cognition assumed to occur in discrete stages

Question 32

Information Processing

Answer 32

Serial processing
Analogy between human cognition and computerized processing of info
Cognition can be thought of as information passing through a system, flow of information through the organism
Info stored symbolically
Rooted in structuralism

Question 33

Connectionist Approach

Answer 33

Items (e.g. a letter, word, meaning) are represented by a pattern of activation
Most connectionist models assume cognition occurs in parallel (many at the same time)
No central processor to direct the flow of information
Draws from structuralism

Question 34

Connectionism

Answer 34

Cognition as a network of connections among simple processing units
Sometimes called neural networks
Units are connected by weights that are modifiable by learning
Each unit has a level of activation at any moment, level of activation depends on input
Positively weighted connection causes one unit to excite and negative weighted connection does the opposite

Question 35

Evolutionary Approach

Answer 35

Humans have specialized areas of competence due to evolution
Cognition is based on a biological system that has evolved over many generations
Mental processes are subject to natural selection

Question 36

Ecological Approach

Answer 36

Jean Lave
Cognitive activities are shaped by culture, context, situation
Eye gaze, head position, body position, and situational context are important cues used to understand scenes and intentional states of others
Influenced by gestalt and functionalist schools