History of Cognition (Level 4) Flashcards
What is cognitive psychology?
A discipline that deals with the mind, the brain & behaviour.
What is the mind?
Fire, spirit, the soul, consciousness, intellect, Anima (Greeks), Ātman (Hindu philosophy), Dasein (German philosophy) & experience.
Is there a good definition, or is there no good definition, of cognition?
There is no good definition of cognition
What does the definition of cognition depend on?
One’s philosophical stance
What is cognition about?
Knowing
What is cognition inherently?
The relation between the ‘knower’ & the ‘known’
Who were 2 pre-Socratic philosophers?
Heraclitus (500 BC) & Parmenides of Elea (5th century BC)
What did Heraclitus believe?
That things are constantly changing (universal flux); that reality exists & persists by the constant change of its parts.
What did Heraclitus say?
That you can step in the same river, but not the same water.
What did Parmenides of Elea write?
A complex metaphysical poem
What did Parmenides of Elea believe in?
Universal stasis (to exist is not to change)
What did both Heraclitus & Parmenides of Elea believe?
That to know something, that something should persist.
When was Aristotle alive?
Between 384 & 322 BCE
What did Aristotle devise?
A method of correct reasoning (logic)
What is logic?
An argument where certain things are laid down & others follow out of necessity in virtue of their being so.
What use deductive reasoning to arrive at a conclusion that’s based on 2 or more propositions that are assumed to be true?
Syllogisms
What requires the conviction of universal truths/ constants?
Logic
What are Aristotle’s laws on remembrance & recall?
The law of contiguity, the law of frequency, the law of similarity & the law of contrast
What was Aristotle’s law of contiguity?
That things/ events that occur close together in space/ time tend to get linked together in the mind.
What was Aristotle’s law of frequency?
The more often 2 things/ events are linked, the more powerful the association between them will be.
What was Aristotle’s law of similarity?
If 2 things are similar, the thought of 1 will tend to trigger the thought of the other.
What was Aristotle’s law of contrast?
Seeing/ recalling something may also trigger the recollection of something completely opposite.
When did Rene Descartes live?
Between 1596 & 1650
Who was Rene Descartes?
A rationalist (& catholic) who wanted to establish a foundation for truth & “certain” knowledge.
What did Rene Descartes believe?
That the perceived world is illusory
What was Rene Descartes’ second meditation (7:25)?
“So after considering everything very thoroughly, I must finally conclude that this proposition: I am; I exist, is necessarily true whenever it is put forward by me or conceived in my mind”
Which problem presents itself in relation to cognition?
The “I” (the soul/ cogito/ mind) is durable, however, the mental phenomena & the physical structures on which it depends seem qualitatively different.
What was the reasoning behind the dualist approach?
That the “mental” & the “physical” are made of different “stuff”.
What interact?
The “mental” & the “physical”
What creates the mind-body problem for substance dualism?
The “mental” & the “physical” being made of different “stuff”.
How did Descartes view the body?
As a mechanical system that obeys physical laws.
What did Newton (1642 - 1727) provide that became the foundation of the Enlightenment?
The Natural Law of Motion
Who were the founders of empiricism?
John Locke (1632 - 1704, English), George Berkely (1685 - 1753, Irish), & David Hume (1711 - 1776, Scottish)
Whose views were empiricist views contrary to?
Those of Descartes
What is the belief behind empiricism?
That all knowledge is grounded in the experience of the world mediated by the senses.
What was Molyneux’s question?
Whether a man born blind, but able to distinguish between 2 distinct shapes by feeling them with his hands, would be able to distinguish them by sight alone, without also touching them, if he was suddenly able to see.
How was associationism viewed during the Enlightenment?
Associations were seen as being part of passive reason (not active reason, e.g. abstraction)
What did Locke assume during the Enlightenment?
That complex ideas form for associating simple ideas & reflections.
What was Hume’s belief?
That all coherence was due to the laws of resemblance & contiguity.
What is the main difference between rationalism & empiricism?
Rationalists believe that you do not need to engage with the environment to gain knowledge, while empiricists believe that you do.
Do rationalists/ empiricists believe that we have innate knowledge?
Rationalists
Do rationalists/ empiricists believe that are born “tabula rasa”?
Empiricists
Do rationalists/ empiricists believe in reason & deduction?
Rationalists
Do rationalists/ empiricists believe in inference & induction?
Empiricists
Do rationalists/ empiricists believe in certainty?
Rationalists
Do rationalists/ empiricists believe that a proposition is knowable a priori?
Rationalists
Do rationalists/ empiricists believe in tentative knowledge?
Empiricists
Do rationalists/ empiricists believe that a proposition is knowable a posteriori?
Empiricists
When did Immanuel Kant live?
Between 1724 & 1804.
Who attempted to synthesise the insights of rationalist & empiricist views?
Immanuel Kant
Who regarded space & time as a prior of experience, & grounding the notion of cause & effect?
Immanuel Kant
Who believed that the natural laws could not be applied to living creatures (including humans)?
Immanuel Kant
What was Immanuel Kant’s conclusion based on his belief that the natural laws could not be applied to living creatures (including humans)?
That psychology as an exact science is not possible.
What was the basis of Immanuel Kant’s concept of the transcendental subject?
That we can never know about the world in itself, as all of our information is relayed through our senses; therefore, we have no direct knowledge of the world, and any knowledge that we do have is limited by our senses.
Why did Immanuel Kant believe that the objective study of the mind was impossible?
Because of his concept of the transcendental subject.
When was John Stuart Mill alive?
Between 1806 & 1873.
Which reach was extended by John Stuart Mill?
The associationist reach
What did John Stuart Mill believe?
That a sensory impression causes a mental representation (idea/ image), & that if 2 stimuli are presented together repeatedly, they create an association in the mind.
Who believed that the intensity of 2 stimuli that are repeatedly presented together could serve the same function as repetition?
John Stuart Mill
Who believed that associations can have different attributes from individual parts?
John Stuart Mill
Who argued (going beyond Hume) that through generalisation more knowledge could be gained beyond experience?
Mill
What does Mill’s scientific method/ hypothetico-deductive method suggest?
That one observes data & through the inductive process develops an understanding of how to explain the data.
What is an advantage of there having been successful application of the scientific method in various psychological domains?
That there have also been practical spinoffs (such as technological spinoffs).
In what sense are animals & humans on a continuum?
In a physical sense
Which view could be seen as heretical?
The view of animals & humans being on a mental continuum.
Is behaviour objectively/ subjectively measurable?
It’s objectively measurable
Is experience objectively/ subjectively measurable?
It’s subjectively measurable
What are 2 things that could be measured via psychological studies?
Behaviour & experience
What does assuming that the physical entity produces both behaviour & experience mean?
That the soul comes from the body.
When did Hermann von Helmholtz first measure the speed of neural signal transmission?
In 1849
What is the average speed of neural signal transmission?
30 m/ sec
When did Gustav Fechner publish “Elemente der Psychophysik”, seeking to quantitatively relate measurable quantities to sensations?
In 1860
When did Wilhelm Wundt establish the first experimental psychology laboratory in Leipzig, Germany?
In 1879.
What were the early research methods?
Pure analytical reasoning (armchair work), psychophysics, experimentation & introspection.
Which important influence has never been adopted as a scientific approach?
The influence of psychodynamics
Which relation does psychodynamics aim to establish?
The lawful relation between measurable properties such as frequency, & perceived properties such as pitch.
