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PSYC 221 > Intro/History > Flashcards

Intro/History Flashcards

1
Q

cognitive psychology

A

the branch of psychology concerned with the specific study of the mind

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2
Q

mind

A

the system that creates mental perceptions of the world and controls mental functions

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3
Q

cognition

A

what is going on in the mind

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4
Q

Franciscus Donders

A

did one of the first experiments that today would be called a cognitive psychology experiment in 1868

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5
Q

reaction time

A

how long it takes to respond to the presentation of a stimulus

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6
Q

Franciscus Donders’s experiment

A

measured decision-making time by comparing simple reaction time (pressing a button when a light flashes) with choice reaction time (pushing left or right button)

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7
Q

mental responses cannot be ____ but must be ____ from ____

A
  • measured directly
  • inferred
  • behaviour
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8
Q

Who founded the first psychology laboratory, and when?

A

Wilhelm Wundt in 1879

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9
Q

structuralism

A

our overall experience is determined by combining basic elements of experience called sensations

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10
Q

Wundt wanted to create a

A

periodic table of the mind

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11
Q

analytic introspection

A

trained subjects describe their experiences and thoughts in response to stimuli

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12
Q

when was structuralism abandoned

A

early 1900’s

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13
Q

what was Hermann Ebbinghaus interested in?

A

determining the nature of memory and forgetting, specifically how rapidly learned information is lost over time

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14
Q

how did Ebbinghaus study memory?

A

calculated savings based on how long it took for him to learn a list of syllables compared to how long it took him to re-learn them after forgetting

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15
Q

savings (memory)

A

(time it takes to learn) - (time it takes to re-learn)

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16
Q

what does the savings curve show?

A

memory drops rapidly for the first 2 days after the initial learning and then levels off

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17
Q

who was William James?

A
  • American psychologist focused on functionalism
  • taught first psychology class at Harvard in 1890
  • studied and wrote a book on the operations of his own mind
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18
Q

what was one of the reasons why psychology rejected the study of mental processes?

A

negative reaction to Wundt’s technique of analytic introspection

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19
Q

what point of view did Watson propose and why?

A

Behaviourism, because he was not satisfied with introspection and wanted to study only things we can objectively observe

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20
Q

Watson’s most famous experiment

A

the Little Albert experiment, where a baby formed a negative association with rats after the pairing of a rat and a loud noise

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21
Q

What type of study did B.F. Skinner introduce?

A

operant conditioning, which focuses on how behaviour is strengthened by the presentation of positive reinforcers

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22
Q

What did Skinner and Watson have in common?

A

they both focused solely on determining how behaviour was controlled by stimuli

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23
Q

Tolman was one of the early ______ because he used behaviours to _______

A
  • cognitive psychologists

- infer mental processes

24
Q

Tolman’s experiment with rats showed that

A

they created a cognitive map of the maze they were in

25
Q

Chomsky believed that language is ____, while Skinner believed that language is _____

A
  • innate

- learned through reinforcement

26
Q

Chomsky’s theory of language showed psychologists that

A

one cannot understand complex cognition through observation of behaviour alone

27
Q

when was the cognitive revolution?

A

1950’s

28
Q

what is the information-processing approach and what inspired it

A
  • an approach that believes the operation of the mind can be described as occurring in a number of stages
  • inspired by computers’ information processing stages
29
Q

William James’s idea of attention

A

when we decide to attend to one thing, we must withdraw from other things

30
Q

Who proposed the first flow diagram of the mind?

A

Thomas Broadbent

31
Q

who inspired the first idea of artificial intelligence?

A

John McCarthy in the early 1950’s

32
Q

what is the logic theorist and who created it?

A
  • a program that created proofs of mathematical theorems that involved principles of logic
  • Simon and Newell created it
33
Q

Miller’s idea of the mind’s capacity

A

the human mind’s processing limit is 7 items plus/minus 2

34
Q

what year is considered the birthday of cognitive science?

A

1956

35
Q

who coined the term cognitive psychology?

A

Ulrich Neisser

36
Q

the path of research in cognitive psychology is fueled by

A

asking questions

37
Q

structural model

A

represent structures in the brain

38
Q

process models

A

illustrate how a process operates

39
Q

sensory memory holds information for _____ and then passes most of this information to _____

A
  • a fraction of a second

- short-term memory

40
Q

episodic memory

A

memory of events in your life

41
Q

semantic memory

A

memory of facts

42
Q

procedural memory

A

memory for physical actions

43
Q

origins of “cognition’

A
  • gnosco (Greek “to know”) emphasizes structure

- gogito (Latin “I think”) emphasizes process

44
Q

structure/representation

A

the knowledge you possess; the information in your memory

45
Q

static vs dynamic structures

A

constant vs changing

46
Q

process

A

an operation on an external stimulus or on an internal representation (doing something to a representation)

47
Q

performance

A

the observable behaviour that we must use as evidence of cognition, is not a perfect representation of what’s going on in the mind

48
Q

Diogenes of Apollonia

A
  • idea that the different senses integrate information

- theory of air as the vehicle for cognition

49
Q

Aristotle

A
  • tabula rasa = blank slate

- 380 B.C.

50
Q

Plato vs Aristotle view of particulars

A
  • Plato thought that particulars are imperfect versions of a universal idea
  • Aristotle thought that the universal idea is in each particular
51
Q

doctrine of association

A
  • contiguity (happen together)
  • similarity
  • contrast
52
Q

psychophysics

A

the systematic study of the relation between the physical characteristics of stimuli and the sensations that they produce

53
Q

Titchener’s goal

A

find the structural elements of the mind

54
Q

James-Lange theory

A

physical responses cause psychological feelings

55
Q

theory

A

system of explanatory ideas that helps us describe and understand a complex domain

56
Q

the scientific method requires

A
  • careful consideration of the research question
  • strict use of experimental controls
  • be as objective as possible with the data
  • external verification

PSYC 221 (8 decks)

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