Introduction to Cognitive Psychology Flashcards
What is Allgemeine Psychologie?
(Foundation)
Allgemeine Psychologie
= Psychological functions that are common to all humans
-> internationally also Cognitive Psychology
= Scientific study of the mind
What is the mind?
(Foundation)
= A system that creates and controls mental functions such as…
-> Perception
-> Attention
-> Memory
-> Emotions
-> Emotions
-> Language
-> Deciding
-> Thinking
-> Reasoning
=> The mind creates representations of the world to act within it and achieve our goals
What is the importance of understanding the mind in real life?
(Foundation)
=> Basic research can have important implications for various real-world applications
Education and Learning
-> How do we acquire, remember and transfer knowledge?
Car design and traffic psychology
What is the capacity of our cognitive system?
How is psychology as a scientific discipline defined?
(Foundation)
Rationalism:
-> Acquire knowledge through thinking and logical analysis
Empiricism:
-> Acquire knowledge via empirical evidence (experience, observation)
What can be considered as the first psychological experiment?
(History)
How long does it take to make a decision?
Franciscus Donders (1868)
-> pioneer of the a “method to make the mind measurable”
Zeitgeist:
-> “The mind cannot study itself”
->”Properties of the mind cannot be measured”
Experiment
reaction time task
-> Simple: Press when light flashes
(stimulus detection, response organization, press)
-> Choice: Press left for left or right for right light
(stimulus detection, stimulus discrimination, response organization, press)
Conclusion
Time to make a decision
= Choice RT - Simple RT
= 100 ms
What is the definition of a stimuli?
(Terminology)
= Event or object to which a response is measured
What are the assumptions of Donders’ (1868) subtractive logic?
(History)
-> Mental operations occur in dicrete (seperate) stages
-> Stages are independent
-> processing stages can be isolated
-> Each stage takes time to complete
-> steps can be added/removed
=> These assumptions do not (always) hold
=> Showed how mental processes can be measured
by inferring them from behaviour
What ist the experiment showcasing how other mental functions can be inferred from behaviour?
(History)
Hermann Ebbinghaus (1885/1913)
What is the time course of forgetting?
Self-Experiment
-> Learnt lists of nonsense syllables by heart
-> number of attempts counted to recall list correctly
after different intervals of time
Results
-> initial learning: 10 attempts
-> After 19 minutes: 4 attempts = 60% savings
-> After 2 days: 7 attempts: 30% savings
-> After a month: 20% savings stagnation
Conclusion
-> Memory drops within first two days, then levels off
-> Showed memory can be quantified
=> Behaviour measure to determine property of the
mind
What is considered to be the first psychological laboratory?
(History)
Wilhelm Wundt (1879)
University of Leipzig
Assumption:
-> Experience is made up of the basic elements
(sensation)
Goal
-> wanted to create a periodic table of the mind of all sensations
Method
-> Analytic introspection
(participants describing their sensations in response to different stimuli)
-> critic
- Highly subjective
- Difficult to verify
- “invisible” inner mental process
Contribution
-> First laboratory for experimental psychology
(shift from rationalism to empiricism)
-> Controlled Experimental conditions
(repetition, systematic manipulation of stimuli)
-> Trained PhD students
What was the proposal of Behaviourism?
(Behaviourism)
John Watson (1913)
Proposal of behaviourism
-> Dissatisfaction with analytic introspection method
-> Focus on “objectively” observable bahaviour
as a response to stimuli
-> Abandoning the mind as a subject of research
Argument
(Focus on Stimulus -> Response relationships)
Stimulus -> Mind -> Response
(manipulatable -> not observable -> observable)
What is the Process of learning in the field of behaviorism?
(Behaviorism)
John Watson (1913)
Little Albert experiment
-> Classical conditioning on human
(animal with furr conditioned with loud scare sound)
B.F Skinner (1938)
-> Operant conditioning
- Rewards increase behaviour
(positive / negative reinforcement)
-Punishments
(positive / negative punishment)
What deal of influence brought behaviorism about?
(Behaviorism)
Behavioral therapy
-> treating fear using exposure to fear stimuli to “unlearn” conditioned response
Tokens
-> Parents, teachers and therapists use token to reinforce desired behaviour
Animal Training
What is a cognitive map?
(study of the mind)
Edward C. Tolman (1938)
Discovery of cognitive maps
Experiment
-> Rat expores maze
-> Rat learns to turn right for food
-> Rat is place at different location and turns left
Conclusion
-> More than just stimulus-response connection
-> Rat developed a cognitive map
What is verbal behavior?
(study of the mind)
B.F. Skinner (1957)
-> Children learn language trough operant conditioning
-> Childer imitate heard speech
-> Correct speech is repeated because of reward by
parents
Criticism
Noam Chomsky’s
-> Children do not only learn language trough imitation and reinforcement
(Say never heard things / have incorrect grammar)
=> Studying observable behaviour is not enough
When was the cognitive revolution?
(study of the mind)
Cognitive revolution (1950s)
Limitations of behaviorism
-> new interest in understanding the mind
-> computer opearation design as mind template
(stim/input -> processing/Memory -> Output/response)
-mind as sequence of mental processes operated
