L10/11 Gestalt & Cognitive

Question 1

What are some key life particulars about William Madougall?

Answer 1

Always talked about instincts

Very keen on parapsychology and spoke about eugenics (this was not popular)

Got into a lot of debates, was not well liked (pugnacious personality)

Question 2

What position did William Macdougall occupy at Harvard? And how is this linked to William James

Answer 2

he was recruited to occupy the William James chair of psychology at Harvard University in 1920, where he served as a professor of psychology from 1920 to 1927.

Question 3

What is William Macdougall defination of psychology?

How was this different from Wundt’s?

Answer 3

The positive science of the conduct of living creatures.

Did not like introspection or Wundt’s psychology. But wanted to think about cognition, believed we should just study it through behaviour,

Purposive behaviour (believes psychology should focus on this

Question 4

What is purposeful behaviour? (as opposed to reflexive)

Answer 4

1) Spontaneous.
2) In the absence of environmental stimulation, it persists for a relatively long time.
3) It varies. The goal might remain constant, but the behavior used to attain that goal may vary.
4) Terminates when the goal is attained.
5) Becomes more effective with practice.

McDougall highlighted the instinctive nature of purposeful behaviors

Question 5

What are the three components of instincts

Answer 5

• Perception: attuned to pay attention to particular stimuli
• Behaviour: associated behaviour
• Emotion: associated emotion

Eg see snake, run away, feel scared.

Question 6

What do Watson and Mcdougall have to do with each other

Answer 6

Mcdougall proposed his theory as an alternative to Watson and they had a public debate on Feb 5 1924.

They were both very insulting to the other an Watson narrowly won (BC according to Morgs bitches love Watson :P)

Question 7

Who was Max Wertheimer and what were his contributions?

Answer 7

One of the founders of gestalt psychology.

Known for his book, Productive Thinking, and for conceiving the phi phenomenon.

Question 8

Who were the three founders of Gestalt psychology and why did it start?

Answer 8

Max Wertheimer, Kurt Koffka and Wolfgang Köhler.

started because Wertheimer discovered the phenomena that become interesting to Gestalt psychology; the perception of motion on a train

Question 9

What is the phi phenomenon?

Answer 9

is the optical illusion of perceiving a series of still images, when viewed in rapid succession, as continuous motion. `

Question 10

Who was Wolfgang Köhler and what was his contribution?

Answer 10

One of the founders of Gestalt psychology.

Worked with Wertheimer as his RA in 1910-1913

Published a book called the mentality of apes after working with chimps. Looked at problem solving (eg stacking boxes) argued not trial and error rather insightful learning.

Theory about him being a spy. Had problems with the changes in germany (hitler) went to America.

Criticised perceptions researchers & introspection as no objective experiences.

Did not like behaviourism.

Question 11

Who was Kurt Koffka and what were his contributions?

Answer 11

One of the founders of Gestalt psychology.

Worked with Wertheimer as his RA in 1910-1913

chief spokesperson of Gestalt psychology

In the US in the 20’s before the other founders

Attacked Wundt and Titchener

Published several works - including the growth of the mind (1921) & Principles of Gestalt Psychology (1935)

Question 12

What is the Gestalt effect?

Answer 12

The capability of our brain to generate whole forms.

Particularly with respect to the visual recognition of global figures instead of just collections of simpler and unrelated elements (points, lines, curves…)

Question 13

What is Gestalt Theory?

Answer 13

Gestalt psychology tries to understand the laws of our ability to acquire and maintain meaningful perceptions in an apparently chaotic world.

The central principle of gestalt psychology is that the mind forms a global whole with self-organizing tendencies.

Question 14

What is Perceptual constancy?

Answer 14

Perceptual constancy refers to the tendency to perceive an object you are familiar with as having a constant shape, size, and brightness despite the stimuli changes that occur.

Question 15

What are the key points about Kurt Lewin (1890-1947) and who did he study under and work witth?

Answer 15

Studied under Carl Stumpf. PhD from University of Berlin

Influenced and worked with the Gestalt psychologists in Germany

Not so interested in perception; rather tried to apply field theory to explain human behaviour in a general sense.

Question 16

What was Kurt Lewin’s theory of behaviour?

Answer 16

Both nature and nurture interact to shape each person. This idea was presented in the form of Lewin's equation for behaviour B = ƒ(P, E).
B = behaviour
f = function 
P = personality 
E = environment.

Question 17

What does Kurt Lewis have to do with Group Dynamics

Answer 17

Kurt Lewin is commonly identified as the founder of the movement to study groups scientifically.

He coined the term group dynamics in 1947 to describe the way groups and individuals act and react to changing circumstances

Question 18

What are the main principals in the life space when considering field theory

Answer 18

(Kurt Lewin- 1940s)

The idea that an individual’s behavior, at any time, is manifested only within the coexisting factors of the current “life space” or “psychological field” So a life space is the combination of all the factors that influences a person’s behavior at any time.

B = ƒ(P, E).

Question 19

What is the Zeigarnik Effect and what does Kurt Lewin have to do with it?

Answer 19

Zeigarnik effect states that people remember uncompleted or interrupted tasks better than completed tasks.

Bluma Zeigarnik described the Zeigarnik effect in a diploma prepared under the supervision of Kurt Lewin.
Kurt Lewin

Question 20

Name two other Social Psychologists in the gestalt tradition.

Answer 20

Fritz Heider (1896-1988), Solomon Asch (1907-1996)

Question 21

What are three types of conflict that Kurt Lewin spoke about?

Answer 21

Approach motivation: desire to move from one life space to another

Avoidance motivation: desire to move away from one life space to another

Approach-avoidance conflict: want to approach something but you also want to avoid it (e.g. ex-lover)
- This is where stress occurs

Question 22

Name some of the key influences of George Miller

Answer 22

1) organised a symposium on information theory sponsored by MIT on September 10-12, 1956.
2) Miller summarized his research in his influential article, “The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Information” in 1956.
3) At about the same Donald Broadbent was working on similar problems involving information theory and cybernetics in England.
4) one of the founders of the cognitive psychology field. He also contributed to the birth of psycholinguistics and cognitive science in general.

Question 23

What are some of the key features of the MIT symposium in 1956?

Answer 23

During the symposium, Allen Newell and Herbert Simon presented papers on computer logic,

Noam Chomsky (born in 1928) presented his views on language as inherited, rule-governed system, and Miller described his research.

Question 24

What super cool thing did Leon Festinger study and how?

Answer 24

Cognitive dissonance (published a theory of cognitive dissonance in 1957)

Studied under Kurt Lewin.

When prophecy fails: infiltrated a doomsday cult and kept notes when the world didn’t actually end; developed idea of cognitive dissonance but didn’t really explain it.

Question 25

Who is Donald Broadbent and what did he do?

Answer 25

Looked at problems involving information theory and cybernetics in england

bridged the gap between the pre-WWII approach of Sir Frederic Bartlett and what became known as Cognitive Psychology in the late 1960’s.

Question 26

Why is Jerome Bruner (1915- ) important?

Answer 26

In 1955 he assisted Sir Frederic Bartlett in arranging at Cambridge University one of the first conferences in cognitive psychology.

He later published A Study in Thinking, which emphasized the learning of concepts; thought of perception as an active process where schemas help us to understand the world. Aligns with Gestalt psychology but takes a “new look”

Question 27

What key elements is Noam Chomsky most known for?

Answer 27

Published his review of Skinner’s book Verbal Learning (which came out in 1957) in 1959.

Psycholinguist; studied generative grammar ( we have the innate capacity for grammar)

You can create a completely new, spontaneous sentence without any reinforcement at all

Question 28

What are some key achievements of George Miller essential to the cognitive revolution?

Answer 28

In 1960 George Miller and his colleagues Eugene Galanter and Karl Pribram published Plans and the Structure of Behavior.

In 1960 Miller and Jerome Bruner founded the Center for Cognitive Studies at Harvard.

In 1962 Miller purposely used James’s definition as the title of his text Psychology: The Science of Mental Life.

Question 29

When did Donald Hebb serve as the APA president and what was his presidential speech about?

Answer 29

In 1959 and his presidential address The American Revolution was about the psychological revolution.

It was called “The camel already has his nose inside the tent”