Lecture 1 Flashcards
Define: Contiguity
Two or more things occurring closely together in time or space (i.e., within three seconds).
List the laws of associationism
1: Law of Similarity
2: Law of Contrast
3: Law of contiguity
4: Law of Frequency
What is the law of similarity?
A thought of something will tend to cause thoughts of similar things.
What is the law of contrast?
A thought of something will tend to cause thoughts of opposite things.
What is the law of contiguity?
A thought of something will tend to cause thoughts of things that were experienced along with it.
What is the law of frequency?
The more often something is experienced the easier it will be to recall it.
Define: Empirical:
Experience. “I know something is true because I experienced it”. It is one of the six methods for obtaining truth.
The psychology of learning is based on:
1: Associationism
2: Reductionism
3: Positivism
4: Materialism
What is Associationism?
Use of the laws of association to explain mental phenomenon, such as learning.
What is the significance of the British Empiricists?
Believed knowledge is complex associations of sensory input joined through contiguity, therefore the study of learning becomes the study of how contiguity operates to produce these associations.
What is Reductionism?
If simple events combine to produce complex events, then we can understand the processes involved by studying the simple events.
So, reduce complex associations to their most basic, easily isolated components.
What is Positivism?
Exclusive reliance on directly observable, scientific facts (i.e., the rejection of all mentalism).
What is Materialism?
Explain everything, including mental phenomenon, using physical principles or laws.
Anything that existed must be physical - even the mind. Therefore, the mind could be explained by physics or the laws of nature. i.e., physical laws.
What is Psychophysical parallelism?
Experiencing the physical world causes both bodily and mental activity; stimuli with no causal relationship between the two.
i.e., 1 input
Define Occasionalism:
The relationship between the mind and body is mediated by God.
