Lecture 1

Question 1

Wihelm Wundt & Structuralism

Answer 1

Used rigorous introspection to study throught. Decomposed thought into simpler components: emotion, perception and sensation.
First attempt to study thought scientifically, but problems with replication, generality of findings and complex cognitions. `

Question 2

Watson, Skinner & Behaviourism

Answer 2

Reaction to limits of introspection. Focus only on the observable causes of behaviour associations between stimuli and response.
Interested in applying pschology.

Question 3

Koffka, Kohler & the Gestalt approach

Answer 3

Reaction to limits of introspection. Focus only on the observable causes of behaviour, associations between stimuli and responses.
Interested in applying psychology.

Question 4

Freud, Adler, Jung, & the Psychodynamic approach.

Answer 4

Reaction to behaviourist approach - focus on the unconscious motivations as causes of behaviour.

Question 5

Cognitive psychology- information processing approach

Answer 5

Rekingled scientific interest in unobservable mental processes (attention, signal and detection).
Behaviourism inadequate to address these issues. New paradigm developed, people seen as active information processors, cognition conceptualised as a series of information processing stages

Question 6

What is the mind/body problem?

Answer 6

Refers to the idea that two people can have the same thought but may have different patterns of neural activity

Question 7

Type identity theory

Answer 7

A mental state is equivalent to a specific pattern of neural events

Question 8

Token identity theory

Answer 8

A mental state maps onto a variety of different neural events

Question 9

Functionalism

Answer 9

Draws a distinction between:
structure of mental state (neural activity)
Function of a mental state (the consequences of a mental state)

Question 10

What is the essence of cognitive psychology?

Answer 10

About developing a functional explanation of mental processes

Question 11

Use the eye as an example of how brains are like computer hardware and cognition is software.

Answer 11

Image viewed by eye
Cognitive system processes the information
Output through actions

Question 12

Sensory information is transformed into internal representation:

Answer 12

Cognition refers to the processing of internal representations
Cognitive psychology is concerned with understanding the processes (Software)

Question 13

Describe the computational metaphor

Answer 13

The mind contains symbolic representations:
something that stands for or represents something else e.g. in computers binary numbers represent specific pieces of information
There is a limited and well-defined set of symbols
These symbolic representations are stored in memory

Question 14

How is cognition the product of operations?

Answer 14

Internal processes that act on symbolic representations
In computers these are functions (copy, insert)
Operations are deployed according to rules that are also stored in memory

Question 15

What are the three levels of description?

Answer 15

Computational theory
Representation and algorithm level
Hardware level

Question 16

Computational theory level

Answer 16

Functions of cognition and what cognition is for

Question 17

Representation and algorithm level

Answer 17

We create a memory which is an internal representation that can be modified using algorithms

Question 18

Hardware level

Answer 18

Attention (mental process of selecting one out of several possible inputs)

Question 19

Marr & modularity

Answer 19

human cognition is composed of multiple sub-components or modules. Each module has a specific function and process. 
Cognitive activity is comprised of activation of several independent modules e.g. naming a face may draw on a visual module, memory module and a linguistic module 
Damage to one module may not necessarily effect processing in other modules
Modules are similar across all humans

Question 20

Fodor and modularity

Answer 20

Distinction between input systems and central processors.
Input/output systems:
Process incoming sensory information
Transfer information to central processors
Domain specific (only process a particular class of information)

Central processor:
makes decisions
plans actions
not modular

Question 21

Methods for identifying modules

Answer 21

Dissociation- a manipulation that affects one cognitive task e.g. articulatory suppression disrupts verbal but not spatial memory 
Making saccades (eye-movements) disrupts spatial but not verbal memory

Double dissociation:
articulatory suppression disrupts verbal but not spatial memory
Making saccades (eye movements) disrupts spatial but not verbal memory

Question 22

What can brain damage tell us about normal cognition?

Answer 22

Reverse engineering cognition
Localisation of functions less important
Investigate single cases

Question 23

Patient HM

Answer 23

Neurosurgery to cure epilepsy
Severe anterograde amnesia so couldnt form new memories
Short term memory was fine and could learn new skills
This means long term memory and short term memory must be in different systems