Lecture 1 - Introduction To Cognitive Psychology Flashcards
What is Cognition?
Cognition is all forms of knowing and awareness, such as perceiving, conceiving, remembering, reasoning, judging, imagining, and problem solving - mental events
What is Dualism?
Theory that the mind and body are of separate essence
What did Rene Descartes believe about Dualism?
That mind and body are separate but can influence each other
What is Reflex Action Theory?
The idea that external stimulus can bring about an involuntary response
What did psychology focus on prior to behaviourism?
Introspection - a process involving looking inward to examine ones own thoughts, emotion, judgements, and perceptions
What approaches did behaviourism reject?
Introspection and dualism - believed mind and body are one entity
What did behaviourism focus on?
Focused on the prediction and control of OBSERVABLE behaviour and environment interactions
Lacked interest in mental events - believed if they occur, they do not control behaviour > uninteresting
What was Behaviourism’s legacy? What did it result in/cause?
> Inherent limitations - e.g can’t deal with language
Prevented study of mental processes such as memory and reasoning
HOWEVER it helped establish a scientific approach to psychology - focus on measurable responses
What is Cognitive Psychology?
The study of mental functions such as intelligence, thinking, language, memory, and decision making
What was the focus of Cognitive Psychology?
Studying mental process that are unobservable BUT are bound by observable behaviour (reflects mental events) and by brain mechanisms (which produce it)
» Mental events (cognitions) are related to both but cannot be reduced to either
What are Cognitions?
Mental events
Do MRI’s measure brain activity?
No - just blood flow to the brain
What is The Digital Computer?
The idea that the mind is like a computer - thinking is processing information
What did criticisms of Behaviourism suggest?
That stimuli did not occasion behaviour, but rather that it was Interpretations of stimuli that occasioned behaviour
Stimulus > INTERPRETATION > Behaviour
Give examples of the Computer Analogy?
Stimulus = Press ‘A’ > Programmed to print characters on a screen = Response ‘A’ OR no programming = no response
Therefore
Stimulus = Tidy your toys > Understands request = Response, tidying OR doesn’t understand = no response
Brain analogous to computer hardware + mental events to computer software
