Lecture One; Introduction

Question 1

What is the main difference between cognitive and biological psychology?

Answer 1

Cognitive Psychology
• Study of the mind
‐ Functional explanations; process models
‐ how do these processes interact?

Biological Psychology
• Study of the biological basis of the mind
‐ Focus on brain processes; structural models
‐ How do brain areas interact?

Question 2

What science is it if we combine these two?

Answer 2

cognitive neuroscience

Question 3

What was one of the first aproaches to meaure mental processes?

Answer 3

Mental chronometry

Question 4

What is Mental chronometry?

Answer 4

Helmholtz (1850). Nerve
conduction velocity is not nearly
infinite! His experiments yielded
estimates of ~30 m/s.

Key points
• Mental processes take time
• We can measure that time

Donders’s subtraction method

Question 5

Can you describe Donders’s subtraction method?

Answer 5

Goal: Estimate duration of a postulated mental process, X

Method:
• Create two identical tasks, except for involvement ofX
• Measure RT in both tasks
• Subtract RTs
 Duration of X

Go / No‐go task insteadof rt-test

Problems:
• Dependent on correct ideas about relevant mental processes
• Strong assumption: the extra process is “purely inserted

Question 6

Ebbinghaus’s savings curves. What was it?

Answer 6

Start of memory research.

Procedure
• Study phase: learn a list of nonsense
syllables (DAX, ZUG) to perfection.
Register time this takes.
• Wait a certain time (minutes, day,
several days)
• Test phase: Register how long it
takes to relearn the list.
• Calculate percentage of savings

Question 7

What did William James publish in 1890?

Answer 7

“The principles of psychology”

Question 8

Why is the era of behaviorism not over yet? What has been included that has been rejected before?

Answer 8

originally:• Discard the mind; Exclusive focus on behavior
• S – R psychology
James Watsons “Behaviorist manifesto” 1913

Now BUT interpretation has changed S – O – R
e.g.in Tolmans rat experiment O -> a “cognitive map” is a mental image that has an enormous effect on performance and efficiency

Question 9

What is ment by Specificity coding?

Answer 9

one neuron, one person (“grandmother cell”)

• Vulnerable and inefficient (need many neurons)

Question 10

population coding

Answer 10

a large number of neurons code for each
person. Each unique person represented by pattern of activation.
• Not as vulnerable and more efficient

Question 11

What is ment with sparse coding

Answer 11

a small group of neurons represent each person

• Similar to population coding, but possibly even more efficient

Question 12

What is ment by the theories about the mind, referred as dualism or monism?

Answer 12

Dualism is a belief in the dual nature of reality. Mind and body are separate; the body is made of ordinary matter, but the mind is not. Monism is a belief that everything in the universe consists of matter and energy and that the mind is a phenomenon produced by the workings of the nervous system.