Models and key figures Flashcards
What does the mind control?
Mental functions called cognitive domains.
What is top down processing?
Looking for a cognitive response or seeking information to be processed involves high processing. E.g. looking for a friend in a crowd.
What is bottom up processing?
Cognitive information that just comes to a person without looking out for it, involves less processing. E.g. bumping into a friend without knowing or searching for them.
How would rationalism be defined?
Reason is the chief source of knowledge, reality is logically structured.
How would empiricism be defined?
All concepts originate in experience.
Who was the first cognitive experiment by and when?
Franciscus Donders, 1868.
What did Franciscus Donders study?
How long it takes to make a decision, light bulbs lit up in two variations. Mental function was measured in differences, theory still used today in things such as PET scans.
Why was Wundt important?
He was the first psychologist to introduce structuralism in his methods developing scientific method. He used introspection in order to study cognition.
What is structuralism?
Finding different types of consciousness and building new variations (a periodic table approach) which are now called domains.
What did Herman Ebbinghaus study?
He studied memory using quantitative methods.
How did Ebbinghaus study?
He used random nonsense syllables and studied how long they needed to be perceived before they could be memorised.
Why did Ebbinghaus use random syllables?
In order to avoid links to previous knowledge.
What did Ebbinghaus invent that is still relevant to today’s knowledge?
The forgetting retention curve.
What is functionalism?
That the mind is based on observations.
Why was cognitive studies abandoned for behaviourism after the first textbook of cognition was published in 1890?
Due to behaviourists introducing the lack of objective findings from cognition the study of the mind was abandoned for behaviourism.
What does behaviourists lack to consider that cognitive psychologists study?
Language, perception and memory.
What is the cognitive revolution?
The time period between 1950-1960 in which behaviourists rose in popularity causing a hiatus to cognition study.
What is the information processing approach?
Using a computer in order to depict the mind and its internal workings.
What is a structural model?
They show the appearance of an objects, such as the brain.
What is a process model?
model usually depicted in boxes and arrows which shows a process/action.
What were the two conditions of Donders experiment?
- Reaction time only included one light
- Then compared reaction time difference to the choice reaction time involving two lights.
What is savings?
Used in cognition savings is the idea of using subtracts to calculate time in which it takes to do an action or mental process. E>g. Ebbinghaus subtracted the memorising time from the recall time in order to find out how long the mental process of recall took a participant.
What was the first ever psychology textbook published?
Principles of Psychology in 1890 by William James.
What was Tolman’s rat experiment in 1938?
Rat placed in maze, food placed at opening of maze, once rat learnt location of food (classical conditioning turn right and be rewarded with food) , it was placed at the opposite entrance of the maze, rat immediately turned left showing and found food.
What did the findings of Tolman’s rat experiment show?
That the rat must’ve made a mental maze of the rat as the results went against behaviourism showing a more in depth explanation of learning that aligned more with the study of cognition than behaviourism.
Why does Chomsky believe not all language is learnt through conditioning and reinforcement?
Because he pointed out that incorrect grammar is repeated by children which cannot be from reinforcement or through imitation, similarly to inappropriate sentences or words that are not positively reinforced.
What did Chomsky suggest was the reason for language rather than conditioning?
That language was a product of the way the mind was constructed, it is an inborn biological process that is innate rather than conditioned.
What experiments were conducted in the cognitive revolution linked to auditory clips?
Cherry conducted an experiment which uncovered that people can listen to two auditory clips and block out one while understanding the other. Broadbent adapted this in order to construct the first model which depicted input , filter and output.
What did Miller theorise about the capacity of memory?
That the mind can only hold 7+-2 things at a time which leads to the theory that memory isn’t passive.
What did miller theorise about storing more complex memories?
That they must be stored in the long term memory store in the deeper mind.
Which was the first textbook to include cognitive psychology?
Neisser’s textbook in 1967, titled Cognitive Psychology.
What is an example of a process model?
The multi store model.
What is the multi resource model?
Refers to a cube model which covers a multitude of different processes in which different resources are required. E.g. Perception, spatial activities, verbal activities and auditory information.
