Module 01: History, Methods, and Paradigms Flashcards
perception
sensory info -> meaningful info
memory
storage facilities ad retrieval processes of cognition
pattern recognition
classifying stimulus into known category
empiricism
knowledge from individual’s own experience (blank slate)
learn through mental association
mental association
locke: two distinct ideas joined bc presented to individual at the same time
nativism
native ability, constitutional factors in learning, tendencies, biological capacities, ‘hard wired’ functions (ex STM)
willhelm wundt
structuralism
structuralism
essential units of mind to combine mental phenomena
conscious thought form combo of sensation
basic elements -> perceptual experience
4 parts of sensation
mode (visual, tactile, etc), quality (shape, colour, etc), intensity, duration
who was the first person to conduct controlled experiments with children
james baldwin
who came up with introspection idea
james baldwin
functionalism
william james
mind works bc of functions and purpose of various operations
habits are inevitable and powerful
study phenomena in real life situations
what theory does functionalism use
dawinian evolutionary theory
what are two types of conditioning in behaviourism
classical conditioning — Ivan Pavlov
intsrumental conditioning – Edward Thorndike
what did b.f. skinner do
relationship between behaviour and stimuli
reinforcement
john watson
believed that mental phenomena is reducible to behavioural and physiological responses
who found that rats in a maze show goals (guided behaviour) and have mental images/representations
edward tolman
gestalt psychology
psychological phenomena not reduced to simple elements but have to be studied in their entirety
perceptual experience -> basic elements
what are the 5 principles of gestalt psychology
proximity
similarity
continuity
closure
connectedness
what was the cognitive revolution
new series of psychological investigations that rejected behaviourist assumptions
included:
human factors engineering
linguistics
neuroscience
computers and ai
explain human factors engineering (cognitive revolution)
in war, military personnel trained to operate complicated equipment
the person-machine system: machinery must align with operator’s physical and cognitive abilities and limits
humans as limited-capacity processors of info (“communication channels”)
explain linguistics in cognitive revolution
noam chomsky – how we acquire, understand, and produce language could not be explained by behaviourism
there exists some sort of implicit systems of rules (generative grammer)
neuroscience in cognitive revolution
idea of localization of function: neural structures in specific brain areas to support function
donald hebb – some functions (like visual perceptions) constructed over time, cell assembly
david hubel – visual cortex of cats specialized to respond to specific kinds of stimuli (vertical and horizontal line tests)
computers and ai in cognitive revolution
alan turing
universal machines: math entities simple in nature but capable in solving logic problems
the computer metaphor: human cognitive abilities vs OS, both computer and human must store info and have storage facilities and processes for this
what is naturalistic observation
observer watching people in everyday circumstances (unobtrusive)
advantages and disadvantages to naturalistic observation
advantage: ecological validity – things studied do really occur in real world, cognitive processes in natural setting
disadvantage: experimental control – no means of isolating different behaviours and must infer
define introspection
observer observes their own mental processes and reports back
advantages and disadvantages to introspection
advantage: give better insight into experience and factors that influenced it
disadvantage: bias, unwilling to admit flaws, demanding tasks leave little resources left to observe and record
between subjects design vs within subjects design
between: different participants assigned to different experimental conditions and researcher looks for differences in performance for the two groups
within: exposes participants to >1 condition
define quasi experiment
subjects assigned to groups based on non random criteria (sex, race, etc)
what are the four paradigms of cognitive psychology
info processing approach
connectionist approach
evolutionary approach
ecological approach
info processing approach
analogy between human cognition and computerized processing of info
cognition: info passing through a system (mind) to be processes and stored in specific places
cognitive abilities as “systems” of interrelated capacities
people are general purpose manipulators
info is store symbolically (way it is stored affects ease of use later)
rooted in structuralism
COGNITION OCCURS SERIALLY
connectionist approach
derived from models depicting cognition as network of connections among processing units (compared to neurons)
sometimes called neural networks
each unit has some level of activiation
connections have 2 weights, positive (excite) or negative (inhibit)
COGNITIVE PROCESSES OCCUR IN PARALLEL
evolutionary approach
human mind biological system evolved over generations
human mind responded to evolutionary pressures to adapt
Losmides and tooby – issues faced in passed are social (social contracts)
– good at cost/benefit reasoning
evolutionary approach
think i actually meant ecological???
all cognitive abilities shaped by culture and context in which they occur
consider context of cognitive processes
Jean Larc – third grade arithmetic vs adult at grocery store
who is sir francis galton
study of individual differences and human cognitive abilities
pressures of natural selection
found that people differ in ability to conjure up mental representations of objects
