module 2 Flashcards
mind body problem
how are mental events related to, or caused by, physical mechanisms of the body
dualism
view that the mind and body consist of fundamentally different substances or properties
monism
idea that there is only one basic substance in the world - as opposed to dualism
physicalism/materialism vs idealism
both forms of monism
physicalism/materialism: there is only physical matter - only the body is real
idealism: only the mind is real
neutral monism
mind and body are the same thing
structuralism
school of psychology that emerges in late 1800s - focus was on discovering the most basic elements of the mind in order to understand complex though - wilhem wudnt
introspection
method used by structuralists - carefully considering and describing internal experiences in terms of basic ‘elements’ of consciousness - also related to self report
critiques of structuralism
- methods are too subjective - introspection can’t be objectively verified by others and is difficult to replicate
- too much of a focus on basic applications - simple conscious processes
behaviourism
a school of psychology that focuses on studying behaviour instead of the mind - concerned with what can be observed, not mental processes - behaviourists believe that behaviour is learned rather than innate
learning in behaviourism
classical conditioning - pavlov
instrumental learning (environment constrains opportunity for reward - have to do something to reach it) - thorndike
operant conditioning (response is required for reinforcement) - skinner
positive vs negative conditioning
positive: adding something like an electric shock or a treat
negative: taking something away like removing a treat or turning off a loud sound
critiques of behaviourism
inflexible
- doesn’t account for complex behaviour
- assumes that learning is the same for all individuals - ex. ignores latent learning (learning in the absence of conditioning - like tolmans rats forming a cognitive map of a maze) and learning strategies - people apply language rules to new situations = new behaviour
cognitive revolution
shift in psychology that occurred in the 1950s - scientists began to accept that we must also study mental states - inspired by a rise in technology and the analogy of the mind as a processor of information, like a computer
waugh and norman’s model of memory
an example of research inspired by the cognitive revolution - basically a flow chart that describes two different types of memory - primary and secondary - we process information that enters our primary memory through rehearsal in order to put it into our secondary memory - if we don’t have enough cognitive resources to transfer the information, we forget it
cognitive approach
based on the idea that we can measure objective behaviour in order to test theories of underlying mental processes
information processing experiments - william hick
measures the relationship between choice reaction time and the amount of information within an event - found that more content slowed reaction time
plato’s contribution to cognitive psychology
concept of deductive reasoning - the world is a reflection of reality - bottom up and top down processes interact to create our vision of the world
idea of innate aspect of mental processes leads to the idea of rationalism - innate knowledge and logic leads to reason
aristotle’s contribution to cognitive psychology
empiricism - observational reasoning - knowledge comings from forming associations between what we observe
psychophysics
studies cognitive phenomenon by linking sensory experiences to physical changes -ex. measuring thresholds
mental chronometry
estimating time for a participant to perceive something
functionalism
study of psychology that is interested in usefulness rather than basic elements - focus on adaptive functions of our mind with a big emphasis on context
- believed that consciousness is personal and can’t be broken down into parts as it is constantly changing
- hard to study
hicks law
a mathematical equation that shows that the more information contained in a signal, the longer it takes to make a response to the signal
decision fatigue
making decisions taxes cognitive processing and we have a limited amount of cognitive processing
webster and thompsom
information processing has limits - air traffic controller test with simultaenous messages - demonstrated that the amount of information we can process is determined by familiarity
