Textbook chapter 1 (week 1)

Question 1

What is cognitive psychology?

Answer 1

the branch of psychology concerned with the scientific study of the mind.

Question 2

Explain Franciscus Donders (1868) pioneering experiment.

Answer 2

Donder’s study was about trying to discover how long it takes to make a decision. He did this by measuring both simple reaction time and choice reaction time. He used the difference between simple reaction time and choice reaction time and concluded that it took 1/10 of a second to make a decision.

Question 3

Differentiate simple reaction time and choice reaction time.

Answer 3

simple reaction time is simply how long it takes an individual to respond to stimulus. Choice reaction time is when testing the reaction time beyond a single stimulus and a single possible response.

Question 4

Why was Donders experiment important?

Answer 4

It upheld the principle that mental responses cannot be observed directly, but must be inferred from observing behaviour.

Question 5

Explain structuralism.

Answer 5

our overall experience is determined by combining basic elements of experience (sensations). Involved Wundt’s “periodic table of the mind”.

Question 6

Explain analytic introspection.

Answer 6

A technique used by Wundt to train subjects to describe their experiences and thought processes in response to stimuli. Required extensive training because the subject’s goal was to describ their experience in terms of elementary mental elements.