Unit 01- Intro to Cognitive Psychology

Question 1

the science of psychology went through a drastic change in the 1950s and 1960s. This change is known as the…

Answer 1

Cognitive Revolution

Question 2

What is “Introspection”

Answer 2

“looking within” - a method which people observe and record the content of their own mental lives and experiences

Question 3

why was introspection frowned upon?

Answer 3

because psychologists had to acknowledge that some thoughts are unconscious, making introspection a limited tool

Question 4

what led to the “behaviourist movement”?

Answer 4

the realization that beliefs, preferences, hopes, and expectations cannot be directly observed or recorded

Question 5

what is the “behaviourist movement”?

Answer 5

a movement that dominated psych in the first 20th century. It uncovered a range of principles about how behaviour changes in response to stimuli

Question 6

who invented the transcedental method?

Answer 6

Immanuel Kant

Question 7

what is the transcendental method?

Answer 7

“begin with the observable fact, and work backward from these observations” - asking how these observations could have come about

Question 8

who conducted the study on if rats had the ability to learn?

Answer 8

Edward Tolman

Question 9

we use _____ methods, and we collect _____ types of data

Answer 9

we use DIVERSE methods, and we collect MANY types of data

Question 10

what is “Response time (RT)”

Answer 10

basing memory off speed (ex- how long someone needs to make a particular response)

Question 11

what is “cognitive neuroscience”

Answer 11

the effort toward understanding humans mental functioning through close study of the brain and the nervous system

Question 12

information about damaged brains comes from the field of…

Answer 12

clinical neuropsychology

Question 13

what is “neuropsychology”?

Answer 13

the study of brain functions that uses cases in which damage or illness has disrupted the working of some brain structures

Question 14

information about brain health comes from the field of…

Answer 14

neuroimaging techniques

Question 15

what is neuroimaging techniques?

Answer 15

methods to inspect precise structures of the brain; and to track the moment-by-moment pattern of activation within someones brain

Question 16

what was the issue with “H’M”s brain

Answer 16

brain surgery to reduce his epilepsy resulted in him being unable to form new memories

Question 17

what are the three stages of processing memories

Answer 17

1: Acquisition
2: Retention
3: Retrieval

Question 18

what is (stage 1) acquisition also referred to as?

Answer 18

Encoding- the role of repetition (studying)

Question 19

the two types of encoding (repetition) are

Answer 19

1: Massed practice (cramming)
2: Distributed practice (spacing)

Question 20

for long-term memory retaining, which is better: massed or distributed?

Answer 20

Distributed

Question 21

what is (stage 2) Retention also referred to as?

Answer 21

retrieval practice (testing effect)

Question 22

what is “Metacognition”

Answer 22

The knowledge people have about the way that cognitive processes work
(thinking about ones own thinking, knowing about one’s own knowledge, understanding one’s own understanding, etc)

Question 23

what produces an illusion of knowing

Answer 23

perceptual fluency- ease with which information is processed

Question 24

______ can be used as a misleading heuristic for judging the quality of learning

Answer 24

speed of retrieval

Question 25

what is cognition?

Answer 25

collection of mental processes and activities used in perceiving, remembering, thinking, and understanding.

Question 26

who developed the idea of introspection?

Answer 26

Wilhelm Wundt

Question 27

who developed the idea of functionalism?

Answer 27

William James

Question 28

what is functionalism?

Answer 28

emphasis on understanding the functions of the mind, rather than the structure

Question 29

who made the first attempt to study mental functioning empirically?

Answer 29

Hermann Von Ebbinghaus

Question 30

what does it mean to study mental functioning empirically?

Answer 30

studying through experimental and observation of behaviour, and making inference’s about the nature of the mental process

Question 31

who generated the “Central Tenet” views?

Answer 31

B.F Skinner

Question 32

what is “Central Tenet” perspective?

Answer 32

particular responses (behaviour) to stimuli are learned through association, reward, and punishment (mental processes are irrelevant)

Question 33

what is the Tabula Rasa “Blank Slate” theory?

Answer 33

a theory that all behaviours are learned and shaped through simple conditioning (infants are born with no innate abilities)

Question 34

what are the advantages to lab research for cognition?

Answer 34

• minimize influence of outside factors
• precise measures of behaviour

Question 35

What are the 3 types of measuring behaviour?

Answer 35

1: verbal report
2: reaction time (RT)
3: looking behaviour

Question 36

what was the major problem with cognitive psych in labs?

Answer 36

ecological validity

Question 37

what is ecological validity?

Answer 37

to what extent do laboratory settings mirror real-life situations?