Video Module 1: Foundations Flashcards
cognitive psychology
the study of mental processes; the study of intelligent behaviour
- An “indirect science”: we infer what is happening in the mind/brain based on participants’ observable behaviour
- transcendental method: “inference to the best explanation”
the mind-body problem
If sensory inputs are received by the body and motor outputs are produced by the body, what does the information processing?
- Is processing or the conscious experience just a result of the body? Or is it something different?
Cartesian Duality
The idea that the mind and body are fundamentally different, despite being able to communicate to each other
- the mind and brain are separate, but connected
ideologies of monism
- physicalism
- idealism
- neutral monism
- materialist monism
materialist monism
the idea that the mind is the result of the physical processes in the brain (the body)
- aka physicalist monism
physicalism
the idea that the mind is just a product of the physical brain; there are only physical things in the word
- everything arises from matter
idealism
the idea that the mind is the only thing we can truly be certain of its existence
- our experience of the physical world is a product of the mind; our reality is mental or spiritual
neutral monism
the idea that there could be a third substance explaining the relationship between the mind and body
introspection
- late 1800s
- the earliest research method in psychology
- observing your own thoughts; looking inward to the self (metacognition)
- focuses on conscious mental events (ones which we can investigate
- Sigmund Freud
cons of introspection (method)
- Not all thoughts are conscious; unconscious thoughts cannot be studied
- Reliant on subjective experiences: there is no way to objectively test the validity of claims based on introspection
- difficult to replicate findings
behaviourism
- early to mid 1900s
- In response to introspection; focuses purely on the unconscious by studying behaviour only
- How behaviour changes in response to stimuli
- the mind is the “black box”: it is unobservable and unimportant
- Pavlov
- Watson
cons of behaviourism (method)
- Different stimuli can produce the same behaviour (e.g. pain and joy can both trigger crying)
- The same stimulus can produce different behaviours (e.g. danger can cause people to freeze or run away)
- Many of our behaviours are the result of a “mental cause” or impulse: sometimes we behave not b/c of a change in our environment, but b/c we want to
cognitive revolution
- 1950s to present
key ideas:
1) We cannot study the mental word directly
2) we must study the mental world to understand behaviour - transcendental method = inference to the best explanation
—searching for the most likely cause of our findings
behavioural data
- Aspects of performance (behaviours) which a researcher can observe to make an inference about how the mind is processing info
- accuracy, response time, thresholds, errors
biological data
- information that comes from living organisms and biological processes/reactions
- neural imaging, neurological damage, heart rate, skin conductance, pupil dilation, blood flow
neuroscience
the study of physical structures in the brain and how they give rise to mental processes
artificial intelligence
the study of replicating mental processes by matching human behaviour in machines or code
- does not rely on physical analogs of the brain
