W1: Science of the Mind Flashcards
Introduction to the Cognitive Revolution
Define Cognitive Psychology
When it was first launched it was broadly focused on the scientific study of knowledge.
Concerned with how people pay attention, remember and think.
Describe the mental activities that are included in Cognitive Psychology.
Perception, attention, memory, emotion, language, decision, thinking, reasoning
Who were the two main researchers involved in introspection?
Wilhelm Wundt
Edward Titchner
What is introspection?
The examination or observation of one’s own mental and emotional processes.
Introspection is the study of conscious experience, and so it can tell us nothing of unconscious events.
Issues with falsifiability in part due to self-reporting
Can’t test hypothesis using introspection, we need observable data.
Who was the most prominent behaviourist?
John Watson. He tested a babies grasping reflex.
What did behaviourists measure?
Observable behaviour and how it changes in response to various stimuli. Reward/punishment
What is the main problem with Behaviourism?
Completely discarded unobservable elements, such as understanding or interpreting the situation and how this effects the way people act and feel.
No talk of mental entities such as beliefs and memories etc.
Explain Kant’s transcendental model
Start with observable facts (cos you Kant see it directly) and work backwards to draw inferences about causation. “There must be an underlying cause that led to their effects.”
We can study invisible processes indirectly through measuring visible consequences and can therefore develop and test hypothesis about what the mental processes must have been.
Sometimes called inference to best explanation.
What are the two essential themes from history of Cognitive Psychology? (Simon’s paradox)
o Mental processes cannot be directly observed; we must study them indirectly via their effect
o Mental processes must be studied in order for us to understand behaviour as they form part of the cause.
What are three types of evidence that cognitive psychologists rely on?
- Quality of someone’s performance
- Response Speed
- View of underlying biology
What type of introspection is the LEAST useful for studying
Mental events that are unconscious
What is the process of taking observable information and inferring a cause is known as?
The Transcendental method
What is one example of a Transcendental method study?
A physicist inferring the attributes of an electron after observing paths in a cloud chamber.
Why is introspection unreliable?
Interpretation of the observer can skew actual outcomes.
Describe at least one historical development that laid the groundwork for the cognitive revolution.
Tolman’s research of rats.
