Week 1 - Early and Modern Cognition Research

Question 1

What is Cognition?

Answer 1

mental process mind creates

Question 2

Donders (1868)

Answer 2

• how long it takes to make a desicion (1/10th of a second for simple)
• RT experiment (time btwn presentation and response)

Question 3

Ebbinghaus (1885/1913)

Answer 3

• number of list repetitions to reach reciting without error
• shorter break intervals = less repetition

Question 4

Wundt (1879)

Answer 4

• 1st psych lab
• structuralism
• analytic introspection

Question 5

What is structuralism?

Answer 5

• overall experience is developed from combined basic experience elements (sensations)

Question 6

What is analytic introspection?

Answer 6

describing experience and thought processes in response to stimuli

Question 7

True or False:
Analytic introspection is reliable to make inferences about mental processes?

Answer 7

False; it is not reliable

Question 8

Watson and Rayner (1938)

Answer 8

• little albert experiment
• behaviouralism

Question 9

What is behaviouralism?

Answer 9

Eliminating the mind as the topic of study and focusing on observable behaviour

Question 10

B.F. Skinner (1938)

Answer 10

• relationship between stimuli and response
• operant conditioning

Question 11

What is operant conditioning?`

Answer 11

shaping behaviour with rewards/punishment

Question 12

Tolman (1938)

Answer 12

• rats and food in maze
  -created ‘cognitive map’
  -rejected behaviourist perspective

Question 13

Why do we study the mind?

Answer 13

• to understand complex cognitive behaviours
• measure observable behaviour
• make inferences about underlying cognitive activity
• consider what this behaviour says about how the mind works

Question 14

What is neuropsychology?

Answer 14

studies behaviour of people with brain damage

Question 15

What is electrophysiology?

Answer 15

studies electrical response of the nervous system including brain neurons