Week 1 - Lecture

Question 1

Rene Descartes

Answer 1

• Cogito, ergo sum
• I Think, Therefore I am.
• He found that he could not doubt that he himself existed, as he was the one doing the doubting in the first place.
• 17th Century

Question 2

Cognitive Psychology

Answer 2

• We are looking at what the brain does (mind) rather than how it does it (physiology)

Question 3

What does the mind do?

Answer 3

• Mental Processes such as perception, attention, memory, emotions, language, decision making, thinking and reasoning.
• Creates a representation of the world so we can interact with it.

Question 4

Donders 1868

Answer 4

• Interested in how long it takes a person to make a decision
• Found Processes with complicated mental processes had longer reaction times (RT)
• Simple RT was the time it takes someone to make a decision
• Choice RT was about 1/10th longer than Simple RT

Question 5

Reaction Times

Answer 5

• Processes with more mental requirements have longer reaction times

Question 6

Wilhelm Wundt 1879

Answer 6

• Established first Psychology lab in leipzig Germany
• Developed Structuralism
• Used the method of Analytic Introspection

Question 7

Behaviourism

Answer 7

• Invisible mental processes are not really valid
• Study what we can observe

Question 8

Watson & Rayner 1920

Answer 8

• Behaviourists
• Little Albert
• Pairing one stimulus with another can affect behaviour
• Behaviour can be analysed without refering to the mind

Question 9

BF Skinner

Answer 9

• Developed Operant Conditioning
• Behaviour is shaped by the outcome of rewards or punishments
• Studied pigeons who turned three times in order to get food

Question 10

Information Processing - The mind as a Flowchart

Answer 10

• Input → Input Processor → Memory Unit → Arithmetic Unit → Output
• Input → Filter → Detector → To Memory → Output

Question 11

Two main types of Models in Cognitive Psychology

Answer 11

• Structural Models - Represent Structures in the brain and how they are connected
• Process Models - Illustrates how a mental process operates

Question 12

Inferring in Psychology

Answer 12

• Mental Processes are invisible and cannot be measured
• We can infer mental processes based on observing behaviour
• We can infer mental processes by measuring brain reactions via fMRI or EEG Scans

Question 13

Tulving - Long Term Memory Model

Answer 13

• Divides Long-Term Memory into 3 components
  
  • Episodic Memory - Events
  • Semantic Memory - Facts
  • Procedural Memory - Physical Action

Question 14

Ebbinghaus (1885)

Answer 14

• Interested in how quickly things we learn are lost over time
• Learned a list of nonsense words and counted how many repetitions it took to memorise the list
• Then later he would try to recall the list.
• Remembered words were called Savings
• Savings = (original time to learn a list) - (Time to relearn list after delay)

Question 15

William James (1890)

Answer 15

• Wrote Principles of Psychology
• Used observations of his own mind
• considered cognitive topics of what the mind does eg: thinking, consciousness, attention, memory, PAMELDT
• Developed Functionalism

Question 16

Ebbinghaus (1885)

Answer 16

• Interested in how quickly things we learn are lost over time
• Learned a list of nonsense words and counted how many repetitions it took to memorise the list
• Then later he would try to recall the list.
• Remembered words were called Savings
• Savings = (original time to learn a list) - (Time to relearn list after delay)

Question 17

Behaviourism

Answer 17

• Psychology should only study observable behaviour
• Thought the mind and mental functions were less important

Question 18

Operant Conditioning

Answer 18

• Suggests behaviour is shaped by outcomes of other behaviours like punishment and reward
• Developed at a time when nearly all psychology was behavioural psychology

Question 19

Cognitive Psychology Timeline

Answer 19

Question 20

Tolman Cognitive Map

Answer 20

• Found rats who were exposed to a map before having food placed in it learned to find food faster than rats who had no prior knowledge of the maze
• Rats generated maps of the maze without any kind of reinforcement
• learning was already present even without the food reward - (operant conditioning)

Question 21

In learning and behaviour we try to show “what happened before” that has influenced “what happened after”

Question 22

Chomsky (1959)

Answer 22

• Argument that everyone is born with an innate ability to learn language
• This deals a heavy blow to behaviouralism
• States that a mental process exists without behavioural influences
• Some say that Chomsky’s criticism of Skinner was not objective and Skinner never rebuffed his criticism

Question 23

Behavioral psychologists now recognise that we need to factor in the mind when we are studying behaviours

Answer 23

Learning and behaviour plays a huge role in cognitive processes

Question 24

Successful therapies have been developed by combining cognitive and behavioural theories together as well as separately

Question 25

How does cognitive psychology talk about the mind in a scientific way?

Answer 25

• Information processing similar to a computer
• Input ⇒ Input Processor ⇒ Memory Unit ⇒ Arithmetic Unit ⇒Output
• Input ⇒⇒⇒ Filter ⇒Detector ⇒ To Memory

Question 26

Types of models of information processing

Answer 26

• Structural Modes
• Process Models

Question 27

Structural Models of Information Processing

Answer 27

Represent Structures in the brain and how they are connected

eg: lens to retina to receptors to brain

Question 27

Structural Models of Information Processing

Answer 27

Represent Structures in the brain and how they are connected

eg: lens to retina to receptors to brain

Question 28

Process Models of Information Processing

Answer 28

Demonstrate how a Process works and operates

eg: Input ⇒ Sensory Memory ⇒ Short-Term Memory ⇒ Long-Term Memory ⇒ Output

Question 29

Atkinson & Schiffrin

Answer 29

• STM has limited capacity only holds info for a short time
• Information can be retained is STM via Rehearsal
• Some info from STM can be passed to LTM

Input ⇒Sensory Memory ⇒Short-term Memory OR Output ⇒ Long-term Memory

Question 30

Tulving 1972

Answer 30

• Long Term Memory Model breaks LTM further into three components

1. Episodic Memory - Life Events
2. Semantic Memory - Facts
3. Procedural Memory - Physical Actions

Question 31

Physiology of Cognition

Answer 31

• All behaviour and mental processes have a foundation in the physical body
• Research on the body, mind and brain support each other

Question 32

Combining Behaviour, Brain and Mind

Answer 32

• Changes in brain physiology must be observed with changes in behaviour
• Palmer 1975 - Presented context scene experiment

Question 33

What is the Forgetting Curve

Answer 33

• Measures the decline memory retention over time.
• Information is lost over time when there is no effort to retain it.

Question 34

What is Latent Learning

Answer 34

• Edward Tolman
• “learning which is not apparent in the learner’s behavior at the time of learning, but which manifests later when a suitable motivation and circumstances appear.

OR

• Learning that occurs that is not demonstrated until there is a need or circumstance that prompts recall of that learning. eg tolman’s rats

Question 35

What is a Cognitive Map?

Answer 35

• Edward Tolman
• A mental representation of the layout of one’s environment