Week/Chapter 1

Question 1

Mind

Answer 1

Creates and controls mental functions.

Creates representations of the world.

Question 2

Analytic Introspection

Answer 2

Early psych.

Trained participants describe the experience and thought processes in responding to stimuli.

Question 3

Artificial Intelligence

Answer 3

When computers can perform tasks associated with human intelligence.

Question 4

Behaviourism

Answer 4

John B. Watson.
Observable behaviours only.
Dump introspection.

Question 5

Choice Reaction Time

Answer 5

Time taken to respond to one of two or more stimuli.

Donders.

Question 6

Classical Conditioning

Answer 6

Pairing neutral stimulus with unconditioned stimulus to elicit a similar response to neutral stimulus.

Question 7

Cognition

Answer 7

Mental processes involved in perception, attention, memory, language, problem solving, reasoning, decision making.

Question 8

Cognitive Map

Answer 8

Mental conception of a spatial layout.

Question 9

Cognitive Psychology

Answer 9

Study of mental processes.

Determining characteristics and properties of the mind and its operations.

Question 10

Cognitive Revolution

Answer 10

Shift in psychology beginning in 1950s.

Behaviourist approach to explaining behaviour in terms of the mind.

Question 11

Electrophysiology

Answer 11

Measures electrical responses of the nervous system.

Question 12

Information-Processing Approach

Answer 12

1950’s.

Processing information through a sequence of stages.

Question 13

Neuropsychology

Answer 13

Behavioural effects of brain damage in humans.

Question 14

Operant Conditioning

Answer 14

B.F. Skinner.

Strengthening or weakening behaviour by presenting or removing appealing or unappealing stimuli.

Question 15

Paradigm

Answer 15

A system of ideas guiding the thinking in a field.

Question 16

Paradigm Shift

Answer 16

A shift in thinking from one paradigm to another.

Question 17

Reaction Time

Answer 17

Time taken to react to a stimulus.
Donders.
Presenting a stimulus and responding timed.

Question 18

Savings

Answer 18

Ebbinghaus.

Measures the magnitude of memory left from initial learning.

Question 19

Savings Curve

Answer 19

Plot of savings vs time after original learning.

Question 20

Scientific Revolution

Answer 20

Occurs when there is a shift in thinking from one scientific paradigm to another.

Question 21

Structuralism

Answer 21

Explains perception as the adding up of small elementary units called sensations.

Question 22

Donder’s Experiment

Answer 22

Choice reaction time - simple reaction time to measure time taken to make a decision.
Quantifying a mental process.

Question 23

Ebbinghaus’ Experiment

Answer 23

Savings method to measure rate of forgetting.
Less savings, less remembered.
Quantifying a mental process of remembering/forgetting.

Question 24

Wilhelm Wundt

Answer 24

Founded first lab of scientific psychology 1879.

Analytic introspection.

Question 25

William James method of studying the mind?

Answer 25

Observed the operations of his own mind.

Question 26

Rise of Behaviourism

Answer 26

Watson dumps introspection - results vary, difficult to verify. Classical conditioning and stimulus-response relationships.
B.F. Skinner - operant conditioning.

Question 27

Edward Tolman

Answer 27

Cognitive map proved by rat in plus-sign maze with reward in same spot while moving rat’s beginning spot.

Question 28

Noam Chomsky

Answer 28

Doubts Skinner’s Verbal Behaviour book.

Children say things they aren’t rewarded for, new words, poor grammar. Cannot be explained by operant conditioning.

Question 29

What led to cognitive revolution?

Answer 29

Digital computers inspire information processing approach. Mental processes broken down into stages.
Acknowledging multiple stimuli but only attending to some (filter).
Conferences.

Question 30

Cognitive Psych in 1967 (Neisser)

Answer 30

Focus on vision and hearing.
Lacking higher mental processes.
Lacking physiology aspect.

Question 31

Illusion of the Expert

Answer 31

Tasks seem simpler than they really are.

Behind the scene processes occur to complete “simple” tasks.