Chapter 1-Definition of Cognition
What is memory?
The mental storage system that enables these processes of acquiring and retaining information for later retrieval.
List the challenges to Behaviorism.
The misbehaviors of organisms World War II Verbal Learning The Big Language Debate - Chomsky -vs- Skinner
Define Cognitive Science.
The study of human though, using all available scientific techniques.
What is Behaviorism?
The study of observable behaviors
Give two additional facts about John Watson.
1. He dominated psychological research for 50 years. 2. Redefined psychology by stating that mental processes cannot be observed, therefore cannot be studied.
What are the three major assumptions that guide Cognitive Psychology?
1 - Mental Processes 2 - Mental Processes can be studied 3 - Humans are active information procesors.
What is the Lexical Decision Task?
A timed task in which people decide whether letter strings are English words.
Provide another name for the Information-Processing Approach.
Atkinson and Shiffrin Model
Provide the definition of Cognition from Lecture Notes.
Cognition is the collection of mental processes and activities used in perceiving, remembering, thinking, and understanding. It also refers to the act of using these processes.
What is the Cognition's Modern Meta theory?
Cognitive Science
What was another belief of early cognitive psychology (hint:active human processors).
Cognitive psychology seeked to find the external/environmental information and internal/mental information.
What did Edward Titchener do in 1892?
Created Cornell's Psych laboratory
Who founded Psychology's 1st school of Thought?
Edward Tichener
What did William James do in the 1880's?
Established Harvard's psych laboratory n Psychology's 2nd School of Thought: Functionalism - Research focused on the 'function' of the mind, - What functions does consciousness serve? How does it adapt?
What is another name for Psychology's 2nd school of thought? What was the school's focus?
Functionalism: research that focused on the functions of consciousness and the mind and how we adapt.
Who was Wilhelm Wundt?
German physiologist, "Father of psychology". Established psychology as a science. - Developed the method of Introspection: self-observing inner sensations and experiences for research
What was John Watson famous for in 1913?
He was the founder Founder of Behaviorism - Redefined psychology as the scientific study of observable behaviors - Mental processes can not be observed, therefore can not be studied. - Dominated psychological research for 50 years.
Who was the father of Memory Research? What did he do?
Hermann Von Ebbinghaus. He developed first scientifically objective method for studying memory (1880s)
Explain the Guiding Analogy Computer Analogy.
Human information processing flows from input-output similar to a computer.
What was Cognition's First Metatheory (hint: coordinated-multi).
Information Processing is the coordinated act of mental processes within a multi-component memory system
How did guiding principles help scientists?
It was the framework to help scientists know where to start, what to look for, and what to beware of.
What was a belief of early Cognitive Psychology (hint:they do exist).
Mental processes exist and can be scientifically studied in order to create theories about that explain human behavior.
What was the Cognitive Revolution?
New approach to psychology that allowed for more scientific questions to be tested and answered.
What are the problems with Strict Approach (hint: p & c)?
Parallel Processing - Any mental processing which two or more processes or operations occur simultaneously. Context - Concepts and words that have been activated in memory are easier to process (known as priming).
List one way Information Processes were measured.
Response Time which was a measure of the time that elapsed between the stimuli and the person's response.
How might have one man, John Watson, single-handedly changed most of experimental psychology to abandon mental processes and only study observable behavior? (Hint: how do scientists share/read others' research?)
SHORT ESSAY
Why do cognitive psychologists have to 'assume' that mental processes exist?
SHORT ESSAY
What problems might exist with the three types of measurements (RT, Accuracy, & Verbal Reports) for mental processes? In other words, how might measuring response time give a flawed measurement of mental processes?
SHORT ESSAY:
Sequential Stages of Processing (Strict Information Processing Approach)
Stages of processing are independent of one another in their functioning and do not overlap in time.
What is another name for Psychology's 1st school of thought? What was the school's focus?
Structuralism: research focused on the structures or elements of the mind like sensations, images, and feelings.
Accuracy
Tally or percentage of correct responses to a stimuli -Recalling a list of words -Calculating an answer to a math problem -Paraphrasing a passage of text -Incorrect responses indicate more difficult mental process or processes may be interfering with each other.
Give an example of the Process Model.
The Lexical Decision Task
What are the two Information-Processing Approaches?
The Standard Theory Process Model
What is encoding?
The act of taking information and converting it to a usable mental form.
What was the outcome of the criticisms to Behaviorism?
The cognitive revolution which was established in the 1960's.
What is cognition?
The collection of mental processes and activities used in perceiving, remembering, thinking, understanding.
What was another important component to the Cognitive Revolution?
The development of the computer allowed researchers to have the ability to model mental processes the was a computer processes information.
What is cognitive science?
The scientific study of though, language, the brain and more.
Provide two additional points to Cognition's Modern Metatheory.
Uses the latest technology to track mental processes. Incorporates the latest biological knowledge of brain structures, and neurotransmitters.
Who developed the first psych laboratory in 1879?
Wilhelm Wundt developed the first psych laboratory.
Who develop the method of Introspection? Define Introspection.
Wilhelm Wundt developed the method of Introspection. It means the act of self-observing inner sensations and experiences for research.
Who founded Psychology's 2nd School of Though?
William James
Explain the Guiding Channel Capacity Analogy.
any device (person) that transmits information through neuronshas a limited capacity.
What are the four components to the Standard Theory?
control processes long-term memory short-term memory sensory memory
What is the Process Model?
hypothesizes the mental processes that take place when a task is performed.
What unit of measure was used for recording RT?
measured in milliseconds; 1/1000 of a second.
What was another component to Cognition's First Metatheory (hint: sequence).
mental processes occur in sequence with one ending before the other
What did the measuring of RT tell us?
the speed or difficulty of a mental process.
