exam 3 study

Paul Fitts

pioneered the application of the bandwidth concept to psychology To gain a bit of information means to remove some uncertainty from a previous situation H, associated with any event: H = log2 N N = the number of equiprobable outcomes interested in measuring the information capacity of the human visuo-motor system in performing a simple pointing task he instructed subjects to tap back and forth, using a pencillike stylus, between two rectangular targets, as shown in Figure 14.1. They were instructed to move as fast as they could but without missing the target. Fitts found that two factors, the amplitude, A, of the movement and the width, W, of the targets, affected the movement time (MT). As A increased, MT increased, and as W decreased, MT increased regression equation relating MT to ID became known as Fitts' Law: MT = a + b ID

Classical conditioning

Behaviorism: Pavlovian conditioning John Broadus Watson=> studied under the functionalists Dewey and Angell at the University of Chicago, and he began by studying maze learning in rats, a procedure that had recently been invented by Willard Small had also studied for a time with Jacques Loeb, who taught him about tropisms and reflexes. He rejected both the subjective introspection work of Titchener and the mediating mind of functionalism Concepts like learning and motivation, as functions of the mind, were central to functionalism, but Watson argued that such processes were not publicly observable, and were therefore not scientific For Watson then, the goal of psychology was to be able to predict and control behavior no distinction between humans and animals, behavior occurs in the same way

embodied cognition

Searle's view, that the mind depends on the structure and organization of the brain, foreshadowed a newer trend in cognitive psychology that is a rejection of the old cybernetic approach mind is not just a function of the brain but of the environment as well

James McKeen Cattell

founded the psychology department at the university of pennsylvania 1889 studied under lotze for a while, then wundt first american to earn a phd with wundt used Galton's measurements to establish American psychology as a field founded on precise and rigorous measurements worried about the validity of intelligence test => if Galton's measurements of visual acuity and reaction time were valid measures of intelligence, then the measures should correlate with each other because they are measuring the same thing cattell and student clark wissler found Galton's test were not correlated and resulted in the end of Galton's measures to be use as intelligence testing

Sir Frederick Barlett

studies of long-term memory and how schemas affect our ability to recall events and stories

nature vs nurture issue

in psychology, answer is always both Charles Spearman => first to show this is true with his two factor theory of intelligence developed factor analysis to break down the intercorrelations between items on an intelligence test factor analysis => allows statistician to break down the intercorrelations among the items and determine exactly how many factors are being measured for a given test two factors: general and specific ability General represents overall intelligence which remains stable over the lifetime (suggests genetic basis) Specific ability corresponds to certain specific abilities that can be improved with training, showing that not all intelligence is genetically determined

Goodwin

listed the discovery of the Stroop effect (Stroop, 1935), which demonstrated interference in attention-related processes

Noam Chomsky

made a case for a nativist approach to language in 1959, in response to Skinner's 1957 book Verbal Behavior, an attempt to explain language learning in terms of reinforcement argued that while the words of a language must be learned by imitation and reinforcement, the rules of language, its syntax, and grammar were far too complex to be explained in this way poverty of the stimulus. Children simply do not encounter a sufficient degree of grammatical variation within their first three years of life, but by then most children produce fairly sophisticated and grammatically fluent speech degeneracy of the stimulus. Children often hear examples of incorrect grammar and yet somehow the rules of grammar persist across generations. argued for linguistic universals: patterns in language and grammar that are common to all languages.

cybernetics

study of information processing systems, and analogizing the human mind / brain as something like a computer that processed information spawned a new field

Jean Piaget

used the concept of schemas to develop a cognitive explanation of child development

Functionalism: The first american school (Columbia School)

Cattell had created the department rejected the reductionism of German psychology Edward Lee Thorndike=>a pioneer in animal psychology puzzle box. Hungry cats were placed inside, and had to learn to perform a sequence of responses in order to escape and get food discovery of trial-and-error learning Thorndike concluded that responses that satisfied the motivating condition were functional, and thus an association was made between the sensory situation (the box) and the response. Law of Effect, stated in short as: Any action followed by a satisfying or functional consequence will be repeated, whereas a response followed by an unsatisfying or annoying consequence will not be repeated Law of Exercise, which consisted of the Law of Use and the Law of Disuse Law of Use: the more often the association between a response and its consequences are experienced, the stronger the association becomes. The Law of Disuse: the longer the association goes unused, the weaker it becomes. Robert Sessions Woodworth=> published an important paper on the speed/accuracy tradeoff in human movement faster one moves, the less accurate one's movements are motivation was a biological drive

1. Define eugenics and the motivation for it.

Eugenics means to get rid of the genetically "unfit" for evolutionary purposes. The holocaust is a perfect example of eugenics. Many Jewish lives were taken because they were seen as unfit for German society. People who believe in eugenics believe that the "unfit" are holding civilization back, preventing it from achieving perfect evolution. Galton was against the idea of any program helping the poor in survival because Social Darwinism mandated that the poor should die out, or be steralized.

1. Define the term "cybernetics." Cybernetics is the application of concepts and theories from computer science and information theory to the brain/mind as a sort of computer that processes information.

Cybernetics is when the brain is referred to as a computer. Scientists use concepts and theories of computer science.

4.Explain how functionalism is different than the more mentalistic German psychologies.

Early German psychology (e.g., voluntarism, structuralism, phenomenology) were interested purely in consciousness, without regard to an external world. Functionalism was influenced by evolutionary theory and biology, and provided an environmental context for the study of mind -the mind is used to help us adapt to and interact with the environment.

3. Explain how functionalism is a rejection of reductionism.

Functionalism was interested in the meaning of behavior, and as Dewey argued, the meaning of any act cannot be understood by reducing it down to a simple stimulus and response.

4. Why did Galton believe that intelligence must be inherited?

Galton saw that success ran in some families and not in others. He thought intelligence had something to do with the success of such families. He didn't take into consideration other factors - such as money. Money can open many doors in a capitalistic society.

comparative psychology

George John Romanes: adopted an anecdotal and observational approach, noting how animals sometimes appeared to behave with complex intentions, with an underlying mental content anthropomorphized animals, and attributed to them human-like emotions and reasoning powers appealed to a growing public interest in the possibility that, owing to the recentness of Darwin's theory, that animals were more like us than had previously been thought C. Lloyd Morgan: believed in parsimony Morgan's Canon=> it is okay to assign higher cognitive abilities to animals if such abilities are required to explain their behavior, but otherwise we should resort to simpler explanations by default. Jacques Loeb: everything could be brought down to the level of a tropism, which is a form of purposive behavior directed at light plant turning towards sun: action is nevertheless goal-directed, in the sense that it has a function and serves a purpose to the plant, but no mind is needed to govern it all behavior could be reduced down to simple S-R reflex chains.=> view was opposed by the functionalists Herbert Spencer Jennings=> a functionalist inspired biologist at Johns Hopkins who criticized Loeb's theory. Jennings argued that even ordinary behavior is too complex and variable to explain in terms of a simpler reflex studied protozoa=>found that their behavior was variable and was modified by experience Sir Charles Sherrington=> reflexes do not even involve the brain, but are localized entirely to the spine and peripheral nerves Ivan Pavlov=> interested in digestive reflexes; salivation and the secretion of stomach enzymes were triggered by stimuli in an S-R chain, and that a reflexive neural circuit must control these responses; goal was to map out these connections by studying digestion in dogs; pioneered the surgical creation of a gastric fistula, which is a channel that leads from the stomach to a pouch on the outside of the dog's body; goal was to determine the stimulus that triggered the stomach secretions; invented a second surgical technique called sham feeding famous discovery was that certain external events seemed to cause secretions conditional reflex=> implying that the dog had learned the conditional relationship between the feeder and the food

2. Briefly outline any philosophical viewpoints that inspired James' thinking with respectto the "stream of consciousness."

Going as far back as the ancient greeks, Heraclitus stated that you cannot step into the same river twice. He used the river as a metaphor for constant change. James obviously felt that the mind work in the same way. More recently, the associationists believed that all thoughts, actions and feelings are connected to each other in an inter-connected network, and that thoughts would flow from one to the other.

5. Outline G. S. Hall's accomplishments as the "Great Organizer" in American Psychology.

Hall set up the first psychology laboratory in the US and created the APA and was its first president, as well as published the first psychology journal printed in the English language.

Intelligence and Social Policy

Henry Herbert Goddard => translated the binet simon scale to english and use it to identify mentally retarded children in schools in pennsylvania and new jersey - noticed many had siblings who were also mentally retarded, which supported Galton's social darwinist views - Deborah Kallikak => mentally retarded student picked for study; 22 year old with the mental age of 9 (9/22 * 100 = 40.9) Goddard believed in eugenics and advocated the extreme position of forced sterilization of such mentally retarded individuals, believed that family lines such as the Kallikaks' were inferior and needed to be cut off controversy => Stephen Jay Gould was skeptical of Goddard and argued that Kallikak families had been made to appear sinister or menacing physiognomy => one can see people's personality and aptitudes just by looking at them Gould believe Goddard was using physiognomy so that his readers would equate feeble minded with criminally deviant after goddard's book, there was a growing concern that the european immigrants were causing a rise in mentally deficient people whcih coul result in increased crime

Evolution and Psychology

Herbert Spencer => The principles of Psychology in 1855 -influenced by earlier theory of evolution proposed by jean baptiste lamarck (teleological theory) -teleological theory of evolution is on that proposes a design in nature; evolution has a purpose or goal - lamarck believe the goal to be perfection Spencer applied teleological theory to psychology in the form of evolutionary associationism; established associations are passed on to one's offspring (spencer Brain principle) - SPB was used to explain the differences in mental complexity across more specifically intelligence -used the phrase survival of the fittest ; some people are more mentally fit to succeed in society than others -influence american business - inaccurately known as Social Darwinism

Functionalism: The first american school (The chicago school)

John Dewey (born 1859) developed his ideas regarding a functionalist psychology 1896 published The Reflex Arc Concept in Psychology seen as the formal beginning of the school and the first important paper in functionalism y rejected reductionism in psychology, and in particular the idea of a stimulus-response (S-R) type of explanation reductionist S-R approach states that the heat of the candle is the stimulus and the response is the withdrawal of the hand Dewey argued that "The reflex is an indivisible coordination, for the response is to the stimulus, and how could it be a response without the stimulus? And the stimulus is to the response and would not be stimulus unless it aroused response" only way to view the mind was as a functioning instrument. The role of the mind is as an instrument that guides and coordinates behavior, that is, that regulates responses to stimuli A mind that has a use and a function is fundamental to the struggle of human life James Rowland Angell discussed the role of the mind as a mediator in behavior=> view is an SOR approach; o= organism Harvey Carr (born 1873) discussed the response as the adaptive act=> introduced motivation into psychology; behavior, as the adaptive act, begins with the motivating stimulus, such as hunger, followed by a sensory situation; an environment that offers food, and a response that satisfies the motivating stimulus; and obtaining and consuming the food.

Neobehaviorism

Logical positivism was born out of a group of philosophers called the Vienna Circle.: consisted of Otto Neuworth, Rudolph Carnap According to logical positivism, statements logically derived from empirically observed data could be considered scientific Vienna Circle was concerned with defining science as distinct from metaphysics, which they rejected Verification was an important part of their philosophy; a scientific theory was one that could be verified empirically neobehaviorists believed that some psychological constructs, though not directly observed, could still be considered scientific because they were grounded in strict empirical observation of behavior, and because they could be verified Edwin Guthrie=>adopted the radical position of one-trial learning. The idea is a rejection of the principle of frequency proposed by Aristotle, James Mill, and echoed in Thorndike's Law of Exercise , learning occurs in one trial despite the lack of performance. Edward Chace Tolman=> latent learning had rats wandering around a maze aimlessly, without being reinforced for making it to the goal. According to Watson, this would be an example of purely random behavior, once reinforcement was introduced, the rats began solving the maze as quickly as rats that had been receiving reinforcement for an equivalent length of time. This reveals latent learning, meaning that the rats were learning even when they were not performing a conditioned response. Clark Leonard Hull=> extended the research into intervening variables. Hull's method involved what he called the hypothetico-deductive approach. This term refers to a kind of scientific method, derived somewhat from logical positivism but also other theories of science. drive reduction theory => All organisms possess biological drives, referring to physiological needs that must be met: ex. hunger is a drive Drive is not the only predictor of behavior, however. Another is habit strength, which refers to the number of times the animal had been reinforced for the behavior in the past. third intervening variable is incentive motivation, which describes the strength of the reward

Charles darwin

On the origin of Species by Mean of Natural Selection Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life idea of evolution

George Miller

One of the earliest cognitive psychologists who was a proponent of cybernetics significance for cognitive psychology is that his review reveals not only that processes like memory are measurable and quantifiable, but that the measurements are reliable used cybernetic concepts like recoding of information, which refers to our ability to organize data in flexible ways, and "chunk" items together in STM Miller, Galanter, and Pribram (1960) borrowed the concept of feedback control from systems engineering to develop their Test-Operate-Test-Exit (TOTE) model as a cognitive version of the reflex arc reaching to pick up a cup, the goal state is defined as the hand in contact with the cup. The current state is that the hand is not in contact with the cup, so an operation is performed to move the hand closer to the cup. During the reach, feedback information is used to test whether the hand is on target.

pre darwin evolutionary theory

Plato => evolution can't be possible; everything is an imperfect form of the ethereal realm; the ethereal realm is primary; the universe is unchanging Erasmus Darwin & Jean Baptiste Lamarck mutability of species Lamarck: inheritance of acquired characteristics darwin didnt invent evolution teleological theories => purposeful development towards an end

Mental Testing

Sir Francis Galton (born 1822): Some people are cognitively fit to live in society and thinking led to the suggestion that it might be possible to measure mental abilities which spawned the fields of intelligence testing and psychometry. -set out to find ways to measure intelligence and its heritability -successful people are related to successful people nature vs. nurture controversy=> whether our psychological makeup, such as intelligence and personality, is in our nature (e.g., genetically determined at birth) or whether it is nurtured within us after we are born. -debate mirrors rationalism vs. empiricism flaw in galton's logic => correlation does not imply causation, there could be a third factor; e.g. money -pioneered the use of twin studies - statistical analysis was invented for this purpose -karl pearson => pearson correlation coefficient Dark side to Galton's research => EUGENICS => The Social Darwinists took from this the idea that those individuals who are unfit for society are in fact dragging society down. They are hindering the betterment of human civilization, and they are passing their unfit genes on to their children. Galton worried openly that such mentally unfit people, equated with the poor working class, were having large families and in essence were reversing the "natural" process of social evolution. His approach was to oppose social programs that prop up the poor and enable them to survive and reproduce when the "natural law" of Social Darwinism would mandate that they should not, and further to encourage selective breeding so that the gene pool of the more fit members of society would not become contaminated

Burrhus Frederick Skinner

Skinner took an active view, describing the organism as operating on its environment and receiving reinforcement or punishment as a consequence operant conditioning reversed the order of events from the classical theory. Instead of S-R, the theory is R-S; the response comes first and the stimulus follows in the form of a consequence invented the skinner box => reminiscent of the law of effect was designed to allow rats to press a bar, which could be followed by any number of consequences If the bar pressing was followed by the delivery of food, bar pressing tending to increase in rate. Thus food is a reinforcer. If bar pressing resulted in a shock applied through the floor of the box to the rat's feet, then the rate of bar pressing decreased; shock is a punisher positive and negative reinforcement reinforcement was more effective than punishment, and he set about manipulating different schedules of reinforcement to discover the most effective means of shaping behavior. fixed interval schedule means that reinforcement occurs on a set time schedule variable interval schedule, food is delivered on a randomly set time schedule pigeon bomb => crafted a missile nosecone with three compartments, each one housing a pigeon. In front of the pigeon was a disk upon which they could peck, just like in one of his Skinner boxes concepts like personal responsibility, freedom, liberty, and justice were all illusory in his view

2. Describe Spearman's two-factor theory of intelligence.

Spearman's two factor theory of intelligence has two intelligence areas. The first is general, which represents out overall intelligence. This type of intelligence is suggested to be inherited. The second type in specific. Specific intelligence cover certain abilities. These certain abilities can be improved by practicing them. This shows that not all of our intelligence is inherited.

5. Describe the Spencer-Bain principle.

The Spencer-Bain principle is inaccurately known as social darwinism. Spencer established that intelligence in passed down. He also established that some people are fit to succeed while others are not. The Spencer Bain Principle is also used to describe differences in intelligence. This came to influence business in America.

3. Explain the nature/nurture debate as it applies to intelligence and what the scientificdata have to say on the matter.

The nature vs. nurture debate as it applies to intelligence is whether we are born with out intelligence, or whether we are taught our intelligence. Scientific research has suggested that our intelligence is both nature and nurtured, as described in Spearman's two factory theory. For example, someone could be born with average intelligence, but they could also decide to go to college to study. Their studies would most likely increase their intelligence on a certain topic.

Intelligence

The problem of intelligence represents the classic problem of constructs and variables in psychology construct => bastract idea that cannot be directly observed intelligence and personality are both psychological constructs => assume things are real things that all people possess but we can't directly see what they are

1. Explain the philosophy of pragmatism and how William James used it to justify free will.

The truth of any statement is evaluated based on its practical value or usefulness. For James, free will has practical value for living one's life, whereas determinism does not. Thusfree will is trueanddeterminism is false.

early American philosophy

Thomas Reid's commonsense rejection of hume's skeptical empiricism wqas appealing=> becam dominant trend in the U.S. Charles Sanders Peirce: 1) work wasn't well known 2) considered a polymath 3) educated in chemistry 4) fascinated with logic and philosophy 5) pragmatism assesses the truth of meaning of theories or beliefs in terms of success of their practical application

Descartes

animal behavior=> did not have a mind he did not observe the pinel gland in the animal brains he dissected animal were not believed to possess souls, therefore not believed to have a mind Descartes explanation for purposive behavior in animals=>animal's responses were nothing more than unconscious reflexes triggered automatically by a stimulus, behavior is not purposive at all, but automatic and mindless.

Cartesian view

animal psychology is the study of behavior and human psychology is the study of the mind not possible to have a comparative psychology, a single psychology that allows direct comparisons between human and animal behavior La Mettrie argued that it would be more parsimonious (simpler and with fewer extra assumptions) to posit the same explanation for what appears to be the same kind of purposive behavior in humans and animals; solution was to apply the reflexive S-R approach to al

If the human mind can be conceptualized so successfully as operating like a computer, is it possible to program a computer to behave like a human?

artificial intelligence idea is that if we can figure out the cybernetic principles by which the human mind operates, it ought to be a trivial matter to design a computer that follows these principles Alan Turing took an essentially behaviorist approach with his Turing Test. To him, intelligence was nothing more than the ability of the computer to appear to possess intelligence cybernetic perspective, the brain is nothing but a biological computer. The synapses play the role of the circuitry, implementing various programs Proponents of Strong AI believe that all that needs to be known is the nature of the information and the rules for manipulating it Critics of Strong AI like Searle consider this dualism, because the approach is basically assuming that the mind is independent of its implementation; therefore the mind is independent of the brain Searle's Weak AI approach is that a computer can be a good simulation of the mind, but it is not the same thing because the mind is dependent on the brain

Donald Broadbent

borrowed the concept of an electronic filter and used it as a metaphor for how attention works signal-to-noise ratio helped quantify an intelligible vs. unintelligible message Modern broadband internet connections can transmit over 100,000 bits/second

Paradigm shift applied to psychology

characterize behaviorism as a dominant paradigm, and that the paradigm shift to cognitive psychology was marked by a lot of brand new data that could not be accounted for by the behaviorist reflex arc two problems with analogy 1) behaviorism was not a totally dominant paradigm 2) calling cognitive psychology a revolution is determining that the ideas introduced during the relevant time frame represented brand new ideas

Thomas Kuhn

concept of scientific revolution scientists are people, with their own biases and expectations emphasized that we need to understand the role these biases have on science there is a dominant paradigm that shapes the way scientists view their field. It affects the nature of the questions that are asked, and the methods used to answer them new ideas result in new questions, and new data coined the term "paradigm shift" in reference to this event, and it is synonymous with the idea of scientific revolution Kuhn's definition of a scientific paradigm sets the boundaries on the kinds of ideas that can be discussed and work that can be done

charle's darwin theory of natural selection

darwin's voyage on the HMS Beagle in 1831 Coast of south america finches of galapagos islands; were about the same size but beaks were different beaks varied in size darwin suspected beaks had become modified for different foods darwin lacked mechanism to explain it but it suggested that evolution was the source of the morphological diversity across and within the many species of the world Sir Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology = The implication was that if the natural environment was to exert an influence on the flora and fauna that lived within it, such an influence would be comparable around the Earth Thomas Malthus' Essay on the Principle of Population = population will eventually outgrow food supply; Darwin realized the significance of the finches' beaks 1) environment with plentiful resources for a species 2) species get variation of features 3) as population grows, resources become insufficient 4) Competition: better suited features and qualities would survive and thrive over time Darwin suggested the mechanism is the natural environment, which selects traits in populations of animals

founding of psychology in the U.S.

debate on who accounts for the first psychologist William James: 1) educated in medicine and physiology 2) created a lab for teaching and demonstration Granville Stanley Hall: 1) first American to receive a PHD in Psychology 2) set up a psychological lab for research 3) The Great Organizer 4) Creation of the American Psychological Association, first president 5) founded the American journal of psychology William Lowe Bryan: 1) honor of oldest psychology department in the United States many schools didn't admit women, but some were exceptions Exra Cornell, adopted a liberal policy regarding higher education Margaret Floy Washburn: Titchener's first student, and in 1894 became the first woman to receive a PhD in psychology Christine Ladd Franklin: first woman in psychology, although completing all the requirements for a PhD in 1882 at hopkins, the degree was not granted because she was there only as an "unofficial student,"; finally given her PhD by Johns Hopkins in 1926 Mary Whiton Calkins: Her success in gaining access to a Harvard education for women opened the door for others, so that the Harvard Annex was established. Francis Cecil Sumner: was G. S. Hall's last doctoral student, and was the first African American to receive a PhD; wrote two articles favoring the continued racial segregation in higher education, on the basis that African Americans were "on a lower cultural level than the White race" Kenneth and Mamie Phipps Clark were pioneers in the psychology of race Kenneth Clark became the first African American president of the American Psychological Association in 1966.

Jenkins and Dallenbach

demonstrated the role of interference in forgetting and memory.

Karl Lashley

e famous search for engrams (the locus of memories in the brain), spent some time examining the ability of the behaviorist treatment of the reflex arc, as an S-R chain, to explain complex human behaviors like language and playing a musical instrument problem with the S-R chain approach is the rapidity of these behaviors. other major problem stemmed from a certain kind of speech error made famous, or infamous, by the Reverend William Archibald Spooner. errors, called Spoonerisms, were hard for the S-R chain theory to explain S-R chain theory could explain why sometimes a stimulus is followed by an incorrect response, but not why that incorrect response would be an anticipation of a phoneme that would not occur until later in the phrase

Functionalism: The first american school (William James)

was a respected teacher and a prolific writer first textbook of psychology: The Principles of Psychology => became the standard textbook in psychology, used nearly universally for decades. drew heavily from Darwin, and he treated the concept of instinct as something biologically determined did not believe that instinct and habit determined one's behavior believed in free will free will is a far more useful idea for living than is determinism pragmatism=> ideas can be judged by their usefulness, or the degree to which they work. A good idea is one that works and has practical value for life. Determinism has no practical value, so it is therefore wrong. Free will is pragmatic, and is right. nature of consciousness=> five facts of consciousness 1) consciousness is personal, not universal 2) content of experience is always changing 3) conscious is continuous and cannot be divided, or analyzed 4) consciousness is functional 5) consciousness is selective

Alfred binet and Theodore Simon

worked for the french government to establish ways of measuring intelligence of children govt wanted to determine which kids needed special education Binet-Simon scale of intelligence => tested a range of cognitive abilities Binet favored nurture side => worried that if a teacher felt that a child's intelligence was innately determined, the teacher could be prejudice toward the child in terms of quality of the education Mental orthopedics => mental exercises that could strengthen the mind and increase intelligence -results were interpreted in terms of the child's mental age - 5 year old performing like a 5 year old would be considered normal - 5 year old performing like a 6 year old would be considered above average - 5 year old performing like a younger child would be considered below average William stern modified results - mental age should be divided by child's chronological age to produce an intelligence quotient - quotient determined as the child's mental age divided by its chronological age times 100 - example : 5/5 * 100 = 100; 8/5 * 100 = 160