What is cognitive psychology?
specific branch of psychology involves the scientific study of the mind
What is the mind? (ie What does the mind create and what is the mind important for?)
mind creates cognition and is important for function and survival (indicating thus how the mind operates through creation of representations, and mind's function via mind enabling actions and achievements of goals)
What is a cognition?
Different types exist; cognition entails the mental processes mind does (e.g. attention, etc.)
What is the limitation of studying how the mind works - shown by what experiment?
Mental responses must be inferred from behavior, because can't be measured directly; via Donders rxn time experiment, Wundt structuralism, and Ebbinghaus and memory/savings curve
What was Wundt's structuralist approach to studying the ind?
Wundt wanted to break down our overall experience into basic elements of experience known as sensations - a periodic table of the mind" via trained analytic introspection (think hearing individual notes in a chord)
What happened to structuralism?
It was abandoned!
How did Watson's behaviorism arise from study of the mind?
Negative reaction to Wundt's use of analytic introspection
What is meant by Watson's classical conditioning - what is the famous study - and how was that attributed to the study of the mind?
the waiting of one stimulus with another Little Albert White Rat experiment; classical conditioning to argue that behavior can be analyzed without reference to the mind
Skinner's operant conditioning focused on?
how behavior strengthened by the presentation of positive reinforcers
Tolman's rat maze experiment demonstrated the concept of?
Cognitive map, conceptualization within the rat's mind of the maze's layout, in this case
Describe Chomsky's role in the rebirth of the study of the mind in cognitive psychology?
Chomsky didn't see language as Skinner's operant conditioning because of children saying things parent's didn't think, instead believed in existence of an inborn biological program that holds across cultures
Computer's method of information processing in the 1950s introduces what new conceptualization of the mind?
Information processing approach
The goal of all experiments that measure these relationships is to reveal how the mind operates, but the goal of modern cognitive psych is to do what?
go beyond measuring single relationships, instead to understanding the mind, which is a complex system
What are the two ways modern cognitive psychologists study the mind because of tis complexity?
(1) How research progresses from one question to another - that is picking the right questions to ask, and (2) the use of models
What are the two kinds of models in cognitive psychology?
(1) Structural models: represent structures in the brain that are involved in specific functions; and (2) Process Models, which illustrate how a given process operates
Cognitive psychology focuses on what process?
our thought and thinking process
What have been the three struggles of cognitive psychology in establishing itself as a field, and describe?
(1) Na�ve realism - personal intuitions on the world aren't always right
(2) Computational complexity - the mind is complicated, which makes understanding difficult, more so than a computer
(3) ecological validity - we exist in a complex environment, whic
What were the three primary precursor movements to cognitive psychology and their drawback that allowed for cognitive psychology to flourish?
(1) Analytic Introspection - this was problematic because we all have biases, introducing accuracy issues
(2) Gestalt Psychology - tendency to see the whole rather than parts; enter law of pragnor which is that we prefer simplest organization, however, th
What led to and what were the consequences of the emergence of cognitive psychology?
Tolman's latter study, combined with the intro of the cpu, allowed for the human mind to be viewed as a computer (info processing perspective).
What are the two models of modeling the mind?
(1) Structural: mimic reality via representation of brain/structures
(2) Process Models: model representing process/how systems interact within the mind INDEPENDENT of structure -- this is the dominant model
What is the new model of cognitive psychology?
parallel distributed processing & connectionism, i.e. NETWORK MODEL; dynamic network of interconnected pieces of info