Psychology 2135A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Empiricism, Donald Broadbent, Lexus Is

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 2135A/B
• Professor: John Paul Minda

Document Summary

What is information: potentially useful information, how does an intelligent system let the useful information in, and how does it keep the less useful information out, how does your brain and mind know the difference. Only a few of them are relevant. Nativism: plato, descartes, kant, emphasis on that which is innate. Empiricism: locke, hume, stuart, mill, emphasis on experience/learning. Applications of the scientific method to understanding psychology. The specific approach determines what kinds of data are collected: which puts constraints on consciousness. Experimenter may introspect, or mat collect thoughts from others. William james: the explanation of experience, why does the mind work as it does, function more important than content. Psychology=a purely objective science: theoretical goal is the prediction &control of behavior. You can observe stimuli (inputs) and behaviours (outputs) Constructs for internal states are not observable: feelings, intentions, desires, goals. Associations are the main explanatory processes: law of learning, schedules of reinforcement.