PSYC 256 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Cogito Ergo Sum, Carl Wernicke, Paul Broca
13 Jun 2018
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HISTORY OF COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY: PHILOSOPHY, PHYSIOLOGY, AND
PSYCHOLOGY
Philosophical Antecedents
Plato & Rationalism (400 BC)
• Using logic to understand reality
• ΔReality: abstract ideas that objects represent, not concrete objects
• How do we investigate reality?
o Observations can be misleading
o Knowledge through logic
Aristotle and Empiricism (300 BC)
• ΔReality: concrete world of objects that we sense
• )nvestigating it → knowledge through experience and observation, only way to
arrive at the truth
Descartes & Rationalism (1596-1650)
• ) think therefore ) am or Cogito ergo sum
• Scrooge uses rationalizing
• ΔReality: internal abstract idea; dualism
• Essence of mind is thinking
• Dualism: mind/body distinction
Locke & Empiricism (1632-1704)
• Learn through observation of natural world
Physiological Antecedents
Psychophysics
• Relationship between stimulus properties and psychological impressions of those
stimuli
o Ex. colors and wavelengths
• How changes in light intensity, mass, pitch, etc. affect your experience of those
stimuli
Ernst Weber (mid-1800s)
• Just Noticeable Difference (JND): minimum amount stimulus intensity needs to
change to produce a noticeable change in sensory experience
• Weber’s Law: ΔSS =k → change in stimulus intensity initial stimulus =a
constant
Paul Broca & Carl Wernicke (late 1800s)
• Studied patients with language problems due to brain damage
• Localization of function: specific areas of brain are specialized for different faculties
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Document Summary
Locke & empiricism (1632-1704: learn through observation of natural world. Psychophysics: relationship between stimulus properties and psychological impressions of those stimuli, ex. colors and wavelengths, how changes in light intensity, mass, pitch, etc. affect your experience of those stimuli. Just noticeable difference (jnd): minimum amount stimulus intensity needs to change to produce a noticeable change in sensory experience: weber"s law: ss =k change in stimulus intensity initial stimulus =a constant. Paul broca & carl wernicke (late 1800s: studied patients with language problems due to brain damage, localization of function: specific areas of brain are specialized for different faculties. William james (1890) empirical functions, and to understand those processes we need to ask what functions: gestalt: to understand psychology, analyze things as a whole, not decompose parts, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Behaviorism (1910s-1950s: behavior in response to a given stimulus can be predicted based on previous.
