PSYC1001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Edward B. Titchener, Classical Conditioning, Kurt Koffka
19 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Functionalism and behaviourism (lecture 5 and 6)
Wundt
• First experimental lab in Leipzig 1879
• Controlled experiments
• Wanted to know how mind/brain works, had fundamental questions
• Introspection technique one of many used
Structuralism
• Main question
• Search of the primitive experiences that constitute thought
• Building blocks of our conscious experience
Edward Titchener
• Introduced introspection in US
• Looking for ultimate building blocks of our conscious experience
• Interested in structure
• Strict guidelines for reporting of an introspective analysis
Movements that contradicted intraspection - functionalism, Gestalt psychology
1. Functionalism
• William James - suggested to focus on function of the brain process
• Problem with structuralist approach is the "stream of consciousness"
• Cannot simply just divide thoughts to analyse them, as there are continuous arrival of
thoughts
• Structure not important as function
2. Gestalt Psychology
• Europe
• Wertheimer, Koffka, Kohler
• "the whole is other than the sum of its parts"
• Whole exists independently of its parts
o Can't understand architecture by studying a brick
o e.g. Kanizsa traingle
• Perceiving is not just sensations but a creative process of organising in/by the brain
o Gestalt laws
• Common fate
• Similarity
• Proximity
• Good continuation
Parallel movements based on animal research
• Ivan Pavlov
o Classic conditioning
o Played with dos
o Research on components in saliva as a function of kind of food
o Psychic secretion of saliva, dog produced saliva before having food in mouth
o Combined neutral stimulus with unconditioned stimulus, and at one point presentation
of neutral stimulus is enough stimulate response
Behaviourism movement in US
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
