PSYC10003 Lecture Notes - Eiffel Tower, Experimental Psychology, Psychophysics
21 Jan 2017
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Lecture 1: ebbinghause and the science of human memory. Ability to remember minute details every day in their lives. Tested on their knowledge/memory of public events eg. death of a famous person (because it"s objectively verifiable (unlike asking them a personal question we would have no idea about with re. to the answer) Inspired by fechner"s book elements of psychophysics" to apply principles of psychophysics to study of memory: fechner = first exp. psychologist, working in tradition of an associationist: emphasises an important role for learned connections/associations bw simple ideas. This emphasis on learned associations favours nurture over nature: developed the nonsense syllable" (consonant, vowel, consonant eg. kot) to create an uncontaminated/novel way of testing how these associations were initially formed. Pro: uncontaminated by previous experience therefore he had total exp. Control over learning as he controlled what the subjects would initially learn. He was blinded to the important role that knowledge and previous personal exp.
