PSYCH 2H03 Lecture Notes - Gustav Fechner, Edward B. Titchener, Wilhelm Wundt

• School: McMaster University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYCH 2H03
• Professor: Judith Shedden

Document Summary

Gustav fechner (1801- 1887) logarithmic function. Cognitive psychology is the study of mental processes such as perceiving, remembering, and reasoning. Wilhelm wundt (1832- 1920); edward titchener (1867- 1927); william james (1842- 1910) Early focus: introspection; qualities of mental experience; importance of intentionality and volition to conscious thought. The examination/observation of one"s own mental and emotional processes. Looks only at observable behavior, what happens inside the head doesn"t matter. Conscious experience is subjective, and therefore unreliable and unverifiable. 1932: rats learn mazes with cognitive maps. Internal thought is a necessary conduct. Psychophysics gave mechanism credibility as a way to study the mind. Kantian logic: making inferences on something we can"t see based on something we do see. A model is an analogy. To study mental processes, we need a language of communication. Psychology uses models, and analogies extensively, explaining the unknown by comparison to the known.