PSYCO323 Lecture Notes - Cognitive Neuroscience, Rationality, Cultural-Historical Psychology
Document Summary
3 (maybe 4) possible functions of theory: testing: Predict: what"s going to happen next to try to get a more detailed understanding: psychologists tend to hang around the prediction function. Moving away from trying to control behavior and more toward application and helping to change things: there"s a fine line between control and help. By definition left unstated because they"re assumed. Drop a pen, assume you can drop it again and it"ll fall again) Assumptions depend on time and place: ex. It was once assumed that infants" first words were always nouns; a 1996 study of chinese children showed their first words were verbs. There are holes in everything we know (ex. Studies are published so we can read them to see what we already know, and analyze for holes and weakness. One would be what the origins of knowledge are: locke believed children"s minds were blank slates.