PSYC 2650 Lecture Notes - Experimental Psychology, Cognitive Revolution, Edward B. Titchener
22 Mar 2013
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Document Summary
One way it can be defined is as the study of knowledge; how do we study, how do we focus our attention and concentrate, how do we make decisions. Much larger range of thoughts, actions, feelings depend on our knowledge; what we know can influence how we think; understanding a story or conversation depends on knowledge the reader already has. Wundt and his student titchener began the study of experimental psychology in the late 1800s; it was separate from biology and philosophy; the focus was on conscious mental events (feelings, thoughts, and emotions). Introspection: process through which one looks within to observe and record the contents of one"s own mental life. Problems we now know that our mental activity is unconscious and not available to the method of introspection; claims derived from introspection are subjective and not testable (people talking about themselves and cannot be proven).
