PSY270H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Wilhelm Wundt, Edward B. Titchener, Behaviorism

• School: UTSG
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSY270H1
• Professor: Christine Millicent Burton

Document Summary

Cognitive psychology is the study of intelligent behaviour. Cognitive psychology wants to know how people think and learn, remember (and forget), speak, read, write, pay attention, solve problems, make decisions. We have to observe behaviour to infer thought because much of cognition is unconscious and more complex than it seems. Interested in thought, but we can"t observe thought, so ultimately what we study is behavior and infer thought. We are unaware of the vast majority of thought. Historically, the scientific study of the mind was considered impossible. Thought cannot be observed, thought is ultimately subjective. How can output of the soul be related to the body? (the mind-body problem) Early research in perception inspired others to approach the study of the mind scientifically. Wundt investigated the elements of immediate experience via analytic introspection. Examination of one"s own conscious thoughts and feelings. Importance of replication; independent observers must describe in a similar environment what they"re perceiving.