PSY270H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Noam Chomsky, Wilhelm Wundt, B. F. Skinner
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Wants to know how people think, learn, remember, forget, speak, read, write, pay attention, solve problems, make decisions, etc. Have to observe behavior to infer thought because most of cognition is unconscious and more complex than it seems. Investigated elements of immediate experience via analytic introspection. Developed some of first ideas about experimentation, attention, memory, language. Titchener: brought wundt"s ideas to the us as structuralism. Interested in studying purpose of thought rather than elements (why vs how) Concerned with prediction and control through direct observation. To be scientifically accepted the unobservable should do something useful. Behavior = series of stimuli and responses. Behavior is not just a result of cause and effect. Language cannot be simply a result of stimulus and response. Wwii: changing point because research was needed that had practical applications in the field. Computers were developed that would perform tasks. Goal: do what the human mind can do. Relied heavily on ideas from computer science.
