PSY245 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Cognitive Psychology, Franciscus Donders, Krypto
Chapter 1
COGNITION PSYCHOLOGY – STUDYING THE MIND:
Cognitive psychology – branch of psychology concerned with the scientific study
of the mind
Term mind can be thought of in a number of different ways
• approach is to consider how mind is used in everyday conversation
Mind – creates and controls mental functions (perception, attention, memory,
emotions, language, deciding, thinking and reasoning)
• Reflects minds role in memory, problem-solving and making decisions
Another definition of the mind – is a system that creates representations of the
world so that we can act within it to achieve our goals
• Reflects minds importance for functioning and survival
2 definitions are not incompatible
• 1st one indicates different types of cognition – mental processes that the
mind does
• 2nd definition indicates something about how the mind operates and its
function
STUDYING THE MIND: EARLY WORK IN COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY:
1800s → belief that it was not possible to study the mind because
• Mind cannot study itself
• Idea that the properties of the mind cannot be measured
DONDERSS PIONEERING EXPERIMENT:
Franciscus Donders – 1868 – did one of the first cognitive psychology
experiments
• Interested in how long people took to make a decision
• Measured reaction time – how long it takes to respond to presentation of
a stimulus
• Simple reaction time – asking subjects to push a button rapidly as
possible when they saw a light go on – presenting stimulus causes a
mental response which leads to a behavioural response
• Choice reaction time – using 2 lights and asking his subjects to push the
left or right button in correspondence to the light
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Concluded that the decision-making process took one-tenth of a second
(difference b/w simple and choice reaction times)
Experiment shows that mental responses cannot be measured directly, but
must be inferred from behaviour – 1 principle that holds for all research in
cognitive psychology
WUNDTS PSYUCHOLOGY LABORATORY: STRUCTURALISM AND ANALYTIC
INTROSPECTION:
William Wundt – 1879 – founded first laboratory of scientific psychology at
University of Leipzig in Germany
• Wundts approach of structuralism dominated psychology in late s
and early 1900s
• Structuralism – claims that overall experience is determined by
combining basic elements of experience called sensations
• Was not fruitful approach
Analytical introspection – technique in which trained subjects described their
experiences and thought processes in response to stimuli
• Requires extensive training b/c must describe experiences in terms of
elementary mental elements
EBBINGHAUSS MEMORY EXPERIMENT:
Hermann Ebbinghaus – 1885/1913
• Interested in determining nature of memory and forgetting – specifically
how rapidly information that is learned is lost over time
• Used quantitative method of measuring memory
• Repeated lists of 13 nonsense syllables (e.g. DAX) to himself at a constant
rate, then delayed his time before repeating the list again to see how long
it took to relearn it – used these words so he wouldnt be influenced by
meaning
Savings – measure used to determine how much was forgotten after a particular
delay
• Savings = (original time to learn the list) – (time to relearn the list after
delay)
• Longer delays = smaller savings
• Smaller savings → more forgetting
Savings curve – the plot of percent savings vs. time
• Shows memory drops rapidly after the first 2 days after initial training
and then levels off
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• Demonstrated that memory could be quantified and that functions (e.g.
savings curve) could be used to describe a property of the mind (e.g.
ability to retain info)
WILLIAM JAMESS PRINCIPLES OF PSYCHOLOGY:
William James – experiments based on observations about the operation of his
own mind
• Observation of paying attention to 1 thing involves withdrawing from
other things is still true today
Early Pioneers in Cognitive Psychology
Person
Procedure
Results/Conclusions
Contributions
Donders (1868)
Simple reaction
time vs. choice
reaction time
Choice reaction time
takes 1/10 seconds
longer → it takes
1/10 second to make
a decision
First cognitive
psychology
experiment
Wundt (1879)
Analytic
Introspection
No reliable results
Established first
lab of scientific
psychology
Ebbinghaus
(1885)
Savings method
to measure
forgetting
Forgetting occurs
rapidly in the first 1-2
days after original
learning
Quantitative
measurement of
mental processes
James (1890)
No experiments;
reported
observations of
his own
experience
Descriptions of a
wide range of
experiences
First psychology
book; some of his
observations are
still valid today
ABANDONING THE STUDY OF THE MIND:
John Watson – founded behaviourism
Problem w/ analytic introspection because:
1. Produced extremely variable results from person to person
2. Results were difficult to verify because they were interpreted in terms of
invisible mental processes
Behaviourism – objective, experimental branch of natural science with its
theoretical goal the prediction and control of behaviour
Watson →
• Rejects introspection as a method
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find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Chapter 1 of the mind emotions, language, deciding, thinking and reasoning) Term mind can be thought of in a number of different ways. Cognitive psychology branch of psychology concerned with the scientific study: (cid:883) approach is to consider how (cid:494)mind(cid:495) is used in everyday conversation. Mind creates and controls mental functions (perception, attention, memory: reflects mind(cid:495)s role in memory, problem-solving and making decisions. 2 definitions are not incompatible mind does function. Studying the mind: early work in cognitive psychology: 1800s belief that it was not possible to study the mind because: mind cannot study itself. Idea that the properties of the mind cannot be measured experiments. Interested in how long people took to make a decision. Concluded that the decision-making process took one-tenth of a second (difference b/w simple and choice reaction times) Experiment shows that mental responses cannot be measured directly, but must be inferred from behaviour 1 principle that holds for all research in cognitive psychology.
