PSYC 2650 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Headphones, Stroop Effect, Language Change
8 Nov 2012
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Cognitive psychology: the scientific study of the mind. Attempts to break complex behaviours into their component processes. Applied various fields: engineering and industrial design: human factors, human-computer interaction, law: reliability of memory; eye witness testimony, repressed memory, business/marketing/economics: consumer behaviour. Greek philosophers: first people to systematically study the mind. John locke, hume, etc: the role of experience; minds start off as a blank slate. Continental nativism: spinosa, etc, innate qualities dictating behaviour. James described his philosophy as psychology; observations were so mature that he foresaw what contemporary psychologists found much later. The problem: how to observe the mind using scientific methodology: black box problem: the unknown; can only control and observe inputs/outputs and cannot understand what"s in between, solutions: introspection, behaviourism, cognitivism, neuroscience. Contents of consciousness are difficult to describe. Individual difference in concreteness of contents (imageless thought) Concrete: can visualize image and describe it. Abstract: can remember parts of the image from memory (imageless)
