PSYCH 240 Study Guide - Fall 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes - Psych, Visual System, Three-Dimensional Space
PSYCH 240
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
Fall 2018
Psych 240 Lecture #1
Outline
Issues
(a) How can one approach the study of cognition?
(b) How do cognitive psychologists study the mind?
History
• The big problem in studying the mind
• Solutions to the problem
o Introspectionism, behaviorism, cognitivism
• Cognitivism
o Computational view of the mind, information processing
Methodology
• Basic terminology: independent/dependent variables
• Main effects and interactions
• Reaction time methods
• Ruling out alternative explanations
Cognitive psychology is the scientific study of the human mind. Answers the questions of how
do we perceive, learn, remember, think? The study of the structures and processes of the mind
and brain that take in, transform, and use information.
i.e. word flash test (know processes required)
The problem: we aot see the rai, it’s like a lak o. We see the stimulus that is coming
in and the response that comes out, but cannot see the processes. Try to observe the
manifestations of the mind – behavior or physiology
Solutions
Introspectionism
-Look inside and see what is going on, close eyes and think about the processes as we do them
-Wilhelm Wundt and Edward Titchener
-Structuralist: mind as little building blocks that can help you figure out how the mind works. -
Titchener tried to catalogue the number of sensations he felt each day → 42,415 building
blocks of thoughts
Problems with Introspectionism: difficult to verify, anecdotal and private events, biased
observer
Behaviorism
-More rigorous approach
-Can never know what is going on in the brain so why even try
-Look @ stimulus and response and try to map them onto each other (S→R psych)
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
-i.e. Pavlov
-Watson: more extreme, thought that planning your day is just speech that you are saying softly
to yourself (subvocalized speech) and that there are no other processes. Wrote the Behaviorist
Manifesto
-“kier studied reiforeet ad uilt a ig ap of what goes i/out; “kier’s Bo
-idea that psychology is the science of behavior
-emphasis on what can be directly observed including stimuli, responses, reinforcements,
rewards, rats in mazes
-ignores the mind
Problems with behaviorism: cannot account for the diversity of human behavior (i.e. language);
results in limiting science to the observable which is a bad idea
Cognitivism
-infer what is going on inside the box to make testable predictions since we cannot make direct
observations about the processes
-Posit how processes work based on S and R
-Computational view of the mind (mind like a computer)
Terminology
Dependent variable: what you measure/analyze (reaction time, accuracy, brain activity)
Independent variable: what you manipulate (# of items to memorize, time)
Main effect: when the independent variable has an impact on the dependent variable
Interaction: when you have multiple IVs and the effect of one IV on the DC depends on the
value of the second IV
Recognition Test: test memory at different intervals of time
Donders (1868)
Invented mental chronometry which is the study of the time course of mental processes
Information processing stages- each stage receives information from the previous stage,
transforms the information, and sends the information to the next stage. Assumption that there
are info processing systems after the stimulus but before response
What are the stages involved in a task?
How long does each stage last?
Detection Test: react to any stimulus no matter what the stimulus is
Choice Test: needing to make a choice in response based on stimuli
Subtractive Method
Measure time for both the detection and choice tasks to find ut the duration of the decision
stage, both have common detections, the choice time is another phase
Problems
1. Assumption of Pure insertion- all stages remain the same when the new on is added
(a) Problem: adding the decision stage may influence another stage
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
History: the big problem in studying the mind, solutions to the problem. Introspectionism, behaviorism, cognitivism: cognitivism, computational view of the mind, information processing. Methodology: basic terminology: independent/dependent variables, main effects and interactions, reaction time methods, ruling out alternative explanations. Cognitive psychology is the scientific study of the human mind. The study of the structures and processes of the mind and brain that take in, transform, and use information. i. e. word flash test (know processes required) The problem: we (cid:272)a(cid:374)(cid:374)ot see the (cid:271)rai(cid:374), it"s like a (cid:271)la(cid:272)k (cid:271)o(cid:454). We see the stimulus that is coming in and the response that comes out, but cannot see the processes. Try to observe the manifestations of the mind behavior or physiology. Look inside and see what is going on, close eyes and think about the processes as we do them. Structuralist: mind as little building blocks that can help you figure out how the mind works.
