PSYC 325 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Little Albert Experiment, Heredity, David Rumelhart
4 Jun 2018
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PSYC 325 CH1 The Psychology of Learning and Memory
Introduction
Learning: the process by which changes in behavior arise as the result of experience interacting
with the world
· also - the acquisition of knowledge
Memory: the record of our past experiences, acquired through learning (storage of information
[unconscious] that may be retrieved when needed [conscious])
Video - Clive Wearing with his wife, Deborah
- Damaged hippocampus and frontal lobe
- Long term memory
- Regulation of emotion
From Philosophy and natural history to psychology
● Mind, learning, and memory have been topics of intense fascination for millennia.
● Early approaches were primarily philosophical rather than scientific, but many key
questions of the field were identified.
Philosophical Traditions: Nature VS Nurture
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● Nativist: Humans are shaped primarily by their biological inheritance (nature)
- Fixed at birth, born great (or not)
■ Plato: we are born with innate differences in skill and talent, and suggested
sorting by quality soon after birth
■ Descartes: most of our knowledge is innate, not from experience
● Empiricist: Humans are shaped primarily by their experience (nurture)
- Endless possibilities with the right experiences
■ Aristotle: knowledge and talent are matters of training and experience, not
inheritance
■ Locke: we are born as blank slates (tabula rasa), completely equal and without
innate knowledge, and that all our habits and skills are due to experience
● Current approaches?
- Most modern researchers acknowledge that we are shaped by both nature and nurture. –
Still, sharp disagreements persist over relative importance in different domains (e.g., IQ).
Philosophical Traditions: Nature of Mind
- What is the mind “made of”?
- Descartes’ dualism: immaterial soul + mechanical body
- Mechanical side: our bodily similarity to machines and nonhuman animals
- Immaterial soul: Our ability to think and freely make decisions
Empiricists believe we are shaped by experience. But how do we gain such complex ideas from
experience?
- Aristotle proposed that ideas are built by rules of association (associationism):
1. Contiguity – Experiences near each other in time/space are joined together.
2. Frequency – Experiences often repeated are connected more strongly.
3. Similarity – Experiences similar to one another are connected.
■ An example - “LEMON”
- What words come to mind?
- Perhaps: peel, orange
- Frequently contiguous
- Similar
- Perhaps not: biscuit
- Infrequently contiguous
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■ Associationism was further elaborated by other empiricist thinkers, including:
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- W −
Philosophical Traditions: Rules of Mind
- W −
- James proposed that experience links ideas in the mind.
- Remembering one idea would spread along links, retrieving a complex episode.
- James proposed that these links would be physically formed in the brain,
providing an early link between psychology and neuroscience.
Philosophical Traditions: Summary
- Mind, learning, and memory have been topics of intense fascination for millennia. ·
Three key areas of debate:
1. Nativism versus empiricism: Are we shaped by experience or fixed at birth?
2. Nature of the mind: How does the mind differ from physical objects, if at all?
3. Rules of the mind: Are there rules by which the mind generates ideas from
experience?
- Associationism, founded by Aristotle and elaborated by Locke and James, proposes that
contiguity, frequency, and similarity are guiding principles for forming complex ideas.
- These traditions still shape research but were limited to discussion. By adding research,
scientific approaches have greatly advanced our understanding of these topics
The Birth of experimental psychology
How can we examine the validity of a hypothesis?
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Document Summary
Psyc 325 ch1 the psychology of learning and memory. Learning: the process by which changes in behavior arise as the result of experience interacting with the world. Memory: the record of our past experiences, acquired through learning (storage of information. [unconscious] that may be retrieved when needed [conscious]) Video - clive wearing with his wife, deborah. Mind, learning, and memory have been topics of intense fascination for millennia. Early approaches were primarily philosophical rather than scientific, but many key questions of the field were identified. Nativist: humans are shaped primarily by their biological inheritance (nature) Fixed at birth, born great (or not) Plato: we are born with innate differences in skill and talent, and suggested sorting by quality soon after birth. Descartes: most of our knowledge is innate, not from experience. Empiricist: humans are shaped primarily by their experience (nurture) Aristotle: knowledge and talent are matters of training and experience, not inheritance.
