PSY 324 Exam 1

Behaviorism

only objective, observable phenomena should play part in psych research, mind is “black box” and should be left out

Behaviorism critiques

behaviorists sometimes attributed internal capacities entirely to external behaviors, e.g. what is “blocking” if not mental process? Filled the gap with something, it didn’t always make sense

Behaviorists

John Watson: behavior itself objective and should be the primary agenda of psych

B.F. Skinner: behavioral science concerned with
describing patterns of reinforcement and behavior

Associative learning

adaptations to behavior driven by relationships observed in environment between stimuli

Operant conditioning

associated with B.F. Skinner, learning driven by reinforcement “operant”, in that learner “operates” on environment to produce an effect (receive a reward)

Factors encouraging emergence of cognitive approach

information theory, computing technology (Turing machine)

Information theory

communication researchers led by C.E. Shannon dev. communication theories, Communication = transmission of “information” across channels (e.g. radios, telegrams, humans); cognition in terms of info processing, abstract processes rather than observable behavior

Introspectionism

ppl could be trained to accurately analyze components of own thoughts, e.g. studied the accompaniment (or non) of images to specific thoughts

Introspectionism critiques

no room for unconscious influences on thought and behavior (Helmholtz and Freud); ppl’s ability to understand their own thoughts very limited and hard to measure

Noam Chomsky (and critique of B.F. Skinner's Verbal Behavior)

VB 1957 book by Skinner, primary objective to provide a hypothesis about nature of language acquisition within behaviorist framework - operant conditioning

Skinner’s VB assertions

Stimulus control – Skinner asserted VB under control of stimulus, e.g. if one bites into a cookie and then says “this is delicious”, under control stimulus (tastiness) in cookie

Noam Chomsky critique of B.F. Skinner

Chomsky: what about proper nouns?, e.g. “Eisenhower” or “Moscow” - how can you utter terms w/o being stimulated by them? What is the control?

Chomsky sees no explanation for what differentiates response strength and protests that no behaviorist experimentation had supported vague claim of action-in-the-past

Operant conditioning

learning driven by reinforcement is “operant”, learner “operates” on environment to produce an effect (receive a reward); association

Turing Machines (meaning to cognitive science)

showed that a physical system can process info to carry out a computation, the human nervous system is also a physical system and seems capable of computations too

2015 Open Science Collaboration

of 100 og studies, 97% significant, 36% in replication attempts; og avg effect size 0.403, 0.197 in replication

Social: 14 of 55 (25.45%) 
Cognitive: 21 of 42 (50%)

Computational models

complex or advanced algorithms or simulations that often require computer resources, e.g. mathematical models

Marr's three levels of analysis

Level I: Computational theory - can we describe what is happening and why it is happening?
Level II: representation and algorithm - by what abstract process is theory of level I implemented?
Level III: Hardware implementation - what is physical realization of this process in the world?

Mathematical models

describes phenomenon with mathematical or logical expression

Objective and subjective variables

objective: not subject to or dependent upon perspectives of ppl

subjective: dependent on perspectives of ppl, e.g. mood, judgments, pain

Replication

findings of study must be replicable, if one researcher makes discovery but no one can come to same conclusion with same methods, can we be confident that discovery is true?

Visual models

often represented w/flow displays and diagrams, flowchart provides theoretical explanation for a system, may use mathematical or computational model

Depth cues (monocular)

interposition, linear perspective, relative size, size constancy, texture gradients, and motion parallax

Interposition

when one object ‘A’ interrupts form of another object ‘B’, ‘A’ is perceived to be in front of ‘B’

Linear perspective

as straight lines gradually converge, they may be perceived as parallel; greater distance at convergence

Relative size

objects appearing to be different sizes perceived to be same size but at different distances

Size constancy

as object moves further away and retinal image becomes smaller, observers perceive it to be same size throughout

Texture gradients

distant objects appear more “packed” than close objects

Motion parallax

when in motion, observer can distinguish distance by the “speed” of other objects in view, nearby objects seem to move faster than distant objects

Depth cues (binocular)

stereopsis/retinal disparity and convergence

Stereopsis/retinal disparity

stereopsis/retinal disparity involve ability to use distance between the eyes as “geometric” basis for determining distance; each eye is receiving slightly different info, and we get rich perceptual interpretation of depth based on that

Convergence

angle formed between a stimulus and both eyes impacts our impression of its distance from self

Feature detection theory

all objects are composed of distinct parts (features); object recognition requires decomposing it into its features

Geons

36 basic shapes describing the spatial relations of components in world

Gestalt psychology

in perception, the whole is more than the sum of its parts

Figure-ground principle

observers separate objects between foreground and background

Similarity principle

observers tend to group like objects together

Proximity principle

observers tend to group objects that are close together

Common region principle

observers tend to group objects that are enclosed in the same space

Good continuation principle

observers tend to perceive contours and lines as continuous instead of favoring angles or joints

Closure principle

observers tend to look for a discernible pattern, and if necessary the mind will fill the gaps

Global precedence effect

participants seemed to apprehend global form faster than the local objects

Marr's low-and high-level vision

HLV: observer constructs collective perception of an image or scene based upon its various components in integration and relation; feature detection, structural, template matching

LLV: extracting immediate information from light on the retina, e.g. dges, motion, depth

Steven's Power Law

draws a relationship between perceived stimulus intensity (I) and objective stimulus magnitude I, “v(I) = kla”

Structural theory

takes both features and their interrelations into account, those relations are primarily spatial

Template matching theory

objects recognized in environment by comparisons to templates stored in memory, e.g. test instance is compared against both “J” and “T”. Which wins?

Weber's Law

(JND) proportional to og intensity ‘I’, degree of that proportion is a constant ‘k’ ΔI/I = k

Shepard's universal law of generalization

subjective similarity of stimuli P and N inversely related to distance between P and N in psychological space, the model predicts people will judge two objects at a similarity value of  “2” as being more similar than two objects at “1”, does not generalize across contexts

Tversky's contrast model

similarity judgments based upon number of common features and number of uncommon features, does not account for context