BCS 111 - Exam 1

Cognitive Psychology

branch of psychology that focus on how humans acquire, store, transformm and communicate information

Cognition

What goes on inside our head

• When we perceive, pay attention, remember, and think

Nativist Approach

Idea that concepts, mental capacities, and mental structures and INNATE [heredity and biology]

human beings enter the world with an inborn store of knowledge and understanding of reality

Empiricist Approach

Idea that knowledge comes from experience [humans are born as blank slate - john locke]

knowledge is acquired through experience and interactions with the world

Structuralism (Wilhelm Wundt)

focus on what the elemental component of the mind are rather than on the question of why the wind works as it does

Introspection

technique for examining conscious experiences + breaking them down to simple properties:

• mode

• quality

• intensity

• duration

Functionalism (William James)

Main Question: “What is the purpose of the mind?”

Evolution and Adaptation

Focused on studying real-life situations (NOT Lab settings)

Behaviorism (B.F. Skinner, John B. Watson)

All mental processes can be reduced to behavioral and physiological responses

Operant Conditioning

process of learning where the subject acts to obtain rewards and avoid punishments

Gestalt Psychology

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts

Reason Against Behaviorism

no complete explanation of a person can exist w/o considering the person’s mental world

Person-Machine System

machines need to be designed to interact w operator’s cognitive capacities

Human Factor Engineering

designing machines/objects with maximum human comfort and efficiency in mind

Linguistics (against behaviorism)

Noam Chomsky - behaviorism cannot explain the complex language acquisition of humans

Neuroscience

Localization of function

Experimental Method

Wundt first invented this with the first psych lab

• independent variable: manipulated

• dependent variable

• manipulation

• confounding variable: may influence DV (bad)

• extraneous variable: a confounding variable that has been controlled as to NOT affect DV

Between-subject design (experimental method)

Groups of subjects only experience one treatment

Within-subject design (experimental method)

all subjects go through multiple treatments

Quasi-Experiment

no random assignment

• subject to confounding variable

• HOWEVER. simulates unfair real world scenarios

  • easier to generalize to wider population

Naturalistic Observation

watching/observing people in everyday context

• low experimental control

• high ecological validity