Course component 3 theoretical psychology

Who started applying psychological knowledge to clients in America and established the first psychological clinic? (Lightner Witmer)

Lightner Witmer (who also founded the first journal in clinical psychology, "The Psychological Clinic").

What fields of psychology did Hugo Münsterberg found? (Hugo Münsterberg)

Forensic psychology (examining eyewitness accounts and false confessions) and industrial psychology (personnel selection).

What field of psychology did Edward Thorndike found? (Edward Thorndike)

Educational psychology (by studying psychology and arithmetic).

What is the "Id" in the tripartite model of the mind? (Sigmund Freud)

The pleasure principle ("What do I crave?"); it is entirely unconscious, seeks immediate gratification, and avoids effort.

What is the "Ego" in the tripartite model of the mind? (Sigmund Freud)

The reality principle ("What is realistic?"); it is partly conscious and mediates between desire (id), moral standards (superego), and practical reality.

What is the "Superego" in the tripartite model of the mind? (Sigmund Freud)

The moral principle ("What is right?"); it is partly conscious and represents internalized moral standards and professional responsibility.

What is considered a possible cause of mental disorders according to psychoanalysis? (Sigmund Freud)

Frustrations of the id (because the ego and superego control the id).

What two methods did Freud use to find the frustrations of the id? (Sigmund Freud)

Free association and dream analysis.

Why did scientific psychology heavily criticize Freud's theories?

Because of a lack of falsifiability, which violates a basic scientific requirement.

What were the aims of behaviorism as declared in "Psychology as the Behaviourist Sees It"? (John Watson)

Introspection is unreliable, psychology must be restricted to objective methods, and individuals can become anything through training (American Dream view).

What is Classical conditioning? (Ivan Pavlov)

A response-eliciting stimulus is repeatedly paired with a second stimulus until the second stimulus becomes a "signal," causing an anticipation response (e.g., a bell indicates food, causing salivation).

What is Operant conditioning? (Edward Thorndike)

A behavior is repeated depending on its consequences (either through reinforcement or punishment). Studied using cats escaping puzzle boxes.

What is the Law of Effect? (Edward Thorndike)

Reinforced behavior is repeated, whereas punished behavior is not.

What is the Continuity hypothesis? (John Watson)

The idea that learning principles apply equally to both animals and humans.

How did Watson support the Continuity hypothesis? (John Watson)

By teaching a one-year-old boy ("Little Albert") to fear animals by pairing them with an unpleasant sound, proving emotional conditioning occurs in humans.

What is the Hypothetico-deductive method? (Clark Hull)

Deriving predictions by means of mathematics from theoretical hypotheses (e.g., Action readiness = Habit strength x Drive strength).

What is Place learning? (Edward Tolman)

Learning where food is always kept at one specific spatial location (rats learned this faster in plus-shaped mazes).

What is Response learning? (Edward Tolman)

Learning that in order to receive food, one needs to go through the maze in a specific sequence of turns/ways.

What did Tolman hypothesize that rats constructed during Place learning? (Edward Tolman)

A cognitive map of the maze to navigate.

Why did Tolman's maze experiments lead to the decline of behaviorism? (Edward Tolman)

Rats learned with little motivation and reward, demonstrating a major limitation on the classic Law of Effect.

Who vehemently defended behaviorism until his death and denied the existence of free will in humans? (Burrhus Skinner)

Burrhus Skinner.

What psychological mechanism do psychologists believe underlies addiction?

Operant conditioning.

What brain structure neurally implements the Law of Effect?

The basal ganglia (procedural memory).

What neurotransmitter provides the "learning signal" for the Law of Effect?

Dopamine (increases with satisfying consequences to strengthen connection, decreases if unsatisfactory).

What brain structure mediates the classical conditioning of emotions?

The amygdala.

Where are cognitive maps stored in the brain? (Edward Tolman)

In a part of the hippocampus (declarative memory) — this is why Alzheimer's patients often suffer spatial orientation issues and get lost.

What is the "Blickfeld"? (Wilhelm Wundt)

The wide field of conscious awareness.

What is the "Blickpunkt"? (Wilhelm Wundt)

The narrowed field of focus created by attention.

What is Victor Lamme's stance on consciousness vs. attention? (Victor Lamme)

Consciousness is rich and extensive, and we CAN be conscious of information we don't attend to; attention just narrows it down to make it reportable.

What is Stanislas Dehaene's stance on consciousness vs. attention? (Stanislas Dehaene)

Attention is a strict REQUIREMENT for consciousness.

What is the Global Workspace? (Stanislas Dehaene)

A frontoparietal central system (working memory) that connects specialized input, output, and attention systems.

How does information become conscious in the global workspace theory? (Stanislas Dehaene)

Stimuli need to be both strong AND be able to receive attention to enter the workspace.

What is a "preconscious" stimulus? (Stanislas Dehaene)

A strong stimulus that does NOT receive attention (and therefore does not enter the conscious workspace).

What brain areas are active during conscious perception vs. subliminal perception? (Stanislas Dehaene)

Conscious perception activates the visual cortex AND frontal/parietal areas. Subliminal perception only activates the visual cortex.

Does attention facilitate subliminal processing? (Stanislas Dehaene)

Yes. Experiments with stable vs. varying flash intervals showed attention helps process subliminal digits.

What is the main criticism of Dehaene's global workspace theory? (Victor Lamme)

Because the workspace has a limited capacity, it fails to explain why our everyday conscious experience feels so rich and extensive.

What causes phenomena like change blindness and inattentional blindness?

The unequal distribution of attentional capacity (changes often remain unnoticed if attention is missing, even if they are large).

What type of attention is needed for synthesizing perceptual features of stimuli? (Anne Treisman)

Focal attention.

How does visual search work when looking for a single feature (e.g., one green O among red Os)? (Anne Treisman)

It can be searched in parallel (the item "pops out").

What is Feature Integration Theory? (Anne Treisman)

When searching for combinations of multiple features, visual search must work serially from item to item.

What is the Cartesian Theatre problem? (Daniel Dennett)

A flawed view of consciousness where you imagine a little person inside your head looking at a screen of visual information.

What is the fundamental problem with the Cartesian Theatre concept? (Daniel Dennett)

It creates an infinite regress: how is the "little person" inside the head conscious?