Chapter 1 - Introduction to Cognitive Psychology

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67 Terms

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Cognitive Psychology

subdiscipline of experimental psychology focused on investigating the mental processes that give rise to our perceptions and interpretations of the world around is

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Cognition

mental activity; refers to the acquisition, storage, transformation, and use of knowledge

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Mental Processes

perception, memory, imagery, language, problem solving, reasoning, & decision making; knowledge through and not through the senses

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Two meanings of Cognitive Psychology

(1) synonym for the word cognition, (2) theoretical approach in psychology

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Cognitive Approach

theoretical orientation that emphasizes people's thought process

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Goals of Psychology

describe, explain, predict, control

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Learning

a relatively permanent change in behavior due to experience & maturation

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5 Modern Approaches to Psychology

biological, psychodynamic, behavioral, cognitive, humanistic & phenomenological

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Why do we study Psychology?

to know, understand, explain, predict, and manage behavior

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Why do we study Cognitive Psychology?

to understand cognitive process and to apply such knowledge to improve things

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Clinical Psychology

deals with memory & trauma; cognitive behavior therapy

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Educational Psychology

stages of cognitive development; preparedness for learning

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Geriatrics

care for the elderly; neurocognitive deterioration

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Social Psychology

memory & perception; affecting social relaitons

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Self-Development

better management of your own thoughts & behavior

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Aristotle

examined topics such as perceptions, memory, and mental imagery; discussed how humans acquire knowledge through experience and observation; emphasized the importance of empirical evidence

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Empirical Evidence

scientific evidence obtained by careful observation and experimentation

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Wilhelm Wundt

father of experimental psychology; studies on reaction times, sensory processes, and attention; advocated for the use of introspection

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Introspection

examination of one's own thoughts and feelings; where one systematically analyzes their own sensations and report them as objectively as possible

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Hermann Ebbinghaus

pioneered the experimental study of memory, and is known for their discovery of the forgetting curve and the spacing effect; chose nonsense syllables during their experiments

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Mary Whiton Calkins

reported the phenomenon called recency effect; first woman to be president of the American Psychological Association; developed guidelines for teaching college courses in introductory psychology

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Recency Effect

recall is especially accurate for the final items in a series of stimuli

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William James

father of American Psychology; known for his textbook Principles of Psychology

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Functionalism

mental activity is to be evaluated in terms of how it serves an organisms in adapting to its environment

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Pragmatism

find the simplest solution under the shortest time

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Behaviorism

the view that psychology must focus on objective, observable reactions to stimuli in the environment

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John B. Watson

most prominent early behaviorist; emphasis on external behaviors of people and their reactions on a given situation; famous for Little Albert study in which baby was taught to fear a white rat

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Reductionism

Wilhelm Wundt

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Structuralism

Edward B. Titchener

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Functionalism

William James

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Behaviorism

John B. Watson

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Cognitive Maps

Edward Tolman

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Operational Definition

a precise definition that specifies exactly how a concept is to be measured

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Gestalt Psychology

a psychological approach that emphasizes that we often perceive the whole rather than the sum of the parts

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Gestalt

an organized whole that is perceived as more than the sum of its parts.

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Max Wertheimer, Wolfgang Kohler, Kurt Koffka

emphasized that organisms perceive entire pattern or configurations, not merely individual components

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Wolfgang Kohler

Gestalt psychologist that first demonstrated insight through his chimpanzee experiments. He noticed the solution process wasn't slow, but sudden and reflective.

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Insights

abrupt realization

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Frederic Bartlett

forerunner of Cognitive Psychology; used materials such as lengthy stories

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Schema Theory

human memory is an active, constructive process; we interpret and transform the information we encounter; we search for meaning, trying to integrate this new information so that it is more consistent with our own personal experiences

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Jean Piaget

Known for his theory of cognitive development in children

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Stages of Cognitive Development

sensorimotor, pre operational, concrete operational, formal operational

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Noah Chomsky

Linguist; how internal processes affect our ability to consciously perceive, impact, and in the the world around us

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Ecological Validity

The extent to which a study is realistic or representative of real life.

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Cognitive Science

the interdisciplinary field that tries to answer questions about the mind; includes psychology, neuroscience, computer science, philosophy, and linguistics

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Thinking

requires us to manipulate our internal representations of the external world

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Artificial Intelligence (AI)

branch of computer science; seeks to explore human cognitive processes by creating computer models that show 'intelligent behavior' and also accomplish the same tasks that humans do

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Pure Artificial Intelligence

an approach that designs a program to accomplish a cognitive task as efficiently as possible, even if the computer's processes are completely different from the processes used by humans

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Computer Simulation or Computer Modeling

Attempts to take human limitations into account; the goal is to program a computer to preform a specific cognitive task the same way humans do

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Computer Metaphor

a way of describing cognition as a complex, multipurpose machine that processes information quickly and accurately; our cognitive processes work like a computer

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Information-Processing Approach

argued that (a) our mental processes are similar to the operations of a computer, and (b) information progresses through our cognitive system in a series of stages, one step at a time

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How does the Information-Processing Model work?

Input -> Process -> Output or Sensation -> Intellectual Processes -> Behavior

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Serial Processing

the system must complete one step before it can proceed to the next step in the flowchart

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Connectionist Approach

Cognitive processes can be understood in terms of networks that link together neuron-like processing units; many operations can proceed simultaneously

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Parallel Distributed Processing (PDP) Approach & Neural-Network Approach

terms interchangeably used with Connectionist Approach

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Cerebral Cortex

outer layer of the brain that is essential for cognitive processes

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Cognitive Neuroscience

combines the research techniques of cognitive psychology with various methods for assessing the structure and function of the brain

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Social Cognitive Neuroscience

a new discipline that uses neuroscience techniques to explore the kind of cognitive processes used in interactions with other people

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Brain Lesions

the destruction of an area in the brain, most often by strokes, tumors, blows to the head, and accidents

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Positron Emission Tomography (PET) Scan

a visual display of brain activity that detects where a radioactive form of glucose goes while the brain performs a given task

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Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)

based on the principle that oxygen-rich blood is an index of brain activity; more precise than a PET Scan and is less invasive

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Event-Related Potential (ERP) Technique

a procedure for recording the very brief, small fluctuations in the brain's electrical activity in response to a stimulus such as an auditory tone

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Magnetoencephalography (MEG)

records magnetic field fluctuations produced by neural activity during the processing of stimuli presented to participants

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Individual Differences

variations in the way that groups of people perform on the same cognitive task

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Major Depression

psychological disorder in which feelings of sadness, discouragement, and hopelessness interfere with the ability to perform daily mental and physical functions

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Bottom-up Processing

emphasizes the importance of information from the stimuli registered on the sensory receptors; uses a low-level analysis of the stimulus

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Top-down processing

emphasizes how our concepts, expectations, and memory influence our cognitive processes; requires higher-level cognition