Cognitive Psych Quiz 1

Is the mind directly observable?

no, its a mystery

What is the case of Sam?

16-year-old in a coma, awake and unresponsive, similar brain wave response

Decline Invisible System

it creates and controls mental function; creates internal representation of world so we can act within it

Franciscus Donders

1868; study reaction time (1st cog psych experiment)

Wilhelm Wudnt

1879; analytic introspection (1st science psych lab)

Hermann Ebbinhghaus

1885; can measure human memory without the influence of prior knowledge or meaningful associations

William James

1890; self-observation, attention, authorized principles of psych

mental chronometry

using math to understand how long the mental process takes

Law of Forgetting

retention can be mapped mathematically through behavioral retention curve

Great Schism

rejection of the mind, avoiding subjective nature of studies (cognitive approach abandoned, behaviorist approach)

Tolman’s Cognitive Map

Rat research, rats learned where food was, traveled the rest of the maze left, conditioned behavior

Behaviorism

pre-1950s; focus exclusively on observable stimulus and response. The mind is treated as a closed system

cognitive revolution

1950+; A fundamental paradigm shifts to understanding the internal operations, stages, and architecture of the mind

The Computer Metaphor

Early computes inspired psychologist to view the mind not as a black box, but as a system operating in distinct stages. This approach traces the sequential mental operations involved in cognition

Broadbent’s Filter Model

Collin Sherry; The Input: Multiple streams of simultaneous environmental information.

-The Filter: Blocks unattended messages, allowing only the primary focus to pass through

-The Result: We can focus on a single conversation in a noisy room while tuning out the rest (cocktail party effect)

Dartmouth Spark of 1956

about artificial intelligence

-John McCrthy and collogues introduce Newell S. Simon’s Logic

-The impact proved machines could mimic human-like reasoning to solve logic.

MIT Spark of 1956

information theory

-George Miller presents the Magical Number Seven

-The impact established that the human mind has qualifiable, structural limits to processing capacity.

Episodic

personal events/ remembering what you did last weekend

Semantic

facts and data/ knowing the state capitals

Procedural

physical actions/ knowing how to ride a bike or play piano

Behavior and Neuropsychology

studying brain damage and physical reactions

Electrophysiology

measuring electrical activity in single neurons, has great temporal resolution (time of happening) but not the best spatial resolution