ap psych key figures

albert bandura

albert bandura

Known for observational learning & conducting the Bobo doll experiment

alfred binet

Measured the mental age of school-age children

paul broca

Identified Broca's area, the area of the brain that controls speech

mary whiton calkins

First female graduate student in psychology

noam chomsky

Language acquisition is at least partly innate & automatic

charles darwin

came up w/ theory of evolution & natural selection

dorothea dix

Advocated for the rights of the mentally ill; founded the 1st public mental hospital in the US

hermann ebbinghaus

The Ebbinghaus forgetting curve displays that the course of forgetting is initially rapid, then levels off w/ time

gustav fechner

Coined the term "absolute threshold", aka the minimum stimulation needed to detect a stimuli 50% of the time

sigmund freud

Developed the psychoanalytic theory which drew distinctions between the conscious & unconscious mind

phineas gage

A railroad worker who had a rod go through his head due to an accident; he survived, but his personality changed due to damage in his frontal lobe

sir francis galton

Measured human traits, conducted assessments of intelligence, also associated w/ eugenics

john garcia

Known for his research on taste aversion learning

howard gardner

Established the idea of multiple intelligence: verbal, mathematical, musical, spatial, kinesthetic, environmental, interpersonal, intrapersonal

michael gazzaniga

His work w/ split-brain patients showed that over time, some of them could develop language abilities in the normal "silent" hemisphere due to brain plasticity

g stanley hall

1st president of the American Psychology Association (APA)

william james

Opposed the structuralist approach to psychology, argued for functionalism, which states that what's important is the function of the mind

john locke

Father of empiricism, aka the acquisition of truth through observations & experiences ("tabula rasa" aka blank slate)

elizabeth loftus

Studied memory & the misinformation effect, which occurs when misleading information has distorted one's memory of an event

george miller

Our short-term memory can hold 7 +/- 2 pieces of information at a time (between 5-9)

ivan pavlov

Classically conditioned dogs to salivate when they heard a bell ring

jean piaget

Known for his stages of cognitive development: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, formal operational

robert rescorla

His contingency theory stated that associative learning occurs best when unconditioned stimulus and conditioned stimulus occur at the same time.

carl rogers

The humanistic theory emphasized an individual's personal values & potential

bf skinner

Operant conditioning w/ Skinner box; est. schedules of reinforcement

charles spearman

Believed that there was a general intelligence (g) that underlies more specific aspects of intelligence

roger sperry

Demonstrated that the two hemispheres of the brain can operate independently of each other; conducted split-brain experiments

robert sternberg

His triarchic theory of intelligence states that there are 3 intelligences: analytical, creative, & practical

lewis terman

Modified Binet's testing to create the Stanford-Binet intelligence test

edward thorndike

Proposed the law of effect, which states that a behavior is more likely to recur if reinforced

edward tolman

Conducted experiments w/ rat mazes; cognitive maps & latent learning

margaret floy washburn

First female PhD in psychology & served as the 2nd female president of the APA

john watson

Behaviorist; applied classical conditioning to humans in the Little Albert experiment

ernst weber

Established Weber's law, which stated that the greater the magnitude of the stimulus, the larger the difference must be to be noticed

david wechsler

Came up w/ the Wechsler Intelligence Scale, which measured one's intellectual ability

carl wernicke

Discovered Wernicke's area, the area of the brain that comprehends speech

benjamin whorf

Proposed a theory of linguistic relativity, which stated that speakers of different languages develop different cognitive system b/c of their differences in language

wilhelm wundt

Father of modern psychology; introspection