PSY 324 Exam 1

Behaviorism

concerned with what they could directly observe and measure primarily stimulus and response

Classical conditioning

pavlov’s dogs, unconditioned stimulus (food) gets turned into conditioned stimulus (bell), unconditioned response (salivation) gets turned into conditioned, neutral stimulus was the bell; conditioning doesn’t last and eventually will lead to extinction

Factors encouraging the emergence of the cognitive approach

computer technology (analogy way of thinking of the mind; similar processes such as retrieving info), information theory, work of noam chomsky

Information theory

helped frame the way we think of mental processes

Introspectionism

rely on participants to be the source of the data, explain what’s going on in their own minds; short lived because of limitations and flaws

Noam Chomsky (and his critique of B.F. Skinner's Verbal Behavior)

skinner’s main argument was stimulus control; main argument against was about proper nouns; strength of responses might not always be the same

Operant conditioning 

learning driven by reinforcement, associates action with a consequence

Turing Machines (meaning to cognitive science)

early example of computer technology

Unconditioned/conditioned/neutral stimulus/response

Unit 2 - Experimental methods

2015 Open Science Collaboration 

testing replication of psychological science, findings weren’t good; cognitive and social psych were involved and it was both their faults

Computational models

extends from a mathematical model but often uses computer resources

Marr's three levels of analysis

1st level is computational theory: what is happening and why is it happening; 2nd level is representation and algorithm: by what abstract processes does this occur; 3rd level is hardware implementation: what are the physical things that allow this phenomenon to function (neuroscientists handle this level)

Mathematical models

represented by equations or mathematical expressions that represent a phenomena in the world; weber’s law, steven’s power law, shepard’s law, and tversky’s contrast model

Objective and subjective variables

objective not subject to opinion, subjective is

Replication

Visual models

more about explanation; flow displays are the most common forms; communicating theories in easily understandable ways

Unit 3-4 - Perception

Depth cues 

monocular (interposition, linear perspective, size constancy (relies on motion), relative size, texture gradient, motion parallax) and binocular (convergence, stereopsis)

Feature detection theory

break the object down into its features so if you know the parts you know what it makes up

Geons

shapes

Gestalt psychology and Gestalt principles

the whole is more than the sum of its parts; principles: figure ground, similarity, proximity, good continuation, common region, closure; principle of good gestalt (brings all the previous ones together)

Global precedence effect

Marr's low- and high-level vision -

Steven's Power Law

relationship between perceived intensity and objective intensity

Structural theory

more consistent with the Gestalt principles; parts and the relationships between the parts

Template matching theory

based on what we already know we identify objects in the world

Weber's Law 

relates just noticeable difference (JND) to the original intensity of a stimulus

Unit 5 - Similarity Assessment

Shepard's universal law of generalization

inverse relationship between subjective similarity and distance in psychological space

Tversky's contrast model

based on common features and uncommon features