Cognitive Psychology (Sternberg) Chapter 1

Cognitive Psychology

The study of how people think, learn, remember and think about information

Heuristics

• are mental shortcuts we use to process information.

• Example: Instead of thinking deeply about ALL phones, you just pick what feels familiar.

Dialectic

• A developmental process whereby ideas evolve over time through a back-and-forth exchange of ideas;

• it is like a discussion spread out over an extended period of time.

• 👉 Parang mahabang debate na tumatagal ng years.

• Thesis

• Antithesis

• Synthesis
  
  Then the synthesis becomes the new thesis, and the cycle repeats.

Thesis

a statement of belief

• First idea

• Example: Intelligence came from genes

Antithesis

• statement that counters a thesis

• opposite idea

• Example: No, you’re intelligence came from environmenr—school, teachers, parents

Synthesis

• debate between the thesis and the antithesis leads to _______

• Pinagamang idea

• Example: your’e intelligence came from genes and environment

Asian cultures

• Dialectical thinking

• may magkasalungat na ideas

• naniniwala na may solution darating later

Example:
“Mahigpit ang parents ko, pero mahal nila ako.”
👉 Both can be true.

Western culture

• linear thinking

• Gusto nila:

  • consistent

  • clear na tama vs mali

  Example:
  “Kung mahal ka, hindi ka dapat pinapagalitan.”
  👉 Isa lang dapat ang tama.

Rationalist

• believes that the route to knowledge is through thinking and logical analysis

• Plato

Example

• Hindi mo kailangang subukan lahat para malaman na:

  “Kung may 2 mansanas ako at dinagdagan ng 2, magiging 4.”

  Iniisip mo lang—alam mo na.

  📌 Plato believed:

  • Thinking = source of knowledge

  • Reason > experiments

Empiricist

• Aristotle

• believes that we acquire knowledge via empirical evidence— that is, we obtain evidence through experience and observation

Philosophy

seeks to understand the general nature of many aspects of the world

Introspection

the examination of inner ideas and experiences

Physiology

seeks a scientific study of life-sustaining functions in living matter, primarily through empirical (observation-based) methods

Plato

A rationalist

Aristotle

An empiricist

Rationalism

belief in reason and logic as the primary source of knowledge

Empiricism

the view that knowledge originates in experience and that science should, therefore, rely on observation and experimentation

René Descartes

Cogito ergo sum (I think, therefore I am)

John Locke

tabula rasa (blank slate)

Immanuel Kant

believes that both rationalism and empiricism have their place and must work together in the quest for truth

Structuralism

an early school of psychology that used introspection to explore the elemental structure of the human mind

Functionalism

A school of psychology that focused on how our mental and behavioral processes function - how they enable us to adapt, survive, and flourish.

Wilhelm Wundt

established the first psychology laboratory at the University of Leipzig, Germany, considered to be the Father of Psychology, Structuralism, Introspection

Edward Titchener

Structuralism, introspection

William James

founder of functionalism; studied how humans use perception to function in our environment

Pragmatism

A philosophy that focuses only on the outcomes and effects of processes and situations, the attribute of accepting the facts of life and favoring practicality and literal truth (What can we do with it?)

John Dewey

believes in the pragmatic approach to thinking and schooling

Associationism

examines how elements of the mind, like events or ideas, can become associated with one another in the mind to result in a form of learning

Contiguity

associating things that tend to occur together at about the same time

Similarity

associating things with similar features or properties

Contrast

associating things that show polarities

Hermann Ebbinghaus

the first person to study memory scientifically and systematically; used nonsense syllables and recorded how many times he had to study a list to remember it well (self-observation)

Edward Lee Thorndike

-law of effect (satisfaction not time)

-actions rewarded will increase, those punished will decrease

Law of Effect

Thorndike's principle that behaviors followed by favorable consequences become more likely, and that behaviors followed by unfavorable consequences become less likely

Behaviorism

focuses only on the relation of observable behaviour and environmental events or stimuli

Ivan Pavlov

discovered classical conditioning; trained dogs to salivate at the ringing of a bell

John B. Watson

behaviorism; 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, reward and punishment, Father of radical behaviorism, observable behavior

B.F. Skinner

operant conditioning, reinforcement (rewards) and punishment

Edward Tolman

believed that all behavior is directed toward a goal, considered the forefather of modern cognitive psychology

Gestalt Psychology

states that we best understand psychological phenomena when we view them as organized, structured wholes (the whole is more than the sum of its parts)

Cognitivism

is the belief that most human behavior explains how people think. It rejects the behavioristic notion that psychologists should avoid studying mental processes just because they are unobservable

Karl Spencer Lashley

brashly challenged the behaviorist view that the human brain is a passive organ merely responding to environmental contingencies outside the individual

Donald Hebb

proposed the concept of cell assemblies as the basis for learning in the brain - human learning takes place by neurons forming new connections with one another or by the strengthening of connections that already exist

Noam Chomsky

stressed the biological basis and the creative potential of language

Turing Test

judges whether a computer program's output was indistinguishable from the output of humans

Artificial Intelligence

is defined as human attempts to construct systems that show intelligence and particularly the intelligent processing of information

Donald Broadbent

claimed to have developed an interest in cognitive psychology through a puzzle regarding AT6 aircraft