Chapter 1- Early theories/ Behavioralists

Who was William James

Father of American Psychology who wrote Principles of Psychology and introduced early memory concepts

What distinction did William James make about memory

He distinguished between primary memory short term and secondary memory long term

What is primary memory in James’ theory

Immediate conscious awareness similar to short term memory

What is secondary memory in James’ theory

Stored past experiences similar to long term memory

What phenomenon did William James describe

Tip of the tongue knowing a word but being unable to fully recall it

Why is William James important

He introduced concepts that shaped later models like short vs long term memory and emphasized the active role of attention

Who was Frederic Bartlett

British psychologist who wrote Remembering and developed schema theory

What are schemas according to Bartlett

Internal knowledge structures that shape how we encode store and recall information

What did Bartlett argue about memory

That memory is constructive not reproductive we reconstruct the past

What experiment is Bartlett famous for

The War of the Ghosts folk tale experiment

What did the War of the Ghosts study show

Participants distorted unfamiliar elements to fit cultural expectations

How did Bartlett contrast with Ebbinghaus

Ebbinghaus studied nonsense syllables quantitatively Bartlett studied meaningful material qualitatively

Why is Bartlett important

He showed memory depends on prior knowledge culture and schemas making memory adaptive

What is Gestalt psychology

School of thought that emphasizes the whole is different from the sum of its parts

How did Gestalt psychology apply to memory

It emphasized patterns organization and context in how we remember

What did Gestalt psychologists stress about memory

That remembering is active and shaped by internal representations not just stimuli

What is isomorphism in Gestalt theory

The idea that mental processes mirror the structural patterns of brain activity

How did Gestalt contrast with behaviorism

Gestalt emphasized internal organization while behaviorism focused on observable stimulus response

Why is Gestalt psychology important

It paved the way for information processing approaches and showed memory is structured and meaning driven

holistic processing

• memory and perecption are organized wholes not just a collenction of simple associations

• we remember a song as a whole tune, not their seprate parts

What was the behaviorist view of memory

Memory was studied as observable learning through stimulus response associations

Who was Ivan Pavlov and what did he contribute

A Russian physiologist who discovered classical conditioning by pairing stimuli

Who was Edward Thorndike and what did he contribute

An American psychologist who developed the Law of Effect showing behaviors with satisfying outcomes are repeated

Who was Clark Hull and what did he contribute

A behaviorist who built mathematical models of learning using equations and drive reduction theory

Who was Edward Tolman and what did he contribute

A behaviorist who showed rats form cognitive maps emphasizing internal representation

What rivalry existed between Hull and Tolman

Hull promoted mechanistic equations Tolman argued for mental maps

What was verbal learning

The behaviorist approach to human memory using memorization and stimulus response attachment

Who was Mary Calkins

The first female president of the APA who pioneered paired associate learning experiments

What was the A-B C-D paradigm in Calkins’ research

Each stimulus word is paired with a unique response word example Bird-Fancy Table-Arrow

What was the A-B A-D paradigm in Calkins’ research

One stimulus is paired with two different responses example Bird-Fancy Bird-Arrow

What was the A-B A-B′ paradigm in Calkins’ research

One stimulus is paired with synonyms or similar responses example Bird-Fancy Bird-Dressy

What was the A-B A-Br paradigm in Calkins’ research

Recombination of pairs where elements are re-paired example Bird-Fancy Table-Fancy

Why is Mary Calkins important

She showed how associations could be systematically studied extending Ebbinghaus into behaviorist verbal learning

Why is the behaviorist era important

It focused on observable learning and conditioning but underestimated internal processes leading to the cognitive revolution