Chapter 1, Intro to Cog Psych/Research Methods

Question 1

What is the mind?

Answer 1

• The mind is involved in memory
• The mind is a problem solver
• The mind is used to make decisions and or consider different possibilities

Question 2

What is the first notable definition of the mind?

Answer 2

The mind creates and controls mental functions such as perception, attention, memory, emotions, language, deciding, thinking, and reasoning.

Question 3

What is the second notable definition of the mind?

Answer 3

The mind is a system that creates representations of the world so that we can act within it to achieve our goals

Question 4

What is cognition?

Answer 4

The mental processes the mind creates

Question 5

What is Cognitive Psychology the study of?

Answer 5

It is the study of mental processes, which includes determining the characteristics and properties of the mind and how it operates.

Question 6

What did the very first cognitive psychology experiment test?

Answer 6

Reaction time

Question 7

What did the first Cognitive Psych experiment illustrate?

Answer 7

Mental processes cannot be measured directly but must be inferred by the behavior

Question 8

What is Structuralism?

Answer 8

The opinion is that our overall experience is determined by combining basic elements of experience called sensations.

Question 9

Who was the first Structuralist?

Answer 9

Wilhelm Wundt

Question 10

What method did Wundt use to describe components of experience?

Answer 10

Analytic Introspection

Question 11

What is analytic introspection?

Answer 11

A technique in which trained participants described their experiences and thought processes in response to stimuli

Question 12

Who tested the properties of memory?

Answer 12

Hermann Ebbinghaus

Question 13

What did Ebbinghaus use to measure his results?

Answer 13

he used a measurement called savings and it looked like this:

Savings = (original time to learn the list) - (Time to relearn the list after the delay)

Question 14

What was the study of the mind abandoned for?

Answer 14

Behaviourism

Question 15

Why did John Watson become dissatisfied with analytic introspection?

Answer 15

(1) it produced extremely variable results from person to person
(2) these results were difficult to verify because they were interpreted in terms of invisible inner mental processes.

Question 16

What two key points did Watson make with Behaviourism?

Answer 16

(1) Watson rejects introspection as a method

(2) observable behavior, not consciousness, is the main topic of study

Question 17

What were Watson’s ideas related to?

Answer 17

Classical Conditioning

Question 18

What is classical conditioning?

Answer 18

pairing one stimulus with another, previously neutral stimulus causes a change in the response to the neutral stimulus

Question 19

What is Operant Conditioning?

Answer 19

Focusing on how behavior is strengthened by the presence of positive and negative reinforcers (positive reinforcers were things like food or social approval, while negative reinforcers were electric shock or social rejection)

Question 20

What was the approach in cognitive psychology that stemmed from the digital computer?

Answer 20

information-processing approach - an approach that traces sequences of mental operations involved in cognition

Question 21

What was William James’s idea about attention?

Answer 21

When attention is focused on one specific incoming information all other information outside of the focus is disregarded

Question 22

What does Sensory memory do?

Answer 22

Sensory memory holds incoming information for a fraction of a second and then passes most of the information to the next stage

Question 23

What does Short term memory do?

Answer 23

The short term memory which has a limited capacity holds the sensory information for seconds

Question 24

What does long-term memory do?

Answer 24

It takes some of the short-term memory information to be passed along to the long-term memory, a high-capacity system that can hold information for longer periods of time. Now some of this information can be returned to the short-term memory for recall.

Question 25

What are the three components of Long-Term memory?

Answer 25

Episodic Memory - for events of your life

Semantic Memory - for facts and information

Procedural Memory - for physical actions

Question 26

What are two kinds of models to be aware of in Cognitive Psychology?

Answer 26

• Structural Models

- Process Models

Question 27

What is a structural model?

Answer 27

• Representations of a physical structure

- Mimic the form or appearance of a given object

Question 28

What is a process model?

Answer 28

represents the processes involved in cognitive mechanisms.

Question 29

What is the purpose of an experiment?

Answer 29

Compare two or more groups

  - experimental group
  - control group

Question 30

What is the purpose of an independent variable?

Answer 30

It is the variable being controlled or manipulated.

Question 31

What is the purpose of an dependent variable?

Answer 31

It is the variable being affected by the manipulation of the Independent variable.

Question 32

What is the goal of Cognitive Science?

Answer 32

Finding ways to study and understand the inner workings of the mind

Question 33

What is the purpose of an Extraneous variable?

Answer 33

Any variables other than the Independent variable that seem likely to influence the dependent variable.

Question 34

What is the purpose of the Confounding Variable?

Answer 34

Occurs when two variables are linked together in a way that makes it difficult to sort out their specific effects.

Question 35

How do you control for extraneous variables?

Answer 35

Random selection or random assignment

Question 36

What is random selection?

Answer 36

Drawing the sample from a broad population

Question 37

What is random assignment?

Answer 37

When all subjects have equal chance of being assigned to any group or condition in the study.

Question 38

What is a variation in experimental designs?

Answer 38

It is between subject designs and can also be two groups being treated differently.

Question 39

What is Within-subject Design?

Answer 39

Participants serves as both the experimental and control groups with each participant being exposed to each condition.

Question 40

What is a variation in experimental designs (pt.2)?

Answer 40

• Manipulating more than one Independent variable in an experiment. Can cause interaction effects
• Using more than one Dependent Variable in an experiment. Can affect the reaction time and accuracy.

Question 41

What is a Correlation/Descriptive studies?

Answer 41

it has not manipulation of the variables. It searches for the relationship between variables. It is carried out through naturalistic, case studies, and surveys.