Overview of Cognitive Psychology

Question 1

What is Cognitve Psychology?

Answer 1

• information-processing approach
• how the mind is organised to produce intelligent thought
• how the human mind is realised in the brain

Question 2

What is Williams Syndrome?

Answer 2

• Difficulty processing visiospatial information
• however, spacial navigation is not entirely impaired
• response based navigation system is not affected

Question 3

What knowledge did Nativism provide about cognitive psychology?

Answer 3

• knowledge is innate
• (Plato, Descartes, Kant)

Question 4

What knowledge did Empiricism provide about cognitive psychology?

Answer 4

Knowledge is acquired through experience
(Aristotle, Bacon, Berkeley, Locke, Hume, Mill)

Question 5

What is Structuralism?

Answer 5

Analysis of the human mind into primitive componential elements
○ Basic idea: the mind can be broken down into elements (such as sensation and thought) by introspection

(Wundt and Titchener)

Question 6

What are the two problems with structuralism?

Answer 6

subjective and unreliable

Question 7

What is Functionalism?

Answer 7

The mind is defined soley by its function - how it responds to various stimuli
- As long as the same functional role is played, it doesn’t matter what components the mind is made of
- Studied by introspection
(William James)

Question 8

What is the main weakness of Functionalism?

Answer 8

little or no empirical support

Question 9

What is Behaviourialism?

Answer 9

Only the (directly) observable should be studied
- strictly about stimulus-response relations
- rigorous experimental approach
- Experimental methods

(Watson, Skinner)

Question 10

What occurred during the Cognitive revolution? (During WWII)

Answer 10

• Human performance research - revealed shortcomings of behaviouralism (not useful for solving practical issues)
• Development in other scientific fields: information theory, linguistics, computer science
• Provided psychologists with tools and models for analysis of intelligent behaviour

Question 11

What is the Information-Processing approach?

Answer 11

Cognitive psychology = re-defining psychology as the science of human information processing
Input –> Mind (Process) –> Output

Question 12

What are the decomposing mental processes?

Answer 12

• formulate a theoretical model of how output is made from a given input
• measure time taken for each processing stage
• analyse which variable affects which processing stage

Question 13

What is a visual search?

Answer 13

A theoretical model allows you to make predictions