Early cognitive psychology

Question 1

Gestalt psychology

Answer 1

Focuses on ‘wholes’ not parts or elements of experience, the “whole is more than the sum of the parts”.
Interested in how we organise our perception of the world – as humans we tend to “fill in the blanks”. (e.g. Principles of organization, Figure / ground distinction, Insight learning in chimpanzees)
- Max Wertheimer

Question 2

Neobehaviourism

Answer 2

Accepts theoretical speculation about the existence of mediational variables (internal mental states), provided theoretical terms are operationally defined and lead to testable predictions

• Clark Hull (1884-1952): hunger ‘drive’
• Edward Tolman (1886-1958): ‘cognitive maps’

Question 3

Mentalist Psychology

Answer 3

Language central to models of cognition.

- Noam Chomsky (1959). Cartesian and Rationalist approach.

Question 4

Developmentalist psychology

Answer 4

• Lev Vygotsky (Zone of proximal learning, “Thought and language” 1962)
• Jean Piaget (‘Conservation’, “Psychology of Intelligence” 1950)

Question 5

Miller (1956)

Answer 5

Demonstrated the limited capacity of short-term memory as the magical number 7 (± 2)

Question 6

Cognitive revolution

Answer 6

Started in 1960s - Human beings have an internal representations of the external world.
Computational models and connectionism (neural networks) featured heavily

Question 7

Cognitive Psychology

Answer 7

How people learn, store, use information

Question 8

Cognitive Neuroscience

Answer 8

Neural bases of cognition

Question 9

Cognitive Science

Answer 9

Study of the mind / interdisciplinary

View that science and philosophy can be combined