Lecture 3 - History Part 2 Flashcards
Who is hermann Ebbinghaus? What did he study? What was he especially interested in?
Human Memory Experiments
Hermann Ebbinghaus (1850–1909) conducted the first rigorous experiments of memory (mostly on himself).
According to him, the psychology of memory could become a rigorous natural science.
Ebbinghaus was especially interested in forgetting—that is, in how memory deteriorates over time.
Ebbinghaus was famous for his memory plots (”forgetting curves”), showing that you lose a lot in the first 24 hours an then forgetting slows down a little.
What do we retain over time?
What are the forgetting curves and who created it?
Forgetting Curves
- have held the test of time
- shows that overtime we forget information
- A lot of the forgetting takes place in the first 24 hours
What does the forgetting curve looks like?
LOOK AT SLIDE 5
What were the results of testing the forgetting curve in class?
Generally speaking we all remebered a decent amount
- what if we expanded the retention interval?
Who is Marigold Linton?
American Psychological Association
Obtained her PhD in 1964, UCR,
First Indigenous woman in the US to obtain a PhD in the field of Psychology.
- did a version of ebbinhaus experiments on herself.
- she used autobiographical stimuli and her retention intervals were much longer than ebbinghaus
- she did incredible work in diaring her life and testing herself years later
- she didn’t observe the same types of curves of ebbinhaus. Focus on the comparison of ebbinghaus and linton.
- she was an advocate for women in science.
What are we supposed to know from the Marigold Linton paper?
For reading
- look at the diffences between what she and he did
- She used autobigogrphical content
- forgetting curves were more linear than his
- reevaluating them even when we are not being
tested
Around the same time as ebbinghaus, what other famous psychologist was creating pivotal work?
Ivan Pavlov
Who is Ivan Pavlov and what did he study? When?
Ivan Pavlov’s Classical Conditioning Studies
Around the same time…
Ivan Pavlov (1849–1936) was studying digestion. He is now known for developing methods for studying animal learning.
Classical conditioning: an organism learns to respond to a previously neutral stimulus that has been repeatedly presented alongside a biologically significant stimulus.
What is the definition of classical conditioning?
an organism learns to respond to a previously neutral stimulus that has been repeatedly presented alongside a biologically significant stimulus.
What is an example of classical conditioning?
ring a bell, give food, then drool
then after a few times, when the bell rings you drool (this is the conditioning, you no longer need the food to drool because you associate the bell with the food)
Then the bell itself would signal physiological changes
- your body would prepare for this type of response
What did Pavlov show in later studies after discovering the classical conditioning?
Ivan Pavlov’s Conditioning Studies
In later studies, Pavlov and his assistants showed that they could weaken an animal’s trained response in a process called extinction. Extinction involves weakening a learned response to a stimulus by no longer pairing that stimulus with a reward or punishment.
If she were to ring the bell but never give us ice cream the drolling would go away
Pavlov also demonstrated that a dog will transfer what it has learned about one stimulus to similar stimuli. This concept is called generalization.
Paring blue square with ice cream
- What will happen is that they will not only have the conditioned response to the colour blue
but also other shades that are similar
- might be about the generlization
LOOOK AT SLIDE 25 for good visualization
What is generalization?
Pavlov also demonstrated that a dog will transfer what it has learned about one stimulus to similar stimuli. This concept is called generalization.
Who is Edward Thorndike? What did he contribute to psychology? When?
And…
Edward Thorndike (1874–1949), student of William James. Interested in how animals learn. Thorndike observed how cats learn to escape from puzzle boxes.
Instrumental conditioning:
organisms learn to make responses to obtain / avoid consequence. The organism’s behavior is instrumental in determining whether the consequences occurs. Now it is referred to as operant conditioning.
What is instrumental conditioning?
organisms learn to make responses to obtain / avoid consequence. The organism’s behavior is instrumental in determining whether the consequences occurs. Now it is referred to as operant conditioning.
(*Will not be tested on specific eras
- Just need to know general ideas
of things
- Know what people brought to the
field and why it is important)
Explain the Law of effect and the studies associated with it.
Thorndike observed that the probability of a particular behavioral response would increase or decrease depending on the consequences, which he called the law of effect.
According to this law, an animal has a range of behaviors it can exhibit: behaviors that lead to positive outcomes for the animal persist; those that do not die out.
Put the cat in the box, wants to escape to acheive the food reward
- learn that when they touch the leaver they can escape
(IC is important in many domanins
- use it when training animals)
Who is John Watson? What did he contribute to the field? When?
And…
John Watson (1878–1958) founded behaviorism, a school of thought that says psychology should study only observable behaviors and not try to infer mental processes. Inspired by Pavlov as well as John Locke’s idea of the “tabula rasa”.
(Founded Behaviourism
- thought psychology should only study obsevatable behvaiours.
- thought ppl were born with the capacity to learn. We should
give children the best oppruninity for education)
WATCH AND TAKE NOTES ON THE LITTLE ALBERT EXPERIMENT
- at first little albery shows little fear
- was not originally afraid of white rat
- white rat was then paired with clanging noise that upset albert
- soon after lots of repetitions, albert became afraid of all furry things.
Who is B.F. Skinner and what did he contribute to the field of psychology?
B. F. Skinner’s Radical Behaviorism
And…
Burrhus Frederic Skinner
(1904–1990) advocated an extreme form of behaviorism, radical behaviorism, in which he asserted that free will is an illusion. In this view, humans, like other animals, simply produce learned responses to environmental stimuli.
Some ppl thought we should study
behviour because it is what we can
meaasure. Others took a more radical approach to
this
Who is Edward Tolman and what did he contribute to the field? When?
The Neo-Behaviorism of Edward Tolman
And…
Edward Tolman (1886–1959) believed that rats are like humans; they are intrinsically motivated to learn. He studied how rats learn the general layout of mazes by forming what he called a cognitive map, an internal representation of the spatial layout of the world.
(Cognitive map
- internal representation
of the spatial layout of the
world)
Explain the neo-behaviourism of edward Tolman Experiments. Why were these important?
Tolman demonstrated the value of cognitive maps for understanding how rats could apply what they have learned in novel situations; rats can find food in mazes via alternative routes if their preferred route is blocked.
(Latent learning
- learning can be “silent”)
Tolman argued that during their free exploration, rats were learning a cognitive map that they could use later. He called this latent learning, that is, learning that is unconnected to a positive or negative consequence and remains undetected (latent) until explicitly demonstrated.
These ideas were important because…
… they suggest (1) animals are not just learning behaviours; (2) we can use experimental approaches to infer a mental state. Provided a bridge between cognitive and behavioural approaches.
LOOK AT DIAGRAM ON SLIDE 32 to understand Tolman’s studies
Who is Endel Tulving
Although we will learn about Endel Tulving (1927-2023) many times in this class, I will first introduce you to him in this lecture. He was a Canadian memory researcher (born in Estonia) who made many contributions to memory. Do you remember I told you that when you match the study and test context, you get better memory? That idea is from Tulving. Also introduced the concept of multiple memory systems, which we will learn more about later.
What were the early ideas of brain structure?
In the early days (e.g., mid 1800s), some scientists believed that different areas of the brain were specialized for different functions (e.g., frontal lobes and language). Some extreme and highly problematic views on brain localization were put forth around this time, including phrenology, the notion that skull measurements can predict an individual’s personality and abilities.
Phrenology is a pseudoscience, used to promote sexism and racism. Today, common phrases are associated with this pseudoscience
○ E.g., “well rounded”
(Some scientisists belived that different areas in the brain were specilized for different functions)
(Phrenology
- problamaatic idea
- still some language with phrenology today ->
such as “well rounded”)
Where did ideas of localization of function come from?
Searching for Memories in the Cerebral Cortex
Ideas of “localization of function” came from studying brains that were missing tissue to see how such losses affected performance. Neuropsychology studies the relationship between brain function and behavior, often by examining the functioning of patients who have brain damage.
● Is this a good approach? Let’s discuss.
No region is an island so when one part is damaged it can affect other areas
