Week 1 Flashcards
Learning
Change in mental states associated with some environment or cognitive event
- creating memories (explicit or implicit), behavioral tendencies, and external associations
Memory
The total, lasting effects of your life experiences
- skill, facts, episodes, everything learned, etc.
Attention
The capacity for managing our limited co resources, so that we use (and learn) what is most relevant.
Ex: concentration, enhancing, selecting
Problem with computational complexity
There are too many stimuli and possible choices to process at each moment in time.
- We need internal biases or constraints that work with external cues to see what is most relevant
Ex. crossing lights/signs
Visually Salient Items
We are drawn to items that are high contrast, novel, moving, or different than the surrounding (reflexive saccades) [attention]
- bottom up processing
Problem of Indeterminacy of reference
When a situation “under specifies” a unique meaning for a single word
- we need constraints
Whole Object Constraint
Labels that refer to whole objects, rather than parts of an object
- kids tend to do this
- bias
Background Knowledge
Through social experience and cultural context we have learned where to look for relevant stimuli (volitional saccades)
- top down processing
Taxonomic assumption
Labels that can be extended to other objects of the same kind.
- bias
Cognitive Psychology
To characterize how each cognitive system operates; helpful to study the biases and tendencies of the system
Franciscus Donders cog psych experiments
How long would it take for a person to make a decision?
- simple RT: quickly push button in response to light
- choice RT: push one button is the light is on the right side, another button if it is on the left side
Dealing with complexity
We need internal (innate/learned) biases or constraints that work with external cues to tell us what is immediately relevant.
Mental chronometry
Use of a behavioral measure to infer a mental process.
Reasons why Donder’s reaction time were remarkable:
- First use of mental chronometry
- Assumption: mental processes were resource limited (need time wot work)
- The subtraction method (quantify/analyze different mental activities)
The subtraction method
A kind of analysis that puts teal events on the same basis as physical events. This allows you quantify and analyze different mental activities.
- this method is the basis of comparison for fMRI, EEG, MEG, and other modern recording methods.
Herman Ebbinhgaus (1885)
Wanted to understand the nature of memory and how we forget
- Used himself as subject, repeated nonsense 3 syl (ex; DAX, YAT, ZIC) to determine how long it took him to learn the entire list.
- Waited some time and measure how long it took him to relearn the list.
- how the length of the delay affected how much was forgotten/retained.
Savings
Time to learn list - time to relearn list = measure of memory
Ebbighaus conclusion?
Memory for the syllables dropped steeply with increasing time between learning.
First experimental quantification of memory and showed that mental properties could fir a mathematical curve (model)
What was the problem with Ebbinghaus experiment?
He used himself as a subject which limited the external validity of the experiments.
Cuz it might to be the same for other people.
Wilhem Wundt
- He founded the theory of structuralism
- Trained people to use analytical introspection
- Wanted direct access to mental phenomena and not need to infer processes from behavioral responses.
Theory of structuralism
Mental processes could be broken down into basic elements (sensations)
Analytic introspection
Descriptive technique that required subjects to describe their experiences and thought processes using a standardized vocabulary.
Result of Wilhem and Itrospectionism
Unfortunately results were highly variable between individuals. The method also could not give an account of unconscious inferences (intuitions).
William James
- taught the 1st Psyc course at Harvard in 1875.
- used introspection and his own observation as his primary methodology.
- his 1890 book The Principle of Psychology was very influential and helped popularized ideas like ‘stream of consciousness’ and the experience of emotion as a consequence of physiological arousal (rather than a cause)
