WEEK 1 Flashcards
(24 cards)
What is the difference between cognitive psychology and biological psychology?
cognitive psychology is the study of mental processes (thinking).
Biological psychology is the study of physiology that gives rise to cognition and behaviour
Philosophical dualism
Body is a physical container for the non-physical (spiritual) mind, linked via the PINEAL GLAND (penis gland)
pineal gland is in the dead center of the brain, only one present in the brain
Rene Descartes
Philosophical materialism:
the mind is just what the brain is doing
ex; there is no ghost in the machine
mental psyc processes are from physical activity occurring between brain cells and not spiritual
“reductionist argument”
Philosophical realism:
what we see??? whats actually there ?????????
Philosophical idealism:
what might be there
Philosophical nativism:
Plato:
at least certain kinds of knowledge are innate or inborn (nature)
traits, personality would have called them genetic
Philosophical empiricism
mind is a blank slate on which our experiences are written
knowledge is acquired through experience via learning (nurture)
refers to the scientific method
the child is the scientist figuring out the world through testing
where term comes from
Localization of function:
different bits of the brain doing different things
each part of the brain does different things
brain lesions can have different effects on the brain
Lashley’s ‘mass action’ (note: the textbook describes Lashley’s idea but does not refer to the term ‘mass action’):
larger lesion = greater impairment, regardless of exact location
What did we learn from Paul Broca’s famous patient, as one of the first case studies in neuropsychology?
patient had difficulties with language
lost power or speech
nicknamed tan because only word he could reliably say
could still understand speech
could still nod shake or point to answer
stroke
left frontal lobe
thus some involvement in speech
named brocas area
Between 1875 and 1900, there were a series of key events as psychology crystallized as a discipline. Describe two of these events:
WUNDT 1st psych lab in germany (1879)
G Stanley Hall sets up first lab in North America(1881)
William James releases the principles of psychology (1890)
Thorndike’s Law of Effect established in 1898
How did von Helmholtz’s technique of measuring reaction times inform Wilhelm Wundt’s early investigation of consciousness?
he studied the human reaction time and estimated the length of nerve impulse
metal pen touches arm identify reaction time
stim
sensory input from the environment
reaction time
amount of time taken to response to a specific stim
estimated the speed of neural transmission
27m/s
wundt picked up on technique, look at registration of touch vs different condition where participant has to report direction of touch
registered input
consciousness
persons subjective experience of the world and mind
introspection
subjective observation of ones own experience
Structuralism
Analysis of the basic elements that constitute
the mind
introspection is a subjective observation of one’s own experience
Provide an example of functionalism, related to evolutionary psychology
Willy i am James
Willard jamison
why does function exist why is it adaptive
why do we need the feeling at all (TYPE)
Gestaltism was another school of thought that is less well known but made key insights, particularly in the area of perception. Give an example of a Gestalt effect?
perception based theory: the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. often as revealed by visual illusions
lots of work on perception
the brain is interpreting and building what we become aware of
What was John Watson’s beef with psychology in the 1920s that led to his behaviourist manifesto?
introspection is subjective and unreliable
psychologist should restrict themselves to the scientific study of objectivity observable behavior
dramatic departure from the previous school of thoughts
Watson “anyone, regardless of their nature, can be trained to be anything… give me a dozen healthy infants, and my own specified world to bring them up in, and ill take anyone at random and train him to become any type of specialist i select - doctor lawyer artist … even a thief.
Describe the kind of learning that is taking place in either Watson’s case study of Little Albert (discussed in class) or in Pavlov’s dog (as an example to generalize that effect)
inspired by pavlov: classical conditioning
watson controversial study of little albert
learns about fear
young infant
albert
how do babies behave while they are afraid
measured
flinching
crying, whimper
duration
escape attempt (physical movement)
he did
before
rat = neutral stim (no fear)
paired rat 5 times with unpleasant metal clang
after
rate become a conditioned stim
elicits fear
conditioned response
child learns to fear the rat due to the paring of the rat and the metal clang
In Skinner’s experiments, what is the key difference (from Watson and Pavlov’s work) in the kind of learning that is being seen?
Skinner studied principles of reinforcement rather than classical conditioning (PAVLOV) and fear (WATSON)
Consequences of behaviour determine whether it is more likely (reinforcement), or less likely (punishment), to occur again
passive form of learning
albert is a witness to things going on
sat there and observed the rat paired with metal clang
skinner interested in
how does a dog learn to get a treat
how does it know what to do to get a treat
how to learn new responses and behaviors
operant conditioning and principles of reinforcement
more likely to repeat a behavior if it leads to something good
other way do not do if it leads to something bad
skinner approached with extreme views
human free will (IS AN ILLUSION)
skinner thought there is no free will
if he knew lifetime reinforcement history
he could tell you exactly what you would have for lunch after class
What does ‘two-eyed seeing’ mean with respect to Indigenous ways of knowing?
Psychology’s origins are Euro-centric & linked to the colonial
oppression of Indigenous peoples
Indigenous ways of knowing can be challenging to reconcile with
Western scientific method “Two-eyed seeing” recognizes the
ability to adopt both lenses
A journey of understanding relationships, community & nature
antagonism
challenging to reconcile this western approach to science
statistical testing
focus on evidence
indigenous
gradual passed down understanding of the world
two eyed seeing
What was Joseph Couture’s notable achievement in Canadian psychology?
Joseph Couture, first Indigenous person in Canada to receive a
PhD in Psychology (U Alberta, 1972)
In the downfall of behaviourism, there were powerful examples from children’s learning of language, and from evolutionary psychology, that some things cannot be explained purely by learning on a blank slate. Explain those examples in one line each:
Neisser (1967) “it was supposed that no psychological phenomenon was real unless you could demonstrate it in a rat”
Chomsky (1959): as young children generate sentences they have never heard before, operant reinforcement cannot explain language learning
Garcia (1966): Rats can associate a new taste with sickness, but struggle to learn the same association when the CS is a light evolutionary psychology
started 1960
behaviourism is suffocating
what could be studied
no phenomenon is real unless demonstrated
lots of experinces off limits
chomsky
first works
article critisizing skinners book that argued that children learned language through conditioning
cannot be based on parinings
garcia
conditioning researcher
how rats learn what makes them sick
they learn about tastes very quick
learn that a blue lightbulb makes them sick
behaviorist denied this
took it too far
Two further developments in the world in the mid 1900s led to the Cognitive Revolution. What were they?
Donald Broadbent (1926-1993): Discovered attention has limited capacity
George Miller (1920-2012): Found consistency in capacity limits in memory
Penfield’s research in the context of neurosurgery provided the early clues for a brain basis of cognitive psychology. Explain one of Penfield’s effects.
Cortical ablation (for epilepsy)
Electrical stimulation of the cortex Sensory and motor homunculi
Cognitive neuroscience then crystallized with the development of brain imaging techniques. Name two techniques that can be used in combination with psychological tasks. (We will study these techniques in more detail in Chapter 3)
Neuroimaging
PET in 1980s, using radioactivity
