Cognitive Psychology Chapter 1 – Flashcards

A procedure used by early psychologists in which trained participants described their experiences and thought processes elicited by stimuli presented under controlled conditions.

When the mind is studied by measuring a person's behavior and by explaining this behavior in behavioral terms.

The approach to psychology, founded by John B. Watson, which stated that observable behavior is the only valid data for psychology. A consequence of this idea is that consciousness and unobservable mental processes were considered not worthy of study by psychologists.

Reacting to one of two or more stimuli. For example, in Donders' experiment (see Chapter 1), participants had to make one response to one stimulus, and a different response to another stimulus.

The mental processes involved in perception, attention, memory, language, problem solving, reasoning, and making decisions.

The branch of psychology concerned with the scientific study of the mental processes involved in perception, attention, memory, language, problem solving, reasoning, and decision making. In short, cognitive psychology is concerned with the scientific study of the mind and mental processes.

A shift in psychology, that began in the 1950's, from the behaviorist approach to an approach in which the main thrust was to explain behavior in terms of the mind. One of the outcomes of the cognitive revolution was the introduction of the information-processing approach to studying the mind.

The interdisciplinary approach to the study of the mind. Cognitive science includes a wide net of disciplines including computer science, linguistics, neuroscience, artificial intelligence, philosophy, and psychology.

The approach to psychology, developed beginning in the 1950s, in which the mind was seen as processing information through a sequence of stages.

A memory mechanism that can hold large amounts of information for long periods of time. Long-term memory is one of the stages in the modal model of memory.

Measuring the time-course of mental processes.

Rotating an image of an object in the mind. Shepard and Metzler's experiment provided evidence that people use this method when asked to determine whether two depictions are of the same object viewed from different angles or are two different objects.

The model proposed by Atkinson and Shiffrin describing memory as a mechanism that involves processing information through a series of stages, which include short term memory and long-term memory. It is called the modal model because of the great influence it has had on memory research.

A model in cognitive psychology is a representation of the workings of the mind. There are many different kinds of models, but many are presented as interconnected boxes that each represent the operation of specific mental functions.

When the mind is studied by measuring physiological and behavioral responses, and when behavior is explained in physiological terms.

The time it takes for a person to react to a stimulus. This is usually determined by measuring the time between presentation of a stimulus and the person's response to the stimulus. Examples of responses are pushing a button, saying a word, moving the eyes, and appearance of a particular brain wave.

Method used to measure retention in Ebbinghaus's memory experiments. He read lists of nonsense syllables and determined how many repetitions it took to repeat the lists with no errors. He then repeated this procedure after various intervals following initial learning and compared the number of repetitions needed to achieve no errors.

A brief stage of memory that holds information for seconds or fractions of a second. It is the first stage in the modal model of memory. See also Iconic memory; Persistence of vision.

A memory mechanism that can hold a limited amount of information for a brief period of time, usually around 30 seconds, unless there is rehearsal (such as repeating a telephone number) that can maintain information in longterm memory. Short-term memory is one of the stages in the modal model of memory.

Reacting to the presence or absence of a single stimulus (as opposed to having to choose between a number of stimuli before making a response). See also Choice reaction time.

An approach to psychology that explained perception as the adding up of small elementary units called sensations.

Helmholtz's idea that some of our perceptions are the result of unconscious assumptions that we make about the environment.

The 19th-century physiologist that first conducted reaction time experiments.

Was a 19th-century physiologist and physicists who first presented the theory of unconscious inference.

Performed the classic experiments on memory by learning lists of nonsense syllables to study memory in 1885.

Founded the first laboratory of psychology at the University of Leipzig in 1879.

Proposed the approach called "behaviorism" as a replacement for analytic introspection.

Introduced operant conditioning.

MIT linguist that pointed out flaws in Skinner's Verbal Behavior book.

In 1953 performed experiments where participants were given different messages to each ear and could attend to only one.

In 1958 proposed a flow diagram to represent what happens in a person's mind as they direct their attention to something in their environment.