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Define cognition. Why is cognitive psychology important?
Cognition: Mental processes involved in acquiring, storing, transforming, and using knowledge. Important because it explains perception, memory, thinking, language, and decision-making.
Wilhelm Wundt – contribution to cognitive psychology
Founded first psychology lab (1879); used introspection; emphasized Voluntarism (active, goal-directed mind).
Hermann Ebbinghaus – contribution to cognitive psychology
Pioneered experimental memory research; nonsense syllables; forgetting curve; overlearning effect.
Mary Calkins – contribution to cognitive psychology
Researched memory and self-psychology; paired-associate learning; first female APA president.
William James – contribution to cognitive psychology
Functionalism; stream of consciousness; emphasized purpose of mental processes.
Frederick Bartlett – contribution to cognitive psychology
Studied memory in natural contexts; schemas; reconstructive memory.
Wundt vs. Structuralism (Titchener)
Wundt: Voluntarism (active will). Titchener: Structuralism (analyze structure of consciousness).
Ebbinghaus – overlearning and forgetting curve
Overlearning: Continued practice improves retention after mastery. Forgetting curve: Rapid initial forgetting, then long-term plateau.
Define behaviourism and its contribution
Behaviourism: Focus on observable behavior; rejected mental states. Contributed rigorous experimental methods later adopted by cognitive psychology.
Define Gestalt approach and its contribution
Gestalt: Mind organizes experience into wholes; ‘whole > sum of parts.’ Influenced perception research and problem-solving studies.
Describe the cognitive revolution
1950s–60s shift from behaviourism to studying mental processes; influenced by linguistics, AI, neuroscience; established cognitive psychology as dominant approach.
Define ecological validity
Extent to which findings generalize to real-world settings.
Ecological validity criticism in cognitive psychology
Lab tasks seen as artificial; however, controlled studies test theory. Lab and naturalistic research are complementary.
Define cognitive science
Interdisciplinary study of mind (psychology, neuroscience, AI, linguistics, philosophy, anthropology).
Computer metaphor in cognitive psychology
Mind compared to computer: input → processing stages → output.
Information-processing approach
Cognition occurs in sequential stages; humans as symbol manipulators; reaction time measures processing stages.
Connectionist (PDP) approach
Parallel distributed processing; networks of interconnected units; learning via changing connection weights.
Information-processing vs. connectionist
Info-processing: Serial stages, symbolic. Connectionist: Parallel networks, distributed representations.
Define cognitive neuroscience
Study of brain activity underlying cognition.
Brain lesions method
Study cognitive deficits after brain damage to infer function.
PET
Positron Emission Tomography; measures metabolic activity using radioactive tracer; shows active brain areas.
fMRI
Functional MRI; measures blood-oxygen-level changes (BOLD); high spatial resolution.
ERP
Event-Related Potentials; EEG-based; measures brain’s electrical response to stimuli; high temporal resolution.
