CHAPTER 1 • Introduction to Cognitive
Psychology
Cognitive psychology - ✔✔ correct answer is the study of how people perceive, learn, remember, and
think about information
cognitive psychologist - ✔✔ correct answer might study how people perceive various shapes, why they
remember some facts but forget others, or how they learn language
A dialectic is - ✔✔ correct answer a developmental process where ideas evolve over time through a
pattern of transformation
pattern...in a dialectic - ✔✔ correct answer • A thesis is proposed.
• An antithesis emerges.
• A synthesis integrates the viewpoints.
thesis - ✔✔ correct answer is a statement of belief.
antithesis - ✔✔ correct answer is a statement that counters a previous statement of belief
synthesis - ✔✔ correct answer integrates the most credible features of each of two (or more) views
Philosophy - ✔✔ correct answer seeks to understand the general nature of many aspects of the world, in
part through introspection, the examination of inner ideas and experiences (from intro-, "inward,
within," and -spect, "look");
Physiology - ✔✔ correct answer seeks a scientific study of life-sustaining functions in living matter,
primarily through empirical (observation-based) methods.
A rationalist believes - ✔✔ correct answer that the route to knowledge is through thinking and logical
analysis. That is, a rationalist does not need any experiments to develop new knowledge. A rationalist
who is interested in cognitive processes would appeal to reason as a source of knowledge or
justification. Plato was a rationalist.
,CHAPTER 1 • Introduction to Cognitive
Psychology
An empiricist believes - ✔✔ correct answer that we acquire knowledge via empirical evidence— that is,
we obtain evidence through experience and observation. In order to explore how the human mind
works, empiricists would design experiments and conduct studies in which they could observe the
behavior and processes of interest to them. Aristotle (a naturalist and biologist as well as a philosopher)
was an empiricist.
Empiricism therefore leads - ✔✔ correct answer directly to empirical investigations of psychology.
Rationalism is important - ✔✔ correct answer in theory development
French rationalist René Descartes (1596-1650) - ✔✔ correct answer => introspective, reflective method
as being superior to empirical methods for finding truth
=> "cogito, ergo sum" (I think, therefore I am)
=> Descartes felt that one could not rely on one's senses because those very senses have often proven to
be deceptive (think of optical illusions, for example
British empiricist John Locke (1632-1704). - ✔✔ correct answer => empirical observation
=> Locke believed that humans are born without knowledge and therefore must seek knowledge
through empirical observation
=> tabula rasa (meaning "blank slate" in Latin).
=> The idea is that life and experience "write" knowledge on us.
=> the study of learning was the key to understanding the human mind
=> believed that there are no innate ideas.
Understanding the Structure of the Mind: Structuralism - ✔✔ correct answer = first major school of
thought in psychology.
= seeks to understand the structure (configuration
of elements) of the mind and its perceptions by analyzing those perceptions into their constituent
components (affection, attention, memory, sensation, etc.).
, CHAPTER 1 • Introduction to Cognitive
Psychology
= Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) German psychologist
= used introspection
= emphasis in the study of the mind shifted from a rationalist
approach to the empiricist approach of trying to observe behavior in order to draw conclusions about
the subject of study
= method of introspection has some challenges associated with it. First, people may not always be able
to say exactly what goes through their mind or may not be able to put it into adequate words. what they
say may not be accurate. 3rd people being asked to pay attention to thoughts' action may be altered
= Follower Edward Titchener (1867-1927)
= Titchener viewed as the first full-fledged structuralist
= His experiments relied solely on the use of introspection, exploring psychology from the vantage point
of the experiencing individual.
= early psychologists criticized both the method (introspection) and the focus (elementary structures of
sensation) of structuralism.
=These critiques gave rise to a new movement—functionalism.
Introspection - ✔✔ correct answer is a deliberate looking inward at pieces of information
passing through consciousness. The aim of introspection is to look at the elementary components of an
object or process.
Understanding the Processes of the Mind: Functionalism - ✔✔ correct answer = counter structuralism
= seeks to understand what people do and why they do it.
= held that the key to understanding the human mind and behavior was to study the processes of how
and why the mind works as it does, rather than to study the structural contents and elements of the
mind.
= unified by the kinds of questions they asked but not necessarily by the answers they found or by the
methods
= functionalists believed in using whichever methods best answered a given researcher's questions, it
seems natural for functionalism to have led to pragmatism.
= Pragmatists believe that knowledge is validated by its usefulness: What can you do with it?
Psychology
Cognitive psychology - ✔✔ correct answer is the study of how people perceive, learn, remember, and
think about information
cognitive psychologist - ✔✔ correct answer might study how people perceive various shapes, why they
remember some facts but forget others, or how they learn language
A dialectic is - ✔✔ correct answer a developmental process where ideas evolve over time through a
pattern of transformation
pattern...in a dialectic - ✔✔ correct answer • A thesis is proposed.
• An antithesis emerges.
• A synthesis integrates the viewpoints.
thesis - ✔✔ correct answer is a statement of belief.
antithesis - ✔✔ correct answer is a statement that counters a previous statement of belief
synthesis - ✔✔ correct answer integrates the most credible features of each of two (or more) views
Philosophy - ✔✔ correct answer seeks to understand the general nature of many aspects of the world, in
part through introspection, the examination of inner ideas and experiences (from intro-, "inward,
within," and -spect, "look");
Physiology - ✔✔ correct answer seeks a scientific study of life-sustaining functions in living matter,
primarily through empirical (observation-based) methods.
A rationalist believes - ✔✔ correct answer that the route to knowledge is through thinking and logical
analysis. That is, a rationalist does not need any experiments to develop new knowledge. A rationalist
who is interested in cognitive processes would appeal to reason as a source of knowledge or
justification. Plato was a rationalist.
,CHAPTER 1 • Introduction to Cognitive
Psychology
An empiricist believes - ✔✔ correct answer that we acquire knowledge via empirical evidence— that is,
we obtain evidence through experience and observation. In order to explore how the human mind
works, empiricists would design experiments and conduct studies in which they could observe the
behavior and processes of interest to them. Aristotle (a naturalist and biologist as well as a philosopher)
was an empiricist.
Empiricism therefore leads - ✔✔ correct answer directly to empirical investigations of psychology.
Rationalism is important - ✔✔ correct answer in theory development
French rationalist René Descartes (1596-1650) - ✔✔ correct answer => introspective, reflective method
as being superior to empirical methods for finding truth
=> "cogito, ergo sum" (I think, therefore I am)
=> Descartes felt that one could not rely on one's senses because those very senses have often proven to
be deceptive (think of optical illusions, for example
British empiricist John Locke (1632-1704). - ✔✔ correct answer => empirical observation
=> Locke believed that humans are born without knowledge and therefore must seek knowledge
through empirical observation
=> tabula rasa (meaning "blank slate" in Latin).
=> The idea is that life and experience "write" knowledge on us.
=> the study of learning was the key to understanding the human mind
=> believed that there are no innate ideas.
Understanding the Structure of the Mind: Structuralism - ✔✔ correct answer = first major school of
thought in psychology.
= seeks to understand the structure (configuration
of elements) of the mind and its perceptions by analyzing those perceptions into their constituent
components (affection, attention, memory, sensation, etc.).
, CHAPTER 1 • Introduction to Cognitive
Psychology
= Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) German psychologist
= used introspection
= emphasis in the study of the mind shifted from a rationalist
approach to the empiricist approach of trying to observe behavior in order to draw conclusions about
the subject of study
= method of introspection has some challenges associated with it. First, people may not always be able
to say exactly what goes through their mind or may not be able to put it into adequate words. what they
say may not be accurate. 3rd people being asked to pay attention to thoughts' action may be altered
= Follower Edward Titchener (1867-1927)
= Titchener viewed as the first full-fledged structuralist
= His experiments relied solely on the use of introspection, exploring psychology from the vantage point
of the experiencing individual.
= early psychologists criticized both the method (introspection) and the focus (elementary structures of
sensation) of structuralism.
=These critiques gave rise to a new movement—functionalism.
Introspection - ✔✔ correct answer is a deliberate looking inward at pieces of information
passing through consciousness. The aim of introspection is to look at the elementary components of an
object or process.
Understanding the Processes of the Mind: Functionalism - ✔✔ correct answer = counter structuralism
= seeks to understand what people do and why they do it.
= held that the key to understanding the human mind and behavior was to study the processes of how
and why the mind works as it does, rather than to study the structural contents and elements of the
mind.
= unified by the kinds of questions they asked but not necessarily by the answers they found or by the
methods
= functionalists believed in using whichever methods best answered a given researcher's questions, it
seems natural for functionalism to have led to pragmatism.
= Pragmatists believe that knowledge is validated by its usefulness: What can you do with it?
