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Exam #1 Study Guide
★ CHAPTER 1: INTRO TO COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY ↷
Cognition: Mental activity involving the ↴ Ways to measure cognition ↴
1. Acquisition of information 1. Observation
2. Storage of information 2. Self-report
3. Transformation of information 3. Physiological measures
4. Use of information 4. Introspection
● Cognitive psychology: An approach to psychology that emphasizes people's thought
processes and knowledge.
○ Why’s it important?
1. Allows us to develop methods to operationalize constructs (e.g., memory).
2. It has a widespread influence on other psych areas.
3. It relates to daily life experiences.
a. Like an “owner’s manual” for your mind!
★ NOTE: There are two problems with research in the field of cognitive psychology ↴
1. Studies often lack ecological validity.
2. Failure to consider individual differences.
★ “If a tree falls in the forest and nobody is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”
○ As they focus on internal processes, a cognitive psychologist would argue that
sound only exists in the mind!
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● Origins
a. Aristotle ↴
i. Empirical evidence: Scientific evidence obtained by careful observation
and experimentation
1. Any info gathered with the five senses.
ii. Examined topics like memory and perception.
b. Wilhelm Wundt ↴
i. Introspection: A process where carefully trained subjects systematically
observe, analyze, and objectively report their sensations.
c. Ebbinghaus ↴
i. Focused on systematic investigations of memory (specifically
short-memory).
d. Mary W. Calkins ↴
i. Recency effect: Argues that our recall memory is more accurate for the
final items in a series of stimuli (i.e., the more recent ones!)
1. Focused on memory in real-life contexts.
e. William James ↴
i. Published “Principles of Psychology,” which provides clear, detailed
descriptions of the human experience.
ii. Created the term “tip-of-the-tongue!”
f. Frederic Bartlett ↴
i. Published “Remembering: An Experimental and Social Study,” where he
discovered that ↴
1. Humans struggle to remember lengthy stories or information.
2. Memory is an active, constructive process that interprets and
transforms information.
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● Behaviorism: Proposes that we should study objective and observable reactions to
stimuli rather than internal processes leading to those reactions.
○ It focuses on stimuli → reaction = behavior (like Pavlov’s 🐶 and Skinner’s 🐀)
★ NOTE: Main contribution = operationalization!
■ It helped to [slowly] perfect how we study cognitive psychology.
★ NOTE: While both cognitive psychology and behaviorism focus on processes ↴
○ Cognitive psychology: Focuses on the unobservable mental processes.
○ Behaviorism: Focuses on observable behaviors.
● Operational definition: A precise definition that specifies exactly how a concept is to be
measured empirically.
○ Operationalization: The process of making something conceptual (e.g., fear)
measurable or observable.
★ NOTE: A cognitive construct can take on many different operationalizations!
○ EXAMPLE: How could we measure if a rollercoaster made the riders feel
fear?
1. Self-report (e.g., survey asking “were you scared?”)
2. Observational (e.g., common fear reactions you can observe
naturally)
3. Physiological (e.g., measuring body functions outside a person’s
control, like a heartbeat)
● Gestalt psychology: Emphasizes that humans actively organize what they see into
structures and patterns.
○ “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts” or, the
completed element is a larger interpretive experience than
the parts making it up (EXAMPLE →)
★ The face (whole) is what’s interpreted when compared to
the flowers (parts)!
Exam #1 Study Guide
★ CHAPTER 1: INTRO TO COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY ↷
Cognition: Mental activity involving the ↴ Ways to measure cognition ↴
1. Acquisition of information 1. Observation
2. Storage of information 2. Self-report
3. Transformation of information 3. Physiological measures
4. Use of information 4. Introspection
● Cognitive psychology: An approach to psychology that emphasizes people's thought
processes and knowledge.
○ Why’s it important?
1. Allows us to develop methods to operationalize constructs (e.g., memory).
2. It has a widespread influence on other psych areas.
3. It relates to daily life experiences.
a. Like an “owner’s manual” for your mind!
★ NOTE: There are two problems with research in the field of cognitive psychology ↴
1. Studies often lack ecological validity.
2. Failure to consider individual differences.
★ “If a tree falls in the forest and nobody is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”
○ As they focus on internal processes, a cognitive psychologist would argue that
sound only exists in the mind!
, 2
● Origins
a. Aristotle ↴
i. Empirical evidence: Scientific evidence obtained by careful observation
and experimentation
1. Any info gathered with the five senses.
ii. Examined topics like memory and perception.
b. Wilhelm Wundt ↴
i. Introspection: A process where carefully trained subjects systematically
observe, analyze, and objectively report their sensations.
c. Ebbinghaus ↴
i. Focused on systematic investigations of memory (specifically
short-memory).
d. Mary W. Calkins ↴
i. Recency effect: Argues that our recall memory is more accurate for the
final items in a series of stimuli (i.e., the more recent ones!)
1. Focused on memory in real-life contexts.
e. William James ↴
i. Published “Principles of Psychology,” which provides clear, detailed
descriptions of the human experience.
ii. Created the term “tip-of-the-tongue!”
f. Frederic Bartlett ↴
i. Published “Remembering: An Experimental and Social Study,” where he
discovered that ↴
1. Humans struggle to remember lengthy stories or information.
2. Memory is an active, constructive process that interprets and
transforms information.
, 3
● Behaviorism: Proposes that we should study objective and observable reactions to
stimuli rather than internal processes leading to those reactions.
○ It focuses on stimuli → reaction = behavior (like Pavlov’s 🐶 and Skinner’s 🐀)
★ NOTE: Main contribution = operationalization!
■ It helped to [slowly] perfect how we study cognitive psychology.
★ NOTE: While both cognitive psychology and behaviorism focus on processes ↴
○ Cognitive psychology: Focuses on the unobservable mental processes.
○ Behaviorism: Focuses on observable behaviors.
● Operational definition: A precise definition that specifies exactly how a concept is to be
measured empirically.
○ Operationalization: The process of making something conceptual (e.g., fear)
measurable or observable.
★ NOTE: A cognitive construct can take on many different operationalizations!
○ EXAMPLE: How could we measure if a rollercoaster made the riders feel
fear?
1. Self-report (e.g., survey asking “were you scared?”)
2. Observational (e.g., common fear reactions you can observe
naturally)
3. Physiological (e.g., measuring body functions outside a person’s
control, like a heartbeat)
● Gestalt psychology: Emphasizes that humans actively organize what they see into
structures and patterns.
○ “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts” or, the
completed element is a larger interpretive experience than
the parts making it up (EXAMPLE →)
★ The face (whole) is what’s interpreted when compared to
the flowers (parts)!
