RES 240 EXAM 2 2026 EXAM PREP SCRIPT
FULL QUESTION SET APPROVED
◉ Problem with behaviorism. Answer: Behaviorist perspective can't
account for the Limiting 1) Science limited to observable things is a
bad idea. Whos's ever seen an electron? 2) creativity and diversity of
human behaviors. can't account for someone creating something
totally new. Ex. Language: Children learning the rules of language.
Can take nonsense words and put an s for plural. The child has a rule
(mental state) that links s's to words. Children make grammatical
mistakes. There's no way the child was rewarded with that. if a child
learning language can only produce utterances they have heard
before, we have no explanation for why a child producing the plural
version of a nonexistent word (like 'wug') will create the plural the
same way they would with an existent word (so they would produce
'wugs' and not 'snaf'). On the other hand, if you believe that there is
an underlying set of mental states / operations that creates plurals
from singulars, you can explain why the child will produce
'wugs'.Why do children make grammatical mistakes? They've never
been reinforced to say it.
◉ Cognitivism. The cognitive approach. Answer: After
developments, (Computers, etc.) Responses are still important. Take
stimuli and responses, and infer what's going on in the mind. Use
observable data to make inferences.
,◉ Computational view of the mind. Answer: mainstream underlying
assumption: the mind is somehow like a computer. Broad idea ..
Takes information.. stores some of it.. keeps in temporary memory
RAM and then process it. INFORMATION PROCESSING
PERSPECTIVE. information, processes
◉ information. Answer: 1) sensory data - data receive from external
world. 2) representations - various kinds of memory.
◉ sensory data. Answer: data received from external world
◉ representations. Answer: 1) procedural representations.
(KNOWING HOW TO DO THINGS)
2)declarative representation Knowing "that" something is true
-semantic memory
-episodic memory
◉ semantic memory. Answer: knowledge that is true in general
about the world. don't remember when you learned it necessarily.
any fact about the world that is stored in your memory. you know its
true. Obama is president of the united states. Trees have green
leaves.
◉ episodic memories. Answer: memories that are associated with
the time we learned the memory. we remember learning it, being
,there, experiencing the learning of the fact. sometimes episodic
memories turn to semantic. you need an episodic representation to
remember a list of words in the future.
◉ Processes. Answer: operations or procedures that change
representations from one thing to another. something that
transforms information. transformation from "turtle" to image of
turtle. addition from "2+3" to "5"
◉ Donders. Answer: Developed Mental Chronometry. Key
contributions: idea: you can identify & measure mental processes.
Technique: the reaction time procedure. modern research makes
similar assumptions.. similar criticisms can apply.
◉ Mental Chronometry. Answer: Measurement of time required to
complete mental processes. Mind consists of several different kinds
of mental processes. We want to understand the processes and how
long they take. Sensory data-> processing > more processing
>response. receives information from the previous stage. transforms
the information. sends the information to the next stage. 1)Trying to
determine what the identity of the stages are. 2)determining how
long different stages took.
◉ Origins of mental chronometry. Answer: Maskelyne's assistant
(kinnebrook) 1795. kinebrook's reaction time for a star to pass were
longer than maskelyns.blah. funny story waste of time.
, ◉ Subtraction method. Answer: Method to determine what the
lengths of processes are. , Involves estimating the time a cognitive
process takes by subtracting the amount of time information
processing takes with the process from the time it takes without the
process
◉ Problems with subtraction method. Answer: 1) assumption of
pure insertion, 2) assumption of additivity, 3) assumes you know
what the stages are already
◉ assumption of pure insertion. Answer: Inserting a new cognitive
process (e.g., identification) does not
affect the processes underlying the existing task (e.g., detection).
◉ assumption of additivity. Answer: All stages add together to give
reaction time. BUT stages may occur in parallel!!!!
◉ modern cognitive psychology. Answer: key methodological
technique: eliminating alternative explanations
◉ Huppert & Piercy experiment. Answer: study of
amnesics...experiment 1: there is a deficit in amnesics. They're
impaired at recognizing earlier pictures. how do they explain it?
experiment 2: 80% correct when amnesics had MORE time. then
FULL QUESTION SET APPROVED
◉ Problem with behaviorism. Answer: Behaviorist perspective can't
account for the Limiting 1) Science limited to observable things is a
bad idea. Whos's ever seen an electron? 2) creativity and diversity of
human behaviors. can't account for someone creating something
totally new. Ex. Language: Children learning the rules of language.
Can take nonsense words and put an s for plural. The child has a rule
(mental state) that links s's to words. Children make grammatical
mistakes. There's no way the child was rewarded with that. if a child
learning language can only produce utterances they have heard
before, we have no explanation for why a child producing the plural
version of a nonexistent word (like 'wug') will create the plural the
same way they would with an existent word (so they would produce
'wugs' and not 'snaf'). On the other hand, if you believe that there is
an underlying set of mental states / operations that creates plurals
from singulars, you can explain why the child will produce
'wugs'.Why do children make grammatical mistakes? They've never
been reinforced to say it.
◉ Cognitivism. The cognitive approach. Answer: After
developments, (Computers, etc.) Responses are still important. Take
stimuli and responses, and infer what's going on in the mind. Use
observable data to make inferences.
,◉ Computational view of the mind. Answer: mainstream underlying
assumption: the mind is somehow like a computer. Broad idea ..
Takes information.. stores some of it.. keeps in temporary memory
RAM and then process it. INFORMATION PROCESSING
PERSPECTIVE. information, processes
◉ information. Answer: 1) sensory data - data receive from external
world. 2) representations - various kinds of memory.
◉ sensory data. Answer: data received from external world
◉ representations. Answer: 1) procedural representations.
(KNOWING HOW TO DO THINGS)
2)declarative representation Knowing "that" something is true
-semantic memory
-episodic memory
◉ semantic memory. Answer: knowledge that is true in general
about the world. don't remember when you learned it necessarily.
any fact about the world that is stored in your memory. you know its
true. Obama is president of the united states. Trees have green
leaves.
◉ episodic memories. Answer: memories that are associated with
the time we learned the memory. we remember learning it, being
,there, experiencing the learning of the fact. sometimes episodic
memories turn to semantic. you need an episodic representation to
remember a list of words in the future.
◉ Processes. Answer: operations or procedures that change
representations from one thing to another. something that
transforms information. transformation from "turtle" to image of
turtle. addition from "2+3" to "5"
◉ Donders. Answer: Developed Mental Chronometry. Key
contributions: idea: you can identify & measure mental processes.
Technique: the reaction time procedure. modern research makes
similar assumptions.. similar criticisms can apply.
◉ Mental Chronometry. Answer: Measurement of time required to
complete mental processes. Mind consists of several different kinds
of mental processes. We want to understand the processes and how
long they take. Sensory data-> processing > more processing
>response. receives information from the previous stage. transforms
the information. sends the information to the next stage. 1)Trying to
determine what the identity of the stages are. 2)determining how
long different stages took.
◉ Origins of mental chronometry. Answer: Maskelyne's assistant
(kinnebrook) 1795. kinebrook's reaction time for a star to pass were
longer than maskelyns.blah. funny story waste of time.
, ◉ Subtraction method. Answer: Method to determine what the
lengths of processes are. , Involves estimating the time a cognitive
process takes by subtracting the amount of time information
processing takes with the process from the time it takes without the
process
◉ Problems with subtraction method. Answer: 1) assumption of
pure insertion, 2) assumption of additivity, 3) assumes you know
what the stages are already
◉ assumption of pure insertion. Answer: Inserting a new cognitive
process (e.g., identification) does not
affect the processes underlying the existing task (e.g., detection).
◉ assumption of additivity. Answer: All stages add together to give
reaction time. BUT stages may occur in parallel!!!!
◉ modern cognitive psychology. Answer: key methodological
technique: eliminating alternative explanations
◉ Huppert & Piercy experiment. Answer: study of
amnesics...experiment 1: there is a deficit in amnesics. They're
impaired at recognizing earlier pictures. how do they explain it?
experiment 2: 80% correct when amnesics had MORE time. then
