BYU Psych375 Exam 1 Questions & Answers, Already Passed!!

John B. Watson - Answer-Behaviorist o He focused on observable human nature. He thought internal thoughts had no causal role in behavior What did Watson study or introduce to the scientific field? - Answer-o He believed you can raise anyone to become anything. Stimulus=Response o Little Albert experiment rat + loud bell=baby learning that rat was bad What role did Gestalt psychology play in moving away from behaviorism and toward cognitive psychology? - Answer-· Gestalt psychology o Interested in learning perception that people have of the world around them - Show images to people (rabbit duck, hidden triangle) · Looking at individual parts won't let you see the full picture · It countered behaviorists belief that you can 100% guess how people would perceive these images What role did E.C. Tolman play in moving away from behaviorism and toward cognitive psychology? - Answer-o Set up mazes for rats - Would train them to go through maze and then reward them with food for doing it right - Set 2 roadblocks. Since the rat was familiar with the maze they could figure out how to problem solve. - It disproved behaviorists because they weren't conditioned to just go left when they hit the second roadblock What was the "cognitive revolution"? - Answer-Early 1900 to mid 1900 shift from behaviorism to cognition What did Noam Chomsky contribute to the field of cognitive psychology? - Answer-· Noam Chomsky was a neurolinguist and cognitive psychologist at MIT o Key player in the cognitive revolution o BF Skinner thought humans were conditioned to learn language § Chomsky wasn't convinced · He thought speech was an innate ability and that it was impossible for 3 year olds to learn so much· "Colorless green ideas sleep furiously" o We know this is correct even though it makes no sense. We can even make sentences that we have never heard before. How is this possible if mental processes don't affect us. This combated behaviorist idea What did Ulric Neisser contribute to the field of cognitive psychology? - Answer-o Wrote first cognitive psychology textbook (1967) and coined the phrase cognitive psychology § He wanted to promote conducting experiments with ecological validity He even studied memory in the courtroom and the fallibility of eye witness testimonies. He wanted to study meaningful things What are the four themes of cognitive development? - Answer-1. Stability and change 2. The role of the child in their cognitive development 3. Nature and nurture 4. Equifinality and multifinality (individual differences) Stability and change - Answer-Stability - People who tend to be slower to a task tend to remain slower Change - Children start slower, peak in their 20s, then progressively get slower The role of the child in their cognitive development - Answer-a. The opposite of what Watson said. "let me train an infant and I can shape their entire future" b. Development is an active process c. Children give cues to their environment that they are ready to move to the next developmental level d. Development progresses in interaction between biology and experience Nature and nurture - Answer-a. Related to individual differences b. Our environment or genes do not 100% control us. We are not doomed Equifinality and multifinality (individual differences) - Answer-a. We can't always determine why someone like a child is depressed i. Multifinity - We can't say someone is doomed if they were sexually abused as a child. 1. Sexual abuse can lead to sex aversion, hyper sexuality, or normal sexualityii. Equifinity 1. Parental divorce, physical abuse, or parental substance abuse may lead to child depression What are the major theories of cognitive development? - Answer-1. Intelligence is an active, constructive, and dynamic process 2. Schemes: how we organize our knowledge of the world in our minds 3. Mistakes are meaningful because they reflect our thought processes 4. As children develop, the structure of their thinking changes Theory of core knowledge - Answer-Theory that basic areas of knowledge are innate and built into human brain Vygotsky's sociocultural theory - Answer-a. All learning is social b. Zone of proximal development (ZPD) i. Class is too easy and boring ii. Class is too difficult and boring iii. You need to find that zone which is just right for the most learning to occur c. Scaffolding i. Build on what they already know. Give steps to help them learn Information processing task - Answer-We get faster response time and more accurate as we learn things What are Piaget's four stages of cognitive development? - Answer-Sensorimotor stage (0-2 years) Preoperational stage (2-7) Concrete operational stage (7-12) Formal operational stage (12 years and older)