Cognitive Psychology
4th Edition
E. Bruce Goldstein
, Chapter 1: Introduction to Cognitive Psychology
Chapter Outline
1. COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY: STUDYING THE MIND
a. What Is the Mind?
b. Studying the Mind: Early Work in Cognitive Psychology
i. Donders’s Pioneering Experiment: How Long Does It Take to Make a Decision?
ii. Wundt’s Psychology Laboratory: Structuralism and Analytic Introspection
iii. Ebbinghaus’s Memory Experiment: What Is the Time-Course of Forgetting?William
James’s Principles of Psychology
2. ABANDONING THE STUDY OF THE MIND
a. Watson Founds Behaviorism
b. Skinner’s Operant Conditioning
c. Setting the Stage for the Reemergence of the Mind in Psychology
3. THE REBIRTH OF THE STUDY OF THE MIND
a. Introduction of the Digital Computer
i. Flow Diagrams for Computers
ii. Flow Diagrams for the Mind
b. Conferences on Artificial Intelligence and Information Theory
c. The Cognitive "Revolution" Took a While
d. Looking Ahead
4. MODERN RESEARCH IN COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY
a. Following a Trail: How Research Progresses From One Question to Another
b. The Role of Models in Cognitive Psychology
i. Structural Models
ii. Process Models
5. SOMETHING TO CONSIDER: LEARNING FROM THIS BOOK
TEST YOURSELF 1.1
CogLabs: Simple Detection
, Web Links
The History of Cognitive Psychology
Chronological history of cognitive psychology organized around schools of thought and famous
psychologists.
http://muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/cognitiv.htm
Today in the History of Psychology
Searchable historical database organized by date or keywords.
http://www.cwu.edu/~warren/today.html
History of Psychology Calendar
Students can click on any day of the year to learn about historical facts related to psychology.
http://www.cwu.edu/~warren/calendar/datepick.html
Encyclopedia of Psychology
Interactive encyclopedia of topics related to the history of psychology.
http://www.psychology.org/links/People_and_History/
Classics in the History of Psychology
Resource for students interested in the history of psychology.
http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/
The History of Psychology by Dr. C. George Boeree
E-text about the historical and philosophical background of psychology.
http://www.ship.edu/~cgboeree/historyofpsych.html
Cognitive Science Dictionary
A site available for those who may be unfamiliar with the many unique terms found in the
related fields of cognitive psychology, cognitive science, and cognitive neuroscience.
http://www.bcp.psych.ualberta.ca/~mike/Pearl_Street/Dictionary/dictionary.html
Cognitive Science Celebrities
Links to numerous discussions about cognitive science as well as writings by and about leading
thinkers in cognitive science.
http://carbon.ucdenver.edu/~mryder/itc/cogsci.html
A roster and pictures of some of the most famous Cognitive Psychology contributors.
http://www.bcp.psych.ualberta.ca/~mike/Pearl_Street/Gallery/index.html
Videos
History of Cognitive Psychology (via Google Search Story) (Time: 0:35)
A quick snapshot video (35 seconds) over the history of cognitive psychology from the Greeks
(Plato) to the recent past (Donders, Skinner, and the first computers) to the present (Pinker and
brain scanning technology) to the future (wherever that may be). The video could be used as a
very quick introduction to chapter 1.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PYrem2LpL0