PSYC1011 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Positron, Mental Chronometry, Wilhelm Wundt
Cognition and memory
What is cognitive psychology?
• Attention
• Memory
• Reasoning
• Problem solving
• Why do people do what they do?
Three major types of investigation:
• Introspection
o Asking
o Structuralist -
o Wilhelm Wundt (1879) - experiment
▪ Provide stimulus - report thoughts in order, sensations
▪ E.g. ticking metronome
o Unreliable -
▪ Some judgments indivisible/ 'un-introspectable'
▪ Corroboration is not possible
• Unscientific
• Science should focus on 'observable' phenomena (stimuli and behaviour)
• Behaviourism (JB Watson, 1913)
• Behaviourism
o Measure input (stimulus)
o Measure response
o Reinforcer
▪ Strengthens the link between the stimulus and the response
o The computer metaphor
▪ Computers invented in 1950s
• Brain - hardware (computer chips)
• Mind - software (programs)
▪ Therefore we need to study the software
o Mental chronometry
▪ Speed of thought
▪ A method of measuring the speed and organisation of mental processes
▪ How long does it take to decide that a shape is a triangle or a circle?
▪ Triangle circle task
• Simple reaction time
• The time it takes to response when you see any shape
• "press a button when you see a shape"
• Choice reaction time
• The time it takes to response differently depending on the shape you saw
• "press left if you see a circle and right if you saw a triangle"
• Subtractive methodology
• (Donders Sternberg - 1868-1970)
• Two processes:
• Press - fast
• Evaluate/decide - slower
• Simple reaction time (RT) =
• Press (fast)
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