PSYC 2700 Lecture Notes - Tabula Rasa, Gestalt Psychology, Empiricism

• School: Carleton University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 2700
• Professor: Chris Herdman

Document Summary

Lecture #1 outline: review course syllabus, historical context (chapter #1 text, roots in philosophy, empirical roots, cognitive approach (chapter #2 text, assumptions, standard information processing approach. Limits: flow of information representation of knowledge restrictions in flow. Psychology: empirical approach logic and argumentation: roots in philosophy. Ancient greek philosopher & student of socrates. Theory of forms : we do not perceive the real world, but only an image of the real world, knowledge structures exist in the mind, these structures reflect specific representation from the physical world. More active (process) view of mind: mind is a blank slate (tabula rasa, experience is important (not innate, knowledge is based on associations of sensations, images & ideas. The mind is a blank slate at birth. The knowledge that we have acquired can influence our learning in the world. What we already know can affect what we will learn and perceive. The associationists talked about this in an empirical way: empirical roots, structuralism.