PSY 342 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Executive Functions, Kurt Lewin, Experimental Psychology
Document Summary
Not always seen as a true science. Overshadowed by behaviorism and rejected by experimental psychology. Cognition has always been viewed as important in social psychology: cognition in experimental psychology. Introspection- wundt, a pioneer in the field of experimental psychology, relied heavily on trained introspection. Problem: data in cognition is not publicly reproducible. Wundt also relied on measurements such as reaction time. Other scientists ought to be able to examine the data, replicate them following the same procedures and analyze the data to see if they confirm the theory. In the mid 20th century information processing theories became popular. Mental operations can be broken down into discrete, sequential stages not unlike a computer program. Steps in an information processing sequence: examples of cognitive mechanisms in an oversimplified question- answer model. Understand the question"s meaning search for information on that topic- --verify answer---state answer.
