BYU Psych375 Exam 1
What role did E.C. Tolman play in moving away from behaviorism and toward cognitive
psychology? - ✔️✔️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"? - ✔️✔️Early 1900 to mid 1900 shift from
behaviorism to cognition
What did Noam Chomsky contribute to the field of cognitive psychology? - ✔️✔️· 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? - ✔️✔️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
John B. Watson - ✔️✔️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? - ✔️✔️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? - ✔️✔️· 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 are the four themes of cognitive development? - ✔️✔️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 - ✔️✔️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 - ✔️✔️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 - ✔️✔️a. Related to individual differences
b. Our environment or genes do not 100% control us. We are not doomed
Equifinality and multifinality (individual differences) - ✔️✔️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 sexuality
ii. Equifinity
1. Parental divorce, physical abuse, or parental substance abuse may lead to child
depression
What are the major theories of cognitive development? - ✔️✔️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 - ✔️✔️Theory that basic areas of knowledge are innate and
built into human brain
Vygotsky's sociocultural theory - ✔️✔️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 - ✔️✔️We get faster response time and more accurate as
we learn things
What are Piaget's four stages of cognitive development? - ✔️✔️Sensorimotor stage (0-
2 years)
Preoperational stage (2-7)
Concrete operational stage (7-12)
Formal operational stage (12 years and older)
Sensorimotor stage (0-2 years) - ✔️✔️From reflexes to goal-directed activity
Development of object permanence (things still exist even if you can't see it)
Preoperational stage (2-7) - ✔️✔️Intuitive thought
i. Ask a child why a house is at a certain place. They will say because they want it to be
there, or because they grow like plants.
ii. Kids are confident about how the world works
Concrete operational stage (7-12) - ✔️✔️Egocentrism
i. Idea that the world centers around me
ii. If I want something to exist, it will
iii. I like fire engines, therefore my mom likes fire engines
iv. If something goes wrong it is my fault. Parents fighting is my fault
Formal operational stage (12 years and older) - ✔️✔️Abstract thought - (Reasoning
about objects not present)
Hypothetical (scientific) thinking - (Reasoning about objects never seen before)
Wilhelm Wundt - ✔️✔️· Father of experimental psychology
o Used the introspective method to probe cognition
o Asked subjects to describe internal experience from receiving a sensory stimulus
§ He had people explain their thought process when answering if a soccer ball was
bigger than a tennis ball
o He wanted to break down consciousness into its bare parts, like a chemist or physicist
Mary Whiton Calkins - ✔️✔️· American cognitive psychologist interested in studying
memory
· Became president of APA
· She presented lists of words to people and she would ask them to repeat as many
words as they could
o Words presented at the end were easiest to remember. This is called the recency
effect
What role did E.C. Tolman play in moving away from behaviorism and toward cognitive
psychology? - ✔️✔️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"? - ✔️✔️Early 1900 to mid 1900 shift from
behaviorism to cognition
What did Noam Chomsky contribute to the field of cognitive psychology? - ✔️✔️· 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? - ✔️✔️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
John B. Watson - ✔️✔️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? - ✔️✔️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? - ✔️✔️· 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 are the four themes of cognitive development? - ✔️✔️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 - ✔️✔️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 - ✔️✔️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 - ✔️✔️a. Related to individual differences
b. Our environment or genes do not 100% control us. We are not doomed
Equifinality and multifinality (individual differences) - ✔️✔️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 sexuality
ii. Equifinity
1. Parental divorce, physical abuse, or parental substance abuse may lead to child
depression
What are the major theories of cognitive development? - ✔️✔️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 - ✔️✔️Theory that basic areas of knowledge are innate and
built into human brain
Vygotsky's sociocultural theory - ✔️✔️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 - ✔️✔️We get faster response time and more accurate as
we learn things
What are Piaget's four stages of cognitive development? - ✔️✔️Sensorimotor stage (0-
2 years)
Preoperational stage (2-7)
Concrete operational stage (7-12)
Formal operational stage (12 years and older)
Sensorimotor stage (0-2 years) - ✔️✔️From reflexes to goal-directed activity
Development of object permanence (things still exist even if you can't see it)
Preoperational stage (2-7) - ✔️✔️Intuitive thought
i. Ask a child why a house is at a certain place. They will say because they want it to be
there, or because they grow like plants.
ii. Kids are confident about how the world works
Concrete operational stage (7-12) - ✔️✔️Egocentrism
i. Idea that the world centers around me
ii. If I want something to exist, it will
iii. I like fire engines, therefore my mom likes fire engines
iv. If something goes wrong it is my fault. Parents fighting is my fault
Formal operational stage (12 years and older) - ✔️✔️Abstract thought - (Reasoning
about objects not present)
Hypothetical (scientific) thinking - (Reasoning about objects never seen before)
Wilhelm Wundt - ✔️✔️· Father of experimental psychology
o Used the introspective method to probe cognition
o Asked subjects to describe internal experience from receiving a sensory stimulus
§ He had people explain their thought process when answering if a soccer ball was
bigger than a tennis ball
o He wanted to break down consciousness into its bare parts, like a chemist or physicist
Mary Whiton Calkins - ✔️✔️· American cognitive psychologist interested in studying
memory
· Became president of APA
· She presented lists of words to people and she would ask them to repeat as many
words as they could
o Words presented at the end were easiest to remember. This is called the recency
effect
