Cognitive Psychology

Lesson 2

Cognitive Psychology – The study of Philosophy – seeks to understand the

how people perceive, learn, remember, general nature of many aspects of the
and think. world,
in part through introspection, the
I. Philosophical antecedents of examination of inner ideas and
Cognitive Psychology experiences
 Structuralism Physiology – seeks a scientific study of
 Functionalism life-sustaining functions in living matter,
 Associationism primarily through empirical
 Behavioral (observation-based) methods.
 Gestalt
Origin of Cognitive Psychology
II. 3 Cognitive Model of Intelligence Rationalism Empiricism
Carroll – Three-Stratum Model of by Plato by Aristotle
Intelligence the route to we acquire
Howard Gardner – Theory of multiple knowledge is knowledge via
intelligences through empirical
Robert Sternberg – The Triarchic thinking and evidence—
Theory of Intelligence logical
analysis. that is, we obtain
III. Process involved in Cognitive evidence through
Psychology experience and
 Perceive information –We observationce
perceived in Cognition. Perception The only route the only route to
through interpret to truth is truth is
 Process information reasoned meticulous
 Remember Information contemplatio observation
 Think n
Thesis Anti-thesis
IV. Progression of Ideas
The progression of ideas often
involves a dialectic. VI. Structuralism
- Seeks to understand the structure of
Dialectic – is a developmental process the mind and its perceptions by
where ideas evolve over time through analyzing those perceptions into their
a pattern of transformation. constituent components
- Thesis
Pattern
 Thesis – a statement of belief. Structure (thesis)
 Anti-thesis – a statement that  Affection
counters a previous statement of  Attention
belief.  Memory
 Synthesis – integrates the  Sensation
viewpoints
Wilhelm Wundt – founder of
V. Terms Structuralism
Psycho-biology
 Introspection (method) – is a deliberate
looking inward at pieces of information
passing through consciousness.
- Insight and reflection

VII. Functionalism
- Focus on the processes of thought
rather than on its contents.
- Functionalism seeks to understand
what people do and why they do it.
- Anti-thesis

VIII. Pragmatism
- knowledge is validated by its
usefulness
- What can we do with knowledge?
- Application
- Integrative Synthesis

William James - A leader in guiding

functionalism toward pragmatism

IX. Associationists
- Examines how elements of the mind
can become associated with one
another and result a learning

 Contiguity – associating things

that tend to occur together at
about the same time
 Similarity – associating things
with similar features or properties
 Contrast – associating things that
show polarities

Hermann Ebbinghaus - was the

first experimenter to apply
associationist principles systematically

Rehearsal (method) – the conscious

repetition of material to be learned

Edward Lee Thorndike – held that the

role of “satisfaction” is the key to
forming associations. Termed this
principle the law of effect.