INTRO. (LESSON 1)

• Cognitive psychology


  The study of how people perceive, learn, remember, and think about information
• In Cognitive Psychology, the ways of addressing fundamental issues have changed, but many of the fundamental questions remain much the same
• Cognitive psychologists hope to learn how people think by studying how people have thoughts about thinking
• Dialectic


  A developmental process where ideas evolve over time through a pattern of transformation
• Dialectic


  1. Thesis proposed

  2. Antithesis emerges

  3. Synthesis integrates viewpoints
• Thesis


  A statement of belief
• Antithesis


  A statement that counters a previous statement of belief
• Synthesis


  Integrates the most credible features of each of two (or more) views
• Rationalism


  Believes that the route to knowledge is through thinking and logical analysis
• Empiricism


  Believes that we acquire knowledge via empirical evidence - that is, we obtain evidence through experience and observation
• Rationalism


  • A rationalist does not need any experiments to develop new knowledge
• Empiricism


  • Aristotle (a naturalist and biologist as well as a philosopher) was an empiricist
• Structuralism


  The first major school of thought in psychology, seeks to understand the structure (configuration of elements) of the mind and its perceptions by analyzing those perceptions into their constituent components
• Structuralism


  • Wilhelm Wundt (1832–1920) was a German psychologist whose ideas contributed to the development of structuralism
• Functionalism

  An alternative that developed to counter structuralism, suggested that psychologists should focus on the processes of thought rather than on its contents
• Behaviorism


  Focuses only on the relation between observable behavior and environmental events or stimuli
• Intelligence


  The capacity to learn from experience, using metacognitive processes to enhance learning, and the ability to adapt to the surrounding environment
• Cognitive models of intelligence

  • Carroll
  • Gardner
  • Sternberg
• Fluid ability


  Speed and accuracy of abstract reasoning, especially for novel problems
• Crystallized ability


  Accumulated knowledge and vocabulary
• Sternberg's triarchic theory of intelligence


  • Creative abilities
  • Analytical abilities
  • Practical abilities