PSY important

Based on the idea that all learning and behavior is the result of
associations

The concept of association is the foundation of all learning. We learn by forming associations between ideas.

Population grows at exponential rate. Environment at linear. Influenced Darwin

A social darwinist, he believed that intelligence must be inherited.

Set up first anthrometric laboratory to study individual's features and appearance as it related to intelligence.

The teological idea that it is possible to create a race of superior humans over a sufficient span of generations involving controlled, selective breeding (such as used by Nazi's)

Developed factor analysis to break down the intercorrelations between items on an intelligence test, allowing statiticians to break down the intercorrelations among the items and determine how many factors are being measured in a given test

Spearman found two factors in IQ tests: this represents a person's overall intelligence, tending to be stable over the lifetime, hereditary factors

Spearman found two factors in IQ tests: this Corresponds to specific abilities that can be improved with training, showing not all intelligence is genetically determined. Associated with learning and experience

a discipline that applies the stimulus-response (S-R) chain to not only animals but humans as well. Allows for direct
comparison between humans and animals with regards to the function of the mind

Argumented against S-R in comparative psychology:
Anectodal/Observation methods:
animal psychologist, observed the behavior of animals and noted that sometimes they acted with intentions not unlike humans

Whenever an animals seems to act with intent, it’s okay to explain it by assigning a higher cognitive ability (say, human-like thinking) otherwise all animal behavior is by default a simple S-R chain

You can say the animal acted with intent

The philosophy that true ideas are ideas that work, and that have some practical value. Its a way of judging the usefullness of an idea. For James, free will was more practical than determinism. Similar to Ockams Razor

What are the 5 Facts of Consciousness (William James)

This is an S-O-R approach, believes behavior is not reflexive and we use the rational mind

(Thorndike) Any action followed by a satisfying (functional) consequence is repeated; actions followed by unsatisfying consequences are not repeated

(Thorndike) The more often the association is made between a response and its consequences, the stronger the association becomes

(Thorndike) The longer the association goes unused, the weaker the association becomes

Concluded from his experiments (Cat in Box) that a behavioral
response that satisfied a motivation (getting out so they could eat) resulted in an association being form

1st major US psychologist
1st textbook: Principles of psychology

Created the first psychology lab in the US
1st president of the APA, key figure in its founding
1st to publish a psychology journal in English.
1st phd?

1st phd with Wundt
Lab at Penn , oldest operating

1st African American with PhD in psychology
Psych program at Howard

1st Woman with PhD in psychology

A reflex which is modified by experience

A reflex governed by the mind

The pairing of a conditioned stimulus to an unconditioned stimulus, evoking a conditioned response.

-Neutral (unconditioned) stimuli--does not ordinarily elicit a response.
-paired with response-evoking stimuli (unconditioned stimulus)
-Unconditioned stimuli is no longer neutral--elicits response on its own.

Influenced by positivism: publicly observable events are scientific.
The goal for psychology for him was to predict and control behavior.
He succeded in demonstrating that there was no distinction b/w humans and animals in terms of behavior. (fear generalized with other other similar objects like a dog, called stimulus generalization)

John Watson and Little Albert Study (proved mind was strictly S-R).

They felt that some psychological constructs (such as learning or intelligence) could be scientific if they could be operationalized

He believed learning occurs through association

He rejecting innate knowledge and freewill and emphasizing the importance of learning.

Argued that learning could occur in one trial despite lack of
performance, goes against Aristotle’s Laws of Frequency and Throndike’s Law of Exercise

He wanted to demonstrate that learning is more than just responses to stimuli, so he set up an experiment with rats and mazes.

They felt that a theory was only scientific if it could be empirically verified (demonstrated vs. experiment)
However, allows for theorizing about the data so long as the theoretical construct could be verified experimentally

Scientific Method applied to Psychology

What is the difference between positivism and logical positivism?

Learning and performance are the same thing.
Strict S-R approach .
Concerned only with publicly observable events and learning occurs through reinforcement.
Postivism: Scientific Method

Learning is a construct & Performance is an operational definition: something we used to measure amount learned
Allows for S-"O"-R approach
Learning occurs through observation
Logical positivism

O
Kant and Helmholtz believed in top-down structuring, in otherwords, completely subjective experience at the “O” level, based on either innate rational knowledge (categories) or innate
experience

S-O-R
introduced the role of the environment in behavior. Also they were the first to recognize responses to stimuli in the S-O-R chain

S-R
felt that all conscious behavior could be reduced to simple S-R chains; all behavior was a result of the stimuli that induced it

He thought that all behavior could be broken down to the level of a tropism, which is behavior directed towards light

Essentially argued that every behavior is an S-R chain.

Mind is not required for animal behavior

He disagreed with Loeb. His argument was that behavior is way too complex and required the mind .He studied simple organisms (protozoa)

The mind is required in most cases . Some mindless reflexes exist, but most behavior is intentional

He removed the cerebrum of cats and then tickled their feet What he noticed is that even without the cerebrum, the reflexes remained intact
Don’t need a mind for responses--S-R

He said that the mind is not really necessary for animal behavior, although it may be required to explain some complex behavior.

The study of information processing systems, and in particular the application of concepts and theories from computer science and information theory to the mind/psychology.

Who :Science proceeds with a dominant paradigm that governs the kinds of experiments that are conducted and the kinds of descriptions that are allowed. Eventually, if the paradigm fails to explain the data that is generated, it will be rejected and replaced by an entirely new set of ideas and descriptions.

Idea that the proper way to understand the human mind is to understand how it is inherently connected to the structure and organization of the brain, and further, how it is shaped by the environment via perception.

Treats the mind as an abstract series of computations, which are not tied to any particular manifestation (brain or computer) nor environment.