Reading Activity Week #2 (Due Monday)

N.M.S.

1.A. The Rise and fall of Behaviorism.

B. I found the role behaviorism played in the field of psychology to be very interesting. The impression behaviorism has left on the field of psychology is very noticeable as the concepts and history behind it have stayed in classrooms since it began to rise in popularity. What I find more interesting is that its widespread popularity seemed to actually have a negative impact on researchers. Our text explains that many researchers did not choose to do research on mental structures/internal mental operations and that if they did choose this, they would feel a need to frame their research in behavioral terms. Behaviorism seemingly diminished the ability or likelihood that experimenters would explore new areas. This narrow way of thinking was even able to impede the progress of the field of cognitive psychology, a field that today is very strong with programs that teach/research its topics all across the U.S.

2.A. Discussion of Models /“an organizational framework used to describe processes.”

B. Since our text uses about a page and half in the first chapter to discuss models, I assume that the field of cognitive psychology must utilize them at a significant frequency and I think models may raise interesting issues for researchers. For example, should models be constructed to make existing knowledge more coherent, should a ‘rough draft’ of one be created while formulating a theory or both? The text describes how each component of a broad/simple model can be then be elaborated upon to reveal a more complex and precise model. However, there are likely so many models that have something meaningful to display about the process of human thought and behavior that it seems like a daunting task to create one that is both comprehensive/accurate and intelligible with respect to any construct in psychology.

3.A. Neuroscience.

B. I find the discussion of Neuroscience to be interesting because of its very large implications for how we as humans think and behave. I find it interesting to think about what it must have been like to be studying head trauma from WWI. More specifically what it would have been like to discover that certain parts of the brain seem to hold some amount of responsibility for specific functions. It also has implications for humans and our free will. I think most people feel they have at least some control over their lives but if areas of the brain are damaged or simply altered they seem to impact how much choice we have in the functioning of our vision, speech, motor abilities etc...

4.A. Empiricists and Nativists.

B. First I would like to say that I believe it is important to understand these two ideologies. However, when reading about the two theories of how knowledge is represented in the mind I could not help but think it was a bit reminiscent of nature vs. nurture. Empiricists would be nurtures correlate as they have a similarity in that experiences obtained through living play an instrumental role in their respective theories. Nativists would be supporters of environment, as each would in a sense be deterministic in the way they both assert that something is fixed at birth whether it be thought processes, personality, IQ etc... I understand the importance of each of the theories I have listed, I have just seen each covered enough times in a variety of classes to be somewhat less interested in reading about them.

5. I think the section title measuring psychological correlates to the physical world will be the most useful in understanding cognitive psychology. This section contains what appears to be the methodology used in experiments that attempt to add to our body of knowledge in the field of cognitive psychology. If one can not understand the methodology of the experiments it may be hard to understand their findings as well.

6. Since this is the first chapter it can not build upon a previous chapter. I feel that it lays a foundation for us as students and as readers that will give information in future chapters more clarity and context.

7.A. I would like to learn more about priming.

B. With priming, it appears that our behaviors or interpretations of stimuli can be influenced. Since this can even happen without our conscious awareness it would likely have important implications for any cognitive model of decision-making.

8. While reading in the beginning I tried to think about what the researchers described would have theorized or hypothesized given the information they had available at the time. I also wondered at what time and what other areas of the world started contributing to field of psychology with respect to research. In the second half of the chapter I mostly thought about what information any one area had that could inform a model that could outline a behavior or cognition from its very beginning to very end.

9. Cognition, psychology, behavior, experiment, behaviorism, neuroscience, model, priming, personality, IQ, empiricists, nativists, methodology, brain, stimuli, conscious, metaphor

MRG

1a)
I found the history of cognitive psychology interesting. It has the longest history as philosophers explain where knowledge comes from. Cognitive psychology also traces back to early theorists writings which teach us about thought and memory. I also found, then, that the Ancient Egyptians believed that knowledge came from our hearts.
1b)
I found this interesting because this dates back to Aristotle and Plato. It is also important to know the history of cognitive psychology to appreciate the connections with our own human experiences and interactions.
2a)
The next idea I found interesting was how models are a part of cognitive psychology. Models describe processes of our everyday thinking. Models also provide a representation of an observation and help us make predictions. Models are also interesting as they help in understanding our own cognitive processes and thinking about processes in analytical ways.
2b)
Models are interesting to me as we can use models to describe our actions and ways of doing things. We can also breakdown our daily activities in order to determine why we did something in a certain way.
3a)
The last idea I found interesting was Edward Tolman’s development of the cognitive map. Tolman used rats to develop this cognitive map idea. Rats were placed in a maze where they had to follow accessible pathways to find food that was in another part of the maze. The rats had to find the food by using a number of different pathways.
3b)
I found this interesting as this internal map is how humans think to reach an end goal. The way the information about our environment is represented is our cognitive map. It is interesting how this cognitive map concept was determined with the use of rats and a stimulus response idea. With the use of rats, this could help determine, in a much deeper sense, how humans think.
4a)
The one thing from chapter 1 that I found the least interesting was the relationship between cognitive psychology and cognitive science. Cognitive science relies on the research of psychology among other types of science, so cognitive psychology seems to be more important.
4b)
I am more interesting in learning about cognitive psychology and the ways in which humans think, memorize, and interact with others. Cognitive science concepts do not attract my attention as I would rather be learning about the models of cognitive psychology and why individuals think the way they do.
5)
Reading about the birth of cognitive psychology and the terminology that goes with it from the chapter has helped build a foundation about what is to come within our textbook. There are many types of cognitive research that will be built upon as the semester continues and I think this research will help me understand why individuals study cognitive psychology and what about this psychology is so interesting and important.
6)
As this is our first chapter, I think from here our class will build on the ideas of cognitive psychology. This first chapter laid a framework on cognitive psychology and the most important terminology that we will build on during the semester.
7a)
I would like to learn more about the functionalist view of psychology as it relates to cognitive psychology and human thinking.
7b)
Functionalists look at psychological processes by their function of how humans adapt to their environment and adapt to changes within their environments. I think it would be interesting to learn more about this view and why humans adapt to changes the way they do and other ways of adapting to changes in our environment.
8)
One thing that really stuck with me from this chapter and made me think in a deeper sense was when the textbook discussed that the Ancient Egyptians believed knowledge came from our heart. I think it is fascinating that knowledge can come from so many different things. Our knowledge is built from our own experiences and things that are taught to us. It is really a nature versus nurture concept to think that we were born with certain knowledge and then our knowledge and analytical thinking grows as we experience new things.
9)
A list of terms and terminology used in my post:
Thought, Memory, Models, Cognitive processes, Cognitive map, Stimulus-response, Cognitive science, Functionalist

JMM

1a&b) What did you find interesting? Why was it interesting to you?
I found the information about Edward Tolman and his development of the cognitive map to be interesting. I don’t recall learning very much about him in the History of Psychology class so I enjoyed piecing together his contributions. Tolman was a behaviorist that looked to stimuli rather than responses as his reasoning for behaviors. He placed rats in a maze and had food at the end. The rats were not only able to memorize that path but we could put them in different parts of the maze and they would still be able to find the food effectively. The “cognitive map” is a term that Tolman coined to describe how our brain is able to construct and accumulate spatial knowledge which allows our minds to visualize things. Most of this takes place in our hippocampus. This lightens our cognitive load and gives us the ability to recall things such as the directions to get home. I think that is what interested me the most. The fact that our brains, and the brains of rats, are powerful enough to be able to visualize in our heads in order to relieve other parts of our brain of being overworked goes to show just how intricate and incredible our brains are.

2a&b) What did you find interesting? Why was it interesting to you?
I was also interested in the discussion of neuroscience. Neuroscience looks closer at the function of our brain and what role each structure and part play in making our brains work. I think our brain is absolutely fascinating and it seems crazy that we have even learned as much as we know now. It is by far even crazier to know that we haven’t even begun to unlock many of our brains secrets. I think I get all nerdy when I get on this subject because it’s just so hard to even understand how our brains work. I know we get it from a basic level but I would love to learn even more about this subject. I especially enjoy reading about different cases such as with Phineas Gage. His story and the research they were able to acquire from his particular case gave us great insight into just how powerful and sensitive our brains are. The fact that he could even function was a miracle in itself. But the most interesting part of the entire situation was that Gage was never himself again. His entire personality changed and that is the part of neuroscience and psychology that I am most interested in.

3a&b) What did you find interesting? Why was it interesting to you?
The third thing that I found interesting in this chapter was the history of cognitive psychology and how it has evolved. It was interesting to read about the different opinions of where our knowledge actually comes from. Empiricists felt that our knowledge came from our past experiences that we have collected throughout our lifetime. The nativists, however, thought that we were born with the knowledge already in our brains. The ancient Egyptians, even more interestingly, felt that our knowledge came from the heart. These are all very interesting views and what I think is even more interesting is the fact that they wholeheartedly believed and supported their views. I think it would be very easy to agree with any of them. However, I personally would have to say that there is probably a mixture of the nativist and empiricist beliefs. I do think that we are born with certain knowledge that is primitive and natural. But I think that our environment plays a large role in the knowledge that we accrue throughout our lives and that is where I would say the empiricist views come in. The events that we are confronted with and experience seem to have a large impact on people as individuals.

4a&b) What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting? Why wasn't it interesting to you?
If I had to choose something that wasn’t quite as interesting to me as the other subject matter I would probably say the section on the models. Don’t get me wrong, I know that models are an important part of breaking down behavior and being able to understand it I just feel like sometimes they make the information itself seem boring. Another thing I dislike about them is that models, to me, translate to memorizing. In so many of my psychology classes I have simply memorized the models when I need them and then I forget about most of them. I truly enjoy class when I can actually sit there and learn and forget about the memorization because I think that’s when I’m becoming the most knowledgeable.

5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding Cognitive Psychology?
I think just getting to learn a bit about the history of cognitive psychology and how it has grown will help a lot with having a good foundation to begin learning from. I like having background information so that the learning becomes more like a story than a list of facts. Now that I know some of the beginning information I think it will be much easier for me to build my knowledge of the subject from there.

6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?
Well this is the first chapter so it is just setting down the building blocks that the following chapters will then build on. I think the first chapter is kind of giving us a taste of what to expect in later chapters. I’m guessing that they will expand on some of the subjects that we were introduced to in this first chapter.

7a&b) What topic would you like to learn more about? Why?
I would like to learn more about neuroscience because it’s a topic that I have always been particularly interested in. I think biologically our brains are capable of so much more than we can imagine and I am always interested in learning new discoveries.

8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?
I think that the discussion about the origin of knowledge is something that I really pondered the most. It was interesting to read about different people having completely different views about the subject. It made me stop and think about how I have been educated and how I would respond to that question. It also just reminded me of how different everyone’s perception can be about the same subject.

9) Terminology:
Edward Tolman, cognitive map, behaviorist, hippocampus, neuroscience, Phineas Gage, empiricists, nativists, knowledge, models, stimulus, brain

1) A topic in the first chapter I found interesting was “internal representation”. It discussed how there are three types of internal representation and how our brain uses these processes to represent and understand things. The three types were direct sensory events, events that are stored in memory, and transformation of these events in the thinking process. This was interesting to me particularly because of the environment I work in. I work with individuals with special needs who are severely handicapped in brain and/or physical functioning. I was at work directly prior to reading about this part of the chapter. It was interesting for me to wonder about how this process may work in their brains, and what parts may be hindered. I was very interested in how things are represented in their minds and how this affects their understanding and processing of the world.

2) I found some of the information on cognitive processes interesting, particularly the mention of the article “The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Information”. It was published around the time the so-called cognitive revolution was taking place and people were starting to recognize the study of cognition and how much information was out there to be learned. I found this part of the chapter interesting because of the article title mentioned. This resonated with me because I remembered learning about this piece of information in a different class. I always thought it was neat how scientists had been able to recognize a number of components are brain could usually consistently remember for a short period of time. I also thought it was interesting how phone numbers (with seven digits) were then based on this piece of information as well.

3) Reading about the reaction-time studies was also interesting to me. I found them interesting partially because I remember learning about them in a different class and it was neat to be able to connect that to the way the information was presented in this book. It’s such an odd and challenging topic to study because there are so many different variables that can affect the findings. I also thought it was interesting because this chapter called these studies “the hallmark of cognitive psychology”. When I previously learned about these types of studies I wasn’t able to connect it to cognitive psychology and how important they were to the field, and now I’ve been able to have a bit more understanding not only to how unique and interesting these types of studies are but also to how they’ve played an important role in the development and understanding of parts of psychology.

4) I found the discussion of models to be the least interesting. A lot of the information in this section seemed very repeptitive based on information I’ve learned in many other classes over the years. It seemed very basic and rather boring to read. While the pizza ordering process may have been a good example that explained the model well to people who didn’t yet understand it, even that was still uninteresting to me in particular because there didn’t seem to be any new information for me to gain.

5) I thought the very first paragraph in this chapter helped a lot with the understanding of cognitive psychology. It explained in a very simple, clear-cut manner what cognitive psychology is. If someone were to ask me what in the world is cognitive psychology, this is a rather brief definition I would direct them to. It applies the field to real life examples and explains situations in which we use cognitive psychology every day. This was definitely the most helpful part of this chapter to understand what the topic is, and that helped me understand how it applies to my everyday life. It helped me to view the rest of the chapter as more useful and meaningful because I knew that it is a phenomenon that every individual experiences daily.

6) Unfortunately, I do not have a thorough answer to this question, because there aren’t yet any previous chapters to build upon.

7) A topic I’d be interested in learning more about is some of the philosophy mentioned in the brieft history of cognitive psychology portion. I was interested in the nativists and empiricists differences in how we gain knowledge. This is clearly an important piece of information to know and understand if we want to be able to increase the amount of knowledge we maintain. If we know where our knowledge comes from, it’s easier to focus on that and modify our environments for optimum knowledge consumption.

8) As I mentioned in an answer earlier, as I read I thought a lot about the disabled individuals I work with multiple times a week. As they are such a large part of my life and I spend a lot of time with them, it was hard for me to not think about them as I read and wonder how this information applies to them. While I know they have cognitive processes, it’s clear their processes are different than what an average person’s would be. I’m very curious about what the biggest differences are and what it is in particular that’s prohibiting them from going through cognitions in the same way that I might.

9) Internal representation, model, reaction-time studies, nativist, empiricist

I.B.

1a) What did you find interesting?

I enjoyed reading about the use of models in cognitive science.
1b) Why was it interesting to you?
I find visual aids help me a lot in the learning process, so reading about how models are created and utilized as a framework to describe an unseen process.
2a) What did you find interesting?

I enjoyed reading about the computer science perspective towards cognitive psych.
2b) Why was it interesting to you?
It was interesting because it has the ability, or aspiration rather, to make all of human processes explainable in mathematical formulas. This has been a point of interest to me for a long time, since I was a child and wondered if we could have sentient robots. The artificial intelligence debate addresses this, and computer science acknowledges that in certain aspects computers are greatly inferior to the human brain, for example, with emotions. There’s a lot of reasons this is interesting to me, and I look forward to learning more about it during the course,
3a) What did you find interesting?

I enjoyed reading about, and seeing that evolutionary psychology plays such a substantial role in cognitive psychology.
3b) Why was it interesting to you?
It’s interesting because everything can be explained as having some evolutionary advantage for our ancestors. I enjoy psychology because it tries to explain things that seem like they would be hard to explain, so I thoroughly enjoy theories that for the most part explain everything, such as evolutionary psychology.
4a) What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting? 

A lot of stuff was a little less interesting as this is an introductory chapter.
4b) Why wasn't it interesting to you?
I had already taken history and systems and research methods, and a lot of the content covered in the first chapter was kind of an overview of those two courses. A little less interesting, but it’s good to help me remember things I guess.
5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding Cognitive Psychology?
Reading about the history behind it will help a lot. It seems like new approaches arise constantly throughout history, and often times they are utilizing new technology to study things more in depth. Cognitive psych looks as though it is adapting with new technology to explain mental processes. It’s interesting.
6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?
Irrelevant, this is the first chapter.
7a) What topic would you like to learn more about? 

I would like to learn more about neuroscience, which is good because it is the next chapter in the book.
7b) Why?
Neuroscience is the most interesting area of study within the field of psychology, in my opinion, and I would like to learn everything about it and hopefully make a career out of it.
8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?
I just thought about all the things that I would hopefully be learning in the upcoming semester.
9) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Models, evolutionary psychology, cognitive psychology, cognitive science, neuroscience, computer science,

1) I thought it was interesting that information about localization was gathered from soldiers with brain injuries in World War I. The doctors in World War I noted that particular deficits were related to the area of the brain that was damaged. I found this interesting because the doctors made really useful observations without the use of any technology. Information about specialized areas of the brain was gained from simple observations in the doctors’ day to day work.

2)I found the role of computer science in cognitive psychology to be very interesting. I thought this was interesting because computer science is utilizing the metaphor that the brain is like a computer to help figure out how the brain works and its structure. I also think it is interesting that two seemingly different fields have come together in a mutually beneficial relationship.

3) I thought the nativist theory was interesting. The nativist theory was interesting because it helps explain why individuals learn certain information quicker than others. For example, some individuals learn math related material easily while others learn material related to English easily. This suggests that there is some genetic, innate characteristic of the brain that allows individuals to retain certain types of information better than other types of information.

4)I found the information about the unit of analysis to be least interesting. It was not interesting to me because it did not directly relate to my life. It’s useful information for reading research articles but it does not really explain any phenomenon that are of interest to me.

5) I think the basic breakdown of the cognitive processes will be most helpful in understanding cognitive psychology. This was helpful because it broke down the broad area of cognitive psychology into smaller sections that describe what cognitive psychologist study.

6) This chapter builds on what I previously knew about cognitive psychology by providing more detailed definitions. I had a general idea of what cognitive psychology was about before reading this chapter but now I have a more concrete concept of what cognitive psychology is and how intertwined it is with everything in our lives.

7) I would like to know more about single-cell studies because I think it is fascinating that technology is getting to the point where we can know the function of a single, specific neuron. I think the information from single-cell studies has huge implications for treatment of neurological disease and mental disorders.

8) I was thinking about scientific revolutions while reading this chapter and how accepted models and theories are abandoned in favor of models and theories that better explain observations of nature. I just read a book about scientific revolutions and the shift from cognitive psychology to behaviorism and then back to cognitive psychology reminded me of scientific revolutions and the progression of ideas.

9) I used the terms: localization, computer science, unit of analysis, nativist, single-cell studies, model, and theory.

Taisha Thornton

1a) The first thing that I found interesting was the difference between empiricists and nativists. These are two different perspectives about how knowledge is represented in the mind. the Empiricists believe that knowledge comes from experiences throughout the lifetime while nativists believed that knowledge is innate.

1b) It was interesting to read these two different perspectives because when you read later on neither can be definitively proved, but when you read about the example of learning the pythagorean theorem it makes it seem as though the empiricists have to be correct.

2a) The next thing that I found interesting was reading about how people use metaphors to explain cognitive processes but often these metaphors can lead to misperceptions. At first I did not understand how this could be but then after reading further and seeing how saying our mind is like a videocamera it all made a little more sense to me.

2b) This was interesting because like I said at first I had my doubts, but after reading further into the model section where they broke things down step by step and gave the example of going to the store to get a pizza things clicked. If we use the videocamera approach and assume the first steps lead to the last steps in many cases we have made a false prediction.

3a) One last thing that I found interesting was the concept of psychophysics: scientific study of the relationships between stimuli and the sensations and perceptions evoked by these stimuli.

3b) This was an interesting concept to me because I remember learning about WEber’s study on absolute threshold in history and systems. I enjoy reviewing concepts that I have already learned about but may have forgotten the details because then I can build off of what I already know and it sparks more understanding. I remember being confused by this study in class and it taking a while for me to learn it and now reading over it again I have those same feelings.

4a) One thing that I found very uninteresting in this chapter was the section on research methods.

4b) I just completed research methods last semester so this was all a big review for me. I still remember the definition of observational vs. experimental studies and also conceptual vs. operational definitions. The only term form this section that was new for me was unit of analysis, but the name itself is pretty self explanatory.

5) The overall definition and description on what cognitive psychology means, is what I think will be most useful in previous chapters. When I decided to take this class I had a pretty good idea of what it would entail but after reading the introduction in the book I have an even better understanding. Cognitive psychology deals with how we “acquire, transform, represent, store, and retrieve knowledge. It also deals with how that knowledge directs what we attend to and how we respond.” The example of the air traffic controllers was very helpful in further understanding this concept. It broke things down into how exactly they do what they do.

6) First chapter, doesn’t have anything to build off of :)

7a) I would like to learn more about single-cell studies.

7b) I find open brain surgery very interesting and when it says that it is rarely done on humans it makes me interested to learn about the few cases in which they did do this on humans. I want to see all of the different things they have observed and learned form doing these studies.

8) As I read through this chapter many different terms were familiar and made me think of things that I have learned in prior psychology classes. First when I was reading over the section over metaphors, I saw that they compared it to a filing cabinet, and it reminded me of a spongebob episode where he is trying to remember something and he goes into his brain and there are all of these little spongebobs running around looking through all of these filing cabinets and they’re freaking out because they can’t find what he is looking for. Next when I read about the lateralization studies and read about Broca and Wernicke’s areas being responsible for speech and language, I remembered that in intro we learned about these types of aphasias and I made a little memory trick to remembering the difference of each Brock (some kid I went to high school with) understands girls he just doesn’t know how to talk to them, Wernicke: since it is a longer word the person knows how to talk because that is all they do they talk and talk and talk, but they just dont’ understand what the words mean.

9) Terms: Broca’s area, Wernicke’s area, single-cell studies, cognitive psychology, lateralization studies, observational studies, experimental studies, operational defintion, conceptional definition, unit of analysis, metaphors, nativists, empricists, models, psychophysics.

M.L.P.

1) The first thing I found interesting was the subject on models, and how the book went on explaining the metaphor on memory. Memory has several different metaphors to generally explain the processes of how memory is encoded, stored, and how it is retrieved. One of the metaphors, memory is like a video camera, was being compared with to what we actually know about memory. Memory is mentioned in the text as having similarities to a video camera, but in a video camera when a person rewinds the film to a particular scene or event it is played back over and over the exact same as when it was filmed. When memory stores information then it is retrieved that is when there is a difference. Memory can be be altered or simply attention is not focused on everything so pieces of information can be construed not allowing for the exact same recall over and over when compared to a video camera.

2) The second topic that I thought was most interesting was of the relationship between Cognitive Psychology and Cognitive Science. The fact that in the book it mentions that many cognitive sciences relate to cognitive psychology. Another reason why I thought it was interesting was because how computer science and anthropology contribute to cognitive psychology as well I knew that computer science was used a lot in psychology especially in recent years, but I never would have guessed of how much it played a part in psychology.

3) The third thing that interested me was the single-cell studies. I have known about the Hubel and Wiesel experiments on cats and understanding the visual cortex, but I never knew about the single-cell studies that they used to correlate that a visual stimulus would fire up cells in the visual cortex. The main reason why I believed it to be interesting was that they had inserted probes into a cat's brain, visual cortex, then they would display images on a screen to see if there was any electrical response from the brain.

4) The least interesting thing that I found in the text was mainly the history of how certain topics, subjects, and terms came to be. In many previous psychology classes and text books just having to hear the same history over and over about how Wundt's new understanding of psychology was on the rise in Germany. Also how Titchener brought introspection to America and so forth has just been heard over and over to many times that it just does not interest me to the extent that it would to someone who is new to the field of psychology. Don't get me wrong I still like to read about it, but I have just heard about it or read about it to much.

5) The one thing that I think is most useful in the understanding of Cognitive Psychology would be the two models that James, and the Waugh and Norman model used to explain how memories are stored in long term, and short term memories, or simply forgotten. Information that a person receives can go to several different locations of memory.

6)This is the first chapter that we have read, but I do feel after reading the other chapters there will be a lot more that I can say on the matter.

7) The topic that I would like to learn about more would be of clinical case studies because the fact that there are some people out in the world that had severe mental disorders from an accident or from birth. I want to learn more about how these people help psychologists and scientists learn more about the brain.

8) What I had read in the chapter made me think about many different things about psychology. What I had mainly thought about was how I had previously learned about the topic, and to see if I had already learned it or if it is new. Like the example I gave above on how Hubel and Wiesel used probes to figure out what cells were being activated with a certain stimulus.

Terms: Models, memory, encoded, stored, retrieved, recall, cognitive psychology, cognitive science, psychology, single-cell studies, visual cortex, stimulus, introspection, James and the Waugh and Norman model, long term memories, short term memories, case studies,

SV
1)One thing I found interesting is the Neuroscience. I liked how they talked about how an issue between neurologists was the struggle with if the brain was considered to be a holistic organ, or if it was broke up into different sections for learning. I thought it was interesting how people thought if there were behavioral issues, then that part of the brain might be damaged. How information was found out about the brain was also cool, because they used people who had brain injuries due to the war, which helped the knowledge grow on what to do during traumas.

2) I also liked how it explained the empiricist view and the nativists. Empiricists believed that you learn and gain experiences and memories that way. Nativists think that the information is basically pre programed in the brain before you are born, but scientists can not be for sure of which is actually the right one or if it is a mixture of both.

3)Behaviorism is also an interesting topic I have heard about it in other classes that I have taken. Humans and animals were used as the frame work for it. It uses a stimulus-response.

4) Something I didn't really understand not saying I didn't like it, was the part on cognitive psych and cognitive science. I just don't really understand how without the psychology part, there could be cognitive science. Finding things out about psychology comes from research that is done which is considered science, so I feel that they go together.

5) I think this whole chapter was important in understanding psychology, because it gave a good back ground and base line to cognitive psychology, touching on behaviorism, neuroscience, and the different views of the way the brain works, such as the empiricist and nativists views on knowledge.

6) Doesn’t build on yet first chapter.

7) I would really like to learn more about neuroscience, because I work with persons with disabilities and I would like to learn more about what happens in the brain in different situations, and more about seizures. I love my job and I would like to understand more about it.

8) I thought about my job when I was reading the section on neuroscience, as well as trying to remember what I knew about some of the different sections from the other classes I have had.

9) Neuroscience, empiricist, nativists, behaviorism, stimulus-response, cognitive science.

JMB

1. One thing that I found really interesting was that neuroscience started out with observing war injuries and the cognitive effects that they were having on the soldiers. With all of the technological advances that we have today for neuroscience it is easy to forget that earlier in time they did not have the same technology and still discovered so many great things. The fact that they began to reverse engineer brain functioning by observing what cognitive functions no longer functioned in the same way as before an injury opened lots of gates and peaked interest in the working of the brain.

2. Another thing that I found interesting from this chapter is that throughout time there has constantly been opposing sides that have differing beliefs as to how the brain functions. Seeing the controversy develop from empiricists vs nativists debating how knowledge is acquired, to behaviorists believing that all experience is due to a stimulus and response interaction, to differing theories of memory formation, and many other debates that still exist today shows how the field changes and grows with time and newly discovered knowledge. It is important to understand that in cognitive psychology there are things that can not be proven, but simply theorized. This can lead to multiple theories and models that serve to explain the same process with nether one being right or wrong compared the other.

3. I thought it was interesting as well as extremely helpful when the chapter clarified exactly what theories, models, metaphors, and perspectives are and how all of these intertwine together. Understanding that metaphors are best used when trying to get across the basic understanding of a process while models are best used when more specific information is needed about the process is important so that correct information is portrayed when explaining a process and so that one is not misinterpreted. I learned that a theory does not necessarily serve to explain an entire process but sometimes only a specific step of a process which elaborates on the basic definition of a theory that is taught generally. It was good to see how all of these things interact in order to learn the correct terminology for the subject and come across as knowledgeable.

4. The thing that I found the least interesting in this chapter was the section on computer science. Though I understand how computers are useful in helping in the study of cognitive psychology I did not find the connection between how computers and related technologies are developed and programmed to be very interesting. The basic understanding that it is programmed like a brain made sense but was not something that I felt was necessary in understanding the basis of cognitive psychology. I did however enjoy learning about how the technologies allow for simulations of experiments to take place saving time and money to produce statistically similar results.

5. I think that reading about the different research methods will be the most beneficial in further understanding cognitive psychology. I think that it will be good as we later read about specific studies to have a basis of the method being used so that we can better understand what it is that they are looking for and how they are finding it. It allows for students to break beyond the basic understanding of an observational study and a simple experimental study. Laying out the differences between operational definitions and conceptual definitions is good for those students that have not yet taken research methods so that they understand how measures are being taken in studies and results are being collected. Explaining the unit of analysis also helped to clarify language that will most likely be seen in future studies that are read which again will allow for a better overall understanding of the study. Understanding how theories and facts in psychology are discovered is just as important as understanding what they are and how they work.

6. This chapter laid out a good ground work of cognitive psychology and will all for further chapters to be build off of it. Because this is the first chapter and we have not covered very much material in class at this point there is not much to build off of yet.

7. I would like to learn more about different evolutionary psychology theories for cognition and functions of the brain. I find it very interesting to study how we function today and ask why that is. I have studied other aspects of evolutionary psychology in other courses but the did not go into much detail on cognitive functions and the make up of the brain.

8. I have taken multiple psychology courses previous to this class and while reading this chapter there were many different aspect of all of those classes that I was refreshed on and even given more information into. This helps to show that many different areas of specialized psychology still interact with each other in their studies. It also showed how much of other subjects outside of psychology are related and worked with as well to make developments. While reading the beginning of this chapter I kept thinking how much change has already occurred in the field and with further developments how much more will change just in our lifetimes. It is good to keep this in mind and be open to new findings rather than being set in simply the ways that we have been taught to know.

9. Terms Used- neuroscience, empiricist, nativist, stimulus-response, theory, model, metaphor, computer science, cognitive psychology, observational study, experiment, operational definition, conceptual definition, units of analysis, evolutionary psychology

1) I found the idea of cognitive maps to be really intriguing. The book explains how Tolman set up experiments to understand how rats navigated mazes. He observed that instead of the rats encountering many sensory or external stimuli and then processing that information as they saw it, that instead they knew after only a few trials to head in the general direction of the food, and process individual obstacles as they came about. This was really interesting to me because the first thing that I thought to compare it to was when you come home from any direction, or any place in town and how you know where your house is, or you at least have an idea of how to get there based on your general knowledge of the town in which you live. Since Tolman had his rats start in different places in the mazes all the time, it actually reminded me of my friend’s dad, who when they moved to Phoenix, Arizona he went home from work a different way every day to better understand the city, but he used his general knowledge of where their house was, and then built his cognitive map of the city day by day until he could get home and to work from any direction and was able to avoid traffic jams, or accidents that had happened during rush hour, much like the rats were able to use their knowledge of the maze to avoid new blocks and still reach their food.
2) Another area that I found really interesting was the evolutionary perspective on why different functions exist in the brain. Obviously, the evolutionary perspective runs off of the idea that only traits that were advantageous to us throughout our evolution were passed down to us from our ancestors. I always find evolutionary theories interesting because they can be applied to every aspect of the human existence in some way or another. However, one area I usually don’t think about it applying to is the brain, at least not in a functional sense, so I thought it was really cool that the book discussed how exactly evolution applies to the brain. One of the examples they give specifically is memory, and how if we didn’t have an evolutionary need for memory, such as what plants kill people and what plants don’t, then we wouldn’t have memories today.
3) The third topic that I found really interesting was the section on cognitive science. I found this of particular interest because my roommate and I were recently talking about how it’s always interesting to see what other majors people couple with Psychology. I’m a double major in Criminology and Psychology myself, but as the book explains, cognition is a part of every aspect of our lives, so it seems obvious that everyone would want to take a or several classes learning about how people think, which is what psychology teaches us.
4) One of the things that I didn’t find very interesting to read about was the research methods. I just don’t very much care for reading and digesting the process that goes into research, which is extremely unfortunate because it’s very important to the life and studies of a psychologist which I one day aspire to be.
5) The most useful thing that I read in this chapter was probably the four perspectives, because they are the foundation to how people study cognition, and if you don’t fully appreciate how the study came to be, or from what angles it is usually approached, then I don’t think you get as much out of the study of the subject.
6) This is the first chapter in the book that we’ve read, so I’m sure how to answer this question. I’m going to call it a trick question and move on.
7) One of the things that I would like to learn more about, or I guess in this instance be able to apply to everyday things would be models. I think they’re a really neat way of breaking down seemingly simple processes, especially the pizza ordering example the text gave. After reading that I almost immediately began to analyze the process of note taking and how you have to first visually interact with the page, then understand and process the information, then make many decisions. First what information you believe is the most relevant or important, and then how or if the rephrase that information, then I began to think about all the processes that go behind the physical act of writing, and how we actually understand and know what the letters mean, and on top of that we are able to generate sentences of our own, then I had to stop myself in order to keep going with this assignment.
8) Something that I had to consider for a while was at the beginning of the chapter when they talked about what knowledge is and whether it is innate or external. Then they had the discussion of the empiricists and the nativists. The empiricists believing that all knowledge is learned, and the nativists believing that knowledge is built on innate ideas or facts that we already have some understanding of when we are born. At first I whole heartedly sided with the empiricists, believing like a true behaviorist that we learn through observation, and observation only. So the triangle and Pythagorean theorem example they gave I thought was silly, but as they explained it, I began to question it and decided as the book lays out that it must lie somewhere in the middle of the scope.
9) cognitive maps, sensory or external stimuli, evolutionary perspective, cognitive science, cognition, models, nativists, behaviorist

JAF
1a. what I found interesting was that psychology as a science emerged from PHILIOSOPHY. Psychology formed a discipline that was based on testable hypotheses and empirical data. Early cognitive psychology research came from Wundt's and Tichener's study on INTROSPECTION, and Brentano's research on MENTAL REPEESENTATIONS.
1b. I found it interesting because I have always struggled with philosophy. Philosophy for me was always to open ended, no right or wrong answers, broad far reaching concepts. But on the other hand, psychology was always very interesting to me because it was more structured with empirical research. To now learn that psychology is just a branch off of philosophy is pretty neat.
2a. I found Tolman's experiments with the lab rats to explain COGNITIVE MAPS very interesting. The answers from Tolman's experiments rivaled the prevailing behaviorist ideas of the time that were built on stimulus-response mechanisms. He found that the instead of using a single pathway to find cheese in a maze, the rats instead got a lay of the maze (cognitive map) and found the general area of the cheese through novel pathways.
2b. I found this interesting because Tolman must have faced extreme adversity during this time period because he was arguing against the prevailing behaviorist ideas of the time. This must have been difficult, but none-the-less, his experiments helped to usher in a new era of thinking in psychology.
3a. Another thing I found that was interesting was that much of what we know of the brain relating to its functions come from neurosurgeons treating patients during WWI. By removing shrapnel from various parts of the brain, and seeing the effects from having that part of the brain leisoned or damaged, we were able to get an idea of which parts of the brain affected things like speech, vision, and hearing.
3b. This is interesting to me because huge events, such as war, are almost a paradox. war for example brings death and tragedy, but it also brings innovation and development that help expand humanity.
4a. I found the topic on MODEL's to be the least interesting. Models are useful, especially if you can use one to help describe something as abstract as human memory, but it is still dry material to read.
4b. It wasn't interesting because compared to other topics in the chapter it wasn't as exciting and fresh to read than, let's say, the part on AI.
5. I think that the part on neuroscience and it's relation and differentiation from COMPUTER SCIENCE will be the most helpful to understanding cognitive psychology.
6.This is the first chapter. This will be the first stepping stone to understanding the subsequent chapters.
7a I would like to learn more about how cognitive psychology relates to AI.
7b. I find this area of study very interesting. In the near future I believe AI will be apart of our lives. If we learn to understand it now more people will have a grip on the long term consequences that AI will bring to human lives.
8. I thought of all the other area of psychology and how diverse the field really is. Whether it be cognitive, clinical, or biological, psychology is a broad discipline that deals with many different aspects of human existence.
9. Philosophy, introspection, mental representations, cognitive maps, models, computer science, neuroscience.

First off it is nice to get blogging again. I enjoy the structured freedom that I receive while doing my blogs. Like the first chapter in the history and systems book (or nay book for that matter) it is not the most entertaining chapter within the whole book. Most information presented is just general history of the topic, and how it came about. I remember reading a little about cognitive psychology in history and systems, so some of the information was familiar to me. The section on cognitive maps, lateralization, and the name Edward Tolman rang a bell while I was reading. The cognitive psychology section was one of my favorite while reading the history and systems book, so I am excited to read an entire book and get more knowledge on the subject. Like Dr MacLin had said in class last Thursday, it would have been nice to get a book like this when we were younger. It would have been nice to know how my brain worked when I was younger, so I could have a better understanding of its functions, and also how to use it to my advantage. One of the areas that interested me while I was reading was section on cognitive maps. I liked this section because I use cognitive maps everyday. Another section that I enjoyed while reading was single cell studies. This was interesting because it showed that a single cell could tell us where the stimulus was occurring. The last thing that I found interesting was the lateralization studies. These were interesting studies because of the later research that still goes on today on epilepsy. No one section was the least interesting, but the one that I did not really understand that well was psychophysics. Maybe I need to go back and review what that section was about, but it was not that interesting to me. I think the section that will help me most in remembering cognitive psychology would be the cognitive maps section. I saw that because it was probably the most interesting to me. The section that I would want to learn about more would be the one that I liked the most and that is cognitive maps.

I thought that the section on cognitive maps was interesting because I use them everyday. During the first day of the semester I had a completely different schedule, and was not sure what the best route was to each class. I did however have some previous knowledge of the campus layout, so I used that to my advantage when plotting which way was fastest to each of my classes. Now everyday when I walk out the door to go to class I use those cognitive maps to get me from point A to point B. Cognitive maps are very useful for memory as well. I remember when I was a freshman taking Professor Butlers introduction to psychology course, he gave us an exercise that was about cognitive maps. He made us remember a series of words by picturing what our houses looked like an linking that word to the memory. Cognitive maps are truly an amazing thing, and it is almost like you are tricking your brain into remembering the information. It would have been so much useful if I had those tools before I got to college because of how useful they can be to someone. The book talks about how Edward Tolman came up with this idea by having rats run maze. He did not believe that the rat remembered the maze, but the rat used a cognitive map to get its way through the maze. I think I remember from history and systems that this is also has to do something with the trial and error theory that John Thorndike developed but I could be wrong. Anyway, I really enjoyed reading about that section and I look forward to researching more into the topic with my topical blog.

Another section that I enjoyed while reading was the single cells section of the chapter. The single cell studies were done by Hubel and Wiesel. They shared the nobel prize for their research in this area which is major for the psychology field. What the studies were intended to do was to see if a single cell could ahow stimulus to a response. Not a lot of these procedures were done on humans because they required the researcher to open up the skull. Most of the procedures were done on either cats or rats. Once you had opened the skull of the animal Hubel stuck a probe into the animals skull and tried to pin point a specific cell that he thought was the source of the stimuli. Hubel hoped that he would find an electrical response from that particular cell. This was huge in understanding more into cognitive psychology because now they knew that cells communicate through electrical responses. This research later led to seeing if the same type of response happened in other parts of the brain such as the LGN and the cerebral cortex.

Another interesting thing that I enjoyed about the chapter was the section on lateralization. This was interesting to me because I had read about this topic in my history and systems book. I have seen this type of research done in most every psychology class that I have taken here at UNI. Lateralization helps us to understand so much about the brain, and how it functions. The book talks about such findings like the Wernickes area and the Brocas area. The areas of the brain that control speech and language. Researchers have learned how to control brain diseases with the knowledge they received from lateralization research. Like the single cell studies that I talked about earlier, lateralization studies can also be invasive. Michael Gazzangina used humans that had epilepsy to see if that a lateralization procedure that could possibly cure their seizures. By severing the corpus collosum he found out that some patients had less seizures and led more stable lives. It would be interesting to see if there was current research on those procedures. I am sure there is and could possibly look more into the subject with my topical blog.

One thing that I did not like the best from this chapter was the section on psychophysics. I do not know whether I did not really understand what I read or just zoned out while reading that section. The section talked about the JND (just noticeable difference). I remember reading about this in H&S. What this study tries to do is she if humans can detect differences in weight. So, if someone were to put five pounds in my hand and then put ten pounds in my hand it would be fairly easy to detect. But what about if someone out 400 pounds in my hand and then 405 pounds in my hand...same amount of weight but with the the 400 being so heavy (and impossible to hold in my hand) it is hard to detect. You would need an equal amount that translates to the 5 to 10 pound difference. Another detection was the two point threshold. It is almost near impossible to detect to point that are fairly close together. But when you space those points out and put them on a part of the body that has more sensory nerves then it becomes much easier for the subject to feel the two points. The book said that there is not a lot of research on this topic lately because of the inconclusive data. I do not think it would be something that I would do for my topical blog.

I think that cognitive maps will help me in understanding cognitive psychology because it was a subject that I really enjoyed. Cognitive maps are something that I use everyday so it is an term to remember. Cognitive maps are not the most crucial part of this chapter, and probably not the main take home point, but it was what grabbed my attention the most. Another section that helped me to learn about cognitive psychology was the evolutionary psychology section of the chapter. It helped me to understand because of the link between evolutionary psychology that I have read about before, and something new like cognitive psychology that I am just learning about. The idea behind evolutionary psychology is that cognition is best learned through the functional approach.

This is the first chapter of the book so it can not really relate to previous chapters. What it can do is relate to previous texts that I have read before about some of the information discussed in this chapter. I had already learned about cognitive maps, lateralization, and evolutionary psychology, so it was a nice to read about information I had learned about while also gaining more on different sections within the chapter.

A topic that I would like to learn more about would have to be cognitive maps. I liked reading about the section. It grabbed my attention and it made it fun to read. Sometimes the chapters can get a little monotonous, so it is cool when something comes and grabs my attention. I also like to learn about the man behind the theory. So some of my research for my topical blog will be done on none other than Edward Tolman. I think that these men and women are brilliant and I just want to know more about who they are or were people, and what ultimately lead them to the discovery of the theory that they created. I remember doing this a lot last year and it made the research fun because these men and women usually grew up with amazing childhood stories.

Some ideas that I has while reading mostly had to do with cognitive maps. I remember while reading Dr. MacLin talking about what cognitive maps were in class. He kept talking about how he was trying to figure out the quickest way to get to class without freezing! I laughed while I was reading the chapter. I also remembered my intro to psych class when Butler told us how to use cognitive maps to remember a list of words which was quite fascinating. I think that thoughts like that make reading the chapter a little more fun.

Terms: Cognitive psychology, cognitive maps, Edward Tolman, Evolutionary psychology, lateralization, single cell studies, evolutionary perspective, cognitive science, just noticeable difference, two point threshold, psychophysics, michael gazzaniga

1) The part of chapter 1 I found the most interesting was in the very beginning when the terms empiricists and nativists were discussed. The chapter defined empiricists as people who believe the knowledge we have comes from experiences gained throughout our lifetime and everything we know is learned. Nativists are defined as people who believe that knowledge is based on innate characteristics of the brain and we are born with some existing knowledge. The chapter continues on with these terms and discusses Period of Enlightenment and how the science of psychology was developed. I found this part of the chapter the most interesting because the history of psychology is always more appealing to me than learning about research methods, which is the later part of chapter 1.

2) Another part of chapter 1 I found interesting was the part about neuroscience. The book defines neuroscience as a perspective that focuses on the underlying brain functions that produce cognitive experience. I think it’s interesting that early psychology did not seem to pay much attention to neuroscience and the anatomy of the brain because, now, it seems that psychology can only gain positive recognition and support from society when studies and research are done with hard, scientific evidence regarding the brain.

3) I found the computer science section of chapter 1 interesting, as well. My favorite part of the computer science section is when the book says that computers are good at things humans do poorly, and humans are good at what computers do poorly. The chapter then goes on to explain that computers are not good at face recognition at this point, but more advanced computers are in the making. These more advanced computers are going to be designed to resemble the human brain. I find this interesting because computers have advanced so much in just my short life-time that I can’t imagine the advanced technology we will have by the time I am older. I also find this slightly scary.

4) That part of chapter 1 I found the least interesting was the entire sections about research methods. The terms experiment, operational definition, unit of analysis, single-cell studies, case studies, and ethics are all terms I have learned many, many times. So, naturally, I do not find these topics interesting anymore. However, the ethics part of research methods I have always found a little bit more engaging than other topics of research methods.

5) I think the information on the perspectives in cognitive psychology will be very useful in understanding and studying cognitive psychology. The perspectives of information processing, neuroscience, computer science, and evolutionary psychology are all different but somehow intertwine and work together to create a better understanding of cognitive psychology. I think the information processing perspective is particularly useful because it focuses on time sequence of events, which most cognitive models use. Information processing is just typically what I think about in relation to cognitive psychology, which is why I feel it would be most useful in further learning about cognitive psychology.

6) This is the first chapter in the book so it does not relate to any previous chapters.

7) I would like to learn more about the computer science perspective of cognitive psychology. I am choosing this part because computer science deals with artificial intelligence, which is an incredibly intriguing topic to me. I am not very knowledgeable about artificial intelligence and the extent it goes to, so I would really enjoy learning more about that topic.

8) While reading the chapter I thought a lot about the history of psychology, in general. I thought about the researchers of psychology when psychology was a new science and how difficult it was probably to come up with their hypothesis and ideas and theories when there was very limited knowledge of the topic at that time. I also thought about research methods and how difficult it is for social sciences to have their studies taken seriously because it is so hard to measure things that psychology measures, like though processes, etc.

9) Empiricists, Nativists, Period of Enlightenment, Neuroscience, Neuroanatomy, Computer Science, Ethics, Research Methods terms, Information Processing, Evolutionary Psychology, Hypothesis