Ace Your Experimental Psychology Course with Top-Notch Notes!
Unlock the secrets to excelling in your Experimental Psychology course with comprehensive notes from a student who achieved an impressive 9.5 and attended every lecture! These meticulously crafted notes summarize the entire course mater...
Introduction
Psychology studies human behaviour to find explanations for it vs Experimental psy/
cognitive psychology studies functions: that are the basis of more complex behaviours
1. perception
2. memory
3. thinking and decision making
4. motor skills
5. attention and consciousness
6. language
7. learning
8. emotion
they have dedicated areas in the brain
cognitive psychology looks at normal behaviours (ex.psychology, clinical psychology)
but also disorders and brain-trauma patients (ex. cognitive neuropsychology) to
understand how these functions are modified. (ex. prosopagnosia, difficulties
recognising faces).
History (chapter 1)
only 10 years old discipline because before the mind was thought as unique, made only
,of free will so without law.
● Descartes: dualism, interaction body and mind, explained the reflex (auto
nuomos respond: involuntary)
● Hermann von Helmholtz (german 1821-1894): measured velocity of nerve
impulse, neuron respond
● Gustav Fechner (austrian 1801-1871): mathematical relationship between
physical change and perception of changes (“just noticeable difference” JND)
● Darwin: evolution theory, we all have the same ancestors, natural selection. It
justified comparative psychology with animals.
● Franciscus Donders (Dutch from tilburg 1818-1889): introduced Mental
Chronometry to measure reaction time, additive factors logic (subtracting what
you want to measure from a more complex process and a control condition es:
measuring 1, then 1+2+3, then 1+2) still used in fMRI
● Wilheim Wundt: first psychology laboratory in 1879 in Leipzig, described psy as
science of immediate experience. Created Structuralism: every response is
made by components (sensation, memories/images, feeling) but he used a
wrong method, analytical introspection, instructing subject to describe how their
perception works but is a fast response so we can’t recognise it
● John Watson (1878-1959): created Behaviourism, studying what is observable/
overt because we can't study what is not/covert (not comprehensive). he was
part of logical positivism and he introduced the “operational definition”:
describing in measurable terms so that you can replicate experiments
● Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936): classical conditioning
● Skinner (1904-1990): operant conditioning, learning through reward and
punishment, so you need to study the environment to understand behaviour
● Gestalt psychology (wertheimer, kohler, koffka): the whole is more than the
sum of its parts. rejected structuralism, not only parts, and behaviourism, not
only external. used the phenomenon apparent motion (ex tv, it isn't in real motion,
just pixel) (also in auditory) experience without sensation =perception is a
construction not a reflection of sensation
● In the 70s the computer is the metaphor for our brain, then in the 80s machines
studied the brain (structural, functioning, connectivity) brain as an interconnected
network.
Methods in cognitive neuroscience (chapter 2-3)
● behavioural measures
● non-invasive brain imaging techniques (EEG,MEG,fMRI)
● Blocking normal brain functioning (through substances or transcranial Magnetic
Stimulation)
● Studying patients with focal lesions
● computer simulations
●
RESEARCH IN PSYCHOLOGY
Behaviour can be explained as made by biological factors, individual factors, cultural or
social factors.
, descriptive research (does not explain causality) vs Experimental research
● descriptive:
○ naturalistic observation, in natural context
○ case studies, more detailed
○ interview, open or semi-structured
○ questionnaires, more structured
○ poll, representative sample of subject for conclusion on a whole
○ correlation research, measure association between two variables and it
varies between -1 and +1 (if positive correlation direct proportion, if
negative correlation inverse proportion , if 0 no correlation) but if positive
correlation doesn't mean that one is the cause of the other, there may be a
confounding factor at the base of both
● experimental: the researcher manipulates one aspect of the situation while the
rest stays the same and the result is measured but this allows errors because of
causality.needed:
○ experimental group vs control group
○ independent variable (manipulated)
○ dependent variable (measured to see change)
○ control variable (equal in both groups)
○ subject variables (how you matched the groups)
○ a way to measure the effects of the variable
○ internal validity: is really variable A the cause of variable B?
○ external validity: can we generalize the findings to the real world? to know
people try to replicate
you have to: start with an idea or theory/ observations and info from previous
literature and studies/ make an hypothesis / process of operationalization
(making concrete decisions about the test)/ collect data and run statistical
analyses/ evaluate hypothesis/ theory confirmation or theory falsification or
mistakes in the study/ write a journal
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