PSYC 100 0910 Cognitive approach agree with Freudians that there are many influential things that happen that we are not consciously aware of and cannot report But how can we find evidence of mental phenomena that we cannot report Computational theory of mind the idea that we can explain minds and human made information processors using some of the same principles not the same thing as the computer metaphor which suggests mind is literally like computer data bases more of looking to see where engineering and natural world overlap It explains mental processes thinking knowing trying without evoking a ghost in the machine i e w o dualism It explains how the processes can intelligent i e how rationality cab emerge from a mindless physical process Thinking is computation How can we study this Michael Posner s experiment on mental codes Task decide quickly whether two letters have the same name Design Same name A a a a or A A or different name A B or a b Same physically A A or a a or same name but different form A a Simultaneous or successive presentation 0 0 5 1 0 or 2 0 sec Results Reaction times were slower for different than for same responses RTs respond same were also slower for A a than for A A Conclusions decisions are faster when the physical form of the letter was identical Why Because you can use a visual code to determine whether 2 letters have the same name When the letters are not physically identical you must translate the visual code into an acoustic code and then use that for determination This extra processing recoding takes time Also it takes less time to say yes than it does to say no Experimental method IV DV blah Statistical significance the difference must be greater than what s expected by chance Studies University officials have noticed that there is a relationship between scores on the SAT and performance in college Specifically students with the highest SAT scores tend to do the best in college Is this an experiment This is considered a correlational study Researchers looking at the relationship between intelligence and birth order found that the children w the highest IQ were likely to be the first born in the family A researcher suspected that hyperactivity in children was related to the amount of sugar in their diet They recorded both sugar intake and activity level for a sample of children over a 5 month period Results indicated those who consumed the most were the most active An investigation of age of experimentation and severity Results the more sever the worse These are not experiments but correlational studies You cant intentionally designate when someone does drugs or how much sugar they eat or what they get on their sats but we can only observe Lacks intentional systematic manipulation of a variable so not experiment Random assignment needed for between subjects experimental design different subjects experiencing different levels of the IV pg 78 In a study of animal motivation researchers varied the number of hours rats deprived of food Immediately available no for 12 hours no for 24 hours Researchers discovered that longer they waited the harder they worked for food than the others did reward system
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