Assignment: Ebbinghaus’s studies of memory
Assignment: Ebbinghaus’s studies of memory
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1. What was Donder’s attempting to achieve when he invented the method of subtraction in his study of simple and choice reaction time? Why is his work important for the development of cognitive psychology?
2. What is the measure of “savings” in Ebbinghaus’s studies of memory? Why is it reasonable to interpret savings as a measure of how much a person remembers from prior learning? What was Ebbinghaus attempting to achieve when he invented the method of savings?
3. The behaviorists made some strong assumptions about what distinguishes scientific from unscientific approaches to psychology. What were the main assumptions?
4. List some of the factors that lead to the diminished influence of behaviorist approaches in psychology, and to the rise of cognitive psychology in the late 1950’s and 1960’s. For example, why did use of computers in psychology help to promote a more cognitive approach to psychology? Why did developments in linguistics favor a more cognitive approach to psychology?
5. What is Broadbent’s model?
6. Describe operant conditioning. How did B.F. Skinner explain language development in terms of operant conditioning? What were Noam Chomsky’s criticisms of Skinner’s account?
Chap 2
1. Each of the following is an important component of a neuron or of the connection between neurons. Fill in the blanks in the spelling, and briefly describe what is the function of this component?
o a_on
o d_ _dr_ _ _
o syn_ _ _e
o n_ _r_tr_ns_ _ _ _ _r
2. Briefly describe what aspect of brain activity is measured by each of the following methods:
(i) Single cell recordings (of electrical activity)
(ii) Event related potentials (ERPs)
(iii) Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)
3. Explain the purpose of feature detectors in creating mental representation of objects.
Plagiarism is the use of someone else’s ideas without giving proper acknowledgment. The term “plagiarism” includes, but is not limited to, the use, by paraphrase or direct quotation, of the published or unpublished work of another person without full and clear acknowledgment. It also includes the unacknowledged use of materials prepared by another person or agency engaged in the furnishing or selling of term papers or other academic materials.
The Modern Language Association’s MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers defines plagiarism as follows:
- repeating another’s sentences as your own,
- adopting a particularly apt phrase as your own,
- paraphrasing someone else’s argument as your own,
- presenting someone else’s line of thinking in the development of a thesis as though it were your own.
In short, to plagiarize is to give the impression that you have written or thought something that you have in fact borrowed from another.
Appearance
The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.
Please number the pages of your essay (except for the title page).
You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.
Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.
Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.
