PSYP402 Official Handouts

Table of Contents · Serial Number · Lecture Title · Page Number

Introduction 1-6 Theories in scientific Psychology 7-9 The Experimental Method in science of Psychology (I) 10-19 The Experimental Method in science of Psychology (II) 20-23 Experimental Design (Variables) 24-30 Experiments in social psychology 31-45 Ethics in Experiments (I) 46-50 Ethics in Experiments (II) 51-56 Report Writing 57-61 Psychophysics (I) 62-71 Psychophysics (II) 72-85 The Five Senses: Visual System 86-93 Visual System 94-106 Perception (I) 107-124 Perceiving Depth and size 125-138 Sound perception 139-155 Sense of Touch 156-165 Sense of smell 166-172 System of Taste; Functions and qualities 173-181 Learning, Classical conditioning 182-195 Learning, Operant conditioning 196-200 Reinforcement 201-207 Shaping 208-213 Memory 214-226 Concept of Working Memory 227-239 Long Term Memory (I) 240-251 Cognitive processes 252-257 The Prototype and the Exemplar Approach 258-265 Problem solving 266-280 Reasoning 281-296

Lecture 01 · INTRODUCTION TO EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY · Introduction to the Course · The course has the following objectives;

• To familiarize course participants with the field of Experimental Psychology, Experimental Research, and various types of Experimental designs
• To initiate an understanding of cognitive processes
• To develop an investigative and experimental approach among students

At the end of course you will be able to:

• Understand and describe important findings of experimental research
• Plan and design experiments
• Develop an interest in experiments and an experimental approach to investigation
• Learn about mental processes such as Perception, Learning, Memory, Reasoning, Problem Solving and Language

The course content

• Definition and history of Experimental Psychology
• Research designs and their procedures
• Cognitive processes; Sensory and Perceptual Processes, Learning and Memory, Reasoning, Decision Making, Problem Solving, Language and Motivation
• Classical as well as contemporary experiments will be discussed such as the famous experiment of little Albert who learned to fear furry animals through classical conditioning (Watson, 1920) and the attachment of infants experiment (Harlow, 1950)

Functions, Aims and Characteristics of Science

The goal of scientific psychology is to understand why people think and act as they do. In contrast to nonscientists, who rely on informal and secondary sources of knowledge, psychologists use a variety of well-developed techniques to gather information and develop theoretical explanations? The curiosity is at the bases of this exercise. Nonscientific people also have curiosity like children to know about the reasons for certain happenings but the difference is that scientists use objective and empirical methods and obtain information through these methods.

The scientific method is a valid way to acquire knowledge about the world around us. What characteristics of the scientific approach make it a desirable way to learn about and arrive at beliefs about the nature of things? Perhaps the best way to answer this question is to contrast science with other modes of fixing belief, since science is only one way in which beliefs are formed. More than one hundred years ago, the American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce (1877) compared the scientific way of knowing with three other methods of developing beliefs. He called these the authority, tenacity, and a priori methods.

1) Authority method

According to Peirce, the simplest way of fixing belief is to take someone else’s word on faith. A trusted authority tells you what is true and what is false. Young children believe what their parents tell them simply because mother and father are always right. As children get older, they may discover, unhappily, that Mom and Dad are not always correct when it comes to astrophysics, macroeconomics, computer technology, and other specialized fields of knowledge.

Although this may cause children to doubt some of their parents’ earlier proclamations, it may not result in utter rejection of this method of fixing belief. Instead, some other authority may be sought. Religious beliefs are formed by the method of authority. Long after children have rejected their parents as the source of all knowledge, particularly about religious doctrine, they may still believe that the religious scholars are authority on matters of faith and next world.

Believing the news you see on television means that you accept CNN or some other news network as an authority. You may believe your professors because they are authorities. Since people lack the resources to investigate everything they learn, much knowledge and many beliefs are fixed by the method of authority.

2) Tenacity method

Another method of fixing belief is one in which a person steadfastly refuses to alter acquired knowledge, regardless of evidence to the contrary. The method of tenacity, as it was termed by Peirce, is commonly seen in racial bigots who rigidly cling to a stereotype even in the presence of a good counterexample. Although this method of maintaining a belief may not be entirely rational, we cannot say it is completely without value. The method of tenacity allows people to maintain a uniform and constant outlook on things, so it may relieve them from a certain amount of stress and psychological discomfort.

3) A priori method

The third nonscientific method of fixing belief discussed by is a priori. In this context, the term a priori refers to something that is believed without prior study or examination. Propositions that seem reasonable are believed. This is an extension of the method of authority. However, there is no one particular authority being followed blindly in this method. The general cultural outlook is what seems to fix belief a priori. People once believed the world was flat, and it did seem reasonable to suppose that the sun revolved around the earth as does the moon. Indeed, the world does look flat if you are not in a spacecraft.

The scientific method fixes belief on the basis of experience. Science is based on the assumption that events have causes and that we can discover those causes through controlled observation. This belief, that observable causes determine events, is known as determinism. If we define scientific psychology (as well as science in general) as a repeatable, self-correcting undertaking that seeks to understand phenomena on the basis of empirical observation, then we can see several advantages to the scientific method over the methods just outlined. Let us see what we mean by empirical and self-correcting and examine the advantages associated with those aspects of science.