WGU D570 Objective Assessment Review (Latest 2025/ 2026 Update) Cognitive Psychology | Qs & As| Grade A| 100% Correct (Verified Answers) What is cognitive psychology?A branch of psychology concerned with the scientific study of the mind - that includes such mental processes as perception, attention, memory, language, problem solving, etc.How is it possible to study the inner workings of the mind, when we can't really see the mind directly?We can study cognition indirectly by observing and measuring behavior.Donders' reaction time experiment Simple reaction time -When light flashes, push button Choice reaction time -When light flashes on left or right, push left or right button.Average Choice RT 250 ms
- Average Simple RT 150 ms
= 100 ms to make a decision Ebbinghaus' memory experiment
Present a list of nonsense words:
DAX BIV LUH etc.Recorded number of trials to learn the list initially 1 / 2
After a delay, recorded how many repetitions it took to relearn list - this was then converted into percent savings Wundt's psychology laboratory (1879) Used introspection to study the mind.Introspection - technique of breaking down psychology experiences into primary sensations.Behaviorism (John Watson) A movement in psychology that emphasized the study of behavior over inner mental processes.Watson believed that psychology's goals should be to predict and control behavior and not study the inner workings of the mind.Watson's Little Albert Experiment -Showed certain behaviors can be socially taught and modeled Operant conditioning Focuses on how behavior is strengthened by the presence of positive reinforcement.Tolman's cognitive map Mental representation which serves an individual to acquire, code, store, recall, and decode information about the relative locations in their everyday or metaphorical spatial environment Skinner on Language Acquisition In Verbal Behavior Skinner asserted that children learn language through operant conditioning.Child sees a dog, says "Doggie!" Parents say, "Right, that's a doggie!" Child's verbal behavior reinforced by parents.
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