Фрагменты когнитивной психологии. Бабушкин А.П. - 5 стр.

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experiences out of which thought was constituted. Thus, to develop a theory of
cognition, a psychologist had only to develop a theory that accounted for the contents of
introspective reports.

                                   Psychology in America

       Introspection was getting into trouble on the continent. Different laboratories
were reporting different types of introspections-each type matching the theory of the
particular laboratory from which it emanated. It was becoming clear that introspection
did not give a clear window into the workings of the mind. Much that was important in
cognitive functioning was not open to conscious experience.
       The drawbacks of the introspective method set the groundwork for the great
behaviorist revolution in American psychology, which occurred around 1920.
Behaviorism held that psychology was to be entirely concerned with external behavior
and was not to try to analyze the workings of the mind that underlay this behavior.
       Behaviorism never produced detailed or adequate accounts of complex cognitive
functioning. It was possible (although probably erroneous) to explain many phenomena
in terms of associations between stimuli and responses, but it made little or no sense to
attempt to account for our knowledge of a complex system such as language in
stimulus-response terms. Precisely the same was true of attempts by Bechaviorists to
account for cognitive activities such as creativity and problem solving.
       Nevertheless, in both the introspectionist and the behaviorist programs, we see
the human mind struggling with the effort to understand itself.

6. Answer the following questions to the text:
   1) Whom can interest in human cognition be traced to?
   2) What was the character of the early discussions on human cognition?
   3) Was any attempt made to apply the scientific method to understanding of human
      cognition before the end of the nineteenth century?
   4) Because of what did cognitive psychology suffer at that time?
   5) How old is cognitive psychology as a science?
   6) What was the method of inquiry used by W.Wundt in Germany?
   7) What did observers do according to W.Wundt’s method?
   8) Did the introspective method have any drawbacks?
   9) Did psychology in America go the same way as in Germany?
  10) What did behaviorists try to prove?

7. Contradict the following statements:

   1) In Western civilization speculations on memory and thought can be traced only to
      Wilhelm Wundt’s ideas.
   2) Nativism held that children should learn much from nature itself.
   3) The development of different sciences helped to apply the scientific method to
      the understanding of human cognition a long time ago.