Unit IV. Behaviorism

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 434.

Task 1. Translate the Russian words into English to make the sentences complete:

Behaviorism was a (движение) in psychology and (философии) that emphasized the outward (поведенческие) aspects of thought and dismissed the (внутренний) experiential and sometimes the inner procedural aspects as well; a movement harking back to the methodological (предложениям) of John B. Watson. B.F. Skinner (позднее) hardened behaviorist strictures to (исключить) inner physiological (процессы) along with inward experiences as items of legitimate psychological (изучения). Consequently, the successful (когнитивная революция) of the 1960s styled itself a (вызов) against (бихевиоризма).

Task 2. Read and translate the text “Behaviorism”:

Behaviorism

John Watson coined the term “Behaviorism” as a name for his proposal to revolutionize the study of human psychology in order to put it on a firm experimental footing. He advocated an approach that led, scientifically, to the ignoring of consciousness and the illegitimacy of making consciousness a special object of observation. Consequently, J. Watson proposed making behaviour the objective point of attack, as the key to putting the study of human psychology on a scientific basis.

Edward Tolman and Clark Hull were the two most noteworthy figures of the movement's middle years. Although both accepted the Stimulus-Response framework as basic, they were far more willing than Watson to hypothesize internal mechanisms or intervening variables mediating the S-R connection. In this regard their work may be considered precursory to cognitivism.

E. Tolman's purposive behaviorism attempts to explain goal-directed or purposive behaviour, focusing on large, intact, meaningful behaviour patterns or “molar” behaviour (e.g. kicking a ball) as opposed to simple muscles movements or “molecular” behaviour (e.g. various flexings of leg muscles). He regarded molecular level as too far removed from our perceptual capacities and explanatory purposes to provide suitable units for meaningful behavioral analysis.

For Tolman, stimuli play a cognitive role as signals to organism, leading to the formation of “cognitive maps” and to “latent learning” in the absence of reinforcement. The stimuli which are allowed in are not connected by just one-to-one switches to outgoing responses. Rather the incoming impulses are usually worked over and elaborated in the central control room into a tentative cognitive-like map of the environment. And it is this tentative map, indicating routes and paths and environmental relationships, which finally determines what responses, if any, the animal will finally make (from http://www.encyclopedia.com).

Task 3. Translate the words into Russian:

1) proposal; 2) illegitimacy; 3) noteworthy; 4) framework; 5) cognitive maps; 6) switches.

Task 4. In the text “Behaviorism” find English equivalents to the following Russian words:

1) твердый, устойчивый; 2) сознание; 3) признавать, соглашаться; 4) предвещающий, предшествующий; 5) скрытое обучение; 6) перерабатываться; 7) пробный, экспериментальный.

Task 5. In the text “Behaviorism” find synonyms to the words:

1) to change radically; 2) basis; 3) to support; 4) as a result; 5) to suggest; 6) mediating; 7) goal; 8) to elaborate; 9) road.

Task 6. Correct mistakes in the words:

1) psyhology; 2) scientificaly; 3) conciousness; 4) stimulus-responce; 5) bexaviorism; 6) moleculare behaviour; 7) inncoming impalses; 8) enviroment; 9) to hypothezise.

Task 7. In the table match the antonyms:

Task 8. Answer the questions:

1) Who coined the term “behaviorism”?

2) Did J. Watson want to study behaviour or consciousness?

3) Who were Watson's followers?

4) What did they study?

5) What is a molar behaviour according to E. Tolman?

6) What does a stimulus lead to according to Tolman's thoughts?

Task 9. In the text “Behaviorism” find sentences with the word “object” and its derivatives. Translate them into Russian. Look through the words with the root “object”, study their meaning:

1) object – n. предмет, вещь; объект изучения и т.п.; цель (to fail in one's object – не достичь цели, to succeed in one's object – достичь цели); филос. объект (в противоп. субъекту); несуразный человек, нелепая вещь и т.д.

2) to object – v. возражать, протестовать (to, against); не любить, не переносить.

3) to objectify – воплощать.

4) objection – возражение, протест (to take an objection – возражать, to lodge an objection – заявить протест, to raise no objection – не возражать); неодобрение, нелюбовь; недостаток, дефект.

5) objectionable – вызывающий возражения, нежелательный, спорный (to be least objectionable – встречать меньше всего возражений); неприятный, неудобный.

6) objective – n. цель, стремление.

7) objective – adj. филос. объективный, реальный, действительный (objective method – индуктивный метод); объективный, беспристрастный; предметный, вещественный.

8) objectivity – объективность.

9) object language – изучаемый иностранный язык.

10) objectless – беспредметный, бесцельный.

11) objector – возражающий; тот, кто возражает.

Task 10. Translate the sentences into Russian. Pay attention to the words with the root “object”:

1) He succeeded in his object and became a dentist.

2) The object of our investigation is human behaviour in extreme situations. Today we'll study what to do in a heavy snowfall.

3) What an object you look in that hat!

4) I strongly object to your idea. We can't walk to the station. It'll take us too much time and we may miss our train. Let's take a taxi.

5) I'd like to lodge an objection! My client was unable to be on the place of the incident at 5 p.m., because at this time he was leaving his office, his colleagues can prove it.

6) There is no objection to his leaving.

7) What an objectionable smell! Is anything burning in the kitchen?

8) She has a constant objection in her life, she wants to loose weight.

9) English is our object language. I hope to speak fluently at last.

10) From the first days of existence ducklings know that the objective world is full of danger.

11) Take this strange object with caution and throw it in the waste bin.

12) These shoes are objectionable. I don't think I'll buy them.

13) Objectivity is hard to achieve, if achievable at all.

14) Don't live in the world of dreams, come back to the objective world.

Task 11. Translate the sentences into English. Pay special attention to the words with the root “object”:

1) Джон не достиг своей цели выиграть квалификационный турнир по гольфу в этом году. Но он не сдается, будет усиленно тренироваться и попробует сделать это в следующем году.

2) Выброси эту нелепую юбку. Она тебя совсем не красит.

3) Я не переношу, когда курят в моем присутствии.

4) С самого детства у Федора была несбыточная мечта совершить кругосветное плавание. И только в 33 года он смог воплотить ее в жизнь.

5) Ваша честь, я не возражаю против того, чтобы пригласить мистера Смита в качестве свидетеля обвинения.

6) Согласно закону о правах потребителей, вы обязаны заменить этот телевизор на равноценный, потому что в нем обнаружился неустранимый дефект.

7) Этот план неприемлем.

8) Судья вынес свое беспристрастное решение.

9) Ты не можешь оценить ситуацию объективно, ведь ты – заинтересованное лицо.

10) Прекрати бесцельно бродить по дому. Займись чем-нибудь.

11) Возражающий был упорен в своих требованиях. Поэтому его жалобу пришлось зарегистрировать.

Task 12. Read and translate a text about main features of Behaviorism. Sum them up and tell about them to your group-mates:

Views commonly styled “behaviorist” share various of the following marks:

1) allegiance to the fundamental premise that psychology is a natural science and is empirically based and objective;

2) denial of the utility of introspection as a source of scientific data;

3) theoretic-explanatory dismissal of inward experiences or states of consciousness introspection supposedly reveals;

4) specifically anti-dualistic opposition to the “Cartesian theatre” picture of the mind as essentially a realm of such inward experiences;

5) more broadly anti-essentialist opposition to physicalist or cognitivist portrayals of thought as necessarily neuro-physiological or computational;

6) theoretic-explanatory minimization of inner physiological or computational processes intervening between environmental stimulus and behavioral response;

7) mistrust of the would-be causal character of its central “belief-desire” pattern of explanation in particular;

8) positive characterization of the mental in terms of intelligent adaptive behavioral dispositions or stimulus-response patterns (from http://www.encyclopedia.com).

Task 13. Choose proper words that would suit the meaning of the text:

Wilhelm Max Wundt is often … (called, call, calling) the father of experimental psychology. He conceived the … (subjective, subjected, subject) matter of psychology to be experience in its relations to the subject. The science of experience he envisaged was … (supposition, supposed, supposedly) to be chemistry like: introspected … (experiential, experience, experientially) data were to be analysed; the basic constituents of conscious experience thus identified; and the patterns and … (lawyers, laws, lawful) by which these basic constituents … (combine, combination, combining) to constitute more complex conscious experience (e.g. emotions) described. Data were to be … (acquisition, acquisitive, acquired) and analyzed by trained introspective observers. While the … (analyze, analysis, analytical) of experience was supposed to be a self-contained enterprise, Wundt – originally trained as a … (physiology, physiological, physiologist) – fully expected that the … (structures, structural, structurally) and processes introspective analysis uncovered in experience would parallel structures and processes physiological … (investigate, investigator, investigation) revealed in the central … (nerve, nervous, innervate) system. Introspectionism, as the approach was called, soon spread, and … (laboratorial, laborant, laboratories) sprang up in the United States and elsewhere aiming to investigate the facts of consciousness, its combinations and … (relations, relative, relate), so as to ultimately discover the laws which … (governor, govern, government) these relations and combinations. The approach … (failure, failed, fail) primarily due to the unreliability of … (introspection, introspect, introspective) observation. Introspective experimental results were not reliably … (reproducible, reproduce, reproduction) by outside laboratories. Observers from different laboratories failed to … (agreement, agreeable, agree), for instance, in their observation or failure to observe imageless … (think, thinker, thoughts).

Task 14. Read the text “Ivan Pavlov” and say whether the statements are true or false, correct the false statements:

Ivan Pavlov

Ivan Pavlov's successful discovery of the classical conditioning laws provided positive inspiration for J. Watson's Behaviorist manifesto. Pavlov's stimulus-response model of explanation is also paradigmatic to much later behaviorist thought. In his famous experiments Pavlov paired presentations to dogs of an unconditioned stimulus (food) with an initially neutral stimulus (a ringing bell). After a number of such joint presentations, the unconditional response to food (salivation) becomes conditioned to the bell: salivation occurs upon the ringing of the bell alone, in the absence of food. In accord with Pavlovian theory, then, behavioral responses (salivation) can be predicted to occur or not, and be controlled (made to occur or not), on the basis of laws of conditioning, answering to the stimulus-response pattern.

Everything was publicly observable, even measurable, enabling Pavlov to investigate experimentally and formulate laws concerning temporal sequencing and delay effects, stimulus intensity effects, and stimulus generalization, which opened doors to experimental investigation of animal perception and discrimination (from http://www.encyclopedia.com).

Statements:

1) Pavlov's name was Igor.

2) Pavlov's experiments inspired J. Watson to write and publish Cognitive Manifesto.

3) Stimulus-response model became basic to later behavioral experiments.

4) I. Pavlov experimented with the connection of an unconditioned stimulus (a ringing bell) and neutral stimulus (food).

5) I. Pavlov proved that unconditional response to food can be conditioned.

6) According to I. Pavlov behavioral responses can be predicted and controlled on the basis of unconditioned laws.

7) I. Pavlov worked with rats.

8) I. Pavlov could not formulate the laws of temporal sequencing and delay effects.

Task 15. Read the text “E. Thorndike” and choose the best variant of answers to the questions:

Edward Thorndike

Edward Thorndike, in a similar methodological vein as Ivan Pavlov, proposed that psychology may be, at least in part, as independent of introspection as physics and pursued experimental investigations of animal intelligence. In experimental investigations of puzzle-solving by cats and other animals, he established that speed of solution increased gradually as a result of previous puzzle exposure. Such results, he maintained, support the hypothesis that learning is a result of habits, formed through trial and error. E. Thorndike formulated “laws of behaviour”, describing habit formation processes, based on these results. Most notable among Thorndike's laws is his Law of Effect:

Of several responses made to the same situation, those which are accompanied or closely followed by satisfaction to the animal will, other things being equal, be more firmly connected with the situation, so that, when it recurs, they will be more likely to recur; those which are accompanied or closely followed by discomfort to the animal will, other things being equal, have their connections with the situation weakened, so that, when it recurs, they will be less likely to occur. The greater the satisfaction or discomfort, the greater the strengthening or weakening of the bond.

In short, rewarded responses tend to be reinforced and punished responses eliminated. His methodological innovations (particularly his “puzzle-box”) facilitated objective quantitative data collection and provided a paradigm for behaviorist research methods to follow (from http://www.encyclopedia.com).

Questions:

1) Did E. Thorndike follow Ivan Pavlov's principles?

a) Yes, he used similar principles

b) Yes, he used the same methodological vein

c) No, he invented his own methodology

2) Why did he compare Psychology and Physics?

a) to show that psychology is off introspection whereas physics depends on this method

b) to prove that psychology should not use introspection technique as well as physics

c) to introduce introspection into psychology to make it as distinct as physics

3) What was the subject of his experiments?

a) animal therapy

b) human intelligence

c) animal intelligence

4) What influenced the speed of solution in Thorndike's experiments?

a) exposure to previous food stimulation

b) experience acquired in previous experiments

c) exposure to laboratory environment

5) What hypothesis did E. Thorndike support as concerned with learning?

a) habits are formed through the learning process

b) learning is followed by trial and error process

c) learning is formed by habits made in trial-error process

6) What laws did Thorndike define?

a) laws of behaviour

b) laws of habits

c) laws of trial and error

d) laws of law

7) What is his Law of Effect about?

a) satisfaction or discomfort do not influence the value or level of the bond

b) the more neutral the emotional reaction, the greater the strengthening or weakening of the bond

c) the greater the emotional reaction, the greater the value of the bond.

Task 16. Match the authors and their works:

Task 17. Write down sentences using these words. The beginning of the sentence is given:

1) John … psychological research, coined, and excluded, the name “behaviorism”, Watson, from, consciousness.

2) Wihelm Max Wundt … experimental, the founder, psychology, is considered, of.

3) Ivan … enabled him, stimulus intensity effect, Pavlov's experiments, laws, of, to formulate.

4) According to … rewarded responses, are eliminated, Edward Thorndike, and punished responses, are reinforced.

Task 18. Answer the questions:

1) What is Behaviorism?

2) Who was the founder of this movement?

3) Who were the precursors of the movement?

4) What were Wundt's ideas connected to behaviorism?

5) What was I. Pavlov's methodology of work?

6) What did E. Thorndike add to the development of Behaviorism?

7) What is J. Watson's contribution to the movement?

8) What did B. Skinner do in the field of behaviorism?

9) What was Tolman's problem to work on?

10) What movement changed behaviorism in development?

Task 19. Think over the crossword puzzle. Write down the words according to their definitions:

Questions:

1. a psychological movement which main followers were J. Watson, E. Tolman; 2. branch of a science; 3. experimental; 4. connected with experience; 5. places where experiments are conducted; 6. something which activity leads to the action-answer; 7. a state of mind which is a result of some pleasant situation; 8. non-positive and non-negative; 9. to go to, to cause a result; 10. to exclude; 11. to change from one state to another; 12. a thing which we do almost always in a usual manner; 13. a behaviorist whose name was Edward; 14. to think over and work over; 15. in a different place, somewhere; 16. the same; 17. lawful.

Unit V. Cognitive Psychology

Task 1. Read and translate the text “Cognitive Psychology”:

Cognitive psychology is a school of thought in psychology that examines internal mental processes such as problem solving, memory, and language. It has its foundations in the Gestalt psychology of Max Wertheimer, Wolfgang Kohler, and Kurt Koffka and in Jean Piaget's work, which provided a theory of stages/phases that describe children's cognitive development. Cognitive psychologists are interested in how people understand, diagnose and solve problems, concerning themselves with the mental processes which mediate between stimulus and response. Cognitive theory contends that solutions to the problems take the form of algorithms – rules that are understood but that do not always guarantee solutions. In other instances, solutions may be found through insight, a sudden awareness of relationships.

Ulric Neisser coined the term “cognitive psychology” in his book published in 1967, where Neisser provides a definition of cognitive psychology characterizing people as dynamic information-processing systems whose mental operations might be described in computational terms. Also emphasizing that it is a point of view which postulates the mind as having a certain conceptual structure. Neisser's point of view endows the discipline a scope which expands beyond high-level concepts such as “reasoning”, often espoused in other works as a definition of cognitive psychology.

Cognitive psychology is radically different from previous psychological approaches in two key ways. It accepts the use of the scientific method, and generally rejects introspection as a valid method of investigation, unlike symbol-driven approaches such as Freudian psychology. It explicitly acknowledges the existence of internal mental states (such as belief, desire and motivation) unlike behaviorist psychology. The school of thought arising from this approach is known as cognitivism.

Cognitive psychology is one of the more recent additions to psychological research, having only developed as a separate area within the discipline since the late 1950s and early 1960s (though there are examples of cognitive thinking from earlier researchers). The cognitive approach was brought to prominence by Donald Broadbent's book “Perception and Communication” in 1958. Since that time, the dominant paradigm in the area has been the information processing model of cognition that Broadbent put forward. This is a way of thinking and reasoning about mental processes, envisioning them as software running on the computer that is the brain. Theories refer to forms of input, representation, computation or processing, and outputs. Applied to language as the primary mental knowledge representation system, cognitive psychology has exploited tree and network mental models. One of the first cognitive psychologists, George Miller is well-known for dedicating his career to the development of WordNet, a semantic network for the English language. Development began in 1985 and it is now the foundation for many machine ontologies.

This way of conceiving mental processes has pervaded psychology more generally over the past few decades, and it is not uncommon to find cognitive theories within social, personality, abnormal, and developmental psychology. The application of cognitive theories to comparative psychology has driven many recent studies in animal cognition.

The use of computational metaphors and terminology enabled cognitive psychology to benefit greatly from the flourishing of research in artificial intelligence and other related areas in the 1960s and 1970s. In fact, it developed as one of the significant aspects of the inter-disciplinary subject of cognitive science, which attempts to integrate a range of approaches in research on the mind and mental processes (from http://en.wikipedia.org).

Task 2. Translate the words and word combinations into Russian:

1) mental processes; 2) to contend; 3) insight; 4) to endow; 5) explicitly; 6) cognition; 7) software; 8) to dedicate; 9) to pervade; 10) artificial intelligence.

Task 3. In the text find English equivalents to the following Russian words and word combinations. Write down your own sentences with these English words:

1) диагностировать; 2) гарантировать; 3) осознание; 4) поддерживать; 5) выдающееся положение, известность; 6) рассуждение, аргументация; 7) использовать, разрабатывать; 8) понимать, постигать, представлять себе; 9) извлекать пользу, выгоду.

Task 4. Match the words from the text and their synonyms:

Task 5. In the text find sentences with these verbs, translate them into Russian. Form words of different parts of speech from these verbs, memorize their meaning. Check yourself and look through the vocabulary notes:

1) to examine; 2) to provide; 3) to solve; 4) to contend; 5) to guarantee; 6) to postulate; 7) to endow; 8) to expand; 9) to espouse; 10) to reason; 11) to dedicate.

Vocabulary notes:

1) examination – осмотр, проверка, исследование, экспертиза; examinational – экзаменационный; examiner – экзаменатор; examinee – экзаменующийся; examination paper – экзаменационный билет.

2) provided – обеспеченный; providence – предусмотрительность; provident – бережливый; providential – благоприятный; providently – расчетливо; provider – поставщик.

3) solution – решение, раствор; solvability – разрешимость; solvable – разрешимый; solvency – платежеспособность; solvent – растворитель, платежеспособный.

4) contender – соперник, претендент, кандидат на пост.

5) guarantee – гарантия, залог, поручительство; guarantor – поручитель, гарант.

6) postulate – предварительное условие, постулат; postulant – кандидат на религиозный пост.

7) endowment – дарение, завещание, дар, вклад.

8) expanse – пространство, протяжение; expansibility – растяжимость; expansible – растяжимый; expansion – рост, подъем, экспансия; expansionism – экспансионизм; expansive – откровенный, открытый; expansivity – экспансивность.

9) espousal – участие, поддержка, свадьба, обручение.

10) reason – причина, довод, разум, рассудок; reasonable – рассудительный, приемлемый, недорогой (о цене); reasonably – разумно, умеренно, сносно; reasoning – рассуждение, аргументация.

11) dedicated – преданный, посвятивший себя, убежденный; dedicatee – лицо, которому что-либо посвящено; dedication – посвящение, преданность; dedicator – тот, кто посвящает; dedicatory – посвятительный, посвящающий.

Task 6. Translate the sentences into Russian, pay attention to the words from task five and their derivatives:

1) When going abroad, everybody should go through the custom-house examination.

2) As an examinee you should know answers to all questions otherwise you'll not satisfy the exams.

3) His parents provided him with a good education.

4) The provider failed his promises and was fined.

5) You are to solve your debt or your creditors will doubt your solvency.

6) It is postulated that man is endowed with reason.

7) He seems to be so sincere with such an expansive smile of his. I've never thought he is a smuggler.

8) Mr. Brown is dedicated to football. He can't live without it. When he was young he was a football player himself. Now he trains a yard football team.

9) We evaluate your espousal in this scientific conference.

10) If you want to take a credit in our bank you should have a guarantor.

11) Before being employed you should go through a medical examination and prepare a medical book.

12) Could you prove the possible solvability of the problem to use wind energy in automobiles?

Task 7. Translate the Russian words in brackets into English:

1) Keep the fingers crossed for me. I am going to (сдавать экзамен).

2) He has a very large family to (содержать).

3) Invest your money in our organisation and you are (гарантирована обеспеченная жизнь).

4) The first person to (решить) an equation receives an excellent mark.

5) You (заявляете) that you (посвятили) your poem to St. Petersburg but you speak about Moscow streets and sites. How could that be?

6) I doubt his mental (способности).

7) The pupils understood teacher's (объяснения).

8) (Лицо, которому посвящено) of the novel is a well-known singer.

9) We are expecting that our industry could (расти) this year.

Task 8. Translate the sentences into English, pay attention to the words from task five and their derivatives:

1) Мистер Уайт был главным подозреваемым, поэтому он первым подвергся процедуре допроса.

2) Возьмите экзаменационный билет и назовите его номер экзаменатору.

3) Он заранее извинился за свою забывчивость.

4) В кризисные времена нужно быть осмотрительным и расчетливым.

5) Хоть наши соперники и выиграли этот тайм, у нас есть шанс отыграться.

6) Посмотри на гладь озера, какая красота!

7) Не сходи с ума! Эта цена самая приемлемая. Ты нигде не найдешь дешевле. Даже не раздумывай. Покупай, не пожалеешь!

8) Кандидату на пост президента ответили отказом в регистрации, так как он подал заявление позднее утвержденного срока.

9) Надеюсь, вы уже ознакомились с предварительными условиями.

Task 9. Answer the questions:

1) What does cognitive psychology examine?

2) Do the cognitive psychologists deal with processes mediating stimulus and response?

3) What is U. Neisser's definition of a person?

4) In what way does U. Neisser define the discipline of cognitive psychology?

5) What is the difference between cognitive psychology and previous approaches?

6) When did cognitive psychology become an independent science?

7) Who is D. Broadbent? What is he famous for?

8) What are cognitive methods of examining language?

9) What is a WordNet? When was it started?

10) Where could cognitive ideas be applied?

Task 10. Say whether the following statements are true or false. Correct the false statements:

1) The basis of cognitive psychology is in psycholinguistics.

2) Algorithm is a rule that is understood by a person and which guarantees solutions to the problems.

3) Max Wertheimer introduced the term cognitive psychology in his book “Experimental Studies of the Perception of Movement” in 1912.

4) Cognitive psychology supports the usage of introspection.

5) According to cognitive science a human being is not endowed with desire and motivation.

6) There were examples of cognitivism earlier than 1950s.

7) Cognitive psychologist conceives human mental process as behavioral activities.

8) G. Miller is famous for his invention of Internet.

9) Artificial intelligence was worked over without the help of cognitive science.

10) Cognitive science integrates different ideas and concepts of the mind and mental processes.

Task 11. Read an abstract and choose proper words from the brackets to make the sentences complete:

The term “cognition”, according to U. Neisser, refers to all processes by which the sensory input is transformed, … (reduced, reduce, reduction), elaborated, stored, recovered and used. It is concerned … (to, with, on) these processes even when they operate in the absence of … (relative, relate, relevant) stimulation, as in images and … (hurricanes, homes, hallucinations). Given such a sweeping definition, it is apparent that cognition is involved … (on, in, through) everything a human being might possibly do; that every … (psychological, psychology, psychologist) phenomenon is a cognitive phenomenon. But although cognitive psychology is concerned with all human … (active, activate, activity) rather than some fraction of it, the concern is from a … (part, particular, party) point of view. Other viewpoints are equally legitimate and necessary.

Task 12. Read an abstract and choose the best variant of answers to the questions:

Gestalt psychology

Gestalt psychology began in Germany in 1910. While travelling by train on vacation, a 30-year-old Czech-born psychologist Max Wertheimer was seized by an idea when he saw flashing lights at a railroad crossing that resembled lights encircling a theatre marquee. He got off the train in Frankfurt-on-Main, where he bought a motion picture toy called a “zoetrope”. When a strip of pictures is placed inside and viewed through the slits in a zoetrope, a succession of stationary pictures appear to be a single, moving picture. In his hotel room, Wertheimer made his own picture strips, consisting of not identifiable objects, but of simple abstract lines, ranging from vertical to horizontal. By varying these elements, he was able to investigate the conditions that contribute to the illusion of motion pictures, an effect that is technically known as “apparent movement” (from http://en.wikipedia.org).

Questions:

1) When did Gestalt psychology appear?

a) in Germany in 1910

b) in Belgium in 1910

c) in Germany in 1901

2) Under what circumstances did Max Wertheimer create Gestalt psychology?

a) while travelling by train on a business trip

b) while travelling by train on holidays

c) while travelling on a submarine on vacation

3) How old was M. Wertheimer when the idea of gestalt came to him?

a) thirty three

b) fifty one years old

c) thirty years old

4) Where was M. Wertheimer born?

a) Czech Republic

b) Czechoslovakia

c) Sweden

5) What did flashing lights at a railroad crossing resemble according to M. Wertheimer?

a) lights on the ceiling of a theatre

b) lights on the theatre scene

c) lights around a theatre

6) Where did he get off the train?

a) in Frankfurt-on-Main

b) in Frankfurt-upon-Main

c) in Stradford-upon-Avon

7) What is the principle of work of “zoetrope”?

a) when a strip of pictures is placed inside, you can't see it at all

b) when a picture is placed inside it appears to be a stationary picture

c) when a strip of pictures is placed inside, a succession of stationary pictures appears to be a moving picture

8) What did M. Wertheimer do with a zoetrope?

a) made pictures of animals and put them inside

b) made his own unidentifiable pictures

c) broke the zoetrope into pieces

9) What was the effect M. Wertheimer noticed?

a) apparent movement

b) illusions

c) zoetrope

Task 13. Read an abstract and say whether the statements are true or false. Correct false statements:

Years earlier, Max Wertheimer had studied in Prague with an Austrian philosopher named Christian von Ehrenfels, who had published a paper in 1890 entitled “On Gestalt Qualities” in which he pointed out that a melody is still recognizable when played in different keys, even though none of the notes are the same, and that abstract form attributes such as “squareness” or “angularity” can be conveyed by a wide range of specific elements. Clearly, argued Ehrenfels, if a melody and the notes that comprise it are so independent, then a whole is not simply the sum of its parts, but synergistic “whole effect”, or gestalt. Likewise, Wertheimer concluded, the effect of apparent movement is generated not so much by its individual elements as by their dynamic interrelation (from http://en.wikipedia.org).

Statements:

1) M. Wertheimer studied in Vienna, Austria.

2) He was acquainted with Australian philosopher Christian von Ehrenfels.

3) Ehrenfels worked on Gestalt psychology.

4) Christian von Ehrenfels published his famous book “On Gestalt Qualities” in nineteen ninety.

5) He said that the melody is not recognizable if it is played in different keys.

6) Ehrenfels proved that a whole is simply the sum of the parts which he coined synergism.

7) Christian von Ehrenfels said that a synergistic “whole effect” is a gestalt.

8) Max Wertheimer followed Christian von Ehrenfels's ideas.

9) According to Max Wertheimer movement is generated by separate elements.

Task 14. Read an abstract and put proper word in the blanks:

Max Wertheimer remained in Frankfurt for … (1) than 5 days. He continued his research of … (2) movement at the Psychological Institute, where he used a sophisticated … (3) called a “tachistoscope” that enabled him to flash shapes on the screen successfully for precise increments of … (4). He recruited as subjects two younger … (5), Kurt Koffka and Wolfgang Kohler. After gathering … (6) for more than a year, he shared the results with his colleagues, then … (7) his findings in 1912 in a paper titled “Experimental Studies of the Perception of Movement”. This was the first important … (8) in the history of gestalt psychology, a movement that grew from the subsequent work of its prodigious … (9): Wertheimer, Koffka and Kohler.

Words: event, apparent, psychologists, time, triumvirate, more, data, projector, published.

Task 15. Read an abstract and translate the Russian words in brackets into English:

The three founding gestalt psychologists (были разделены) by World War I, then (воссоединились) in 1920, when Kohler became Director of the Psychological Institute at the (университет Берлина), where Wertheimer was already a (в профессорско-преподавательском составе). While maintaining contact with Koffka, who continued to teach near Frankfurt, Wertheimer and Kohler (создали) a graduate program, located in the (разрушенном) Imperial Palace, and began a (научный журнал) called Psychological Investigation. For the most part, the students did not learn by (посещая лекции) but by actually conducting research using fellow students as subjects and by preparing (статьи для публикации). The success of the method is (очевиден) by the number of teachers and students at the Institute whose names are now (известны) in psychology, including Rudolf Arnheim, Kurt Lewin, Wolfgang Metzger, Bluma Zeigarnik, Tamara Dembo, Maria Ovsiankina and Kurt Gottschaldt (from http://en.wikipedia.org).

Task 16. Match the authors and their works: