1 Flashcards
what is perception?
the process by which we see, hear, taste or feel objects.
what is visual perception?
the process of aquiring knowledge about objects from the light they reflect and prior knowledge
how do we physically see objects?
light waves from objects in the environment reach receptors in the eye and then pass through the cornea to the iris.
all 3D visual experience is generated from a 2D array of nerve cells.
the nerve cells code the 2D pattern into neural findings
how does prior knowledge affect visual perception?
based on assumptions of what we have learnt through evolution or prior experience. these allow us to predict and not have to re-percieve everything from scratch.
however these arent always accurate.
what is perceptual consistancy?
the concept that the brain understands objects and distances, i.e. it knows an object wil remain the same size even know it looks smaller further away
what is size consistancy?
perciving an object as having a constant size acroess different viewing distances
what the difference between percieving image size and object size?
image size is when 2 objects side by side at different depths, seen by one eye.
object size is when 2 objects are seen widey seperate at different depths by both eyes.
describe emmerts law about objects
objects that generate images of the same size, will look different in size if they’re located at different distances
what is a blindspot and how is it formed?
the optic nerve is where nervous signals from light receptors gather, a blind spot is generated when light receptors get interupted at the optic nerve. the brain ‘fills in’ information, so we see what we think is there rather than what is actually there.
which parts of our vision goes to what part of our brain?
visual informtion from the right size of each eye goes to the right visual cortex
visual information from the left size of each eye goes to the left visual cortex
binocular vision goes to both cortexes
how does the degree of light relate to the pattern of visual coding
nerve cells fire more or less depending on the pattern of light coming from the visual field.
what specific cells repsond to spots of light surrounded by dark
retinal ganglion cells, therefore they respond very weakly where the field is full of light
how does the receptive field (retina) influeunce the firing rate of the neuron
increasing the size of the retina (exitation) or decreasing the size (inhibition)
how do we test for the neural correlate of consciousness?
when presented with a stimilus there is a differences is neural activitity depending on whether we are aware or not
we find the NCC by presenting stimulus that has perception changes, e.g. the 3D cube
what is inattentional blindness and what does it demonstrate?
when we miss part of a scene because we werent paying attention to it e.g. the gorrilla stimulus
this demonstrates that focuses attention is important for stimuli to be consciously reported
what is visuospatial neglect?
when Ps fail to pay attention to the whole scene, they only pay attention to one half of it.Ps with damage to their right hemipshere fail to respond to stimuli on the left
what is feature intergration theory
we percieve features of a scene automatically (colour, shape), but we percieve the actual objects in later processing
can unconscious stimuni influence us
yes, unconcious stimuli can influence behaviour. Ps who didnt notice the gorilla will be able to finish the sentence “kay went to the zoo and saw a ——-“
describe the illusory conjections theory
we feel like we have visual awareness of a whole scene, but infact we dont. what we see is an illusion. distrubuted attention gives us a fleeting awarness, only focused attention gives us meaningful awarenesss.
define attention
the process of selecting relevent information. attention facilitates or prevents processing for relevant stimuni
what are the two types of attention
involuntary- ‘passive’ control, driven by external stimuni (loud noise) that we werent initally attending too (bottum-up processing)
voluntary- ‘active’ driven by internal stimuni ( goals and expextions) (topdown processing)
define selective attention, give an example of how it is studies
process in which only relevant info is selected for further processing
we study is by measuring the effect of ignored stimuli, if this affects performance then it means it wasnt completely ignored e.g. emotional stroop task
describe the cocktail party theory
colin cherry- describe the phenomena of being able to focus auditory attention on one stimuli whilst filtering out other stimuli. we are able to do this due to physical differences e.g. sex of speaker, speaker location.
describe the 3 different theories of how we process attention
BROADBENT theory- if 2 stimuni are presented at the same time, they will both reach a sensory buffer, then only one will be allowed through the selective filter based on its physical characteristics, whilst the other one remains for later processing. this prevents overloading of information.
TREISMAN theory- she suggested that the place where the selectice filter is (sometimes called the bottle neck) is more flexiable and lets both stimuli through. rather than only one stimuli being processed at a time, they’re processed based on a hierachy of cues.
DEUTSCH & DEUTSCH theory- suggested that all stimuli is fully analysed with most important stimuli determining the response. this places the filter (bottle neck) nearer the response end.
what does negative priming and inhibition of return studies demonstrate?
they demonstrate that attention enhances processing of attended stimuli, but suppresses processing of ignored stimuli
negative priming- a previously ignored stimuli is harder to process, than a new stimuli
inhibition of return- it is harder to detect a stimuli in a locationed that has already been inspected
how does single celled studies investigate attention
they measure the activity of neurons
studies on monkeys who were taught to fixatate on a certain point
they demonstrate that even though we might not be paying attention to a stimui, we are still attending to it.
how do we measure attention within the brain
single celled studies, EPR studies and FMRI studies
what are the disorders of attention
neglect- Ps fail to repsond to stimulus presented to the opposite side of the brain which is damaged
extinction- is a phenomena in neglect patients. if 2 stimuli are presented together on one side of their visual field, they fail to repsond to the object closer to the edge of the visual field.
what are the 2 attentional systems
goal-orintated system- inolves top-down processing, voluntary, goal and expectation driven attention
stimulus dirven system- involves bottom-up processing, involuntary, stimulus
what are the 3 failures of attention without brain damage?
inattentional blindness- when an unattended stimulus goes unnoticed
change blindness- when observers miss large parts of visual input
attentional blink- obervers miss relevant input if it occurs too quick.
define learning
the process by which experience produces an adaptive change in an organisms capacity for behaviour
what is involved in simple learning?
habituation and sensitation
define habituation
a decline in the tendency to respond to a repeated stimuli
the purpose of this it to divert attention away from irrelevant stimuli
define sensitiation
an increase in the tendency to repsond to a repeated stimuli
the purpose of this is to alert and prepare us to respond to aversive stimuli
what determines whether we habituate or sensitise to a stimuli?
both habituation and sensitisation active when a stimuli is presented. therefore behaviour is H+S
if H is bigger than S then there is a decrease in the repsonse
if S is bigger than H then thre is an increase in the repsonse
behaviour is the net outcome of there 2 learning processes
can you ‘unlearn’ a behaviour?
behaviour isnt unlearnt but rather inhibited, this explaoins relapeses in drug addiction.
describe second order conditioning
relates to classical conditioning involves adding another stimuli to the association e.g. bell- food -salivation black square- bell- salivation black square- salivation
describe stimuli substitution
the conditioned stimuli becomes the unconditioned stimuli, as the old conditioned stimulis is replaced with another conditioned stimuli
what is associatve learning
a more complex form of leanring which involves classical and operant conditioning
describe the 2 studies investgating operant condition
Skinner and thorndike
thorndike invented the puzzle box to identify how animals solve problems. he identified the thorndike effect which states that good consequences increase behaviour whereas bad consequences decrease behaviour
describe skinners 3 part contingency
3 components
1 antecedent (comes before) stimuli
2 response
3 consquence
the relationship between the consequence and the response is called contingency because the consequence is contingent on the repsonse to the antecdent
contingency meaning a furture event which is possible but not certain.
what is the role of the reinforcer?
postiive and negative reinforcement increases desirable behaviour
positive and negative punishment decrease undesirable behaviour
describe long-term potentiation in relation to learning
leanring occurs due to the strengthening of neurons, each time a neuron fires the connection is strenghthened, meaning the brain is changing as a results of experience.
name the 4 problem solving strageries
problem solving schema which helps us find solutions to problems were experienced before
trial and error
algorithms which are like formulas
heuistrics which are like rules of thumb to simplify problems
name the 6 different heuristics
represenativeness- new situations are ased on their resembalence to previous events
conjunction fallacy- people assume that specific condtions are more probable than a single general one
(the example where a women cant just be a feminist or a banker, shes thought more likely to be both
avaliability- a decision is based on info most easiler retrieved from memory
the framing effect- the idea that the same problem can be presented in different ways
( the example of medication for life threatening illness)
conformation bias- the tendency to look for your own values and beliefs in support
overconfidence- tendency to place too much confidence in your own knowledge
define satisfers, maximisers, divergent thinking and convergent thinking
satisfers- pleased to settle with good enough results
maximers- strive for the best possible outcome
divergent thinking- creative different thinking
converget thinking- thinking directed to one corrent solution
describe the dual processing model of decison making
we either take rational decision making or heuristic deicsion making
rational relies on evidence and evaluating info
heuristics relies on stratergies and clues
why would we choose rational decsion making or heuristics
motivation and ability
what did william james do for memory?
the attempted to deligate memory systems in terms of whether their contents were accessible by conscious awareness
primary memory- concious memory (STM)
secondary memory- unconscious memory (LTM)
what is the level of processing theory
craik and lockhart they disagreed that memory contains seperate stores, instead memory is a byproduct of attention and attention determines what is retained shallow processsing- simple features deeper processing- semantic elaboration shallow l orthographic l phonological l semantic l deep
define encoding and retrival
encoding- how memory is stored
retrival- the process by which information is accessed
what does MSMM suggest about encoding and retrival
maintanence rehearsal- more rehearsal=better encoding= stronger memories
what does level of processing suggest about encoding and retrival
deeper processing= better encoding= stronger memories
desribe transfer appropraite processing theory inrelation to encoding and retrival
morris et al suggests that it is impossible to seperate encoding and retrival, therefore we must study their relationship together and its effect on performance. he found Ps cld recall sematnic info after semantic encoding
desribe encoding specificty princple (EPS)
tulving
the probabality of recall depends on how closely the context at recall matches encoding
this theory empathsis contextual overlap
extrinsic context= ‘conditions’
intrinsic context= aspects of a stimulus which are inevitably processed when the stimulus is perceived and comprehended.
describe associative network theory
memory is a network of associated, connected ideas. when a person thinks a piece of information activates and a spread of related concept throughout the network.
items are organised hierarchically therefore it takes longer to determine the items further down the list
define episodic and sematic memory
episodic memory of experience, events and occurances
semantic- memory of meaning
describe the feature comparison model for semanitc memory
proposes 2 types of semantic features, defining features and characteristics
e.g. birds–feather–wings (defining features)
l
robin–hops–small (characteristics)
describe cognitive economy
complez categorical system
the aim of this is to provide maximum info with minimum cognitive effort
what evidence is there of semantic LTM organisation
Hodges et al- progressive dementia that started at the individual item level and progressed towards global categories
individual item being swan
global categories being animal
what evidence is there of episodic LTM relating to amniesia
retrograde amnesia- memory loss for events that took place before the onset of amnesia
anterograde amnesia- memory loss for events that took place after the onset of amnesia
what evidence is there that episodic and semantic LTM are different or the same memory systems
same–info is registered in both systems in the same way
most Ps with anterograde amnesia have problems with both sematic and episodic memory
different— they deal with different info that is Phenomenology different i.e. remembering what you did last weekend and the captial of france are very different
double dissosiation- amnesia Ps have intact semantic memory but impaired episodic memory. whereas sematnic dementia have impaired sematic memory
define double dissociation
when two related mental processes are shown to function independently of each other.
By establishing Double Dissociation, scientists are able to determine which mental processes are specialized to certain areas of the brain.
is episodic memory unique to humans?
yes
autonoetic consciousness- awareness and subjective experience that accompanies the info retrieved
autobiographical self- form of narrative
whats the differences between implicit and explicit memory
explicit is conscious memory (sematic and episodic)
implicit is unconscious memory that can influence behaviour
how to we meaure implicit memory
using priming which involves exposure to a stimuli without conscious intention, which then influences response to a subseqent stimuli
and skill learning which is gradual improvement of performance with practise that generalises to a range of stimuli
what evidence is there for implicit memory involving HM
patient HM was abke to learn mirror tracing task, however he had to be told the instructions each time because he had no recollection of doing the task before.
what evidence is there for implicit memory involving amnesia Ps and priming
involves an encoding condition- Ps are shown a list of words
retrival condition- Ps performed poorly on explicit memory but word-stem tasks suggested evidence of implicit learning meaning Ps were faster completing words they had previously seen
what evidence is there that emotional memory is implicit?
HM was introduced to a doctor who was purposely rude to him. HM quickly developed a dislike to this doctor even though he had no memory of previous encounters
what sort of memory takes the longest to forget?
proecdural memory, it takes 2 years to forget
what sort of memory does brain damage only effect
brain damage only effects emplicit memory
how is decay involved in forgetting
sensory memory
nvolves iconic memoey which is the type of memory that lasts very breifly before fading
also involves echoic memory for sound and lasts for 2 seconds if not attended too
how is displacement involved in forgetting
STM has limited capacity
distraction or lack of rehearsal leads to memory loss
how is interference involved in forgetting
LTM involved forgetting through retrival failure
name some retrival cues
tulving
cue dependent forgetting
more likely to remember if the cues present at encoding are the same at retrival
tulving
encoding specificty principle (ESP)
the probabality of recall depends on how closely the context at recall matches encoding
what types of interference are there
proactive interference- when old memories influence new ones
retroactive interference- when new memories infleunce old ones
what is infantile anmesia?
we have no memories for the first 3 years of life
some explanations for this involve maturation of hippocampus, development of self schema to organise memories
what are the 2 different pathways relating to perception?
perceive objects (ventral pathway) and one that enables us to interact with these objects (dorsal pathway)
what areas of the brain are assoiciated with the formation of memory
The hippocampus and related temporal areas
Brain imaging research has identified which brain region to be involved
in working memory
prefrontal cortex
