CCC- Week 1- Introduction to cognitive psychology Flashcards

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1
Q

What is cognitive psychology?

A

Cognitive psychology- psychology of mental processes- the ways in which the brain processes information-
And makes sense of information.

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2
Q

What are the mental processes involved in cognitive psychology?

A

Perception
Learning
Memory storage
Thinking
Language

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3
Q

What is wrong with the cognitive process in diagrammatic form?

A

Drastic oversimplification & representation of general sequential order of cognitive processes-

as suggests various stages of cognitive processing are distinct from one another.

Would be more accurate to show different stages merging & overlapping.

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4
Q

What are the different approached of studying cognition?

A

Experimental psychology
Computer modelling of cognitive processes
Cognitive neuroscience
Cognitive neuropsychology

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5
Q

What is experimental psychology?

A

Carrying out scientific experiments on human participants to investigate the ways in which they perceive, learn, remember or think.

Typically involve large samples- small budgets etc

Traditional inferential statistics used to determine success.
A typical historic example: State dependent learning (e.g. Godden & Baddeley, 1975)- Material learned while diving is better recalled while diving.

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6
Q

What is computer modelling of cognitive processes?

A

Involves simulation of certain aspects of cognitive function- through writing computer modeling programs- to test feasibility of a possible mechanism of brain function.

Often involving parallel distributed processing (PDP/neural networks)
E.g McClelland & Rumelhart PDP model of word recognition.

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7
Q

What is cognitive neuropsychology?

A

Involves study of individuals who have suffered from brain injury.

Can discover lots about the working brain through studying types of cognitive impairment, resulting from lesions (tissue damage) in certain regions. (Lesions can be caused by stroke/ tumor/ infection/ direct injury/ progressive disease- e.g Alzeimers)

Brain damage can impair information processing through disrupting one or more stages of cognition- breaking links between stages.

Single cases can be important.

Associations/ dissociations used to reveal the ‘modularity of the mind’

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8
Q

What is an example of cognitive nuropsychology?

A

Typical example: Dissociation between acquired dyslexia & acquired anomia (type of aphasia where patient is unable to recall names of everyday objects). TMS opening new avenues for research.

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9
Q

What is cognitive neuroscience?

A

Involves use of techniques- e.g. brain imaging / brain scans to investigate neural activities that underlie cognitive processing.

Two most used include PET scans (positron emission tomography) & MRI scans (magnetic resonance imaging).
PET scans - ( involve detection of positrons emitted by radioactive chemicals injected into the bloodstream)

MRI scans- ( detect responses to a powerful magnetic field.) MRI scans- better at detecting changes over a period of time- e.g. measuring brains response to a stimulus.

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10
Q

What are MRI scans & what are they better at detecting?

A

MRI scans- ( detect responses to a powerful magnetic field.) MRI scans- better at detecting changes over a period of time- e.g. measuring brains response to a stimulus.

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11
Q

What is an example of cognitive neuroscience?

A

Typical example- are different regions of the brain involved when naming pictures & reading words?

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12
Q

What is Gestalt psychology?

A

Approach to psychology- emphasized the way in which the
components of perceptual input became grouped & integrated into patterns & whole
Figures.

Idea that we (people) contribute something to our perceptual input (from previous knowledge & experience) to form a whole. Whereas the behaviorist approach rejected this- only looking at the stimulus.

The psychologists believed that a proper understanding of human cognition is achieved through investigating mental processes.

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13
Q

What is schema theory?

A

Proposes- all new perceptual input is analyzed by comparing it with items which are already in our memory store, e.g. shapes and sounds which are familiar from past experience. Stored items are referred to as ‘schema’, and they include a huge variety of sensory patterns and concepts.

Schema Theory & Gestalt- have had major influence on development of psychology- emphasizing the role played by inner mental processes & storage than just stimulus & response.

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14
Q

What is a schema?

A

A mental pattern- derived from past experience, used to assist with interpretation of subsequent cognitions.

Suggests our perception & memory of an input may be changed/ distorted to fit existing schemas. Different people will perceive the same input in different ways- depending on their own unique store of experience.

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15
Q

What is top down (schema driven processing)?

A

Processing which makes use of stored knowledge and schemas to interpret an incoming stimulus (contrasts with bottom-up processing).

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16
Q

What is Bottom up processing?

A

Processing which is directed by information contained within the stimulus (contrasts with
top-down processing).

17
Q

What is top down processing also known as?

A

Schema driven

18
Q

What is bottom up processing also known as ?

A

Stimulus driven

19
Q

What is an example of how eye movements are top down & bottom up processing?

A

Influenced both by external stimuli (e.g. a flashing light) and our current goals (e.g. watching the footy)

20
Q

What is an example of experimental psychology?

A

A typical historic example: State dependent learning (e.g. Godden & Baddeley, 1975)- Material learned while diving is better recalled while diving.

21
Q

Why do we need metaphors/ models?

A

Scientific theories aim to be refutable (behaviorism)
Hypotheses are evaluated using empirical data in controlled behavioral studies.
We can’t look inside the mind to ‘see’ cognition (c.f introspectists)
So cognitive psychology relies on analogy and models of cognition
Models of cognition are evaluated against data & revised as necessary (always necessary!)

22
Q

What is Brocas area& what does it cause?

A

A region of the brain normally located in the left frontal region/ hemisphere- controls motor speech production.
Broca (1861), who first noted that damage to this region caused an impairment of speech production.

23
Q

What are the different lobes in the brain?

A

Occipital-

Parietal

Temporal

24
Q

Where are the occipital lobes & what do they do?

A

At back of brain, concerned with processing of visual input- damage to occipital lobes may cause impairment to visual perception.

25
Q

What are the parietal lobes concerned with?

A

Partly concerned with perception. Contain somatic sensory cortex which receives tactile input from the skin as well as feedback from themuscles and internal organs.

Important in the perception of pain & other parts of the parietal lobes involved in some aspects of short-term memory.
Brain-scan studies suggest that the parietal lobes are also activated during the retrieval of contextual associations of memories (Simons et al., 2008).

26
Q

What are the temporal lobes concerned with?

A

MEMORY!

27
Q

What are temporal lobe lesions often associated with?

What research is on this?

A

Temporal lobe lesions are often associated with severe amnesia.
Milner (1966) reported that a patient (HM), whose temporal
lobes had been extensively damaged by surgery, was unable to register any new memories.
Aggleton (2008) concludes -extensive evidence linking the temporal lobes to
encoding & retrieval of memories of past events

The temporal lobes also include main auditory region of the cortex & a language centre, known as Wernicke’s area (again
usually in the left hemisphere), which is particularly concerned with memory for language &understanding of speech (Wernicke, 1874).

28
Q

Wernickes area

A

Region of brain, normally located in left temporal region- concerned with perception & comprehension of speech.

29
Q

Milner 1966 study- HM

A

Reported that temporal lobe of amnesic patient HM was unable to remember any information for long periods- but ability to retain information for a few seconds was normal.

From observations- HMs lesions had impaired ability to store items in LTM- but caused no impairment of STM.
This suggests ‘dissociation’ between LTM & STM- they are separate systems.