Ch 1: Intro

Question 1

introspection

Answer 1

a careful examination and description of one’s own inner mental thoughts and states

Question 2

behaviorism

Answer 2

an approach to psychology that emphasizes a rigorous experimental approach and the role of conditioning in learning

Question 3

bottom-up processing

Answer 3

processing that is determined directly by environmental stimuli rather than the individual’s knowledge and expectations

Question 4

serial processing

Answer 4

this involves only one process occurring at any given moment; that process is completed before the next one starts; opposite of parallel processing

Question 5

top-down processing

Answer 5

stimulus processing that is determined by expectations, memory, and knowledge rather than directly by the stimulus

Question 6

parallel processing

Answer 6

two or more processes occurring simultaneously; opposite of serial processing

Question 7

Stroop effect

Answer 7

the finding that naming the colors in which words are printed takes longer when the words are conflicted color words (like when”red” is printed in green)

Question 8

ecological validity

Answer 8

the extent to which research findings (especially laboratory ones) can be generalized to the real world

Question 9

cognitive neuroscience

Answer 9

an approach that aims to understand human cognition by combining information from brain activity and behavior; uses imaging

Question 10

event-related potentials

Answer 10

the pattern of electroencephalograph (EEG) activity obtained by averaging the brain responses to the same stimulus (or similar stimuli) presented repeatedly

Question 11

functional specialization

Answer 11

the assumption (only partially correct) that cognitive functions (like color or face processing) occur in specific brain regions

Question 12

lesion

Answer 12

a structural alteration caused by disease or injury

Question 13

modularity

Answer 13

the assumption that the cognitive system consists of several fairly independent or separate modules or processors, each of which is specialized for a given type of processing (like face processing)

Question 14

dissociation

Answer 14

as applied to brain-damaged patients, intact performance on one task but severely impaired performance on a different task

Question 15

double dissociation

Answer 15

the finding that some individuals (often brain-damaged) have intact performance on one task but poor performance on another task, whereas other individuals exhibit the opposite pattern

Question 16

transcranial magnetic stimulation

Answer 16

(TMS) a technique in which magnetic pulses briefly disrupt the functioning of a given brain area, thus creating a short-lived lesion; several rapid pulses is repetitive TMS (rTMS)

Question 17

computational modeling

Answer 17

constructing computer programs that will stimulate or mimic some aspects of human cognitive functioning

Question 18

meta-analysis

Answer 18

a form of statistical analysis based on combining the findings from numerous studies on a given issue