Ch 2

Question 1

Franciscus Donders (1869)

Answer 1

Pioneered the study of Reaction Time
Mental Chronometry

Interval between the presentation of a stimulus and a response to it

Cognition takes time

More complex cognition takes more time

Mental processes have to be inferred from observable behavior

Question 2

Hermann Ebbinghaus (1885)

Answer 2

Controlled, scientific approach to studying memory (list recall)

Pioneered the study of memory via the “Savings Method”

Stimuli
-Lists of Nonsense trigrams
»DAX, QEH, LUH

Procedure
-Measured initial #repetitions to learn
-Waited a period of time
- Measured # of repetitions until relearned

He devised Savings in Relearning

Ebbinghaus relearned the list 25% faster the second time….. Quantified memory

Question 3

Sir Frederick Bartlett (Cambridge, UK)

Answer 3

Naturalistic approach to studying memory (story recall). Read a Native American folk tale to people, and later (misc. delay) asked them to recall it (1932)

-vs Ebbinghaus’s nonsense syllables

Folk tale was the “War of Ghosts”

There were errors/distortions in peoples’ recall

Showed that human memory doesn’t work like a computer/recorder

-Schema

-Reconstructive nature of memory

-Focus on errors and distortions rather than quantifying completeness of memory like Ebbinghaus

Question 4

Summary

Answer 4

Early Psychologists helped establish methods for studying cognition

-Introspection (Wundt)
-Experimental rigor (Behaviorism)
-Rt/time/chronometry (Donders)
-Behavioral accuracy with controlled conditions (Ebbinghaus)
- Behavior in natural contexts (Bartlett)

Technological developments lead to further methods for studying cognition

Question 5

Top Down vs Bottom-up Processing

Answer 5

Bottom up Processing
-taking sensory information and then assembling and integrating it (What am I seeing?)

Top down Processing
-using models, ideas, and expectations to interpret
sensory information
(What have I seen?)

(Is that something I’ve seen before)

Question 6

neurons

Answer 6

Create and transport information about what we experience and know

Question 7

Nerve net

Answer 7

A network of continuously connected nerve fibers (as contrasted with neural networks, in which fibers are connected through synapses)

Question 8

Nerve

Answer 8

Bundle of Axons

Question 9

Sensory Neurons (central and peripheral)

Answer 9

Transduces environmental energy into information (firing)

Question 10

Interneurons (central)

Answer 10

Processes information

Question 11

Motor Neurons (peripheral)

Answer 11

Transduces information into environmental energy (movement)

Question 12

Localization

Answer 12

• each group of neurons tends to perform one function (e.g., language production [Broca], language comprehension [Wernicke], different senses)
• sometimes single neurons have specific jobs (e.g., feature detection in vision)

Question 13

Distribution

Answer 13

• patterns of neurons within a group
• and groups of neurons coordinate across the brain

Question 14

Plasticity

Answer 14

The strength of synaptic connections

Question 15

Long-term potentiation

Answer 15

Frequently used connections (synapses) become stronger