Chapter 1 Flashcards
Cognition
Acquisition, storage, transformation and use of knowledge.
metacognition
thinking about your own though processes
Cognitive psychology
has 2 meanings 1) Sometimes it is a synonym for the word cognition. 2) Sometimes it refers to a particular theoretical approach to psychology. Specifically, the cognitive approach is a theoretical orientation that emphasizes people’s thought processes and their knowledge.
Recency effect
refers to the observation that our recall is especially accurate for the final items in a series of stimuli ( such as a list of words or numbers)
Behaviorism
psychology must focus on objective, observable reactions to stimuli in the environment, rather than on subjective processes such as introspection
Operational definition
a precise definition that specifies exactly how a concept is to be measured
Gestalt psychology
emphasizes that we humans have basic tendencies to actively organize what we see, and furthermore, that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
gestalt
overall quality that transcends the individual elements.
Cognitive Revolution
The growing support for the cognitive approach is often referred to as the “ cognitive revolution”. This term refers to a strong shift away from behaviorist approaches to the study of human behavior. Instead, experimental psychologists began to focus on how organism-internal processes, such as memory, attention, and language, work together to give rise to the human ability to consciously perceive, interpret and act in the world around them.
When was the birth of Cognitive psychology?
1956.
ecological validity
Studies are high in ecological validity if the conditions in which the research is conducted are similar to the natural setting where the results will be applied.
Cognitive Science
is an interdisciplinary field that tries to answer questions about the mind.
Pure artificial intelligence
is an approach that designs a program to accomplish a cognitive task as efficiently as possible, even if the computer’s processes are completely different from the processes used by humans.
computer modelling or computer simulation
attempts to take human limitations into account. The goal of computer simulation is to program a computer to perform a specific cognitive task in the same way that humans actually perform this task. A computer simulation must produce the same number of errors - as well as correct responses- that a human produces.
Computer metaphor
our cognitive processes work like a computer. That is, computers and human minds are both examples of complex, multipurpose machinery.
information-processing approach
argued that a) our mental processes are similar to the operations of a computer and b) information progresses through our cognitive system in a series of stages, one step at a time.
Connectionist approach or parallel distributed processing ( PDP) approach or neural-network approach
argues that cognitive processes can be understood in terms of networks that link together neuron-like processing units; in addition, many operations can proceed simultaneously - rather than one step at a time. In other words, human cognition is often parallel, not strictly serial.
cerebral cortex
is the outer layer of the brain that is essential for your cognitive processes
serial processing
the system must complete one step or processing stage before information can proceed to the next step in the flowchart
Cognitive Neuroscience
combines the research techniques of cognitive psychology with various methods for assessing the structure and function of the brain
social cognitive neuroscience
neuroscience techniques to explore the kind of cognitive processes that we use in our interactions with other people
brain lesions
refers to the destruction of an area in the brain, most often by strokes, tumors, blows to the head and accidents.
positron emission tomography ( PET ) scan
researchers measure blood flow in the brain by injecting the participants with a low dose of a radioactive chemical just before this person works on a cognitive task,
Functional Magnetic resonance imagine (fMRI)
is based on the principle that oxygen-rich blood is an index of brain activity. The research participant reclines with his or her head surrounded by a large, doughnut-shaped magnet. This magnetic field produces changes in the oxygen atoms. A scanning device takes a “ photo” of these oxygen atoms while the participant performs a cognitive task.
event-related potential (ERP) technique
records the very brief fluctuations in the brain’s electrical activity, in response to a stimulus such as an auditory tone or a visual word.
magnetoencephalography ( MEG) technique
records magnetic field fluctuations produced by neural activity during processing of stimuli presented to articipants.
Book themes
Cognitive processes are active, rather than passive
Cognitive processes are remarkably efficient and accurate
Cognitive processes handle positive information better than negative information
Cognitive processes are interrelated with one another; they do not operate in isolation
Many cognitive processes rely on bottom up and top down processing
Bottom-up processing
emphasizes the importance of information from the stimuli registered on your sensory receptors. Bottom-up processing uses only a low-level sensory analysis of the stimulus.
Top-down processing
emphasizes how our concepts, expectations, and memory influence our cognitive processes. Top-down processing requires higher-level cognition.
What works together to shape the way we access and process information in our physical environments?
knowledge and context
Major depression
is a psychological disorder in which feelings of sadness, discouragement, and hopelessness interfere with the ability to perform daily mental and physical functions.
