Chapter 1

Question 1

What is cognition?

Answer 1

The mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses, I.e., cognition is the mental action of knowing

Question 2

What is folk psychology?

Answer 2

An umbrella term for various assumptions and theories based on the everyday behaviour of ourselves

Question 3

In what 3 stages did the study of human cognition advance in?

Answer 3

• 1950’s - 1960’s: propelled by methods of traditional psychophysics (the scientific investigation of the relationship between sensation & stimulus) and experimental psychology
• 1970’s: fuelled by conceptual/computational analysis & arrival of cognitive science
• 1980’s: neuropsychology & animal neuropsychology, increase in imagining techniques that allow us to look at the brain in action

Question 4

What’s the difference between cognitive science and cognitive psychology?

Answer 4

Cognitive science INCLUDES cognitive psychology. Cognitive psychology is a part of cognitive science

Question 5

What’s ‘autopilot’ mode?

Answer 5

When our brain gets used to a certain activity, route or environment, it tends to go on autopilot mode, i.e., does the activities without one being consciously aware of it. This can sometimes be a problem because the mind can start to wander

Question 6

What is a ‘bit’?

Answer 6

Most basic unit of information. It is the quantification of the amount of information provided by the occurrence of an event

Question 7

What’s the idea behind information theory?

Answer 7

Basic to the concept of information processing is the idea that information reduces uncertainty in the mind of a receiver

Question 8

State the Information Theory

Answer 8

The information provided by a particular message is inversely related to the probability of its occurrence.
• THE LESS LIKELY IT IS, THE MORE INFORMATION IT CONVEYS

Question 9

What do the experiments by Hick & Hyman demonstrate?

Answer 9

It takes time to translate a visual signal to either a key-press or verbal response.

Response time increased:
• as the number of signals increased
• for less frequent signals
• for less probable signals

Question 10

State the limitations on Information Processing

Answer 10

Time Limitation: the amount of time it takes for information to be processed in the nervous system (Hick and Hyman)

Capacity limitation: the amount of information that the nervous system can process within a fixed period of time (Webster and Thompson)

Question 11

What was the experiment done by Webster and Thompson?

Answer 11

Participants listened to two simultaneous messages consisting of call signals (from a set of 10 signals) followed by a three-word message (from a set of 1152 words)

Participants could identity both call signals, but only one word message

Question 12

What do the findings by Webster and Thompson’s suggest?

Answer 12

Processing capacity is limited, and the limitation depends on the amount of information. The limit is one of information rather than stimulation (not how much how you’re stimulated but processing). People respond faster to an expected stimulus than to one that is unexpected.

Question 13

What are the 2 models of information processing?

Answer 13

• Broadbent’s Filter Model (1958)

- Waugh and Norman’s Model of Information processing (1965)

Question 14

What’s the basic idea behind Broadbent’s filter model?

Answer 14

It’s based on the idea that information-processing is restricted by:
channel capacity: maximum amount of information that can be transmitted by an information-processing device

Question 15

How does Broadbent’s filter model work?

Answer 15

1) information enters through input channels such as eye or ear
2) when two or more signals or messages occur at one time, they enter the capacity-free sensory buffer (or temporary store) together
3) the buffer then extracts simple stimulus characteristics such as colour (vision), voice (hearing)
4) the filter selects messages that share some basic physical characteristics (ex: location in space)
5) The filter passes along a selection of information to the limited capacity system responsible for the analysis of ‘higher order’ stimulus attributes (ex: form or meaning)
6) messages that were not selected are held in sensory buffer, where they are subject to decay overtime

Question 16

What experiment did Broadbent performed?

Answer 16

• Broadbent presented participants with 3 two-digit pairs, with one digit of each pair being presented to only one ear.
  • higher accuracy was recorded when digits were recalled for each ear at a time, rather than when having to switch between ears for each digit

Question 17

What does Broadbent’s experiment suggest?

Answer 17

That the ears function as separate channels, and switching between them more often caused more information decay

Limitation: how many channels you have

Question 18

Define Waugh and Norman’s Model.

Answer 18

• Primary Memory
  • what we’re aware of in the ‘immediately present moment’, often called ‘immediate memory’ or ‘short-term memory’
  • tend to be quickly forgotten unless repeated
  • belongs in the present

-Secondary Memory
• knowledge acquired at an earlier time that is stored indefinitely, and is absent from awareness, aka long-term memory
• belongs in the past

Question 19

Where did the distinction between primary and secondary come from? Define.

Answer 19

• Brown-Peterson task: participants were given set of items to remember and then had to count backwards by three’s for a specified amount of time. Recall memory decreased as the distracted duration increased

Question 20

Define ecological approach and who was it suggested by?

Answer 20

Gibson argued for an ecological approach: using the richness of information provided by the natural environment

Question 21

What is meant by the term ‘affordances’?

Answer 21

The meaning of objects and events can perceived in terms of their affordances - the potential functions or uses of stimuli in the real world.
Ex: stairs afford the possibility of climbing
Knowledge of affordances is not innate

Question 22

Define Gibson’s theory of Information Pickup.

Answer 22

The process whereby we perceive information directly.

Question 23

Define the perceptual cycle of cognition and who was it proposed by?

Answer 23

Perceptual cycle: the process by which our schemes guide our exploration of the world and in turn are shaped by what we find there.

Proposed by Neisser

Question 24

Define schema and how is it used in the perceptual cycle?

Answer 24

Schema: an expectation concerning what we are likely to find as we explore the world.

A schema directs our exploration of the environment where this schema is modified by the information we find during that exploration. This information modifies our schema and the schema again directs our exploration of the world.

Question 25

What is cognitive ethology and who was it suggested by?

Answer 25

Cognitive Ethology: a new research that links real-world observations with lab-based studies
Outlined this new approach by: Kingstone, Smilek, and Eastwood

Question 26

How the perceptual cycle work?

Answer 26

During anytime, one is encountering some expected and some unexpected info. This unexpected info is capable of modifying the schema so as to increase accuracy with which it represents the environment. Thus the perceptual cycle begins with the schema that brings the perceiver into contact with new information that one can use to correct the schema & so on

Question 27

State the alternative approach that cognitive ethology proposes.

Answer 27

1) carefully observe and describe behaviour as it naturally occurs
2) then move it into the lab and gradually simplify relevant factors
3) test to find out whether lab findings predict, as well as explain, real-world phenomena

Question 28

Define metacognition

Answer 28

Knowledge people have about the way that cognition processes work; understanding our own cognitive processes

Question 29

Define Cognitive Psychology

Answer 29

Can be thought of as a process of developing our metacognition. Actively being researched and contains many hypothesis about how the mind works

Question 30

What’s the brain composed of?

Answer 30

Modules: composed of different parts, each of which performs a different cognitive function

Question 31

Define localization of function

Answer 31

The idea that there is a direct correspondence between specific cognitive functions and specific parts of the brain

Question 32

Define phrenology

Answer 32

The study of the shape, size and protrusions of the cranium in an attempt to discover the relationships between parts of the brain and various mental activities and abilities

Done by: Gall and Spurzheim

Question 33

What are the 3 principles of Gall and Spurzheim’s argument?

Answer 33

1) brain is the sole organ of the mind
2) basic character and intellectual traits are innately determined
3) since there are differences in character & intellectual traits among individuals as well as differences in various intellectual capacities within a single individual, there must exist differentially developed areas in the brain responsible for the differences

Question 34

Who was Shepherd Ivory Franz and what work did he do?

Answer 34

Franz was an expert in the technique of ablation, whereby parts of the cortex of an animal are destroyed and the consequences for behaviour are observed. If brain functions are localized, then destroying me area should be evident in behaviour.

Question 35

What conclusion did Franz come to after his ablations?

Answer 35

Mental processes are due to the activity of the brain as a whole, not individual parts