CHAPTER 1: Introduction to Cognitive Psychology Flashcards
Which statement about the mind focuses on its role in cognitive processes, that is, what the mind does?
a. I haven’t made up my mind about what movie to go to.
b. An individual must be of sound mind in order to lawfully sign a will or contract.
c. The UNCF, which provides scholarships to black students, uses the slogan “mind is a terrible thing to waste.”
d. Mathematician John Nash had a brilliant mind although he struggled with schizophrenia.
a. I haven’t made up my mind about what movie to go to.
Restaurant reviewers often describe their meals in terms of their sensory experiences - the glistening of the melted sugar on top of a crème brûlée, the crack as it is broken, the smooth, warm custard, and its eggy, vanilla richness. Reviewers who focus on this combination of sensory experiences might be described as _____.
a. behaviorists
b. functionalists
c. structuralists
d. analysts
c. structuralists
Ebbinghaus used _____ to study the mind.
a. analytic introspection
b. memory for nonsense syllables
c. animal models like pigeons
d. primitive neural recording methods
b. memory for nonsense syllables
Watson objected to the method of introspection in part because it _____.
a. was only suitable for research using animals
b. could only be used in a limited number of situations
c. produced highly variable results from person to person
d. focused on quantitative rather than qualitative outcomes
c. produced highly variable results from person to person
Little Albert, a nine-month-old-boy, learned to be afraid of a rat when a loud noise was made every time a rat (which Albert had originally liked) came close to the child. Little Albert learned to fear the rat through _____ conditioning.
a. operant
b. instrumental
c. social
d. classical
d. classical
By allowing rats to explore a maze without providing food reward and then rewarding them for going to a particular place in the maze (as opposed to turning in a particular direction), Tolman was able to demonstrate the existence of what he referred as _____.
a. schemas
b. cognitive maps
c. memory traces
d. heuristics
b. cognitive maps
Which approach to cognitive psychology analyzes the operation of the mind in terms of a sequence of stages?
a. analytic introspection
b. structuralism
c. information processing
d. behaviorism
c. information processing
Timo has developed a computer system that scans mammograms, looking for abnormalities that might be indicative of cancer in the same way that radiologists review the images. Timo’s work is best described as being in the field of _____.
a. information processing
b. concept formation
c. cognitive networks
d. artificial intelligence
d. artificial intelligence
In his paper “The Magical Number Seven Plus or Minus Two,” George Miller argued that there were limits to the _____.
a. ability of humans to study the mind
b. programming possibilities of artificial intelligence
c. useful conceptualizations in cognitive psychology
d. information processing capacity of humans
d. information processing capacity of humans
Melinda studies vision, focusing on the brain’s pulvinar nucleus, the lateral geniculate nucleus and superior colliculus. Melinda most likely makes use of a(n) _____ model.
a. structural
b. process
c. integrative
d. systems
a. structural
Tulving proposed a model of memory in which long term memory had three components: episodic memory, semantic memory, and procedural memory. Tulving proposed a(n) _____ model.
a. integrative
b. systems
c. process
d. structural
c. process
According to your text, the biggest challenge of research is _____.
a. gaining the approval of the institutional review board
b. conducting the statistical analyses
c. picking the right questions to ask
d. getting the research published in a journal
c. picking the right questions to ask
While George takes the bus home, he is thinking about how to resolve a difficult issue at work. This example particularly highlights the value of ___.
a. working to solve a problem
b. visualizing
c. remembering
d. making a decision
a. working to solve a problem
The statement “If you put your mind to it, I’m sure you can solve that math problem” highlights how the mind can be used ___.
a. in memory
b. making decisions or considering possibilities
c. as a problem-solver
d. to show normal functioning
b. making decisions or considering possibilities
Joe and Meg are doing a study in psychology. Joe is asked to push a button as soon as he sees a red light whereas Meg is asked to push a red button if she sees a red light and a green button if she sees a green light. From the information, ___ appear to be involved in a task measuring choice reaction time.
a. only Joe
b. only Meg
c. neither Joe nor Meg
d. both Joe and Meg
b. only Meg
Which one of these early pioneers in cognitive psychology was the first to undertake quantitative measurements of mental processes?
a. Donders
b. Ebbinghaus
c. James
d. Wundt
b. Ebbinghaus
___ founded behaviorism which ___ the study of inner mental processes.
a. John Watson ; rejected
b. John Watson ; accepted
c. William James ; rejected
d. William James ; accepted
a. John Watson ; rejected
An animal might learn the general conception of a maze through the use of ___.
a. the savings curve
b. analytic introspection
c. a cognitive map
d. artificial intelligence
c. a cognitive map
Noam Chomsky argued that language development was primarily determined by ___.
a. reinforcement
b. imitation
c. inborn biological processes
d. cultural differences
c. inborn biological processes
The cognitive revolution, which marked a rebirth of the study of the mind, began in the ___.
a. 1920s
b. 1950s
c. 1960s
d. 1990s
b. 1950s
The predominant theme of the information-processing approach holds that the operation of the mind occurs ___.
a. only through observed behaviors
b. via unconscious proceses
c. merely through reinforcement
d. in a number of stages
d. in a number of stages
In a flow diagram of the mind, messages first enter a(n) ___.
a. unit
b. filter
c. detector
d. cognitive map
b. filter
In a classic paper from the 1950s, George Miller argued that the information-processing of the mind is ___.
a. unlimited
b. limited to about seven items
c. limited to about 100 items
d. limited to about one million items
b. limited to about seven items
The structural model refers to representations of ___.
a. mental configurations
b. physical structures
c. real or imagined structures
d. the brain
b. physical structures
Of the following brain structures, the one that is LEAST associated with the pain matrix is the ___.
a. medulla
b. hippocampus
c. amygdala
d. thalamus
a. medulla
The process model refers to representations of ___.
a. processes involved in cognitive mechanisms
b. physical structures
c. real or imagined structures
d. the brain
a. processes involved in cognitive mechanisms
If you are thinking about experiences about a previous vacation, then you are most likely making use of ___ memories.
a. sensory
b. procedural
c. semantic
d. episodic
d. episodic
what is cognitive psychology?
the branch of psychology concerned with the scientific study of the mind. It attempts to explain how humans perform cognitive actives.
Examples of cognitive activities?
remembering something
seeing objects in your surroundings
understanding what is happening in a situation
solving problems
Why is cognitive psychology analogous to physics?
in the sense that it is foundational to the other social sciences
The basic mechanisms in human thought are important in understanding what?
the types of behaviour studied by other social sciences
the mind treats and controls mental functions such as?
PAMELDTR
perception attention memory emotions language deciding thinking reasoning
The mind is a system that creates representations of the world so that we can?
act within it to achieve our goals
2 precursors to cognitive psychology?
Aristotle and plato
epistemology, theory of ideas and their relation to human action
When did experimental psychology begin?
19th century germany
What did Franciscus Donders contribute?
response time analysis & method of subtraction
What did Hermann von Helmholtz contribute?
perception, and unconscious inference
What did Wilhelm Wundt contribute?
analytic introspection and analysis of conscious experience, RT experiments
What did Hermann Ebbinghaus contribute?
experimental study of memory
What did James (1890) contribute?
first psychology textbook: principles of pscyhology
Where did psychology continue to be studied during the behaviourist period?
Europe
When did the behaviourist period take place?
1920 - 1960
Why did behaviourism lose its grip on American psychology during 1960s?
- Learning without reinforcement: rats that explore a maze with no reinforcement show learning of the maze when they are later rewarded for running the maze
- Problematic Results: behaviourism couldn’t explain what scientists wanted to understand (e.g., perception, language, attention, reasoning)
When was the revival of cognitive psychology?
1950 - 1970
What is mental chronometry?
measuring how long a cognitive process takes
What is Reaction-time (RT)?
Experiment (a.k.a a response time experiment) which measures the interval between stimulus presentation and the response to the stimulus. It measures how long it takes a person to make a decision
What is Simple RT task?
participant pushes a button quickly after a light appears
What is choice RT task?
participant pushes one button if light is on the right side and a different button if the light in on the left side
What is Donder’s goal?
To measure how long it takes a person to decide which button to press in the choice RT task
What is the modern version of Donder’s experiment?
on the computer using a keyboard the participant pushes a button quickly if the light appears, or if it appears on the right or left.
Why does the choice RT task take longer than the Simple RT task?
Mental response takes longer for the behavioural response.
in the simple RT task, the subject does not have to decide how to respond
in the choice RT task, the subject has to decide which response is appropriate
decision time is longer in the choice RT task
What is the method of subtraction in the RT tests used for?
used to infer how long a mental process takes when the process is not directly observable.
What is the method of subtraction an example of?
a behavioural research method
mental responses cannot be measured directly from RT tests but can?
be inferred from the participants behaviour
What is one of the first cognitive psychology experiments?
Donder’s method of subtraction
What does Donders method of subtraction illustrate?
mental processes cannot be measured directly, but must be inferred from behaviour
Method of subtraction is a valid measure of mental duration if?
all of the assumptions are valid
What are activations?
regions of significant change from a control condition to a test condition
Example of when activation is used to see regions of significant change from a control condition to a test condition?
Test condition: subject views picture
Control condition: subject fixates a blank screen
Brain images show regions of a significant activation when comparing test condition to control condition
When are subtraction methods used in modern?
fMRI studies
Activation can be measured using?
fMRI scans
What did H.L.F von Helmhotlz’s concluded about unconscious inference?
some of our perceptions are the result of unconscious assumptions we make about the environment
we infer much of what we know about the world
Why is the idea of unconscious inference important?
unconscious inferences contribute in many ways to the formation of our perception and beliefs
cognitive psychology attempts to reveal the processes by which such inferences are made
What was Wundt’s main reproach?
how sensations combine to form percepts
what was Wundt’s approach?
Structuralism
What is Structuralism?
our overall experience is determined by combing elements of experience called sensations “periodic table of the mind”
What was Wundt’s method?
Analytic introspection
What is Analytic introspection?
participants are trained to describe experiences and thought processes in response to stimuli
In the video, Dr Barslaou discusses how we think about ideas such as “chairs”, emphasising that people tend to think about particular types of chairs in particular situations and with particular accompanying mental states. Which research method involves the use of trained subjects who describe their experiences and thought processes in response to stimuli?
A) analytic introspection
B) Puzzle boxes
C) Ebbinghaus’s “savings” method
D) Donder’s reaction time paradigm
A) analytic introspection
in analytic introspection, trained subjects describe their experiences and thought processes in response to stimuli
Dr Barsalou explain that ____ enables us to produce a wide variety of representations of a particular idea in many different situations.
A) deviations
B) correlations
C) Concepts
D) determinants
C) Concepts
Dr. Barsalou notes that concepts are not fixed, but instead, produce a wide variety of representations of a particular idea in many different situations
Dr. Barsalou uses ___ to demonstrate that looking at pictures of highly rewarding food results in brain activity in the areas involved with the experience of actual taste.
A) computer addicted tomography
B) electroencephalography
C) MIBG scanning
D) function magnetic resonance imaging
D) function magnetic resonance imaging
Dr. Barsalou uses functional magnetic resonance imaging in his research, a non-invasive brain scan that allows him to identify areas of brain activation