Chapter 1 - Quiz A Flashcards
A researcher wants to study how people’s attention shifts when they see a visual stimulus in an unexpected portion of a screen that they are viewing; this attention shift occurs in just a fraction of a second. Which of the following techniques is this researcher most likely to use?
The event- related potential technique ( ERP)
In the introspection technique
people describe what they are thinking as they perform a task
Suppose that several cognitive scientists are trying to program a computer so that is solves a particular problem in the same way a human does, taking into account that a human might make a few false starts before successfully solving the problem. This approach is called
computer simulation
Suppose that your professor tells you to locate a journal article about cognitive psychology that presents empirical evidence. You should look for an article that
emphasizes evidence collected in experiments
Which of the following statements best captures the scope of cognition
We use cognition when we acquire, store, transform and use knowledge
Suppose that a psychologist writes an article on children’s acquisition of gender stereotypes. Which of the following article titles would be most consistent with the cognitive approach?
Children’s memory for gender-consistent information
An important characteristic of the connectionist approach is that
it is flexible enough to explain many cognitive skills
One reason for the cognitive revolution is that the behaviourist approach
placed too much emphasis on concepts such as reinforcement and observable responses
What does the introductory chapter conclude about the influence of cognitive approaches on other areas of psychology
Cognitive psychology has had an important impact on a variety of areas throughout psychology
A research team studies which parts of the brain are active when a participant looks at a photograph of a person and tries to judge how intelligent that person is. This kind of study is an example of
social cognitive neuroscience.
Define cognitive neuroscience. Briefly describe the following methods used by neuroscientists.
Cognitive Neuroscience is a field that gathers research techniques from cognitive psychology and combines with different ways to analyzing the brain, its structures and its functions.
a) Brain lesions: is the elimination of an area of the brain caused by things such as accidents and strokes.
b) Positron emission tomography ( PET) scan = a procedure where a radioactive chemicall is used in a participant’s brain to test brain activity while performing a cognitive task.
c) Functional magnetic resonance imagine ( fMRI) = This technique checks the level of oxygen in the blood to monitor brain activity. In this procedure, the participant is placed on a chair, an equipment with magnets is placed around their heard, and this equipment creates a magnetic field that influences the oxygen atoms in the participant’s head. A scanner takes a picture of these atoms as the participant is given a cognitive task to perform.
d) event-related potential ( ERP) technique = records the quick changes of brain electrical activity in response to a stimulus.
e) magnetoencephalography ( MEG) = records magnetic field changes produced by activity in the neurons as stimuli is shown to participants.
