Chapter 4: Cognition, Consciousness, and Language Flashcards
What does the dual-coding theory state?
Both verbal association and visual images are used to process and store information
e.g. a picture of a “tree” and the word “tree” can recall the same info
What are the four key components of the information processing model?
- Thinking requires sensation, encoding, and storage of stimuli
- Stimuli has to be analyzed by the brain first before used in decision making
- Decisions made in one situation can be used to solve new problems (situational modification)
- Problem solving is dependent on cognition level, and context/complexity of the problem
What is cognitive development?
The development of one’s ability to think and solve problems across the life span
What is the limiting factor in childhood for cognitive development?
The pace of brain maturation
Which psychology discipline was Jean Piaget a key figure in?
Developmental psychology
What are the 4 stages of cognitive development?
SPCF
- Sensorimotor
- Preoperational
- Concrete operational
- Formal operational
What did Piaget believe about how people progressed through the stages of development?
Continuous and sequential process
What is a schema?
Can be a concept, behavior, or sequence of events
What do children do with new information? What is this process called?
Must process and place them into existing schemata or build new one
The process of processing new information is adaptation
What is assimilation?
The process of classifying new information into existing schemata
What is accommodation?
The process by which existing schemata are modified to encompass this new information
When would you need to use accommodation instead of assimilation?
If information does not fit neatly into existing schemata
What occurs in Piaget’s sensorimotor stage?
- Learn to manipulate the environment to meet physical needs
- Learn to coordinate sensory input with motor actions
What are 2 types of behavior patterns in the sensorimotor stage?
- Primary circular reactions
- Secondary circular reactions
What are primary circular reactions? Give an example.
Repetitions of body movements that originally occurred by chance, e.g. sucking your thumb
What are secondary circular reactions? Give an example.
When manipulation is focused on something outside the body, e.g. throwing toys from a high chair
Why are secondary circular reactions repeated?
The child gets a response from the environment
What is the key milestone that ends the sensorimotor stage?
Object permanence
Object permanence marks the beginning of _________________ _________, in which the child has begun to create mental representations of external objects and events.
Representational thought
How long does the preoperational stage last?
2 to 7 years of age
What 2 things characterize Piaget’s preoperational stage?
- Symbolic thinking
- Egocentrism
What is symbolic thinking?
The ability to pretend, play make-believe, and have an imagination
What is egocentrism?
The inability to imagine what another person thinks or feels
The preoperational stage also includes the inability to grasp the concept of ____________________, which is the understanding that a physical amount remains the same, even if there is a change in shape or appearance.
Conservation
Piaget believed that the inability to understand conservation was due to ________________, which is the tendency to focus on only one aspect of a phenomenon, while ignoring other important elements.
Centration
How long does the concrete operational stage last?
About 7 to 11 years of age
What characterizes the concrete operational stage?
- Understanding conservation
- Understanding others’ perspectives
- Engaging inlogical thought if working with concrete objects/information
Cannot think abstractly
When does the formal operational stage start and what does it coincide with?
Starts around 11 years of age, coincides with adolescence
What characterizes the formal operational stage?
- Ability to think logically about abstract ideas
- Problem solving
What is hypothetical reasoning?
Ability to mentally manipulate variables in a number of ways, generally within the scope of scientific experiments
What did Lev Vygotsky propose of cognitive development?
Cognitive development is driven by children’s internalization of their culture, e.g. interpersonal/societal rules, symbols, and language
Kids can develop skills further with help from adults or other kids
Reaction time (increases/decreases?) steadily in early adulthood.
Increases
Time-based prospective memory, which is the ability to remember to perform a task at a specific time in the future, (improves/declines?) with age.
Declines
What are the 2 types of intelligence?
Fluid and crystallized
What is fluid intelligence?
Involves solving new or novel problems, possibly using creative methods
ability to process new information, learn, and solve problems
What is crystallized intelligence?
Related to solving problems using acquired knowledge, can be procedural
your stored knowledge, accumulated over the years
How do fluid and crystallized intelligence trend as we age?
Fluid intelligence peaks in early adulthood, declines with age.
Crystallized intelligence peaks in middle adulthood, remains stable with age.
Decline in intellectual abilities in adulthood is linked to what?
How long an older adult retains the ability to function in activities of daily living, e.g. bathing, dressing, etc.
Disorders and conditions that are characterized by a general loss of cognitive function are collectively known as _______________.
Dementia
What does dementia often begin with and what does it progress to?
Often begins with impaired memory, progresses to impaired judgment and confusion
What is the most common cause of dementia?
Alzheimer’s disease
What type of dementia is caused by high BP and repeated microscopic brain clots?
Impaired blood flow to the brain
Vascular dementia
What is delirium?
Rapid fluctuation in cognitive function that is reversible and caused by medical (nonpsychological) causes
What is a mental set?
The tendency to approach similar problems in the same way
_____________ _____________ is defined as the inability to consider how to use an object in a nontraditional manner.
Functional fixedness
What is deductive reasoning?
What is it also known as?
Starts from a set of general rules and draws conclusions from the given information
Top-down reasoning
you make inferences by going from general premises to specific conclusions
What is inductive reasoning?
What is it also known as?
Seeks to create a theory via generalizations; starts with specific instances, then draws a conclusion from them
Bottom-up reasoning
takes you from specific to general
What are heuristics?
Simplified principles used to make decisions
“rules of thumb”
What is the availability heuristic?
Base the likelihood of an event on how easily examples of that event come to mind
Usually leads to correct decision, but not always
What is the representativeness heuristic?
Categorizing items on the basis of whether they fit the prototypical, stereotypical, or representative image of the category
Using prototypical or stereotypical factors while ignoring actual numerical information is called?
The base rate fallacy
What is the disconformation principle?
If a solution to a problem fails during testing, this solution should be discarded
What is confirmation bias?
Tendency to focus on info that fits an individual’s beliefs, while rejecting information that goes against them
What is hindsight bias?
Tendency for people to overestimate their ability to predict the outcome of events that already happened
The inability to reject a particular belief despite clear evidence to the contrary is ?
Belief perserverance
The ability to act on perceptions that may not be supported by available evidence is?
Intuition
Intuition is more accurately described by the ________________-_________ _____________ ________
Recognition-primed decision model
Robert Sternberg’s triarchic theory of human intelligence defines 3 subtypes of intelligence which are?
- Analytical intelligence
- Creative intelligence
- Practical intelligence
What is the “g factor”?
General intelligence factor
The g factor, or underlying variable of intelligence, is often measured with standardized tests that generate an _____________________ _____________ for the test taker.
intelligence quotient (IQ)
How do you calculate IQ?
Alertness is maintained by neurological circuits in the ______________ __________ at the very front of the brain. Fibers from this structure communicate with the ______________ ______________, a neural structure located in the brainstem, to keep the structure awake and alert.
Prefrontal cortex
Reticular formation
Sleep is studied by recording brain wave activity occurring during the course of a night’s sleep. This is done with ____________________________, or _____.
electroencephalography
EEG
What does an EEG record?
An average of the electrical patterns within different portions of the brain
What are the 4 characteristic EEG patterns correlated with different stages of waking and sleeping? There is a 5th wave that corresponds to what?
- Beta
- Alpha
- Theta
- Delta
- REM sleep
How long is the cycle that the sleep stages form?
90 minutes
Which 2 waves characterize brain wave activity when we are awake?
Beta and alpha waves
Beta waves have a (low/high?) frequency and occur when?
High frequency; occur when person is alert or concentrating. Occurs when neurons are randomly firing.
Alpha waves occur when? Are they (slower/faster?) than beta waves? Are they (more/less) synchronized than beta waves?
When we are awake but relaxing with our eyes closed
They are slower and more synchronized than beta waves
After you doze off, you enter what stage? This is detected on the EEG by the appearance of what type of waves?
Stage 1: NREM1
Theta waves
In Stage 1 (NREM1), EEG is characterized by irregular waveforms with (slower/faster?) frequencies and (lower/higher?) voltages?
Slower frequencies
Higher voltages
As you fall more deeply asleep, you enter what stage? The EEG shows what type of waves?
What 2 things characterize these waves?
Stage 2: NREM2
Theta waves with sleep spindles and K complexes
What are sleep spindles?
Bursts of high-frequency waves
What are K complexes?
Singular high-amplitude waves
As you fall even more deeply asleep, you enter what stage? Also known as what?
EEG activity gets progressively slower, these (low/high?) frequency, (low/high?) voltage waves are called what?
Stage 3: NREM3
Aka slow-wave sleep (SWS)
Low-frequency, high-voltage delta waves
Very difficult to wake someone up here
Stages 1-3 are known as ____-__________ ____ ______________ sleep, which is where NREM comes from.
non-rapid eye movement
Interspersed between cycles of NREM is what?
rapid eye movement (REM) sleep
In REM sleep, arousal levels are (less than, equal to, more than) arousal levels during wakefulness, but the muscles are paralyzed.
equal to
What is REM sleep known as? Why?
Paradoxical sleep; heart rate, breathing patterns, and EEG mimic wakefulness, but the person is still asleep
Early in the night, what type of sleep dominates? How about later in the night?
SWS dominates early on, REM sleep later on
Over the lifespan, the length of the sleep cycle (increases/decreases)?
Increases
Do children or adults spend more time in SWS?
Children
Sleepiness can be partially attributed to blood levels of what hormone? What is this hormone derived from and what gland does it come from?
Melatonin; serotonin-derived; pineal gland
The ________ has direct connections to the hypothalamus, which controls the pineal gland; thus, (increasing/decreasing?) light can cause the release of melatonin.
retina; decreasing
____________ is a steroid hormone produced in the adrenal cortex. Its levels slowly (increase/decrease?) in the early morning because increasing light causes the release of ________________________-____________ factor from the hypothalamus.
Cortisol; increase; corticotropin-releasing (CRF)
CRF causes the release of ________________________ hormone from the anterior pituitary, which stimulates cortisol release, which contributes to wakefulness.
adrenocorticotropic
Most dreaming occurs during ____; however, soon after we enter Stage _ sleep, our mental experience starts to shift to a dreamlike state.
REM; 2
REM dreams tend to be (shorter/longer?) and (less/more?) vivid than those experienced during NREM sleep.
longer; more
What does the activation-synthesis theory say about dreams?
Dreams are caused by widespread, random activation of neural circuitry, which can mimic incoming sensory info or trigger memories, desires, needs, and other experiences. The cortex tries to stitch the unrelated info together.
What does the problem-solving theory say about dreams?
Dreams are a way to solve problems while you are sleeping
What does the cognitive process dream theory say about dreams?
Dreams are merely the sleeping counterpart of stream-of-consciousness
Sleep-wake disorders are divided into what 2 categories?
Dyssomnias
Parasomnias
What do dyssomnias refer to?
Disorders that make it difficult to fall asleep, stay asleep, or avoid sleep
e.g. insomnia, narcolepsy, sleep apnea
What do parasomnias refer to?
Abnormal movements or behaviors during sleep
e.g. night terrors and sleepwalking
Do most sleep-wake disorders occuring during REM or NREM sleep?
NREM
The symptoms of narcolepsy include ____________, a loss of muscles control and sudden intrusion of REM sleep during waking hours, usually caused by an emotional trigger.
Cataplexy
Narcolepsy is also characterized by sleep paralysis and ____________ and ____________ hallucinations, which are hallucinations when going to sleep or awakening.
Hypnagogic, hypnopompic
What are the 2 types of sleep apnea?
Obstructive
Central
What causes obstructive sleep apnea?
A physical blockage in the pharynx or trachea prevents airflow
What causes central sleep apnea?
The brain fails to send signals to the diaphragm to breathe
What are night terrors and when do they occur?
Periods of intense anxiety that occur during slow-wave sleep
Difficult to wake because of SWS
What is another name for sleepwalking?
Somnambulism
What should you do when someone sleepwalks?
Guide them back to bed to avoid disrupting SWS
While one cannot make up for los sleep, people who are permitted to sleep normally after sleep deprivation often exhibit ______ __________, an earlier onset and greater duration of REM sleep compared to normal.
REM rebound
____________ can be defined as a state in which a person appears to be in control of normal functions, but is in a highly suggestible state.
Hypnosis
What stage of sleep does meditation resemble? What 2 types of waves are present?
Stage 1; theta and slow alpha waves
________________ reduce nervous system activity, resulting in a sense of relaxation and reduced anxiety. What is the most common type? Another example?
Depressants; alcohol and sedatives
Alcohol increases the activity of the ________ receptor, a chloride channels that causes hyperpolarization of the membrane.
GABA
The (hyper/hypo?)polarization of the GABA receptor by alcohol causes generalized brain inhibition at the physiological level, which results in diminished arousal at moderate doses.
hyperpolarization
Excessive consumption of alcohol may be associated with a notable lack of self-control called ____________________, which occurs because the centers of the brain that prevent inappropriate behavior are also depressed.
Disinhibition
Alcohol increases levels of ____________, causing mild euphoria.
Dopamine
Alcohol can create an inability to recognize consequences of actions known as ____________ ____________.
Alcohol myopia
Alcoholism rates tend to be higher for those of (lower/higher?) SES, but people with (lower/higher?) SES tend to enter recovery sooner and at higher rates.
Lower; lower
Long-term consequences of alcoholism can include what?
- cirrhosis, liver failure
- pancreatic damage
- gastric/duodenal ulcers
- GI cancer
- brain disorders (Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome) - deficiency of thiamine (Vitamin B1)
____________ tend to depress central nervous system activity, resulting in calm, relaxation, and drowsiness.
Sedatives
What are the 2 types of sedatives?
- Barbiturates
- Benzodiazepines
____________ were historically used as anxiety-reducing (anxiolytic) sleep medications, but have mostly been replaced by ________________________, which are less prone to overdose.
Barbiturates
Benzodiazepines
Sedatives increase ________ activity, causing a sense of relaxation. However, barbiturates and benzodiazepines can be highly addictive. If taken with ____________, overdoses of sedatives can result in coma or death.
GABA, alcohol
Stimulants (decrease/increase?) arousal in the nervous system.
Increase
How do stimulants work?
Increasing the frequency of action potentials
________________ cause increased arousal by INCREASING release of dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin at the synapse and DECREASING their reuptake.
Amphetamines
What do amphetamines do to arousal, appetite, and sleep?
Increase arousal
Reduce appetite
Decrease need for sleep
Prolonged use of high doses of amphetamines can result in what?
Stroke or brain damage
____________ acts on dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin, but it simply DECREASES reuptake of the neutrotransmitters.
Cocaine
Cocaine has similar effects as amphetamines, but also have what properties?
Anesthetic and vasoconstrictive properties
____________ acts as a hallucinogen combined with an amphetamine.
Ecstasy
________ and ________ are types of narcotics, also known as painkillers.
Opiates and opioids
________ is derived from the poppy plant.
________ are naturally occurring forms of opium, e.g. morphine and codeine.
________ are semisynthetic derivatives of opium, e.g. oxycodone, hydrocodone, heroin.
Opium
Opiates
Opioids
What do opium compounds bind to? They act as ________________ agonists and cause a (decreased/increased?) reaction to pain and a sense of euphoria.
Opioid receptors
Endorphin
Decreased
Overdose on opium can cause death by ______________ ______________, in which the brain stops sending signals to breathe.
respiratory suppression
________ was originally created as a substitute for morphine. Once injected, the body rapidly metabolizes it to morphone.
Heroin
Treatment for opioid addiction may include use of ____________, a long-acting opioid with lower risk of overdose.
Methadone
________________ are drugs which typically cause introspection, distortions of reality and fantasy, and enhancement of sensory experiences.
Hallucinogens
e.g. LSD
The activity chemical in marijuana is known as ________________ (THC).
tetrahydrocannabinol
How does THC work? Which 3 receptors does it work on?
It acts at cannabinoid receptors, glycine receptors, and opioid receptors.
THC inhibits ____ activity and indirectly increases ________ activity.
GABA, dopamine
Drug addiction is highly related to the ________________ reward pathway, one of four dopaminergic pathways in the brain.
mesolimbic
The mesolimbic reward pathway includes what 3 components?
- Nucleus accumbens (NAc)
- Ventral tegmental area (VTA)
- The connection between NAc and VTA called the medial forebrain bundle (MFB)
__________ __________ is focusing on one part of the sensorium (sensory environment) while ignoring other stimuli.
Selective attention
What is the cocktail party phenomenon?
Another interpretation of selective attention; background stimuli continues to be processed while we are still focusing on one thing
selective attention filters out stimuli to allow us to focus on one thing
ability to focus one’s attention a particular stimulus while filtering out a range of other stimuli
What tests can test selective attention?
Dichotic listening tests
Most new or complex tasks require undivided attention and utilize ____________ (____________) processing.
Controlled (efforful)
Familiar or routine actions can be performed with ____________ processing.
Automatic
What are the 5 basic components of language?
- Phonology
- Morphology
- Semantics
- Syntax
- Pragmatics
What is phonology?
The sound of language
There are about 40 speech sounds, or ____________, in English.
phonemes
When a language has subtle differences in speech sounds that represent a change in meaning, children must learn to distinguish those phonemes. This is an ability called _______________ _______________.
Categorical perception
The ability to recognize a word as being the same, even if the pronunciation of the word varies between people, is what?
Constancy
What is morphology?
The structure of owrds
Many words are composed of multiple building blocks called ____________, each of which connotes a particular meaning.
Morphemes
What is semantics?
The association of meaning with a word
What is syntax?
How words are put together to form sentences
____________ refers to the dependence of language on context and preexisting knowledge. The manner in which we speak may differ depending on the audience and our relationship to that audience.
Pragmatics
An important precursor to language is ____________.
Babbling
For hearing children, babbling reaches its highest frequency when?
What about hearing impaired children?
9 and 12 months
Ceases soon often after it begins
From 12 to 18 months, children add about how many words per month?
One
Starting around 18 months, children experience a ____________ ____________, in which they learn dozens of words and use them with varying inflection and gestures.
naming explosion
Children may also frequently fall into ____________, in which they inappropriately apply a term to an object that bears cursory similarities to the term.
Overextension
Between 18 and 20 months of age, begin to do what with words?
Combine them
By the age of 2 or 3 years, children can do what?
Speak in longer sentences
What is an error of growth?
A child applies a gramatical rule (often a morpheme) in a situation where it does not apply
Language is substantially mastered by what age?
5 years of age
The ____________ (biological) theory, is credited to Noam Chomsky, which advocates for the existence of some innate capacity of language.
nativist
Chomsky studied ________________________ ____________, which is how changes in word order can retain the same meaning.
transformational grammar
Transformational grammar is a type of ____________ ____________ ________, a theoretical pathway in the brain that allows infants to process and absorb language rules.
language acquisition device (LAD)
Nativists believe in a ____________ ____________ for language acquisition between 2 years and puberty. Without exposure during this time, later training is ineffective.
critical period
It has been seen that children without prior exposure to language may be able to learn some rules. This shows that there is likely a ____________ ____________, rather than a critical period. This is a time when environmental input has maximal effect on the development of an ability.
sensitive period
When is the sensitive period for language development?
Before the onset of puberty
The ____________ (behaviorist) theory, proposed by BF Skinner, explained language acquisition by operant conditioning.
learning
According to the behaviorist theory, language is acquired by ________________, i.e. caregivers repeat and reinforce sounds that sound most like the language they speak.
What is a flaw of this theory?
reinforcement
Doesn’t account for the vocabulary explosion
Benjamin Whorf proposed the Whorfian hypothesis, aka the ____________ ____________ ____________, which suggests that our perception or reality - the way we think about the world - is determined by the content of language.
linguistic relativity hypothesis
i.e. language affects the way we think rather than the other way around
Where are Broca’s area and Wernicke’s area located in the brain?
the dominant hemisphere, usually the left hemisphere
Where specifically is Broca’s area located?
The inferior frontal gyrus of the frontal lobe
What does Broca’s area control?
The motor function of speech via connections with the motor cortex
Where specifically is Wernicke’s area located?
The superior temporal gyrus of the temporal lobe
What is Wernicke’s area responsible for?
Language comprehension
What connects Broca’s and Wernicke’s area?
The arcuate fasciculus - a bundle of axons that allow association between language comprehension and speech production
A deficit of language production or comprehension is called ?
Aphasia
When damage occurs to Broca’s area, speech comprehension is intact, but the patient has reduced/absent ability to produce spoken language. This is called what?
Broca’s (expressive) aphasia
What is it like having Broca’s aphasia?
Feels like having every word on the tip of your tongue
When Wernicke’s area is damaged, motor production and fluency of speech is retained but comprehension of speech is lost. This is called what?
Wernicke’s (receptive) aphasia
What is it like having Wernicke’s aphasia?
Speak nonsensical sounds and make inappropriate word combinations
They believe they’re speaking fine, but people cannot understand
If the arcuate fasciculus is affected, this is called what?
What occurs?
conduction aphasia; patient cannot repeat something that has been said
