Cog Psy Exam #1 (1/24/24) Flashcards
1
Q
anomalous suspense
A
- suspense in the absence of uncertainty
- things you know in your head combined with stuff in the world
- when do you discount the things you know in your head ex. movie analogy
- watching movies about famous people/events already knowing what happens but still feeling suspense
2
Q
Neisser - cognition def
A
cognition = all process by which sensory input is transformed, elaborated, stored, recovered and used
3
Q
Neisser - cognitive processes + sensory input
A
- cognitive processes = attention, memory, problem solving etc that allow us to function
- sensory input = 5 senses
4
Q
Reed - cognitive psych def
A
study of the mental operations that support people’s acquisition and use of knowledge
5
Q
Reed - mental operations
A
mental operations = cognitive processes learning things and then being able to use that knowledge
6
Q
process
A
- black box problem - can’t see what is happening in the brain
- stimulus → ◾→ response
- but we can observe behavior and physiology
7
Q
introspection
A
- asking people to say what they are thinking in relation to something like an object or picture
- reporting of inner thoughts and perceived mental activity
8
Q
problems with introspection
A
- not all cognitive processes are consciously perceived
- influenced by bias and interpretation
- lacks consistency within and across individuals
9
Q
behaviorism
A
“Behaviorist Manifesto” - it doesn’t matter what actually happens in the brain, just focus on stimulus and response
- stimulus = some event that triggers or instantiates behavior
- response = reaction to a stimulus
10
Q
cognitivism - argued issues with behaviorism
A
- mental “stuff” crept into accounts of behaviorism -
- human behavior is incredibly diverse
- observability is not necessary to be “scientific”
- behaviorism was not entirely effective to applied issues during WWII
11
Q
cognitivism -Tolman
A
- observed animal behavior by putting rats through mazes
- said that they learned the maze through cognitive mapping
- argued that we can infer what is going on inside the box
12
Q
cognitivism - development of computers
A
- information processing approach = stimulations of thought and thinking
- to create machines that work the way humans work or to create the computer’s own “mind” in order to help humans
- hard drive = mind/mental representations
- processor speed/apps = how much can it hold and how fast can it process things
- program output = mental and behavioral products
13
Q
cognitivism - metatheory
A
the mind is like a computer and the analogies underlying it can change overtime with new understandings
14
Q
assumptions in cog psy
A
- claims and hypotheses about cognitive processes are evaluated on empirical grounds
- typical cognitive processes can be isolated
- cognitive processes may generalize
15
Q
measuring cognitive - reaction time (rt)
A
rt = time elapsed between some stimuls and a person’s response to that stimulus
- ex. press spacebar when an X appears on the screen
16
Q
rt - constant vs random timing
A
- all participants have faster RT when timing is constant
- memory and expertise can reduce RT
- potential applications in real world = trianing people to perform a task
17
Q
process vs product
A
- process = work
- product = what remains after the process is completed
18
Q
cog psy def
A
- describe = what people do as they experience things
- explain = why these cognitive processes exist
- influence = implement knowledge in places like schools, workplaces etc
19
Q
brain composition - cerebral cortex
A
layer of cells that covers the outside of the brain
- wrinkles = tissue
- wrinkled appearance but when stretched it covers 2.5 sq ft
- human brains are far more wrinkled than animal brains and are much bigger
20
Q
brain composition - lobes
A
- frontal lobe = higher order thinking
- parietal lobe = sensory input
- temporal lobe = sound
- occipital lobe = vision
21
Q
mind vs brain
A
- mind = process going on, what does the stimulus lead to
- brain = neuroanatomical architecture
- mind-brain problem: is the mind just what the brain does
- debated to this day
- Homunculus = creepy sensory man-doll
22
Q
understanding the mind
A
- intelligent behavior might be valuable explained by understand the components
- easier to understand each part rather than the interactions among them
- after identifying parts, interactions might be better hypothesized and understood
23
Q
Fodor
A
thesis: to understand the mind you must break it into parts
- mind consists of modules
- modules operate only on specified input and provides specified output upon completion
24
Q
Fodor - syntax module ex
A
processing language comprehension - modules are found through rational analysis, experiments and modeling
25
modules in neuroscience
- functionally segregated regions of cortical tissues
- "localization of function"
- structural = how brain is organized
- functional = what it does
- inspirational = if there's a part of the brain that does something, maybe there is a part of the mind that does it too
- "what" vs "where" processing pathways
26
neural development
- during infant development neurons increase in number but some connections develop more and others are "pruned"
- pruning links depends on experience and behavior
- start with little connections, then more at 6 yrs, and then less at 14 yrs
27
localization of function
- if evidence for a cognitive process is supported by behavioral studies then that process should be represented in the brain
- utilize methods that look at brain damage and activation
28
brain activation
- if a brain area X supports cognitive process Y, then brain area X will be activated during process Y
29
studying brain activation - single-cell electrode recordings
presenting stimuli while connecting electrodes to the brain to identify brain activity
30
studying brain activation - ERP
event-related potentials
- measures electrical activity beginning at stimulus onset
- good for "when" info but poor for "where" info
31
studying brain activation - structural MRI
static snapshot of brain
32
studying brain activation - functional MRI
video of brain to show where blood is flowing = more active parts
- good "where" but mediocre "when"
- ex. right hemisphere has heightened activation when looking at faces - Fusiform face area
33
brain damage
if brain area X supports cognitive process Y, damage to area X will affect process Y
34
studying brain damage - dissociations
- does this process show cognitive process that work or don't work
- disruption in one cognitive process but no impairment of another
- simple dissociation, one area of the brain
- double dissociation, multiple areas
35
hemispheric specialization
- different brain functions tend to rely more heavily on one hemisphere or the other
- Contralaterality = information processed on the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body and vice versa
36
split brain
doesn't process info in both hemispheres equally
- divided visual field task
- so the person is unable to turn their head
- left hemisphere = speech, able to name what they see
- right hemisphere = visuospatial properties, pick out the object in a lineup but might not be able to name it
37
sensation and perception def
- sensation = reception of energy from the environment and its initial encoding into the nervous system (no cognition needed)
- perception = the process of interpreting and understanding sensory information (cognition)
38
perception thematic problem 1 - likelihood principle
- in vision the stimulus on the receptors is impoverished and different from reality
- Likelihood principle: we guess what some things are
39
perception thematic problem 2 - visual system
- visual system process an object’s surface features (color, light source, shadow, reflectance)
- there is actual and perceived variance in surface features
40
perception thematic problem 3 - size estimation
We infer depth from converging lines - but sometimes this is wrong
41
perception thematic problem 4 - consistency
- maintaining consistency of objects
- even if objects change slightly we still know its the same object
42
top-down and bottom-up processing
- top-down: knowledge system, meaning-driven
- bottom-up: sensory, data-driven
43
top-down and bottom-up processing: perception
- incoming stimuli + knowledge = perception
- ex. pattern of light entering the eye (bottom-up) + expectations and existing knowledge (top-down) = perception of object
44
template theories of pattern recognition - def
- we have templates of objects stored in our head
- compare info in environment w template in memory
- means we look for an exact or very close match btw sensory and representation
45
template theories of pattern recognition - computer metaphor: bar code readers/QR code
- looking for a match between the thing scanned and the item it has stored in its system
46
template theories of pattern recognition - limiations
- if the thing in the environment is not exactly like the stored item then it doesn't work
- can't recognize degraded/ambiguous figures
- excessive storage in the brain = computational overload
- relies on holistic processing = whole item to whole stored item
47
feature theories of pattern recognition - def
- rather than having the whole thing stored, we have features of objects like color, size, shape etc
- analysis precedes synthesis
- analyze the parts then synthesize it together
- piecemeal processing
- identifying distinguishing features
48
feature theories of pattern recognition - limitations
- how do you determine appropriate set of features
- doesn't take into account the relationships btw features
49
structure theories - def
- builds on feature theories but focuses on the relationships btw the features
- patterns are represented in memory by their parts and relations to parts
- holistic processing but not limited
- Geons = building blocks of 3D objects
50
structure theories - limitations
- how are relations btw features actually stored
- difficult to account for facial recognition
- size?
- context?
51
prototype theories -def
- a really good example is stored in the head and if the thing in the world is close enough we recognize it
- perceptions are compared with prototype in memory
- minor variations are allowed
- generally holistic
- "good enough" representations
52
attention as a process def
process - means by which you do something the mental process of concentrating effort on specific (external) stimuli or (internal) mental events also effort in ignoring other things
53
attention as a resource def
only some much attention can be used at one given time fixed amount of energy that powers the mental system
54
attention monitoring
concentrating on whats important while monitoring the environment
55
study of attention - dual-task procedure
present people with 2 or more stimuli at the same time and observe how they deal with them (in lab or real world)
56
study of attention - dichotic listening task
- present info in different channels
- ask people to respond to only one input (attended input)
- see if people still process the ignored input and if they can they detect a change in the unattended channel
- people notice when: becomes a pure tone or changes pitch/stereotyped gender, volume
- people don’t notice when: language changes
57
filter models of attention - Broadbent's dichotic listening task
- subjects hear a sequence of numbers in both ears
- Control group: same numbers in both ears
- Experimental group: two different sets of numbers
- People alternate between the channels
- “Flap” blocking one channel as the person listens to the other
- Channels are independent and can only be attended one at a time
- Pair-by-pair reporting requires switching attention from one channel to another
58
filter models of attention - Moray, name example
found that participants in dichotic tasks often reported hearing their name in an unattended channel
59
filter models of attention - Treisman's experiment
- used both words and numbers
- ocasionally the things people were meant to ignore would get through, especially when it was relevant to the attended channel's info
60
filter models of attention - Treisman's filter attenuation model
2 parts: Filter & dictionary
- filter: attenuates the unattended message
- relies on physical characteristics
- dictionary: mental info about what matters to you and what doesn’t (name, things you like, family, recent events)
- semi-permeable unlike Broadbent's filter/flap
61
filter models of attention - Deutsch & Deutsch, late selection
late selection - everything gets into the system and is avaliable to use but once you start using it it goes away
62
filter models of attention - Mackay, priming word
- priming people with a word in the ignored input that correlates with the attended input
- causes them to associate the attended input sentence with primed word ex. bank - could be river or money
63
capacity accounts of attention - Kahneman
- attention capacity is limited
- people can control and allocate their attention
- when demand exceeds supply, performance suffers
- capacity varies with arousal
64
capacity accounts of attention - Johnston & Heinz, 2 task experiment
- first task: lists spoken by male and female voices naming things from different categories
- shadow only the man's voice = physical
- or shadow words naming occupations = semantic
- second task: press button when light appears on screen people's reaction times to the button pressing got slower the more tasks they were doing at the same time
65
capacity accounts of attention - Strayer & Johnston, driving
- driving simulator with cell phone or without
- people missed over half the red lights with cell phone
66
capacity accounts of attention: allocating attention and multitasking
- task requires extensive attention = controlled task
- effortful
- time consuming
- should be easy to modify
- task requires little attention = automatic
- little feeling of effort
- unconscious
- does not interfere with other tasks
- practice can make controlled processing automatic
67
processing the visual world
- sometimes attention is pulled and sometimes you are searching for something using attention
68
processing the visual world: limitation
we don't have enough capacity to process everything
solution:
- ignore some input
- process info selectively
69
attention as a spotlight
- moving eyes around to focus attention means things in the spotlight are processed faster and more deeply than those outside
- allows us to encode info
- spotlight disruption = processing decrements
70
overt orienting of visual attention
eyes move to center the retina on an object, looking at things we are attending to
71
covert orienting
can "attend" to an object without eye movements, like sound
72
spatial cuing: arrow, square task
- overt attention on cross and then show an arrow pointing in a direction
- if the arrow points left and the white square shows up on the right: how fast are they able to say where it is
- people are faster when the arrow points to where the square is going to be than when it's on the other side: overt
- when the arrow points both ways they are still faster than when it's invalid (opposite side):covert
73
feature integration theory: serial processing vs parallel processing
serial processing = one at a time
parallel processing = multiple things at one time
74
feature integration theory: Treisman's visual search
feature search = pop-out effect
- find a color
- parallel search
- set size does not affect RT
- automatic
conjunction search
- find a color and letter
- serial search
- RT increases as set size increases
75
feature integration theory: Triesman's visual search - confirmatory experimental findings
- pop-out search has consistently faster RT
- conjunction search has longer RT as set size increases
76
feature integration theory: processing
initial processing
- features of stimulus are encoded (color, size, orientation)
- create a "map" for each feature
- fast and parallel
focused attention
- combine info in individual feature maps into 'objects' - binding
- slow and serial
77
multiple object tracking demo (MOT) - video games
- MOT with 1 to 7 circles
- video game players vs non-video game players
- both groups were great at 1 circle
- in the middle btw 3-5 objects, video game players were better
- both groups were bad after 6 circles
78
multiple object tracking demo (MOT) - video games: correlation or cause
can you test whether video game experiences = the cause of increased visual attention skill:
- action group = 30 hours of 'training' in shooting game
- control group = 30 hours of 'training' for a more simple game
- action video game training appears to enhance visual attention skill - in the middle
79
agnosia
- when a person loses a sense
- auditory: can't recognize meow of a cat
- visual: difficulty identifying objects
80
inattentional blindness
failure to see something because you weren't expecting it
81
change blindness
inability to detect change in something you are looking at
82
cog psy vs cog sci vs cog neuroscience
cog psych - not about the anatomy, but function
cog science - combo
cognitive neuroscience - physical features about the brain
83
PET scan
- damages in the brain
- good for "where" but not "when"
84
context effects
12, B, 14 - looks like 13 and not a B because of the context of the numbers
