Cog Psych Final

Question 1

Hippocampus

Answer 1

Medial temporal lobe

Close to amygdala which is involved with emotions

Receives highly processed information from cortex

Question 2

Memory formation

Answer 2

See visual experience and info makes it to frontal lobe. Links all these features of the memory together so everything is linked in the episode

Question 3

Event Retrieval: Reconstructing Past Neural Patterns

Answer 3

Vivid remembering reactivates sensory-specific cortex

Question 4

Hippocampus & memory consolidation [memory transfer]

Answer 4

Hippocampus transfers information to get consolidated in cerebral cortex and becomes less critical for memory

Question 5

Hippocampus: importance of sleep

Answer 5

Sleep consolidates memory. Play experience throughout days during sleep so it replays memories from hippocampus to cerebral cortex. You wake up so cortical modules have strengthened connections within or between them so hippocampus is now less important for memory

Question 6

Anterograde amnesia (common)

Answer 6

Unable to recall events after an accident. Improper transfer from short term memory to long term memory

the inability to remember events you experience (episodic memory) and facts you encounter (semantic memory) after the brain injury without hippocampus.

Question 7

Retrograde amnesia

Answer 7

Unable to recall events prior to accident

MTL damage impairs not only new learning, but also disrupts memories acquired before the injury. Gradient over time. More likely to lose memories closer to damage such as days before compared to years ago

MTL = medial temporal lobe

Question 8

Ribot’s Law & ‘time graded’ amnesia

Answer 8

The vulnerability of a given memory is inversely related to the time of its initial formation.

Question 9

Patient Henry Molaison (H.M.) & the Amnesic Syndrome

Answer 9

First major seizure at age 16. Had epiliepsy develop in teen years. Seizures coming from medial temporal love
Bilateral medial-temporal lobe resection (hippocampus & nearby structures) to stop these seizures.
Recovered from neurosurgery. Seizures stopped but something different about him. First report of pervasive & profound amnesia.
Neuropsychological examinations characterizing the amnesic syndrome
Recollections of HM’s distant past are still available. Retained all memories up until time of surgery. Anything that not yet been consolidated by hippocampus was lost including any new memories made past the surgery

Question 10

Hippocampus ‘teaching’ cortical

Answer 10

Play experience throughout days during sleep so it replays memories from hippocampus to cerebral cortex. You wake up so cortical modules have strengthened connections within or between them so hippocampus is now less important for memory

Hippocampus “teaches” the cortex during sleep

Question 11

Double dissociation between episodic
memory (hippocampus-dependent) and
procedural memory (e.g.,
cerebellar-dependent in mirror tracing task)

Answer 11

Patients with damage to the cerebellum are impaired at mirror-tracing (but perform normally on declarative memory tasks)

Patient H.M. could learn new skills (procedural memory) despite amnesia

Question 12

Precision of human memory (e.g. recall a
penny/apple logo)

Question 13

Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm

Answer 13

Participants presented with lists following common theme. 90% of participants were likely to recall these words but also likely to recall words that were the list theme

Question 14

Memory

Answer 14

We often remember only the ‘gist’ of what we experience rather than the veridical details
Memory is a reconstructive process

Question 15

memory errors

Answer 15

We take whatever comes back to mind and fill in the gaps with best guesses. Often, we get details right but sometimes it is wrong or you can switch details. Retrieving a past event engages the same brain mechanisms as imagining a future event. Overlapping brain regions, almost indistinguishable

Question 16

Hippocampus damage + future

Answer 16

Patients with hippocampal damage show an impaired ability to envision the future

Question 17

Source monitoring error

Answer 17

Subjects must commit a source monitoring error, wrongly attributing their memory construction to personal experience

Type of memory error where the source of a memory is incorrectly attributed to some specific recollected experience

Question 18

Misinformation effects

Answer 18

The tendency for postevent information, especially misleading information, to interfere with the memory of the original event

Misleading information can affect memory for the actual event.

Question 19

Misinformation effects: Car accident studies

Answer 19

Loftus & Palmer (1974): Subjects watch a film on traffic safety that contained an accident.
Subjects later answer questions about the accident.
On one question, subjects asked: About how fast were the cars going when they hit each other?
Other subjects given same question, but with “hit” replaced by: contacted or smashed.
Did the question affect memory for other aspects of the accident?
If the word was more intense, then subjects thought car was going faster
Subjects given misleading information after encoding had more false memories for the details of the visual scene

Question 20

Misinformation effects: Planted memories (e.g., lost in the mall study)

Answer 20

Loftus & Pickrell (1995): Lost in a Shopping Mall
Participants read one-paragraph stories about three events that actually happened to them and one that did not (lost in a shopping mall)
Then interviewed about each of these memories.
6 of 24 subjects developed false memories for the mall scenario by the third interview.

Hyman, Husband, & Billings (1995): Accident at a family wedding. Spilling punch on somebody’s dress
3% of participants provided false recall in 1st interview
27% of participants provided false recall in 2nd interview

Porter et al. (1999)
Planted memory study: Viscous animal attack
26% of participants “recovered” a complete memory for the false experience, and an additional 30% of participants recalled some aspects of the experience

Wade et al. (2002) Doctored photos of hot air balloon ride
After 3 interviews, 50% of participants created completely false or partial false memories

Braun, Ellis, and Loftus (2002): Met Bugs Bunny at Disneyland
Not even a disney character

Question 20

Misinformation effects: Implications

Answer 20

False memories can even lead to confessions to a crime one didn’t commit
Rapport-building, social pressure, guilt-presumptive questioning, leading questions, presenting suspects false evidence, typically intermixed with true details, memory retrieval techniques associated with memory distortion (e.g., guided imagery)

Question 21

Categorization/category

Answer 21

Categorization is the process through which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, classified, and understood
Category: a set of items that are grouped together on the basis of something*
You see a slide of cats and dogs. Can group them based on animal type, color of fur, etc.

Question 21

Concepts

Answer 21

Concepts are our mental representations of categories

Question 22

Natural categories

Answer 22

groupings that occur naturally (birds, trees)

Question 23

Artifact categories

Answer 23

designed/invented (computers, sports cars)

Question 24

Stable categories

Answer 24

natural/artifact are typically stable
people generally agree on what goes into them, and what are the criteria of inclusion

Question 25

Ad-hoc categories

Answer 25

unstable categories defined for a special purpose or within a specific context
e.g., “things to write on”, “things to take with you in a fire”

Question 26

Basic level of categorization (Eleanor Rosch)

Answer 26

Eleanor Rosch argued that there is a basic level of categorization
Neither too general nor too specific
Tends to be used in speaking and reasoning about categories
Here, “chair” is the basic-level category, as opposed to “furniture” (more general, or superordinate) or “wooden desk chair” (more specific, or subordinate). Picture was of wooden desk chair
Naming an airplane “airplane” vs aircraft or specific airplane model type
Naming a dog “dog” rather than mammal or poodle
It is easier to explain what features are common to members of basic-level categories than for other levels

Question 27

Superordinate levels of categorization

Answer 27

“chair” is the basic-level category, as opposed to “furniture” (more general, or superordinate)

Question 28

Subordinate levels of categorization

Answer 28

“wooden desk chair” (more specific, or subordinate)

Question 29

Classical theory of categorization

Answer 29

Explicit rules for category membership

A category is defined in terms of necessary and sufficient features
Necessary: has to be there
Sufficient: all that you need
These features define the category. Such as describing geometric shapes
This representation is abstract
It does not store any information about specific exemplars

Question 30

Classical theory of categorization criticism

Answer 30

Defining features often can’t be found for example with cat.
You can often remove any particular feature and some object will still be a category member
Non-necessary features affect categorization
Asking people about parallelograms but they pick one specific shape despite there being more examples
For many categories there are no clear defining features

Question 31

Prototype theory of categorization

Answer 31

Prototypes (mental average of all category members)

The prototype is an ideal category member or average of the various category members. The category representation is abstract.
Some categories are highly variable
Assumes that information about individual instances is not stored, or at least is not used to guide categorization
However, people do seem to store information about individual exemplars, and can sometimes be influenced by these specific exemplars
Also, prototype theory doesn’t have a way of taking into account the variance of a given category

Question 32

Prototype theory of categorization criticism

Answer 32

Also, prototype theory doesn’t have a way of taking into account the variance of a given category
Prototype Theory Problem: Assumes that information about individual instances is not stored, or at least is not used to guide categorization

Question 33

Prototypes and Graded Membership

Answer 33

Objects closer to a prototype are “better” members of the category than objects further from the prototype.
Example: Some birds are “birdier” than other birds

Question 34

Exemplar theory of categorization

Answer 34

Individual instances

Category judgments are made by comparing a new exemplar to all the old exemplars of a category or to the exemplar that most readily comes to mind
Concepts are represented by all of the exemplars that have been experienced
When we categorize something, we compare it one or more exemplars retrieved from memory, and decide the category based on the most similar exemplars
The category representation is concrete: There is not necessarily a summary of the category

Question 35

Exemplar theory of categorization criticism

Answer 35

Problem: Assumes that many individual exemplars are stored in memory without “blending”
Problem: Has trouble accounting for people’s ability to extract general properties of categories to allow classification of new instances

Question 36

Problems with both prototype and exemplar views

Answer 36

Both rely heavily on the idea of similarity & Similarity is always relative: There are an infinite number of ways in which two things can be similar and We require some way of knowing what features are being compared
When there is high variability within a category, a new potential category member may have both: Low similarity with all instances of that category (Exemplar model) or Low similarity with the averaged prototype of that category (Prototype model)

Question 37

Theory-based categorization

Answer 37

We know much more about categories than a list of their features or their values in dimensional space. Categories provide explanations for how things work in the world
The same way that theories provide explanations for scientific phenomena
They center on causal relations between entities in the world
Theories guide perception by leading us to believe that particular features are interesting and others are not

Question 38

Theory-based Theory

Answer 38

Center on causal relationship between things. Categories provide explanations of how things work. Categories include causal explanations!

Question 39

Family resemblance + Ludwig Wittgenstein

Answer 39

Ludwig Wittgenstein proposed that members of a category have a family resemblance to each other
Dark hair, glasses, a mustache, and a big nose are typical for this family but do not define the family.
Cloud of features that tend to be there but not always

Question 40

Typicality effects

Answer 40

Some members of a category are more “typical” than others
They are verified more quickly (sentence verification task)
But, these differences are related to non-necessary features (e.g., ability to fly), which are not included in the classical theory
Typicality ratings may be based on the total number of typical features

Question 41

Typicality effect: Malt & Smith, 1984

Answer 41

reated typicality scale with higher number correlating to more typicality
Production task: How many examples of fruit can you name in the next 30 seconds?
More likely to name apple and orange vs kiwi, tomato, olive, avocado
Graded membership: some fruits are “fruitier” than others”

Question 42

sentence verification task

Answer 42

a procedure in which participants are briefly presented with simple sentences and asked to make quick judgments about them

Question 43

Levels of Language: Phonology (phonemes)

Answer 43

the smallest unit of speech that can be used to distinguish an utterance from another (in a given language).
In English, phonemes are made of a consonant or a vowel
Different languages employ different sets of phonemes (and different types, such as “clicks”)
Phonemes are produced by modulating the flow of air from the lungs to the mouth and nose.
Phonemes can be classified according to specific features

Question 44

Coarticulation

Answer 44

the pronunciation of a phoneme is changed by the following phoneme
Between phonemes in a word: truth vs. tooth
Between phonemes in different words: “can’t handle”

Question 45

Sequences of Phonemes

Answer 45

Only some are acceptable in a given language.
For example, the sequence [tl] is not acceptable in English
Adjustments for certain phoneme sequences
For example, the [s] sound becomes a [z] in words like “bags”

Question 46

Voice onset time (VOT)

Answer 46

The time between the beginning of the pronunciation of the word and the onset of the vibration of the vocal chords
“ba” your vocal chords vibrate right from the start
“pa” your vocal chords do not vibrate until after a short delay
Continuous = Actual sounds
Discrete = Actual perception

Question 47

segmentation errors

Answer 47

A major challenge for speech recognition is phoneme/word segmentation
Word segmentation, also known as decompounding, is the process of splitting a word into its constituent parts

Question 48

Categorical perception of phonemes
(voice onset time (VOT))

Answer 48

Liberman et al. (1957) manipulated the VOT, in systematic increments
Our categorization of phonemes shows abrupt boundaries, even when there is no corresponding abrupt change in the stimuli themselves.
This phenomenon is referred to as categorical perception

Question 49

McGurk Effect

Answer 49

an auditory-visual illusion that illustrates how perceivers merge information for speech sounds across the senses. For example, when we hear the sound “ba” while seeing the face of a person articulate “ga,” many adults perceive the sound “da,” a third sound which is a blend of the two.

Question 50

Properties of Language: Symbolic

Answer 50

make us of arbitrary relation between sounds and meaning
A referent is the actual object, action, or event in the world that a word refers to.
We even use different words to refer to the same thing within the English language (dialects)

Association between the sound “dog” and the object is arbitrary. Could be any other sound (e.g., perro). We often use different words to refer to the same thing

Question 51

Properties of Language: Discrete Infinity (generativity)

Answer 51

the capacity to create an endless series of new combinations, all built from the same fundamental units (words in dictionary)

finite set of elements can generate a (potentially) infinite set of ‘meanings’
(generativity)
It really bothered me that Professor Rissman spent way too much of his lecture talking about how I was amazed that it disturbed Mary when I told her that my roommate heard a rumor that John hates cheese

Question 52

Properties of Language: Structure dependence

Answer 52

meaning is conferred through a specific arrangement of symbols
Language is governed by rules that impart meaning and define which combinations of elements are acceptable and which are not
John kissed Mary
Mary kissed John
Kissed John Mary*
John Mary kissed*
* indicates grammatically incorrect

Question 53

Properties of Language: Displacement

Answer 53

Language allows us to think of and communicate about things that are beyond what is currently being sensed (or things that may not exist)

language allows referring to ideas/elements that are not “there”
Language allows us to think of, and communicate about, ‘things’ beyond what is immediately ‘sensed’
“On Sunday night, your next quiz will be due.”
“Dark matter is a type of matter which neither emits nor scatters light or other electromagnetic radiation and is estimated to constitute 83% of matter in the universe”
“Imagine no possessions. I wonder if you can. No need for greed or hunger. A brotherhood of man. Imagine all the people. Sharing all the world…”

Question 54

Properties of Language: Organized at multiple levels

Answer 54

sounds, words, sentences, paragraphs, and text

Question 55

Morphemes

Answer 55

Morpheme: smallest unit of meaning within a language
Morphemes can be divided into: root words and affixes (i.e., prefix, suffix)
“dog” single morpheme (dog)
“dogs” 2 morphemes (dog & -s [number])
“studied” 2 morphemes (study & -ed [tense])
“restudied” 3 morphemes
“related” only 2 morphemes
Dog (single) vs. Dogs 2 morphemes (dog & -s [number])

Question 56

Syntax

Answer 56

the systematic way in which (categories of) words can be combined and sequenced to generate meaningful phrases and sentences
Rules apply to grammatical categories (nouns, verbs, prepositions, adjectives, adverbs)
One kind of syntactic rule is a phrase-structure rule, a constraint that governs the pattern of branching in a phrase-structure tree.
One such rule specifies that a sentence must contain a noun phrase (NP) and a verb phrase (VP).

Question 57

Transformational grammar

Answer 57

a sentence can be rearranged to express new meanings (relates to structure dependence)
E.g. “Mark drank a cup of tea” vs. “a cup of tea drank Mark?”

Question 58

Recursion

Answer 58

sentence = noun + verb + sentence
E.g. Sentence: “He went to the park” * Recursive sentence: “I thought that he went to the park”

Question 59

Syntax first approach

Answer 59

the theory that the parsing of a sentence is first derived based on principles of grammar alone, without regard to the meaning of the words but experiments show that we do not rely on grammar alone to parse sentences

Question 60

Late Closure - garden path sentences

Answer 60

as long as it makes sense, we keep attaching the incoming words to the phrase we are processing

When we perceive a sentence, we must parse the sentence’s syntactic structure
A garden-path sentence initially suggests one interpretation, which turns out to be wrong.

Question 61

Syntax Ambiguity

Answer 61

a sentence may be interpreted in multiple ways due to ambiguous sentence structure. Extralinguistic context can help with understanding of sentence. Factors outside of language itself can affect sentence understanding/comprehension
Ex: “Squad helps dog bite victim”
The girl looked at the boy with the telescope

Question 62

Context [extralinguistic]

Answer 62

Extralinguistic context: factors outside of language itself can affect sentence parsing
The extralinguistic context refers to factors outside of language itself
The sentence “Put the apple on the towel into the box” is a garden-path sentence, unless the sentence is uttered with the appropriate visual context.

Question 63

Prosody

Answer 63

patterns of pauses or pitch changes that characterize speech production. Used for emphasis, highlighting sentence’s intended structure, assert question/statement. Ex: I never said she stole my money.

Signal the difference between a question and an assertion

Question 64

Pragmatics

Answer 64

how we use words, context in which we say them, and what’s left unsaid

Question 65

Syntax v. Semantics

Answer 65

“Colorless green ideas sleep furiously” (Noam Chomsky)
compare with “Furiously sleep ideas green colorless.”*
“Twas brillig and the shlithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe” (L. Carroll ‘Jabberwocky’)
Illustrates that sentences can be syntactically correct, even when meaningless

Question 66

Descriptive rules

Answer 66

characterize the language as it is ordinarily used by fluent speakers
Linguistics aims to provide a descriptive grammar of language

Question 67

Prescriptive rules

Answer 67

standards for how language “ought” to be used
For example:
Don’t start a sentence with And or Because
Don’t end a sentence with a preposition
Don’t split an infinitive
We should keep a healthy dose of skepticism about prescriptive rules
This type of English I just can’t put up with
Up with this type of English I just cannot put.

Question 68

Language acquisition & development

Answer 68

ages 2-11
people raised with wolves lose ability to learn language

Question 69

Broca’s area

Answer 69

Region of the brain concerned with speech production

Question 70

Broca’s aphasia

Answer 70

Language Impairments: Broca’s Aphasia
Patients struggle to produce grammatical speech. Sentences are short, usually consisting of just nouns and verbs yet reading and verbal comprehension are largely unaffected. Lack complex syntactic structures (Rarely use prepositional phrases (above, less than…))

Question 71

Broca’s aphasia symptoms

Answer 71

Halting speech
tendency to repeat words
disordered syntax
disordered gramar
disordered structure of individual words
comprehension intact

Question 72

Wernicke’s area

Answer 72

Region of the brain concerned with speech comprehension

Question 73

Wernicke’s aphasia

Answer 73

Patients struggle to comprehend sentences (written or spoken)
Sentences mostly grammatical, but often nonsensical. Either because the combination of words is nonsensical Or they introduce new words (neologisms)

Question 74

Wernicke’s aphasia symptoms

Answer 74

fluent speech
little spontaneous repetition
syntax adequate
grammar adequate
contrived or inappropriate words
comprehension not intact

Question 75

Arcuate Fasciculus

Answer 75

White matter tract connecting Broca’s and Wernicke’s Areas

Question 76

Conduction aphasia

Answer 76

Preserved comprehension
Spontaneous speech has proper syntax and semantics
Impaired repetition & paraphasic errors (phonemes and syllables will be dropped or misplaced)

caused by damage to acruate fasciculus

Question 77

Global aphasia

Answer 77

Nearly complete loss of comprehension and production of speech. Some single stereotyped words might still be retained

damage to both broca’s and wernicke’s area

Question 78

The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis strong interpretation

Answer 78

Strong interpretation (linguistic determinism)
Thoughts and behavior are determined by language
The language you speak determines the concepts and categories that you use, and as a result, shapes what you can think about.
No solid evidence that certain languages forbid a speaker from thinking about certain concepts!

Question 79

The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis weak interpretation

Answer 79

Milder interpretation (linguistic relativity)
Thoughts and behavior are influenced by language
Language influences what we pay attention to, and this shapes experience, which influences how we think.

Question 80

Communicative view

Answer 80

language does not affect the way we think. We just use language to communicate our thoughts

Question 81

Cognitive view

Answer 81

language determines or affects the way we think

Question 82

Specific effects

Answer 82

how does our specific language affect our thinking (e.g., Spanish vs Mandarin)

Question 83

General effects

Answer 83

how does having a language (as opposed to not having any language) affect our thinking?

Question 84

Linguistic relativism

Answer 84

how does our specific language affect our thinking?
The types/numbers of words a language has for an item influences how the speaker thinks about it (e.g., color words)
The grammar of a language affects how we think of certain concepts (e.g., how we think of past, present, future)

Question 85

Linguistic determinism

Answer 85

how much (to what extent) does our specific language affect our thinking?
Does language completely determine thought (strong) or does is only influence thought (weak)?

Question 86

Cognitive view (general):

Answer 86

Spelke: language is the thing that makes us different. Language allows us to achieve things other species can’t

Question 87

Color and language supports linguistic relativism

Answer 87

Example 2: Color terms
Assessing color perception with Maunsell color chips
People of different cultures divide colors up differently.

Does language influence perception of color?
Do Berinmo speakers perceive color differently?
If categorical effects are restricted to linguistic boundaries, these groups should show different responses across the two category boundaries (green-blue and nol-wor)
If categorical effects are determined by the universal properties of the visual system, then both populations should show the same response pattern

Question 88

Gendered terms and language. support linguistic relativism

Answer 88

Do people include gender in their conceptual representations of objects?
Are people’s ideas about the genders of objects influenced by grammatical genders assigned in their native languages?
Taught Spanish and German speakers object-name pairs (e.g., apple-Patrick)
Name was either consistent or inconsistent with the grammatical gender of the object in their native language
Measured memory for the pairs; all testing was in English
Both Spanish and German speakers remembered objectname pairs better when the gender of the proper name given to an object was consistent with the grammatical gender of the object name in their native language than when the two genders were inconsistent.

another Boroditsky experiment:
Spanish and German speakers asked to write down the first 3 adjectives that came to mind to describe various objects
More masculine properties produced for masculine objects (defined by native language), and more feminine properties produced for feminine objects
Example: key
Masculine in German, feminine in Spanish
German: hard, heavy, jagged, metal, serrated
Spanish: golden, intricate, little, lovely, shiny
Grammatical gender focuses speakers of different languages on different aspects of objects

Question 89

mental imagery

Answer 89

Mental imagery may involve any of the sensory modalities
Imagine a taste, a sound, a touch, a smell

Question 90

The Analog Viewpoint
Stephen Kosslyn

Answer 90

Visual mental images are analogous to pictures in the head (“functional equivalence”) ** Championed by Stephen Kosslyn **
Visual mental images are functionally equivalent with pictures:
Preserves metric spatial information
Changes with viewpoint
Empty space explicitly represented
Experienced using spatial attention

Question 91

The Analog Viewpoint: functional equivalence

Answer 91

Functional equivalence - Although images are not identical to perception or real objects, images should behave the same way as real objects

Question 92

The Propositional Viewpoint
Zenon Pylyshyn

Answer 92

The Propositional Viewpoint: Although we may believe we experience images as “pictures,” the underlying mental representations are actually non-pictorial abstract concepts. ** Championed by Zenon Pylyshyn ***
Mental imagery is guided by symbolic or linguistic representations
e.g., Structural description
List of Features and Relationships
e.g., Dog: Pointy ears on-top-of head Head on-top-of body Four legs beneath body Fur covering ears, legs, body

Question 93

APHANTASIA

Answer 93

brain can not picture things

Question 94

HYPERPHANTASIA

Answer 94

remembering things with too much detail

Question 95

Analog Representations evidence

Answer 95

**Anecdotal evidence: The experience of imagining feels very much like seeing a picture in one’s mind
But can the existence of analog mental images be demonstrated experimentally?
Reaction time increases linearly with distance
As if have image in head that can gradually update
Analogous to real rotation
These results are observed even without instruction to use imagery, suggesting that participants spontaneously form mental images and scan them.
fMRI BOLD data from mental rotation task
**More dorsal stream brain activity **needed for a 40o rotation than for no rotation at all, and even more activity needed for an 80o or a 120o rotation.

Question 96

The Propositional Theory’s response

Answer 96

Elaborate structural descriptions can explain rotation results
Angles of features are specified
e.g., Partial description of Shepard & Metzler stimuli:

Question 97

Imagery & Ambiguous Figures

Answer 97

Chambers & Reisberg (1985)
Showed ambiguous figures for 5 seconds and asked for first interpretation
Removed picture, asked people to form a mental image

Results
People were unable to discover a second interpretation from the image
Then drew the figure from memory and could then find the other interpretation

Conclusion
A propositional code may override the imaginal code in some circumstances

Question 98

Evidence: Kosslyn’s image scanning experiment (1978)

Answer 98

“Scanning” farther takes longer – it’s like you have to move the same distance in mental space * Support for analog representation hypothesis * Mental images are internal representations that operate in a way that is analogous to the functioning of the perception of physical objects (“functional equivalence”)

Kosslyn’s image scanning experiment (1978)
Task:
Memorize map
Map taken away
Focus attention on named location
Hear other location
Press button when attention at 2nd location

Question 99

Resolution of the imagery debate

Answer 99

Lots of evidence for analog visual images
But propositional theory never completely ruled out
Assumes that the mind can rapidly work with extremely elaborate structural descriptions
Can neuroscientific data weigh in on the debate?

Question 100

Early neuroimaging evidence (fMRI) for involvement of visual processing areas during visual imagery

Answer 100

Decoding Individual Mental Images From fMRI Activity But the propositional theorists were still not convinced
“…so desperate are those who seek a neurophysiological explanation of the bankrupt picture theory of mental imagery that they take almost any neuroscience finding as support” - Zenon Pylyshyn (2002)

Question 101

Making judgments

Answer 101

Judgment is the process through which people draw conclusions from the evidence they encounter

Question 102

Judgement heuristics

Answer 102

A “rule of thumb” or mental shortcut
Often based on past experience
Does a good job most of the time
Save us time and energy
Not guaranteed to be correct…and errors tell us important things…

Heuristics are efficient strategies that usually lead to the correct
answer. They are mental shortcuts that can:
* Reduce mental effort
* Simplify information
* Lead to faster decisions
Heuristics rely on attribute substitution
* strategy of relying on easily assessed
information as a proxy for needed
information

Question 103

Availability heuristic

Answer 103

The judged probability of an event is related to how easily that event can be brought to mind.
Influenced by a given event being: Recent, Frequent, Vivid, Extreme, Negative

Question 104

Availability heuristic experiments

Answer 104

Availability: role of media coverage
Judgments are clearly influenced by how often each factor appears in the media1
While homicide and fire are often reported, kidney disease doesn’t get as much press
The availability heuristic may lead us to believe that we always do the housework ourselves.
Schwarz et al. (1991)
Asked subjects to recall examples from their lives in which they had acted in an assertive fashion
Half of the subjects asked to recall 6 example
Half of the subjects asked to recall 12 examples
Then participants were asked some more general questions, including how assertive they thought they were
Which subject group rated themselves as more assertive? The group asked to generate 6 examples due to lack of memories coming up in the group of 12 examples
Craig Fox (2006) experiment
List 2 ways in which the course could be improved (easy task!) OR list 10 ways (relatively more difficult…I hope!)
Then ask for an overall rating of the class
Which results in higher ratings?

What is the median price of a home in Los Angeles?
* $1.2 million!
* You may hear about all of those expensive homes
that sell for upwards of $5 million, and those come
to mind when thinking about this question.
* Examples of higher home prices were more readily
available in your mind

Question 105

Representativeness heuristic

Answer 105

People judge probabilities based on the degree that the situation is similar to, or representative of, their stereotypes or knowledge
They do this even when there is other information that a rational person would use to make the best possible decision.

Question 106

Representativeness heuristic EX

Answer 106

“Steve is very shy and withdrawn, invariably helpful, but with little interest in people, or in the world of reality. A meek and tidy soul, he has a need for order and structure and a passion for detail”.
Is Steve more likely to be a: salesperson or librarian? Most people pick librarians but steve is 83x more likely to be salesman than librarian
Showed subjects personality descriptions allegedly sampled at random from a group of 100 professionals (lawyers & engineers)
Subjects told: 70% lawyers, 30% engineers (BASE RATE)
Dick is a 30-year old married man with no children. A man of high ability and high motivation, he promises to be quite successful in his field. He is well-liked by his colleagues. Lawyer or engineer?
Subjects predict: 50/50: base rate neglect

Question 107

Base-rate neglect

Answer 107

The tendency for people to mistakenly judge the likelihood of a
situation by not taking into account underlying frequencies.

Question 108

Base-rate neglect EX

Answer 108

Tom is an opera buff who enjoys touring art museums when on vacation. Growing up,
he enjoyed playing chess with family members and friends. Which situation is more
likely?
● Tom plays trumpet for a major symphony orchestra
● Tom is a farmer
Most people are inclined to judge that Tom is much more likely to be the musician. The
characteristics outlined in his description are more representative of people employed in
the arts. However, there are many more farmers in the US than trumpet players for
major symhony orchestras

Question 109

Dual system theory

Answer 109

System #1 (INTUITION)
intuitive automatic immediate most heuristics produced by this system

System #2 (REASONING)
analytical, controlled, consciously monitored, rule governed, serial, cognitive demanding, flexible, make little use of this system

Question 110

Conjunction fallacy

Answer 110

a conjunction of two categories cannot be larger than either of the
two categories it is composed of

Question 111

Conjunction fallacy EX

Answer 111

Linda is a 30-something college
graduate with a degree in philosophy. She is
deeply interested in social justice.
Is it more likely that she is a bank teller or a
bank teller who is also an active member of her
local League of Women’s Voters?

Question 112

Gambler’s fallacy

Answer 112

Assuming that previous chance outcomes will have an
effect on a new, independent event

Question 113

Gambler’s fallacy EX

Answer 113

We know this should average out to about a 50-50 split in the long run, so we
feel that, if we have a long string of heads, we’re “due” a tails to even it out.
Realistically, the base rate at each toss doesn’t change– we have a 50%
chance of it landing on heads at each new toss.

Question 114

Anchoring & Adjustment

Answer 114

you’re letting your starting (anchor) point for a
judgment determine how you’re going to adjust away from it.

Question 115

Illusion of covariation

Answer 115

Incorrect perceptions that one variable predicts
another
* Example: Many people incorrectly believe in a correlation between a person’s
astrological sign and their personality

Question 116

Confirmation bias

Answer 116

tendency to be more responsive to evidence that confirms
one’s beliefs than evidence that challenges them.

Question 117

man who

Answer 117

The representativeness heuristic may lead us to believe that smoking must be okay for your health based on one example (anecdotal evidence or “man who” stories).
We often assume that what is true of one instance of the category must be true of the category as a whole

Question 118

Why we make these errors of judgment: Attribute Substitution

Answer 118

relying on false atrategies that can lead to errors in judgement b/c of availability heuristics or thinking something is homogenous when not

Question 119

Deductive reasoning

Answer 119

The process of reasoning from one or more general statements (premises) to reach a logically certain conclusion
Conclusions follow directly from premises using rules of logic
Guaranteed to be correct (If you follow the rules!!)

Question 120

Inductive reasoning

Answer 120

Reasoning that constructs or evaluates general propositions that are derived from specific examples
Probable guesses made on the basis of prior evidence
Not guaranteed to be correct
some inferences are more likely to be right than others

Question 121

Inductive reasoning EX

Answer 121

Example of induction
We would like to form universal generalizations about the world
Format: All X’s are Y
Ex: e.g., All swans are white (These are based on our previous experiences) but Induction is only guaranteed if we have experienced all possible instances e.g., there are black swans in Australia

Question 122

Syllogism (deduction)

Answer 122

consists of 2 premises followed by a conclusion
The argument is valid if the conclusion is certain based on the
premises
● It doesn’t matter whether the premises/conclusion are true or false, but
only whether the conclusion follows from the premises
● Validity is a formal property - it is like saying a math equation is correct

Question 123

Syllogism (deduction) ex

Answer 123

Example:
○ Premise 1: All puppies are dogs
○ Premise 2: Some dogs are spotted
○ Conclusion : Therefore, some puppies are spotted

INVALID BC its possible that no puppies are spotted

Question 124

Belief bias

Answer 124

people tend to:
○ Reject a valid syllogism if the conclusion is unbelievable
○ Accept an invalid syllogism if the conclusion is believable
● So people think - if it’s unbelievable it’s probably invalid, and if it’s
believable it’s probably valid. But this leads to errors because
believability doesn’t matter in deduction

Question 125

belief bias ex

Answer 125

All As are Bs
All Bs are Cs
Therefore, all As are Cs
Valid
Premise 1: All puppies are dogs.
Premise 2: All dogs eat.
Conclusion: Therefore, all puppies eat.

Question 126

the atmosphere effect

Answer 126

being influenced by the global impression or feel of the premises.

Question 127

Wason 4 card selection task ???

Answer 127

“If you borrow my car, you must fill up the gas tank.” (i.e., if A is true,
B is true).
Goal: Turn over two to ‘verify’ the rule: What situation is falsifiable
(has potential to make the rule false)?

Each card has a number on one side and a letter on the other

Question 128

Iowa gambling task

Answer 128

The orbitofrontal cortex is essential for the evaluation of somatic markers
Patients with damage to that area will make risky decisions (Iowa gambling task)
Continue to select from disadvantageous deck of cards
Fail to associate arousal responses with decisions

Question 129

confirmation bias (illusory covariation)

Answer 129

more responsive to evidence that confirms one’s beliefs

ignore disconfirming data and can lead to perpetuation of unfounded stereotypes

Question 130

expected utility theory

Answer 130

rational person should try to calculate the expected utility of each option and choose the option that maximizes this

involves balancing costs and benefits; assumes individual is behaving and making decisions rationally

Question 131

expected value

Answer 131

(probability of a particular outcome) * (value of outcome)

e.g., If you are playing roulette and there is a 1/20 chance of winning $100, the expected value of the gamble is $5

Question 132

prospect theory (Kahneman and Tversky, 1979)

Answer 132

People make decisions based on the potential gain or losses relative to their specific situation (the reference point) rather than in absolute terms
it is asymmetric! bigger impact of losses than gains bc we are more loss averse

Question 133

Framing Effects

Answer 133

Imagine that the U.S. is preparing for the outbreak of an unusual disease, which is expected to kill 600 people. Two alternative programs to combat the disease have been proposed. Assume that the exact scientific estimate of the consequences of the programs are as follows:
If Program A is adopted, 200 people will be saved.
If Program B is adopted, there is 1/3 probability that 600 people will be saved, and 2/3 probability that no people will be saved.
Which of the two programs would you favor?

People tend to interpret a choice in terms of the given frame of reference
This combines with the asymmetry of the utility function to cause behavior that differs depending on the description

Question 134

Risk aversion v risk seeking

Answer 134

Risk aversion when framed in terms of potential gains
Risk-seeking when framed in terms of potential losses
People are also influenced by how evidence is framed
The Moderna vaccine is effective 90% of the time
The Oxford vaccine is ineffective 10% of the time
Which would you choose?

Question 135

emotions and decision making

Answer 135

People’s decisions are powerfully influenced by emotion
Assessment of risk in emotional terms

Question 136

Use of somatic markers to evaluate options, especially under uncertainty (Damasio)/ role of regret

Answer 136

Body gives you feedback about your choices
Reliance on “gut feelings” to make decisions
Somatic markers enable us to plan/organize behavior and learn from previous mistake

People make decisions they are less likely to regret. However, when decisions go wrong, people do not regret decisions as strongly as they thought thye would anyways.

Question 137

Opt-In versus Opt-Out

Answer 137

One group of participants was given a coffee mug and then given the opportunity to sell it
A different group of participants was given cash and then the opportunity to buy the coffee mug
Is it always better to have more options to choose from, and does this make us feel better about our eventual choice?
More options Often leads to NOT making a decision
Also in applied areas: medical decisions
Drug A or surgery: Many doctors thought drug treatment might help
Drug A, Drug B, or surgery: With 2 drug options and difficulty justifying one drug over another, surgery option was chosen more often (avoiding the need to make a drug choice)

Question 138

Problem Solving: Four Components

Answer 138

Initial state: Resources that you have at the outset
Goal state: The desired end product
Operators: A set of operations or actions that can be taken to change the current state into a new state
Path constraints: Rules that cannot be violated

Question 139

Problem space

Answer 139

the set of all states that can be reached in solving a problem, as one moves from the initial state toward the goal state

Question 140

Well-defined problems

Answer 140

All four aspects of the problem are clearly specified

Question 141

Ill-defined problems

Answer 141

One or more of the aspects of the problem are not well specified
“Achieving world peace”
* Goal is no more war, but what else is required to realize this goal? How will
disputes be settled? Resources allocated?
* “Having a great time on vacation”; “Writing a perfect grad school admissions
essay”; “Create an app to help improve people’s health

Question 142

The Hill-Climbing Strategy

Answer 142

Choose an option that moves you in the direction of the goal
* However, many problems require you to move away from the goal state.
* E.g., solving a maze (or walking in your city)

A potential local maximum problem
The hill-climbing strategy is the heuristic to choose an option that moves you in the direction of the goal
However, many problems require you to move away from the goal state
E.g., walking two blocks east to a bus stop, in order to catch a westbound bus

Question 143

The Means-End Heuristic

Answer 143

2 major parts:
1. Divide the problem into smaller subproblems
2. Solve each of the smaller subproblems
“Piece by piece”: make continual progress towards goal solving smaller subproblems

EX: How should you get from UCLA campus to the Empire State Building?
Fly from LA to New York: takes care of biggest difference
Creates new sub-problems: Getting from UCLA to the airport or n Getting from a New York airport to the Empire State Building. Each needs to be solved.

Question 144

Insight

Answer 144

Occurs when the solution to a problem seems to come suddenly

Question 145

Insight + Wolfgang Köhler

Answer 145

First identified by Wolfgang Köhler in his study of chimps
Bananas hanging from top of cage out of reach of chimps
Some empty boxes were present in the corner of the cage
After sitting quietly for a few minutes, they suddenly produced a solution: standing on top of empty boxes to get to the bananas

Question 146

Insight + bronze coin problem

Answer 146

The Bronze Coin Problem: A stranger approached a museum curator and offered him an ancient bronze coin. The coin had an authentic appearance and was marked with the date 544 B.C. The curator had happily made acquisitions from suspicious sources before, but this time he promptly called the police and had the stranger arrested. Why? BC didnt exist then
Metcalfe & Wiebe (1987): gave subjects the Bronze Coin problem and complex algebra problems. BC didn’t exist then
Subjects made “feeling of warmth” ratings (how close to the solution) every 15 sec before they arrived at the solution

Question 147

Insight + feelings of warmth

Answer 147

For insight problems, there is no linear ramp-up of
“feeling of warmth”
* no subjective sense that one is getting closer to solving the
problem
* Feelings of warmth do not predict accuracy of solution
* “Aha!” moment may only mean that you’ve discovered a new
approach to the problem, not necessarily the solution

Question 148

Insight + neural correlates (EEG study)

Answer 148

There is no question that problems requiring some insight involve a distinctive set of brain processes.
In Panel A, the yellow R indicates the moment at which the research participant announced that he
or she had figured out the problem solution, either for a problem requiring some insight (red line,
keyed “I”) or for a problem not requiring a special insight (blue line, keyed “NI”). To make the
difference between these lines easily visible, the difference is shaded in yellow. The time axis shows
the time relative to the participants’ announcement that an insight had emerged. The measure of
“gamma power” is derived from EEG procedures, and it represents the square of the voltage
measured in brain waves. Panel B shows the spatial focus of this distinctive brain process—called
“gamma-band activity.” The red dots in Panel B show where the EEG electrodes were placed.

Question 149

Insight + incubation

Answer 149

A period of “incubation” can often help
walk away from the problem for a while
The solution may come in a flash

Question 150

Mental sets

Answer 150

a frame of mind involving a certain representation of a problem, its context or a procedure for solving it
May cause you to adopt an ineffective strategy and prevents problem-solving
You may make wrong assumptions without realizing it
You may find it hard to approach the problem in a new way
Some problems require a change in mental set; i.e., re-representing a problem

Question 151

Functional fixedness

Answer 151

The inability to realize that something that has a certain use might also be used for performing other functions

Question 152

Functional fixedness: candle problem

Answer 152

Participants fixate on the box as having only one function: keep matches.
When the match-box was shown empty, with matches on the table, subjects were more likely to solve problem: put candle on wall given tacks, match box, and candle

Question 153

Functional fixedness: two-string problem

Answer 153

2 strings you need to tie together with pliers but they are too far apart. Can use pliers to make do as a pendulum
Maier (1931) found it was possible to facilitate insight by ‘accidentally’ brushing against one of the strings
Those who solved it rarely reported noticing this cue
Unconscious cues can lead to problem restructuring and then to insight

Question 154

Analogy + facilitating problem solving

Answer 154

Analogies depend on similarities in structure
Most people tend to focus on surface features, which can be superficial in solving the problem
Analogy use depends on expertise within the relevant domain
Experts think of problems in terms of deep structure
Understanding the structure of a problem is far more effective for solving future problems than simply memorizing the solution

Question 155

Tumor problem Duncker (1945)

Answer 155

You are a doctor faced with a patient with a malignant tumor.It is impossible to operate, but unless the tumor is destroyed the patient will die. There is a kind of ray that can be used to destroy the tumor. If the rays reach the tumor all at once at a sufficiently high intensity, the tumor will be destroyed. Unfortunately, at this intensity the healthy tissue that the rays
pass through on the way to the tumor will also be destroyed. At lower intensities, the rays are harmless to healthy tissue, but they will not affect the tumor, either. What type of procedure might be used to destroy the tumor with the rays and at the same time avoid destroying the healthy tissue?

Typical solving rate: 10%
Some subjects were given other stories to read; one
included the story of a general attacking a fortress

Question 156

Tower of Hanoi

Answer 156

GOAL: Getting all the disks from the first to last peg.
RULES: Must move disc from top of pile. Peg moving to must be empty or have bigger disc on it
Many sub-goals: e.g., getting largest disk to the far peg first
To solve, must be willing to temporarily move away from the goal

Question 157

Lily pads problem

Answer 157

Sometimes helps to use the goal as the starting point and work backwards!

Question 158

Experts

Answer 158

Experts know about a particular domain: Any individual who can consistently and reliably demonstrate superior performance on tasks designed to capture essential aspects of skill in the domain under investigation
Experts are outliers: If you are performing 2 or more standard deviations above the population mean, you are likely an expert. > 97.5% percentile

Question 159

The nature vs. nurture debate

Answer 159

Francis Galton (late 1800’s)
Analyzed genealogical records of scholars, artists, musicians, and other professionals and found that greatness tends to run in families
e.g., counted more than 20 eminent musicians in the Bach family
Concluded that experts are “born”
John Watson (early 1900’s)
Countered that experts are “made”
Said that he could take any infant at random and “train him to become any type of specialist [he] might select—doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and, yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents.”

Question 160

Becoming an expert

Answer 160

Practice: Development of perceptual, motor, and cognitive skills
Learning what you do and do not know
Expertise takes at least 10 years to develop (Gardner)
10,000+ hours of deliberate practice is needed (Ericsson)
Researchers reanalyzed data from 14 studies of top chess players and musicians
They found that for musicians, only 30% of the variance in their rankings as performers could be accounted for by how much time they spent practicing.
For chess players, practice only accounted for 34% of what determined the rank of a master player

Question 161

How does Akira Haraguchi do it? Memorize pi numbers?

Answer 161

He has come up with his own way of assigning kana characters to each number. The number 0, for example, can be read as o, ra, ri, ru, re, ro, wo, on or oh; 1 can be a, i, u, e, hi, bi, pi, an, ah, hy, hyan, bya, or byan. The list goes on up to 9.
Combining these characters, he has created a myriad of stories and poems, including a story about a legendary 12th-century hero
When he recites digits, he explains that he “simultaneously interprets” his linguistic creations back into numbers
Through years of practice at home, which he has done every night after dinner and a bit of sake, and which to him seems more like daydreaming than cramming, he has trained himself to recite up to five numbers per second

Question 162

Based on the “Method of Loci” mnemonic

Answer 162

Invented by Simonides of Ceos in 5th Century B.C.
Discovered that if visual images of things to be memorized were placed in sequence along imaginary journeys, or “memory palaces”, they could easily be recalled later

Question 163

Mnemonic Techniques: Remembering Numbers

Answer 163

The Major System: Invented in the 17th Century
Convert numbers to letters, interspersing vowels as needed

Question 164

Is there anything special about the brains or intellectual abilities of World Memory Champions?

Answer 164

Maguire et al. (2003) compared World Memory Champions and age-matched control subjects on a variety of cognitive tests
No difference in verbal or non-verbal IQ measures
No difference in visual memory abilities (e.g., figure copy)
However, when the subjects underwent fMRI scanning during memorization tasks, the memory champions showed increased activity (relative to control subjects) in the hippocampus and brain regions involved in spatial/contextual processing and imagery

Question 165

London Taxi Drivers: “The Knowledge”: No GPS

Answer 165

Structural brain changes associated with years of taxi driving
More posterior hippocampus gray matter volume
Structural brain changes associated with initial learning of the “The Knowledge”

Question 166

Chess expertise

Answer 166

Chase & Simon (1973) conducted an experiment examining people’s visuospatial memory for chess pieces
Experts vs. beginners: Task: view chess board for 5 sec and then reconstruct from memory
Chess experts are better able to remember real chess positions. They are actually worse at remembering random positions
Chase and Simon (1973) estimated that chess experts spend up to 50,000 hours learning to play chess.
That works out to 4 hours of chess a day for over 30 years
Chess experts can recognize between 10,000 and 100,000 distinct patterns of chess pieces on a chessboard.
Pieces within a single chunk are bound by relations of mutual defense, proximity, attack over small distances, and common color and type.
A huge “vocabulary” of chess configurations enables the expert to grasp the layout of a chessboard almost immediately
Shows that FFA may not be exclusively used for face perception, but may also be important for other forms of expert pattern recognition

Question 167

Convergent thinking

Answer 167

An ability to find ways in which seemingly distinct ideas might be interconnected.

Question 168

Divergent thinking

Answer 168

An ability to move one’s thoughts in novel, unanticipated directions.

Question 169

Remote Associates Task (RAT)

Answer 169

find the common word that connects each triad..

Question 170

Stages of Creative Process: Wallas, 1926

Answer 170

Preparation
Incubation
Illumination
Verification

Question 171

Preparation

Answer 171

formulate the problem and make first attempts to solve it

Question 172

Incubation

Answer 172

set the problem aside
Experimental evidence for incubation
Subjects given either helpful or misleading clues to rebus puzzles
Control participants had 1 min to work on each puzzle; other participants worked on each puzzle for 30 sec, then were interrupted, and later returned to the puzzle for an additional 30 sec.
Those with a delay performed better and forgot misleading cues
Gave participants the Alternative Uses Task twice
If participants performed an undemanding cognitive task during a 12 min incubation period in between assessments, their performance improved significantly

Question 173

Illumination

Answer 173

achieve insight into solution

Question 174

Verification

Answer 174

make sure the solution actually works

Question 175

The Whorfian question

Answer 175

“Are our own concepts of time, space, and matter given in substantially the same form by experience to all men, or are they in part conditioned by the structure of particular languages?”