Cognition, Consciousness, and Language

Question 1

Cognition and Information Processing Model

Answer 1

• Cognition: How the brain processes and reacts to the incredible information overload presented by the world.
• Dual-Coding Theory: Both verbal association and visual images are used to process in store information (the word “dad” and a picture of “dad” both recall the same information).
• Information Processing Model: (1) Thinking requires sensation, encoding, and storage of stimuli. (2) Stimuli must be analyzed by the brain, rather than responded to automatically, to be useful in decision-making. (3) Situational Modification; Decisions made in one situation can be extrapolated and adjusted to help solve new problems. (4) Problem-solving is dependent not only on the persons cognitive level, but also on the context and complexity of the problem.

Question 2

Cognitive Development

Answer 2

• Cognitive Development: Development of one’s ability to think and solve problems across lifespan. During childhood, cognitive development is limited by pace of brain maturation. As physical tasks are mastered, developing child develops abstract thinking (ability to think about things that are not physically present).
• Cognitive development is related to culture, as one’s culture will determine what one is expected to learn; some cultures place higher value on social learning (of tradition and roles) while others value knowledge.
• Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development: Proposes that there are qualitative differences between the way that children and adults think. Patterns of behavior and thought are organized into a Schema and can include concept, behavior, or sequence of events. New information is processed via Adaptation, either by Assimilation (classifying new information into existing schemata) or Accommodation (modifying existing schemata to encompass new information). Divided into Sensorimotor, Preoperational, Concrete Operational, Formal Operational.
• (1) Sensorimotor: Age 0-2. Child learns to manipulate environment in order to meet physical needs and learns to coordinate sensory input with motor actions. Infant exhibits Primary Circular Reactions (repetition of body movements that originally occurred by chance and that are found to be soothing/pleasurable, such as sucking thumb) and Secondary Circular Reactions (Repetition of action in order to trigger a response from the environment, such as throwing a toy from high chair so that parent will pick it up). Stage ends with development of Object Permanence (understanding that objects continue to exist even when out of view), which marks beginning of Representational Thought (creating mental representations of external objects and events).
• (2) Preoperational Stage: Age 2-7. Characterized by Symbolic Thinking (ability to pretend, play make-believe, and have imagination) and Egocentrism (inability to imagine what another person may think or feel). The inability to grasp concept of Conservation (child fails to understand that physical amount remains the same even if there is a change in shape or appearance, such as thinking that one large slice of pizza is a smaller amount than the exact same quantity of pizza in two small slices) is due to Centration (tendency to focus on only one aspect of a phenomenon, such as the number of slices, while ignoring other important elements).
• (3) Concrete Operational Stage: Age 7-11. Child can understand conservation, can consider the perspectives of others (loss of egocentrism), and can engage in logical thought as long as they are working with directly available concrete objects and information (cannot think abstractly yet).
• (4) Formal Operational Stage: Age 11+ (adolescence). Marked by Abstract Thinking and Hypothetical Reasoning (ability to mentally manipulate variables in a number of ways within the scope of scientific experiments).
• Fluid Intelligence (solving new or novel problems, often creatively) peaks in early adulthood but declines with age, while Crystallized Intelligence (acquired knowledge, often procedural) peaks in middle adulthood and remains stable with age. Decline in intellectual abilities in adulthood linked with how long an older individual can perform Activities of Daily Living (eating, bathing, toileting, dressing, ambulance).
• Dementia: Progressive loss of cognitive function (due to Alzheimer’s or vascular dementia from hypertension and repeated microscopic clots in brain).
• Delirium: Rapid fluctuation of cognitive function that is reversible and caused by medical (nonpsychological) causes, such as electrolyte and pH disturbances, malnutrition, hypoglycemia, infection, drug reaction, pain, alcohol withdrawal (delirium tremens, which can be lethal).

Question 3

Problem Solving and Functional Fixedness

Answer 3

• Problem Solving: (1) Question must be framed. (2) Potential solutions are generated from Mental Set (tendency to approach similar problems in the same way). (3) Solutions must be tested and then evaluated.
• Functional Fixedness: Inability to consider how to use an object in a nontraditional manner.
• Types of Problem Solving: Trial-and-Error, Algorithms (formula or procedure designed to automatically produce desired solution), Deductive Top-Down Reasoning (conclusions are drawn using a set of general rules; general to specific), Inductive Bottom-Up Reasoning (generalizations are made from specific instances; specific to general).

Question 4

Problem Solving Tools

Answer 4

• Heuristics, Biases, Intuition, Emotion.

• Heuristics: Simplified principles used to make decisions; rules of thumb.
• Availability Heuristic: Likelihood of an event is based on how easily examples of that event come to mind (Are there more words in the English language that start with the letter “K” or that have “K” is there third letter? Words are often classified based on first letters, so words starting with “K” come easily to mind, leading to wrong answer).
• Representativeness Heuristic: Categorizing items on the basis of whether they fit prototypical, stereotypical, or representative image of category (dog with curly hair must be a poodle, or a 300lb man must be a sumo wrestler instead of an accountant). Using prototypical or stereotypical factors while ignoring actual numerical information is called the Base Rate Fallacy.
• Affect Heuristic: Judgments are made depending on emotional state as well as emotional content of the decision; options that provoke positive emotions are more likely to be chosen than those that evoke negative emotions.
• Disconfirmation Principle: Evidence obtained from testing demonstrated that the solution does not work, so the solution should be discarded.
• Confirmation Bias: Tendency to focus on information that fits individual’s beliefs while rejecting information that goes against them.
• Overconfidence: Tendency to erroneously interpret one’s decisions, knowledge, beliefs as infallible.
• Hindsight Bias: Tendency to overestimate one’s ability to predict the outcome of events that have already happened.
• Belief Perseverance: Inability to reject particular belief despite clear evidence to the contrary.
• Intuition: Ability to act on perceptions that may not be supported by available evidence; beliefs that are not necessarily supported by evidence but that a person “feels” to be correct.
• Recognition-Primed Decision Model: Sorting through a wide variety of information to match a pattern (ER physician may develop keen sense of which patients are actually having a heart attack without even looking at EKG due to extensive experience).

• Emotion: Subjective experience in a certain situation; how someone feels. Emotions and decision-making are not limited to the emotion experience while the decision is being made; emotions that a person expects to feel from a particular decision are also involved.

Question 5

Intelligence

Answer 5

• Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligence: Linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, visual–spatial, bodily–kinesthetic, naturalist, interpersonal (ability to detect and navigate moods and motivations of others), and intrapersonal (being mindful of one’s own emotions, strengths, and weaknesses).
• Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory of Intelligence: Analytical (ability to evaluate and reason), creative (ability to solve problems using novel methods), and practical (ability to deal with every day problems at home or at work).
• Theory of Emotional Intelligence: Ability to express and perceive emotions in ourselves and others, ability to comprehend and analyze our emotions, ability to regulate our emotions, and awareness of how emotions shape our thoughts and decisions. Empathy is main example.
• Stanford-Binet IQ Test: Attempts to quantify intelligence by determining Spearman’s “g factor”.
• IQ = (mental age / chronological age) × 100.

Question 6

States of Consciousness

Answer 6

• Consciousness: One’s level of awareness of both the world and one’s own existence within that world.
• Alertness: State of consciousness in which we are awake, able to think, and experience certain level of Physiological Arousal (increased heart rate, breathing rate, blood pressure, cortisol levels). Maintained by neurological circuits in prefrontal cortex that also communicate with reticular formation (brainstem structure that keeps cortex awake and alert, injury results in coma).
• Sleep: Electroencephalography (EEG) records beta waves (alert and concentrating), alpha waves (awake with eyes closed), theta waves (Stage 1 sleep and Stage 2 with sleep spindles and K complexes), and delta waves (Stage 3). REM sleep is interspersed between cycles of NREM sleep (Stages 1-3). REM sleep called paradoxical sleep because EEG and vital signs mimics wakefulness. Sleep cycle consists of deepening of sleep (1-3), followed by either lightening of sleep and then REM (3-1, REM) or just directly from Stage 3 to REM. Melatonin contributes to sleepiness, and Cortisol contributes to wakefulness.
• Dreaming: Occurs mainly during REM, but can occur in all sleep stages. Activation–Synthesis Theory (dreams caused by widespread random activity of neural circuitry that may mimic sensory information and include memories), Problem-Solving Dream Theory (dreams are a way to solve problems while you were sleeping), Cognitive Process Dream Theory (dreams are merely the sleeping counterpart of stream-of-consciousness). Neurocognitive models of dreaming seek to unify biological and psychological perspectives on dreaming.

Question 7

Sleep-Wake Disorders

Answer 7

• Dyssomnia: Disorders that make it difficult to fall asleep, stay asleep, or avoid sleep; includes insomnia (difficulty falling or staying asleep), narcolepsy (condition characterized by sleep paralysis, hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations, and cataplexy, or loss of muscle control and sudden intrusion of REM sleep during waking hours), and sleep apnea (inability to breathe during sleep).
• Parasomnias: Abnormal movements or behaviors during sleep; includes night terrors (periods of intense anxiety that occur during Stage 3/SWS) and sleepwalking (somnambulism during Stage 3/SWS).
• Sleeping normally after sleep deprivation causes REM rebound (earlier onset and greater duration of REM sleep than normal).

Question 8

Attention

Answer 8

• Selective Attention: Focusing on one part of the sensorium while filtering out other stimuli (but still processing them in the background). Cocktail Party Phenomenon occurs when other stimuli (such as someone calling your name) causes you to break selective attention.
• Divided Attention: Ability to perform multiple tasks at the same time due to automatic processing (changing radio station while driving).

Question 9

Components of Language

Answer 9

• Phonology: Actual sound of language. Categorical Perception is ability to distinguish phonemes or speech sounds that represent change in meaning. Constancy is ability to recognize word as being the same even if pronunciation varies.
• Morphology: Structure of words, composed of building blocks called morphemes; three morphemes in re-design-ed).
• Semantics: Association of meaning with combination of phonemes; “mommy” and “women” refer to two different but related things.
• Syntax: How words are put together to form sentences and how meaning changes due to ordering of words.
• Pragmatics: Dependence of language on context and preexisting knowledge; manner in which we speak may differ depending on audience and relationship to audience. Affected by Prosody (rhythm, cadence, inflection in voice).

Question 10

Language Acquisition Timeline

Answer 10

• Babbling: 9-12 months.
• One word per month: 12-18 months.
• Naming explosion (learning of dozens of words), Use of inflection and gestures to convey meaning, Overextension (calling similar items by same name, saying “Apple?” while pointing at orange), combining words together to form very small sentences: 18-20 months.
• Longer sentences and Errors of Growth (applying grammatical rule in situation where it does not apply, “runned” instead of “ran”): 2-3 years.
• Language largely mastered: 5+ years.

Question 11

Theories of Language

Answer 11

• Nativist (Biological) Theory: Advocates for existence of some innate capacity for language. This innate ability, called the Language Acquisition Device (LAD), allows children to effortlessly understand and use Transformational Grammar, such as Syntactic Transformations (changes in word order that retain the same meaning, passive vs active voice). Critical Period for language acquisition or Sensitive Period (when environmental input has maximum effect on development of ability) occurs between two years and puberty.
• Learning (Behaviorist) Theory: Explains language acquisition by operant conditioning. Parents and caregivers repeat and reinforce sounds that sound most like their spoken language. Certain sounds are perceived to have little value and are not reinforced while other sounds have high value and are reliably reinforced.
• Social Interactionist Theory: Focuses on interplay between biological and social processes. Language acquisition is driven by a child’s desire to communicate and behave in a social manner. As child interacts with others, certain brain circuits are reinforced, while others are deemphasized.

• Whorfian Hypothesis (Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis): Our perception of reality and the way we think about the world is determined by the content of language; language affects the way we think rather than the other way around. Inuits have more words for different types of snow than English speakers.

Question 12

Brain Areas of Language

Answer 12

• The two different areas of the brain responsible for speech production (Broca’s Area) and language comprehension (Wernicke’s Area) are both located in the dominant hemisphere (usually left).
• Broca’s Area: Located in inferior frontal gyrus of the frontal lobe, controls the motor function of speech via connections with the motor cortex.
• Wernicke’s Area: Located in superior temporal gyrus of the temporal lobe, responsible for language comprehension.
Arcuate Fasciculus: Bundle of axons that connects Broca’s area and Wernicke‘s area, allows appropriate association between language comprehension and speech production.

• Aphasia: Deficit of language production or comprehension.
• Broca’s (Expressive) Aphasia: When Broca’s area is damaged, speech comprehension is intact but ability to produce spoken language is reduced or absent. Patients are stuck with the sensation of having every word on the tip of their tongue.
• Wernicke’s (Receptive) Aphasia: When Wernicke‘s area is damaged, motor production and fluency of speech is retained but comprehension of speech is lost. Patients speak nonsense of words and inappropriate word combinations devoid of meaning.
• Conduction Aphasia: Occurs when arcuate fasciculus is damaged. Speech production and comprehension are intact, but the patient is unable to repeat something that has just been said.