Cognition, Consciousness, and Language Flashcards
Piaget’s 4 stages of cognitive development
Sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational stages
Sensorimotor Stage
(birth-2 yrs) Focuses on manipulating the environment to meet physical needs through circular reactions. Object permanence ends this stage
Preoperational Stage
(2-6 yrs) Focues on symbolic thinking, egocentrism, and centration (tendency to focus on only one aspect of a situation or object at a time)
Concrete operational stage
(6-11 yrs) Focuses on understanding the feelings of others and manipulating physical (concrete) objects
Formal operational Stage
(> 11 yrs) Focuses on abstract thought and problem solving
What does problem solving require?
Identification and understanding of the problem, generation and testing of potential solutions, and evaluation of results
Mental set
A pattern of approach for a given problem
Functional Fixedness
The tendency to use objects only in the way they are normally utilized, which may create barriers to problem solving
Types of Problem Solving
Trial-and-error, algorithms, deductive reasoning, and inductive reasoning
Deductive reasoning
Deriving conclusions from general rules (theory testing)
Inductive reasoning
Deriving generalizations from evidence (theory building)
Heuristics
shortcuts or rules of thumb used to make decisions
Biases
Exist when an experimenter or decision maker is unable to objectively evaluate information
Intuition
“A gut feeling” regarding a particular decision; the ability to act on perceptions that may not be supported by available evidence
Methods that may lead to erroneous or problematic decisions
Heuristics, biases, intuition, and emotions
Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences
Proposes 7 areas of intelligence: linguistic, musical, logical-mathematical, visual-spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal.
What contributes to variations in intellectual ability
Combinations of environment, education, and genetics
Alertness
The state of being awake and able to think, perceive, process, and express information
What type of waves predominate on Electroencephalography (EEG)
Alpha and Beta waves
Stage 1 sleep
Light sleep, dominated by theta waves on EEG
Stage 2 sleep
Slightly deeper than Stage 1 sleep and includes theta waves, sleep spindles, and K complexes
Stages 3 and 4 sleep
Deep (slow-wave) sleep (SWS) –> Delta waves predominate on EEG (low frequency, high voltage sleep waves). SWS is associated with cognitive recovery and memory consolidation, as well as increased growth hormone release
What stages of sleep do most sleep-wake disorders occur in?
During Stage 3 and 4 non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep
Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep
Also called paradoxical sleep –> mind appears close to awake on EEG, but the person is asleep. Eye movements and body paralysis occur in this stage, as well as most dreaming. procedural memory consolidation associated with this stage.
Sleep cycle
Approximately 90 minutes for adults.
Normal cycle is Stage 1-2-3-4-3-2-REM or just 1-2-3-4-REM –> REM becomes more frequent toward the morning
What promotes sleepiness at night?
Changes in light in evening trigger release of melatonin by the pineal gland, resulting in sleepiness
Affect of cortisol on sleep cycle
Cortisol levels increase in the early morning and help promote wakefulness
Dyssomnias
Sleep disorders that involves difficulty falling or remaining asleep such as insomnia, narcolepsy, sleep apnea, and sleep deprivation
Parasomnias
Involves abnormal movements or behaviours when falling asleep, sleeping, or waking up –> includes night terrors and sleep walking
What are the types of consciousness-altering drugs
Depressants, stimulants, opiates, and hallucinogens
Which brain pathway mediates drug addiction
Mesolimbic pathway; includes nucleus accumbens, medial forebrain bundle, and ventral tegmental area
–> dopamine is the main neurotransmitter in this pathway
Depressants
Promotes or mimic GABA activity; reduces nervous system activity, resulting in a sense of relaxation and reduced anxiety.
Includes Alcohol, barbiturates, benzodiazepines
Stimulants
Promotes dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin concentration at synaptic cleft; increase in arousal in nervous system
Includes amphetamines, cocaine, ectasy
Opiates and opioids
These compounds bind to opioid receptors in the PNS andCNS, causing decreased reaction to pain and a sense of euphoria. Can cause death by respiratory depression
Includes heroin, morphine, opium
Hallucinogens
Distortion of reality, sympathetic response
Includes LSD, mushrooms, and mescaline
Selective attention
Allows one to pay attention to a particular stimulus while determining if additional stimuli in the background require attention
Divided attention
Uses automatic processing to pay attention to multiple activities at one time
Components of language
Consists of phonology, morphology, semantics, syntax, and pragmatics
Phonology
Refers to the actual sound of speech; there are about 40 speech sounds of phonemes in English
Morphology
Refers to the building blocks of words, such as rules for pluralization, past tense, and so forth. Many words are composed of multiple building blocks called morphemes, each of which connotes a particular meaning
Semantics
Refers to the meanings of words
Syntax
Refers to the rules dictating word order
Pragmatics
Refers to the changes in language delivery depending on context and preexisting knowledge. Pragmatics are affected by prosody; the rhythm, cadence, and inflection of our voices
3 theories of language development
Nativist (biological) theory, learning (behaviourist) theory, and social interactionist theory
Nativist theory
Explains language acquisition as being innate and controlled by the language acquisition device (LAD), a theoretical pathway in the brain that allows infants to process and absorb language rules
Learning theory
Explains language acquisition as being controlled by operant conditioning and reinforcement by parents and caregivers
Social interactionist theory
Explains language acquisition as a motivation to communicate and interact with others
which hemisphere of the brain controls speech
The left hemisphere (usually the dominant hemisphere)
Where is motor function of speech controlled
Broca’s area
Where is language comprehension controlled
Wernicke’s area
Broca’s aphasia
Results from damage to Broca’s area; nonfluent aphasia where generating each word requires great effort
Wernicke’s aphasia
Results from damage to Wernicke’s area; fluent, nonsensical aphasia with lack of comprehension
Arcuate fasciculus
Connects Wernicke’s and Broca’s areas; a bundle of axons that allows appropriate association between language comprehension and speech production
Conduction aphasia
Results in damage to the Arcuate fasciculus, marked by the inability to repeat words heard despite intact speech generation and comprehension
Dual-coding theory
A theory that states that both verbal and visual images are used to process and store information
Information-processing model
Has 4 key components:
- Thinking requires sensation, encoding, and storage of stimuli
- Stimuli must be analyzed by the brain (rather than responded to automatically) to be useful in decision making
- Decisions made in one situation can be extrapolated and adjusted to help solve new problems (also called situational modification)
- Problem solving is dependent not only on the person’s cognitive level, but also on the context and complexity of the problem
Cognitive development
The development of one’s ability to think and solve problems across the life span
Assimilation
The process of classifying new information into existing schemata
Accomodation
The process by which existing schemata are modified to encompass this new information
Primary circular reactions
The repetition of a body movement that originally occurred by chance, such as sucking the thumb; usually, the behaviour is repeated because the child finds it soothing
Secondary circular reactions
Occur when manipulation is focused on something outside the body; these behaviours are often repeated because the child gets a response from the environment (e.g. a child throwing toys from a high chair)
Object permanence
The key milestone that ends the sensorimotor stage in development; the understanding that objects continue to exist even when out of view
Symbolic thinking
Refers to the ability to pretend, play make-believe, and have an imagination
Egocentrism
Refers to the inability to imagine what another person may think or feel
Centration
The tendency to focus on only one aspect of a phenomenon, or inability to understand the concept of conservation
Les Vygotsky
A prominent educational psychologist, proposed that the engine driving cognitive development is the child’s internalization of his or her culture, including interpersonal and societal rules, symbols, and language.
Fluid intelligence
Consists of problem solving skills
Crystallized intelligence
More related to use of learned skills and knowledge
Delirium
Rapid fluctuation in cognitive function that is reversible and caused by medical (non-psychological) causes
Algorithm
A formula or procedure for solving a certain type of problem
Availability heuristic
Used when we try to decide how likely something is
Representativeness heuristic
Involves categorizing items on the basis of whether they fit the prototypical, stereotypical, or representative image of the category
Base rate fallacy
Using prototypical or stereotypical factors while ignoring actual numerical information
Disconfirmation principle
The evidence obtained from testing demonstrated that the solution does not work, but the presence of a confirmation bias may prevent an individual from eliminating this solution
Confirmation bias
The tendency to focus on information that fits an individual’s beliefs, while rejecting information that goes against them
Belief perseverance
Inability to reject a particular belief despite clear evidence to the contrary.
Emotion
The subjective experience of a person in a certain situation; can affect decision-making
Intelligence Quotient (IQ)
Standardized tests generate an IQ test..original formula for calculating IQ is mental age divided by chronological age times 100
Consciousness
One’s level of awareness of both the world and one’s own existence within that world
Electroencephalography (EEG)
records an average of the electrical patterns within different portions of the brain
Beta waves
Have a high frequency and occur when the person is alert or attending to a mental task that requires concentration.
Alpha waves
Occur when we are awake but relaxing with our eyes closed, and are somewhat slower and more synchronized than beta waves
Activation-synthesis theory
Theory that dreams are caused by widespread, random activation of neural circuitry which can mimic incoming sensory information. Cortex then tries to stitch this unrelated information together, resulting in a dream that is both bizarre and somewhat familiar
Problem solving dream theory
States that dreams are a way to solve problems while you are sleeping
Cognitive Process Dream Theory
States that dreams are merely the sleeping counterpart of stream-of-consciousness
Most sleep-wake disorders occur in what type of sleep
NREM
Insomnia
Difficulty falling or remaining asleep; most common sleep-wake disorder
Narcolepsy
A condition characterized by lack of voluntary control over the onset of sleep
Cataplexy
Loss of muscle control and sudden intrusion of REM sleep during waking hours, usually caused by an emotional trigger
Marijuana
Active chemical in marijuana is tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Psychologically, effects seem to fall into the categories of stimulant, depression, and hallucinogen
Mesolimbic reward pathway
One of four dopaminergic pathways in the brain and highly related to drug addiction. Pathway includds the nucleus accumbens (NAc), the ventral tegmental area (VTA), and the connection between them called the medial forebrain bundle (MFB).
Timeline of language acquisition
9-12 months: babbling
12-18 months: about one word/month
18-20 months: “explosion of language” and combining words
2-3 years: longer sentences ( 3 words or more)
5 years: language rules largely mastered
Whorfian/ linguistic relativity hypothesis
Suggests that our perception of reality (the way we think about the world), is determined by the content of language
