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Cognitive Psychology > Cognitive Exam 1 > Flashcards

Cognitive Exam 1 Flashcards

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1
Q

Reaction time refers to

A

how long it takes to respond to stimuli

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2
Q

What did Donders study

A

How long it takes to make a decision by measuring reaction time
Simple vs Choice reaction time

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3
Q

Choice reaction time is ___ longer than simple reaction time

A

1/10 second

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4
Q

What is the primary cause of dual-task cost

A

not being able to make 2 decisions regarding 2 stimuli at once
Perception to response time longer in task 2, response selection delayed

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5
Q

What did Wundt study/propose (2 items)

A

Structuralism & Analytic Introspection

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6
Q

What did Ebbinghaus study

A

nature of memory & forgetting, how quickly information is lost over time
Savings Method

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7
Q

True about Analytic Introspection (4 items)

A

low reliability & validity, requires intensive training, triggered behaviorism

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8
Q

With Simple vs Choice reaction time, why is the white placeholder for the target location used

A

to let participants know WHERE the target would appear, they pay attention to potential target locations

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9
Q

With Simple vs Choice reaction time, why does the interval between trials VARY?

A

so participants cannot predict WHEN target would appear

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10
Q

Example of the practical application of mental chronometry

A

GOMS model to evaluate the efficiency of NYNEX phone company’s new workstation

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11
Q

What is mental chronometry?

A

measurement of response time

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12
Q

What is Ebbinhaus’ savings method

A

the ratio of relearning time to the original learning time

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13
Q

Why did Ebbinghaus use the savings method to measure memory and not the number of syllables remembered

A

not being able to recall study material does not necessarily mean not remembering anything about the study material (i.e., you do remember something but just cannot explicitly recall it)

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14
Q

Example of the practical application of the savings method

A

Evaluating the efficiency of using the flight-training simulator

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15
Q

What is the primary principle of cognitive psychology?

A

The mind cannot be measured directly (e.g., based on subjective reporting), therefore must be inferred from observable behavior

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16
Q

Example of the practical application of Introspection

A

Think-aloud testing in user experience (UX) design (especially, usability testing)

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17
Q

Watson used classical conditioning to explain what?

A

Negative emotional response to a certain specific stimuli

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18
Q

The primary difference between Classical and Operant conditioning

A

Classical explains learning about 2 external events

Operant explains learning about agent’s behavior and consequences

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19
Q

What phenomena CANNOT be explained by Behaviorism (4 items)

A

Cognitive Map
Language Learning
AHA Experience/Insight Learning
Observational Learning

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20
Q

Per Tolman’s experiment, rats learn a physical map of the environment (relative position of things)…

A

Even though the learning process has not been explicitly reinforced or punished

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21
Q

Define Nerve Net Theory

A

Physically connected, continuous network of neurons

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22
Q

Golgi Method stains how many neurons

A

few, 1 %

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23
Q

What was Cajal’s stain method?

A

Using the Golgi stain method on infant animal brains (low cell density)

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24
Q

What did Edgar Adrian study? (2 items)

A

Pressure-Sensitive Receptors

Neurons active and at rest

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25
Q

Per Adrian, what is a resting neurons mV

A

-70 mV

Inside a neuron’s cell body, -70 mV relative to outside the cell body

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26
Q

Per Adrian, what is an active neurons mV

A

+40 mV

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27
Q

Describe the process of firing neurons

A

When a neuron is stimulated, the charge inside the neuron rises to +40 mV due to the rush of positive sodium ions (Na+) into the cell body for ~1 millisecond, then returns to resting state at -70 mV

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28
Q

What happens to the STRENGTH of the action potential with stimulation

A

Strength remains the same no matter the strength of the stimulation

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29
Q

What happens to the RATE of the action potential with stimulation

A

Rate varies depending on the strength of the stimulation

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30
Q

What are Feature Detectors

A

neurons in the visual cortex that respond best to only specific orientations

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31
Q

Define Specificity Coding

A

our mind represents specific stimulus based on the firing of a specifically tuned neuron toward the stimulus (e.g., grandma cell)

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32
Q

What are 2 criticisms of specificity coding

A

A single neuron typically responds to multiple stimuli

There are too many kinds of stimuli that we can represent while the number of neurons are limited

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33
Q

What does Brain Localization of Function suggest?

A

Specific functions are served by specific areas of the brain

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34
Q

What is Broca’s area (location in brain & function)

A

language production

Frontal lobe

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35
Q

What is Wenicke’s area (location in brain & function)

A

language comprehension

Temporal lobe

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36
Q

Imagine that your grandfather speaks fluently but what he says does not make sense and he does not seem to understand what you had ask although he continuously speaks. Also, he does not recognize people he used to know. Then, the following brain areas might have been damaged

A

Wernike; Fusiform face area (FFA)

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37
Q

How is Double Dissociation demonstrated?

A

Damage to one region of the brain causes a deficit on process A but not on process B
AND
Damage to another region causes a deficit on process B but not on process A

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38
Q

What is the function of the Frontal Lobe

A

Coordination of information received from all senses & decision making

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39
Q

What is the function of the Occipital Lobe

A

Vision

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40
Q

What is the function of the Temporal Lobe

A

hearing, taste, smell

41
Q

What is the function of the Parietal Lobe

A

touch, temperature, pain

42
Q

Define Sensation

A

sensory receptors stimulated by environment

43
Q

Define Perception

A

processing of sensory information by specialized areas or the brain, resulting in meaningful experiences

44
Q

Example of distinction between sensation and perception

A

A patient with visual agnosia who sees something but does not know what it is

45
Q

Define Bottom-Up processing

A

Eye to Brain

Perception affected by sensation

46
Q

Define Top-Down processing

A

process originates in brain

sensation re-constructed based on person’s knowledge/experience/expectations/context

47
Q

Example of distinction between bottom-up and top-down processing

A

Vanishing head illusion (not seeing a head, but seeing the whole black bar)

48
Q

Examples of Top-Down processing (3 items)

A

Phonemic restoration effect: filling in the missing phoneme based on the context
An image presented before an ambiguous image (young-lady-old-lady, duck-or-rabbit) affects how the ambiguous image is interpreted
The fate of ink blob demonstration: the same ink-blob is recognized differently depending on the context

49
Q

Phonemic restoration effect is similar to (2 items)

A

Vanishing head illusion, especially perceiving a continuous black bar
Perceiving a complete X although the X has a hole in the middle

50
Q

Underlying mechanisms (principles) of perception (4 items)

A

Bayesian inference
Helmholtz likelihood principle
Taking regularities into account
Gestalt principles of organization

51
Q

What is Bayesian Inference?

A

our final experience is determined on prior (initial belief) and likelihood (current evidence)

52
Q

What is true based on taking regularities of the environment into account?

A

Based on experiences, we know that {light comes from above} which affects our perception of a textured surface (e.g., protruding or indented)
Oblique effect supports the account by showing that we are more sensitive to regularities of the environment

53
Q

Examples of experience-dependent plasticity (experience changes the brain) (3 items)

A

Oblique effect
A cat’s lack of sensitivity to vertical lines after being reared in a horizontal-line-only environment
Increase in FFA response in Greeble experiment

54
Q

Define Principle of Good Continuation (Gestalt)

A

Lines follow the smoothest path

ex) a rope coiled on a beach and are able to perceive it as a single strand

55
Q

Define Principle of Similarity (Gestalt)

A 
Similar things (color, shape) appear to be grouped together
ex) You are at a parade where there are a number of marching bands. You perceive the bands that are all in the same uniforms as being grouped together. The red uniforms are one band, the green uniforms another, and so forth
56
Q

Define Principle of Good Figure/Simplicity/Praganz (Gestalt)

A

a complex image is perceived as the sum of its parts, tend not to make a complex story
Every stimulus pattern is seen in such a way that the underlying structure is as simple as possible

57
Q

Define What Pathway (location & function)

A

Visual cortex to Temporal Lobe
Object recognition, Perception
ex) brand logos

58
Q

Define Where Pathway (location & function)

A 
Visual cortex to Parietal lobe
Spatial recognition (action) landmarks
ex) inserting key into keyhole
59
Q

What is dichotic listening paradigm

A

participants listen to one message through one ear and another message through the other ear. Participants were to repeat only one of the messages designated by the researcher (shadowing)

60
Q

What is the purpose of shadowing in dichotic listening

A

To ensure that participants are paying attention to the designated message

61
Q

What is the Cocktail Party Effect?

A

The ability to focus on one stimulus while filtering out other stimuli

62
Q

In an Early Selection Model (selective attention process) what did Broadbent and Treisman propose

A

Broadbent proposed the FILTER

Treisman proposed the ATTENUATOR

63
Q

Why did Treisman modify Broadbent’s Early Selection Model (Bottleneck Model)

A

Participants recognized their own names released from the unattended ear
Dear Aunt Jane experiment

64
Q

Why did McKay propose the Late Selection Model

A

unattended information can be processed fully without attention
experiment where he released either “river” or “money” along with “They were throwing stones at the bank,”

65
Q

Per Lavie’s Load Theory of Attention, we are more likely to process unattended stimuli when…

A

The task load is low due to the low complexity of stimuli, and therefore available processing capacity is left

66
Q

Why did Lavie propose her Load Theory of Attention

A

Resolve the issue of Early vs Late Selection controversy

67
Q

In Posner’s Pre-cueing experiment, how often did the arrow cue accurately predict the target location

A

In most (80%) of the trials

68
Q

What were the results of Posner’s Pre-cueing experiment?

A

Participants responded slower to stimulus at invalidly cued location, than validly cued location, demonstrating selective visual attention

69
Q

What is the Stroop Effect

A

the difficulty of not performing a well-practiced or automatic task at the cost of an intended processing

70
Q

Why did participants not notice the gorilla in the Invisible Gorilla Video (3 items)

A

Visual scene was too crowded, too much processing capacity for irrelevant stimulus
Attention directed to white stimulus, filtering out black. without attention, no perception
did not expect to see gorilla

71
Q

Describe the results of Schneider & Shiffrin’s Divided Attention Experiment

A

required divided attention between target and test frames
with practice could become automatic
when task was too hard participants never reported automaticity

72
Q

Describe the process of Binding

A

combining disconnected features (color, texture, location) into a single image

73
Q

Describe Treisman’s Feature Integration Theory (3 items)

A

Preception goes through pre-attentive stage - free floating features
Then Focused attention stage - features combine with help of attention
No evidence supporting Balint’s Syndrom patients

74
Q

What are the 4 key aspects of an experiment

A

Stimuli - physical objects presented to participants
Procedure - sequence of stimuli
Task - participant response to stimuli
Result

75
Q

What are the 3 stages of the simple perceptual-motor task

A

Perceptual process (hearing/seeing), Response Selection (decision), & Motor Response (pushing a button)

76
Q

What caused the emergence of Behaviorism (3 items)

A

Watson didn’t like Analytic Introspection
Proposed Behaviorism - purely objective & experimental
observe behavior, not consciousness

77
Q

How did Tolman’s Cognitive Map Experiment impact behaviorism and cognitive psychology

A

1st-time concept of cognitive used - something other than stimulus-response could occur
“Cognitive” violated behavioralism - internal processes were not acceptable topics of study

78
Q

Define Cajal’s Neuron Doctrine (3 items)

A

Neurons shapes are related to their function
individual nerve cells of the nerve net are not continuously connected
made cellular study of mental life possible

79
Q

Define Population Coding

A

firing a large all neurons for stimulus

ex) all neurons are responding to 3 people

80
Q

Define Sparse Coding

A

firing a small group of neurons while others don’t respond

81
Q

Define Distributed Representation

A

while the brain is localized for different functions, the cognitive process has distributed activation of various specialized brain areas
ex) color fires in multiple parts of the brain

82
Q

Fusiform Face Area (FFA) location & function

A

Underside of Temporal Lobe

responds to faces

83
Q

Define Helmholtz Theory of Unconscious Inference

A

perception is the result of unconscious and rapid assumptions we infer about the environment

84
Q

Define Helmholtz Likelihood Principle

A

we perceive objects most likely to cause pattern of stimuli

what is “most likely” based on past experiences

85
Q

What is the Bayesian Inference formula

A

prior x likelihood = probability of outcome

86
Q

Define Experience Dependent Plasticity

A

mechanism of brain structures are changed by experience. neurons change to respond to specific stimuli of environment

87
Q

Define the Principle of Proximity (Gestalt)

A

we group things together that are similarly close

ex) large grid of dots, split into 3 columns. recognize 3 sets

88
Q

Define Principle of Familiarity (Gestalt)

A

things are more likely to form familiar or meaningful groups

once you see it a certain way you cannot unsee it

89
Q

Define Principle of Common Fate (Gestalt)

A

things moving together in the same direction belong in the same group
ex) birds flocking together

90
Q

What are the 7 principles of Gestalt

A 
Good Continuation
Good Figure/Simplicity/Pragnanz
Closure
Similarity
Proximity
Familiarity
Common Fate
91
Q

What is Gestalts Principle of Organization

A

the mind organizes parts according to 7 principles to make a meaningful perception
the whole is greater than the sum of parts

92
Q

Define Lavie’s Load Theory of Attention

A

how much information people can handle & limit on the ability to process information
low load tasks have remaining processing capacity

93
Q

Define Broadbent’s Filter Model of Attention

A

explains how we focus on one message

Message -> Sensory memory -> Filter -> Detector -> Memory

94
Q

Define Treisman’s Attenuation Model

A

“leaky filter”
unattended messages are attenuated. weaker processing
Message -> Attenuator -> Dictionary -> Memory

95
Q

Define Balint’s Syndrom

A

inability to focus attention on individual objects due to parietal lobe damage

96
Q

Define Inattentional Blindness

A

not attending to something clearly visible and missing it

demonstrates the role of selective attention

97
Q

What was Cartwright-Finch & Lavie’s experiment and the results?

A

cross-arm stimulus for 5 trials, participants focused on the length of arms, 6th trial added small square to display
2/20 (10%) saw the square
example of intentional blindness

98
Q

What was Treisman’s Illusionory Conjunction Study

A 
black numbers and shapes, participants "saw" new shapes/colors
focusing attention (removing black #s) eliminates illusionary conjunctions - shapes and colors properly matched

Cognitive Psychology (3 decks)

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