Cognitive Psychology- Methods and Tasks

Question 1

Paivios work on memory using a method that linked behaviour and cognition where participants are presented with pairs of words, like boat-hat, during a study period. During the test period, the participants are then presented with the first word of from each pair and their task is to recall the word that was paired with it during the study period

Answer 1

paired-associate learning

Question 1

imagine a map of your state that includes three locations: the place where you live, a town that is far away and another town that is closer but does not fall on a straight line connecting your location and the far town. Your task is to create a mental image of your state and, starting at your location, to form an image of a black speck moving along a straight line between your location and the closer town.

Answer 1

mental scanning

Question 2

a technique in which an electrode is implanted into the brain and then monitored over a period of a few days. Because the electrodes are implanted, it is possible, with the patients’ consent, to record the activity caused by cognitive actions such as perceiving, imagining, and remembering. These experiments make it possible not only to record neural responses to stimuli, as is routinely done in animal experiments, but also to study how these neurons respond when the patients carry out cognitive activities such as imaging and remembering

Answer 2

recording from single neurons

Question 3

a test designed to measure spatial imagery.
Participants see a piece of paper being folded and then pierced by a pencil. Their task was to pick from five choices what the paper would look like when unfolded

Answer 3

paper folding test

Question 4

an analysis that determined the pattern on voxel activation within various structures, where a classifier is trained to recognise patterns of voxel activity

Answer 4

multivoxel pattern analysis

Question 5

a technique in which temporary disruption of a particular brain area is done by applying a pulsating magnetic field using a stimulating could placed over the person’s skull. - A series of pulses presented to a particular area of the brain for seconds or minutes temporarily interferes with brain functioning in that area.

Answer 5

transcranial magnetic stimulation

Question 6

a measure of brain response where small disc electrodes are placed on a person’s scalp, each electrode picks up signals from groups of neurons fired together in response to specific events or stimuli

Answer 6

event related potential

Question 7

a technique based on detection of how water diffuses along the length of nerve fibres

Answer 7

track weighted imaging

Question 8

1. uses task related fMRI to determine a brain location associated with carrying out a specific task at the seed location
2. measure the resting state fMRI at the seed location
3. measure the resting state fMRI at a test location
4. calculate the correlation between the seed and test location responses

Answer 8

resting state functional connectivity

Question 9

the fMRI response recorded when a person is at rest/not involved in any cognitive tasks

Answer 9

resting state fMRI

Question 10

The fMRI response that occurs in response to a specific cognitive task.

Answer 10

task related fMRI

Question 11

a procedure in which participants are presented with a stimulus they have encountered before and asked to indicate whether they remember the circumstances under which they initially encountered ir, or if the stimulus seems familiar but don’t remember experiencing it earlier

Answer 11

remember/know procedure

Question 12

A task used to assess creativity, in which the person’s task is to think unusual uses for an object

Answer 12

alternate uses task

Question 13

A procedure in which a specific area is removed from an animal’s brain. It is usually done to determine the function of this area by assessing the effect on the animal’s behavior.

Answer 13

brain ablation

Question 14

Detecting differences between pictures or displays that are presented one after another.

Answer 14

change detection task

Question 15

A problem in which three words are presented, and the task is to determine one word that when combined with each of these words forms a new word or a phrase

Answer 15

compound remote association learning

Question 16

Searching among distractors for a target
that involves two or more features, such as “horizontal” and “green.”

Answer 16

conjunction search

Question 17

A procedure for testing memory in which a participant is presented with cues, such as words or phrases, to aid recall of previously experienced stimuli

Answer 17

cued recall

Question 18

A task in which a line drawing is degraded by omitting parts of the drawing and obscuring it with a visual noise pattern. The person’s task is to identify the object.

Answer 18

degraded pictures task

Question 19

Procedure used in Sperling’s experiment on the properties of the visual icon, in which participants were instructed to report only some of the stimuli in a briefly presented display. A cue tone that was delayed for a fraction of a second after the display was extinguished indicated which part of the display to report.

Answer 19

delayed partial report method

Question 20

A task in which information is provided, a delay is imposed, and then memory is tested. This task has been used to study short-term memory by testing monkeys’ ability to hold information about the location of a food reward during a delay.

Answer 20

delayed response task

Question 21

The procedure of presenting one message to the left ear and a different message to the right ear.

Answer 21

dichotic listening

Question 22

Searching among distractors for a target item that involves detecting one feature, such as “horizontal.

Answer 22

feature search

Question 23

A brain imaging technique that measures how blood flow changes in response to cognitive activity

Answer 23

fMRI

Question 24

Observing people to determine how they solve problems in real-world situations. This technique has been used to study the use of analogy in a number of different settings, including laboratory meetings of a university research group and design brainstorming sessions in an industrial research and development department. (

Answer 24

in vivo problem solving research

Question 25

Problem in which the task is to remember an object’s location and to choose that location after a delay. Associated with research on the where processing stream.

Answer 25

landmark discrimination problem

Question 26

A procedure in which a person is asked to decide as quickly as possible whether a particular stimulus is a word or a nonword.

Answer 26

lexical decision task

Question 27

Priming that involves the meaning of words. For example, rose would prime flower, because their meanings are related

Answer 27

lexical priming

Question 28

A task in which a person judges whether two pictures of three-dimensional geometric objects are pictures of the same object rotated in space or are pictures of two mirror-image objects rotated in space

Answer 28

mental rotation task

Question 29

A task used in imagery experiments in which participants are asked to form a mental image of an object and to imagine that they are walking toward this mental image

Answer 29

mental walk task

Question 29

A problem involving nine dots, arranged in a square pattern, in which the task is to draw four straight lines that pass through all nine dots without lifting the pen from the paper or retracing a line.

Answer 29

nine dot problem

Question 30

A problem in which the task is to remember an object based on its shape and choose it when presented with another object after a delay. Associated with research on the what processing stream

Answer 30

object discrimination problem

Question 31

Procedure used in Sperling’s experiment on the properties of the visual icon, in which participants were instructed to report only some of the stimuli in a briefly presented display. A cue tone immediately after the display was extinguished indicated which part of the display to report.

Answer 31

partial report method

Question 32

A procedure in which participants are given a cue that will usually help them carry out a subsequent task. This procedure has been used in visual attention experiments in which participants are presented with a cue that tells them where to direct their attention

Answer 32

precuing

Question 33

A problem posed by Duncker that involves finding a way to destroy a tumor by radiation without damaging other organs in the body. This problem has been widely used to study the role of analogy in problem solving.

Answer 33

radiation problem

Question 34

Measure used by Daneman and Carpenter to determine individual differences in working memory. It is the number of 13-to 16-word sentences that a person can read and then correctly remember the last words of all of the sentences.

Answer 34

reading span test

Question 35

Subjects are asked to report stimuli they have previously seen or heard.

Answer 35

recall

Question 36

When used to study neural functioning, a very thin glass or metal probe that can pick up electrical signals from single neurons.

Answer 36

recording electrode

Question 37

Used in conjunction with a recording electrode to measure the difference in charge between the two. Reference electrodes are generally placed where the electrical signal remains constant, so any change in charge between the recording and reference electrodes reflects events happening near the tip of the recording electrode.

Answer 37

reference electrode

Question 38

A task in which two people are exchanging information in a conversation, when this information involves reference—identifying something by naming or describing it.

Answer 38

referential communication task

Question 39

Recall that is tested immediately after an event and then retested at various times after the event.

Answer 39

repeated recall

Question 40

A method of measuring memory in which a person is asked to reproduce a stimulus on repeated occasions at longer and longer intervals after the original presentation of the material to be remembered

Answer 40

repeated production

Question 41

The area of the brain associated with carrying out a specific cognitive or motor task that serves as the reference area the resting-state functional connectivity method.

Answer 41

seed location

Question 42

When an initial presentation of a stimulus affects the person’s response to the same stimulus when it is presented later.

Answer 42

repetition priming

Question 43

In a memory experiment in which participants are asked to recall a list of words, a plot of the percentage of participants remembering each word against the position of that word in the list

Answer 43

serial position curve

Question 44

The procedure of repeating a message out loud as it is heard and is commonly used in conjunction with studies of selective attention that use the dichotic listening procedure.

Answer 44

shadowing

Question 45

Reacting to the presence or absence of a single stimulus

Answer 45

simple reaction time

Question 46

A technique in which the participant is asked to indicate whether a particular sentence is true or false

Answer 46

sentence verification

Question 47

Hearing a statement with a particular syntactic construction increases the chances that a statement that follows will be produced with the same construction.

Answer 47

syntactic priming

Question 48

When measuring resting-state functional connectivity, the activity at the this location is compared to the activity at the seed location to determine the degree of functional connectivity between the two locations.

Answer 48

test location

Question 49

A procedure in which subjects are asked to say out loud what they are thinking while doing a problem. This procedure is used to help determine people’s thought processes as they are solving a problem.

Answer 49

think aloud protocol

Question 50

The way the fMRI response changes over time.

Answer 50

time series response

Question 50

A technique for determining connectivity in the brain that is based on detection of how water diffuses along the length of nerve fibers.

Answer 50

track weighted imaging

Question 51

A procedure for stimulating the brain in which two electrodes, which are connected to a battery-powered device that delivers direct current, are placed on a person’s head.

Answer 51

transcranial direct current stimulation

Question 52

A procedure in which magnetic pulses are applied to the skull in order to temporarily disrupt the functioning of part of the brain

Answer 52

transcranial magnetic stimulation

Question 53

In experiments on language processing, determining how subjects are processing information in a scene as they respond to specific instructions related to the scene

Answer 53

visual world paradigm

Question 54

A test in which people are asked to rate the vividness of mental images they create. This test is designed to measure object imagery ability.

Answer 54

vividness of visual imagery questionnaire (VVIQ)

Question 55

Small cube-shaped areas in the brain used in the analysis of data from brain scanning experiments

Answer 55

voxel

Question 56

A conditional reasoning task developed by Wason that involves four cards. Various versions of this problem have been used to study the mechanisms that determine the outcomes of conditional reasoning tasks.

Answer 56

wason four card problem

Question 57

Procedure used in Sperling’s experiment on the properties of the visual icon, in which participants were instructed to report all of the stimuli they saw in a brief presentation.

Answer 57

whole report method

Question 57

A procedure that was developed to answer the question, “what percentage of the time during the day are people engaged in a specific behavior?” One way this has been achieved is by having people report what they are doing when they receive signals at random times during the day

Answer 57

experience sampling