Exam 1 Flashcards
FC Donders
Physiologist. Early reaction time task. Simple v choice reaction time.
Subtraction Method
Choice Reaction Time - Simple Reaction Time = Decision Time
Wilhelm Wundt
MD. 1st experimental psych lab. Structuralism. Analytic Introspection.
Analytic Introspection
Trains participants to describe their thought process in response to stimuli
Hermann Ebbinghaus
Quantitative psychology. Early memory researcher. Savings curve.
Savings Curve
How long it takes people to forget information. Decreases at a decreasing rate.
William James
MD. Idea of free will eased depression. 1st psychology textbook. Stream of consciousness. Functionalism
Stream of Consciousness
Consciousness is a continuous set of experiences
Functionalism
Mind and behavior should be understood with respect to their purpose or function. Has a darwinian influence
Freud
Psychoanalytic technique. Unconscious processes heavily influence behavior.
Issues with Cognitive Psychology
Can’t observe the mind. Analytic introspection isn’t objective. Can’t falsify a lot of things.
John Watson
Behaviorist. Nonmediationalist. Rejected analytic introspection because there is too much variation in behavior. Little Albert exposure therapy.
Edward Thorndike
Law of Effect
Law of Effect
Behavior responses most closely followed by a satisfying result are more likely to become established patterns that occur again in response to the same stimuli.
BF Skinner
Radical Behaviorism. Operant Conditioning. Empiricist. Determinist. Disagreed with Thorndike. Skinner box.
Radical Behaviorism
Behavior, not mental states, should be the focus of study.
Empiricism
Any behavior can be conditioned
Skinner box (operant conditioning chamber)
Trains animals to look at different stimuli in an environment. A certain amount of food is provided if a button or lever is pressed.
Edward C. Tolman
Challenged stimulus-response model of learning. Cognitive map (rat maze). Latent learning.
Noam Chomsky
Language development. Universal grammar. High-order cognition cannot be learned.
Universal grammar
All babies are born with rules of grammar that are hardwired into their brains.
Neuroplasticity
Ability of neural networks to change and grow through reorganization.
Nerve Net
Early conceptualization of the brain. Big web. Continuous and complex pathways. Ramon and Cajal.
Golgi Staining Method
Silver staining technique used to visualize nervous tissue. First used with brains of newborn animals.
Neuron Doctrine
Cells transmit signals. Cells are separate from one another.
Dendrite
Receives neurotransmitters
Cell body
Receives messages, contains genes, maintains structure
Axon
Transmits signals
Synapse
Small gap between neurons
Edgar Adrian
Recorded electronic signals in frog’s sensory nerves. 1 electrode in axon, other electrode outside. Noted a significant difference between inside and outside. Polarized membrane.
Action potential
Depolarization in membrane that causes neurons to fire. -70mv to -55mv. Sodium ions enter into the cell and raise the voltage inside, then the action potential happens to create a proton channel with sodium on the outside and potassium on the inside.
Neurotransmitters
Can be excitatory or inhibitory (depolarizes or polarizes the cell). Opens the ion cell or doesn’t.
Faster neuron firing
More intense sensation
Occipital lobe
Vision
Temporal lobe
Audition, language, taste, smell
Parietal lobe
Touch, spatial tasks
Frontal lobe
Executive functions, planning and decision making, most developed in humans
Experience-dependent plasticity
The vertical line cats that didn’t respond to the horizontal lines. The brain has to have exposure to stimuli or it doesn’t react to it later on.
Specificity coding
Single neuron represents image
Population coding
many neurons represent image in a specific pattern
Sparce coding
A few neurons represent image
“Grandma cells”
Theoretical area in temporal lobe just for processing faces
Localization of Function
Specific cognitive functions. Think about studies of brain damage.
Cerebral cortex
outside layer of brain associated with many cognitive processses
Paul Broca
Broca’s area
Broca’s area
Production of speech. Located in frontal lobe
Carl Wernicke
Wernicke’s area and aphasia. Fluent aphasia.
Wernicke’s area
Comprehension of speech.
Wernicke’s aphasia
Language disorder that makes it hard to understand words and communicate
Fluent aphasia
Able to speak in sentences that sound like normal speech but are not correct
Double Dissociation
What is localized to what. Mental processes exist independently of each other
Episodic memory
Remember things that happen (long term memory)
Semantic memory
Remember facts (long term memory)
Event-related potential
Brain wave changes in response to stimuli
Fusiform Face area
Small region in frontal lobe associated with strong response to faces
Parahippocampal place area (PPA)
Responds strongly to visual scenes
Extrastriate body area (EBA)
Responds strongly to images of human bodies.
Connectome
Structures physically connected in the brain.
Functional Connectivity
Area activated together simultaneously during a task
Default mode
Activity involved in brain when not doing a task. Ex; Daydreaming. More active in insomniacs during the day.
Split Brain research
Corpus callosum cut for seizures. Vision weird. Right eye to left brain, left eye to right brain (like normal but vision works together differently).
Perception
Experience resulting from the stimulation of the senses.
Phenomenology
Study of experiences. Emphasizes perceptions
Top-Down processing
Perception starts with the brain, the person’s knowledge and experience. Thoughts to senses.
Bottom-up processing
Senses detect stimuli, then go to brain
Gestalt Principles
Similarity, continuation, closure, proximity, figure/ground, symmetry & order. Most processing is not conscious.
Herman von Helmholtz
Images on the retina are ambiguous. Likelihood principle
Likelihood principle
Model that attempts to explain how people process stimuli differently. Unconscious interference.
Semantic regularities (scene schema)
People are faster to recognize objects/figures if they are in a probabilistic context.
Bayesian Influence
Prior probability and likelihood of an event causing a phenomenon that influences people’s perceptions of the event
Mirror Neurons
Respond to you performing and action and watching someone else perform an action. They are important in social learning.
Attention
Taking possession by the mind in clear and vivid form out of several simultaneously possible objects or trains of thought, implies withdrawal from some things to focus on one thing.
6 Attention Metaphors
spotlight, zoom-lens, filter, gate, pulse, capacity- limited processing resource
4 Attention Types
Selective, divided, focused, sustained
Selective attention
focusing on just things to do with your goal
3 Things Attention Does
Speeds up processing of stimuli, enhances processing detail, and feature integrating
