Exam 1

Question 1

(1) How did behaviorists attempt to solve the problems of introspectionism? (2) What was the basic
model behaviorists use to represent the mind? (3) What does this approach choose to ignore and why?

Answer 1

1. Behaviorists wanted to restrict psychology to truly objective, observable data. They concentrated on understanding relationships between stimulus and response
2. Behaviorists believed the mind is like a “black box.” By introducing a stimulus they were strictly interested in the end result, or response.
3. This approach ignores the mind because it could not be observed.

Question 2

(1) What is the difference between procedural and declarative knowledge? (2) What are the two types of declarative knowledge? Give examples of each type of declarative knowledge, and examples of procedural knowledge.

Answer 2

1. dif between procedural and declarative knowledge: Procedural = “knowing how” (e.g. knowing how to drive a car). Declarative = ‘knowing that” (i.e. a fact).
2. Two types of declarative knowledge: (1) Semantic knowledge = knowing f_acts about the world_ (e.g. the sky is blue). Episodic knowledge = knowing something about a specific time and/or place (e.g. I had toast for breakfast this morning)

Question 3

Describe two neuroimaging techniques that were discussed in class. Describe how each technique assesses brain function. Name one advantage and one disadvantage to each technique.

Answer 3

1. fMRI: Assesses brain functions by displaying differences in oxygen saturation levels throughout the brain (different O2 levels have dif magnetic properties). These differences are recorded when numerous “slices” of the brain are photographed (individually) and later reconstructed into a “3D” image. Advantages: spatial precedence. Disadvantages: relatively slow (around 6 seconds) & not cheap.
2. ERP’s: Amplifies brain signals, via a cap fitted with numerous electrodes. Electrical signals are recorded just before, during and immediately after exposure to a stimulus because ERP’s have excellent temporal precedence (one of the advantages of using ERP). A downfall is the relatively poor quality in spatial precedence.

Question 4

Identify and describe three things that make object recognition difficult.

Answer 4

Identify and describe three things that make object recognition difficult.

1. Objects may be abnormally rotated or inverted: e.g. A fire truck can be upside down, yet we still recognize the object as a fire truck.
2. The same object may have different shapes: same object can look very different depending on perspective e.g. Everyone’s handwriting is dif, yet we are still (for the most part) able to determine an “e” or an “a” as the same letter.
3. Object boundaries not easily determined: Visual system must carry out process of “image segmentation” that may not always be easy. e.g. We may have trouble spotting a snake in a tree if that snake has evolved to blend into its environment.

Question 5

Describe three lines of evidence that support the idea that objects can be decomposed into a
fundamental set of basic features.

Answer 5

1. Physiological evidence: individual neurons respond preferentially to different kinds of simple visual features (i.e. simple, complex & hypercomplex cells)
2. Adaptation effects: Your eyes are constantly moving (microsaccades) even when we feel we are holding our eyes in one place. If these microsaccades are adjusted for (by moving a percieved stimulus in concert with the eyes microsaccades) the percieved stimulus (i.e. a picture of a letter) slowly begins to “vanish.” This is likely due to the eys feature detectors becoming fatigued, or habituated, from prolonged, sustained stimulation.
3. Visual search: When subjects are asked to look for a “target stimulus” amongst several “distractor stimulus’s,” they have an easier time finding stimulus’s that are defined by a single feature opposed to a combination of features. This suggests, in looking for a multi-featured object, that the brain needs an extra amount of time to mentally “put the pieces together.”