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PSY 306 - Cognitive Psychology > Exam 1 > Flashcards

Exam 1 Flashcards

(51 cards)

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1
Q

What is cognitive psychology?

A

The study of the mind and thinking, memory, its processes, etc.

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2
Q

What is the computer metaphor at the heart of cognitive psychology?

A

The mind as a computer - info comes in, and something comes out. People process info and a behavior results. Helps guide research questions (ex. do we do things serially?)

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3
Q

Founders:

Describe the area of psychology Ernst Weber and Gustav Fechner focused on

A

Psychophysics - focus on the relationship between external stimuli and internal experience

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4
Q

History of Field:

When did Wilhelm Wundt establish the first psychology lab and what did he focus on? What technique did he use?

A
  • 1879.
  • Focused on understanding what goes into conscious experience.
  • Utilized introspection - asking people about what they’re thinking (usually report sensory responses, thoughts, images)
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5
Q

History of Field:

Describe the school of thought Wilhelm Wundt was associated with.

A

Structuralism - understanding components/structure of consciousness

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6
Q

History of Field:
History of Field:
Who was Edward Titchner and what was his contribution?

A

Student of Wundt. Brought Structuralism to the United States

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7
Q

History of Field:

What was Sigmund Freud’s contribution?

A
  • First to engage in traditional psychotherapy

- First to point out the unconscious mind

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8
Q

History Field:

What was Max Wertheimer’s contribution?

A
  • Gestalt psychology: study of how brain organizes the world (ex. we see patterns like groupings of color)
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9
Q

History of Field:

What area did John B. Watson and B.F. Skinner focus on?

A

-Behaviorism: focus on stimulus and behavior

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10
Q

History of Field:

What was Donald Broadbent’s role?

A
  • Father of cognitive psychology
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11
Q

History of Field:

What research areas did cognitive psychology focus during WWII?

A
  • Communication theory (how messages get transferred)
  • Human performance
  • Machine/computer learning
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12
Q

How is Sternberg’s study an example of the information-processing approach?

A
  • response time is a clue as to how the brain retrieves something
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13
Q

Research Methods:

What are three things to take note of when reading research studies?

A
  • What stimuli are researchers using? (hearing, seeing, feeling, etc.)
  • What type of response is coming from participants? (manual, vocal, or physiological)
  • What measurements are being obtained from the responses?
    (“Response time” - how long it takes to make a decision; also may measure accuracy)
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14
Q

Research Methods:

Describe how an EEG measures physiological responses

A
  • Measures electrical charge change when neurons fire
  • Good indicating “when” brain becomes active
  • Not very specific with “where”
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15
Q

Research Methods:

Describe how an fMRI measures physiological responses

A
  • measures oxygenation (more blood flow in area, more brain activity there)
  • good with spatial resolution, “where”
  • not good with temporal res. “when”
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16
Q

Research Methods:

Describe how a PET scan measures physiological responses

A
  • sugar/radioactive solution
  • more active parts of brain absorb more of solution and glow brighter
  • advantage: scan after, cumulative effect
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17
Q

Research Methods:

Describe how TMS measures physiological responses

A
  • Magnetic filed encourages neurons to fire in a certain way (strengthen some connection while weaken others)
  • Not as spatially precise as PET or fMRI
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18
Q

Sensation:

What is the difference between sensation and perception?

A
  • Sensation: converting physical energy from the environment into neural code (action potential)
  • Perception - psychological interpretation of the sensation
    (ex. stop sign: sensation - long wavelength light. perception: red ocatgon, stop sign, slow down
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19
Q

Sensation:

What are the function of the pupil and iris?

A
  • Pupil: allows light to pass into eye

- Iris: muscle: adjusts pupil depending on available light

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20
Q

Sensation:

What is the function of the cornea?

A
  • Provide some protection against damage
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21
Q

Sensation:

What is the function of the lens?

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A
  • Bend light

- Adjusts to accommodate distance

22
Q

Sensation:

What is the function of the retina and the fovea?

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A
  • Retina: location of rods and cones

- Fovea: point of central focus, full of cones, small part of overall retina

23
Q

Sensation:

What is the optic nerve?

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A
  • where axons of cells bind together
  • blind spot in this area
  • blind spot of one eye filled in by the other eye
24
Q

Sensation:

What environmental energy do we see?

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A
  • short wavelengths - blues
  • medium wavelengths - green
  • long wavelengths - red
25
Sensation: | What is the difference between rods and cones?
- rods: respond to any light, don't need much light; more active at night, predominantly in periphery, less detail - cones: respond to preferred wavelengths, need lots of light, more active during the day
26
Sensation: | What is the difference between the fovea and the periphery?
- Fovea is the point of central focus, periphery is what's to the outside of that point - fovea allows you to focus, periphery allows you to still take in visual info around you while focusing
27
Sensation: | Describe the Young-Helmholtz Trichromatic Theory of Color Vision
- 3 different colors get processed - different types of cones for short, medium and long wavelengths - brain puts together series of responses to figure out which color you see
28
Sensation: | Describe Hering's Opponent-Process Theory of Color Vision
- colors seen as paired opposities - tire one color and see opposite - red & green, yellow & blue, black & white
29
Sensation: | Describe the ventral stream
- "what" stream - temporal lobe - processes object's properties - damage produces visual agnosia (difficulty recognizing objects)
30
Sensation: | Describe the dorsal stream
- "where" stream - parietal lobe - processes spatial relationships - damage can produce apraxia (difficulty with some movements)
31
Sensation: | Hows does patient D.F. support the dual streams?
- had damage to ventral stream (difficulty recognizing and matching angles) - dorsal stream functioned better spatially (better at orienting hand to match angle to mail an envelope) - proved ventral and dorsal process separately - change task to use undamaged stream
32
Perception: | What is the difference between a visual field and a receptive field?
- Visual field: entire area of space visible to you | - Receptive field: area of space that one cell is responsible for
33
Perception: | What are the basic features of the visual system?
- Luminance - Color - Spots and edges - (luminance and color are on the rods and cones level)
34
Perception: | What did the Hubel and Wiesel study find?
- cells in visual cortex have more specific preferences than ganglions - individual cells have preferred angle (fire more for certain angles and less for others) - cells in hyper columns have similar preferences
35
Bottom-Up & Top-Down: | What is the difference between bottom-up and top-down processing?
- Bottom-up: processing stimuli visually, building up into recognition - Top-down: start with knowledge and expectations - Perception is both bottom-up and top-down
36
Bottom-Up & Top-Down: | Apply the differences in BU and TD processing in a cell phone conversation
Bottom-up: rely on hearing (can't see lips move this time) | Top-down: context of conversation; what you're expecting to be said
37
Bottom-Up and Top-Down: | Apply the differences between BU and TD processing to the pictures in class
Bottom-up : sensory info, ex. initially see frog | Top-down: told that there is a horse, now expect to see horse, see horse
38
Visual Illusions: | What is Carey and Diamond's (1977) Encoding Switch Hypothesis?
When first born, humans process faces featurally. Transition to holistic processing around age 10. Young children process featurally, adults process holisitically.
39
Visual Illusions: | What's the difference between holistic (configural) and featural face processing?
Featurally: process individual features Holisitic: process as a whole
40
Visual Illusions: | What is the face inversion effect? Explain the illusion we saw in class
Demonstrates that people process faces featurally. Upside down face with right-side up mouth an eyes; typically don't notice this is odd. Just notice there is a mouth, nose and eyes which are components of a face
41
Visual Illusions: | How do Nakabayashi and Liu explain errors young children make in facial recognition?
Young children have difficulty focusing attention on relevant features (esp. influences by paraphernalia). Also haven't yet developed level of inhibition that's required to ignore extraneous features
42
Visual Illusions: | What is the alternative hypothesis Nakabayahi and Liu suggest?
Holistic processing exists at birth. Children gradually develop inhibition. Eventually develop the ability to process both holistically and featurally
43
Visual Illusions: | What is the point of perception?
To give us a "best guess" at what's out there. Present us with a view of the world that's complete, organized and meaningful
44
Visual Illusions: | How is our perception affected by environmental conditions such as lighting and distance?
Lighting - amount of lighting, shading, distance (all affect how info reaches eyes). These affect color constancy and lightness constancy. Distance - angled lines indicate receding (Ponzo illusion), something closer takes up more visual field than something further away
45
Visual Illusions: | What are Gestalt Grouping laws?
Ways of grouping that help us organize and draw meaning from objects; focus on the whole is the sum of its parts
46
Visual Illusions: | Name and briefly explain the Gestalt grouping laws
Proximity - closeness between objects Similarity - see structure Continuation - if view something partially blocked, it seems to continue Closure - default assumption that objects are closed, have edges, take up area Good figure - default assumption of regular shapes
47
Cross-Modal Interactions: | Explain the ball illusion
Typically the clicking noise in the 2nd trial makes it more likely for people to report that the balls bounce off one another
48
Cross-Modal Interactions: | Explain the McGurk effect
Lips saying "ga," hearing "ba," so perception is neither and makes something in between like "da"
49
Cross-Modal Interactions: | Explain Hidaka and Shimoda's first experiment
Investigated does color of comparison stimulus affect how sweet it's judged compared to standard? Yes. Comparison stim. was colored, adaptation stim and standard were clear. Sugar content of stan. and comp. were the same, adaptation stim slightly higher. W/out adaptation condition - comparison reported to be sweeter than standard. W/ adaptation - comparison reported to be less sweet
50
Cross-Modal Interactions: | Explain Hidaka and Shimoda's second experiment
Does color influence adaptation process? NO. W/out adaptation - JND need less to notice difference; PSE need less sugar. W/ adaptation - JND need more, PSE need more
51
Sensation: | What are after effects? What color vision theory is this?
The result of tiring out the cones that respond to a certain color which then allows you to see the opposite color. Colors seen as paired opposites: red & green, yellow & blue, black & white. This is the Opponent Process Theory of color vision

PSY 306 - Cognitive Psychology (5 decks)

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