Exam 2 Flashcards
vmPFC (ventromedial pre frontal cortex)
emotion regulation, reasoning and decision making with emotions; heavily connected to limbic system to more affective processing; responsible for empathic and appropriate behaviors
dlPFC (dorsolateral pre frontal cortex)
working memory; thinking, reasoning, non-emotive; reasoning when you do not have a big emotional investment
-planning, attending, thinks of responsible alternatives, selecting an appropriate response; metacognition-self-evaluation of one’s performance
mPFC (medial pre frontal cortex)
responsible for motivation or initiation of action
Premotor cortex
motor planning
Frontal Eye Fields
directing eye gaze in space
Broca’s area
productive speech (mouth, tongue portion of Motor cortex)
Domain general
attention, memory, and inhibition; executive functions
Domain specific
math, reading
Top-down attention
You direct your attention to something in the world (hungry so you look at clock); IPS/SPL(superior parietal lobe) - FEF; endogenous
Bottom-up attention
Something in the world directs your attention (fire alarm); vmPFC-TPJ (tempoparietal junction); exogenous
Overt attention
Actually moving your eyes in space (obvious)
Covert attention
Moving attention without moving eyes
Executive Functions
set of cognitive processes - including attentional control, inhibitory control, working memory, and cognitive flexibility, as well as reasoning, problem solving, and planning
3 network model of attention
alerting, orienting, control
Alerting
One of the three attention networks. The readiness to receive information. Brain areas involved: Dorsolateral PFC, Transparietal Junction, Thalamus
Orienting
One of the three attention networks. Driving your attention to something. Brain areas involved: Frontal Eye Field, SPL, IPS, Cerebellum
Control
One of the three attention networks. Controlling yourself. Brain areas involved: PFC, Anterior Cingulate Cortex
Attention amplifies
brain activity related to attending activity
ADHD
Disorder characterized by inappropriate impulsiveness, attention problems, hyperactivity; cross cultures; more prevalent in males
Risk factors for ADHD
premature birth, maternal tobacco use, maternal alcohol use, exposure to high levels of lead in childhood, brain injury; 9:1 for boys:girls
Treatment of ADHD
medication, along with psychosocial, behavioral, and educational interventions
Neural regions involved in ADHD
- Smaller PFC, cerebellum, and BG in young boys with ADHD
- Reduced whole brain WM connectivity
Development trajectory of attention
- Alert after about 12 weeks
- Voluntary control of attention by 1 year
- After 1 year old, short range ACC connections become longer/more adult-like
- Alerting has earliest dev. track, orienting and executive networks take longer
Automatic processes
- no capacity limitation; fast
- do not require attention
- effort difficult to modify once learned
Controlled processes
- limited in capacity; slow
- require attentional resources
- effort can be used flexibly in changing circumstances
3 Types of ADHD
- Consistently Inattentive
- Hyperactive and Impulsive
- Combined
Diagnostic Criteria ADHD
before age 7; continue for at least 6 months; more frequent and severe than other children; must create a handicap in at least two areas of the person’s life
Working memory (WM)
Holds information for a brief time after it’s attended to so that it can be mentally processed, when active thinking occurs
Long term memory
more permanent, unlimited storage- lots of subcategories; composed of declarative memory and nondeclarative memory
Short term memory
(working memory); briefly held information, limited capacity, different modalities
Episodic memory
one’s memory of their personal experiences
Fluid components of working memory
Visuospatial sketchpad, episodic buffer, phonological loop
Visuospatial Sketchpad
Fluid component of working memory which stores visual information. Communicates between visual semantics and central executive.
Episodic buffer
Fluid component of working memory which stores episodic information and ties together episodes from LTM to STM. Buffers info between episodic LTM and central executive.
Phonological loop
Fluid Component of working memory which is a brief store of mainly verbal information, (rehearsal).Communicates between the language systems and central executive.
Working memory training?
Overall, no effect for verbal WM, but some evidence for visuospatial WM; Adaptive training associated with significant (and sustained!) gains in working memory
Working memory training - does it work?
Overall, no effect for verbal WM, but some evidence for visuospatial WM; Adaptive training associated with significant (and sustained!) gains in working memory
Training of working memory
Increased prefrontal, parietal, thalamic/caudate activation after training/ with increased performance; Greater frontal and parietal activation between a 2 back and 2 1 back task
primacy effect
more likely to remember the first things in a list; reflects long-term memory
recency effect
more likely to remember the last things in a list; reflects short-term memory
rehearsal
longer rehearsed, more likely to stay in LTM; more time, more rehearsal, stronger primacy effect; recency effect unaffected by time allowed
levels of processing
Print: Contains “a”
Sound: Rhymes with dog
Meaning: A type of animal; The more elaborate the processing a stimulus receives, the more likely it is to later be remembered
What happened to HM
seizures after bike accident; remove hippocampus (medial temporal lobe)
HM cognitive profile
Couldn’t encode new memories after the surgery(episodic); Could still do perceptual learning, single dissociation(procedural), Gets better at tasks even though he doesn’t remember ever doing it , Couldn’t do declarative memory (recall facts or events) -> 2 types of memory = procedural and episodic
Better or worse at recall with increasing age?
better
Encoding specificity
You remember a lot about where and when you encoded something
Chunking
groups letter activity; remember chunks up to 7 +/- 2
hippocampus - type of memory
episodic
crystallized systems of working memory
components of working memory such as visual semantics, episodic long term memory, and language are examples of this
Spacing effect
Better memory with spaced learning; time lapse = forgetting, then retrieval; more retrieval = more durable memory
Was there higher activity in frontal and parietal regions in 1-back or 2-back tasks?
2-back
Testing effect
more testing of knowledge (low stakes) = better memory
Neural basis of testing effect
PFC activated when study new info; Parietal cortex, IPL, angular gyrus have increased activation for retrieval - correlation with better outcome on memory test
Flynn Effect
the substantial and long-sustained increase in both fluid and crystallized intelligence test scores measured in many parts of the world from roughly 1930 to the present day
Fluid intelligence
measured by non-culuturally based knowledge; exercises skills such as working memory, cognitive control, problem solving abilities (g or Gf)
Crystallized intelligence
knowledge of facts, semantics, culturally applicable information. utilizes memorization and long term memory storage (Gc)
T or F: Intelligence is highly heritable
true; PFC heritable
IQ tests
mental age/chronological age x 100; 90% fall within 30 pts of 100; 68% within 15 pts of 100; criticized for heavily loading on crystalized intelligence/cultural knowledge; culturally bound
Spearman
psychologist that theorized that there is a single general intelligence that can be measured via factor analysis of variety of cognitive tests.
Gardner
multiple intelligences: 8 total intelligences that span culturally relevant domains; skill-based
Sternberg
Triarchic theory of intelligence (3 intelligences):
- analytical
- creative
- practical
Variables that coordinate w/ intelligence
genetics (high heritability); brain volume (Grey matter, white matter, Frontal, temporal, parietal and hippocampal volume); Activity in pre-frontal (and parietal) cortex; Working memory capacity &Processing speed
The Parieto-Frontal Integration Theory (P-FIT) of Intelligence
Integration of parietal and frontal areas -> Integration accounts for links between intelligence and processing speed; Parieto-frontal networks are multi-demand
Basis of Intelligence
biology, behavior, context
Rote memorization
- Can be meaningless set of syllables
- Becomes harder with age.
- Block understanding or free cognitive resources for more elaborate processing?
- Pre-motor cortex, left inferior frontal cortex (language)
- Relies heavily on verbal processing
Mental imagery
A mental representation of a non-present object or event
- Visual
- Auditory
- Smell
- Taste
Concrete v. abstract nouns
concrete = can visualize (“elephant”); better memory for concrete; recruits visual areas
Think about faces, …
FFA activates
Think about places, …
PPA activates
Amygdala memory
emotional memories are stronger
Mirror neurons
activated if you are either watching someone do a certain task as well as when you yourself are performing the task; imitation; relationship to empathy & similarity of expertise
Meshing hypothesis
it is best to teach information according to someone’s learning style
Conversion Hypothesis
people learn their own way regardless of how information is presented, so teaching someone according to their preferred learning style isn’t as important.
Kraemer’s conversion hypothesis study findings:
fMRI responses correlate w/ reported learning preference, but only when people convert
What kind of cognitive control activates medial PFC, ventral striatum?
Hot
What kind of cognitive control activates dorsolateral PFC, parietal cortex, ACC, and ventromedial PFC?
Cool
Hot cognitive control
utilized in real life situations, in groups of people, high arousal situations. very indicative of future achievement; high arousal
Cool cognitive control
utilized in lab settings, when one is alone, hypothetical and low arousal situations.
Cognitive control
domain general; better CC leads to increased success/achievement; processes include a broad class of mental operations including goal or context representation and maintenance, and strategic processes such as attention allocation and stimulus-response mapping; flexible & adaptable
Factors that affect CC
environment (reliability); strategy; training; age (not linear)
CC as a skill?
Contemplative Practices may be one avenue to cultivate enhanced CC, as well as other, related processes
CC - education and curriculum interventions
Computerized training; mindfulness; aerobic exercise
Phineas Gage
Orbital frontal cortex (OFC) damaged -> key area for hot CC
Go/no-go task
Uses faces - emotion and arousal - hot CC
Entity theory
Fixed mindset; “intelligence comes naturally”
Incremental theory
Growth mindset; hard work and effort are key
Teacher transfer of mindsets
teachers w. growth mindsets less likely to attribute student struggle to lack of intelligence; teachers that give comfort feedback (entity-based) -> lower student motivation
Brain response to setbacks (based on mindset)
Fixed: hide mistakes and conceal deficiencies -> spend less time on subject; Growth: capitalize on mistakes, confront deficiencies -> spend more time & work harder
Neuro evidence for mindsets
ERP measurements for brain activity in response to feedback: more growth mindset = more error-related positivity; fixed mindset = no brain changes
Frontal brain region drive..
learning specialization
Brain changes in intervention to improve CC
hippocampal GM volume increases
