Exam 3 Flashcards
What is the dictionary definition proposal of concepts?
Basic concepts like shoe or tree are so common understanding what these items are is analogous to having a dictionary definition for them
What is the family resemblance proposal of concepts?
the notion that members of a category share a number of features, even though these features may not be shared by all members of the category
What is the prototype model for concepts?
The claim that mental categories are represented by means of a single “best example” or prototype identifying the center of the category
Describe how the prototype model various among individuals?
The prototype is an average of various category members that have been encountered
Describe how a mental category can have a graded membership
Some members of a category are “better” members and therefore more firmly in the category
What is the sentence verification task?
An experimental procedure in which participants are given simple sentences and must respond as quickly as possible whether the sentence is true or false. The response time indicates how well it concept fits the prototype
What is the production task?
An experimental procedure used in studying concepts, in which the person is asked to name as many examples as possible. Concepts mentioned first fit the prototype the best
What is a “basic-level category”?
A level of categorization hypothesized as the “natural” and most informative level, neither too specific nor too general. Based on expertise. People tend to use these basic-level terms in their ordinary conversation and in their reasoning
Define the exemplar model
Contrast to the prototype model. Prototype is that average or “ideal” of a category, whereas an exemplar is a specific example. While a prototype is an abstract average of the members of a category, an exemplar is an actual member of a category, pulled from memory
What is the issue with rating things as “typical”?
judgements of typicality do not always align with judgements of category memberships. For example, some even numbers are rated as more “typical” even numbers than others.
It seems that category membership is therefore based on an item possessing some “essential”, deep features of that category
How does the anterior temporal lobe function in conceptual representation?
semantically unique items (Proper name such as landmark or song names) are retrieved using the anterior left temporal lobe
How do more posterior temporal lobe regions function in conceptual representation?
non-unique categories of items are retrieved using more posterior temporal lobe regions
Describe the living-nonliving distinction. What category is worth noting when discussing this distinction?
People’s descriptions tend to be about either living or non-livings things. Musical instruments do not always follow the living/non-living distinction, and are therefore often omitted from studies of object naming
Describe the involvement of motor and sensory regions in category knowledge
Retrieval of knowledge for concepts can also recruit motor and sensory regions of the brain as abstract conceptual knowledge is intertwined with knowledge about what particular objects sound like and do
Describe the knowledge network
Knowledge is represented via a vast network of connections and associations between all the information you know. Evidence for the knowledge network comes from the sentence verification task
Describe the hierarchical organization of language
smallest to largest: phonemes, morphemes, words, phrases, sentences
What are phonemes?
the smallest unit of speech, specific sounds
What are morphemes?
Smallest meaningful unit of language, can indicate tense or plurality (Ex: “The umpire s talk ed to the play er s”
What are words?
The smallest freeform unit of language
What are phrases?
subunits of sentences
What are sentences?
sequences of words
Where does voicing occur?
vocal folds in the larynx. A sound is considered to be voiced if the vocal folds are fibrated while the sound is produced
Describe the place of articulation
where in the mouth airflow is restricted by varying position of tongue, lips, teeth, etc to produce sounds
Describe the manner of production of speech
whether air is fully stopped or merely restricted
What is voice onset time?
length of time that passes between the start of a speech sound and the onset of voicing.
Describe how the manipulation of voice onset time changes the perception of sounds
Researchers can manipulate VOT along a continuum, which you would expect to result in a smooth inverse relationship between the perception of different words. In reality, participants identify the sounds the same until the voice onset time passes a certain boundary. (Ex: ba vs pa, >25ms = pa <25ms = ba)
Describe how effective humans are at segmenting speech
in natural speech there are no clear boundaries between words but we are still able to segment speech almost effortlessly
Describe coarticulation
the blending of phonemes at word boundaries. The word is pronounced differently depending on what comes after
Describe categorical perception in speech
we are much better at hearing the difference between the categories of sounds than within categories of sounds
Describe the phonemic restoration effect
Using prior knowledge to fill in the missing phonemes in a sentence. Illustrates that the perception of language is constructed
Define phonology
the sequence of phonemes that make up the word
Define Orthography
How the word is spelled
Define Syntax
how to combine the word with other words
Define semantics
what the word means
Define Referent
The actual object, action, or event in the world to which a word refer
Define generativity
how new words are being formed all the time
What are the phrase structure rules of syntax?
the elements that must appear in a phrase, and the sequence of those elements (determiner, adjective, noun, verb, etc)
Differentiate between the prescriptive vs descriptive rules
Prescriptive rules are the way the language is supposed to be. Descriptive rules describe the way people actually talk
Define sentence parsing
figuring out each words syntactic role. We normally do this as we read/hear the sentence, which can lead us to make mistakes in garden path sentences
What are garden path sentences?
sentences that suggest an initial interpretation that turns out to be wrong
What is extralinguistic context in terms of syntax?
The context of the sentence determines how we parse it
What is prosody?
The pattern of pauses and pitch changes used to emphasize the sentence’s structure and meaning
What does a syntactic violation result in? Semantic?
syntactic violations in language result in an early left anterior negative (ELAN) electrical charge. Semantic violations in language result in a longer negative electrical charge (N400)
What is global aphasia?
No fluency, no comprehension, no repetition (complete aphasia)
Broca’s area, Wernicke’s area, connection of the arcuate fasiculus
What is mixed transcortical aphasia?
No fluency, no comprehension, repetition (Global aphasia but with preserved repetition)
Broca’s, Wernicke’s, arcuate fasiculus spared but unconnected to other language regions
What is broca’s aphasia?
No fluency, comprehension, no repetition (Can only comprehend, broken speech, motor problem)
What is transcortical motor aphasia?
No fluency, comprehension, repetition (Like Broca’s but can repeat)
What is wernicke’s aphasia?
fluency, no comprehension, no repetition (Is fluent but with no comprehension or repetition, effortless word salad)
What is transcortical sensory aphasia?
fluency, no comprehension, repetition (Like Wernicke’s but with repetition)
What is conduction aphasia?
fluency, comprehension, no repetition (trouble with repetition)
damage to arcuate fasiculus
What is anomic aphasia?
fluency, comprehension, repetition (milder form, individuals have trouble with retrieval)
What was the result of probe-tone studies?
Non musicians will rate certain replaced tones in a musical piece as fitting better or worse
What do expectancy violations of musical chords result in?
unexpected chords evoke an ERAN (early RIGHT anterior negativity) - syntactic musical violations
Define amusia
tone deafness, a deficit in music perception
Define Musical anhedonia
lack of emotional responses to music
Give an example of a musical illusion
hearing a low tone in one ear and a high tone in another ear, when in reality it is the same tone; hearing a spoken sentence as if it was musical
Describe normative vs descriptive decision-making theories
Normative theories describe how people SHOULD behave, focuses on rational behavior.
Descriptive theories describe how people actually do behave
Describe the frequency estimates decision-making heuristic
an assessment of how often various events have occurred in the past, useful for making judgments
Describe the availability decision-making heuristic
making your decision based on what comes to mind easiest (Ex: more words that start with the letter R or have the letter R in the third position)
Describe representative decision-making heuristic
placing someone or something in a category if it is similar to your prototype for that category (Ex: assuming a scientist is weird or doesn’t like fashion)
Describe the anchoring decision-making heuristic
tendency to rely on the first piece of information encountered
Define covariation. What is an illusory covariation?
whether two behaviors/happenings tend to occur at the same time. We are bad at judging this
An illusory covariation is an incorrect belief that two happenings occur together (astrology)
What is base-rate information> What is our bias towards this information?
ow frequently something occurs in general. We tend to neglect this information
What is diagnostic information?
Does an individual case belong to a category
What are the dual-process theories of decision making? Describe them
Type 1 model refers to thinking that is fast and automatic and that uses heuristics. Type 2 model refers to thinking that is slower, effortful, and more likely to be correct. Type 1 is not sloppy, it is often accurate and more efficient. Type 2 thinking can be influenced by training
What is belief perseverance?
the tendency to continue endorsing a belief even when evidence has completely undermined it
What are categorical syllogisms?
a type of logical argument that begins with two premises and then is completed with a conclusion that may or may not follow (All M are B, All D are M. Therefore, all D are B)
Can be valid or invalid
What is belief bias?
if the conclusion is something people already believe to be true, they are more likely to judge the conclusion as following from the premises. People may ignore the premises of the logical argument and instead rely on their broader pattern of beliefs about what is true and what is not
What are conditional statements?
If this is true, then that is true (or vice versa). We are bad at reasoning about these unless put into terms we can understand
What is the four-card task?
Test of conditional statements. “If a card has a vowel on one side, then it must have an even number on the other side”. Which cards must be turned over to test this rule?
What is utility maximization?
choosing the option with the greatest expected value (Ex: how many lives are saved)
What is prospect theory?
decisions are a calculation of prospect of costs and benefits and humans weigh prospect of loss greater than prospect of gain (this is called loss aversion)
What are the framing effects of utility maximization?
we tend to avoid risk when we could gain something, but we tend to be risk-taking when we could potentially lose something (we are averse to loss and would rather take a risk than have a certain loss). Also, could frame things in terms of gains or losses (Ex: 200/600 will be saved vs 400/600 will die), which would affect decisions.
Risk seeking vs risk aversion in framing
If the frame casts a choice in terms of losses, we tend to be risk-seeking because we want to avoid the losses. If the frame casts a choice in terms of gains, we tend to be risk-averse because we want to preserve the gains.
Somatic marker hypothesis
stresses the importance of emotion in decision-making. Conscious knowledge alone is not sufficient for making advantageous decisions. “Somatic markers” are feelings in the body that strongly influence decisions.
What is affective forecasting? What is the bias involved in this?
People will estimate their future feelings, which plays a role in decision making. People however tend to overestimate their future feelings, especially for negative situations
What occurs after damage to the Ventromedial Prefrontal cortex?
patients with this do not show emotional responses when making decisions, and have imparied decision making. These patients do not have these somatic markers (feelings in the body that strongly influence decisions.)
How does problem solving work as a maze?
There is an initial state and a goal state, and overall path constraints. The entire problem is confined to a problem space, and you have a set of operators with which to solve the problem
What is the initial state of problem solving?
the knowledge and resources you have at the outset
What is the goal state of problem solving?
That state that you are working towards
What are the operators of problem solving?
The available tools or actions
What are the path constraints of problem solving?
The limits that rule out some operations
What is the problem space of problem solving?
The set of all states that can be reached in solving a problem, too vast to explore
What is the hill climbing strategy heuristic?
at each decision-point, you choose the option that goes in the direction of your goal
ex: dog that won’t head away from its goal to get to the gate entrance
What is the mental imagery heuristic?
another problem solving heuristic, visualizing the problem sometimes allows for easier solutions
ex: bookworm chewing through volumes
What is the analogy heuristic?
giving an analogy can help solve a problem, but only if the analogy is understood to be an analogy
ex: tumor radiation vs evil dictator
What is the subgoal heuristic?
Splitting a problem into a series of smaller problems to aid in the solving of the overall problem
ex: three ring problem
Differentiate between well-defined and ill-defined problems
in a well-defined problem, the goal state as well as the available operators are clearly defined. In an ill-defined problem it is useful to break down into subgoals
Describe functional fixedness
having fixed ideas about the typical functions of objects (Ex: two-string and candle problem, where pliers must be used as a weight)
What is a mental set?
mental set is a framework for thinking about a problem
Describe the water jar problem. What does this illustrate?
In the water jar problem (where you have to measure a specific amount of water), the mental set can become fixated and the simpler answer can be ignored as people try and solve the problem the way they did earlier
What is restructuring?
thinking about the problem in a new way in order to find a solution
ex: connecting a set of nine dots arranged in a square with four straight lines requires leaving the confines of the square
What are the four stages of creativity?
Preparation, incubation, illumination, verification
What is the preparation stage of creativity?
Information gathering
What is the incubation stage of creativity?
Taking a conscious break
What is the illumination stage of creativity?
Insight emerges
What is the verification stage of creativity?
Working out the details to solve the problem
What are the arguments for or against incubation?
Arguments for: Problem solving may be promoted if thoughts are allowed to wander. Early efforts may have lead to fatigue which would dissipate.
Arguments against: studies have been unreliable
What is divergent thinking?
The ability to find new connections among ideas
What does the alternative uses test measure?
Divergent thinking across four dimensions (Fluency, originality, flexibility, and elaboration)
Describe the four dimensions of divergent thinking (Fluency, originality, flexibility, or elaboration)
Fluency – how many uses you can come up with
Originality – how uncommon those uses are (e.g. “router restarter” is more uncommon than “holding papers together”)
Flexibility – how many areas your answers cover (e.g. cufflinks and earrings are both accessories, aka one area)
Elaboration – level of detail in responses; “keeping headphones from getting tangled up” would be worth more than “bookmark”
What are the issues with intelligence testing?
test scores improve with instruction, there are narrow domains of expertise, tests are culturally biased
What are the sub scores of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)
Verbal comprehension, Perceptual reasoning, Working memory, and processing speed combine for an index of intelligence
What is an example of verbal comprehension?
Similarities subtest- describe how are two items similar
What is an example of perceptual reasoning?
Block design test- recreate an image using colored blocks
What is an example of working memory?
Digit span both backwards and forwards
What is an example of processing speed?
symbol search task- checking whether symbols on the right side are present on the left side
What is test-retest reliability?
An evaluation of how consistent the measure is, reliability within the same person who has taken the test. Very high for intelligence tests but not perfect
What is predictive validity?
How well the test predicts someone will perform in the setting that requires it
Differentiate between generalized and specialized intelligence
generalized intelligence would mean that there is one measure of intelligence. Specialized intelligence would mean that each measure of intelligence is separate.
What is indicated by spearman’s “g”?
A factor for general intelligence that is generally accepted
Differentiate between fluid and crystallized intelligence
Fluid intelligence is the ability to deal with new and unusual problems. Crystallized intelligence is acquired knowledge, including your verbal knowledge and your experience
Define the concept of dog using the prototype and exemplar model
Prototype: Medium size furry mammal with four legs and a tail.
Exemplar: golden retriever
How did patient EVR perform on the Iowa Gambling Task
Drew more frequently from bad decks (EVR had prefrontal cortex damage)
How did EVR perform on moral decision making?
Always endorsed the utilitarian choice (prefrontal cortex damage)
How is fluency defined in terms of aphasia?
ease of producing connected speech vs halting effortful speech
Where was EVR’s brain damage?
ventromedial prefrontal cortex, emotional decision making or emotional thrust
Location of Broca’s and Wernicke’s area
Broca’s - left inferior frontal gyrus, lower part of left frontal lobe, near motor cortex
Wernicke’s - left posterior superior temporal gyrus, closeish to somatosensory cortex and parietal lobe
