Final Flashcards
What is the Imageless thought debate?
The question of whether thinking is possible without images has been the topic of debate since the beginning of psychology. Some sided with Aristotle’s idea that “though is impossible without an image”, while others believed that thinking could occur without images. The argument that images where not necessary for thinking was that being who had difficulty visualizing could still capable of thinking. Behaviorist put an end to the debate stating that the study of imagery was unproductive, and that since visual images are invisible to everyone except the person experiencing them. John Watson’s description was that visual images were”unproved” and “mythological.
What was the impact of the Cognitive revolution on Imagery?
Ways to measure behavior that could be used for cognitive processing where developed. An example of the impact of these methods that linked behavior with cognition on imagery was Alan Paivio’s work on memory which showed that is was easier to remember concrete nouns that can be visualized (Tree, or track), than it was to remember abstract nouns (justice or Truth).
What is mental chronometry and how was it used to infer cognitive processes?
Mental chronometry is the determination of the time needed to carry out various cognitive tasks. In Shepard and Metzler’s mental rotating experiment participant where shown two pictures, and they had to indicate as fast a possible if the two picture where of the same object. The time it too to determine that the two object where the same was directly related to the angle of the object. These results where interpreted as showing that participants where mentally rotating one of the images to see if it would match the other image .This experiment was the first to apply quantitative methods the the study of imagery and to suggest that imagery and perception may share the same mechanism.
what is the spatial links between imagery and perception?
The spatial experience for bother imagery and perception match the layout of the actual stimuli.
What is mental scanning and how is it used to test the spatial correspondence between perception and imagery?
Mental scanning is a task in which participants create a mental image and then scan them in their minds. The Kosslyn boat experiment participants where asked to memorize a picture of a boat, then they were to create an image of the boat in their mind and focus on the anchor (front). They where then asked to look for the motor of the boat (back), and push a button when they found it. Kosslyn felt that if imager was spatial like perception then it should take longer then it should take participants longer to find a part on the boat that os farther away from the initial point of focus. Since it did take longer he took it as proof that imagery was spatial like perception. The distraction hypothesis was that more distractions when scanning longer distances may have increased reaction time. Kosslyn conducted another experiment which provided evidence agains the distraction hypothesis. He had participants memorize and image of an island with 7 specific locations. It too participants longer to scan between greater distances, scanning times where a linear function of the actual distance the map. Thus providing more evidence that visual imagery is spacial.
How does the interaction of imagery and perception demonstrate a connection between them?
-The idea is that if imagery affects perception, and perception affects imagery , this means that imager and perception both have access to the same mechanisms.
What was the perky dim image experiment?
Participants where asked to “project” a mental image of a common object onto a screen, and then to describe the image. Perky was back projecting a very dim image of this object onto the screen. When participants where asked to describe the image it matched the description of the object that was being dimly projected. No one noticed that there was an actual picture of an object on the screen, they appeared to have mistaken the actual picture for the mental object. This experiment provides evidence that perception affects (can be confused with) imagery
Describe the T or H experiment.
Participant were asked to visualize a T or an H on a screen. Then two squares are flashed on the screen one after the other. Either the first or second square contains the target letter. Participants task was to determine if the target letter was in the first or second square. The accuracy rate was much higher when the target letter matched the letter that they were asked to visualize. This experiment is evidence that imagerycan affect perceptual tasks.
What are imagery neurons?
-Imagery neurons are category specific neurons (fire only to a specific category of stimuli ex: dog) that respond to both perceiving and imaging an object. They are in the medial temporal lobe.
Explain how leBihan et al tested the overlap in cortex activation.
-LeBihan discovered an overlap in the brain activation for perception and imagery in the visual cortex. Participants where asked questions like “is the green of the trees darker that the green of the grass?” which involved either imaging the stimulus, or perceiving the stimulus. The brain activity for both imagining and perceiving was high in the visual cortex in comparison to the activity in this cortex when asked a question like “ Is the intensity of the electric current measured in amperes?” which involved neither imagining or perception.
What was Gains contribution to overlap in cortex activation?
-Gains discovered that there was overlap in the front of the brain , but differences in the back. The front of the brain is logic and reasoning, and the back is the visual cortex. This indicates that the same mechanism is used when we have to determine something about the object or its characteristics. But when perceiving versus imagining n object, while the visual cortex is involved, its not exactly the same mechanism.
What was concluded by Amedi and coworkers?
-They found that when non-visual areas of the brain were deactivated (hearing and touch) mental images where more fragile. They concluded it as because there was less activation going on to keep other stimuli from interfering with the imagining.
What is TMS?
Transcranial magnetic stimulation. It decreases brain functioning in a particular area of the brain for a short time. If the behavior is disrupted the deactivation of that part of the brain is causing that behavior.
How did Kosslyn use a TMS to compare imagery and perception.
He decrease the brain functioning in the visual area of the brain during perception and imagery tasks. The response time for both types of tasks was slower. The conclusion was that brain activity in the visual area of the brain plays a causal role for both perception and imagery.
What is the Pegword technique?
Associate items to be remembered with concrete words. Pair each of the to me remembered things with a peg word. Create a vivid image of things to be remembered with the object represented by the word.
What is language?
-A system of communication using sounds or symbols that enables us to express our feelings, thought, ideas, and experiences.
Describe the hierarchy of language.
-First unit is a phoneme, which are speech sounds they are the shortest segment of speech. Second unit is morphemes, the smallest unit of meaning. Then semantics or words. Next Syntax which is the structure of phrases and sentences. And Finally on the top Discourse, a structure of larger texts.
How is language governed by rules?
There are specific ways in which phonemes are arranged, as well as specific ways that words can be arranged. (ex in english subject-verb-object). However each language has its own set of rules.
How is language universal?
All cultures have language. We are all driven to communicate (def people invent languages). Across cultures infants acquire language around the same time. All languages have nouns, verbs, negation, questions, and references to the past or present.
What is the restoration effect?
-Our mind fills in missing phonemes based on the context of the sentence, and the portion of the word that is present. It is an example of top down processing.
How do we segment speech?
Through the context, understanding the meaning of speech, understanding sound and syntactic rules, and statistical learning
What is the word superiority effect?
The idea that letters are easier to recognize when they are contained in a word then when they appear alone, or are contained in a nonword.
What is the word frequency effect?
Words that are more frequent yield faster responses. During normal reading we spend more time looking as less frequent words. And we often skip over highly frequent and predictable words like “the” while reading.
What is lexical ambiguity?
-Words have more then one meaning, but the context of the word clears up the ambiguity after all words have been briefly accessed.
What is lexical priming?
A stimulus (ex BIRD) activates a representation of that word in memory. Response to the stimulus is more rapid if the activation is still present when the stimulus is presented again.
What is the difference between semantics and syntax?
-Semantics is the meaning of words and sentences, while syntax are the rules for combining words into sentences.
What is a garden path sentence?
-A grammatically correct sentence that starts in a way that the reader most likely interprets will be incorrect. “The horse raced past the barn fell”
