Intro Flashcards
Who is the father of experimental psychology?
Wundt
Which psychologists are tied to Introspective Psychology?
Wundt and Titchener
Which psychologist is tied to behaviorism?
Watson
What is voluntarism?
The minds capacity to organize elemental mental content into higher level thought processes
Who is tied to Structuralism and Stimulus Error and focused primarily on perceptual descriptions (color, weight)?
Titchener
What are the problems of introspection?
- Lack of refutability
- Ignores real world and previous experiences
- Not generalize-able since so idiosyncratic
- What were ‘trained introspectors’ trained to do?
What followed and replaced Introspection?
Behaviorism
What type of psychologist was Thorndike, Skinner, and Pavlov?
Behaviorism
What was the downfall of Behaviorism?
Cognition, you cant ignore mental processes when observing behavior. how we understand and interpret situations influence the way we act and feel.
What was the Skinner Box?
Positive and negative reinforcement
Who is the father of cognitive psychology?
Neisser
What is the 4 step problem for studying cognition?
- Find real world cognitive problem
- Form operational definition
- Devise Empirical test
- Infer underlying mechanism
What are the 4 different ways to look at the mind/ brain?
- CognitivePsychology: Examination of behavior in “normal” subjects
Reaction vs response time. Response time is more important
• Neuropsychology: Examination of behavior in brain- damaged patients
• Neuroimaging: Measurements of neural activity across the entire brain, or some large subset there of (EEP, PET or fMRI)
• Neurophysiology: Recording from individual cells
• Others: Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS),
Computational modeling
What are the 3 ways that make an experiment solid?
- Reliable - can replicate the results
- Generalizable - not tied to specific circumstances
- ‘Statistically Significant’ - e.g., p < .05
What is Donder’s Method?
Cognitive Subtraction - Measure response times of different tasks then subtract
What are the 2 different methods to study cognitive psychology?
Behavioral
• Response Time
• Looking Time
• Eye Gaze Tracking
Neurological • Neuroimaging MRI/CT fMRI/PET EEG Single unit recording • Lesions & Patient work Stroke/TBI/Disease • TMS,ComputationalModeling
What are the 2 assumptions for the looking time method?
- Look when surprised or processing
* Look longer when difficult
What is the difference between MRI and fMRI?
MRI - structural
studies brain anatomy
one set of images
High resolution
fMRI - functional
studies brain activity
Blood Oxygenation Level Dependent (BOLD) signal
indirect measure of neural activity
measures deoxygenation (blood flow)
Neural (brain) activity causes metabolism which causes deoxygenation (blood flow) -> Measure blood flow, and you measure brain activity
many image sets over time (e.g., every 3 sec for 5 mins)
low resolution
A central problem in capgras syndrome seems to be a difficulty with?
an emotional analysis of faces
Many subcortical structures, such as the hippocampus and amygdala, come in groups of two. why?
It has to do with lateralization
Which of the following methodologies does NOT measure brain activity or structure?
transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)
How does a CAT scan work?
uses xrays to measure density
How does MRI work?
The scanner is essentially a large magnet. Atoms in the subject’s brain align with the magnetic field. The extent to which atoms align with the field depends on the kind of tissue (grey matter, white matter, CSF).
What is the fMRI logic?
When there is more neural activity, there is more blood flow, and there is more oxygenated blood (and less deoxygenated blood). Increase in oxygenation increases fMRI signal
Measure BOLD signal when shown one category versus another. Difference is the selective activation in that region for that stimulus
Scenes, faces, objects. Which has the highest fMRI signal?
Scenes
What are the strengths and shortcomings of neuroimaging?
Strengths:
– Allow you to identify brain structures involved in various mental processes (with mm precision).
– Can observe these brain regions in action.
Shortcomings:
– Only tells you that a region is active during a process, not that it is necessary for a process.
– Doesn’t tell you much about how processes are implemented at the cellular level.
– It is very expensive.
What is an EEG?
Record electrical activity on the scalp
Each electrode records 1000s of neurons
Can see precise timing but localization is poor
What are properties of Neurophysiology?
Humans: Pre-surgical electrical stimulation and/or recordings
Animals: Single-unit recordings and/or stimulation
High temporal resolution
Very high spatial resolution