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Cognition > Intro (History, Information Processing View, Brain, Methods) > Flashcards

Intro (History, Information Processing View, Brain, Methods) Flashcards

1
Q

What is cognition?

A
  • The use of the mind
  • Collection of domains that support different behaviours: memory, emotion, planning, attention, perception
  • Cognitive function, our thoughts and actions, is regulated by brain activity
  • Emerges from the connections of over 100 billion nerve cells in the brain
  • Primarily concerned with understanding the processes that produce complex behaviours even though separate abilities are studied
  • The sum of all such intelligent mental activities is cognition, the acquisition and processing of sensory information about the world in order to make behavioural decisions
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2
Q

What are the types of cognitive research?

A
  • Basic research
  • Applied research
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3
Q

What is basic research?

A
  • Goal is to try to understand the world and its phenomena without regard to a specific end-use of this knowledge
  • Understand how we perceive information, remember, reason and solve problems
  • Understand who we humans are as a species and what makes us tick. Why do we do the things we do and how do we do them
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4
Q

What is applied research?

A
  • Research with the end goal of developing a solution to a problem
  • Understanding changes to the mind from diseases and disorders
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5
Q

What type of research is this?

Laboratory experiment on the neural overlap between different types of memory.

A

Basic

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6
Q

What type of research is this?

Testing the effects of nutritional interventions on cognition in un-housed communities.

A

Applied

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7
Q

What type of research is this?

Using intact forms of memory to develop tools to improve quality of life for someone with Alzheimer’s disease.

A

Applied

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8
Q

What type of research is this?

Determining the mechanism driving the link between gut health on brain activity.

A

Basic

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9
Q

What is hypothesis guided research?

A
  • We have a theory
  • From this theory, develop a hypothesis, a certain guess about the link between variables under study
  • A hypothesis must be testable against evidence; allows us to use experiments to confirm hypothesis
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10
Q

What is phenomenon-based research?

A

When an “effect” is discovered, and follow-up research examines the nature of the effect

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11
Q

What is the placebo effect?

A

Fake treatments lead to improvements in people’s symptoms and functioning

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12
Q

What are the general approaches to study cognition?

A
  • Cognitive psychology
  • Neuroscience
  • Computational modeling
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13
Q

What is cognitive psychology?

A
  • Study of behaviour to understand the mind (mental processing)
  • Studying intelligent behaviour itself
  • Concerned with studying intelligence using behavioural experiments
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14
Q

What is neuroscience?

A
  • Study of the brain and linking it to the mind
  • What parts of the brain carry out functions we see behaviourally
  • The study of the physical brain and related systems
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15
Q

What is computational modeling?

A
  • Building and modelling the mind-brain connection
  • Simulating brain processes or functions using computer-based models
  • The goal of most research in artificial intelligence is to build machines that can imitate human cognition, not as a means of understanding human cognition itself
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16
Q

What is the cognitive psychology of emotion?

A
  • Emotional enhancement effect: emotional stimuli are more easily attended to, remembered than neutral stimuli
  • Behavioural experiments show focal memory enhancements for negative stimuli in an image
  • We will have poorer memory for the face of someone pointing a gun than for the face of someone drinking because we can only focus on certain things at a time so we are attention is being pulled by the gun
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17
Q

What is the cognitive neuroscience of emotion?

A
  • Amygdala activity predicts memory for emotional but not neutral images
  • More activity means a better memory
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18
Q

What is the computational modelling of emotion?

A
  • If we see computations lead to the same effect then it could help us get a stronger understanding of how emotion is processed in the brain and how it effects our behaviour
  • AI (like an algorithm trained on human data to predict how we use language) is effective at mimicking human behaviour but it is not sentient
  • It is a good predictive model
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19
Q

What type of would fit with the saying “If we really understand how something works, we should be able to build it”?

A. Neuroscience
B. Cognitive psychology
C. Computer modelling/AI
D. Applied research

A

C. Computer modelling/AI

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20
Q

What is the most sophisticated computing device in the (known) universe?

A. The human brain
B. The Google car
C. The calculator
D. Deep Blue (chess-playing computer)

A

A. The human brain

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21
Q

Which of these would not be considered part of cognition?

A. Memory
B. Language
C. Digestion
D. Perception

A

C. Digestion

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22
Q

Historically, artificial intelligence has been least successful at tasks that require what kind of capability?

A. Fast performance
B. Many calculations
C. Large memory
D. Flexible thinking

A

D. Flexible thinking

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23
Q

What is the primary driver of recent dramatic progress in artificial intelligence?

A. Much larger computer memory stores
B. Computer programs that can learn rather than being programmed
C. Better computer programmers
D. Much faster computers

A

B. Computer programs that can learn rather than being programmed

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24
Q

Is this an example of basic or applied research: A study that examines which of two teaching methods improves memory for content in University students studying cognition?

A

Applied

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25
Q

An experimenter wants to understand how perception is linked to memory, what approach should they use to reach this understanding?

A. Cognitive psychology
B. Neuroscience
C. Computer modelling
D. All of the above

A

D. All of the above

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26
Q

Which of the following does not describe cognition?

A. Remembering learned information
B. Orienting attention to a stimulus
C. Reflexes
D. Understanding speech

A

C. Reflexes

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27
Q

Studying the brain and cognitions with the primary goal of developing theories without any regard to how his knowledge can be used to address a problem is known as

A

Basic research

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28
Q

The research approach that studies intelligence by observing behaviours is known as:

A. Cognitive psychology
B. Behavioural neuroscience
C. Behavioural psychology
D. Artificial intelligence

A

A. Cognitive psychology

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29
Q

You were recently hired to use your knowledge of scientific findings in the field of psychology to help design and develop a new phone app. Which of the following best described your field of work:

A. Machine learning
B. Basic research
C. Computational modeling
D. Human factors

A

D. Human factors

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30
Q

Which is the following is a method that can be used to study cognition?

A. Measuring neural activity as a participant is engaged in an experiment
B. Stimulating specific brain regions to observe effects on behaviours
C. Observing behaviours of individuals with brain damage
D. Using computers to stimulate the brain as a participant is engaged in an experiment
E. All of the above can be used to study cognition

A

E. All of the above can be used to study cognition

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31
Q

You are interested in the link between laptop usage and class participation. One day, you decide to count the number of times students participated in class and compare average participation rates between those who were using a laptop and those who were not. This is an example of

A

Naturalistic observation

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32
Q

Among the multiple fields that study cognition, _______________ is the field of research that examines the brain and the physiological processes that underly mental processes.

A. Cognitive psychology
B. Neuroscience
C. Computational modeling

A

B. Neuroscience

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33
Q

True or false? To date, we do not fully understand how the brain produces cognition.

A

True

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34
Q

What are the philosophical foundations of cognitive psychology?

A
  • Ancient Greek philosophers considered the locus of the mind (sensation, memory) and basis of human personality
  • Many took an analytical approach to understanding the human mind by breaking it down into parts to study
  • Aristotle and Plato were two key figures who studied human knowledge
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35
Q

Who is Plato?

A
  • First early philosopher to consider the human mind
  • Rationalism
  • Since internal thoughts and external observations interact, the world is a reflection of our reality
  • Observation does not always lead to certainty
  • There is an innate aspect to mental processes and reasoning
  • “A good decision is based on knowledge and not just on numbers”
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36
Q

What is rationalism?

A
  • Knowledge is the result of observation and prior reasoning
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37
Q

Who is Aristotle?

A
  • Combined philosophical and scientific approaches to thinking
  • Empiricism
  • The basis of thought is forming associations based on observations
  • The mind is nothing before forming associations
  • Foundation of many cognitive theories that emphasize associations
  • “The only true wisdom is knowing you know nothing”
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38
Q

What is empiricism?

A
  • All knowledge comes from experience
  • We know nothing before observation
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39
Q

What’s the link between studying philosophy and cognition?

A
  • Studying Philosophy: asking questions about how and why we think
  • Studying Cognition: gathering evidence to support the answers
  • Philosophy from both Western and Eastern Countries are linked to Cognition
  • Indian Buddhism : rejects the notion of a permanent self and suggests to study cognitive processes during an experience
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40
Q

What is structuralism?

A
  • Identifying the basic building blocks of the complex thoughts or the conscious experience
  • Emphasized systematic, controlled observation for understanding the structure of the mind
  • Systematic observation of the elements of the mind
  • Understanding these elements will help understand more complex cognitive processes, like perception, memory, and learning
  • Introspection is self report
  • People report their thoughts or observations
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41
Q

Which study uses self report to collect data?

a. a study examining pupil dilation in people when exposed to stress
b. a study collecting ratings of pleasure when people view food images
c. a study collecting response time to words presented on a screen
d. a study collecting brain imaging data

A

b

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42
Q

Who is Wilhelm Wundt?

A
  • Founded the first formal laboratory for psychological research and practiced structuralism
  • Goal: identify the simplest units of the mind that he thought followed certain laws to create complex thoughts
  • Wanted to establish a mental periodic table of elements
  • Asked what is the mind made of using introspection
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43
Q

What is Wundt’s empirical introspection?

A
  • Experimental self report or observation about conscious experience
  • Mental chronometry: estimating time for a participant to perceive something
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44
Q

What are the criticisms of structuralism?

A
  • Simplistic approaches (focusing on simple sensory processes)
  • Introspection considered too subjective
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45
Q

What were the theories in the early days of experimental psychology?

A
  • Structuralism
  • Functionalism
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46
Q

What is functionalism?

A
  • Asks why the mind works
  • Not interested in breaking down mental states to basic elements
  • Cognition is about serving a function and so must adapt to current goals
  • focuses on the usefulness of knowledge
  • contributed an emphasis on the adaptive functions of our mind
  • how we use cognitive processes based on setting
  • context matters
  • William James
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47
Q

Who is William James?

A
  • Pragmatic
  • Opposed searching for basic mental elements
  • focused on practical approaches to problems
  • believed that consciousness is personal
  • it cannot be broken down into parts as it is constantly changing
  • emphasized an eclectic methodological approach
  • needed to study the usefulness and variability of accessing knowledge in the real world
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48
Q

What is a criticism of functionalism?

A
  • difficult to study some of these ideas (consciousness, imagery) especially if cognition is always changing
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49
Q

What is behaviourism?

A
  • shift from studying the mind to behaviour
  • focused on what can be observed (input, output)
  • did not consider mental processes
  • focused on animal research
  • assumed all species obey the same laws of behaviour
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50
Q

What are some theories of behaviourism?

A
  • classical conditioning
  • instrumental learning and operant conditioning
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51
Q

What is classical conditioning?

A
  • Pavlov
  • learning by making associations between cue, a stimuli and the natural response
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52
Q

What is instrumental learning and operant conditioning?

A
  • Thorndike and Skinner
  • Behaviour is contingent on a schedule of reinforcements, rewards and punishments
  • rewards encourages behaviours
  • punishment reduces behaviours
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53
Q

How is behaviourism limited?

a. it only focuses on internal processes
b. it is too complex as it accounts for internal and external responses
c. it is impossible to scientifically study behaviour
d. it does not account for internal processes and flexibility

A

d

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54
Q

What are the problems with behaviourism?

A
  • overestimated the scope of their explanations
  • cannot account for complex human behaviour
  • the assumption that learning is the same for all individuals and across species is false
  • latent learning: learning in the absence of conditioning
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55
Q

What is an example of latent learning?

A
  • Children learn to apply language rules to new situations
  • pluralize objects by adding an s even if they have never heard or seen the word
  • we need to refer to mental processes to explain this behaviour
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56
Q

What is the cognitive revolution?

A
  • 1950s
  • accepted that there are internal mental states
  • accepted the scientific method to study these states, like behaviourism and other fields
  • driven by technology
  • the computer is the mascot for this movement
  • led to the view of the mind as a processor of information
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57
Q

What is the information processing view?

A
  • the mind and the brain is like a computer
  • information processing in humans resembles that in computers
  1. information from environment is processed by a series of processing systems
  2. these processing systems change information in systematic ways
  3. cognitive research aims to understand the processes and structures that underlie cognitive tasks (attention, memory, etc)
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58
Q

What is the box and arrow flowchart?

A
  • stimulus
  • primary memory
  • rehearsal or forgotten
  • secondary memory
  • how information flows through memory
  • illustrates that processing occurs in stages
  • Waugh and Norman’s model of memory
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59
Q

What are the limits to information processing?

A
  • the number of words remembered decreases as the distractor task increases in length
  • you cannot rehearse information and in that time, information is not processed
  • limit of the system
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60
Q

Why do we process information?

A
  • we process information to reduce uncertainty
  • the more uncertain something is, the longer it will take it to process
  • the amount of information processed is inversely related to how much we expect that information to occur
  • if we don’t know what to expect, we must process more
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61
Q

What is the link between information processing and uncertainty?

A
  • Humans are stressed out by uncertainty
  • Uncertainty of getting a shock was associated with more stress than certain shock
  • Greater stress response when shock delivered 50% than 100% of the time due to uncertainty
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62
Q

Which ___ word requires more processing?

a. the zebra has black and white ___
b. the zebra ran through the ____

A

b

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63
Q

What was William Hick’s experiment on information prcessing?

A
  • 1952
  • research question: what is the relationship between choice reaction time, a proxy for processing, and the amount of information within an event?
  • conducted a behavioural experiment measuring reaction time to detect light
  • participants saw a display of 10 lamps
  • a lamp lit up every few seconds
  • participants were asked to press a button when a lamp lit up
  • some trials: one of the ten lamps would light up (high certainty)
  • some trials: any of the ten lamps could light up (low certainty)
  • people were slower (higher reaction time) to detect a light if any lamp could light up than when only one could
  • reaction time to press the button increased with the number of possibilities
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64
Q

What is Hick’s Law?

A
  • the more information to process, the longer it takes to make a response to that information
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65
Q

What are the information processing limits?

A
  • choice overload bias
  • decision fatigue
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66
Q

What is choice overload bias?

A
  • the greater the number of choices (or uncertainty of choice) taxes information processes
  • reduced satisfaction, lower confidence and more regret
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67
Q

What is decision fatigue?

A
  • we have a limited amount of cognitive processing
  • making decisions uses cognitive processing
  • thus, decisions become harder to make - and worse - throughout the day, as we fatigue our system
  • to reduce decision fatigue: make big decisions in the morning, develop daily routines
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68
Q

What is ecological validity?

A
  • the extent to which the findings of a research study can be generalized to real life naturalistic settings
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69
Q

Which school of thought or thinker is most responsible for promoting the use of controlled experiments for cognition research?

a. functionalism
b. structuralism
c. behaviourism
d. Plato
e. all of the above

A

c

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70
Q

What are the assumptions of cognitive research?

A
  1. Mental processes exist
  2. Mental processes can be studied scientifically
  3. We are active information processors
    - we are agents that manipulate information to produce behaviours
    - we do not only passively respond to information (behaviourism)
  4. The basis of mental processes is the brain
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71
Q

What is the mind-body problem?

A
  • how are mental events related to the body (brain)?
  • dualism
    monism
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72
Q

What is dualism?

A
  • the mind and brain are separate entities that are equally important
  • both the mind and body exist separately
  • interactionism
  • epiphenomenalism
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73
Q

What is interactionism?

A
  • a form of dualism
  • the mind and brain interact to induce events in each other
  • mind can affect body (thinking alters brain activity)
  • body can affect mind (hormones affect cognition)
  • subscribes to the idea we have a soul
  • Rene Descartes (early 1600s)
  • the pineal gland is this “principal seat of the soul”
  • where the interaction between entities occurs
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74
Q

What is epiphenomenalism?

A
  • mental thoughts (mind) are cause by physical events (brain), but thoughts do not affect physical events
  • one way interaction
  • mental events are like steam coming off a train (Thomas Huxley)
  • the steam (mind) does not affect how the train (brain) works, even if it is a separate entity
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75
Q

What is monism?

A
  • the mind and brain are the same, only one entity exists
  • there is one basic entity that presents as both mental and physical responses
  • idealism
  • neutral monism
  • materialism
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76
Q

What is idealism?

A
  • all reality is a mental construct, physical and mental
  • without having mental processes, there’s no physical representation
  • only the mind exists
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77
Q

What is neutral monism?

A
  • the underlying nature is not mental or physical but something else, something neutral
  • the mind and body are the same thing
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78
Q

What is materialism?

A
  • all reality is the result of physical processes
  • only physical matter exists, all perceptions and thoughts are the result of physical processes
  • physicalism?
  • only the body exists
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79
Q

Only physical processes in the world determine what we do. Which theory best fits with this statement?

a. dualism
b. idealism
c. interactionism
d. materialism

A

d

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80
Q

What are the terms for the directions of the brain?

A
  • dorsal
  • caudal/posterior
  • rostral/frontal/anterior
  • ventral
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81
Q

What is the dorsal direction of the brain?

A

Top of the brain

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82
Q

What is the caudal/posterior direction of the brain?

A

Back of the brain

83
Q

What is the rostral/frontal/anterior direction of the brain?

A

Front of the brain

84
Q

What is the ventral direction of the brain?

A

Bottom of the brain

85
Q

What are nerouns?

A
  • specialized cells that receive and transmit information
86
Q

What are nerves?

A
  • bundle axons that carry information long distances between neurons
87
Q

What are glial cells?

A
  • “glue” cells
  • support cells for neurons
  • hold neurons in place
  • protect and repair neurons
88
Q

What is the nervous system?

A
  • Peripheral nervous system
  • Central nervous system
89
Q

What is the central nervous system?

A
  • brain and spinal cord
  • cognition primarily takes place here
  • voluntary actions
90
Q

What is the peripheral nervous system?

A
  • outside the brain and spinal cord (body)
  • involuntary actions
  • autonomic nervous system
  • somatic nervous system
91
Q

What is the somatic nervous system?

A
  • signals from brain to end organs
  • voluntary control of muscle and senses
  • sensory input
  • motor output (controls skeletal muscles)
92
Q

What is the autonomic nervous system?

A
  • up and down regulates involuntary bodily functions (digestion, respiration hear rate)
  • sympathetic and parasympathetic systems
93
Q

What is the sympathetic system?

A
  • arousing
  • fight or flight
94
Q

What is the parasympathetic system?

A
  • calming
  • rest and digest
95
Q

What is the relationship between the central and peripheral nervous systems?

A
  • highly connected
    -the peripheral informs the central about environment
  • the central regulates the peripheral response after interpretation of information
96
Q

What is phrenology?

A
  • Gall and Spurzheim (late 1700s)
  • parts of the brain correspond to mental functions and personality
  • well used mental functions: related brain area grows, bump
  • under used mental functions: related brain area shrinks, dent
  • false assumption that the highly developed functions have larger brain areas
  • used speculation for localizing functions
97
Q

What is functional localization/specialization?

A
  • modern neuroscience identifies brain area or networks that supports a particular function
  • neuropsychological cases and neuroimaging tools
  • example: fusiform face area
98
Q

What is the FFA (fusiform face area)?

A
  • region in brain in visual system that responds selectively when people view faces
  • could be functional specialization
99
Q

What are the methods to study the brain-behaviour link?

A
  • behavioural measurements
  • behavioural neuroscience methods
  • cognitive neuroscience methods
100
Q

What are the behavioural measurements?

A
  • psychophysiological measurements
  • measure activity in the peripheral nervous system in response to things that humans perceive or imagine (CNS)
  • eye movements, body gestures, skin conductance
101
Q

How does skin conductance measure emotion?

A
  • skin conducts electricity when it sweats
  • this happens when we are emotionally aroused
  • devices can use electrical conduction as an indirect measure of emotional arousal
  • this is an autonomic response but can affect voluntary actions
  • amygdala response is similar to skin conductance response to emotional arousal
  • higher skin conductance in people with PTSD
102
Q

What are the behavioural neuroscience methods?

A
  • animal models
103
Q

What are the strengths to animal models?

A
  • provides a causal link between brain and behaviour
104
Q

What are the weaknesses to animal models?

A
  • doesn’t tell us about human cognition
  • differences in brain structure and function across species puts limits on the generalization of these findings
105
Q

What was found in rats with hippocampal lesions?

A
  • the lesioned rats cannot navigate a learned maze or route
  • shows the hippocampus is important for memory
106
Q

What are the cognitive neuroscience methods?

A
  • patient cases
  • neuroimaging tools
107
Q

What is the corpus callosum?

A
  • the connection between the two hemispheres
  • when cut, brain hemispheres cannot communicate with each other
108
Q

What are split brain patients?

A
  • research on split brain patients examined processing differences between the two hemispheres of the brain
  • without communication, information to the right visual field (left hemisphere) can be verbally names and described in words
  • without communication, information to the left visual field (right hemisphere) cannot be described verbally but can be expressed via visuo-spatial processes (drawing)
109
Q

What does the left hemisphere support?

A

Speech and language

110
Q

What does the right hemisphere support?

A

Visual-spatial processing

111
Q

What are the implications from studies of split brain patients?

A
  • no module is damaged in these cases
  • connections between brain regions are just as important as the brain operations
  • the brain isn’t like a computer - it is a network of interconnected computers
  • raises the idea of dual consciousness
112
Q

What are the neuroimaging techniques?

A
  • electroencephalography (EEG)
  • magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
  • functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)
  • brain stimulation techniques
113
Q

What is an EEG?

A
  • an active brain produces electrical activity
  • EEG measures event related potentials (ERP)
  • measures activity in a large group of neurons at a certain times
  • provides great estimate of when the brain is active
  • activity of brain at specific moments
  • good timing information (temporal resolution), millisecond level
  • not good location information (spatial resolution)
  • lots of things can affect ERP signals, must collect a lot of trials
114
Q

What is an MRI?

A
  • structural
  • anatomy of the brain
  • volume, location of grey matter
  • used to detect structural anomalies
115
Q

What is an fMRI?

A
  • functional
  • information about activity of the brain
    an indirect measure as it measures blood flow and not neural activity
  • active brain areas need oxygen (metabolic energy)
  • a magnet detects changes in oxygenated blood
  • measure ratio of oxygenated and deoxygenated blood flow in regions of the brain during a task
  • use measurements to create a spatial image of brain activity
  • can use to look for functional specializations and ask questions to people in vegetative states
116
Q

What is the right lateral occipitotemporal cortex?

A
  • there is more activity in it when viewing body parts over objects
  • cortical selective region for processing body parts
  • use fMRI to study
117
Q

What is the parahippocampal place area?

A
  • recognizing or thinking about scenes/spatial layouts
  • studied with fMRI
  • visual selective brain areas
118
Q

What is the supplementary motor cortex

A
  • performing or imagining motor movements
  • studied with fMRI
  • motor selective areas
119
Q

What are the strengths of an fMRI?

A
  • provides good spatial resolution, where activity is happening
  • about 1000 papers per month (lots of replication, validation)
  • non invasive
120
Q

What are the weaknesses of an fMRI?

A
  • does not provide good temporal resolution
  • indirect measure of neural activity
  • assumption that increase in blood flow means more activity
  • very noisy
121
Q

How does an fMRI measure brain activity?

a. magnetic charges
b. electrical activity in certain brain regions
c. detects the flow of oxygenated blood
d. radioactive substance that mingles with the blood and circulates to the brain

A

c

122
Q

What is brain stimulaiton?

A
  • non invasive method of changing brain activity
  • can inhibit or increase activity
  • transcranial magnetic stimulation
123
Q

What is TMS?

A
  • transcranial magnetic stimulation
  • focal magnetic field induces electricity and affects neurons in the targeted area as well as connected brain circuits
  • participants in the TMS group had improved scores on the post training compared to pre training memory test
  • good to test causality (testing direct effects of temporary lesion or stimulation on cognition)
  • stimulation techniques have broad effects on the brain, so it is hard to localize effects
  • the way it works is not entirely clear
124
Q

Which neuroimaging tools are correlational?

A
  • fMRI
  • EEG
125
Q

About how many neurons are there in the human brain?

a. ten million
b. seven thousand
c. eighty-six billion
d. one trillion

A

c

126
Q

Which of these is NOT an offered reason as to why studying the physical brain alone might be insufficient to understand cognition?

a. The brain is enormously complex
b. Cognition depends on non-physical mechanisms
c. The brain is embedded in the larger context of the body and the world
d. The brain must be considered within the contexts in which it operates

A

b

127
Q

Which of these viewpoints is LEAST compatible with the scientific study of cognition?

a. The mind and brain are both the same physical entity, which causes intelligent behaviour
b. The mind and brain are separate entities but the physical brain causes intelligent behaviour
c. The mind and brain are both the same physical entity, but this entity does not cause intelligent behaviour
d. The mind and brain are separate entities and the non-physical mind causes intelligent behaviour

A

d

128
Q

What technique did the structuralists use to study the mind?

A

Introspection

129
Q

Scientist A is trying to produce the same results that Scientist B reported, using the same methods. This is called ______.

a. duplication
b. replication
c. reproduction
d. copying

A

b

130
Q

In the context of the nature-versus-nurture debate, what did behaviourists believe produced cognition?

a. nature
b. nurture
c. a combination of nature and nurture
d. neither nature nor nurture

A

b

131
Q

removing an unpleasant stimulus

A

negative reinforcement

132
Q

generating an unpleasant stimulus

A

positive punishment

133
Q

removing a pleasant stimulus

A

negative punishment

134
Q

generating a pleasant stimulus

A

positive reward

135
Q

Which of the following best describes latent learning?

a. learning in the absence of reinforcement
b. learning slowly, over a long period of time
c. learning based on a food reward
d. learning based on a genetic predisposition

A

a

136
Q

What word describes a mapping between a set of inputs and a set of outputs?

A

Function

137
Q

Order the different conditions of Donders’s experiment, based on observed average reaction times, from shortest to longest.

A
  • detection condition
  • discrimination condition
  • choice condition
138
Q

What are human factors?

A

A field of applied psychology concerned with the interaction between human perception and the design of systems.

139
Q

Let’s say a company is designing a new screen for use in a laptop. They hire a researcher to test different designs to determine which ones lead to better visibility. Which kind of research would they be conducting?

a. indirect research
b. phenomenon-based research
c. hypothesis-driven research
d. applied research

A

d

140
Q

A researcher conducting an experiment on hearing presents words at different decibel levels and measures whether the participant can correctly identify them. What is the best description of the role that decibel level plays in this experiment?

a. dependent variable
b. independent variable
c. response
d. stimulus

A

b

141
Q

Which of the following is typically accounted for by performing multiple trials for a given condition in an experiment?

a. variation in people’s behavioural responses
b. technical glitches in the experimental instruments
c. the fact that people have to learn how to perform the task
d. the possibility that some data will be lost

A

a

142
Q

A researcher is studying a theory of memory that requires participants to learn and recall a lot of information under different experimental conditions. The researcher is concerned that there will be a high degree of variability among participants’ performance, due to differences in underlying aptitude for learning, rather than the experimental condition. Which of these techniques would typically be used to deal with this kind of variability?

a. prescreening potential participants to make sure they have sufficient aptitude
b. including a large sample of participants
c. including a large number of trials
d. making the material easy enough that anyone can learn it easily

A

b

143
Q

The puzzle of how the physical body is related to mental activity is called ______.

A

the mind-body problem

144
Q

Descartes articulated the perspective of ______.

A

dualism

145
Q

The use of introspection was a hallmark method of which school of psychology?

A

structuralism

146
Q

What field of science served as an inspiration to the structuralist school?

A

Chemistry

147
Q

Consider the following scenario. An intergalactic team of psychologists discovers a planet with robot-like androids and is trying to understand them. Which school of psychology does a researcher probably belong to if they use the following research method?

Method 1: Determining the action responses of the robots in response to specific kinds of stimulation

a. cognitive
b. behaviourist
c. dualist
d. structuralist

A

b

148
Q

Consider the following scenario. An intergalactic team of psychologists discovers a planet with robot-like androids and is trying to understand them. Which school of psychology does a researcher probably belong to if they use the following research method?

Method 2: Asking the robots to verbally report on their internal processes

a. cognitive
b. behaviourist
c. dualist
d. structuralist

A

d

149
Q

Consider the following scenario. An intergalactic team of psychologists discovers a planet with robot-like androids and is trying to understand them. Which school of psychology does a researcher probably belong to if they use the following research method?

Method 3: Using the response of the robot to specific kinds of stimulation in order to infer its internal mental processes

a. cognitive
b. behaviourist
c. dualist
d. structuralist

A

a

150
Q

Teaching a dog to “shake hands” on command using a food reward is an example of ______.

a. classical conditioning
b. operant conditioning
c. a combination of classical and operant conditioning
d. none of the above

A

b

151
Q

A finding in Tolman’s maze experiments was that when rats were placed in a different starting point of the maze than the one they had been trained on, they went ______.

a. in the wrong direction to get the food
b. in the correct direction to get the food but only if it involved producing the exact same behaviour as when they had first found the food
c. in the correct direction to get the food but only if they had previously explored the maze
d. in the correct direction to get the food, even when they had not previously explored the maze

A

c

152
Q

Which of these methods is NOT currently considered a scientifically valid form of data for the study of cognition?

a. introspection
b. measuring behaviour
c. measuring brain responses
d. none of the above

A

a

153
Q

The “cognitive revolution” led to the idea of cognition as a form of ______.

a. mental rotation
b. introspection
c. computation
d. biology

A

c

154
Q

In order to ensure the findings of a recent experiment are valid, Dr. Anzures performed the experiment using the same methods as the original experiment. He got the same results as the original experiment and now believes the results are valid. Which of the following terms describes what he did to verify the results?

a. replication
b. think-aloud protocol
c. duplication
d. copying

A

a

155
Q

The behavioural measure of how long it takes a participant to produce a response to a stimulus is called ______.

A

reaction time

156
Q

True or False: cognitive psychologists only measure responses to questions that have an objectively correct answer.

A

False

157
Q

How do psychologists typically deal with the challenge of cognitive differences across individuals?

a. make sure their participants are cognitively “average”
b. ignore the problem and hope for the best
c. use tasks that do not lead to large differences in performance
d. include many participants

A

d

158
Q

Which of these is not one of the basic goals of the nervous system mentioned above?

a. gather information from sensory systems
b. send information to the brain
c. secrete hormones into the bloodstream
d. direct the movement of muscles

A

c

159
Q

The nervous system is generally divided up into which two subsystems?

a. peripheral and central nervous systems
b. brain and spinal cord
c. peripheral and medial nervous systems
d. medial and central nervous systems

A

a

160
Q

Tactile information in your right leg is processed on the left side of your brain. This is because most sensory information from one side of the body tends to cross over to which hemisphere?

a. ipsilateral
b. dorsal
c. frontal
d. contralateral

A

d

161
Q

Why does the brain have gyri and sulci?

a. It makes it easier for the neurons to know where to migrate.
b. The gyri and sulci each have a specific function.
c. It increases the surface area that can fit into the skull.
d. It increases blood flow to the spinal cord

A

c

162
Q

Which of these is the best description of the different functional specializations of the two hemispheres?

a. Left: spatial reasoning — Right: language
b. Left: language — Right: spatial reasoning
c. Left: language — Right: mathematical reasoning
d. Left: emotion — Right: spatial reasoning

A

b

163
Q

Which of the following did the case of Phineas Gage, the railroad worker who had an accident in which a metal bar penetrated his skull, give researchers evidence to support?

a. People can recover from traumatic brain damage
b. Different parts of the brain serve different functions
c. The brain works as one whole unit
d. The frontal lobe is not critical to function normally

A

b

164
Q

Where must you present an object to a split-brain patient if you want them to name that object?

a. left eye
b. right eye
c. left visual field
d. right visual field

A

d

165
Q

Sam is participating in a sleep study. Researchers place electrodes to Sam’s scalp which are connected to an EEG. What kind of information will be provided by the EEG?

a. changes in blood flow
b. areas of the brain that are necessary to sleep functions
c. electrical activity of the brain during sleep
d. the kind of neurotransmitters released during sleep

A

c

166
Q

Which TWO of these statements are true about EEG relative to fMRI?

a. EEG takes less temporally frequent measurements
b. EEG takes more spatially precise measurements
c. EEG takes more temporally frequent measurements
d. EEG takes less spatially precise measurements

A

c and d

167
Q

Which method can tell researchers whether some portion of the brain is causally involved in performing a specific function?

a. electroencephalography (EEG)
b. functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)
c. transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)
d. functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS)

A

c

168
Q

Researchers who study dreams may be interested in figuring out the content of their participant’s dreams (i.e., what kind of event or objects they were dreaming about) even if the participant can’t remember the dream to report it. Which technique would be most useful for making this kind of inference?

a. electroencephalography (EEG)
b. multi-voxel pattern analysis
c. transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)
d. analysis of lesions to the brain

A

b

169
Q

The ______ system consists of all of the nerves and cells throughout the body whose job it is to receive and transmit information from one part of the body to the other.

A

nervous

170
Q

Parts of the central nervous system

A

brain and spinal cord

171
Q

It is very likely that the brain has gyri and sulci because they ______.

a. have specific functions to perform
b. increase the surface area that can fit in the skull
c. help blood flow
d. help migration of neurons to their proper location during development

A

b

172
Q

The cortex is divided up into four distinct lobes separated by deep ________ and fissures.

A

sulci

173
Q

The idea that specific parts of the cortex do different jobs is known as ______.

a. functional localization
b. specific localization
c. functional processing
d. distributed processing

A

a

174
Q

The right hemisphere of the brain is dominant for what kind of processing?

A

Spatial

175
Q

People with damage to their left hemisphere are likely to have trouble with ______.

a. memory
b. spatial processing
c. control of their left hand
d. language

A

d

176
Q

To say two functions are doubly dissociated indicates that those two functions ______.

a. involve the same mechanisms
b. involve different mechanisms
c. interact with each other
d. cannot function alone

A

b

177
Q

frontal lobe

A

executive control and planning

178
Q

parietal lobe

A

attention and somatosensory processing

179
Q

temporal lobe

A

meaning of sensory information and language

180
Q

occipital lobe

A

vision

181
Q

If a split-brain patient is presented with a triangle in their left visual field and a circle in their right visual field, which object will they verbally name?

a. neither the circle nor the triangle
b. both the circle and the triangle
c. the triangle
d. the circle

A

d

182
Q

An EEG measures ______.

a. the flow of blood in the brain
b. the electrical activity of an active brain
c. the electrical activity of a single (or very few) neuron(s)
d. the BOLD response

A

b

183
Q

As compared to EEG, fMRI has good _____ resolution.

A

Spatial

184
Q

A child throws a tantrum and his parents take away his iPad privileges. This is an example of ______.

a. Positive reinforcement
b. Negative punishment
c. Negative reinforcement
d. Positive punishment

A

b

185
Q

Which of the following is not an example of neuroscience?

a. Studying brain activity during a task
b. Studying event-related potentials during a task
c. Studying response time during a task
d. Studying connectivity of brain regions during a task

A

c

186
Q

A research participant is presented with a picture of a snake, causing him to flinch. According to Watson, the picture of the snake is the _____ and flinching is the _____, both of which can be _____.

a. Stimulus; Response; Subjectively measured
b. Stimulus; Response; Objectively measured
c. Response; Stimulus; Subjectively measured
d. Response; Stimulus; Objectively measured

A

b

187
Q

You want to study a domain of cognition using neuroimaging, but you believe that multiple regions are likely involved. What method would be best?

a. MPVA
b. TMS
c. fMRI
d. EEG

A

a

188
Q

You smell burning while you are cooking and quickly move the pot away from the stove. Smelling that something is burning involves the _____ and removing the pot from the stove involves the _____.

a. Peripheral nervous system; Central nervous system
b. Central nervous system; Peripheral nervous system
c. Brain; Spinal cord
d. Spinal cord; Brain

A

a

189
Q

Materialism holds that reality is _____, while idealism argues that it is_____.

a. Physical; Mental
b. Mental; Physical
c. Neither mental nor physical; Mental
d. Physical; Neither mental nor physical

A

a

190
Q

You visited the McGill campus several years before attending university. On your first day of class, you easily find your way to class in Leacock 132. This is an example of ______.

a. Classical conditioning
b. Operant conditioning
c. Information processing
d. Latent learning

A

d

191
Q

A patient undergoes damage to the parietal lobe. They would likely show deficit in:

a. Planning
b. Language
c. Vision
d. Attention

A

d

192
Q

What was the main finding of Donders (1868) where research participants responded to light stimuli in different conditions?

a. All three conditions resulted in the same reaction time
b. The more cognitive processes involved, the longer the reaction time
c. The more stimuli used, the longer the reaction time
d. The choice condition resulted in the shortest reaction time, followed by the discrimination condition and the detection condition

A

b

193
Q

In the Little Albert experiment, the unconditioned stimulus is _____, the unconditioned response is ______, the conditioned stimulus is _______, and the conditioned response is _______.

a. Loud noise; Anxiety and fear; White furry objects; Anxiety and
b. White furry objects; Anxiety and fear; Loud noise; No anxiety or fear
c. Loud noise; No anxiety or fear; White furry objects; Anxiety and fear
d. White furry objects; No anxiety or fear; Loud noise; Anxiety and fear

A

a

194
Q

Which of the following is not true about the contralaterality of the nervous system?

a. Tactile information in your left leg is processed by your right hemisphere
b. Visual information in your left visual field is processed by your right hemisphere
c. Motor information in your right arm is processed by your left hemisphere
d. Visual information in your right eye is processed by your left hemisphere

A

d

195
Q

The question of how mental events are linked to the physical realm (i.e. brain processes) is referred to as ______.

a. Physicalism
b. Dualism
c. Monism
d. Mind-body problem

A

d

196
Q

Which of the following is not consistent with the fight-or-flight response?

a. Increased sexual arousal
b. Increased heart rate
c. Decreased digestion
d. Increased respiration

A

a

197
Q

Recent advancements in artificial intelligence are largely attributed to ______.

a. Increased memory capacity of computers
b. If-this-then-that (IFFT) programming
c. The use of machine learning
d. Increased rate of information processing of computers

A

c

198
Q

Neutral monism is the view that _____.

a. Reality is composed of one mental substance
b. Reality is composed of two substances, one mental and one physical
c. Reality is composed of one substance which is neither physical nor mental
d. Reality is composed of one physical substance

A

c

199
Q

A split brain patient is shown a square in her left visual field and a circle in her right visual field. If asked about what saw, she would verbally answer that she saw a ____ and draw a ____ with her left hand

a. Circle; Square
b. Square; Square
c. Square; Circle
d. Circle; Circle

A

a

200
Q

Thinking that all cognition can be explained by brain processes is consistent with which of the following?

a. Idealism
b. Dualism
c. Materialism
d. Neutral monism

A

c

201
Q

Which of the following is not consistent with Descartes’ dualism?

a. Thoughts can affect behaviour
b. Mind and body are separate entities
c. The pineal gland connects the mind and the body
d. Mind and body do not interact with each other

A

d

202
Q

A researcher wants to demonstrate whether a brain region is causally involved in language. To do this, they would need to use:

a. MPVA
b. TMS
c. EEG
d. fMRI

A

b

203
Q

Measuring the number of events a research participant can recall from a story after a delay is an example of _____.

a. Naturalistic observation
b. Cognitive psychology
c. Computational modelling
d. Neuroscience

A

b

Cognition (14 decks)

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