introduction to cognitive psychology (week 2)

Question 1

what is the difference between bottom-up and top-down processing?

Answer 1

bottom-up describes when all processing is directly triggered by the stimulus, whereas top-down describes when processing is caused by the individual person due to prior knowledge.

Question 2

what are “grandmother” cells?

Answer 2

neurons that fire to particular concepts

Question 3

what is the information processing approach?

Answer 3

humans as “stimulus response machines”, assumes serial (one step at a time) and bottom-up processing

Question 4

what is the difference between rate and temporal codes?

Answer 4

rate coding describes the idea that the speed at which a neuron fires is dependent on the information a neuron represents, whereas, temporal coding describes the idea that the representation of information is due to the synchrony of neurons firing

Question 5

what is experimental cognitive psychology?

Answer 5

where experiments are done in labs using experimental manipulation, then output/behavior is measured

Question 6

what is cognitive neuropsychology?

Answer 6

when the cognition in patients with brain injuries is studies in order to find out which functions are impaired and which ones are preserved when a given region is brain damaged

Question 7

what is cognitive neuroscience?

Answer 7

relating brain structure to cognitive processes by recording brain activity whilst participants perform cognitive tasks

Question 8

Where is the frontal lobe located?

Answer 8

directly behind the forehead, at the front of the brain

Question 9

what are single-cell recordings (electrophysiology)?

Answer 9

the measurement of electrical activity within brain cells

Question 10

EEG (electroencephalography)

Answer 10

when a series of electrodes are placed on the scalp of an individual to record the electrical activity generated from a large number of neurons firing at the same time - this is non-invasive and allows neural activity to be measured in essentially real-time

Question 11

what are event-related potentials (ERPs)?

Answer 11

these measure EEG response to the same stimulus/task over and over - the average waveform generates an “event-related potential”

Question 12

what are the advantages and limitations of EEGs/ERPs?

Answer 12

good temporal resolution (milliseconds), portable and relatively cheap, however, poor spatial resolution (centimeters)

Question 13

what are MRIs (magnetic resonance imaging)?

Answer 13

when we put someone in a strong magnetic field (0.5-7 Tesla) - the protons in our brain spin and line up with the direction of the magnetic field and we can measure these changes

Question 14

what are structural MRIs (diffusion tensor imaging)?

Answer 14

these work by measuring how water diffuses across white matter fibers (bundles of axons), which allows us to study how cognition is supported by connections within the brain

Question 15

what are functional MRIs?

Answer 15

these measure the BOLD (blood oxygenation level dependent signal) response of neurons - active neurons need oxygen so our brain supply oxygen to active areas which cause an overshoot in oxygenated blood - oxygenated blood causes less magnetic field disturbance than deoxygenated blood, so active brain regions have a higher signal

Question 16

where is the parietal lobe located?

Answer 16

near the back and top of the head

Question 17

where is the temporal lobe located?

Answer 17

behind the ears and below the parietal lobe

Question 18

where is the occipital lobe located

Answer 18

at the very back of the skull

Question 19

where is the cerebellum located?

Answer 19

just above and behind where the spinal cord connects to the brain

Question 20

how many neurons are in the human brain?

Answer 20

80 billion

Question 21

what is subtraction logic?

Answer 21

when we design experiments to make sure we isolate the cognitive process we are interested in

Question 22

what are the advantages and limitations of fMRI?

Answer 22

very good spatial resolution (millimeters) however poor temporal resolutions (seconds), and it is not a measure of the neurons themselves therefore requiring indirect inference that neurons are firing due to the use of oxygen

Question 23

what is TMS (transcranial magnetic stimulation)?

Answer 23

short magnetic pulses that briefly affect electrical activity in a localised patch of brain tissue under the coil - this is typically applied before or after a cognitive task and can have either positive or negative effects on said task performance - this demonstrates whether or not an area is important for the task

Question 24

what are the advantages and limitations of brain stimulation?

Answer 24

it is mostly non-invasive, however it has a potential risk to those with a history of epilepsy and the effects produced are often weak as the stimulation is too

Question 25

what are the limitations of cognitive neuroscience?

Answer 25

it is expensive and invasive, therefore sample sizes are often small resulting in the questioning of generalisability

Question 26

how does your phone work from an experimental cognitive approach?

Answer 26

is the calculator slower if there are 100 open YouTube videos? or does the camera’s face recognition detect cartoon faces?

Question 27

how does your phone work from a cognitive neuropsychology approach?

Answer 27

i dropped my phone and broke microchip X, how is my phones functioning affected?

Question 28

how does your phone work from a cognitive neuroscience approach?

Answer 28

if i measure voltages across this microchip, can i understand how a TikTok, or photo is stored in memory?