Introduction to Human Cognition Flashcards
Definition of sensation
Biological functioning of our sensory system via stimulated sensory receptors
Definition of perception
Interpretation of sensory input, organising input and assigning meaning
Cognitive process
Definition of attention
Ability to select salient sensory inputs to attend to
Primary and recency effect
More likely to remember info from the start and end of an encounter
Definition of an episodic memory
Memories of personal experiences in the long term memory
Definition of a semantic memory
Memories of facts, ideas and concepts in the long term memory
Definition of an explicit memory
Conscious retrieval of declarative knowledge
Definition of implicit memory
Unconscious retrieval of procedural knowledge
What is the difference between sensation and perception
Sensation
- Functioning of our sensory system via stimulated sensory receptors
- biological processes
Perception
- Interpretation of sensory input, organising the input and assigning meaning
- cognitive process and not very accurate
What is the pathway of sensation to the brain
Environmental stimuli
Transduction of stimulus via sensory receptors
Transmission of AP in CNS
Interpretation in the brain
What are the 3 factors that affect perception of internal/external stimuli
Attention
- ability to select salient sensory inputs to attend to
- can change depending on the context
Information Processing systems
- Recognition, assign stimulus to a meaningful category
- knowledge, process stimulus based on preexisting knowledge in top down processing
Emotion
-how we feel affects what we perceive (anxiety and depression)
Describe the properties of attentional resources
What are the 2 types of attention
Attentional resource is limited
- restrictions to the amount of sensory inputs we can process and assimilate
- only some sensory inputs are transmitted to our sensory store or further processing
- processed by parallel sensory channels
Can be voluntary/unvoluntary
What are the 3 stages in skill acquisition
How does this link to attention
Cognitive stage => mental representation of skill
Associative stage => development of motor programme
Autonomous stage => skill becomes innate
As you progress down the stages, the amount of attention needed decreases
What are the 2 problems with implicit skills that dont need a large amount of attention
- in healthcare workers
- in patients
Healthcare workers may commit more medical errors and impact on patient safety
Patients who think they can manage their conditions who weren’t taught well adhered to treatment less
How does attention affected by stress
Survival mode => hypervigilant attention system
Attention biased to certain inputs deemed to be of importance
How would you address attention and stress in a clinical environment
By distracting a patients attentional resource away from the threatening context, our perception of stimuli decreases
What is the short term memory
Temporary storage system
Visual and auditory processing
Limited processing capabilities
How to overcome the issues associated with short term memory
Chunk information according to preexisting structures
Give important info at the end and the start (primacy and recency effect)
Write info down
Check back and revise
What is the long term memory
Stores info for future retrieval
Memory structures are created via encoding
Sematically meaningful categories are generated
Describe the composition of declarative knowledge
Episodic memory
-personal experiences, easier to recall
Semantic memory
-facts, ideas, concepts, harder to recall
Both form the explicit memory
-conscious retrieval of declarative knowledge
Describe the composition of procedural knowledge
Cognitive/problem solving
Motor and perception skills
Repetition
All link with the implicit memory (unconscious retrieval)
What are the 3 types of health behaviours
Describe them
Risky -increases morbidity and mortality Promoting/protective -enhance health and prevent disease Illness related -aimed at managing acute/chronic illness
