Labs Flashcards
what is memory?
a trace of a previous experience that can be used for prediction of events `
what is sensory memory?
memory using the senses eg visual, auditory, olfactory. Has a very short memory duration to store the memory, only hold information for short time
what is short term memory?
storing a small amount of information in your mind then needing to process it for a bit before it can enter long term memory eg remembering a list of words or a phone number
what is working memory?
memory of something you will USE, interaction between short- and long-term memory (passes the memories between them), using information from long term memory to short term memory when we use it
what is long term memory?
memory of something that lasts a long time
what are spatial memories?
memory that is remembered and used to navigate around a place, can be a conceptual distance as well
what is procedural memory?
automatic memories, things you don’t need to think about but remember eg how to walk, speak, ride a bike
what is episodic memory?
memories of specific events, including how you felt in that experience eg going to the beach with friends
what are semantic memories?
facts and knowledge, general knowledge for pub quiz
what is allocentric space?
uses landmarks to navigate whereabouts and is the same regardless to who the observer is eg ‘the child is 20m away from the castle’ so the location description is based on other objects ‘Unipol is next to the Oval’
what is egocentric space?
focuses on the individual when navigating eg ‘Unipol is in front of me, ‘I am 5m away from the castle’
spatial information can be location based or movement based, what is the difference?
location: uses identifiable features of the environment as reference when navigating
movement: using movement cues to create a cognitive map, but is prone to errors
what is piloting?
location based, uses trigonometry to find the position of something hidden using the positions of other landmarks around it – used by pilots
what is beacon homing?
location based, use this more than piloting, move towards the landmark that is close to the hidden thing
what are the five types of optic cues used in movement based navigation?
- optic flow
- kinesthetic information
- sensory flow
- motor efferent copy
- vestibular information
why was it hard to navigate in Venice?
because the only available movement cue was optic flow
what does it mean for the brain to be like a black box?
we know what goes into the brain and we know what comes out of the brain, but don’t know what happens in between
what is the subtraction method?
used to measure total reaction time by subtracting different sections of it to find how long each process takes
what happens in the choice reaction time task?
all 4 (most complex): stimuli detection, stimuli identification, response selection and executing the response
what happens in the go/no go task?
gets rid of the response selection part - so only one key is pressed (stimuli detection, identification and execution of the response)
what happens in the simple reaction time task?
gets rid of the response selection part and the stimuli identification - so only one key is pressed and only one stimuli is presented (only involves stimuli detection and execution of the response)
what assumptions are made for the subtraction method to be valid?
assumption of seriality: that the processes don’t overlap
assumption of independence: that they aren’t dependent on each other, that one can only happen because the other has happened previously
what is the speed-accuracy trade off?
some people choose to respond faster but are less accurate or choose to be more accurate but takes longer
what is a signal detection task?
any decision where you have to choose yes/no is a signal detection task like hypothesis testing
what elements are present in a signal detection task?
signal, noise and decision
what are the 4 response biases when making a decision?
correct yes decision = hit
incorrect yes decision = false alarm
incorrect no decision = miss
correct no decision = correct rejection
what is response criterion?
measures response bias mathematically; a positive c means you are biased towards a NO response, negative c means you are biased towards a YES response
what is sensitivity when decision-making (d’)?
ability to correctly identify when a signal is present in noise, compared to when it is not, making clear decisions
sensitivity high vs sensitivity low
when sensitivity is high, there is little or no uncertainty and lacks response bias
when sensitivity is low, there is a lot of uncertainty and there is high response bias
what are the 4 attributes of an EEG trace?
frequency, amplitude, direction and latency
what is the optic flow movement cue?
how the visual information changes as we move through the environment
what is the kinesthetic information movement cue?
tells us how far we have walked, slopes, the terrain
what is the sensory flow movement cue?
involves other senses not vision
what is the motor efferent movement cue?
monitors movements, nervous system takes note that we take steps forward
what is the vestibular information movement cue?
balance and position in gravity, and can be worn out with age
what is stimulus time locking?
EEG technique where we time the brain activity from the exact same point during the trial, 250ms after it is shown, this means we have different brain recordings for brain activity during the same process, then the scans are averaged out
