Lecture 1 Flashcards
three things we can observe about the problem
ourselves, stimulus response relationships
What is the problem with cognitive PSY?
how to observe the mind
-stimuli -> ?? -> response
Introspection
gives people different stimuli and then ask them to describe it
-you have awareness of your mind you just have to convey it
Problems with introspection
its difficult to verify, relies on people to be honest and towards the end of the mental process it is hard to explain
Law of Effect
responses that produce a satisfying effect after a particular stimulus are likely to occur again and vice versa
Cat study w/ Throndike
puts cat in cage -> cat meows but then learns to escape by pulling lever to leave -> cat gets put back in cage numerous times and slowly it pulls the lever quicker
-Conclusion: cat learned that crying would work so it opened the cage
Skinner: Science of Behavior
emphasizes on observable phenomena
Tolmans rat experiment:
the rats figured out the maze over time, then is able to efficently go through it equally as fast even in water (Cog Maps)
Cognitive Maps
a mental representation of where you are and the surroundings around you
Behaviorism
focuses on the idea that all behaviors are learned through interaction with the environment
Problems with behaviorism
-Cant account for diversity in human behavior
-limitation to observable behavior isnt necesarily science
Cognitive Approach
can’t directly observe mental processes and must guess on whats going on
-uses experimental research methods to study internal mental processes
-stimulus -> ?? -> response
Cognitive Psychology
study of mental processes
-Ex:perception, attention, memory, decision making
Assumptions about cognitive psychology
- intelligent behavior is decomposable into parts → each part will be easier to understand the whole → eventually understanding the parts and how they fit together will complete our understanding
- Trying to reverse engineer the mind.
mental chronometry
the scientific study of cognitive processing speed
Info Processing stages
stimulus-> processing -» more processing -> response
-each of these stages recieve info from prior stages, transforms info and sends it to the next stage
Stages of memory
encoding (building memory) -> storage (gets retrieved when needed) -> retrieval (memory resurfaces when needed)
Donders reaction time test
three seperate tasks: you hit the button as fast as you can depending on the time, and you try to differenciate color and shape
simple reaction time (donders)
2 stages: stimulus → s1: detection → s2: response → simple reaction time
Go/No Go reaction test: (donders)
3 stages: stimulus → s1: detection → discrimination → response → go/no-go reaction time
Choice Key (Donders)
4 stages: stimulus → s1: detection → s2: Discrimination (color) → s3: selection (hands) → s4: response - Choice reaction time
Subtraction method:
- s → detection → discrimination → response → 340 ms
- s → detection → response - 220 ms
- discrimination takes 120 seconds → 340-220=120
Hicks Law:
reaction time increases as the number of choices decreases → less stages if there are less choices
Contribution on Cognitivism:
- the idea that you can measure mental processes
- similer assumptions in modern research
- nueroimaging methods frequently use subtraction method.
Underlying Assumptions of cognitivism
-cognition is like a computer program
-analysis: intelligent behavior is decomposable into parts
-once we understand the parts it will complete our understanding
Information Processing Stages
Each stage receives info from previous stage transforms info and sends info to the next stage
Hicks Law
Reaction time increases as the number of choices increases as well
Sensation
stimulation of sense organs
Perception
selection, organization and interpretation of sensory input
Top-down Processes
perceiving things based on your prior experiences and knowledge
-cognitive processes -> perception -> sensation
Distal stimulus
whats actually out there
Proximal Stimulus
sensory info impinging on sensory receptors that elicit a response
-have info about the proximal stimulus but not the distal stimulus
Bottom-up processes
the sensory perception of the outside stimuli, the stimuli being processed in the brain, and then finding meaning from analysis based only on data
–distal stimulus -> sensation -> perception
perception changes based on what you expect to see
Gestalt principle: closure
if one object is ecluding another object we see it as overlapping not missing
Gestalt principle: pattern recognition
Pattern recognition translating patterns of
sensory signals into psychological
experiences of recognizable objects
* Pattern recognition matches sensory info
to representations in memory
Feature Analytic Approach
Break stimuli into smaller components.
* Recognition of distinctive features
* Objects are defined by their unique set of
features
* Reduces to finite categories
Physiological Basis for Feature
Theory
Microelectrode recording of axons in primary
visual cortex of animals
– Discovered feature detectors: neurons that
respond selectively to lines, edges, etc.
Simple cells
receptive field responds to linear stimuli at a particular oreintation
Complex Cells
receptive field responds optimally to stimuli at a particular orientation and moves in a particular direction
Hypercomplex cells
receptive fields optimally responsive to movement, orientation and length
Feature Analyses in Audition
Understanding of spoken language is notable
example of feature analysis in perception.
* Consonants have definable features
– Place of articulation: where the air is temporarily
stopped
– VOT: when in relation to articulation do vocal cords
begin vibrating
dicohtic listening
requires the subject to repeat aloud a message presented to one ear while ignoring a message presented to the other ear
Attention
the mental process of concentrating effort on an external or internal event
Automatic processing
occurs without intention, not open to introspection, don’t require much attention, operates fast, and are just facilitation
controlled processing
only with intention, is open to introspection, needs more attention, operates slowly, facilitation(actions to happen) and inhibition (can stop and action from happening)
Criteria for automatic processing
Automatic: occurs without intention, not open to introspection, requires little attention, operates fast, and is only facilitation
Criteria for controlled processing
Controlled: only with intention, open to introspection, needs attention, operates slowly, and had facilitation and inhibition
Feature Search
- pre-attentive: when you’re looking for a single feature in distractors it is faster
- automatic, fast (pop-out search), independent number of distractors
Conjunction search
- attentive: when you increase the number of distractors people get slower
- controlled, slow, effortful and depends on the number of distractors
Iconic memory
visual system, a snapshot of the visual world that you hold onto for a short amount of time
- we want to know how quickly info is lost, and how much info can be retained
Echoic Memory
auditory system, a sound plays, goes away but will continue to play back in your head for a short amount of time.
- relies on heavy serial recall (simple tasks)
- series of stimuli
- scored as correct if correct item is in correct position
Whole vs. Partial report in Iconic memory
- Whole report: tell them all the letters/recall as many as possible
-
Partial Report: tell them a row of the letters
- you don’t know which row until the stimulus is gone
- varies in duration between stimulus offset and cue onset
- Whole report summary: whole report estimates the size of memory at 4.5 items, subjects reported seeing more than they could say
- Partial report summary: superior to the whole report because it takes time to say the letters, and is a rapid decaying visual store
Echoic memory effects
- Experimental effects: modality and suffix effects
- Serial position curve: plots performance as a function of item order
- Primacy Effect: advantage for the first items over items in the middle
- Recency Effect: advantage for the last items over the middle items
- Modality effect: refers to a change in the size of the recency effect
Mental Imagery
you visually imagine something that isn’t in the environment you are in as you’re imagining it/experiencing a sensory impression in the absence of sensory input
- Ex: how many windows are in your apartment without seeing the actual being there
Cocktail Party Phenomenon
Room full of conversations, we can attend
to just our conversation due to dichotic listening
What is noticed about unattended
channel in dichotic listening?
Did notice
– Change of gender
– Change to tone
– Change in pitch or loudness
* Did not notice
– Change of language from English to German
Processing load and the locus of
selection
High demands for attended stimuli –
evidence looks like early selection
* Low demands for attended stimuli –
evidence looks like late selection
* There is no single locus of selection,
depends on processing demands.
– Selection is flexible
Word Superiority Effect
Better at recognizing
letters in words than
letters alone, or letters in
non-words
Propositional theory
Objects and relations between objects.
– Ball is on the box - ON(Ball, Box)
– Propositions can be about specific objects or
they can represent whole classes of objects.
– Subjective experience of imagery is not
relevant to understanding the cognitive
processes involved
