Midterm 1 Flashcards
all of your encounters with the world depend on…
your supplementing your experience with knowledge that you bring to the sitution
cognitive revolution
succession of changes in the 1950s and 1960s; involved a new style of research aimed at questions about memory, decision making, etc.
Introspection
a method in which people observe and record the content of their own mental lives and the sequence of their own experiences
limits of introspection
-some thoughts are unconscious
-for any science to proceed, there must be some way to test its claims, but this cannot be done in introspection
-science needs some way of resolving disagreements, but this testability in introspection is often unattainable
Behaviorism
observations of behavior provide objective data
limits of behaviorism
our behavior cannot be explained solely through objective data because the way people act and the way they feel are guided by how they understand or interpret the situation and not by the objective situation itself
Immanuel Kant’s transcendental method
begin with the observable facts and work backward from these observations; study mental processes indirectly since we cannot study them directly
Edward Tolman
argued that learning involves the acquisition of new knowledge; study of rats in maze
B. F. Skinner
argued language use could be understood in terms of behaviors and rewards
Noam Chomsky
published a rebuttal to Skinner’s proposal and convinced many psychologist that an entirely different approach was needed for explaining language learning; noted that Skinner’s views could not explain the creativity of language
Gestalt psychology movement
argued that behaviors, ideas, and perceptions are organized in a way that cannot be understood through a part-by-part, element-by-element analysis of the world
clinical neuropsychology
study of brain function that uses cases in which damage or illness has disrupted the working of some brain structure
neuroimaging techniques
enables us with some methods to scrutinize the precise structure of the brain and to track the moment-by-moment pattern of activation within someone’s brain
cognitive psychology
concerned with how people remember, pay attention, and think; most of what we do, say, and feel is guided by things we already know
many factors contributed to the emergence of cognitive psychology in the 1950s and 1960s
Tolman’s research on rats and mazes, Chomsky’s rebuttal to Skinner, Gestalt psychologists’ emphasis on the role of perceivers in organizing their experiences, Bartlett’s research that showed that people spontaneously fit their experiences into a mental framework or schema
early theorizing in cognitive psychology often borrowed ideas from…
computer science
Capgras syndrome
a rare syndrome that can result from various injuries to the brain; able to recognize the people in their world, but are convinced that some of these people are not who they appear to be; results from conflict in the two systems of face recognition: cognitive appraisal (knowing what the person looks like) and the emotional response that occurs when seeing that person
two systems of face recognition
1) cognitive appraisal –> knowing what the person looks like
2) emotional appraisal –> triggers an emotional response when seeing that person
Both systems must agree to result in a confident recognition
positron emission tomography (PET) scan
obtains basic information of the physical makeup of the brain; introduces a tracer substance such as glucose into the patient’s body that have been tagged with a low dose of radioactivity ad the scan keeps track of this radioactivity
magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
relies on the magnetic properties of the atoms that make up the brain tissue and provides detailed structural images
amygdala
an almond-shaped structure that serves as an emotional evaluator, helping an organism detect stimuli associated with threat or danger; also important for detecting positive stimuli, indicators of safety, or available rewards
What do we learn from Capgras syndrome?
-two systems of facial recognition
-amygdala plays a crucial role in supporting the feeling of familiarity, helps you remember the emotional events of your life, and plays a role in decision making
-many parts of the brain are needed for even the simplest achievement
Hindbrain
located at the very top of the spinal cord and includes structures crucial for controlling key life functions; regulates the rhythm of heartbeat; plays an essential role in maintaining the body’s overall posture and balance; controls the brain’s level of alertness; includes the cerebellum, pons, and medulla
Medulla
controls vital functions such as breathing and heart rate
Midbrain
plays an important part in coordinating the precise movements of the eyes as they explore the visual world; contains circuits that relay auditory information from the ears to areas in the forebrain where this information is processed and interpreted
Forebrain
this structure surrounds the midbrain and most of the hindbrain
Cortex
an organ’s outer surface; thin covering on the outer surface of the forebrain ~3 mm thick
Longitudinal Fissure
deepest groove that runs from the front of the brain to the back, separating the left cerebral hemisphere from the right
Central Fissure
divides the frontal lobes on each side of the brain from the parietal lobes
Lateral Fissure
marks the bottom edge of the frontal lobes
Thalamus
acts as a relay station for nearly all the sensory information going to the cortex
Hypothalamus
a structure that plays a crucial role in controlling behaviors that serve specific biological needs (e.g., eating, drinking, and sexual activity)
Limbic System
includes the amygdala, hippocampus, and parts of the thalamus; believed to be involved in the control of emotional behavior and motivation and also plays a key role in learning and memory
lateralization
virtually all parts of the brain come in pairs; physically about the same, but there are differences in function between the left- and right-side structures
Commissures
thick bundles of fibers that carry information back and forth between the two hemispheres
neuropsychology
the study of the brain’s structures and how they relate to brain function
clinical neuropsychology
seeks to understand the functioning of intact, undamaged brains by means of careful scrutiny of cases involving brain damage
Lesion
a specific area of damage
computerized axial tomography (CT) scans
provide three-dimensional X-ray pictures of the brain
functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)
provides functional imaging; measures the oxygen content in blood flowing through each region of the brain, which provides an index of the level of neural activity in that region and offers precise pictures of the brain’s moment-by-moment activities
electroencephalography (EEG)
a recording of voltage changes occurring at the scalp that reflect activity in the brain underneath
manipulations of brain function
techniques to manipulate the brain’s function to see what would happen
MRI advantages/disadvantages
advantages: tells us about the shape and size of brain structures
disadvantages: tells us nothing about the activity levels within these structures
fMRI advantages/disadvantages
advantages: tells us about brain activity and can locate the activity rather precisely
disadvantages: this technique is less precise about when the activity took place, typically summarizing the brain’s activity over a period of several seconds with no clear indication of when within this time frame the activity took place
EEG advantages/disadvantages
advantages: gives more precise information about timing
disadvantages: much weaker in indicating where the activity took place
fusiform face area (FFA)
area is especially active whenever a face is being perceived; correlated with face perception, but may not cause it
transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)
this technique creates a series of strong magnetic pulses at a specific location on the scalp and the pulses activate the neurons directly underneath this scalp area
localization of function
an effort aimed at figuring out what’s happening where within the brain
cerebral cortex
largest portion of the human brain; thin layer of tissue covering the cerebrum, or forebrain
three regions of the cerebral cortex
motor areas, sensory areas, association areas
motor areas
contain brain tissue crucial for organizing and controlling bodily movements
sensory areas
contain tissue essential for organizing and analyzing the information received from the senses
association areas
support many functions, including thinking
primary motor projection areas
certain regions of the cerebral cortex that serve as departure points for signals leaving the cortex and controlling muscle movements
primary sensory projection areas
areas that serve as the arrival points for information coming from the eyes, ears, and other sense organs
contralateral control
a pattern in which the left half of the brain controls the right half of the body, and the right half of the brain controls the left half of the body
somatosensory area
information arriving from the skin senses is projected to this region in the parietal lobe, just behind the motor projection area; each part of the body’s surface is represented by its own region on the cortex
association cortex
can be subdivided further on both functional and anatomical grounds
glia
help to guide the development of the nervous system in the fetus and young infant; support repairs if the nervous system is damaged; controls the flow of nutrients to the neurons
three major parts of the neuron
cell body, dendrites, axon
presynaptic membrane
the bit of the neuron that releases the transmitter into the space between neurons
postsynaptic membrane
the bit of neuron on the other side of the gap that is affected by the transmitters
action potential
a signal that moves down the axon, which in turn causes the release of neurotransmitters at the next synapse, potentially causing the next cell to fire
all-or-none law
if a signal is sent from a neuron, it is always of the same magnitude
different types of coding by neurons
-an idea is represented by specific neurons in the brain
-ideas and memories are represented in the brain through widespread patterns of activity
forebrain subdivision
frontal lobe, parietal lobe, temporal lobe, and occipital lobe
perceptions can change based on…
added information
bottom-up processing
start at the bottom of the system, when environmental energy stimulates the receptor; data is gathered from the environment, then goes into our brains
top-down processing
processing that originated in the brain, at the top of the perceptual system; we have information about things in our brain already; expectations about a person or object that we are looking at affects our perception
direct perception theories
bottom-up processing; perception comes from stimuli in the environment; parts are identified and put together, then recognition occurs
constructive perception theories
top-down processing; people actively construct perceptions using information based on expectations
if the same data is given in different contexts…
you will likely perceive them differently
apperceptive agnosia
people can perceive an object’s features but not the object in its entirety
associative agnosia
people can see but cannot link what they see to their basic visual knowledge; failure in recognition despite no deficit in perception
tachistoscope
device used to present stimuli for precise amounts of time
the word superiority effect
responses are more accurate when the stimulus is a word, compared to when it is a single letter
well-formedness
how closely a letter sequence conforms to the typical patterns of spelling in the language
the more well-formed a letter sequence…
the easier it is to recognize the sequence and the greater the context effects produced by the sequence on recognition
feature nets
a network of detectors, organized in layers; the flow of information is bottom-up; bottom layer is concerned with features while each subsequent layer is concerned with larger scale objects; each detector in the network has an activation level; detectors fire when their response threshold is reached
starting activation levels depend on…
recency and frequency
recency
detectors that have fired recently will have higher activation levels; a warm-up effect
frequency
detectors that have fired frequently will have higher activation levels; an exercise effect
efficiency vs. accuracy in feature nets
same mechanism that enable the network to resolve ambiguous inputs and recover from errors can also result in recognition errors; network sacrifices a small amount of accuracy for a great deal of efficiency
feature nets and distributed knowledge
what a network knows is not locally represented in any single detector, but is a property of the network as a whole; knowledge is represented by a pattern of activations distributed across the network and detectable only if we consider how the entire network functions
McClelland and Rumelhart Model
includes excitatory connections (one detector can activate its neighbors) and inhibitory connections (allow detectors to inhibit their neighbors); proposes two way communication
geon
can be identified from virtually any angle
recognition by components model: hierarchy of detectors
feature detectors, geon detectors, geon assemblies, object model
recognition by components model
bottom-up recognition; viewpoint-independent; feature detectors –> geon detectors –> geon assemblies –> object model
inferotemporal (IT) cortex
cells in this cortex respond to specific target objects and fire most strongly when that target is in view
prosopagnosia
an inability to recognize individual faces (including their own) despite otherwise normal vision
holistic perception
perception of the overall configuration rather than an assemblage of parts; may be used in face recognition
experience-dependent plasticity
the mechanism through which the structure of the brain is changed by experience
unilateral neglect syndrome
a pattern that is generally the result of damage to the parietal cortex and patients with this syndrome ignore all inputs coming from one side of the body
selective attention
the skill through which a person focuses on one input or one task while ignoring other stimuli that are on the scene
cocktail party effect
the ability for you to focus on one conversation among a busy party
inattentional blindness
a pattern in which people fail to see a prominent stimulus, even though they’re staring straight at it, because they are focusing their attention on some other stimulus
change blindness
observers’ inability to detect changes in scenes they’re looking directly at
early selection hypothesis
the attended input is privileged from the start so that the unattended input receives little analysis and therefore is never perceived; distractor stimuli falling out of the stream of processing at a very early stage
late selection hypothesis
all inputs receive relatively complete analysis and selection occurs after the analysis is finished; distractors are perceived but are selected out before they make it to consciousness
early vs. late selection
each hypothesis captures part of the truth
biased competition theory
a proposal that attention functions by shifting neurons’ priorities so that neurons are more responsive to inputs that have properties associated with the desired or relevant input
priming
can occur if detectors have been used recently or frequently in the past or based off of your expectations about what the stimulus will be
repetition priming
priming produced by a prior encounter with the stimulus
spatial attention
the ability to focus attention on a specific location in space
priming has a cost
priming the wrong detectors takes something away from the other detectors; getting prepared for one target seems to make you less prepared for other targets; limited-capacity system
mental resources
some process or capacity needed for performance, but in limited supply
ultra-rare item effect
a pattern in which rare items are often overlooked
endogenous control of attention
a mechanism through which a person chooses where to focus attention
exogenous control of attention
a mechanism through which attention is automatically directed essentially as a reflex to a response to some attention-grabbing input
feature integration theory
your early evaluation of the input does involve parallel processing of the entire display
two stages of the feature integration theory
preattentive stage and focused attention stage
preattentive stage
parallel processing of the entire display
focused attention stage
expectation-based priming allows you to prepare the detectors for just one location, and this creates a processing advantage for stimuli in that location
divided attention
multitasking
a task will be possible only if…
you have the needed resources
you can perform concurrent tasks only if…
you have the resources needed for both
divided attention easier if the simultaneous tasks are…
very different from each other because different tasks are likely to have distinct resource requirements
executive control
the mechanisms that allow you to control your own thoughts; helps you keep your current goals in mind to guide behavior; ensures that your mental steps are organized and in the right sequence; can only handle one task at a time
studies of people who have suffered damage to the prefrontal cortex
difficulties with executive control; specifically goal neglect
perseveration error
a tendency to produce the same response over and over even when it’s plain that the task requires a change in the response
goal neglect
a pattern of behavior in which people fail to keep their goal in mind so that they rely on habitual responses even if those responses will not move them toward the goal
selective attention has a several-part account
one mechanism to block out unwanted distractors and a second mechanism to promote the processing of interesting stimuli
resources that are general in their use and needed for a wide range of tasks can contribute to the difficulty of divided attention
energy supply needed for mental tasks, executive control, etc.
as a task becomes more practiced…
it requires fewer resources or perhaps it requires less frequent use of these resources
automaticity
a state achieved by some tasks and some forms of processing, in which the task can be performed with little or no attention
the problem of automaticity
task performance can go forward with no executive control and so the performance is essentially not controlled
ability to pay attention to certain regions of spcae
attention spotlight beam; stimuli falling “within the beam” and processed more efficiently than stimuli that fall “outside the beam”
David Marr’s Levels of Analysis
computational level, algorithmic level, implementation level
computational level
what and why a problem is being solved; representations for understanding the world
algorithmic level
how is the tasked performed, what are the steps for the task
implementation level
physical level; how are neurons in the brain working together to complete a task
apraxia
problems with the initiation and organization of voluntary action; damage to the frontal lobe
double dissociation
When damage to one part of the brian causes function A to be absent while function B is present, and damage to another area causes function B to be absent while function A is present
specificity coding
representation of a specific stimulus by firing of specifically tuned neurons specialized to just respond to a specific stimulus
population coding
representation of a particular object by the pattern of firing of a large number of neurons
sparse coding
when a particular object is represented by a pattern of firing of only a small group of neurons, with the majority of neurons remaining silent
feature detectors
neurons that respond best to a specific stimulus
