Midterm 1 Flashcards
Cognition
mental processes involved in perceiving, remembering, thinking, and understanding, plus those using those processses
memory
mental processes for acquiring, retaining and using information
Introspection
to observe and record one’s own mental health
structuralism
the study of the structure of the conscious mind, sensations, images, and feelings. Was used by Edward Titchener
Functionalism
the study of the functions of consciousness. Was used by William James
Verbal Learning
is the branch of psychology that deals with humans as they learn verbal material, composed of letters, nonsense syllables or words.
Ecological Validity
generalizability to the real world situations in which people think and act
reductionism
attempting to understand complex events by breaking them down into their components
Empiricism
the philosophical position that advances observation and observation-derived data as the basis for all science.
Tabula Rasa
the assumption that experience, not innate factors, determines behaviours
channel capacity
any physical device that transmits messages or information
dependent variable
the variable that is measured
independent variable
stand-alone variable, is not changes by other variables you are trying to measure
reaction time
the time between presentation of a stimulus and the participants response
accuracy
how correct a person’s response is (usually the number of correct items)
replication
studies need to be replicated in order to be valid
serial position
refers to the original position an item has in a study list
standard theory
a model used for memory. includes sensory memory, short term memory, and long term memory
sensory memory
input held in raw sensory form
short term memory
holds information currently and then transfers it to control processes
long term memory
all the information one can remember
control processes
the part of the modal model of memory that involves active manipulation of information of short term memory
encoding
the act of getting information into memory system through automatic or effortful processing
process model
a small scale model that delineated the mental steps involved in a task and made testable predictions - a hypothesis is about the specific mental processes that take place when a particular task is performed
lexical decision task
a timed task in which people decide whether letter strings are or are not English words
Word frequency effect
it takes longer to judge words of lower frequency than higher frequency words
parallel processing
a mental processing where 2 or more processes or operations are co-occuring
priming
mental activation of a concept by some means, or the spread of that activation from one concept to another
serial processing
examples of cognitive processing are executed in series, one after another.
sequential stages of processing
the idea that humans process a single piece of information at a time
conceptually driven processing
processes that uses data as the main input and output and that automate or optimize tasks based on data analysis
episodic memory
memory fo the personally experienced events. Enables you to record your personal history
semantic memory
general world knowledge
Capgras Syndrome
unable to make associations. it is a delusional misidentification syndrome
sensory neurons
receive information from the external world and convey the information to the brain
motor neurons
carry signals from the spinal cord to muscles to produce movement
interneurons
connecting neurons
soma
cell body
nucleus
brain of the cell, contains the chromosomes
dendrites
where the neuron receives the input from the other cells
myelin sheath
insulating layer, helps with electrical conduction
terminal buttons
small knobs at the end of an axon that release chemicals called neurotransmitters
Aborizations
a fire branch structure at the end of the nerve fiber
nodes of ranvier
periodic gaps in the insulating sheath on the axon of certain neurons facilitate the rapid conduction of nerve impulses.
Axon
a long thread-like part of the nerve cell along which impulses are conducted from the cell body to other cells.
Action potentials
is a rapid sequence of changes in voltages across a membrane
neurotransmitter
chemical messengers that your body can’t function without. Job is to carry chemical signals from one neuron to the next target
all or none principal
describes how nerve cells either fire at full strength or do not
long term potential
a process involving persistent strengthening of synapses that leads to long lasting increases in signal transmission between neurons
acetylcholine
a neurotransmitter, plays an important role in brain functions such as memory, and body functions, such as muscle contractions
norepinephrine
plays an essential role in the regulation of arousal, attention, cognitive function, and stress functions
glutamate
a neurotransmitter, glutamate is the most abundant excitatory neurotransmitter
GABA
a neurotransmitter, functions include to reduce neuronal excitability by inhibiting nerve transmission.
Consolidation
process where our brains convert short term memories into long term ones
Neurogenesis
process by which new neurons are formed in the brain
frontal lobe
reasoning, planning, decision making, organizing and deciding where things go
parietal lobe
sensory information
temporal lobe
auditory processing
occipital lobe
visual informaton
thalamus
relay station for sensory information
limbic system
emotions, motivation, and memory
cingulate cortex
emotional processing
hypothalamus
basic body functions
hippocampus
new memories
amygdala
processing emotion
corpus callosum
coordinating motor movement
hemispheric specialization
the principle where each cerebral hemisphere has specialized functions and abilities
contralaterality
the principle whereby one side of the body is localized in the opposite side cerebral hemisphere
MRI
big mechanical donut, the machine creates a very strong magnetic force. can give us a clear image of the brain
fMRI
shows the functioning of the brain. MRI magnet is used to isolate molecules such as oxygen access where the blood is flowing to in the brain, thereby indicating heightened neural activity
CT scans
big mechanical donut takes a series of x-ray images. good for understanding the structure of the brain
EEG
electroencephalogram. electrodes are placed on the person’s scalp, and the device records the patterns of the brain waves
ERP
event relation potentials: momentary changes in electrical activity of the brain when a particular stimulus is presented to a person
single cell recording
only done in animals. used to look at the firing rate of an individual cell changes, by seeing if it fires more or less often as a function of the given task
PET
the person is injected with a radioactive isotope that is taken up by the bloodstream. The person is placed into the scanner and is asked to do a particular task. Certain parts of the brain will work harder, and that part will light up
TMS
apparatus is positioned near a person’s head with a particular part of the brain targets. When the machine is on, it produces a magnetic field that disrupts the electrical activity in a particular part of the person’s brain. eg. mild seizure
connectionism
an approach to studying human cognition that utilizes mathematical models, known as connectionist networks or artificial neural networks.
sensation
the reception of physical stimulation and encoding of it into the nervous system
perception
the process of interpreting and understanding sensory information; the act of sensing then interpreting that information
psychophysics
the study of the relationship between physical stimuli and the perceived characteristics of those stimuli; the study of how perceptual differences from physical stimulation are perceived.
just noticeable difference (JNB)
in the amount by which 2 stimuli must differ for the difference to be percieved
symbolic distance effect
differences judged more rapidly when they differ more on some symbolic dimension
semantic congruity effect
decision is faster when dimension being judged matches or is congruent with the implied convention
weber fraction
the change in a stimuli that will be just noticeable is a constant ration of the original stimulus
Feschner’s Law
the subjective sensation is proportional to the logarithm of the stimulus intensity
Steven’s power Law
is an empirical relationship in psyhophysics between an increased intensity or strength in a physical stimulus and the percieved magnitude increase in the sensation created by the stimulus
signal detection theory
a means to measure the ability to differentiate between information-bearing patterns and random patterns that distract from the information
stimulus
something that incites to action or exertion or quickens action, feeling, thought, etc.
signal
presentation of information, to evoke action or response
response
reaction to stimulus
extramission
eyes are emitting some sort of energy like rays to allow you to see the world. vision is coming outward
saccades
the voluntary sweeping of the eyes from one fixation point to another
fixations
the pause during which the eye is almost stationary and is taking in visual information
change blindness
the failure to notice change in visual stimuli when the change occurs during a saccade
inattention blindness
failure to see an object that we are looking at directly even a highly visible one, because our attention is focused elsewhere
synethesia
a blending of senses where stimulation of one sense produces sensation in a different modality
iconic memory
the short duration memory system specialized for holding visual information
decay
forgetting things
interference
forgetting caused by the effects of intervening stimulation of mental processing
focal attention
mental process of visual attention
Gestalt grouping principles
identify characteristics of perception in which ambiguities in a stimulus are resolved to help determine which objects are present
figure ground principle
when viewing an image, part of the image is treated as the figure face ground, which is segregated from the visual information upon which it is set.
closure
we tend to percieve closed figures rather than incomplete ones
principles of grouping
exist because the mind has an innate disposition to perceive patterns in the stimulus based on certain rules: proximity, similarity, continuity, closure and connectedness
template theory
pattern stored in memory to compare incoming stimuli to
feature
a simple visual element that can appear in combination with other features across a variety of stimulus patterns
Pandemonium
feature based recognition model. imaginative description, the mechanisms involved were little demons who shout out loud as they attempt to identify patternsbo
bottom up processing
data-driven - stimulus-driven effects, perception directs cognition.
top down processing
concept driven - knowledge or expectation driven effects, perception is constructed by cognition
RBC theory
detects geons, which are the building blocks of objects. there are about 3 dozen geons. works better depending on having certain parts of the object. If we have vertices it is easier to recognize
prosopagnosia
the inability to recognize faces, including ones own
apperceptive agnosia
an inability to perceive an intact object due to difficulties assembling parts of an object
associative agnosia
an inability to link between what is seen an visual knowledge
beta movement
a perceptual illusion whereby 2 or more still images are combined by the brain into motion
phi movement
an illusion of movement that arises when stationary objects are placed side by side and illuminated rapidly one after another,
