Midterm #1 Flashcards
1
Q
What is the current accepted definition of cognition?
A
all processes by which the sensory input is transformed, reduced, elaborated, stored, recovered, and used
2
Q
What are the higher cognitive processes?
A
language and comprehension
problem solving
decision making
3
Q
What are the lower cognitive processes?
A
perception
attention
memory
4
Q
What did Diogenes of Apollonia contribute to psychology?
A
shifted emphasis from sensation and perception to combination of sensory information
thought of air as the vehicle for cognition
5
Q
What did Plato contribute to psychology?
A
goal was to discover the object of the mind (representational structure for knowledge)
proposed universals as separate from particulars
(dog is different than Fido)
suggested “wax tablet” metaphor of memory
(imprint an idea into the wax, we remember it unless it is rubbed out or fails to imprint)
6
Q
What did Aristotle contribute to psychology?
A
viewed universals formed part of particulars
(dog is part of Fido)
Doctrine of Association
- mental life is explained in terms of ideas (elements) and associations (links between elements)
7
Q
What are the Laws of Association?
A
contiguity - same time/space
similarity - conceptually alike
constrast - opposites
8
Q
What did Donders contribute to psychology? (choice decision time)
A
measured time between stimulus and response, realized the further the stimulation from the brain, the longer it takes to sense it
added choice component to determine how long it takes people to make a decision
(choice decision time = choice reaction time - simple reaction time)
9
Q
What is introspection?
A
trained observers look within to describe and record the contents of the mind
studies conscious mental events
10
Q
What are the weaknesses of introspection?
A
assumes all cognitive processes are available in consciousness
no objective testability (whose description is correct?)
11
Q
What did Ebbinghaus contribute to psychology? (savings measure)
A
generated pages of nonsense syllables and tried to memorize them, plotted learning over time
measured forgetting by taking the amount of time it took him to originally memorize the list and amount of time it took him to re-memorize the list, found a “savings measure”
savings measure = amount of original learning saved at relearning (as function of time between original learning and relearning)
- savings went down, but never to zero
12
Q
Why couldn’t Ebbinghaus use existing words to demonstrate learning?
A
existing words come with “baggage” (meaning, semantics) so had to use nonsense syllables to attempt to demonstrate new learning
13
Q
How did William James make the analogy of memory to an attic?
A
everything in the dark is presently inaccessible and stored in long term memory, lantern shines on things we are currently thinking about in short-term memory
14
Q
What was Kohler’s contribution to psychology? (WW2)
A
studied primates problem solving
proposed concept of insight, suddenly getting a new idea to solve a problem
was actually a German spy
15
Q
What is the general view of behaviourists?
A
only stimulus and responses matter, goal was to catalogue the connections between the 2
16
Q
What did Bartlett contribute to psychology? (broken-telephone process)
A
argued memory was a process of error-prone construction and reconstruction, which is why our memories are not always accurate
17
Q
What did Duncker contribute to psychology? (functional fixedness)
A
did experiments on thinking and functional fixedness, such as the candle, box, tacks experiment
18
Q
What is Chomsky’s Theory of Linguistics?
A
kids can understand many more words than they can articulate (competence vs. performance)
language is much more complex than a stimulus-response relationship
19
Q
What is the transcendental method?
A
working backwards from effects to determine causes
allows for conclusions based on unobserved events and for hypothesis development/testing
20
Q
What are the 2 recurring views of cognitive psychology?
A
systems view (structuralist tradition)
- aims to identify different systems/structures
- assumes systems can be distinguished based on characteristics and locations
process view (functionalist tradition) - emphasizes nature of different processes involved in cognitive operations
21
Q
What did Segner contribute to psychology? (iconic memory)
A
first to document iconic memory
attached flowing coal to freely spinning cart wheel, gradually increase speed until subjects reported seeing a continuous circle
22
Q
What is iconic memory?
A
sensory memory for the visual system
23
Q
What is echoic memory?
A
sensory memory for the auditory system
24
Q
What is a saccade?
A
quick movement of the eyes from one location to another
very brief but vary in duration depending on distance
almost blind during this time, very little visual information available
25
What is a fixation?
brief period when eyes ave stopped moving and visual scene is being processed
builds iconic memory of the setting
26
What allows for the illusion of continuous vision?
iconic memory stores
we experience distinct fixations and saccades but we cannot tell
27
What is the Baxt Span of Apprehension? What experiment did he run to discover this?
how much information we can intake from a single fixation - 4/5 letters in experiment
cut out portion of a wheel and put a matrix of letters behind it, asked people to stare where they would appear and report how many letters they could remember after it disappeared
28
What did Sperling contribute to psychology? (Baxt repeat)
repeated Baxt's experiment but more precise
found again that subjects could report 4-5 letters
made 2 observations:
- subjects claimed they had seen the whole array but forgot it when reporting (had an impression of more than they could remember)
- subjects said array seemed to fade but was available to examine mentally after it went away
29
What were the 2 possible reasons Sperling deduced that iconic memory may be limited to 4-5 letters? How did he test this?
either slow pattern recognition (can't read fast enough) or limited short-term memory capacity
presented display for 10x longer to allow for more pattern recognition time, subjects still reported 4-5 letters
- therefore pattern recognition is not too slow, must be limited by short term memory
30
How did Sperling determine the capacity of iconic memory is greater than short term memory?
developed partial report procedure where an auditory cue is given after the letter display to indicate which part of the display to report (ex. high note = top row)
shows that spatial/location information was taken in
number of items available in iconic memory increased as number of items in display increased
31
What cues are effective for storage in iconic memory? What does this show?
physical cues (size, location, colour) are more effective than semantic cues (letters vs digits)
can conclude that iconic memory is pre-categorial - stimulus is not yet analyzed, only physical information is represented
32
How long does iconic memory last?
about 1/3 of a second
exact duration depends on physical characteristics
33
What did Eriksen & Collins experiment show? (iconic memory with dots)
presented 2 patterns of dots with a delay in between
if the delay between the presentation of each pattern was less than 1/3 of a second, initial pattern remained in iconic memory and created a superimposed image
confirmed Sperlings findings, also showed iconic memory can hold a lot of information for a short period of time
34
What is pattern masking?
"visual noise" interferes with reading letters if they are both in iconic memory at the same time
35
What are the types of pattern masking?
forward masking - pattern mask appears shortly before letters
backward masking- pattern mask appears shortly after letters
36
What are the 2 ways information from iconic memory can be lost?
decay over time
| interference
37
What is the structuralist view of sensory memory?
sensory memories are memory systems that temporarily hold physical information
38
What is the functionalist view of sensory memory?
sensory memories are a reflection of ongoing neural processing that begins with stimulation and continues for a given duration
(info from the eye is being processed over time for coding and recognition)
39
How does echoic memory allow us to interpret speech?
holds the auditory information for about 1-4 seconds to allow for us to take the time to process it
40
What is pattern recognition?
deriving meaning from input
comparing stimuli to stored information on past experiences, we recognize the stimulus as familiar, identify it, and give it meaning
41
What is template matching?
barcodes/cheques compared to templates in the computer system
42
What are the issues with template matching?
normalizing patterns
- need infinite knowledge to know how to recognize certain things as the same (< and >)
ill-defined categories
- ex. potatoes are similar shapes and colours but have variation, what is the template?
43
What is the feature detection theory?
patterns are analyzed in terms of their component parts or features
assumes the visual system can detect different features
44
What is the evidence for feature detection theory?
confusions
visual search studies
neurophysiological evidence
45
How do visual confusions provide evidence for feature detection theory?
some letters share more similar features than others and therefore get confused more easily (ex. p and r vs. k and o)
46
How do visual search studies provide evidence for feature detection theory?
searches can be done faster when based on physical features than when based on semantic features
ex. being told to look for the word SAND you can seek for its physical features, being told to look for the name of an animal you need to process the meaning of each word, takes lonfer
47
How does our visual system treat gaps and absences of gaps?
treats gap as a feature but not absence of a gap
easier to notice something with a standout feature than something missing a feature
48
What are the main cells involved in the visual pathway?
```
ganglion cells (optic nerve)
lateral geniculate
simple cortical cells
complex cortical cells
hyper-complex cells
```
49
What do ganglion cells respond to?
small spots of light
50
What do simple cortical cells respond to?
bars of a particular orientation
51
What do complex cortical cells respond to?
movement of bars of a particular orientation
52
What do hyper-complex cells respond to?
corners/angles/bars of a particular length
53
What are geons?
basic set of forms that serve as building blocks for objects
54
What is recognition by components?
in between feature analysis and object recognition, geons are identified and then integrated into objects
proven because out of 2 images with equal percentage removed, it is easier to detect the ones with major geons still clear
55
What is bottom-up processing?
builds an interpretation as you are perceiving
input - analysis - pattern identification
difficult to rely on just this
56
What is top-down processing?
based on context and previous analyses/experiences
"have I seen this before?"
(pattern identification - analysis - input)
more efficient
57
What are some examples of the effects of context in pattern recognition?
seeing either "went" or "event" (in cursive) depending on the context of the sentence
when searching for an object in a normal scene vs, a jumbled scene, must faster in normal scene since they could use context (top-down processing)
58
What is the word superiority effect?
participants are either shown a word, a letter, or a nonsense word and then shown a mask that interferes with memory
had to decide either what letter they were shown, or what letter was present in the word they were shown
easiest to identify the letter when presented in the context of a word than when shown by itself or in a nonsense word
59
What is the interactive model of reading?
feature detectors, letter detectors, and word detectors interact
excitatory and inhibitory connections between detectors interact and allow for word detection based on only partial or ambiguous information
60
What is interactive processing?
both top-down and bottom-up processing are ongoing and can assist each other
61
What is a phone?
the smallest unit of speech
culture-free
200 phones but each language only uses a small subset
62
What is a phoneme?
most basic unit of sound in a given language
40 in English
63
What is a morpheme?
most basic unit of meaning in a language
smallest meaningful units of words
ex. "talked" has 2 morphemes - "talk" the verb and "ed" making it past tense
64
What are the 2 types of morphemes?
```
content (ex. talk)
function (ex. ed)
```
65
What are articulatory features?
can distinguish phonemes based on how they are produced by our vocal apparatus
66
What are variables that are relevant in the pronunciation of consonants?
place of articulation
- where the airflow disruption occurs in the vocal tract
manner of articulation
- how airflow is disrupted (complete vs partial)
voicing
- whether the vocal cords begin to vibrate immediately (ex. bat) or delayed until after (ex. pat)
67
What are variables that are relevant in the pronunciation of vowels?
placement in the mouth
- front, centre, back
tongue position in mouth
- high, middle, or low
68
What is the relationship between articulatory and acoustic features?
speech production is articulatory
speech perception is acoustic
children must learn to appropriately modulate their vocal tracts to produce speech sounds
- also teens at puberty, adults after dental changes
69
What is the McGurk Effect?
demonstrates interaction between hearing and vision in speech perception, showing it is multi-modal
auditory "ba" plus visual "ga" = perceived "da" (intermediate phoneme)
70
What experiment was done on phoneme restoration?
spliced a phoneme out of each sentence and inserted a cough
participants knew the full sentence but couldn't identify exactly which phoneme was missing
shows our lagging speech perception - need to hear the rest of the sentence to determine what the missing phoneme should be
71
What is the segmentation problem?
how do we divide up speech into meaningful units when it is continuous?
ex. "ice cream" vs "I scream"
we need context to decide
72
What is the concept of co-articulation/parallel transmission?
pronunciation of each phone is not constant, but depends on context (what comes before and after it in the word)
ex. bag has 3 phones, "b", "æ", and "g", but not pronounced individually
73
What is the experimental evidence for categorical perception?
used computer to change "ba" sound to "pa" sound, level 1 is "ba", 14 is "pa", and 2-13 are somewhere in between
played in random order, no gradual change from ba to pa, either heard one or the other
evidence for categorical perception - our brains categorize the sounds as one phone or the other, no intermediate
74
What is the experimental evidence for the adaptation effect on categorical perception?
did the ba/pa experiment again but first had participants adapt to the "ba" sound (played it for about a minute)
then played 1-14 in random order, perceived many more as being pa since the ba speech detector was then fatigued
75
What are the 2 kinds of attention?
attention as detection
| attention as concentration
76
What are the 2 types of attention as detection?
vigilance
| alerting
77
What is vigilance?
the ability to devote full attention to a single stimulus or stimulus complex (attentive, controlled)
detection of change has high priority
ex. air traffic controller monitoring display
78
What is alerting?
the ability to orient oneself to some critical/unexpected stimulus (preattentive, automatic)
specialized detectors with high priorities
ex. sudden noise capturing the attention of a nightwatch person
79
What are the 2 types of attention as concentration?
focused attention
| divided attention
80
What is focused attention?
the ability to choose to focus on only one stimulus/dimension and exclude all others
81
What is divided attention?
the ability to focus on 2+ stimuli/dimensions at the same time
usually some loss in attention in one or both
82
What are the basic characteristics of attention/why do we need attention?
limited capacity
- environment presents more info than we can effectively deal with at any one time
selection
- must select which stimuli we will or will not attend to
modulation
- influence how selected information is processed
83
What are the 4 themes in the study of attention?
pre-attentive vs attentive
early vs late selection
serial vs parallel processing
controlled vs automatic processes
84
What did Cherry's experiment show about shadowing?
presented 2 messages at once and asked listeners to repeat one out loud and ignore the other
could recall physical characteristics of the ignored messages (loudness, gender) but not semantic information (message, repeated words, language change, backward speech)
85
What is change blindness?
inability to detect changes in visual displays even when focusing on it
demonstrates limitations of visual attention when there is too much info
86
What is inattention blindness?
demonstrates attention is necessary for perception
ex. gorilla video
87
What is Broadbent's filter model? (early selection)
input - physical features (sensory memory) - filter - pattern recognition - short term memory
only selected info gets through the filter to be analyzed for meaning
still aware of physical features of ignored stimuli since it is in sensory memory
88
What are the problems with Broadbent's filter model?
cocktail party effect
- subjects could often detect their own name in the unattended channel, how could this happen if it didn't pass through the filter for pattern recognition?
89
What did Treisman contribute to the early selection model? (cocktail party effect explanation)
said that your name has a very low firing threshold since you have spent your entire life responding to it, can hear much easier when activated
90
What did von Wright et al. contribute to dichotic listening studies? (Finnish word)
Finnish word paired with mild electric shock
later in dichotic listening task the word was presented in the unattended ear (without shock)
participants not consciously aware that the word is present but still showed a reaction to its presence
- sweaty palms
indicates that the info in the unattended message can be processed for meaning below the level of conscious awareness
91
What did Corteen & Wood contribute to dichotic listening studies? (category conditioning)
subjects heard a list of words, particular categories of words paired with a shock
study words presented in unattended channel during dichotic listening task, even words from the category that were not presented produced a response
- generalization of conditioned response indicates meaning was processed
92
What is the difference between the early selection filter model and the late selection model?
early selection model has a filter before pattern recognition
late selection model has selection after pattern recognition
93
What are the problems with the late selection model?
unattended info not processed as well as attended info
recordings of event potentials in the brain show processing of attended and unattended info is different
94
How does memory without awareness occur?
unattended info receives some processing of meaning but doesn't become conscious
95
How does memory with awareness occur?
attended info is processed in serial leading to identification and meaning of info that becomes consciously available
96
Describe Kahneman's Capacity Theory?
arousal has an influence on capacity size
97
What are some things that an increase in arousal can lead to? Why do these things occur?`
```
increased heart rate
increased breathing rate
enlarged pupils
changes in cortical brain wave patterns
reduction in attention span
```
effects meant to prepare us to deal with an emergency
(fight or flight response)
98
What is the Yerkes Dodson Law?
at very high or very low arousal, our performance is impaired
99
What is a dual task procedure?
primary task is done to best of abilities, secondary task is done as best as they can without interfering with the primary task
if the 2 tasks requirements exceed our capacity, we must allocate resources and performance of some tasks will suffer
100
What did Posner & Boies contribute to psychology? (letter presentation experiment, arousal and multi-tasking)
warning signal was presented before a letter, then a delay period, then second letter
primary task - determine if the first and second letter are the same and respond orally
secondary task - press a button when a tone is presented at some point during the experiment (8 possible tone locations)
warning signal increased participants arousal and preparedness, improved performance
right around the presentation of the 2nd letter, response time got slower since resources had to be devoted to recalling the first letter amongst interference
101
What were the tasks and results of the speech shadowing while driving experiment?
primary task - driving simulator
secondary task - repeating words from relevant message while ignoring irrelevant message
better at shadowing when not driving
shadowing more accurate from front speaker than side
- easier to focus all attention in one direction than to split it
102
What did Strayer and Johnson determine about listening to the radio vs using a cell phone?
talking on a cell phone takes more resources (causes interference) whereas listening to the radio does not
103
What did Redelmeir and Tishirani determine about the use of a hands-free device?
same risk is associated with handsfree as handheld
indicates risks are associated with attentional problems not motor control
104
What are the risks of using a cell phone while driving comparable to?
driving while legally impaired with a BAC of 0.08%
| driving after 24 hours of sleep deprivation
105
Why doesn't passenger conversation cause the same extent of interference as cell phone conversation?
passengers can change pace of conversation based on traffic conditions
processing language without non-verbal cues is more difficult
106
What was found about the use of laptops in the classroom?
significant negative correlation between ratio of non-course related laptop use and academic performance
students under-reported the frequency and duration of non-course related use of technology
107
What is the multi-mode theory of attention?
no physical filter, just a representation of how people distribute their attentional resources
subject has control over if they will adopt an early or late selection approach
- early selection requires less resources since you don't have to attend to irrelevant info
- late selection requires more resources because you have to attend to more
108
What did the shadowing study on multi-mode attention show?
task 1 - shadow one of 2 auditory messages
task 2 - respond to a light signal
auditory message can either be different physically (male vs. female speakers) or the same speaker differing only in meaning
when there are physical differences you can use early selection and base your listening on these features, more efficient
same speakers require late selection since you have to scan for meaning, worse performance since it requires more resources
109
What is focused attention?
processing only one input at a time
ex. shadowing procedure
110
What is divided attention?
requires allocating/sharing limited resources to perform multiple tasks at once
111
What is specific interference?
occurs because the same mechanism is needed for both tasks
ex. dichotic listening
112
What is nonspecific interference?
occurs because two tasks together require more resources than are available
113
What is priming?
a previous encounter with the identical or related stimulus (the prime) makes the subsequent processing of that stimulus easier
114
What did Posner and Snyder contribute to psychology? (neutral, helped, or misled conditions)
shown either a plus sign or a letter, and then shown a pair of letters, have to say if the 2 letters are the same or different
in one trial 8/10 levels had the prime different than target letters
- low validity priming
- lower priming benefits but no costs of being misled
in another trial 8/10 levels had prime the same as target letters
- high validity priming
- higher priming benefits but dramatic cost of being misled
- preparing the wrong detector based on incorrect expectations wastes valuable resources, takes time to recover
115
What is automaticity?
overcoming the limitations of attention and short-term memory by making processes automatic
requires a lot of practice
116
What are the results of the Stroop Effect?
incongruent condition is slower than neutral condition (interference)
congruent condition is faster than the neutral condition (facilitation)
if you reverse the experiment reading the words and ignoring the colours, there is no interference or facilitation
117
What are the criteria for an automatic process?
occurs without attention
processes don't give rise to conscious awareness
doesn't interfere with other mental processes/activities
exists as a continuum from automatic to controlled
118
What are characteristics of controlled processes?
```
usually slow
serial
effortful
limited by short term memory
under subject control
used in novel situations or when info is inconsistent
```
119
What are the characteristics of automatic processes?
```
fast
parallel
effortless
not limited by short term memory
not under subject control
learned with extensive practice when information is consistent
```
120
What did Shffrin and Scheneider contribute to controlled/automatic processing studies?
argued controlled processes are slow because they are usually serial and automatic processes are fast because they are parallel
participants see target letter then sees a display containing 1-8 various letters try to determine if the target letter is in the subset
one group had consistent targets/distractors (had the opportunity to learn through practice)
one group had randomly drawn targets and distractors
(no consistency)
results: at first both consistent and variable group showed identical trends, showing controlled processing was occurring
after practice, consistent mapping group no longer varied with the # of letters in the search
121
What is the instance theory of automaticity?
to perform a new task we must use an algorithm
- slow sequence of processes guaranteed to work
each time we perform the algorithm, we store a memory representation of the output/answer, stored as an "instance"
eventually (with practice) can perform a task by retrieving the instance rather than carrying out the algorithm
122
What is the horse race model of automaticity?
performing the algorithm and searching for the instance from memory "race" each other (done in parallel)
as more instances are stored in memory, the probability of retrieving one faster than solving the algorithm increases
automaticity is the point when retrieving the instance always wins the race against the algorithm
123
What is a lexical decision task?
given a string of letters, hit one button if it is a word and another if it is not a word
instance is knowing what response to make at what time
with repetitions, retrieval of response becomes faster than making lexical decision
- not getting faster at reading, getting faster at knowing which button to press
124
Describe the alphabet-arithmetic experiment.
ex. A + 2 = C, true or false
tested 40 equations, letters either 2, 3, 4, or 5 letters away, further away you have to count the longer it will take
after thousands of trials, subjects could solve problems by retrieving instances, response time is same for each number of digits away
conclusion: with practice, can turn a slow effortful serial controlled process into a fast effortless parallel automatic process
125
What is an action slip?
a cost of automaticity
performing automated tasks in response to the wrong stimulus/context
occurs in the absence of attention
126
What is a repetition error?
forgetting if you have performed a frequently performed action
ex. did i lock the door?
127
What is a goal switch?
switching from one intended goal to another frequently performed goal
ex. going to the bathroom to brush your teeth but brushing your hair instead
128
What is an omission/reversal error?
omitting/reversing components of action sequences while paying attention
ex. forgetting to add your tea bag
129
What is a confusion/blend error?
confusing objects involved in one action sequence with those of another
ex. putting cereal in the fridge and milk in the cupboard
130
What is the embedded processes model?
assumes attention and working memory are closely linked
working memory is a part of long-term memory, focus of attention is a part of working memory within the temporarily accessible info
131
What is working memory capacity?
number of separate items that can be kept accessible at once
132
What is working memory capability?
how well attention can be used to keep needed information active in the presence of interference
133
What is the focus of attention?
can zoom in and out to apprehend a field of items to a maximum of 4 or 5
134
Describe the what and the where system?
what system - occipital lobe to cortex of temporal lobe, identification of visual objects
where system - occipital lobe to parietal lobe, guide action and perceive where an object is located
135
What is the binding problem?
the task of reuniting the various elements of a scene, elements that are initially addressed by different systems in different parts of the brain
136
What are conjunction errors?
correctly detecting features present in a visual display but making a mistake about how features are bound together
137
What 2 principles guide perception?
proximity
| similarity
138
What is perceptual constancy?
perceiving properties of objects as constant even though the sensory information we receive about these attributes change when our viewing circumstances change
139
What is size constancy?
correctly perceiving the sizes of objects in the world despite the changes in retinal image size created by changes in viewing distance
140
What is shape constancy?
correctly perceiving the shape of objects despite changes in retinal image created by shifts in viewing angle
141
What is brightness constancy?
correctly perceiving the brightness of objects whether their illuminated by dim or strong light
142
What are the 2 types of priming?
stimulus-driven
- produced by stimuli you have encountered recently/frequently in the past
- takes no effort
expectation-driven
- deliberately prime detectors for inputs you think are incoming so that you're ready for when it gets here
- under your control
143
What are the 3 components (phases) of memory?
acquisition
storage
retrieval
144
What is a garden path sentence?
initially led to one interpretation but it turns out to be wrong, so you need to reject your first construal and seek an alternative
