Midterm 1 Flashcards
bit
- Short for ‘binary digit’; the most basic unit of information. Every event that occurs in a situation with two equally likely outcomes provides one “bit” of information
- Everytime the number of equally likely outcomes double, the number of information bits you receive increases by one
Information theory
• The theory that the information provided by a particular event is inversely related to the probability of its occurrence
Filter model
◦ A theory based on the idea that information processing is restricted by channel capacity (The maximum amount of information that can be transmitted by an information-processing device)
Primary memory
What we are aware of in the ‘immediately present moment’; often termed ‘immediate memory’ or ‘short-term memory’
Secondary memory
Knowledge acquired at an earlier time that is stored indefinitely, and is absent from awareness; also called ‘long-term memory’
information pickup (Gibson)
- The process whereby we perceive information directly
- Leaning means becoming progressively more attuned to what the environment affords us (as knowledges of affordances is not innate- we learn what can and cannot be done with items)
perceptual cycle (Neisser)
- • The process whereby our schemas guide our exploration of the world and in turn are shaped by what we find there
• Allows us to become increasingly sophisticated in our dealings with the environment
Modules (brain)
Different parts of the brain, each of which is responsible for particular cognitive operations
Phrenology
- The study of the shape, size, and protrusions of the cranium in an attempt to discover the relationships between parts of the brain and various mental activities and abilities
- More highly developed a function was, the larger it would be, more clearly in would be as a protrusion on the skull
Location of function
The idea that there is a direct correspondence between specific cognitive functions and specific parts of the brain
Law of mass action
Learning and memory depend on the total mass of brain tissue remaining rather than the properties of individual cells
Law of equipotentiality
Although some areas of the cortex may become specialized for certain tasks, any part of an area can (within limits) do the job of any other part of that area
interactionism
Mind and brain are separate substances that interact with and influence each other
-e.g., Descartes who thought they interacted with each other in the pineal gland
epiphenomenalism
“mind” is a superfluous by-product of bodily functioning
-analogy that mind is to the brain as the steam from a steam whistle is a coal-powered locomotive– you can’t discover much about the locomotive by studying steam from whistle, just as you can’t discover much about the brain by examining what goes on in the mind
parallelism
“mind” and brain are two aspects of the same reality, and they operate in parallel
- e.g., Fechner
- Any event in the mind is accompanied by a corresponding event in the brain
- Studying mental events can reveal something about the brain- e.g., asking subjects to introspect, then recording events in the brain
isomorphism
Mental events and neural events share the same structure
-gestalt psychology, Necker cube (External stimulus is constant, but internal subjective experience varies)
Sensory system
A system that links the physical and perceptual worlds via the nervous system: composed of sensory receptors, neural pathways, and distinct regions of the brain preferentially dedicated to the perception of information
Broca’s aphasia
A deficit in the ability to produce speech as a result of damage to Broca’s area (area of the brain’s left hemisphere that is responsible for how words are spoken)
Wernicke’s Aphasia
A deficit in the ability to comprehend speech as a result of damage to Wernicke’s area (Area of the brain’s left hemisphere that is responsible for processing the meaning of words)
Interhemispheric transfer
Communication between the brain’s hemispheres, enabled in large part by the corpus callosum
-initial researched involved severing the optic chasm of cats, later corpus callosum (split brain)
emergent property (sperry)
A property that “emerges” as a result of brain processes, but it not itself a component of the brain. In the case of the mind, this means that consciousness is neither reducible to, nor a property of, a particular brain structure or region
emergent causation (Sperry)
Causation brought about by an emergent property. Once the “mind” emerges from the brain, it has the power to influence lower-level processes
Supervenient (sperry)
mental states that may simultaneously influence neuronal events and be influenced by them
Event-Related Potential (ERP)
An electrical signal emitted by the brain after the onset of a stimulus
- can be recorded using electrodes placed on the scalp (EEG)
- see study that found wavelength for items recalled different than for those not recalled (measured using EEG when first presented with items, then when asked to recall them) (but didn’t necessarily predict subsequent recall of items- e.g., could indicate that participants paid attention to some items and ignored others)
Positron Emission Tomography (PET)
An imaging technique in which a participant is injected with a radioactive substance that mingles with the blood and circulates to the brain. A scanner is then used to detect the flow of blood to particular areas of the brain
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)
• A non-radioactive magnetic procedure for detecting the flow of oxygenated blood to various parts of the brain
• Measures blood flow (flow of oxygen in blood) while the subject completes some sort of task and can correlate the location of brain activity with cognitive behavior
-study example- sentence reading vs consonant strings
Magnetoencephalography (MEG)
- a non-invasive brain imaging technique that directly measures neural activity
• Spatial resolution good like fMRI and temporal resolution good like ERP
• Measures magnetic fields produces by electrical activity of the brain (direct measure of neural activity rather than indirect measure- that of blood flow)
• Irregularities in the head (e.g., the skull) do not have as much effect on the magnetic fields produced by neural activity, unlike the electrical fields used by ERP
• Limitations
◦ Due to decay of signal as a function of distance for magnetic fields- MEG best at detecting activity near cortical surface of the brain
◦ Expensive, not widely available
Diffusion Tensor imaging (DTI)
Used to understand the organization of the neural interactions within the brain (e.g., how information flows between and within brain regions)
A MRI-based neuroimaging technique that makes it possible to visualize the white-matter tracts within the brain
Connectionism
- A theory that focuses on the way cognitive processes work at the physiological/neurological (as opposed to information-processing) level
- It holds that the brain consists of an enormous number of interconnected neurons and attempts to model cognition as an emergent process of networks of simple units (e.g., neurons communicating with one another)
Neural Networks (relates to connectionism)
- Neurons that are functionally related or connected
- Learns by modifying the strength of connections between elements so that the proper output occurs in response to a particular input (e..g, Hebb’s rule)
Parallel (e..g connectionism) vs Serial processing models
Many neural connections may be active at the same time
vs in serial only one can be
visual agnosia
An inability to identify objects visually even though they can be identified using other senses (e.g., touch)
perception
The processing of sensory information in such a way that it produces conscious experiences and guides action in the world
achromatopsia
A visual deficit characterized by inability to perceive colour because of damage to the area of the brain that processes colour information
Akinetopsia (motion blindness)
An inability to perceive the motion of objects