PSY 324 Exam 4 Flashcards
numerical cognition: is it innate or culturally learned?
- BOTH
1. innate: infants can differentiate between diff #s of dots in an array (may b a basic human skill)
2. cultural: symbols, words for numbers, equations for numbers are all learned things
what is the definition of a number? is it concrete?
- a quantity, magnitude, or size of a collection
- es ABSTRACTO - independent of symbols (‘3, three”) or the objects being enumerated (“3 hands, 3 dogs”)
non-symbolic number cog: what types of tasks are used to measure this? what kind of judgments? (2)
- judging the size of arrays
1. relative judgments: “which has more/less dots?”
2. absolute judgments: how many dots are there? (“Are there 8 dots?”)
non-symbolic number cog: relative judgments - what is the distance effect?
- (comparing two arrays of dots) the closer the # of dots are, the harder it is to make accurate judgments
- greater distance/disparity between quantities –> easier to id
non-symbolic number cog: relative judgments - what is the size effect? what other species is this effect found in?
- (comparing two arrays of dots) it’s harder to make judgements when there are MORE dots (ex. harder to compare 15 vs 30 dots than 5 vs 10 dots)
- fish birds
non-symbolic number cog: relative judgments - what other species are distance and size effects found in? what does this suggest?
- fish, birds, monkeys –> suggests that numeracy may be an evolutionary kit all orgs equipped with
non-symbolic number cog: absolute judgments - what is subitizing?
- parallel processing of quantities (rather than words)
- only works for 3-4 items at a glance
non-symbolic number cog: absolute judgments - what is counting?
- occurs for quantities 4+
- requires serial processing of quantities, much slower RTs
symbolic number cognition: what types of tasks are used to measure this?
- deciding which of two numbers (via symbol, ex. “9 vs 10”) is bigger
symbolic number cognition: do distance and size effects still apply?
- SIMÓN
interactions btween symbolic and non-sym number cog: Koechlin exp (priming) - what was the task? how did priming affect RTs? what does it suggest?
- Q: “is this # greater than (ex.) 5?” (tested numbers, dot arrays, and words)
- parts primed (subliminally) with numbers greater than 5 or less than 5 –>
- faster RTs for primes greater than 5, slower for primes less than
—> automatic/subconscious accessing of digit meaning
neural substrates of number meaning: what area most implicated in numeracy? which hemi? how do cells here behave?
- IPS / L Hemi
- cells respond to specific numerosities (ex. sensitive to quantities of 2, quants of 3)
neural substrates of number meaning: IPS cells - how do they demonstrate the size effect?
- cells that respond to small quants (ex. 1) will not respond strongly to numbers greater than it
- BUT cells responding to larger quants (Ex. 5) WILL still respond to surrounding quants (4 or 6) —-> LESS PRECISE cognition for higher quantities (bc more cells responding)
neural substrates of number meaning: how is number meaning diff in the L v R hemispheres?
- L: deals with EXACT quants (may be due to lang ability)
- R: deals with APPROXIMATE quants
neural substrates of number meaning: lesions lead to which disorder? how are other cog functions impacted?
- dyscalculia: selective impairment in numerical cog
- other cog functions are fine
spatial code for numbers: what is the SNARC effect?
- Q: “is this # even or odd?”
- RTs are faster when SMALLER numbers are located LEFT side of screen + when BIGGER numbers are located on RIGHT side
models of numerican cog: what are they? (3)*
- McCloskey
- Dehaene
- Butterworth
models of numerical cog: what is transcoding? which model does it favor?
- translating 1 quantity symbol to another (ex. 5 –> five)
- Dehaene model
- The ability to read and write numbers can be selectively impaired or preserved relative to the ability to read and write letters
executive function: what brain region is it linked to?
- Pre-Frontal Cortex (PFC)
evolutionary devel. of frontal lobes: how does human PFC compare to macaques and chimps? cortex vs subcortical areas?
- human PFC 1.9x greater than macaques + chimps
2. ratio even greater for subcortical white matter
evolutionary devel. of frontal lobes: PFC - what’s it’s relationship to sociality?
- PFC varies with species’ social group size
PFC: what are the 5 surface regions?
- dorsolateral
- ventrolateral
- rostral pfc
- ant cingulate / pre-SMA
- orbito-frontal
executive function: what are 5 domains that require EF?
- working mem
- task setting & prob solving
- overcoming impulses / habitual responses
- task switching
- multi-tasking
executive function: working memory - what PFC region is active in monkeys during WM tasks? how do dorso / ventro parts differ in function?
- LATERAL PFC
- dorsolateral - manipulating and monitoring info
- ventrolateral: maintaining info in activated states, retrieval
PFC: which surfaces are primarily cognitive in function? which are social/emotional? (3)
- LATERAL - COG
- MEDIAL - S&E
- ORBITAL - S&E
executive function: what is an ex of task setting/problem solving? what concept is it related to?
- looking to cross the street vs for a taxi
- “fluid intelligence”
executive function: task setting/problem solving - what tasks are used to measure it? (3)
- tower of london (balls on a peg in a starting position –> must re-arrange them to a goal position, increases in complexity with the # of moves required)
- activates PFC, poor in ppl w PFC damage
- cog estimates (“how many camels in Holland?”)
- cognitive fluency (“name as many words that start w R”)
executive function: overcoming impulses / habitual responses - what brain regions are implicated? (3)
- anterior cingulate cortex
- pre-supplementary motor area (pre-SMA)
- left dorsolateral PFC
executive function: overcoming impulses / habitual responses - what task is used to measure it? in what group is it underdeveloped?
- stroop task (color words, written in different colored text –> read color, not word)
- plebes / morros / pibes / chamacos / enfants /
executive function: task switching - what task is used to measure this?
- wisconsin card sorting - parts group cards based on a rule that is constantly changing –> PFC activity when rule changes
executive function: task switching - what brain regions are implicated? (2)
- Pre-SMA
2. Lateral PFC
executive function: multi-tasking - what brain region is implicated? (1)
- most ANTERIOR part of PFC
organization of executive function: what are cold v hot processes? what do we know about them?
- Cold: Cognitive; Lateral PFC, isolated, rational, doing the hard thing
- Hot: Emotional; Orbito-frontal + Ventro-medial PFC, decision-making in social/emotionally sensitive situations
- may be 2 separate mechs for controlling the 2
organization of executive function: cold v hot processes - which are spared in PFC damaged patients?
- COLD processes spared / HOT processes impaired
organization of executive function: somatic marker hypothesis - what brain region is implicated? (1)
- VENTROMEDIAL PFC
organization of executive function: somatic marker hypothesis - what does it suggest about decision-making?
- Emotional events (e.g. a risky situation) are stored in memory together with “somatic markers” that reflect positive or negative body states (like gut feelings)
- each time we make a decision, we relive these stored memories, and decide on an option based on if the somatic marker is positive (do it) v negative (don’t do it)
organization of executive function: somatic marker hypothesis - what task is used to measure this? how do PFC impaired people respond?
- IOWA betting tasks
- take v risky bets / don’t learn from past mistakes
organization of executive function: multiple demand network - what types of intelligence are tested? (2)
- executive function + fluid intelligence
organization of executive function: multiple demand network - what brain regions are implicated? how does damage affect crystallized intelligence?
- lateral PFC, Anterior Cingulate Cortex, IPL
- damage here –> impaired Exec. Func and Fluid Intelligence
- it doesn’t lol CI is spared by damage
organization of executive function: posterior to anterior gradient - what type of ctrl focused where?
- POSTERIOR: sensory ctrl, reflexes, ,etc.
- ANTERIOR: branching, emotional, contextual ctrl
organization of executive function: hemispheric asymmetries - what functions are L hemi associated with?
- setting up tasks + selective responding to stimuli
- generating words starting w a letter (FAS task)
- Tower of London
- WI Sorting
organization of executive function: hemispheric asymmetries - what functions are R hemi associated with?
- task monitoring + sustaining attn
- WI card sorting
- how many times did a stimulus appear over 10 sec period?
executive function: anterior cingulate cortex - what are its main roles? (2)
- responding to conflicts
- detecting errors (not necessarily fixing them)
- error potentials may originate here
social-emotional brain: what is an emotion?
- a state associated with stimuli that are rewarding (i.e. that one works to obtain) or punishing (i.e. that one works to avoid)
- survival or reproductive value / given priority over other types of body responses
[more attention
more memory
action preparation]
social-emotional brain: what are 4 defining characteristics of emotions?
- hedonic value (liked or disliked)
- associated w an INTERNAL feeling state (ex. heart rate, sweat)
- associated w an EXTERNAL motor outcome (face and body)
- trigger cog (ex. increased attn) and action responses (ex. fight or flight)
social-emotional brain: emotions - what is the James-Lange theory (1884)?
- suggests that emotions are changes to body signals (ex. face expression, <3 rate, BP) that are consciously reported as emotions
social-emotional brain: emotions - what is the Cannon-Bard theory?
- suggests emotions are a brain / executive decision/distinction –> body signals follow
- supported bc ppl can be injected with adrenaline and not report feeling “aroused” “excited” etc.
social-emotional brain: emotions - what is the Schacter & Singer theory?
- suggests that what people feel depends on how they cognitively “appraise” their body states in certain situations
- CONTEXT ES TODO
- ex. ppl injected with adrenaline CAN be aroused, if in the presence of (ex.) an angry person
social-emotional brain: emotions - what are Ekman’s 6 basic emotions? why are they considered “basic”? (4)
- fear, anger, joy, sadness, disgust, and surprise
- culturally invariant / occur automatically / correspond to their propio neural basis / developed para lidiar con different survival probs
social-emotional brain: emotions - Papez & Maclean / limbic circuit - what brain regions are included? (4)
- cingulate cortex 2. hippocampus 3. hypothalamus and 4. anterior nucleus of the thalamus
social-emotional brain: Adolphs et al. (S.M. amyg damage) - what is the research question? what methods were used? what were the main results?
- how does damage to amygdala affect id’ing of fear? (patient SM)
- SM + normal ctrls + 13 subjects with unilateral amygdala
damage- Gaussian bubbles: 2 at a time, “r they contrasting gender or emotion (happy vs sad)?”
- faces with eyes erased: importance of eyes in id’ing emotions
- eye-tracking task: eye mvments monitored while viewing basic emotion images
- GB: ctrls required 16.5 bubbled to id emotion / SM required 30 (For fear + happiness) | part 2 - results were comparable
Faces sin ojos: SM did equally bad whether eyes were present or not, her fixations were on mouth, not eyes
Eye track: normals explored the face, fixated on eyes / SM did not systematically fixate on eyes
*OJO! - when directed to fixate on eyes, fear recog was reversed CONC: amygdala utilizes visual system to id fear
social-emotional brain: Feinstein et al. (induced fear) - what is the research question? what methods were used? what were the main results?
- how does amygdala damage affect fear induction - overt behavioral manifestations of fear / AND fear experience: internal self-reporting?
- Put into random scary sitches
- FI: visiting live snakes and spiders, showed no avoidance even b4 reporting dislike / Haunted House Tour: 0 fear rating, never frightened / FI films: no fear response BUT Was able to id that they may be scary to others
CONCL: absence of amygdala –> no ability to feel fear
social-emotional brain: Darby et al. (criminal behavior) - what is the research question? what methods were used? what were the main results?
- focus on pts who exhbit criminal behavior following brain lesions - qué comparten? / are affected brain areas part of a connected network?
- 17 pts, No criminal behavior prior to brain lesion; lesion net work mapping of brain-damaged ppl across studies
- 2 cohorts
- All 17 lesions associated with criminality showed functional connectivity to the intraparietal sulcus,
inferior orbitofrontal cortex and ATLs
● 16/17 connected to vmPFC and nucleus accumbens
● 15/17 functionally connected to dorsolateral PFC
CONCL —> criminality MAY BE assoc w lesions in moral decision-making / theory of mind brain networks
NOT assoc w cog ctrl or empathy
social-emotional brain: emotions - Papez & Maclean / limbic circuit - what theory is this an extension of?
- Cannon-Bard (emotions as conscious brain decisions –> body signals change later)
social-emotional brain: non-basic emotions - what might they be comprised of? along what 2 dimensions may emotions vary?
- may be comprised of several basic emotions ex. disgust + anger = indignation
- pleasantness + activation (high or low arousal)
social-emotional brain: the amygdala - how do lesions affect fear conditioning in mice?
- disrupts fear conditioning (ex. trained to associate sound w electric shock)
- no longer able to LEARN or STORE fear association
- still able to show a fear response to the shock itself
social-emotional brain: the amygdala - how do lesions affect fear conditioning in humans? (2)
- still able to explicitly report associations, though they don’t show a fear response to sound necessarily
- show that fear assoc may be stored in MULTIPLE places (hippocampus as well)
- impairs recognition of fearful facial expressions (and sometimes voices)
social-emotional brain: the amygdala and fear conditioning - what does a skin conductance response measure?
- is a measure of autonomic arousal –> used to measure emotional processing
social-emotional brain: the amygdala - what organs implicated in the fast route vs slow route?
FAST: thalamus –> amygdala (subcortical)
SLOW: primary vis ctx (V1) –> amygdala (cortical)
social-emotional brain: the amygdala - what other functions is it assoc with? (3)
- id’ing happy faces
- responding to emotionally intense stimuli (pictures, tastes, smells, sounds)
- learning associations, reward
social-emotional brain: the insula - what emotion and other process is it responsible for showing?
- DISGUSTing
- interoception (k of what’s going on internally [heart rate, etc.]
+ taste, pain
social-emotional brain: orbifrontal ctx- what functions is it assoc with?
- assessing the value / reward of a STIMULUS in a specific context
ex. eating a chocolate bar when you’re craving vs after having eaten 2 already
social-emotional brain: orbifrontal ctx- what is extinction/reversal learning? how is it reflected here?
- Learning that a previously rewarded stimulus is no longer rewarded
- shown via graded activation of OFC medially (pleasant) to lateral (unpleasant)
- brain damaged pts don’t show reversal learning!
social-emotional brain: anterior cingulate ctx- what functions is it assoc with? (2)
- assessing reward / the value of a RESPONSE in a specific context
- pain responses (physical, social (social exclusion), viewing others in pain)
social-emotional brain: ventral striatum - what structure is it a part of? what functions is it assoc with? (2)
- part of BASAL GANGLIA [nucleus acumbens]
- reward-based learning (the “limbic circuit”) and EXPECTATION Of reward [ex. dopaminergic neurons here will respond GREATER if a person is expecting a reward but no la recibe]
social-emotional brain: reading faces - what brain area involved in understanding eye gaze? what pop is impaired in this?
- superior temporal sulcus
- people with ASD can recognize eye gaze but not interpret what it means
social-emotional brain: autism - what is theory of mind? what brain regions is it assoc. with? (3)
- the ability to represent the mental states of others
- TPJ
- Temporal poles
- Medial prefrontal cortex
social-emotional brain: autism - what is the broken-mirror theory? what brain characteristics is it assoc. with? (3)
- suggests that social impairments with autism are due to a faulty mirror-neuron system
- Reduced gray matter in regions comprising the mirror system
- Less fMRI activity in mirror areas when imitating facial expressions
- Less “mu” suppression when observing actions.
