PSY270 MIDTERM Flashcards
what does mind information refer to?
the data the mind processes, stores + retrieves
what is sensory input?
initial contact our sensory systems have w/ our environment
raw data needed for perception to occur
what kind of process is attention?
a selective process
what is attention?
the process which allows us to focus on certain stimuli + filter out unimportant info
what is meant by attention as a selectional process?
we can choose to focus on certain stimuli + ignore others
is attention an absolute gatekeeper?
no, more like a filter
information that we don’t explicitly choose can still get through
what does the capacity of attention look like?
limited capacity
cannot attend to everything at the same time
what is detection?
the ability to perceive the presence of a stimulus
what is selection?
the ability to choose a specific stimulus to focus on among conflicting stimuli
what was the focus of Franciscus Donder’s work?
investigating detection vs. selection thru reaction time studies
what were Franciscus Donder’s findings?
that selection takes longer than detection
what did Colin Cherry’s work show?
that we selectively attend to information in our environment
proved how attention works
what model did Colin Cherry use in his work?
a dichotic listening paradigm
what is the Edwin Smith Medical Papyrus?
the first text to associate brain w/ behaviour, focusing on traumatic brain injuries + strokes
why was the Edwin Smith Medical Papyrus significant?
ahead of its time, focused on medical treatment for physical injury rather than spiritual
who was Abu Ali Sina (Avicenna)?
author of The Book of the Cure
what made Abu Ali Sina’s work significant?
advocated for an experimental approach
what did Abu Ali Sina (Avicenna) explore in his book?
links between the mind and body
who was Hasan Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen)?
author of The Book of Optics
what was The Book of Optics about?
perceptual research, unconscious interference and the behaviour of the 2 eyes
what law talks about the behaviour of the 2 eyes?
Hering’s Law
what is unconscious interference?
the idea that the mind makes guesses about the visual word based on visual clues, w/out our conscious awareness
who is Gustav Fechner?
author of Elemente Der Psychophysik (1860)
what did Elemente Der Psychophysik touch on?
relating physical stimuli to the perception + sensation they produce
what is Fechner’s Law?
a law stating that the strength of how we feel a stimulus grows in proportion to the logarithm of the stimulus’s actual intensity
what is psychophysics?
the study of the relationship between physical stimuli and mental experience
what method did Wilhelm Wundt use?
introspection
what is introspection?
the method of training observers to ask themselves what they thought they perceived, and to record those observations
what were 2 problems with introspection?
variability and verification
what was the issue of variability in introspection?
individual responses differ, causing inconsistency in reports
what was the issue of verification in introspection?
there’s no ‘ground truth’ to verify 1 person’s report against another’s
cannot confirm accuracy
what is Edward Bradford Titchner known for?
founding the structuralist school of thought
mentoring the first female PhD student in psychology
what is structuralism?
school of thought focused on understanding the structure of the brain opposed to its function
what did structuralism rely on?
the use of introspection
who was Margaret Washburn?
the first female PhD student in psychology, in 1894
mentored by Edward Titchner
what was J.B. Watson known for?
his behaviourist perspective
what is behaviourism?
an early 20th century school of thought focused on studying only observable behaviours thru learning
what was behaviourism known for?
rejecting introspection + focusing on control and prediction of behaviour
what was the behaviourist view of child-rearing?
that parents should focus on using scientific method for child-rearing rather than traditional nurturing techniques
whose ideas did B.F. Skinner build off of?
J.B. Watson’s behaviourist ideas
what did Skinner expand Watson’s ideas into?
principles of operant conditioning
what are respondent behaviours?
behaviours that are in response to a specific stimulus
what are operant behaviours?
behaviours that are not influenced by specific stimuli, but instead by the consequences
what did Skinner believe about behaviour?
that behaviours followed by reward + reinforcement were likely to be repeated; behaviours followed by punishment were NOT
who is Ulrich Neisser?
author of Cognitive Psychology
what did Ulrich Neisser do?
defined work for the modern era + ideas of psychology
what did Neisser emphasize as the central concept of understanding the mind?
information processing
what did Claude Shannon make?
information theory
what is information theory?
a theory viewing the mind as an active system that receives, processes, stores and retrieves information
what is the black box of cognition?
a metaphor used in behaviourism to describe the processes behind cognition that cannot be directly observed
what was the cognitive revolution?
a period during the 50s + 60s characterized by rapid + radical change in the field of cognitive psychology
what was a main characteristic of the cognitive revolution?
marked the departure from behaviourism
what did Dom Thomas Verner Moore do?
wrote a cognitive psychology text in 1939 contemplating cognition prior to any modern framework (like information theory)
why was Dom Thomas Verner Moore’s text significant?
it showed that not every psychologist was a behaviourist before the cognitive revolution
what did Edward Tolman do?
challenged the behaviourist view w/ his experiments on rats in mazes
what did Edward Tolman discover from his work on rats in mazes?
that humans + animals learn by acquiring info + forming mental representations of their environment
demonstrated rats could learn the layout of a maze w/out reinforcement
how did Edward Tolman view the black box of cognition?
argued against it; believed that internal cognitive processes are central to understanding how learning occurs
what is the mind-as-computer analogy?
an analogy for the brain emerging out of WWII + modern computing systems, drawing heavily on information theory
what were the 3 components of the mind-as-computer analogy?
inputs, outputs, and program
what is ‘input’ in the mind-as-computer analogy?
information received through perception (auditory + visual input)
what are ‘outputs’ in the mind-as-computer analogy?
observable behaviours (actions + decisions)
what is the ‘program’ in the mind-as-computer analogy?
the internal cognitive processes behind behaviour (attention + memory)
what are process models?
a model for cognitive processes that focuses on the sequence of mental operations
what do process models try to explain?
how information is transformed + moved through the different stages of processing
what are process models valuable for?
for complex cognitive tasks
what is an example of a process model?
Broadbent’s model of selective attention
what is Broadbent’s model of selective attention?
a model proposing steps to how attention selects relevant information from the environment
what kind of selection model is Broadbent’s model of selective attention + why?
an early selection model b/c it suggests that attention acts as a filter in the early processing stream
what are the 3 steps to Broadbent’s model of selective attention?
the sensory store, the selective filter, and the limited capacity channel
what are structural models?
models for cognitive processes that focuses on the physical organization of the brain + connections between diff brain areas
what is cognitive psychology?
the field focusing on the inner workings of the mind thru observation + analysis of behaviour
what levels of analysis does cognitive psychology rely on?
computational and algorithmic
what is cognitive neuroscience?
the field focusing on the biological structures + processes underlying cognitive functions
what level of analysis does cognitive neuroscience rely on?
the implementational level
what does cognitive neuroscience examine models for?
biological plausibility
what is biological plausibility?
the question of whether a structure can actually perform a specific task
what is electrophysiology?
a technique used in neuroscience to record the electrical activity of neurons
direct measurement of neural activity
what are the benefits + limitations of electrophysiology?
very good temporal resolution, limited spatial resolution
what is neuronal selectivity?
the tendency of individual neuron’s to respond to certain stimuli while remaining (partially) unresponsive to others
what did Charlie Gross find?
evidence for neuronal selectivity; recorded neurons in the visual cortex of macaques, found that certain neurons responded only to shapes representing the monkey’s own fingers
what do the findings of Charlie Gross suggest?
that neuronal selectivity exists; some neurons are tuned to respond to certain features + patterns of stimuli
what is fMRI?
a neuroimaging technique that measures brain activity by detecting changes in blood flow + oxygenation
what is fMRI good for?
spatial resolution (down to the mm precision) and localization of function
what is localization of function?
the idea that different parts of the brain specialize in different cognitive functions
is fMRI a direct or indirect measure of neural activity?
indirect measure b/c it reflects metabolic demands rather than electrical activity
what is EEG?
a neuroimaging technique that measures fluctuations of voltages in the brain
what is EEG good for?
temporal resolution – can tell us when something is happening down to the millisecond
portable
what is a limitation of EEGs?
they have poor spatial resolution
what were Hubel + Wiesel known for?
using electrophysiology to measure neuron activity in the visual cortex of cats + monkeys
what did Hubel and Wiesel find?
discovered feature detectors and discovered that visual info is processed in a hierarchical manner
what are feature detectors?
specialized neurons that respond selectively to features of visual stimuli (e.g., movement + orientation)
what does the hierarchical manner of visual processing mean?
that neurons in early visual areas respond to simple features; neurons in later visual areas respond to more complex features
what is population coding?
the idea that a specific stimulus is represented by a large group of combined neurons
what are the benefits of population coding?
it allows for complex + detailed representations
what is population coding best for?
brain systems that require continuous representation (e.g., the motor cortex)
what is the limitation(s) of population coding?
it is metabolically expensive – requires more energy + oxygen
what is sparse coding?
the idea that a small, selective group of neurons represent a stimulus
what is the benefit of sparse coding?
it is more metabolically efficient
what tasks is sparse coding ideal for?
tasks requiring efficiency + selectivity (e.g., attention + memory)
what does sparse coding intend to do?
use the optimal number of neurons to sufficiently represent a stimulus w/out using too many resources
in cognitive psychology, what is the main focus?
behaviour
in cognitive neuroscience, what is the main focus?
biological plausibility
if you’re looking to identify specific brain regions associated w/ a task, which neuroimaging technique is best?
fMRI
if you’re looking to study rapid changes in brain activity, which neuroimaging method would be best?
EEG
what are the limitations of fMRI?
bad temporal resolution, expensive, not portable
what is scene gist?
the idea that if you see a scene for a fraction of a second, you can have a good understanding of what is going on
is scene gist 100% accurate?
no, you may miss some finer details of the scene
who were Greene and Olivia?
researchers who used scene gist to study visual perception
how fast can we understand scenes?
in less than the blink of an eye; blinks last 150-200 ms, we can understand a static scene if shown for less than that
what is the binocular visual field?
the visual field that both eyes can see together
how large is the binocular visual field?
180-190º horizontal + 130-140º vertical
what does visual angle depend on?
the object’s size + the distance from the observer
what are photoreceptors?
the cells on the retina that are sensitive to light
what are the 2 types of photoreceptors?
cones and rods
what are cones for?
responsible for colour vision + visual sharpness
how many types of cones are there?
3 - each sensitive to a different wavelength of light: red, green, or blue
where are the cones most densely packed?
in the fovea
where does cone density decrease?
in the periphery
where do cones not exist?
only on the blind spot
what are rods for?
seeing in low-light conditions as they are highly sensitive to light
what is one property of rods that is different from cones?
they do not distinguish among colours
where is the peak distribution of rods?
in the periphery, 15-20º from the fovea
where are rods not present?
in the fovea
what is the optic disc?
the blind spot
what is eccentricity?
the angular distance something is from the fovea
which area has 0 eccentricity?
the fovea
what is the fovea?
the central point of the retina where vision is the sharpest
what is peripheral vision?
the ability to see objects outside of our direct line of sight
what are some characteristics of peripheral vision?
contains photoreceptors at a lower density
more sensitive to movement + dim light b/c of peak distribution of rods
what does peripheral vision do?
direct eyes to areas of interest by allowing the brain to quickly assess the environment
is peripheral vision inherently blurry?
no
what does colourblindness refer to?
issues w/ cone photoreceptors in the retina causing a deficit in colour vision
how does colourblindness typically occur?
from 1 or more cone types being missing or damaged
what is protanopia?
a type of colourblindness characterized by missing L cones (sensitive to red)
what is deuteranopia?
a type of colourblindness characterized by missing M cones (sensitive to green)
what is tritanopia?
a type of colourblindness characterized by missing S cones (sensitive to blue)
what is achromatopsia?
a rare type of colourblindness characterized by NO colour vision
what usually causes achromatopsia?
brain damage rather than damage to photoreceptors
what is peripheral vision not completely sufficient at?
object identification and localization
what is the problem of object recognition?
objects appear in various spaces, sizes and orientation; makes it difficult to create constant representations
what is image segmentation?
the process of separating a visual scene into distinct objects + their backgrounds
what are the 2 strategies the brain uses to handle the problem of object recognition?
individual representations and invariant representations
what are individual representations?
representations that encode specific features and characteristics
what are invariant representations?
representations that allow us to identify an object despite its orientation
what is occlusion?
where one object partially blocks another
can our brains still identify occluded objects?
yes
what is shape variability?
the idea that recognizing objects can be difficult b/c the same objects can vary in shape
what is perceptual consistency?
the idea that we can still recognize the same object despite it appearing in different states (lighting, viewpoint, etc..)
what are illusory objects?
a phenomenon where we perceive objects as being present that are not really there
what does unconscious interference have to do w/ our perception of illusory objects?
it can lead us to “fill in the gaps” and perceive an object that is not present
what is template theory?
a model suggesting that the visual system compares an object in the world to a stored representation of that object in memory
what are the issues w/ template theory?
due to object diversity, the brain would need a large # of templates (metabolically expensive)
struggles to explain how we can represent objects from different viewpoints
would require separate templates for every possible occlusion of an object
what is feature analysis?
a model that suggests the brain breaks down visual input into its basic features (lines, colours, edges) and uses them to construct object representations
what are the benefits of feature analysis?
it allows for the recognition of objects despite changes in viewpoint, shape and occlusion
less metabolically expensive
what are simple cells?
a type of neuron that respond best to oriented lines at a specific location on the retina
what are complex cells?
a type of neuron that respond best to oriented lines regardless of orientation
but have preferred motion directions
what are hypercomplex cells?
a type of neuron that respond to combinations for specific features
what do simple, complex and hypercomplex cells mean for the information the brain can encode?
the brain can easily encode a large amount of information b/c it’s broken down into basic components