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Cognitive Processes > Test 1 > Flashcards

Test 1 Flashcards

1
Q

What is Cognition?

A

Scientific study of the mind and its mental processes and operations.

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2
Q

How do Psychologists measure what hey cannot see?

A

From input (the stimuli) and output (our responses).

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3
Q

Franciscus Donders

A

Studied mental chronometry and calculated decision time using: Choice RT - Simple RT.

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4
Q

Wilhelm Wundt

A

Father of experimental psychology. Utilized analytical introspection.

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5
Q

Hermann Ebbinghaus

A

Self tested study on memory.
Inveted recall method.
Forgetting curve and loss of savings declined over time.

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6
Q

William James

A

Father of American Psychology.
Workings related to the topics of this class.

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7
Q

Mary Calkins

A

Student of William James.
Discovered the receny effect.
First female prez of APA.

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8
Q

Hermann George Canady

A

examiner race influences IQ

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9
Q

George Sanchez

A

cultural bias in IQ.
worked on mental measurements and bilingual edu.
founded chicano psychology.

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10
Q

Behaviorism

A

Scientific study of objective and observable behavior; excludes subjective processes.
Resulted from Wundt’s analytic introspection.

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11
Q

John Watson

A

Founded behaviorism.
Rejected analytical introspection.
Little Albert Experiment using classical conditioning.

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12
Q

Little Albert Experiment

A

Deomstrated that behavior can be analyzed wo reference to the brain using classical conditioning.

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13
Q

BF Skinner

A

Behaviorist who accepts cognitive processes. Believed mental events were triggered by external environment stimuli which resulted in various behaviors.

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14
Q

Operant conditioning

A

Shape behaviors with reward or punishment. Used by BF Skinner to prove his point.

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15
Q

Cognitive Revolution

A

shift from behaviorism to an approach focused on understanding the mind. Influenced by dissatisfaction with behaviorism, rise of tech, and demands of war.

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16
Q

Cognitive revolution: dissatisfaction w behaviorism

A

behaviorism cannot explain complex cognitive processes

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17
Q

Cognitive Rev: Edward Tolman

A

Cognitive Map of space using rats.
Was a behaviorist whose work challened behaviorist ideas.

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18
Q

Cognitive Rev: Noam Chomsky

A

Children have an inborn ability to learn language so experience isn’t the only factor contributing to it.

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19
Q

Cognitive Rev: rise of tech

A

presence of digital computers and telephones on campuses suggested a new way of thinking: mind was a metaphor of computer.

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20
Q

Information processing approach

A

way to study the mind based on insights associated with the digital computer. A core feature of model cognitive psychology. Mind and computer have operations that occur in stages

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21
Q

Cog Rev: demands of war

A

WWII resulted in cognitive problems

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22
Q

Human Factors Engineering

A

the design of an equipment is suited for peoples’ cognitive capabilities

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23
Q

person-machine system

A

person operated machine must be designed to interact with people’s physical, cognitive, and motivational capacities.

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24
Q

Neisser

A

Published the first Cog Psych book

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25
Q

Current Cognitive Psych

A

How the mind works; is interdisciplinary.

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26
Q

Cognitive Neuroscience

A

the scientific study of the biological basis of cognition; began during the cog rev when increases in physiological research occurred.
links behavior to neural systems at many levels of analysis.

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27
Q

Neurons

A

cells specialized to create, receive, and transmit info in the nervous system
basic building blocks of the brain
variety in shapes and sizes

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28
Q

nerve net theory

A

neurons are interconnected, allowing for continuous communication

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29
Q

Santiago Ramon y Cajal

A

father of modern neuroscience
discovered that neurons have three basic parts and transmit signals
investigated tissues of newborn animals and saw that they had less cell density (neurons weren’t touching)
disproved nerve net theory

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30
Q

neuron doctrine

A

individual neurons are not connected, instead, they transmit signals to one another

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31
Q

cell body

A

contains mechanisms to keep the cell alive (metabolic center)

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32
Q

dendrites

A

branches from the cell body that receive information from other neurons

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33
Q

axon

A

nerve fiber that transmits electrical signal to other neurons

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34
Q

action potential

A

nerve impulse
electro-chemical signals that travel down an axon and gets transmitted to other neurons

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35
Q

electro

A

part of the action potential gets transmitted electrically within the neuron

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36
Q

chemical

A

when the action potential is transmitted across neurons, this happens chemically through the release of neurotransmitters

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37
Q

action potential: electrical signal

A

action potential become this after dendrites send it to the axon terminal

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38
Q

action potential shape

A

a characteristic waveform

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39
Q

resting potential

A

electrical charge inside the neuron when it is doing “nothing”
(the charge inside is 70mV less than outside the cell) (at rest)

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40
Q

depolarization phase

A

when the electrical charge on the cell membrane exceeds -55mV treshold
(excitation of neuron is the start of action potential) (adjacent tissues are depolarized - how the action spreads along the neuron)

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41
Q

repolarization phase

A

time when another action potential cannot be generated (refractory period) (membrane potential goes below resting potential - called undershoot - before reaching resting potential again)

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42
Q

action potential: chemical signal

A

action potentials become this after axon terminals send it to dendrites

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43
Q

neurotransmitters

A

chemical messengers
action potential in the aon triggers the release of this into the synapse

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44
Q

two key features of an action potential that influence information processing

A

summation and all-or-none

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45
Q

summation

A

the threshold for excitation is summed acorss space and time, because one dendrite may not be enough to reach the threshold to trigger the action potential

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46
Q

all-or-none

A

action potentials have one strength
neurons can vary in their firing rate, but not their firing amplitude

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47
Q

principle of neural representation

A

everything a person experiences is based on representations in the person’s nervous system
cognitice neuroscience in based on this principle

48
Q

specifity coding

A

represent stimuli by firing patterns of a single neuron

49
Q

feature detectors

A

neurons that respond best to a specific stimulus (specifity coding)
exists in primary sensory areas of the brain (one neuron responds to this, another neuron to that, etc)
difficult bc we experience too many unique stimuli for each to have their own neuron

50
Q

distributed coding

A

represent stimuli by firing patterns of more than one neuron

51
Q

population coding

A

represent stimuli by firing patterns across many neurons (distributed coding)
problem: could create a lof of noise

52
Q

sparse coding

A

represent stimuli by firing patterns across a few neurons (where most are silent) (distributed coding)
hypothesis w most support

53
Q

hierachical processing

A

info is processed via specificity coding in lower level brain regions (primary sensory) and via distributed coding in higher level brain regions (e.g. association cortex)
currently hypothesized

54
Q

localization of function

A

specific functions are served by specific parts of the brain
some cognitive processes are distributed across brain regions
one brain region is not the sole dectator of a certain function, although it can fluctuate performance

55
Q

primary sensory cortex

A

receives input from the senses via the thalamus (except olfactory comes firectly from the olfactory bulb)

56
Q

Broca’s aphasia

A

language production; damage in this area results in issues w language production

57
Q

wernicke’s aphasia

A

language comprehension; damage in this area results in issues w language comprehension

58
Q

Localization of function: language

A

work was relied on patients with specific lesions since it was done early on

59
Q

Prosopagnosia

A

damage to the temporal lobe can result in face blindness - the inability to recognize human faces
related to damage in the fusiform face area (discovered due to fMRI

60
Q

distributed representation

A

most of our experiences are multidimensional
coordination among brain regions is required for a coherent representation
shown in fMRI

61
Q

neural networks

A

interconnected areas of the brain that communicate with one another
connect brain regions via complex structural pathways

62
Q

perception

A

experiences resulting from stimulation of the senses
necessary first step for other forms of cognition
can change based on added info and is shaped by experience
involves a similar process to reasoning or problem solving
complex process - hard to mimic

63
Q

sensation

A

stimulation of the senses
perception is derived from sensation
sensation produces visual stimulation, but perception makes sense of it

64
Q

vision - what we see

A

perception

65
Q

light waves absorbed by photos in retina

A

sensation

66
Q

audition - what we hear

A

perception

67
Q

smell - what we smell

A

perception

68
Q

sound waves disturn basilar membrane in ear

A

sensation

69
Q

chemical molecules absorbed in olfactory epithelium

A

sensation

70
Q

taste - what we taste

A

perception

71
Q

chemical molecules make contact with taste buds

A

sensation

72
Q

touch

A

perception

73
Q

pressure/vibration stimulate receptor cells in dermis

A

sensation

74
Q

visual illusions

A

help to demonstrate that sensation and perception are not the same thing

75
Q

ambiguous objects

A

a particular image on the retina can be created by many different objects

76
Q

inverse projection problem

A

determine the object responsible for the image on the retina

77
Q

hidden or blurred objects

A

we can use experience and context to identify obscured and blurry images

78
Q

viewpoint invariance

A

ability to recognize an object from many view points

79
Q

bottom up processing

A

processing goes from lower level to higher level (senses to brain) (primary sensory cortex to frontal cortex)

80
Q

template matching

A

recognize objects by comapring input to templates in memory (bottom up)

81
Q

feature matching

A

recognize objects by detecting features and forming them into a whole (in the brain, we have feature detectors)

82
Q

top-down processing

A

when processing originates at the highest level
influenced by context

83
Q

speech segmentation

A

ability to tell where a word begins and ends in a convo (top down)

84
Q

Hemholts’s unconscious inference

A

likelihood principle but implicitly
makes it seem like perception is instantaneous

85
Q

likelihood principle

A

we perceive the world in the way that is most likely based on our past experiences

86
Q

apparent motion

A

illuision of movement

87
Q

Gestalt psychology

A

the whole is greater than the sum of its parts
perception is determined by built in organizing principles, not just stimluation of the retina

88
Q

principle of good continuation

A

lines are perceived as following the smoothest path

89
Q

principle of good simplicity (pragnanz)

A

objects are perceived as resulting from the simplest structure

90
Q

principle of similarity

A

similar objects are perceived as being grouped together

91
Q

principle of proximity

A

closer objects are perceived as being grouped together

92
Q

principle of connectedness

A

objects that are visually connected together are perceived as being grouped together

93
Q

principle of symmetry

A

perceive obejcts that are balanced or symmetrical

94
Q

principle of closure

A

unfinished objects are percieved as being complete

95
Q

principle of figure ground

A

separate objects (figures) and surfaces (ground) are perceived even when they are grouped

96
Q

principle of enclosure

A

objects enclosed by lines are perceived as being grouped together

97
Q

physical regularities

A

physical properties that occur frequently in the environment

98
Q

oblique effect

A

horizontal and vertical lines occur more frequently in our environment, making them easier to perceive

99
Q

light from above assumption

A

light comes from the above more frequently

100
Q

semantic regularities

A

characteristics that occur frequently in a particular environment
- meaning of a given scene is related to what happens in that scene

101
Q

scene schema

A

knowledge of what a given scene typically contains

102
Q

bayesian inference

A

our estimate of the probabiltiy of an outcome is determined by the prior probability and the likelihood of the outcome

103
Q

prior probability

A

internal belief about the probability of an outcome

104
Q

likelihood

A

the extent to which the evidence is consistent with the outcome

105
Q

perception and action

A

perception allows us to interact with the environment through action
perception is informed by action
perception and action rely on different neural pathways

106
Q

object discrimination

A

removing the temporal lobe made it difficult to tell what object to pick

107
Q

landmark discrimination

A

removing the parietal lobe made it difficult to tell where the object was

108
Q

double dissociation

A

damage to brain region X affects tsak A, but not B; damage to brain region Y affects task B, but not A

109
Q

action pathway

A

landmark discrimination; dorsal (where) pathway; posterior parietal cortex

110
Q

perception pathway

A

object discrimination; ventral (what) pathway; inferior temporal cortex

111
Q

mirror neurons

A

neurons that repsond in the same way when performing an action as when watching that action being performed

112
Q

attention

A

the ability to focus on specific stimuli or locations in our environment
constantly shifting
prevents sensory overload

113
Q

four types of attention

A

focused, sustained, directed, divided

114
Q

selective attention

A

attending to one thing while ignoring others

115
Q

divided attention

A

paying attention to more than one thing at a time

116
Q

overt attention

A

shifting attention from one place to another by moving the eyes

117
Q
A

Cognitive Processes (1 decks)

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