Test1 Flashcards
Explain evidence that visual rich slides are more effective for learning than text dense slides
Fenesi and Kim on effective slide design (2014) Participants viewed slides with either:
1) Heavy text and audio narration.
2) Short summary sentences w/ pictures and audio narration that complement each other.
After a delay, quiz results showed that participants who saw the 2nd set of slides scored higher. (75% >55%).
Students rated text-heavy slides to be better however, objective evidence disagrees.
Describe evidence that use of a laptop in lecture impairs learning.
An experiment in McMaster assessed performance after a lecture for a student who was using a laptop and engaged in multitasking compared to participants who didn’t have a computer.
- Multitasking scored 11% lower than the control.
- People within eyesight of the multitasking performed 17% lower.
Explain how the science of the mind developed as a series of reactions against the status quo.
- First: The Scientific method was described, it was a crucial step for the development of cognitive psychology.
- Then structuralism as a specific study of the mind
- Behaviourism
- Then cognition as it’s own sub-discipline, and now we’re in the age of cognitive neuroscience.
Each movement was a reaction to what had come before.
René Descartes - “I think therefore I am [therefore I exist/have a mind] “
Introduced Critical thinking and was the first to suggest the separation of the mind and body (brain).
How did Wilhem Wundt contribute to Cognitive psychology ?
He initiated the Structuralist perspective.
- Analytic introspection.
What are the functions of the mind?
1) The mind creates and controls mental functions.
(Various mental abilities)
2) It is a system that creates representations of the world.
(Functioning and survival)
Fransiscus Donders
Tested Decision time
(= Choice reaction time - Simple reaction time)
- He was the first to experiment in cognitive psychology.
- Suggested that mental responses can only be inferred from behaviour.
Hermann Ebbinghaus
Tested memory loss over time using the repetition of 20 nonsense syllables.
Savings = Original learning time - learning time after delay.
The greater the delay the lower the savings.
William James
Narrated observations of his own experience (attention)
John Watson
- Advocated for Behaviourism.
- Thought that Analytic Introspection was too variable and unscientific.
- Behaviourism on the other hand, involved studying the relationship between behaviour and the environment.
B.F. Skinner
Operand Conditioning
- Behaviour controlled by stimuli.
Edward Chance Tolman
Concluded that the rat in the maze had a ‘Cognitive map’ of the maze when it was looking for the cheese.
The idea of behaviour being a affected by a factor other than external stimulus sparked the study of cognitive psychology .
Structuralism VS Functionalism
Understanding the mind purely based on its physical structure VS its functions (regardless of structure).
(Wundt VS James)
Define radical behaviourism.
• The idea that free will and consciousness are an illusion. All of our behaviour is based on association: classical conditioning, reward and punishment.
Representations
Transformations of a presented stimulus.
What is the role of the temporal cortex in vision.
It combines the signals from the neurons in the visual cortex to create a representation.
What are Feature Detectors (neurons)?
Feature Detectors are neurons that respond to specific stimuli.
(Eg Bars of light slanted at specific angles and moving in a particular direction)
Specificity Coding
Specialized neurons respond to specific objects.
(Eg neuron “B” responds when detecting face of person “b”)
- This idea was later found to be unlikely because there would be infinitely many neurons.
Population Coding
Representation of an object by the pattern of firing of a large number of neurons.
Sparse Coding
representation by a pattern of firing over a small group of neurons.
Brain Organization
The localization of functions to specific areas of the brain.
Fusiform Face Area (FFA)
The area in the brain specialized for face recognition.
Found on the underside of the temporal lobe.
Damage to this area can cause prosopagnosia.
Parahippocampal Place Area (PPA)
Specialized in processing locations.
Found in the medial temporal lobe.
Extrastirate Body Area (EBA)
Activated by body segments.
Located in the occipital lobe.
Broca’s Area
Paul Broca
Is specialized in speech PRODUCTION
{Paul = P = Production}
Left Frontal Lobe