The Science of Cognition Flashcards
Action potential
A sudden change in electric potential that travels down the axon of a neuron.
Amygdala
A brain structure that is involved in emotional response.
Aphasia
An impairment of speech that results from a brain injury.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
A field of computer science that attempts to develop programs that will enable machines to display intelligent behaviour.
Axon
A long tube extending from the soma of a neuron and branching into terminal boutons that form synapses with dendrites of other neurons; axons provide the fixed paths by which neurons communicate with one another.
Basal Ganglia
Subcortical structures that play a critical role in the control of motor movement and complex cognition.
Behaviorism
The theory that prescribes how to combine the prior probability of a hypothesis with the conditional probability of the evidence, given the hypothesis, to assess the posterior probability of the hypothesis, given the evidence.
Blood oxygen level dependent respone (BOLD response)
In fMRI studies, a measure of the amount of oxygen in the blood.
Broca’s area
A region in the left frontal cortex that is important for processing language, particularly the syntax (grammar) of speech.
Cerebral Cortex
The outer layer of the brain, consisting mainly of the neocortex but also other, more primitive structures.
Cognitive Neuroscience
The study of the neural basis of cognition.
Cognitive Psychology
The science of how the mind is organized to produce intelligent thought and how the mind is realized in the brain.
Cognitive Revolution
Beginning in the 1950s, a broad movement in psychology away from behaviorism and toward the scientific study of cognition.
Cognitive Science
A field that attempts to integrate research efforts from psychology, philosophy, linguistics, neuroscience, and AI.
Connectionist Models
Computer models that stimulate cognition by including neuronlike elements that have different levels of activity and that interact through connections with properties like those of synapses.
Corpus Callosum
A broad band of fibers that connects and enables communication between the left and the right hemispheres.
Deep Learning
In connectionist models, learning connections in networks that have many layers of connecting neuronlike elements.
Dendrites
Short branches attached to the soma of a neuron that form synapses with the terminal boutons of axons of other neurons.
Dualism
A philosophical position that posits that the mind and the body are separate kinds of entities.
Electroencephalography (EEG)
Measurement of electrical activity of the brain, using electrodes on the scalp.
Empiricism
The philosophical position that posits that all knowledge comes from experience in the world. Contrast with nativism.
Event-related potentials (ERP’s)
Changes in electrical activity at the scalp in response to an external event, as measured by EEG.
Excitatory Synapses
A synapse in which the neurotransmitters released by the terminal bouton of the axon decrease the potential difference across the membrane of the dendrite of the receiving neuron.
Frontal lobe
The region at the front of the brain that includes the motor cortex and the prefrontal cortex.
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)
A method for determining the location of neural activity by measuring the magnetic field produced by the iron in oxygenated blood in the brain.
Gestalt psychology
An approach to psychology that emphasizes principles of organization that result in holistic properties of the brain that go beyond the activity of the parts.
Gyrus
An outward bulge of the cerebral cortex. Contrast with sulcus.
Hemodynamic response
The increased flow of oxygenated blood to a region of the brain that has greater activity - the basis of fMRI.
Hippocampus
A brain structure that is part of the limbic system and that plays a role in the formation of permanent memories.
Information-processing approach
An analysis of human cognition into a set of steps for processing an abstract entiy called “information”.
Inhibitory synapse
A synapse in which the neurotransmitters released by the terminal bouton of the axon increase the potential difference across the membrane of the dendrite of the receiving neuron.
Intelligence
The ability to recall facts, solve problems, reason, learn, and use language.
Introspection
A methodology much practiced at the turn of the 20th century in Germany that attempted to analyze thought into its components through self-analysis.
Magnetoencephalography (MEG)
Measurement of magnetic fields produced by electrical activity in the brain.
Linguistics
The study of the structure of language.
Nativism
The position that posits that children come into the world with a great deal of innate knowledge. Contrast with empiricism.
Neocortex
Part of the cerebral cortex, and the most recently evolved portion of the brain; in humans, a highly convoluted neural sheet.
Neuron
A cell in the nervous system responsible for information processing through electrochemical activity.
Neurotransmitters
A chemical that crosses the synapse from the axon of one neuron and alters the electric potential of the membrane of another neuron.
Occipital lobe
The region of the back of the brain that controls vision.
Parietal lobe
The region at the top of the brain concerned with attention and higher-level perceptual functions.
Positron emission tomography (PET)
A method for determining the location of neural activity by measuring metabolic activity in different regions of the brain with the use of a radioactive tracer.
Prefrontal cortex
The region at the front of the frontal cortex that controls planning and other high-level cognitive processes.
P-value
The probability that the result of an experiment would be obtained by chance.
Rate of firing
The number of action potentials an axon transmits per second.
Replicability crisis
In psychology and other fields, finding that experimental results with p-values below .05 are not replicated when the experiments are repeated.
Split-brain patients
Patients who have had surgery to sever the corpus callosum, which connects the left and right hemispheres.
Sternberg paradigm
An experimental procedure in which participants are first presented with a memory set consisting of a few items and then must decide whether various probe items are in the memory set.
Sulcus
An inward crease between gyri of the cerebral cortex. Contrast with gyrus.
Synapse
The gap between a terminal bouton of the axon of one neuron and a dendrite of another neuron.
Temporal lobe
The region at the side of the brain that contains the primar auditory areas and controls the recognition of objects.
Topographic organization
A principle of neural organization in which adjacent areas of the cortex process information from adjacent parts of the sensory field.
Wernicke’s area
A region of the teft temporal lobe that is important for processing language, particularly the semantics (meaning) of speech.
