Things idk Flashcards
Load Theory
Attention is a flexible pool of resources. If the primary task is demanding (high perceptual load), there are no resources left to do anything else. If the primary task is easy (low perceptual load) there is leftover capacity for distraction
Split Brain Lab experiment
Showing the object to the left visual field, it will be projected to the right side of the brain. Since only the left side can produce speech, the participants would say they saw nothing. However once asked to reach and pick up the shape they saw, the left hand could do that very accurately.
How does emotional value influence level of distraction
Presented people with positive, negative and neutral images in an experiment. People prioritised things with emotional value, with negative having some and positive having more. When reward on the line, people override distractions (top down modulation) and distraction lowered significantly.
ESPS (Excitatory post-synaptic potential) - Glutamate
When glutamate triggers opening of ligand gated channels lets Na+ and Ca2+ ions into postsynaptic cell.
The cell depolarises and becomes more excited, more likely to fire
ISPS (inhibitory postsynaptic potential) - GABA
When GABA triggers opening of ligand gated channels, they let Cl- flow into the cell. The cell hyperpolarises, becomes inhibited and is less likely to fire
Reuptake
- The pre-synaptic cell membrane has neurotransmitter-specific “transporter” proteins that transport neurotransmitters back into the presynaptic cell. Allows cell to reuse neurotransmitter to conserve energy and lower amount of neurotransmitter that needs to be made]
How does Alcohol affect neurons
Alcohol acts as an agonist (for GABA) and an antagonist (for glutamate). Binds to specific part of GABA receptors to make them even more inhibitory, Impact: More GABAergic inhibition leads to sedation (drowsy) and anxiolytic effects (anxiety reducing)
Also binds to glutamate receptors preventing the glutamate from exciting the cell.
Substantia Nigra
High level of dopamine gives this area its dark colour - in patients with parkinsons, its pale
Parietal Lobe
Spatial attention, Sensory integration, Object location (where objects are in space), Numerical cognition, quantities
Blind spot
All the axons the carry visual info to the brain leave the eye as a single bundle called the optic nerve. At the point where the optic nerve leaves the eye is your blind spot (no photoreceptors)
Place Cells
Place cells are neurons in the hippocampus that activate when an animal is in a specific location in its environment. They help form a mental map of space.
Grid Cells
Grid cells are neurons that fire in a triangular pattern, helping animals understand their position in space and navigate through their environment.
3 ways brain differs to computer
Brain is analog & digital, has billions of neurons that work in parallel, and is much slower, more approximate, and better at left algorithmic tasks.
Computer is only digital, has a single CPU where all processing happens, and is fast, accurate, and good at algorithmic tasks,
What is at the precentral gyrus
primary motor cortex
What is at the postcentral gyrus
primary somatosensory cortex
Selective attention
The ability to prioritise some information while ignoring other information
Bottom up
Take from the world and bring into our perceptual system
Top down
Use knowledge to guide our perceptual processes
Episodic buffer
Mental workspace that holds together all parts of our current perception or though. keep track of current set of events we’re involved in
Generation effect
When people generate their own answer, they do a much better job than the things they passively read
Bahrick et al (1975), Tested memory using yearbook photos
See that information can be retain over long period of times, just need retrieval cues to access it
War of Ghosts findings
With repeated reproduction, narrative gist remained the same as first report
The stories got shorter, with culturally unfamiliar details omitted.
Normalisations - Details changed to match participant culture;
Schema Theory
Memories are not reproduced, they are reconstructed. We use schemas to understand and remember the world
General Learning Capacity
Children have highly developed pattern recognition systems
Allow children to form language categories through picking up on regularities, without resorting to innate language categories
What happens when infants are presented with novel pairs of syllables in a study?
Infants become excited by novel pairs of syllables they haven’t heard together before, indicating that they recognize differences and are learning from these patterns.
What is artificial grammar, and how is it used to study language development in children?
Artificial grammar consists of a set of made-up sounds (e.g., “Tu, pa”) used in experiments. Children look longer at novel words, showing that they can detect changes in familiar patterns.
definition of thinking
- The conscious experience of generating mental representations and operating on them in some way.
Hot Cognition
The mental processes involved in making judgements and decisions in situations involving strong emotion
Enteroception
the feelings that come from the body
Learning
An experiential process resulting in a relatively permanent behavioural change that cannot be explained by temporary states, maturation, or innate tendency’s.
Psychological Constructionist Approaches (feldman barret)
Emotions emerge from the combined actions of core psychological processes:
- Core affect (in the body, positive or negative)
- Conceptualisation (what is it?)
- Executive attention (what is important about it?)
Language (what do I call it)
Findings of baseball study
Emotional value = more detail
Greater preservation in negative memories (they were also more consistent)
- Positive memories more confident and felt more reliable
Eckman Definition of emotion
- A small set of basic emotions that are evolutionarily adaptive, give rise to distinct emotional states and expressions and that are displayed universally
Continuous view of development
Fundamental skills already present early in life and development involves gradual changes throughout the lifespan (changes in information processing abilities) - quantitative changes
Correlational Measures
Simple to conduct, broad, cheap, cannot imply causation
Experience measures
Short periods, can see how people navigate emotions in daily lives, picks up on small changes, high dropout rates
Experimental Measures
Direct and specific, can determine cause and effect, expensive
4 ways to measure subjective feeling
Self assesment manikin (infants), analog scale (valence not arousal), Geneva emotion wheel, PANAS
Misinformation effect
Exposure to the wrong information following the event can contaminate subjects memory of what they witnessed
Cause of identification errors
- Poor vision
- Stressfuk
- Different race
- Delay between event and ID
- DIdnt have long enough to view perpetratour
False memory studies
1/4 of subjects in a therapy study can be led to believe they have a false memory - difficult to tell apart from real memories
Roedinger & Mcdermont sleep study
Participants shown words relating to sleep schema, but not the word sleep itself. Then, after a delay, were asked to remember as many words as possibe. Key findings: sleep was falsely recalled almost always
Darwin corresponsence experiment
Studied facial expressions inspired by duchennes electrical stimulation photograph
- Found that facial expressions are innate and shared across cultures
- Looked at whether photographs accurately captured emotion and can emotions be electrically stimulated
Electrodermal responding
Measures SCR as a result of parasympathetic activation
Facial Electromyography
Captures activity in smile and frown muscles
