W1

Question 1

What is cognition?

Answer 1

Cognition is the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses.

Question 2

What is bottom-up processing?

Answer 2

Bottom-up processing is when processes are directly triggered by the stimulus.

Question 3

What is top-down processing?

Answer 3

Top-down processing is processing caused by you.

Question 4

What is the information-processing approach?

Answer 4

The information-processing approach views humans as “stimulus-response machines” where information comes through senses and is processed by a series of modules, resulting in observable responses.

Question 5

What is criticism for the information-processing approach?

Answer 5

Criticisms include that it does not allow for parallel processing and ignores top-down processing, such as the influence of prior knowledge.

Question 6

How could neurons represent complex information?

Answer 6

Some neurons have preferred stimuli referred to as “grandmother cells.”

Question 7

What is rate coding?

Answer 7

Rate coding is when the greater rate of a neuron’s response is used to code or represent information.

Question 8

What is temporal coding?

Answer 8

Temporal coding is when greater synchrony of the responses of several neurons is used to code information, such as binding together different aspects of an image.

Question 9

What is required for you to have a conscious experience of something?

Answer 9

For you to have a conscious experience of something, it is represented by rate/temporal coding through the firing of neurons.

Question 10

What is Experimental Cognitive Psychology?

Answer 10

Experimental Cognitive Psychology studies behavior in controlled lab settings, explores cognitive processes using experimental manipulations, and uses behavioral measures as indirect measures instead of brain measures.

Question 11

What are the limitations of Experimental Cognitive Psychology?

Answer 11

Limitations include ecological validity, face validity, and the fact that assigning names to processes doesn’t necessarily reflect reality.

Question 12

What is Cognitive Neuropsychology?

Answer 12

Cognitive Neuropsychology studies cognition in patients with brain injuries, aiming to identify impaired and preserved cognitive functions associated with specific brain regions.

Question 13

What are the limitations of Cognitive Neuropsychology?

Answer 13

Limitations include the lack of baseline data, difficulties in generalization due to rare lesions, and challenges posed by the modularity of cognitive processes.

Question 14

What is Cognitive Neuroscience?

Answer 14

Cognitive Neuroscience relates brain structure and function to cognitive processes by recording brain activity during cognitive tasks.

Question 15

What are the limitations of Cognitive Neuroscience?

Answer 15

Limitations include expense, invasiveness leading to small sample sizes, and a focus on measuring brain effects rather than testing theories.

Question 16

Describe the anatomy of the cerebrum (from side view)

Answer 16

The cerebrum consists of the frontal lobe (left), parietal lobe (top), occipital lobe (right), temporal lobe (bottom), and the cerebellum located under the temporal lobe.

Question 17

What is Electrophysiology?

Answer 17

Electrophysiology involves single cell recordings, usually conducted using very small electrodes to record neural activity, often performed on animals.

Question 18

What is Electroencephalography (EEG)?

Answer 18

EEG measures the electrical activity of a large number of neurons firing together, recorded via electrodes on the scalp, providing real-time neural activity measurements with good temporal resolution.

Question 19

What are Event-related Potentials (ERPs)?

Answer 19

ERPs measure EEG responses to the same stimulus, generating an average waveform to estimate the true effect and allowing for comparisons across conditions.

Question 20

What are the limitations of EEG/ERP?

Answer 20

Limitations include poor spatial resolution, making it difficult to determine where specific activities are occurring due to multiple possible origins.

Question 21

What is an MRI?

Answer 21

• very strong magnetic field - 0.5-7 (T)
• single protons in water molecules align to magnetic field generated by scanner and this alignment is then disturbed with short radio-frequency pulses and measure the resulting change in magnetic field
• Different parts of the brain (grey matter, white matter, CSF) take different times to “relax” from the radio frequency disturbance, and show as lighter/darker

Question 22

Structural MRI?

Answer 22

• diffusion tensor imaging can image white matter fibres (bundles of axons) by measuring the direction of water diffusion.
• Allows us to study how cognition/perception is supported by connections between brain regions

Question 23

Functional MRI?

Answer 23

• doesnt directly measure neurons but measures the Blood Oxygenation Level Dependent signal (blood circulation)
• Active neurons need oxygen so The brain starts supplying oxygen to active areas, producing an “overshoot” in oxygenated blood and the Oxygenated blood causes less magnetic field disturbance than deoxygenated blood, so active brain regions will have higher signal

Question 24

What are the pros and cons of MRI?

Answer 24

Pros include excellent spatial resolution, while cons include poor temporal resolution and the requirement for direct inference as it doesn’t measure neurons directly.

Question 25

What is Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)?

Answer 25

TMS involves applying short magnetic pulses to briefly affect electrical activity in localized brain tissue, providing causal evidence by either enhancing or inhibiting cognitive functions.

Question 26

What are the limitations of brain stimulation?

Answer 26

Limitations include weak stimulation effects and potential risks, particularly for individuals with a history of epilepsy.

Question 27

What can we learn from illusions?

Answer 27

Illusions demonstrate the limits of mental/cognitive processes and the strong influence of top-down processes on perception.