Week 1: The Cognitive (R)evolution

Question 1

Edward Tolman

Answer 1

One of the most influential and important neo-behaviorists was this American psychologist.

Question 2

Maze

Answer 2

The animal, typically the rat, had to explore or learn to navigate to find a reward.

The important thing about them is that the animal has choices to make, such as turning left or right or sometimes continuing straight ahead.

Question 3

Latent

Answer 3

Means learning that is dormant or concealed.

Question 4

Latent Learning

Answer 4

Learning that seems to occur through exposure to environmental stimuli without any reinforcement.

Question 5

Cognitive Maps (mental maps)

Answer 5

Tolman proposed that animals form internal representations of their environment, allowing them to adapt to new situations.

Question 6

Detour Mazes

Answer 6

Introduced obstacles or blocked paths, forcing the animal to find alternative routes to the goal.

Question 7

Hippocampus

Answer 7

A brain region also involved in navigation in rats and other species.

Goes through structural changes within 45 minutes of learning a new route.

Question 8

Neuroplasticity

Answer 8

The brain changes as we learn. And the information is stored and available for later use.

Question 9

Latent Learning

Answer 9

Learning without reinforcement presented a major challenge for strict operant conditioning models.

Question 10

Latent Learning

Answer 10

Seen as the stablishment of stimulus-stimulus, rather than stimulus-response associations, through a process of exploration.

Question 11

Reinforcement (Tolman)

Answer 11

It drove the animal to behave in a way when it was productive for it to do so, that is, when it was motivated by the prospect of reward.

Question 12

Operant Conditioning VS Latent Learning

Answer 12

Operant conditioning is an example of response learning, while latent learning is an example of place learning.

Operant conditioning: Reinforcement is the cause of the behavior.
Latent learning: Reinforcement is the trigger for demonstrating the learned behavior.

OC: Intervening variables are ignored
LL: Intervening variables are central

Question 13

Intervening Variables (Mediating Internal Representations)

Answer 13

1) Processing of the stimulus or environment
2) Transformation of that information into a stored, spatial representation or map
3) Access to specific information to plan and execute an adaptive behavioural response, motivated by reward

Question 14

Surplus Meaning

Answer 14

This ability in cognitive psychology to make testable predictions of its hypothetical constructs.

It’s the power of a theory to stimulate further research and discovery.

Question 15

Induction

Answer 15

Researchers observe behavior and patterns, leading to the development of hypothetical constructs.

Question 16

Deduction

Answer 16

Based on hypothetical constructs, researchers generate specific hypotheses that can be tested through experiments.

Question 17

Cognitive Structures

Answer 17

Structures here refers to conceptually coherent, modular units that serve a particular function within one or more domains of cognition.

A structure typically refers to an internal form or representation of information.

Question 18

Mental Image

Answer 18

The internal structure or visual representation of an object or a scene, although images can also involve
other senses, auditory, olfactory, and tactile

Question 19

Symbols

Answer 19

More abstract than the seemingly sensory-like properties of an image (i.e., sounds attached to written letters or the meaning attached to whole words).

Question 20

Concepts

Answer 20

Mental categories for organizing information such as size or attractiveness

Question 21

Rules and Heuristics

Answer 21

Both conscious and unconscious, which govern relationships between knowledge and guide our behaviour.

Question 22

Beliefs and Interpretations

Answer 22

Personal convictions or meaning of the world.

Question 23

Cognitive Processes

Answer 23

Operations that can be applied to the information and often transform it.

Question 24

Cognitive Domains

Answer 24

The scope of cognitive psychology for which theories are developed and tested.

Question 25

Building Blocks of Cognitive Psychology

Answer 25

1) Cognitive Domains (scope or function)
2) Cognitive Structures (forms & representations)
3) Cognitive Processes (operations & transformation)

Question 26

Cognitive Neuroscience

Answer 26

It is one of the fastest-growing areas and is an important strand of cognitive science today.

Question 27

Immediate Memory Span

Answer 27

The limit to accurately repeating back sequences of up to six items readily held in our memory for a short period of time.

Question 28

Reaction Time

Answer 28

The time taken to make a response towards a stimulus.

Question 29

Serial Search

Answer 29

A sequential search process where each item in a memory set is compared to the target item one at a time.

Question 30

Parallel Search

Answer 30

A simultaneous comparison of a target item with all items in a memory set.

Question 31

Self-terminating Search

Answer 31

The search stops as soon as the item is detected.

Question 32

Exhaustive Search

Answer 32

The search continues to the end, even if a match is found early in the process.

Question 33

Mental Rotation

Answer 33

Is the process of mentally manipulating an object’s orientation in space.

Shepard and Metzler’s experiment demonstrated that this process takes time, suggesting that people simulate the physical rotation of objects in their minds.

Question 34

Serial Process

Answer 34

Involves handling tasks one at a time, in a sequential order.

Question 35

Parallel Process

Answer 35

Involves handling multiple tasks simultaneously.

Question 36

Depth of Processing

Answer 36

The more we think about and elaborate in our minds a piece of information, the more likely it is that it will be accessible later for recall.

Question 37

Memory Bias

Answer 37

Negative memories tend to be stronger in people with depression and anxiety with important implications for the maintenance of their problems.

Question 38

Memory Encoding

Answer 38

The way information is processed during learning significantly impacts subsequent retrieval.

Question 39

Schema (Kant, Piaget, and Neisser)

Answer 39

An organized abstract representation of knowledge about a particular situation or thing.

Question 40

Schema (Kant, Piaget, and Neisser)

Answer 40

Provides a stored template onto which observed
evidence can be automatically compared to permit correct classification.

Question 40

Schema (Kant, Piaget, and Neisser)

Answer 40

Most are assumed to be built up over our lives based on a combination of direct, personal experience and indirect knowledge through communications with others and other media.

Question 41

Schema (Kant, Piaget, and Neisser)

Answer 41

Allow us to quickly pattern match an object or a situation with something similar that we have experienced before.

Question 42

Schema (Kant, Piaget, and Neisser)

Answer 42

Allows us to use past experience of a similar
object or situation to know what to expect, and particularly how to behave without the need for
careful analysis and planning

Question 43

Cognitive Dissonance

Answer 43

Where these schema are opposing or contradictory, we tend to find the situation uncomfortable.

Typically, we tend to adjust our perceptions or interpretations to allow us to fix on one of the two alternative schemas, or combine them to form a new one.

Question 44

Cognitive Dissonance

Answer 44

Where these schema are opposing or contradictory, we tend to find the situation uncomfortable.

Typically, we tend to adjust our perceptions or interpretations to allow us to fix on one of the two alternative schemas, or combine them to form a new one.

Question 45

Neisser’s Process of Perception

Answer 45

Cyclical Process: Feature Analysis > Schema Activation > Perceptual Exploration > Sensory Cues

Question 46

Feature Analysis

Answer 46

The identification of different component features that
made up the object

Question 47

Active Perceptual Exploration

Answer 47

Actively and consciously collecting
more information.

This may also include other information from the environment that provides data
to help identify the object.

This, in turn, could bring into play new feature analysis and so on, until stable perception is achieved.

Question 48

Schema & Perception (Constructive Process)

Answer 48

Conscious top-down feedback
Automatic bottom-up feed-forward

Question 50

Event Schema

Answer 50

The general set of behaviours that we adopt when we
find ourselves in a particular situation or context.

Question 51

Script Schema

Answer 51

Is stored and automatically accessed to guide our behaviour.

Question 52

Self Schema

Answer 52

Just as we tend to fit people that we meet into categories based on what we see or know about them, we also have one or more schemas about ourselves.

Reflect the perceptions we have of ourselves and also how we act in different situations, both consciously and
unconsciously.

Question 53

Negative Self Schema

Answer 53

Are proposed to have an important role in increasing a person’s vulnerability to mental health problems and to serve to maintain them when they occur.

Identification and modification of such unhelpful or maladaptive schema is a common goal of psychological therapy.