Week 3 Flashcards
What is cognitive psychology?
The study of mental activity as an information-processing problem.
What are the two key concepts underlying the cognitive approach?
(1) Information processing depends on mental representations.
(2) These mental representations undergo internal transformations.
What did Posner’s letter-matching task demonstrate?
Different response latencies reflect the degrees of processing required, showing the sequence of physical, phonetic, and category representations.
What is the Stroop effect?
A demonstration of the multiplicity of mental representations, where mismatched ink colors and word meanings slow down response times.
How does Sternberg’s memory task support serial processing?
Reaction time increases with the number of items in the memory set, indicating sequential comparison.
What are lesion studies used for?
To link neural structures with specific processing operations by observing the effects of brain injury.
What is the split-brain procedure?
A surgical operation severing the corpus callosum to study hemisphere-specific cognitive tasks.
What limitation exists with lesion studies?
Lesions may alter neural connections, impacting areas beyond the direct damage.
What are the common causes of vascular disorders?
Stroke, atherosclerosis, and ischemia due to inadequate blood supply.
What is the primary concern with brain tumors?
Their location, rather than whether they are benign or malignant.
What are degenerative disorders?
Progressive neurological conditions caused by genetic or environmental factors, such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease.
How does the herpes simplex virus affect the brain?
It destroys neurons in cortical and limbic structures if it migrates to the brain.
What are the effects of traumatic brain injury (TBI)?
It causes edema, increases intracranial pressure, and can lead to secondary lesions and neurodegenerative consequences.
What characterizes epilepsy?
Excessive and abnormally patterned brain activity, with seizures as the cardinal symptom.
What is the word superiority effect?
Greater accuracy in identifying letters within a word, demonstrating parallel processing.
How are compensatory processes observed in brain studies?
Animals or humans adapt to damage by using compromised limbs or developing new processing routes.
What does electroencephalography (EEG) confirm in epilepsy?
The presence of seizure activity.
What can fMRI data reveal about brain damage?
The extent of changes in neural regions after localized damage.
Why are reversible lesions useful in animal studies?
They allow the animal to serve as its own control by comparing performance during “lesion” and “non-lesion” periods.
How do attentional constraints affect cognitive processing?
They limit the efficiency of information manipulation.
