cognitive psych test 1

be able to correctly paraphrase psychology studies, using APA in-text citations

In text citations: in phrase · 1 author: Teubner (2013) found that students who engaged in self-quizzing had higher GPAs than students who did not. · 2 authors: Teubner and Liu (2013) found that... · 3 authors: Teubner, Liu, and Franco-Watkins (2013) found that... o (for first reference - otherwise, follow 'More than 6 authors') · 6+ authors: Teubner et al. (2013) found that... o You only need to use all names the first time; then you can use et al

identify the 4 assumptions of the information processing approach. be able to provide and evaluate examples. what are the limitations of this approach?

Information processing approach · Mental processes are like computer processes · *Serial processing*: process information step-by-step · *1. Info is transferred to your sensory mechanisms and sent to your brain* · *2. Information is processed in many stages* · *3. Processor decides how to respond to the stimulus* · *4. Processor executes a motor command (after deciding to respond)* *Issue*: these principles were developed before we really knew how this stuff worked

distinguish between input and controlled attention. understand how they work together and how they trade off

Input Attention: Alertness and Arousal • *Input Attention: "The basic processes of getting sensory information into the cognitive system"* (Ashcraft & Radvansky, p. 123) • *Alertness and arousal are automatic processes* requiring awake and responsive nervous system Alertness and Arousal • *Explicit Processing: "Involving conscious processing, conscious awareness that a task is being performed, and usually conscious awareness of the outcome of that performance"* (Ashcraft & Radvansky, p. 123-124) • *Implicit Processing: "Processing with no necessary involvement of conscious awareness"* (Ashcraft & Radvansky, p. 124) • Ex: complete this word var_____ • We answered with "variable" because we subconsciously heard it earlier in the lecture *Input Attention: Orienting Reflex* • *Redirection of attention to an unexpected stimulus* • *Orienting reflex triggered by * • *Things that are novel * • *Things that are significant * Input Attention:* Spotlight of Attention* • *Idea that visual attention operates like a spotlight, illuminating a particular area of the environment* • Mental shift of attention rather than physical No eye or head movement necessary Controlled, Voluntary Attention • *Controlled Attention: voluntary direction of mental effort* • *Selective Attention: directing attention to a single source of information while ignoring or filtering out other information* Selective Attention • *Filtering or selecting: "the mental process of eliminating distractions" or ignoring irrelevant information* (Ashcraft & Radvansky, p. 134) • *How do we filter or select?* • *Bottleneck theories*: Attention acts as narrow passage restricting input of information • *Feature-Integration theory* Bottleneck Theories • *Filter Theory (Broadbent): attention is all or none* • *Attenuation Theory (Treisman): inattention weakens but does not eliminate processing* Selective Attention and the Cocktail Party Effect • Dichotic Listening or Shadowing Task (E. Colin Cherry) • "Shadow" one ear and ignore the other ear. • Broadbent's Filter Theory • Selective filter focuses on single message based on low-level features such as volume or pitch • Only 1 message allowed through the filter • Predictions for shadowing task? (Cherry, 1953) • *Results: Subjects could correctly describe physical characteristics of the unattended (left ear) message, but did not notice other things about it (e.g., content).* Shadowing Task (Moray, 1959) • Presented subjects' own name in the unattended ear. • Results: Participants notice their name about 33% of the time à Cocktail Party Effect • *So, Broadbent's filter theory isn't explaining everything because then they wouldn't have been able to hear their own name* Treisman's Attenuation Theory • Treisman thought selection occurred at a later stage than Broadbent, with all input receiving some basic processing. • *Unattended messages are weakened (Stage 1), but not completely filtered* • *We select among messages during early evaluation of meaning (Stage 2).* • Results from experiment: • Participants shadowed message based on meaning • *Using meaning as the filter* • Switched ears to continue following coherent meaning • *MUST process the content in the unattended ear!* Norman's Pertinence Model • Added top-down mechanism to attenuation theory, so that attention could be influenced by both bottom-up sensory activation and pertinence • Pertinence: "the momentary importance of information" (Ashcraft & Radvanksy, p. 140) Selection Models 1. Selective attention CAN be applied early, based on the perceptual characteristics of the input (Broadbent's theory) 2. Selective attention CAN be applied later, based on semantic/pertinent factors • Meaning that both theories may be true which led to... Feature-Integration Theory • Flexibly control the focus of attention to broaden or narrow • Distributed attention applies a broad focus, taking in lots of information at once • Focused attention is narrow and involves controlled serial processing

random

Know about the studies and their findings Mostly lecture, but also textbook STUDY THE STUDY GUIDE but REVIEW LECTURES *Feature analysis: viewer breaks up objects into features* - Applies to *2D objects and letters* - These features can be rearranged to create different objects *Recognition by components* - Similar but *also applies to 3D shapes or geons* - These can also be rearranged to create different objects - *Advantages: areas outside of primary visual cortex respond to these geon-like figures* *Bottom up processing* - *driven by stimuli in environment* - Register physical, process physical characteristics, break it into constitute parts to interpret *Top-down processing* - *our perception of the stimulus interfaces with our existing knowledge* - Controlled attention is an example Ex: context effects, recognize stimulus more quickly if it matches context of the sentence & what we expect

how do we process speech when the input is ambiguous? provide evidence from behavioral and neuroimaging experiments

*Ambiguity in Speech Perception* · *Occurs when speech signal is noisy or distorted* · When you're in a *quiet environment- can rely on bottom-up perception* Context and Speech Perception • *Phonemic restoration: use of contextual cues to fill-in a sound that has been masked or distorted* • Warren & Warren (1970) • Played recordings of identical sentences (except for one word); omitted phoneme and replaced with coughing sound • It was found that the _eel was on the axle. • It was found that the _eel was on the shoe. • It was found that the _eel was on the orange. • *Participants used context to fill in missing phoneme* • *Although phonemic restoration is an illusion- they are creating a phoneme instead of actually hearing it * Visual Cues and Speech Perception • *Visual cues can also disambiguate distorted speech* • Can understand speaker better when you can see them • *It is an automatic action; we automatically use these visual cues to better understand speakers* • McGurk Effect (McGurk & MacDonald, 1976) • Auditory illusion • Saying "ba", but it sounds like "da" if you use visual cues, voice movement of "ga" • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtsfidRq2tw

understand the difference between pure artificial intelligence and computer modeling and be able to provide and evaluate examples. how do these subtypes of AI contribute to cognitive psychology?

*Artificial intelligence * · *Creates computer programs that simulate human thought* *Pure AI: completes a task in the most computationally efficient (fastest) way* -ex: Watson on jeopardy (question answering system, separated questions into key words to search multiple queries simultaneously to compile most popular answer) -Watson unable to use context to quickly get to right response (responds slower to short questions due to less input- aka cant limit answers well) · Doesn't tell us much about how the human mind works *AI: modeling* -*Computer simulation/computer modeling* o Doesn't try to do the task perfectly o *Tries to perform task in the same way as a human (instead of most efficient way)* · Successful models act like humans Artificial intelligence · Example: auto-photo tagging o Tagging algorithm produced human-like facial recognition error § Successful simulation! o Example of modeling???? Artificial intelligence · Computer models in language · *Carpenter and Just (1999)* · *Designed computer model to follow linguistic principles* ... found that the computer model slowed at the verb of sentence 1 compared to 2 (reacted the same way that humans do when it read the sentences) *Computer metaphor* · *Human cognitive processes operate like a computer* o Compare symbols o Limited-capacity processing (can only remember so much) · Models must describe structures and processes

what is cognitive science? be able to describe the unique contributions of different fields to the study of the mind

*Cognitive science*: overarching discipline, integrates several different fields; attempt to improve our understanding of the mind Cognitive science · Field that bridges disciplines to improve our understanding of the mind · *Includes cognitive psychology, neuroscience, computer science, philosophy, linguistics, and their intersections* · Cognitive psych: systematic experiments to study cognitive processes · Computer science: computational models of human performance · Linguistics: principles of human language · Neuroscience: systematic experiments to study brain function *Cognitive science* · *Representational structures + computations = thought*

what is the connectionist approach or parallel distributed processing? how does it address limitations of previous information processing approaches?

*Connectionist approach (or neural networks)* · Teams of networks connect different processing units (e.g. neural hubs) · *Allows operations to occur simultaneously or "in parallel"* o Allows for higher efficiency · Parallel distributed processing: influential book that developed the connectionist approach (mcclelland and Rumelhart) *Connectionist approach reflects neurons!* · Cerebral cortex: thin outer layer of the brain containing neurons · Neurons inter-connected, forming "networks" · Activity is *distributed* ... neurons work together to represent information

What is divided attention? How is it different than selective attention?

*Divided Attention* • *Try to pay attention to multiple sources of information at once* • Goal to process multiple sources • Information distracts from main goal • *Multitasking reduces speed and accuracy on tasks* • *Multitasking: trying to perform 2 or more tasks simultaneously * • *Increases susceptibility to inattentional blindness*

understand the figure-ground relationship. explain how it guides perception. be able to provide examples from illusory phenomena

*Figure-ground relationship* -We *tend to perceive something as being in the forefront of our visual environment* Three figure-ground phenomena -*Ambiguous relationship/reversals* ... you can have reversals of figure and ground when ambiguous -*Camouflage* .... Image is camouflaged but pops out when you know it's there -*Illusory contours * Figure-ground organization · When 2 images have a common boundary, how do we perceive them? o Figure: takes a distinct shape, appears to be in front o Ground: whatever is not the figure, appears to be in background *Ambiguous figure-grounds* · *Rubin's face-vase image * · *Bistable figure-ground leads to reversals* o Bistable because they are both stable; in conflict with each other *Camouflage* · *Easier to find when you know what it is* · *Influence of top-down knowledge on perception* o Our preexisting knowledge can guide it to facilitate our perception *Illusory/subjective contours* · *Perceive figure in absence of edges* · Driven by figure-ground perception · *Kaniza triangle*

Understand symptoms of hemineglect and blindsight. Explain how they inform our understanding of consciousness.

*Hemineglect* • *Disorder where they can't pay attention to half of their visual field* • Search task: • Fixate on the letters on the right half, don't move their eyes to the left half of field A Disorder of Attention: Hemineglect • Hemineglect (unilateral spatial neglect): *Disorder in which patients ignore or "neglect" one half of the visual field (often the left)* • *Arises from brain damage* • Can occur with lesions in right frontal regions • *posterior parietal lobe*??? • *Problem of directing attention to the side opposite (contralateral) to the brain damage* • *Not a problem with visual perception- problem is with controlling attention* Hemineglect drawings • Drawings copied by a patient with contralateral neglect • Same result if drawing from memory • Notice neglected side with remove visual competition • T*hey are able to recall things from their bad side if you bring their attention to it or remove/cover the attended side* Hemineglect • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymKvS0XsM4w • *Unable to direct her attention, but vision is fine, so once the researcher directs her attention to the error, she can see it* • *Patients demonstrate anosognosia, or unawareness of deficit* • Patient did not know that she only drew half of it Hemineglect • *Disorder of attention following brain damage, especially to R. posterior parietal cortex* • Failure to disengage attention from items in the non-neglected visual field • *Disorder of consciousness* • Consciousness may be critical for perception of visual world • If you're not conscious that you're wrong, you have no idea that what you're seeing isn't reality (?) *Blindsight* • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOHTpobMFu4 •* Damage to primary visual cortex creates perception of blindness* • *Patient doesn't perceive images in that side of visual field at all, however they can still report some characteristics of object in their visual field on that side, * which *shows that not all information must pass through primary visual cortex to be processed... however it must be pass through primary visual cortex for the person to be conscious of it* Blindsight • Semantic priming from "unseen" stimulus • *Subconsciously processed the category even though they report that they can't see it*

what is iconic memory? how did sterling's experiment demonstrate the properties of iconic memory?

*Iconic memory: visual sensory memory* (Sensory memory: brief storage of sensory information) -Discovered by Sperling *Sperling's iconic memory experiment* -We can store this information for a very brief time after exposure -Condition 1: 9 letter grid, no cue.... Recalled 3-4 letters -Condition 2: 9 letter grid, cued..... Recalled ~3 letters findings: -*Storage capacity for iconic memory is actually quite large* -Expected recall of 1/3 cued row -Result: recall all 3 letters, though cue presented after letters -All 9 items are available in iconic memory -*Iconic memory traces decay rapidly*

define introspection and explain problems with the technique

*Introspection* - *Process of reflecting in your own mind about how a cognitive process works* - *Problems*: *entirely subjective*; two people can think about the same process and come to different conclusions; *not all cognitive processes are actually susceptible to awareness and perception* (automatic, implicit, can't think about the fact that you're doing it i.e. eye movement)

understand the difference between Aristotle and plato's views of A) the relationship between the mind and body B) the use of observation versus introspection for determining and evaluating truth C) the origins of thought & be able to discuss how these views are used in modern day cognitive psychology

*Plato*- *dualistic view of body* (mind and body separate); *truth is internal, abstract* -*Rationalist- use introspection* or self-reflection -*Origins of thought: ideas already exist in the mind* ...-Early version of modern nurture vs nature debate *Aristotle*: *monistic view; mind itself doesn't exist; truth obtained by observing physical world around you* -*Empiricist- use observation and experience to obtain info* -*Origins of thought: ideas obtained through experience*, obtained by interacting with the world ...-Early version of modern nurture vs nature debate *Modern day psychology uses both methods*; obviously use empiricism, but also rationalists because our research tests theories (our own thoughts/beliefs/our own feelings about the world guides our research)

know the findings of Posner's spatial cuing task & trainman's visual search task and what they show about attention

*Posner's Spatial Cuing Task* • *Benefit/Facilitation: A faster-than-baseline response resulting from the useful advance information (cue)* • Cost: A response slower than baseline because of the misleading cue • Spotlight of attention: The mental attention-focusing mechanism that prepares you to encode stimulus information • *Conclusion: attentional focus is a cognitive phenomenon, linked to an internal mechanism rather than eye movements or actions* *Treisman's Visual Search: * • Searching for T vs searching for bold T experiment Contrasting Input and Controlled Attention • *Disjunction search condition (either feature) is fast and automatic à input attention * • *Conjunction search condition (both features) is slow and serial à controlled attention* • *Spotlight attention is fast, automatic, and driven by sensory information * • *Conscious or controlled attention is an intentional process governing our interaction with the environment* (slower, serial- takes it in one-by-one, & driven by internal, mental processes)

Understand classic theories of selective attention, including Broadbent's Filter Theory, Treisman's Attenuation Theory, Norman's Pertinence Model, and Feature-Integration theory. Describe experiments that tested these theories and understand how the results supported or refuted each theory.

Controlled, Voluntary Attention • Controlled Attention: voluntary direction of mental effort • Selective Attention: directing attention to a single source of information while ignoring or filtering out other information Selective Attention • Filtering or selecting: "the mental process of eliminating distractions" or ignoring irrelevant information (Ashcraft & Radvansky, p. 134) • How do we filter or select? • Bottleneck theories: Attention acts as narrow passage restricting input of information • Feature-Integration theory Bottleneck Theories • Filter Theory (Broadbent): attention is all or none • Attenuation Theory (Treisman): inattention weakens but does not eliminate processing Selective Attention and the Cocktail Party Effect • Dichotic Listening or Shadowing Task (E. Colin Cherry) • "Shadow" one ear and ignore the other ear. • Broadbent's Filter Theory • Selective filter focuses on single message based on low-level features such as volume or pitch • Only 1 message allowed through the filter • Predictions for shadowing task? (Cherry, 1953) • Results: Subjects could correctly describe physical characteristics of the unattended (left ear) message, but did not notice other things about it (e.g., content). Shadowing Task (Moray, 1959) • Presented subjects' own name in the unattended ear. • Results: Participants notice their name about 33% of the time à Cocktail Party Effect • So, Broadbent's filter theory isn't explaining everything because then they wouldn't have been able to hear their own name Treisman's Attenuation Theory • Treisman thought selection occurred at a later stage than Broadbent, with all input receiving some basic processing. • Unattended messages are weakened (Stage 1), but not completely filtered. • We select among messages during early evaluation of meaning (Stage 2). • Results from experiment: • Participants shadowed message based on meaning • Using meaning as the filter • Switched ears to continue following coherent meaning • MUST process the content in the unattended ear! Norman's Pertinence Model • Added top-down mechanism to attenuation theory, so that attention could be influenced by both bottom-up sensory activation and pertinence • Pertinence: "the momentary importance of information" (Ashcraft & Radvanksy, p. 140) Selection Models 1. Selective attention CAN be applied early, based on the perceptual characteristics of the input (Broadbent's theory) 2. Selective attention CAN be applied later, based on semantic/pertinent factors • Meaning that both theories may be true which led to... Feature-Integration Theory • Flexibly control the focus of attention to broaden or narrow • Distributed attention applies a broad focus, taking in lots of information at once • Focused attention is narrow and involves controlled serial processing

explain theories of object recognition. understand their similarities and differences, and be able to give advantages and disadvantages of each. how did the viewer-centered modification enhance these theories?

*template theory* -have a collection of templates that represent objects -flawed because objects vary and can be seen from multiple views -Compare stimulus to templates and find the best match *Feature-analysis theory* -All objects consist of a few distinctive features -E.g. features of letters ...-R vs P- share most features, P is just missing the diagonal \ ...-O vs L- share no overlapping features -Letter-discrimination task ...-Decide whether 2 letters are the same or different -Slower when more features overlapped ...-R vs P ... slow response ...-O vs L ... fast response -Advantages: Supported by neuroscience (Hubel & Wiesel) & Supported by behavior (letter similarity) -Disadvantages: Doesn't work for more complex objects, motion; Doesn't apply to 3D *Recognition-by-components* -Like feature analysis, but for 3D! -Objects are combinations of 3D shapes, or geons -Advantages ...-Higher level visual areas respond to geons ....-Geons are learned in development -Disadvantages ...-Still need to account for viewpoint! o *Viewer-centered approach: we represent a few different views of objects* o *We use mental rotation until image aligns with stored*

Describe the experiment by Kuhl & Miller (1975) investigating categorical perception in humans and chinchillas. What did they do? What were the results in humans? What were the results in chinchillas? What do the results suggest about categorical speech perception? Explain your answer.

1. (a) Describe the experiment by Kuhl & Miller (1975) investigating categorical perception in humans and chinchillas. What did they do? (b) What were the results in humans? What were the results in chinchillas? (c) What do the results suggest about categorical speech perception? Explain your answer. a. Describe the experiment. Kuhl *tested speech perception* in chinchillas and humans *to discover whether or was innate or learned*. They *trained chinchillas to identify tokens of d and t*. Then *tested them on new tokens, with a variety of speakers, and new boundaries. They also manipulated voice onset times.* b. What were the results in humans? What were the results in chinchillas? • Phonetic boundaries in chinchillas ... innate categorical perception • *The chinchillas demonstrated the same phonetic boundary that humans do!* If it was less than 30 ms they categorized it as a "da" sound. At around 50 ms "ta" sound. c. What do the results suggest about categorical speech perception? Explain your answer. The *results suggest that there is an innate mechanism for categorical speech perception.*

Identify and define an error in visual perception that occurs due to over-reliance on top-down processing. Describe an experiment that demonstrated this top-down error, and explain how overuse of top-down processing leads to the error.

2. (a) Identify and (b) define an error in visual perception that occurs due to over-reliance on top-down processing. (c) Describe an experiment that demonstrated this top-down error, and (d) explain how overuse of top-down processing leads to the error. a. *Name of top-down error*: _______________ -1. vInattentional blindness* -2. change blindness b.* Definition:* -1. *Inattentional blindness: not detecting the appearance of something new (due to intense focus on something else)* -2. Change blindness: not noticing changes in an object or scene c. *Describe experiment demonstrating error:* -.1 *The video that we watched in class in which we were asked to count the number of times a basketball was passed, and many people did not notice the random gorilla that walked past.* -2. For example, in the video we watched: bystander changes when asking for directions; about 50% of people didn't notice that the bystander changed. The man was focused on the task on reading the map, not the person. d. *Explain how top-down processing causes error:* -*Results in errors when top-down knowledge is wrong, or expectations are violated, because we use our experience to guide our decisions.* 1. *-About 46% of people don't notice the gorilla -We are focusing on the basketball, and miss the gorilla. it violates our expectations. Also due to limits in attentional capacity; can't focus on everything.* 2. It violates our schema of a stable world; expect it to be the same; don't expect things to change unpredictably. If we assume certain things are stable, we can use our attentional resources for something else. Especially if you consider that object that changes irrelevant ---- How can cognitive processes be both efficient and accurate, but we also make top-down errors? · Experiments showing top-down errors don't always have ecological validity o Don't hold true in the real world o Researchers manipulate this event to create something that won't actually occur in the real world o Top-down processing helps us make sense of the world quickly § Results in errors when top-down knowledge is wrong, or expectations are violated § We use our experience to guide our decisions

Describe Treisman's Visual Search experiment. What were the results? What did the results show about attention? Be sure to define 2 different types of attention in your answer.

3. (a) Describe Treisman's Visual Search experiment. (b) What were the results? (c) What did the results show about attention? Be sure to define 2 different types of attention in your answer. a. Describe the experiment. *1st condition- Participant is asked to search for either of 2 features*, among various items. *2nd condition- Participant is asked to search for both features*, among various items. b. What were the results? • *Disjunction search condition (either feature) is fast and automatic* ....participants utilized *input attention* • *Conjunction search condition (both features) is slow and serial* .... participants utilized *controlled attention* c. What did the results show about attention? Be sure to define 2 different types of attention in your answer. It showed that: -*Spotlight attention is fast, automatic, and driven by sensory information*. • *Conscious or controlled attention is an intentional process governing our interaction with the environment*. (slower, serial- takes it in one-by-one, & driven by internal, mental processes)

What is Broadbent's Filter Theory of selective attention? Describe evidence supporting Broadbent's Filter Theory. What is Treisman's Attenuation Theory of selective attention? Describe evidence supporting Treisman's Attenuation Theory.

4. (a) What is Broadbent's Filter Theory of selective attention? (b) Describe evidence supporting Broadbent's Filter Theory. (c) What is Treisman's Attenuation Theory of selective attention? (d) Describe evidence supporting Treisman's Attenuation Theory. a. What is Broadbent's Filter Theory of selective attention? • *Broadbent's Filter Theory: selective filter focuses on single message based on low-level features such as volume or pitch* • *Only 1 message allowed through the filter* b. Describe evidence supporting Broadbent's Filter Theory. In *Cherry's shadowing task, subjects could correctly describe physical characteristics of the unattended (left ear) message, but did not notice other things about it (e.g., content).* c. What is Treisman's Attenuation Theory of selective attention? *Treisman's Attenuation Theory: Treisman thought selection occurred at a later stage than Broadbent, with all input receiving some basic processing.* • *Unattended messages are weakened (Stage 1), but not completely filtered.* • *We select among messages during early evaluation of meaning (Stage 2).* d. Describe evidence supporting Treisman's Attenuation Theory. *Moray's shadowing task demonstrated that we MUST process the content in the unattended ear because... they noticed when their name was said in the unattended ear.* • Participants shadowed message based on meaning (*used meaning as the filter*) • Switched ears to continue following coherent meaning ---- • Filter Theory (Broadbent): attention is all or none • Attenuation Theory (Treisman): inattention weakens but does not eliminate processing

You are a neuropsychologist. You have a patient with damage to their right posterior parietal cortex who has hemineglect (a.k.a. unilateral spatial neglect). How would the patient copy the figure below? Draw a picture to illustrate. Would the patient's drawing change if you asked them to draw a clock from memory? Why or why not? What does this show about hemineglect? Would the patient's drawing change if you covered up the right side? Why or why not? What does this show about hemineglect?

5. You are a neuropsychologist. You have a patient with damage to their right posterior parietal cortex who has hemineglect (a.k.a. unilateral spatial neglect). (a) How would the patient copy the figure below? Draw a picture to illustrate. (b) Would the patient's drawing change if you asked them to draw a clock from memory? Why or why not? What does this show about hemineglect? (c) Would the patient's drawing change if you covered up the right side? Why or why not? What does this show about hemineglect? a. Draw a picture to illustrate how the patient would copy the figure. (clock) -only right side will be drawn b. Would the patient's drawing change if drawn from memory? Why or why not? What does this show about hemineglect? -*No, it would not change. It also affects their mental images*, not just physical items. ? Would the patient's drawing change if you covered the right side? Why or why not? What does this show about hemineglect? -*Yes, it shows that it's not a problem with visual perception, but with controlling attention.* -*Consciousness may be critical for perception of visual world, because if you're not conscious that you're wrong, you have no idea that what you're seeing isn't reality*

identify elements of the auditory system from the ear to the cortex. how are sounds represented in the auditory system? how is sound localized?

Auditory system · Sound waves vibrate against the ear drum · *Send waves through inner ear* · *Stimulate hair cells in cochlea* o *Hair cells = tiny sensory receptors* · *Waves displace the hair cells and the hair cells convert this displacement into an electrical signal that they send to the brain via auditory nerve* · Sound waves *travel from the base to the apex of the cochlea* · *Most important feature of cochlea* o *Frequency tuned* o Certain parts of it are more tuned/sensitive/responsive to certain frequencies o *Apex tuned to low frequencies* o *Base tuned to high frequencies* o Frequency range: 20 htz to 20,000 hrtz · *Signal from auditory nerve travels through brainstem and midbrain to the primary auditory cortex (A1)* · A1 is in the temporal lobe · A1 has a tonotopic organization o Certain regions are more sensitive to certain frequencies o Arranged from low (anterior portion?) to high (posterior?) · A1 neuron tuned to 1600 Hz (squirrel monkey) o Doesn't only respond to that frequency, but responds the most to it · A1 neurons code sound frequency and amplitude Sound localization: interaural time difference · *Interaural time difference occurs because our ears are on different sides of our head* o Doesn't occur if sound is directly above or below you · Sounds reach ears at different times · Neurons in midbrain fire when input arrives (to the neuron, not the ear) simultaneously o Only fire when you receive the signal (at the neuron) from both ears at same time · *You can tell where auditory source is based on which neurons in midbrain are firing* Speech perception · Separate relevant signal from acoustic input · Convert signal into speech sounds

identify the 4 characteristics of speech perception. understand how they affect processing of phonemes and words. understand experiments that have demonstrated these characteristics

Characteristics of Speech Perception • *Listeners perceive word boundaries in continuous signal* • *Phonemes vary widely in pronunciation* ...• Across speakers and instances (i.e. accents, etc) • *Listeners use context to fill in gaps* • *Listeners use visual cues to facilitate perception* experiments!! Word boundaries • Hindi and English • Easier to hear in English because we are used to the language • Physical boundaries occur on <40% of words • i.e. clear pause, speaker changing • *We perceive boundaries when we understand the language* • Awe *already know the words, which allows us to segment the speech into discreet words* Word boundaries • *Syllable pairs across word boundaries occur less frequently* • Ty-ba < Pret-ty, ba-by • Easier to pair "pret-ty" and "ba-by" than "ty-ba" • *Transitional probability* • *How infants are able to understand the language * • They learn these transitional probabilities and use them to understand *Phoneme Variability* • *Speakers' voices and accents are different* • Male vs female • Pin vs pen • *Coarticulation changes how the phoneme sounds in different words* • Cat vs Can A in can sounds more nasal-y

identify and understand cognitive neuroscience techniques. be able to explain how they work and what they measure. be able to provide advantages and disadvantages for each technique

Cognitive neuroscience · Combines cognitive psychology with techniques for examining the brain's structure and function o Brain lesions o PET o fMRI- functional magnetic resonance imaging o EEG & ERPs *Brain lesions* · Dates back to mid 1800s o Phineas gage, prefrontal injury o Unable to control his behavior, had outbursts, cursed profusely § Drastic personality change o Prefrontal cortex involved in emotional regulation, control · *Advantages* o Conclude brain region causes behavior · *Disadvantages * o Often brain damage is widespread § Can be hard to pinpoint which region is responsible o Cannot be controlled § Can't just go in and damage someone's brain and see what happens § Restricted by what's available *Metabolic techniques: PET and fMRI* · Neurons require oxygen to support activity · Increased regional blood flow supplies oxygen · PET and fMRI rely on blood flow *PET (positron emission tomography)* · How it works o Radioactive tracer follows blood flow o Accumulates in active regions of the brain o Decay emits gamma rays § Designed to have short half-life § Decay fairly quickly § PET scan measures the gamma rays from the tracers o Qualities: § Spatial resolution of 5-10 mm3 § Activity measured over several minutes § Relatively invasive · Which is why fMRI is now more popular (?) *Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)* · How it works o Protons knocked out of alignment with magnetic field o Rate of realignment depends on blood oxygenation o Measures blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) signal · Qualities: o Spatial resolution of 3 mm3 o Time-lock activity to events, 10 s BOLD-signal o Non-invasive *PET and fMRI* · Subtractive technique: activity in condition 1 - condition 2 o E.g. recall of 5 items compared to 1 item o Isolates process that differs between the 2 conditions · Why is it necessary? o Brain is always active, always a BOLD signal o Baseline level depends on physical properties of brain region o The more similar the baseline is to your condition of interest, the more specific your analysis can be (can rule out extraneous factors) fMRI · *Advantages* o Non-invasive o Good spatial resolution o Isolate specific processes through subtractive technique · *Disadvantages* o Slow- neurons fire on order of millisecond (?) o Indirect- looking at blood flow rather than the electrical current of neurons that are firing; not a perfect relationship between blood flow and neuron firing o Expensive *EEG & ERP* · *Electroencephalography (EEG): record electrical currents produced by neuronal activity* o Mostly used to study coordinated... o Neural synchronization and how it changes with different tasks ·* Event-related potentials (ERPs): isolates EEG signal to stimulus events * o Uses subtractive technique to compare conditions o A technique of EEG *EEG and ERP* · *Advantages* o Direct measure of neural activity o Millisecond-level temporal resolution (very fast; actually reflects neuronal activity) · *Disadvantages* o Blind to where the activity is o Reflects sum total of all neuronal activity o Blind to activity that is occurring parallel to the scalp

Distinguish automatic and conscious processing. Understand how conscious processing can become automatic.

Automatic and Conscious Processing Theories • *Automaticity: Occurring without conscious awareness or intention and consuming little if any of the available mental resources* • 3 characteristics (Posner & Snyder): • "occurs without intention, without a conscious decision" (p. 145) • "not open to conscious awareness or introspection" (p. 145) • Can't think about the fact that you are performing this task (?) • "consumes few if any conscious resources" (p.145) Posner and Snyder's characteristics of an automatic process • E.g., semantic priming: automatic process • Semantically related means similar in meaning • Experiment- categorize based on meaning • Showing a semantically similar word directly before causes the participant to recognize the next word faster • Even if they aren't aware of what they saw • Aka: if they saw "pear" they could categorize "apple" faster than if they only saw "apple" *Conscious Processing* • *Intentional process that is subject to awareness and uses attentional capacity* • *Consciousness is a type of controlled attention* •* Internally directing your focus to voluntarily choose what to process* (?) Attention and Automaticity • Attention = conscious mental resources • More demands on controlled attention take up more resources • *Automaticity is achieved through practice and memory * • *More automatic processes take up fewer resources* • *Once a process becomes more automatic, it opens up resources to do other things* Disadvantages of Automaticity • *Hard to overcome an automatic response* • Reversing automatic processes requires controlled processing and can cause errors • Ex: airline pilots do the same check every time, they might start to automatically check stuff off on the checklist because it's usually is checked off

what is behaviorism? what insights and developments did cognitive psychology receive from behaviorism? what were the limitations of behaviorism?

Behaviorism - *Focused on observable reactions to stimuli* - Not focused on what happens in between or why (just look at the reaction) - Ex: little albert; conditioned to be afraid of the white rat ○ Stimulus: loud noise, rat ○ Response: fear - Learning: rat in maze with reward at end, measure time it takes, ...?? ○ When we have abstract variables like learning that we have to measure, we need to put it into concrete terms that we can measure ?; aka need operational definition - *Limited: failed to account for info being stored in mind* -Led to cognitive revolutions; attempt to explain underlying cog processes that led to these responses -*Operational definition*: specifies how an abstract concept is measured or quantified -Also *doesn't account for individual differences*- people can react differently to the same stimulus (doesn't consider different experiences that people have)

be able to identify cognitive processes involved in basic behaviors. this includes providing examples

Cognitive processes involved in basic behaviors - Be able to provide examples - Ex: making a phone call, can be broken down into lots of distinct cognitive processes; think of who to call, decide to make call, follow motor program to make call, listen to speaker, listen -ex: making lunch; driving car

understand early experiences that uncovered properties of memory including the spacing effect, forgetting curve, recency effect, and tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon

Early experiments of ... *Ebbinghaus* · Systematic investigations of human memory · Collected many observations under different conditions · Tested his own memory! o Downside to his research: his only subject was himself *Spacing effect: people are better at remembering items when they are learned at spaced intervals instead of at mass* - Ebbinghaus' study, Greene's study - Intentional study, increased frequency of presentation, & better spacing increases recall *Forgetting curve: logarithmic equation shows how quickly human memory decays over time* - Exact shape of curve depends on how strong the initial memory was - At first it decays rapidly, then levels off over time *Calkins*- emphasized cognition in the real world *Recency effect: people remember items that are presented more recently in a list than other items* *William james* *Tip-of-the-tongue effect: feeling of knowing a word but can't access/retrieve it* - Important in cognitive aging research (older adults experience this more frequently)

what is gestalt psychology? how do gestalt principles affect perception?

Gestalt psychology - *The whole is greater than the sum of its parts* -Tend to *interpret it as a whole rather than individual components* - Humans tend to organize what we see base on a set of organizational principles main principles: -*proximity*: group items that are close together -*similarity*: group items that are alike -*meaningfulness*: group items that form something familiar -*law of simplicity*: perceive most basic form(s) Example: pawprint, instead of dots ○ Proximity- group objects that are close together in space ○ Similarity- groups objects that are alike ○ Meaningfulness- group items that form something familiar Example: house Meaningfulness + simplicity: perceive them in their most basic forms

what are phonemes and how are they perceived? describe and understand experiments that demonstrated categorical perception

Speech Perception • Must separate relevant signal from acoustic input • *Convert signal into speech sounds* • *Match speech sounds against lexicon - mental representations of words* Speech Perception • *Phonemes are the basic unit of speech* • 40-45 phonemes in English • *Each phoneme is the result of a combination of articulation and voicing* • P vs B: same articulation, different voicing • *Voice-onset time: length of time from speech burst onset to voice onset* Speech Perception • Innate or learned? • Kuhl and Miller tested it in chinchillas • Trained them to identify tokens of d and t • Then tested on new tokens, with new speakers, and new boundaries • Varied voice onset times • Phonetic boundaries in chinchillas ... innate categorical perception • The chinchillas demonstrated the same phonetic boundary that humans do • *Shows that it is innate*

Understand how we resolve conflicts. Describe classic experimental paradigms that measure inhibition.

Supervisory Attentional System • Habitual tasks performed by activating a well-learned program or schema • *Active schemas may compete with each other* • *So, the person has to decide which schema to implement* • *SAS controls the activation of each schema to select the appropriate action* Inhibition • Decrease in activation of a representation or response • *Used when confronted with information-conflict during processing* Inhibitory Control: So what? • We encounter conflict in daily life: • We encounter these kinds of conflicts all the time • *IC abilities in young children predict income and criminal convictions later in life* Inhibitory Control: Stroop • Why did the 2nd form take longer? *Inhibition* •* Stroop can measure attentional bias* • *Emotional Stroop* • Color naming is slower on phobia-related words

define attention. understand basic ideas about how attention is limited. be able to give real-world examples

The meaning of attention • "Everyone knows what attention is. It is the taking possession by the mind, in clear and vivid form, of one out of what seem several possible objects or trains of thought." (James, The Principles of Psychology, Vol. 1, p. 403) • Ranges from basic arousal and alertness up to consciousness and awareness •*Attention: focusing mental effort on specific information in environment or mind* • Can be *directed externally (to our environment) or internally (our thoughts, ect)* Basic Ideas about Attention: • *Environment and attention*: Attention is *limited in space* • *Temporal attention*: Attention is *limited in time*; Limited in how quickly we can process information • *Attention resources*: attention demands vary by task, practice reduces attention demands

explained specialized versus general mechanism theories of speech perception. be able to cite evidence that supports each theory.

Theories of Speech Perception • *Special Mechanism: innate process developed specifically for speech processing* • Special phonemic module processes speech sounds and ONLY speech sounds • Categorical perception • *General Mechanism: speech sounds processed in same way as other sounds* • *Speech processing influenced by visual cues* • McGurk • *Same neural resources devoted to speech, other sounds, and non-auditory tasks* • They are activated during other tasks, meaning they aren't just used for speech

What is thought suppression? Be able to provide experimental evidence showing the effectiveness (or ineffectiveness) of thought suppression at controlling consciousness.

Thought Suppression • When is unawareness good? • Trauma, anxiety, depression, chronic pain • Ex: people with PTSD are unable to suppress thought of trauma which interferes with their life; unawareness would be a good thing in this case • *Thought suppression: process of pushing down unwanted concepts, feelings, or images* • Although you can never completely get rid of it.. ???? • *Thought suppression can have opposite effect (ironic effects of mental control)* ... • *If you tell yourself to suppress it, it could have the opposite effect and you will think about that thing more* Thought Suppression • *Cognitive reappraisal to counter negative effects of thought/feeling* • Try to *imagine a positive outcome stemming from this event* • Doesn't keep you from thinking about the unwanted thought, but *associates it with a positive feeling so it no longer interferes with your life* • Experiment: cognitive reappraisal reduces feelings of sadness compared to those that don't reappraise after sad film

explain the role of top-down processes during reading & recognizing ambiguous objects in general. understand how top-down processes can lead to errors. identify and describe experiments that demonstrated top-down effects on perception as well as top-down errors

Top-down errors · *Inattentional blindness: not detecting the appearance of something new (due to intense focus on something else)* o About 46% of people don't notice the gorilla o Focusing on the basketball, and miss the gorilla o Also due to limits in attentional capacity; can't focus on everything *Change blindness: not noticing changes in an object or scene * o Violates our schema of a stable world; expect it to be the same; don't expect things to change unpredictably o If we assume certain things are stable, we can use our attentional resources for something else o Especially if you consider that object that changes irrelevant § For example, the man was focused on the task on reading the map, not the person o Example video: bystander changes when asking for directions; about 50% of people didn't notice that the bystander changed o Example: change in scene; marginal vs central interest § Change in marginal interest: 16 alternations Change blindness (not true blindness; just takes them longer to recognize) § Change in central interest: 4 alterations · Change awareness How can cognitive processes be both efficient and accurate, but we also make top-down errors? · *Experiments showing top-down errors don't always have ecological validity* o Don't hold true in the real world o Researchers manipulate this event to create something that won't actually occur in the real world o Top-down processing helps us make sense of the world quickly § *Results in errors when top-down knowledge is wrong, or expectations are violated * § We use our experience to guide our decisions

identify and define different types of attention. be able to give examples when each type is used.

Types of attention • Input Attention • Alertness or arousal • Orienting reflex or response • Spotlight attention • Controlled Attention • Selective attention • Mental resources and conscious processing • Supervisory attentional system • Listen to recording!!!! examples!

understand processes involved in interpreting events. explain why people experience the same event in different ways

Understand processes involved in interpreting events - Explain why people experience same event in different ways - Video exercise example; *process auditory info/interpret lyrics/process visual info/segment info/access internal representations and knowledge about the world* ○ NYC ○ Horse ○ Make vs female - We all noticed different things when watching the same video - Receiving sensory info, ......, *using internal representations to guide interest to relevant info, we all identify a different sub-set of what we saw; we focused on different things* *Limited by attention, processing speed, how much is happening at once, encoding of info (learning/storage), retrieval of info*

explain why visual perception is not as easy as it seems. be able to provide examples

perception · perception is efficient and accurate o recognize complex visual scenes in <100 ms · our visual perception is better than computers! o objects are variable · perception: "uses previous knowledge to gather and interpret the stimuli registered by the senses" (pg 41) · visual perception o information received by eyes o previous knowledge about form of stimuli previous expectations about stimuli ???

understand how bottom-up and top-down processes interact during visual perception. what constitutes bottom-up processing? what constitutes top-down processing?

perception combines bottom-up and top-down processing -*bottom-up processing: early analysis of properties of information collected by the senses* ...-register object with sensory preceptors, break down object into sensory components -*top-down processing: internal representations that affect our interpretation of input* match the visual components against our stored representations of object

identify elements of the visual system from the eye to the cortex. know how they connect and what each element does for visual processing

visual system: neural organization · *retina: layer of tissue at back of eye containing photoreceptors and neurons * o in the visual system, *information enters through the retina* · *fovea: area of retina where cones are densest* o where our daytime vision will be the sharpest · *light hits rods and cones (photoreceptors) within the retina* · *rods: most sensitive to low light* (e.g. night) o clustered more towards the periphery of the eye · *cones: most sensitive to bright light* (e.g. day, color vision) o clustered more closely to fovea · neurons from middle layer synapse onto ganglion cells · ganglion cells send axons through optic nerves o to send visual information to the brain · ganglion cells are more efficient processors (?) visual system · visual field processed by opposite hemisphere o cross at the optic chiasm o crosses into the other hemisphere · information sent through midbrain to primary visual cortex (V1) · this process takes about 50 to 80 ms · V1 is in the occipital lobe · V1 processes low-level features o Edge tuning o Vertical edge vs 20 degree edge o Experiment- the light must be in the correct orientation (neuron responded to diagonal orientation); had to be in the correct visual field for the neuron to respond to · Where pathway: processes motion, location in space o Travels superiorly in parietal cortex (?) o Face & object recognition · What pathway: identification of objects o Travels anteriorly into the anterior temporal lobe Visual system · Retina --> primary visual cortex (V1) · Visual field processed by opposite hemisphere · Neurons in V1 "tuned" to edges in receptive field o Respond to edges in their receptive field o Hubel and Wiesel experiment · Distal stimulus: actual item in the physical world · Proximal stimulus: information received by your sensory receptors o The image is flipped as it travels through lens

define cognition

· *Mental processes* · *Perception and interpretation* · *Thought* · *Representations of knowledge* · "acquisitions, storage, transformation, and use of knowledge"

explain the role of top-down processes during reading & recognizing ambiguous objects in general

· *Stimulus characteristics must interface with knowledge memory ... top down processing* Top down: reading · *Top down knowledge critical for reading* · *Too many features to analyze when reading* · Rayner (2006) o "the boy cuold not solve the problem" ... still readable o *Sentence context effect:* § I like my coffee with milk and sugar .... faster recognition § I like my coffee with milk and socks .... slower recognition · *Word superiority effect:* o Recognition of "p" in plan- faster recognition o Recognition of "p" in pnla- slower recognition · % responding "bear" o % "bear" responses increased as letter became more "r" like o % "bear" responses increased when context supported "bear" · *People use the meaning of the sentence (context) to guide their meaning when reading* Ambiguity · *Top-down knowledge disambiguates the knowledge* *Need context* and top-down knowledge to disambiguate letters/objects/etc