Cognitive Psychology Exam 1
how many lobes are there in the brain
4 lobes
According to the perception/action approach, explain how the perception of the gap in my backyard fence would differ between the rabbit in my backyard and me.
According to this approach, the rabbit would see the gap as one it could likely pass through, whereas I would see it as something I could not pass through.
How do brain recording techniques allow for experiments that cannot be done with clinical case study patients?
Can record from specific areas of the brain to see activity under controlled conditions.
What are two "metaphors of the mind" that have influenced the development of theories of cognition?
Computers and wax tablets.
What are two developments that led to a rapid expansion of the field of cognitive psychology after the mid-twentieth century?
Computers, Chomsky's arguments against Skinner's description of language development, and Neisser's text.
feature analysis theory e.g.
E F not B P
In what ways is the single-cell recording technique different from other brain recording techniques?
Exact location can be determined, but it is invasive in that a needle is inserted into the subject's brain.
Which of the three approaches to perception would describe perception of a tree as more than the addition of its branches, leaves, roots, flowers, etc.?
Gestalt
Describe some disadvantages of using clinical case studies to connect brain function and cognition.
Lack of control over the damage, meaning damage could be widespread and in areas the researcher is not intending to study; results may not generalize to large groups.
5. Explain how you know which research design is being used.
Looking for the relationship between two measured variables.
Which brain recording technique(s) measure(s) a change in blood flow to different areas of the brain?
PET scan
optic flow
The information in the environment about movement where farther objects appear to be passing by more slowly than closer objects
In what way does the discovery of mirror neurons support the connection between perception and action?
The presence of mirror neurons in our brain shows that we are processing the actions of objects in our environment
Two objects appear in a scene: an elephant and a mouse. The mouse is much closer than the elephant. Explain how you might know that the mouse is closer from cues in the scene.
The retinal image of the mouse might be larger or of the same size as the elephant; there may be linear perspective cues to indicate distance.
8. In what way does an experiment differ from other research designs?
The use of an independent variable allows for a better test of causal relationships.
Explain the difference in processing of visual stimuli that occurs in the ventral and dorsal brain pathways.
The ventral pathway helps identify what an object is and the dorsal pathway helps identify where an object is.
Describe Donders's experiments and explain how they propose to measure cognitive processes.
These experiments measured the time to make a simple key press, and the time to make a cognitive decision and to make a simple key press. By subtracting out the time to make the key press from the time to make the decision and the key press, Donders proposed that the time difference is the time it took to make the cognitive decision.
How might mirror neurons be useful in social perception?
They can help us understand the emotions and motives of another person.
The results indicated a positive relationship between the variables that were measured. Explain what this means.
This means that people with a higher estimation of their memory abilities showed higher memory performance in the test.
What is meant by localization and lateralization of brain function?
This means that specific areas of the brain (location or hemisphere) are primarily responsible for specific functions.
Explain how tasks that initially require controlled attention can become automatic.
With a lot of practice, a task can be become automatic as we need less conscious attention to complete it.
first step in perception is
a separate process called sensation
cognition
acquisition, storage, transformation, use of knowledge
mcclelland rumelhart model
aka parallel distributed process (pdp) model
perception
all that we have talked about takes less than a second
info sent to v1 first then sent forward for more processing
along the ventral and dorsal pathways
recognition by components model (structural theory) beiderman
analyze and compare to combinations of geons in memory
hearing =
auditory cortex in the temporal lobe
research methods cog. neuroscience
autopsy, brain surgery, brain injury, neuroimaging
gestalt principles of perceptual organization
basic tendencies to try to make sense of things
cones
bright light, pick up detail
visual system
can recognize object even when unclear within about 1/10 of a second
motion agnosia
can't recognize movement by vision
prosopagnosia
can't recognize ppl by fave everyone looks the same
research methods cog. psyc
case studies, correlational studies, experimental studies,
divided attention e.g.
cell phones and accidents parents leaving children in cars
embodied cognition approach
cognitive processes are a means to interact with the world
feature analysis theory
compare feutres to memory
prototype theory
compare stimulus to idealize pattern in memory
template matching theory
compare stimulus to template in memory
Which of the three approaches to perception would describe perception of an object in terms of the geons that make up the object?
computational
top down
concept driven ( fill in the blank)
bottom up
data driven
Which core principle of the scientific method involves the identification of the underlying causes of behavior?
determinism
rods
dim light
cognition is everything we
do feel and understand
divided attention
driving while talking to a friend
Subjects are asked to perform an arithmetic task while also attempting to remember lists of words for later recall. The researchers in this study compared the performance on the memory task with and without the accompanying arithmetic task to determine if the arithmetic task interferes with one's performance on the memory task. This study used the ____________ methodology to study attention abilities.
dual-task
biological perspective
due to networks of concepts in neuronal connections
When EEG recordings are connected to the timing of the presentation of a stimulus, it is called
event-related potential or ERP.
fusiform face are
face recognition
problems feature analysis
facial expressions, changing features
selective attention
focus on some things while ignoring other things
From Phineas Gage, researchers learned that the _____________ lobe of the brain is important for reasoning abilities and control of emotion.
frontal
prototype theory problems
how are prototypes formed
gestalt psychology e.g.
illusory contours, figure-ground
Not noticing a change in the environment from moment to moment is called
inattentional blindness
mcclelland helps to deal with
into that might be unclear & relates to the way the brain works
representationalist approach
knowledge is held in a memory as representations that we can operate on
selective attention e,g,
lectures
template matching theory problem
life is variable we would need millions of templates to process everything
The MEG technique provides better
location accuracy than EEG.
top-down e.g.
memory, senses (perceptions)
Schneider and Shiffrin's (1977) experiments showed that when the targets and distractors were ___________, the task became automatic for the subjects.
of the same types
embodied cognition provides
or affords us information so that we can do things in the world
perception
other parts of the cortex aid in perception making what our eyes have picked up meaningful
Which core principle of the scientific method involves the assumption that simpler explanations of behavior are preferred?
parsimony
association areas =
parts of the brain that put sensory input together into a cohesive whole or put sensations together to make more complex perceptions
Which of the three approaches to perception would describe perception of a doorway in terms of whether it can be walked through?
perception/action
selective attention helps us avoid
perceptual chaos
motion agnosia e.g.
pouring coffee all the way
feature analysis theory distinctive features
pressent in one patter nut not another
v1
primary visual cortex
visual agnosia
problems recognizing something visual
LGN
provides correlations between spatial and temporal information from eyes and ears
The measure used by researchers that indicates the speed with which someone completes a task is known as
reaction time
Which of the following parts of a sensory system is responsible for transforming stimulus energy into neural signals?
receptor cells
experimental studies
response time and accuracy of responses
ventral pathways
sideways/what
Which brain recording technique(s) is (are) often limited to laboratory animals because it requires insertion of a recording needle into the brain?
single cell recording
In Treisman and Gelade's (1980) experiments on visual search for a target, the targets in the _____________ condition seemed to pop out of the displays.
single feature
object recognition
stimulus identified
bottom up e.g.
stimulus, senses (perceptions), stimulus
dorsal pathways
top/where spacial
representationalist approach metaphor
uses a computer metaphor as its basis
sensation includes
vision hearing touch smell taste and kinesthetic senses
vision =
visual cortex in the occipital lobe
gestalt psychology
we see many patterns in wholes rather than parts
The dorsal visual pathway extends into the motor cortex,
whereas the ventral visual pathway extends into the temporal lobe where language is processed.
representationalist works well
with research on neuroscience