Cognition

Principle of good continuation

Things that form continuous lines are grouped together

Ecological approach

A form of psychological inquiry that reflects conditions in the real world

Parallelism

"Mind" and brain are two aspects of the same reality and flow in parallel; linked w/ Fechner (point-to-point correspondence)

Epiphenomenalism

"Mind" is a superfluous by-product of bodily function; linked w/ Huxley and Skinner

Apperceptive agnosia

A form of visual agnosia marked by a difficulty matching or categorising objects; patients can't properly copy drawings of objects (unlike associative agnosia); can still manipulate objects fine

Chomsky, Lashley

2 early cognitive psychologists

Associative agnosia

A form of visual agnosia marked by a difficulty naming objects

Feature

A component or characteristic of a stimulus

Capgras syndrome

A condition marked by the belief that significant others have been replaced by imposters/doubles/aliens/robots; they don't show the skin conductance response

Visual agnosia

A deficiency in the ability to recognize visual information despite being able to see

Cognitive demon

A feature detector in the pandemonium model that decides whether the stimulus matches its pattern

Decision demon

A feature detector in the pandemonium model that determines which pattern is being recognized

Pop-out

A feature that pops out of a display; it is a good candidate for being a basic property out of which we construct perceived objects

Pandemonium

A model of pattern recognition consisting of data, cognitive demons, and decision demons (or, image demons, feature demons, cognitive demons, decision demons)

Recognition by components

A model of perception based on subdividing objects into geons

Parallel distributed processing

A model of perception that proposes that different features are processed at the same time by different units connected together in a network; interested in working out detailed models on a highly specific level of the way in which processes like pattern recognition work

Optic ataxia

A neural deficit in which the patient can identify objects but is unable to accurately interact with them manually - difficulty controlling voluntary motor movements

Cognitive ethology

A new research approach that links real-world observations w/ lab-based investigations

Folk psychology

A set of assumptions and theories based on everyday behaviours of ourselves and others

Skin conductance response

A small increase in the conductivity of the surface of the skin when an individual is aroused by seeing a familiar object or person

Neural networks

A system of connections between elements that models connections between neurons in the nervous system

Ambient optical array

All of the visual information that is present at a particular point of view

Functionalism

According to this, psychology should focus on processes and relationships; methodological approach - used whatever was most useful

Structuralism

According to this, we can understand the configuration of the elements of the mind by studying the components of percepts; primarily used introspection

Brown-Peterson task

An experimental paradigm where subjects are given a set of items then a number; subjects immediately begin counting backward by 3's from the number; after a specific interval they are asked to recall the original items

Apparent-distance theory

An explanation for the moon illusion; posits that the moon on the horizon appears larger b/c distance cues lead the observer to perceive it as being nearer than the zenith moon (probably correct)

Angle-of-regard theory

An explanation for the moon illusion; posits that the zenith moon appears smaller than the horizon moon b/c a person has to raise his or her eyes or head to view it (probably not correct)

Feature detection theory

Another approach to pattern recognition based on detecting patterns on the basis of their individual features

Parallel distributed processing models

Another name for connectionist models

Preattentive processing

Automatic extraction of features before an object can be perceived

Filter model

Based on the idea that information-processing is restricted by channel capacity

Feature integration theory

Before we can attend to objects in the world we must extract the features that make up these objects through preattentive processing; assumes that there has to be feature binding at a specific location

Magnetoencephalography

Brain's electrical fields are measured by a magnetic field; good temporal and spatial resolution but v. expensive

Template-matching theory

Comparing a stimulus with templates; when they match, the stimulus is recognized as belonging to that category

Cognitive psychology

Challenge/reaction to behaviourism; i.e. vicarious learning, Gestalt, creativity (like language) are all rebuttals to behaviourism; emerged in the late 1960's

Attentive processing

Combining features into a whole object through attention

Interhemispheric transfer

Communication btwn the brain's hemispheres is enabled in large part by the corpus callosum

Principle of experience

Elements are grouped together based on the prior experience and knowledge of the observer; may also be important for figure-ground segmentation

Law of equipotentiality

Even though some areas of the cortex may become specialised for certain tasks, within limits any part of an area can do the job of any other part of that area

Texture gradients

Gradual changes in the pattern of a surface that is normally assumed to be uniform; provides info about surface characteristics such as whether it is receding, curved, etc

Transformation

In Gibson's theory, the change of optical information hitting the eye when the observer moves through the environment

Word superiority effect

It is easier to identify a letter if it appears in a word than if it appears alone

Law of mass action

Learning and memory depend on the total mass of brain tissue remaining rather than the properties of individual cells

Isomorphism

Mental events and neural events share the same structure/pattern; linked w/ Kohler (Gestalt) - argued that consciousness doesn't consist simply of one event after another but tends to be organised into a coherent whole

Superservient

Mental states may influence neuronal events while being influenced by them

Principle of proximity

Things that are near to one another are grouped together

Histology

Microscopic analysis of tissue structure

Interactionism

Mind and brain are separate substances that interact w/ and influence each other - linked w/ Descartes

Emergent causation

Once the mind emerges from the brain, it then has the power to influence lower-level processes

Hebb rule

One assumption of connectionism: a connection between two neurons takes place only if both neurons are firing at approximately the same time ("fire together, wire together")

Parallel processing

One assumption of connectionism: states that many neural connections can be active at the same time

Serial processing

One assumption of connectionism: states that only one neural activity can take place at any one time

Emergence

Perceptions arise as a whole

Recognition by views

Pattern/template matching - we recognize objects by most dominant view, and the templates contain most usual view (i.e. rightside up)

Theory of ecological optics

Proposed by Gibson; perception involves directly absorbing the visual info present in the environment - perception is accomplished mostly by the sensory organs themselves and the brain doesn't create complex internal representations of objects

Principle of similarity

Things that are similar are grouped together

Plato

Represents the philosophical root of cognitive psychology - involves introspection and rationalism

Aristotle

Represents the physiological root of cognitive psychology - involves experimentation and empiricism

Kant

Represents the synthesis of physiology and philosophy

Probe

Secondary memory can be activated by a _______ from primary memory

Modules

Sections of the brain responsible for particular cognitive functions

Cognitive neuroscience

Seeks to uncover links btwn cognition and the brain; fueled by the rise of neuroimaging techniques

Principle of closure

Things that form closed shapes are grouped together

Jumbled word effect

The ability to read words in sentences despite having mixed-up letters in the middle of some of the words

Pattern recognition

The ability to recognize an event as an instance of a particular category of an event

Gestaltist's error

The assumption that whole objects should always dominate over the elements of an image

Localisation of function

The attempt to discover correspondences btwn specific cognitive functions and specific parts of the brain, based on the assumption that there is a strict one-to-one correspondence between specific functions and specific parts of the brain

McGurk effect

The auditory experience of the syllable "da" when seeing a mouth silently saying "ga" while at the same time hearing a voice say "ba" (cross-modal context)

Prototype

The average representation of an object in memory

Feature binding

The combining of visual features by attention to form whole objects

Contrast energy

The degree of contrast between letters in a word and the background they appear on, leading to the relative ease with which a stimulus can be discriminated from the background against which it is displayed

Denotivity

The degree to which an object is meaningful and familiar to an individual

Recoverability

The degree to which geons can be made out in a degraded image of an object

Scatter reflection

The degree to which light scatters when reflected from a surface

Topological breakage

The discontinuity created by the intersection of two texture gradients

Grand illusion of perception

The experience of a clear and detailed picture of the world in one's visual field - in fact we likely process one or two objects in detail at any given moment; it seems to be the result of a considerable amount of top-down interpretation of v. fragmentary visual info

Perceptual completion

The experience that something is present in part of our visual scene when it is actually absent from that spot but present in the surrounding region

Context effects

The influence that the situation plays on the perception of a stimulus

Information theory

The information provided by a particular event is inversely related to its probability of occurence

Metacognition

The knowledge people have about the way certain cognitive processes work; how accurately you can assess your own cognitive processes

Channel capacity

The maximum amount of information that can be transmitted by an information processing device

Emergent property

The mind is not reducible to or predictable from other features of the brain

Template

The model against which a stimulus is compared to determine whether it belongs to a particular category

Optic flow field

The movement of objects or of the observer through the environment produces changes in what is seen

Affordances

The potential functions or uses of stimuli in the real world

Information pickup

The process by which we perceive information directly

Perceptual cycle

The process whereby our schema not only guides exploration of the world but also is shaped by what it finds there

Empirical theory of colour vision

The proposal that colour perception involves not only the processing of wavelengths of light but also the influence of prior experiences about how different lightng conditions affect the appeareance of the colours of objects

Organisational principles

The rules that explain the ways in which people are able to perceive whole objects or events from individual parts

Associationism

The synthesis of functionalism and structuralism; argues we should study how events become associated w/ one another to result in learning

Squelching

The tendency of the nervous system to inhibit the processing of unclear features

Connectionism

The theory that cognitive processes are regulated by complex systems consisting of a large number of interconnected elements; an alternative to the more traditional information-processing approaches we have considered thus far; intends to capture fundamental cognitive processes as they might be instantiated in the brain

Principle of common fate

Things that are moving in the same direction are grouped together

Physiology

This root of cognitive psychology influenced development of the scientific method

Philosophy

This root of cognitive psychology influenced theory development

Multiple-trace memory model

Traces of each individual experience are recorded in memory; no matter how often a particular kind of event is experienced, a memory trace of the event is recorded each time - probes are sent out

Echo

When a probe goes from primary to secondary memory, memory traces are activated to the extent that they are similar to the probe

Hoffding function

When an experience makes contact with a memory trace, resulting in recognition

Top-down processing

When perception (or other cognitive processes) is driven by expectations and prior knowledge; also implies that the context in which the objects appear is important

Bottom-up processing

When perception (or other cognitive processes) results from the combination of individual pieces of sensory information