PSYCH C120
Pure Alexia
"Word blindness" -‐‐-‐‐ Difficulty recognizing written sequences of letters, in the absence of other language-related impairments -> Letter-by-letter reading -Lesions in the visual word form area in leo occipito-temporal cortex ("what" pathway) - Dedicated to representation and retrieval of information about the form and structure of words -> pre-semantic
What is meant by George Miller's "magical number seven, plus or minus two," and why was it a challenge to behaviorism?
- Capacity limit in short-‐‐term memory - Chunking - bringing the mathematical theory of information and communication into psychology; capacity limitations in cognitive processing; chunking; Another influential psychologist was George Miller, also 1956 -- "The Magical Number 7, Plus or Minus 2: Some Limits on our Capacity for Processing Information."It wasn't an empirical paper; it was a synthesis of existing research all pointing to a similar conclusion. Namely, that short-term memory capacity seemed to be limited to 7 +/- CHUNKS of information. What we now call working memory.So, people can remember a series of 7 words just as well as they can remember a series of 7 letters.
• What is visual object agnosia? Which visual pathway is compromised?
- Inability to recognize familiar objects, even though there is no sensory deficit -Spared ability to recognize visual orientation, or reach for an object
Legacy of Behaviorism
- Promoted psychology as a science - Psychological constructs should have operational definitions in terms of observable behavior. -Classical (Pavlovian) Conditioning (Ivan Pavlov (1849-‐‐1936)) (pair ucs with cs to form an ucr) -Operant Conditioning - stimulus (skinner box, light) response (pecking key) - reinforcement (food)
• What is converging evidence, and why is it important?
- Results from studies using different methodologies pointing to the same conclusion - they provide a strong bases of support
The Cognitive Approach to Cognition
- Structure of Mental Representation - Underlying Mental Processes
Structure of Mental Representation
- The form information is represented in ...in the human mind.Example - Campanile. Image, but also verbal representation - what Campanile means, what it sounds like.Cognitive map of the campus or or Berkeley - a spatial representation.Underlying processes = stages through which information is processed.Example - memory: Studying for exam. How do you ENCODE the information into your memory in a good form so that you ace the exam? How do you then later RETRIEVE that information when you take the exam?
Recognition via Multiple Views
- We have stored in memory a number of different views of each object - Recognition involves matching the current view of an object with one of the views in memory - If doesn't match, rotate the current view to bring it into alignment with one of the views in memory Evidence for Multiple View Theory § Growing body of evidence showing that the speed of recognition is viewpoint-‐‐dependent - Slower from certain viewpoints
What were the primary methods of introspectionism?
- highly trained subjects observed and recorded the content and sequence of their thoughts
Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)
- performed first psych experiment (Leipzig) - seeking to understand conscious experiences and measure it - substructures and subsections
What is Capgras Syndrome, and what can it tell us about the processes involved in face recognition?
-The delusion that significant others have been replaced by impostors, robots or aliens what can it tell us about the processes involved in face recognition? - it tells us that the temporable lobe (amygdala) is the emotional hub , this lesions causes the fibers connecting the amygdala to the FROM BOOK - We learned that the recognition of all stimuli (and not just faces) does involve two separate mechanisms - one that hinges on factual knowledge and one that's more emotional and tied to the warm sense of familiarity.
Who was Donald Broadbent, and how was his work central to the development of cognitive psychology?
A Shifting Zeitgeist, Post WWII - Broadbent's theory - the filter model senses -> short-term store -> filter -> limited capacity channel -> long term memory (back to filter) A Shifting Zeitgeist The decline of behaviorism, then, began around the time of World War II.Several critical developments.First, the British psychologist Donald Broadbent was instrumental in terms of this shifting zeitgeist.Broadbent and other experimental psychologists were called on to improve human skills & performance in complex military tasks such as piloting an airplane. It was clear that the then-dominant stimulus-response theories simply had little to offer in the way of solutions. In his influential book Perception and Communication, published in 1958, Broadbent outlined a filter model of attention. His ideas grew out of information theory, which modeled mathematically communication on physical devices such as radio transmitters or radar screens. And what Broadbent drew on was the idea that information is sent over potentially noisy channels. And then applied to humans. Filter Model This model was one of the first so-called "information processing" models, or "boxes and arrows" models. Very influential.Bottleneck theory of attention.This depicts information flowing through various mental structures.There's a filter that shields you from potential distractors Example - conversation at party with friend Short-term store = Sensory Register, registers the acoustic properties of what your friend is saying.
Controlled Laboratory Experiment
A procedure where a researcher systematically manipulates and observes elements of a situation in order to answer a specific question.
Who was H.M., and what does his case tell us about normal memory?
Anterograde amnesia - inability to remember events since the onset of injury Temporally-‐‐graded retrograde amnesia -‐‐-‐‐ inability to remember events prior to injury, with events closest to injury more affected than remote events Why was his case important in terms of its implications for cognitive psychology? -Established the role of the hippocampus and other structures in the medial-temporal lobe in long-term memory
What is behaviorism, and who were key behaviorists?
Behaviorist Agenda - Psychology should formulate laws about relationship between environment (stimulus) and behavior (response) -Examined how behavior changes in response to environmental stimuli - reward or punishment. Key behaviorists- John B. Watson (1878-‐‐1958 - only behavior is objective to observable B.F. Skinner (1904-‐‐1990) (positive reinforcement)
What is the difference between how behaviorists and cognitivists such as Noam Chomsky view language?
Behaviorists (Skinner) see language learning as positive reinforcement "I wanna cookie!" - reinforcement = getting cookie. Chomsky: "Language is a process of free creation; its laws and principles are fixed, but the manner in which the principles of generation are used is free and infinitely varied. Even the interpretation and use of words involves a process of free creation." Cognitivists - child knew -ed before learning it in school and then suddenly starts using it incorrectly once introduced. - more than a stimulus followed by a response "Father of modern linguistics"Radically changed conceptions of the nature of human language.Language is generative or creative.Not just, as the Behaviorists would say, passive repetition based on reinforcement. Demonstrated that language could not be learned or understood by merely associating adjacent words - as Behaviorists argued. Rather, requires computations on abstract structures that exist in the minds of the speaker and listener. Innate & universal.
What are bigram detectors, and how can including a layer of bigram detectors account for degrees of well-formedness? How does the network recover from confusion to avoid errors? How are ambiguous inputs resolved? How can recognition errors be explained? What is the tradeoff between efficiency and accuracy?
Bigram Detectors: A pair of letters. - recovering from errors - network of these detectors can accomplish a great deal; for example, it can interpret ambiguous inputs, recover from its own errors, and make inferences about barely viewed stimuli. - The feature net seems to "know" the rules of spelling and "expects" the input to conform to these rules. However, this knowledge is distributed across the entire network and emerges only through the network's parallel processing. This setup leads to enormous efficiency in our commerce with the world because it allows us to recognize patterns and objects with relatively little input and under highly diverse circumstances. But these gains come at the cost of occasional error.
What is Baddeley and Hitch's theory of working memory, and what is evidence in support of it? Is the evidence useful and accurate?
Building on this research, Baddeley and Hitch (1974) developed an alternative model of short-term memory which they called working memory (see fig 1). Working memory is short-term memory. Instead of all information going into one single store, there are different systems for different types of information. Working memory consists of a central executive which controls and coordinates the operation of two subsystems: the phonological loop and the visuo-spatial sketch pad. Central Executive: Drives the whole system (e.g. the boss of working memory) and allocates data to the subsystems (VSS & PL). It also deals with cognitive tasks such as mental arithmetic and problem solving. The phonological loop is the part of working memory that deals with spoken and written material. It can be used to remember a phone number. It consists of two parts o Phonological Store (inner ear) - Linked to speech perception Holds information in speech-based form (i.e. spoken words) for 1-2 seconds. o Articulatory control process (inner voice) - Linked to speech production. Used to rehearse and store verbal information from the phonological store. Strengths - Researchers today generally agree that short-term memory is made up of a number of components or subsystems. The working memory applies to real life tasks: - reading (phonological loop) - problem solving (central executive) - navigation (visual and spatial processing) EVIDENCE FOR IT IS SUPPORTED BY DUAL TASK STUDIES WEAKNESSES- There is little direct evidence for how the central executive works and what it does. The capacity of the central executive has never been measured. - The working memory model does not explain changes in processing ability that occur as the result of practice or time.
What are the central problems with introspectionism as an approach to explaining cognition?
Central Problem - Introspections are subjective - no objective way of understanding different introspections
In what ways is cognitive psychology similar and different to introspectionism and behaviorism?
Cognitive Psychology is similar to introspectionism and behaviorism in that they both use mechanism as a fundamental assumption. Both view human action, mental or otherwise, as determined by physical laws. Cognitivism goes beyond behaviorism in that it extends the mechanical assumptions to the mind, not just behavior. Introspectionism and Behaviorism rely solely on observation
How do cognitive psychologists study the mind? What are two of their chief concerns?
Cognitive psychologists study the mind using the scientific method and the informational theory. WHAT ARE 2 CHIEF CONCERNS
What are the components of a controlled laboratory study on cognition? What are some examples? What kinds of dependent measures do cognitive psychologists use?
Components of a controlled laboratory study on cognition: -Experimental Group - group that receives a particular treatment -Control Group - group that doesn't receive a treatment, or comparison group -Independent Variable - the variable the experimenter manipulates in order to observe a result -Dependent Variable - the behavior that is measured to determine whether the independent variable produces an effect Some examples: Two groups receive a list of words to memorize but the experimental background is distracting music. The experimental group would have distracting music. The control group wouldn't. The independent variable is music. The dependent is the amount of words recognized. Dependent measures - Accuracy -Reaction Time -Errors
Aphasia
Damage near the lateral fissure can result in disruption to language capacities
What factors influence word recognition?
Degrees of well formedness (how wordlike a letter string is), word frequency (high/low), and pattern of errors- comform to spelling hours
What are early- and late-selection theories of attention? What is the attenuator theory? What is the evidence for and against each?
Different theories about when that selection occurs are referred to as early selection or late selection theories depending on how early or late they think the bottleneck is.! -----Early Selection -The bottleneck is before we perceive the stimulus ! Certain input is selected and privileged from the start! And the rest receives little analysis, so is never even perceived ---- Late Selection -The bottleneck is after we perceive the stimulus but before we make a response ! All inputs receive relatively complete analysis -And the selection is done after the analysis is complete
What are the distal stimulus, proximal stimulus, and transduction? How does this relate to the task of perception?
Distal Stimulus - Object or event that is in the environment Proximal Stimulus - Pattern of energy produced by the distal stimulus that falls on our sensory receptors Transduction - Conversion of the proximal stimulus into a neural impulse The Task of Perception Proximal Stimulus -> Distal Stimulus
What is divided attention, and what are some examples?
Divided Attention & Different Tasks This shows the results of a dichotic listening study where subjects heard a list of words in one ear and shadowed them.In one condition, subjects heard another word list in the other ear, and were supposed to memorize the words.In a 2nd condition, the word list was presented visually instead.In a 3rd condition, pictures. This figure shows the percentage of errors in recognition. Why is performing concurrent tasks sometimes easy and sometimes hard? Performing concurrent tasks are difficult when they take up the same resouces What are capacity theories of attention? ! We have a certain amount of cognitive capacity or resources! Attention is the process of allocating the resources to to various inputsSo whether you can perform 2 tasks at once depends on whether you have enough resources to perform both. What are specific and general resources, and what role do they play in performing concurrent tasks? What are the implications of this evidence for the role of specific vs. general resources in performing concurrent tasks? - Is surfing the net while listening to a lecture harder than knitting and listening to a lecture? Language involved in both " interference in ability to process what's in lecture.Easier if different " different tasks have distinct resource requirements What evidence is there that cell phone use impairs driving performance? Cell phone Use & Driving Many studies show that driving is impaired when we're using our cell phone. More likely to be involved in accidents, overlook traffic signals, and slower to hit the brake.A -- Fraction of Red Lights MissedB - Slower RT to a red lightC - Success in simple highway navigation. Talking - both the driver & passenger will adjust conversation to accommodate changes on the road.
Who were the Gestalt psychologists and what did they argue about perception?
Early in the 20th century a group called called the "Gestalt Psychologists" noted that our perception of the visual world is organized in ways that the stimulus input is not. They argued that the organization of stimulus must be contributed by the perceiver. This is why they claimed that the perceptual whole is often different from the some of its parts.
What are electrophysiological approaches to studying cognition, and what is a key advantage they have over fMRI and PET? What is a key advantage fMRI and PET have over EEG and ERPs?
Electrophysiological approaches to studying cognition include electroencephalograph and event related potentials. ANDMEG - a recording of voltage changes occuring at the scalp that reflect activity in the brain underneath. The key advantage over fMRI and PET is it abilitity to track changes in brain activity before, during, and after an event. A key advantage that fMRI and PET have over EEG and ERPs is that they have higher spatial ability.
What are challenges to word recognition? What is the role of prior knowledge and context in word recognition?
Exemplar Variation - Many different instances of each printed word Spatial Variation - Variation in the location of letters
What is form perception?
Form Perception - the process through which people see the basic shape, size, and position of an object
What is the distinction between software and hardware when it comes to studying cognition? What are problems with just looking at the software? Is the computer a good metaphor for cognition?
Hardware is neural and software is cognitive.
Degrees of Well-‐‐Formedness
How wordlike a letter string is pseudoword - ZORK, MURE illegal nonword - BTCX, HJMR
What is the computer metaphor of cognition?
Human information processing - information storage, manipulation, transformation, retrieval - the hardware matters more - cognitive models neurally inspired The birth of computer science provided further conceptual tools to cognitive psychology, and led to the so-called computer metaphor of human cognition. à Human cognition resembles the information processing of the modern digital computer. In both cases, we can talk about information storage, manipulation and transformation, and retrieval.
Who were central figures early in cognitive psychology's history?
Immanuel Kant (transcendentalism)
What were some of the key influences that led to cognitive psychology's rise?
Immanuel Kant - Transcendentalism (method) - begin with observable facts and then work backward from these observations (what are the underlying causes that led to these effects) - "inference to best explanation" - visible effects rom an invisible cause
Cognitive Neuroscience
Intersection of neuroscience and cognitive psychology 0Guiding idea -‐‐-‐‐ the mind is what the brain does -Understanding what different parts of the brain do, and how they interact
What is introspectionism, and who were key introspectionists? - Psychology emerged as a science
Introspectionism - The process through which you "look within," to observe and record the contents of your own mental life. (pg 10) - Mentalism (consciousness) Key Introspectionists - Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) and his student Edward Bradford Titchener (1867-1927)
How was Allen Newell and Herbert Simon's Logic Theorist central?
Logic Theorist is a computer program written in 1955 and 1956 by Allen Newell, Herbert A. Simon and Cliff Shaw. It was the first program deliberately engineered to mimic the problem solving skills of a human being and is called "the first artificial intelligence program. - It was central as it provided insight into the nature of human problem solving and decision making. -"proof positive that a machine could perform tasks heretofor considered intelligent, creative and uniquely human." September 11, 1956. Symposium on Information Theory at MIT.First AI computer program -- pivotal in terms of the emergence of CognitivePsychology & Cognitve Science. "Thinking machine." Logic Theorist could prove logical theorems in a way that resembled human performance. Newell & Simon were leaders in building close ties between AI and the new cognitive psychology. We will discuss their model the General Problem Solver in Part 5 of the course on Thinking.
Why was psychoanalysis important in terms of the history of cognitive psychology?
Much of human cognition is unconscious - techniques to access material indirectly
What are the central problems with behaviorism as an approach to explaining psychological phenomena?
No room for internal, mental processes and representations.
Do models of object recognition provide a good account of face recognition?
No they do not since they are processed in different areas of the brain
Challenge to Early-Selection Theories
Now a challenge to early-selection theories comes from findings indicating that we can select messages to process on the basis of their semantic content, not just physical characteristics.
What is object recognition? What are the advantages and disadvantages of different models of object recognition?
Object recognition - the steps or processes through which people identify the objects they encounter in the world around them. Challenges to Object recognition 1) Viewpoint Dependence -An object can be viewed from an infinite combination of possible angles and possible distances 2) Exemplar Variation - Many different instances of each object category Advantages of different models of object recognition - Template-Matching ----- § Match the whole image to a stored representation of the whole object - Feature-Matching ----- Alphabet of visual features that compose all objects - Object recogni4on is based on: - Decomposition of a complex stimulus into its component features - Matching the features against features in representations of objects in long-term memory ----Pros) More flexible than template-matching; Use less storage space ----Cons) Spatial relations -Structural Description---- - Features and spatial relationships between them - Recognition-by-Components -Geons - 36 basic shapes make up the world of all objects - e.g., cylinder, cone, wedge - Intermediate level of representation PROS) - Viewpoint Dependent -geons can be identified from virtually any angle of view -Most objects can be recognized from just a few geons Cons) Perceptoon may differ depending on viewpoint
What is the cocktail party phenomenon, and how can it be explained? According to Wood & Cowan, what are the limitations of Moray's (1959) demonstration of the cocktail party effect? How did Wood & Cowan address these limitations, and what were their findings? What are the implications of Wood & Cowan's findings for theories of selective attention?
One of the first demonstrations of this was a study by Moray (1959) on what became known as the cocktail party phenomenon. Subjects shadowed a short prose passage recorded in a male voice in one ear, while ignoring another, similar passage played to the other ear. In the irrelevant, non-shadowed channel, a phrase with the S's name followed by some instructions was inserted - for ex, "John Smith, you may stop now" and "John Smith, change to your other ear"). 4 of the 12 subjects, or 33%, reported hearing their name on both the first and second presentations, when they queried later. Limitations of Moray (1959) ! Both channels were presented in the same male voice" Subjects had to rely on the cue of spatial location, which may not be reliable! May have been acoustical change between prose passage and name! Subjects may not have been adequately practiced " Might have led to distractions from the irrelevant channel! Time between shadowing and retrospective report unclear " Could have detected name, then forgotten! No online measure of shift in attention
A Limitation or Bottleneck
Our information-processing capacity can't make sense of the constant input from many sources all at once. In other words, we have a LIMITATION, or BOTTLENECK, in our ability to deal with multiple inputs.
What is the goal of vision? What are bottom-up and top-down processes, and what role do they play in visual perception? What are challenges to visual perception?
Overarching Goal § To have a sense of the three-dimensional structure of the outside world, so we can navigate through it and interact with it In a Particular Context - What are the individual objects? - Where are they located? -What are they doing? What are bottom-up and top-down processes, and what role do they play in visual perception? -- Bottom-Up --- - Driven by sensory information from the physical world --Top-Down--- -Actively seek and extract sensory information -Driven by our knowledge, beliefs, expectations, and goals They play the role of helping us understand our surroundings Challenges to visual perception -The retinal image is 2D, the environment 3D - Visual input can be variable -e.g., size, orientation -Visual input can be ambiguous - e.g., figure vs. ground
What is a feature net, and what is the Pandemonium model? What are the different layers in the network?
Pandemonium Model - feature detectors - cognitive detectors - decision detectors... Feature net - The initial layer, at the bottom, comprises detectors for features. - Subsequent layers detect more complex patterns like letters, and then words.
What are the components of the visual system? What is parallel processing in vision?
Parallel processing is the ability of the brain to simultaneously process incoming stimuli of differing quality.
What was the cognitive revolution?
People
What are the primary theoretical claims and methods of behaviorism?
Primary Theoretical claims and methods of behaviorism - - promoted psychology as a science - psychological constructs should have been operational definitions in terms of observable behavior
Edward B Titchener
Psychology that studied the structure of the mind - established rigorous procedures for understanding sensations
Explain the early stages of object recognition. What neural and behavioral evidence is there for the detection of visual features? What is the "binding problem"?
Receptor fields that respond to specific orientations. - Form Perception - The process through which we see the basic shape, size, and position of an object Feature detection is a process by which the nervous system sorts or filters complex natural stimuli in order to extract behaviorally relevant cues that have a high probability of being associated with important objects or organisms in their environment, as opposed to irrelevant background or noise. Feature detectors are individual neurons - or groups of neurons - in the brain which code for perceptually significant stimuli. The binding problem refers to how the brain pre- consciously combines visual features, like colour and shape in the example below, to create coherent mental equivalents. It is our ability to selectively focus spatial attention that allows us to bind features together into well-defined mental representations.
What do ambiguous (reversible) figures tell us about the role of the perceiver?
Reversible figure are called that because people routinely perceive it first one way, and then another. Eit
What is selective attention, and what is its purpose? What are some examples of selective attention?
Selecting a limit number of items in the environment for further processing, and ignoring the others So ATTENTION can be seen then as a gatekeeper - we SELECT certain items to receive further processing.For example - At a party, if you're having a conversation with a friend, you'll SELECT your friend's voice, and IGNORE other people's voices and the music.
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
Sigmund Freud - mind is an ice berg - one-seventh of mind above water - unconscious: motives, desires, aggression, sexual desires - indirect techniques (dream - analysis)
What did Jerome Bruner mean by "beyond the information given"?
Similar to Gestalt Psychologists, he said this to describe some of the ways that our perception of a stimulus differs from (and goes beyond) the stimulus itself.
What is the dichotic listening task? What are the attended and unattended channels, and what is shadowing?
So, in the case of the dichotic listening task, then, Broadbent assumed that the messages to both ears were registered but that at some point the subjects selected one ear to listen with. Attended channels - At this point, a person SELECT which message to process -- on the basis of some physical characteristic. The person FILTERS the unattended information out. Speech shadowing is an experimental technique in which subjects repeat speech immediately after hearing it (usually through earphones).
Apraxias
Some lesions in the frontal lobe produce apraxias which are disturbances in the initiation or organization of voluntary action.
Transformational Grammar
Surface Structure - "The jock pursued the sorority girl." - "The sorority girl was pursued by the jock." Deep Structure - The meaning Transformational Rule
• What is TMS, and how is it useful for studying cognition? What key advantage does it have over fMRI and PET?
TMS (transcranial magnetic stimulation)TMS) is a noninvasive method used to stimulate small regions of the brain. During a TMS procedure, a magnetic field generator, or "coil", is placed near the head of the person receiving the treatment. : It is useful for studying cognition as it allows us to find parts of the brain that are useful for certain actions (temporary lesions) The key advantage is that it allows for localization of function and . With PET and fMRI we are only making correlations.
How does McClelland and Rumelhart's (1981) PDP model resemble and differ from Pandemonium and other early feature nets? What are excitatory and inhibitory connections? Why is it important to have inhibitory connections? What is the role of top-down processes in McClelland and Rumelhart's model? Why is it important to allow for top-down input?
The McClelland and Rumelhart model differs from others as it shows back and forth signaling toward and away from the brain.
What is spatial attention? What is the spotlight metaphor? What evidence is there for an attentional spotlight?
The ability to focus on a particular position in space and in turn be prepared for a stimulus. The spotlight metaphor is the idea that directing our visual attention can be compared to a spotlight. Evidence for an attentional spotlight was shown was having participants in a research study focus at a particular position in space. When stimulus occurred outside of that position, their reaction time was a lot slower.
What is a holistic account of face recognition?
The face is viewed as a whole
The First Early-Selection Filter Theory: Broadbent (1958)
The first early-selection theory was Donald Broadbent's Filter Theory, which we talked about back in Lecture 4, when we were discussing the early stages of cognitive psychology. According to this theory, we have a central processing system - or limited capacity channel - that receives inputs from sensory channels and compares them with items stored in long-term memory to determine their meaning. The basic assumption of this model is that sensory information travels through the system until some BOTTLENECK is reached. Sometimes called a bottleneck theory. SHORT-TERM STORE - a SENSORY STORE, a SENSORY REGISTER, which briefly stores a record of information recorded by sensory receptor cells, until other cognitive processes can add meaning to it. At this point, a person SELECT which message to process -- on the basis of some physical characteristic. The person FILTERS the unattended information out. So, in the case of the dichotic listening task, then, Broadbent assumed that the messages to both ears were registered but that at some point the subjects selected one ear to listen with. In the case of a cocktail party, similarly, we select a voice on the basis of physical characteristics, such as pitch. So, importantly, the unattended sensory input is not processed for meaning. Cocktail Party Phenomenon Revisited:Wood & Cowan ! Replicated Moray (1959) with better controls! Words on the irrelevant and to-be-shadowed auditory channels were presented in different voices. Only first names, with no subsequent command ! As an acoustical control, yoked pairs. Each participant received his or her own name at one of two predesignated points within the irrelevant speech passage and received the yoked control participant's name at the other point.! Practice -- each participant shadowed continuously for 4 min before a name occurred in the irrelevant channel, with the second name occurring after 5 min. ! Retrospective reports were obtained 30 s (for 5-min names) or 90 s (for 4-min names) after the name was presented.Finally, to investigate the possibility that participants shifted attention to the irrelevant channel around the time that their name occurred, we recorded participants' responses and examined both errors in shadowing and stimulus-response lags for correct shadowing responses. RESULTS 14.7% of our participants recalled a specific word such as left or praise. Moray none. 38.2% reported a male voice. 34.6% recalled hearing their name.
What is information processing, and why is it important in cognitive psychology?
The information processing approach is based on a number of assumptions, including: Information made available from the environment is processed by a series of processing systems (e.g. attention, perception, short-term memory); These processing systems transform, or alter the information in systematic ways; The aim of research is to specify the processes and structures that underlie cognitive performance; Information processing in humans resembles that in computers. -Human informa:on processing - information storage, manipulation, transformation, retrieval Cognitive psychology sees the individual as a processor of information, in much the same way that a computer takes in information and follows a program to produce an output. Cognitive psychology compares the human mind to a computer, suggesting that we too are information processors and that it is possible and desirable to study the internal mental / mediational processes that lie between the stimuli (in our environment) and the response we make.
McClelland & Rumelhart (1981) Model
The model contains 3 levels: the feature level, the letter level L, and the word level. At each level, there are nodes (the circles in figure 3.16 of Reisberg) that stand for particular features, letters, or words.Nodes have levels of activation. The activation of a node corresponds to the extent to which the system believes the item that a node corresponds to is present.There are also connections between the nodes (the lines in figure 3.16) that allow activation to spread from one node to another.Connections can be excitatory, in which case when one node is highly active, it increases the activation of the node to which it is connected. Excitatory connections are represented by lines that terminate with arrows.Connections can also be inhibitory, in which case when one node is highly active, it reduces the level of activation of the node to which it is connected. Inhibitory connections are illustrated by lines that terminate with circles.Nodes at the feature level have excitatory connections to nodes at the word level that are consistent with the presence of that feature. For example, a diagonal segment has an excitatory connection to the node for the letter R, but an inhibitory connection to the letter L. Likewise, the node for the letter T in the first position in the word has an excitatory connection to the word TILT, but an inhibitory connection to the word HIRE Letters and words have inhibitory connections to other words and nodes at the same level. These connections reflect that a given letter is either a T or an L, but not both, and that a word is either WORD or WORK, but not both.Finally, activation flows along connections in both directions. Thus, if the node corresponding to the letter T in the first position is active, it tends to excite the word TILT. Likewise, when the word TILT is active, it tends to excite the node representing a T in the first position. Processing begins in this model by activating the features present in a word shown to the system. Activation then flows to the letters connected to those features. Next activation flows from the letters to the word nodes. After some of the word nodes are activated as well, activation from the word nodes flows back to the letter nodes (hence the interactive activation in the name of the model). The patterns of activation and inhibition represent a set of constraints to be satisfied or sources of information to be integrated. What emerges are the most plausible candidate letters (and word), given all the information that is present.
Sensation
The process of stimulating the sensory organ receptor cells and relaying their initial information to higher centers for further processing
What is neuropsychology? What can the study of patients with brain damage tell us about normal cognition? What is localization of function? What disorders can emerge from lesions in association areas of the cerebral cortex?
The study of the brain's structures and how they relate to psychological functions - Patients with brain damage allow inferences about the neural basis of normal cognition What can the study of patients with brain damage tell us about normal cognition? -- Patients with brain damage allow inferences about the neural basis of normal cognition What is localization of function? - Different parts of the brain serve different psychological functions - In patients with brain damage, cognitive deficits depend critically on the site of damage (Franz Gall)
How does the levels of processing example described in lecture illustrate the components of a controlled laboratory study?
Theory - Memory varies along a continuous dimension in terms of depth of processing Hypothesis - Recall following deep processing better than shallow Independent variable - level of processing (deep vs shallow) Dependent variable - percentage of words recalled
Theory and Hypothesis
Theory - Organized body of general explanatory principles regarding a phenonomenon Hypothesis - Tentative proposal regarding expected empirical consequences of the theory derived from the theory
Association cortex
These areas perform the task of associating simple ideas and sensations in order to form more complex thoughts and behaviors
What is priming, and why does it improve recognition of lowfrequency words? What do errors tell us about how words are recognized?
They warm up certain neurons to fire. Another reliable pattern is that recognition errors, when they occur, are quite systematic, with the input typically perceived as being more regular than it actually is. These findings together indicate that recognition is influenced by the regularities that exist in our environment (e.g., the regularities of spelling patterns).
How did Hermann von Helmholtz's demonstration of unconscious inferrence foreshadow the cognitive approach to cognition?
Unconscious inference, also referred to as unconscious conclusion, is a term of perceptual psychology coined in 1867 by the German physicist and polymath Hermann von Helmholtz to describe an involuntary, pre-rational and reflex-like mechanism which is part of the formation of visual impressions. It foreshadowed the cognitive approach to cognition as much of we are conscious of first goes through levels of sensory date and knowledge that is unconscious to us. - girl knows she's holding a single pen through inferring
What are the "what" and "where" pathways?
What is in the inferotemporal lobe where is in the posterior parietal cortex
Started the new enterprise of research psychology
Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) and his student Edward Bradford Titchener (1867-1927)
• Is face recognition special? What kind of theory is needed to account for findings on face recognition, such as the inversion effect?
YES, two characteristics are needed. The task has to involve recognizing specific individuals within a category, and the category has to be an extremely familiar one. Prospagnosia is the inability to recognize faces - not strictly a face recognition disorder however Face recognition has a strong dependence on orientation. The theory is --CONFIGURAL THEORY of face recognition. Objects that share the same parts and a common structure are recognized according to the spatial relations among those parts and the extent to whch those spatial relations deviate from the prototype, or "average" object Specific faces are described by their deviations from the prototypical face. All faces have the same component parts - eyes, nose, mouth - in the same arrangement, but their relative sizes and distances make each unique. ---Evidence for Configural Theory We're especially good at recognizing caricatures, which accentuate differences. Inverted faces processed in a piecemeal way, upright configural or holistic processing. Subjects encode and remember info about individual features (nose shape, eye distance) in upright faces but not inverted. Prosopagnosia -- Patients can tell a face from a pumpkin, just can't tell different faces apart. The configuration of parts of the face seems to be particularly difficult for them to discern. --Expertise Hypthesis A variant of the configural view is the expertise hypothesis, which proposes that a specialized neural system develops that allows expert visual discrimination, and is required to judge subtle differences within any particular visual category (Gauthier et al., 2000).We are "face experts."Consistent with this hypothesis, Gauthier et al. have shown with neuroimaging that bird experts show stronger activity in the FFA than do other people. Similarly, a prosopagnosic bird expert has been shown to have lost the ability to distinguish different kinds of warblers.
What did the Yin (1969) study investigate? What are the implications of the results for our understanding of face recognition?
Yin (1969) -- Inverted faces are harder to recognize than upright; houses,airplanes, and men in motion a smaller difference.
Pandemonium: Selfridge (1959)
a pattern is first perceived in its parts before the "whole".
• What is Kant's transcendental method? How does research on working memory illustrate Kantian logic?
begin with observable facts and then work backward from these observations (what are the underlying causes that led to these effects) - research on working memory illustrates that there are "effects" for which we need to seek a "cause" and so we need to move backwards
Agnosias
disruptions in the ability to identify familiar objects
Cognitivism uses
information processing as a way to explain how humans perceive, remember, and understand the world around them. Because cognitive science bases its inquiry within the information processing metaphor, the conclusions about mental Evans 458 are only as objective to the level that metaphor is subjective.
What is cognitive psychology and its scope?
is the scientific study of mind and mental function, including learning, memory, attention, perception, reasoning, language, conceptual development, and decision making. The modern study of cognition rests on the premise that the brain can be understood as a complex computing system. Cognitive Psychology - The actions of People are guided by the way they understand and interpret information Cognitive psychology is the scientific investigation of all the mental abilities: perceiving, learning, remembering, thinking, reasoning, and understanding.
What are size and shape constancy?
is the tendency to see familiar objects as having standard shape, size, color, or location, regardless of changes in the angle of perspective, distance, or lighting. The impression tends to conform to the object as it is assumed to be, rather than to the actual stimulus presented to the eye
What is neuroimaging? How can studies employing fMRI or PET inform us about the processes involved in cognition? What is a key limitation of functional neuroimaging?
neuroimaging allows us to take precise three-dimensional pictures of the brain. Studies such as fMRI and PET inform us about the process involved in cognition by tracking fueled used by the brain (either glucose (pet) or oxygen (fMRI)) as the move to different areas of the brain where it is most active. The key limitation of functional neuroimaging is that they are not as precise as to when brain activity took place.
Perception
process by which we select organize, and interpret sensory input -> Forming a mental representation
What are figure-ground relations?
the determination of what is the figure (the depicted object, displayed against a background and what is the ground)
Behavior uses -
the stimulus and response metaphor to interpret exhibited behavior in the world and sets its inquiry according to the affordances of the metaphor
cognitive psychology refers to
the study of human mental processes and their role in thinking, feeling, and behaving. Cognitive psychology is also a reductionist approach. This means that all behaviour, no matter how complex can be reduced to simple cognitive processes, like memory or perception.
What are the three themes of the course outlined in lecture? Why are they important in understanding cognition? What are some ways that knowledge and memory are important for cognition?
three themes: 1)understanding human cognition, such as the role of conscious and unconscious processes; 2) the nature and structure of mental representation; 3) and the relation between mind and brain. They are important as they all interact with each other Knowledge and memory are important for cognition as this previous stored information allows us to guide our actions in the future and learn.
recognition-by-components theory
viewpoint independence is a blessing and a curse. It was initially thought to be a good thing that the theory was not dependent on viewpoint, but there has been growing evidence in recent years that object recognition can be viewpoint-dependent, and hence the Recognition By Multiple Views model.
Word Superiority Effect
§ The finding that letters are more easily read when they are in words than when they are presented either in isolation or in nonwords
