Cognitive Processes Exam 1 (Chapters 1,2,3)

Direct perception (Gibson)

- Belief that the perceiver actually needs to do very little work in interpreting the world - Light hitting the retina contains highly organized information that requires little or no interpretation - Information exists not merely in the environment, but in the animal-environment ecosystem

Parietal Lobe

- sensory information from body - somatosensory cortex- sensory information from the body -spatial processing

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (FMRI)

- similar to PET, but it relies on magnetic properties of blood (iron) -does not involve radiation. - combines brain structure (MRI) and function scans that assess blood flow to various brain regions.

Frontal Lobe

-motor cortex - fine motor movements - Prefrontal cortex - executive functions; alcohol affects this structure - Broca's area - speech production.

Cognitive Revolution

-roots in human factors engineering -concept of the person machine system -view of people as limited capacity processor - influenced by developments in linguistics, neuroscience, and computers.

Dominating psychology for about 30 years, the school known as __________ emphasized the study of observable phenomena and disdained attempts to study thought and mental processes.

Behaviorism

True or False: According to Galotti, the thalamus and hypothalamus are a part of the midbrain.

False

True or False: Functionalism is a paradigm of cognitive psychology.

False

True or False: In a within-subjects research design different groups of participants experience different conditions in the experiment.

False

True or False: It is safe to say that a larger portion of the somatosensory cortex is devoted to a person's back and smaller portion is to devoted to a person's hands.

False

True or False: Positron Emission Tomography (PET) is a technique to measure overall brain activity. It is often used to detect different states of consciousness (as in different stages of sleep). This involves placing metal electrodes in positions all over the scalp.

False

True or False: Quasi-experiments can conclusively demonstrate a cause-and-effect relationship between two variables.

False

True or False: The cerebellum is located in the midbrain. It helps to coordinate muscular activity and govern balance. It is also an area of the brain that is influenced by the intake of alcohol

False

True or False: The cerebral cortex can be divided into two halves (the left and right hemispheres) and each of the halves can be divided into three lobes (frontal, parietal, and occipital)

False

True or False: The information processing approach is a paradigm of cognitive psychology that emphasizes how neurons form connections with each other and how they operate in a parallel fashion.

False

True or False: the motor cortex, which controls fine motor movement, is located in the parietal lobe.

False

Prototype matching

New stimuli are matched to a "prototype" in memory—an idealized, typical representation of a category Perfect match is not required, unlike template-matching theory

Bottom-Up Process

Perceiver starts with small bits of information and puts them together to form a perception.

-relay center that passes through on its way to "higher" parts of the brain -crossover point (right side information crosses to left side of brain) -located in the hindbrain

Pons

Marr's Theory

Primal Sketch: bottom-up processes (contour, edges, blob) 2 1/2- D sketch : bottom up processes 3-D sketch: top-down processes incorporated

The philosophical approach emphasized the importance of active and usually inborn, abilities of the mind such as categories of thought.

Rationalism

Broca's Area

damage results in non-fluent aphasia. can't verbally speak; inability to produce words.

Inclusiveness

Tendency for people to perceive the larger, more inclusive figure.

True or False: According to Chapter 2, the left hemisphere is more analytical ( processing information in serial fashion, such as language).

True

True or False: Empiricism is a philosophical approach that emphasizes the importance of experience. Today it is seen as the predecessor to the empirical component of science that emphasizes the importance of empirical tests to confirm and demonstrate knowledge

True

True or False: Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) involves surrounding a person with a strong magnetic field. This test does not require exposing the patient to radiation.

True

True or False: Nativism is a philosophical approach that emphasized the importance of innate or inborn knowledge. Today it is influential with scientists that emphasize the importance of heredity and biology.

True

True or False: Structuralism was an early school of psychology that sought to discover the structure of the mind or consciousness.

True

True or False: The ecological approach is a paradigm of cognitive psychology that emphasizes the role of the environment and everyday contexts in guiding or driving thought processes.

True

True or False: The variable that a researcher controls and manipulates in an experiment is referred to as the independent variable.

True

True or False: the basal ganglia (part of the forebrain) are involved in the production of motor behaviors. They also deteriorate in people suffering from Parkinson's disease

True

True or False: the medulla oblongata is located in the hindbrain and regulates basic life support functions, such as respirations, blood pressure, heart rate, etc.

True

True or False: the so called Cognitive Revolution in psychology had its roots in human factors engineering and limited-capacity processors of information (communications engineering) and was influenced by developments in the fields of linguistics, neuroscience and computers.

True

What is the odd-quadrant discrimination task used for?

Used to demonstrate the Configural Superiority Effect, which is an example of emergence (something different emerges from the parts).

Perceptual Learning

With practice, we learn what aspects of a stimulus to pay attention to in order to categorize it correctly.

Electroencephalogram (EEG)

detects different states of consciousness and sleep brain function

between-subjects design

different participants are assigned to each of the conditions in the experiment compares groups

Apperceptive Agnosia

a failure in recognition that is due to a failure of perception. -capable of processing small amounts of visual information, such as contours and outlines. - difficulty matching objects and categorizing - difficulty naming objects -difficulty recognizing objects with missing parts. bottom-up processes

The _______________ is the main bundle of nerve fibers that connects the left and right hemispheres to each other. It is the structure that is severed in the split-brain procedure.

corpus callosum

Processes that occur simultaneously rather than one-at-a time are known as _______________ processes as opposed to serial processes.

parallel

Top-down processes

person's expectations guide the selection and combination of parts to form a whole. Theory driven or conceptually driven. Example - Where's Waldo?

occipital lobe

visual cortex

Naturalistic Observation

watching people in everyday contexts.

structuralism

what are the units of the mind? what is the mind made up of? Wilhelm Wundt

cerebellum

coordinates muscle activity alcohol affects this structure

pons

"bridge" between right and left side of the brain; involved in balance, sleep, arousal.

4 A's of a paradigm

1. Assumptions made by investigators. 2. Appropriate types of research methods 3. Appropriate questions for the field 4. Appropriate analogies

4 types of paradigms

1. Information processing approach or paradigm 2. connectionism 3. The Evolutionary Approach - human beings have specialized areas of competence produced by our evolutionary heritage. The environment that shapes us is not only physical, but also social and ecological. 4. ecological approach - all cognitive activities are shaped by the culture and by the context in which they occur. focus on studying cognition in everyday contexts.

Hypothalamus

A "thermostat" for homeostatic functions. -controls the pituitary gland, which regulates other glands. - sleep, temperature control, eating, drinking, and other homeostatic behaviors.

Constructivist Approach

A learner-centered approach that emphasizes the importance of individuals actively constructing their knowledge and understanding with guidance from the teacher. we not only perceive objects directly from incoming sensory information but the objects we perceive also convey affordances to use.

Functionalism

A school of psychology that focused on how our mental and behavioral processes function - how they enable us to adapt, survive, and flourish. William James

Visual Agnosia

Disruption of perception or inability to recognize objects. Impairment of the ability to interpret visual stimuli even though there is nothing wrong with one's eyes. A person may be able to still recognize objects by touch or smell.

Word Superiority Effect

Easier to recognize a letter in the context of word than when the letter is represented alone.

The philosopher John Locke was a strong believer in ___________, which rests on the assumption that knowledge comes from an individual's experience

Empiricism

Enables psychologists to make conclusions about cause-effect relationships.

Experiments

How is perception formed?

From information in the distal stimulus.

Phrenology

Gall and Spurzheim the detailed study of the shape and size of the cranium as a supposed indication of character and mental abilities.

Individuals of different ages think differently and have different cognitive makeups that develop/change over time; Piaget championed this approach.

Genetic epistemology

Inferior and Superior Colliculi

Important in relaying information between brain regions (from lower brain regions to higher brain regions)

Law of Pragnanz

Individuals have the tendency to perceive the simplest and most stable shape or form.

notion of the left and right hemispheres of the brain being somewhat "specialized" - some abilities may be primarily carried out by one hemisphere of the brain.

Lateralization

Refers to the finding that human beings can only do so many things at any one time. We can only attend to a limited number of stimuli and to a limited amount of information at any one time.

Limited-capacity processes.

______________ refers to the general notion that specific areas of the brain control specific functions or abilities.

Localization of function

- midbrain - arousal, helping to keep us awake and alert, and involved in the sudden arousal needed to respond to a threatening or attention-grabbing stimulus

Reticular Formation

Emergence

The whole becomes more than the individual parts.

Gestalt Approaches

The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

within subjects design

a research design that uses each participant as his or her own control; for example, the behavior of an experimental participant before receiving treatment might be compared to his or her behavior after receiving treatment does not compare groups

-emotional learning and memories -forebrain

amygdala

Thalamus

another relay structure for sensory information.

Wernicke's area

associated with fluent aphasia - inability to understand speech or produce meaningful speech.

temporal lobe

auditory cortex Wernicke's area - language comprehension

Event-related potential (ERP)

average together the recordings of EEG timed to a stimulus presentation.

paradigm

body of knowledge structured according to what its proponents consider important and what they do not

The information processing approach uses the metaphor of the human mind as something similar to a?

computer

controlled observation

control the environment and see how people react

midbrain

generally structures in the middle of the brain

Template matching

has to be a perfect match for template some place in the human brain that you can recall a specific thing or object.

Computerized Axial Tomography ( CAT or CT scan)

highly focused x-rays are passed through the body from many different angles - brain structure scan

The ___________ is the evolutionarily oldest part of the brain. This part of the brain contains a number of structures including the medulla oblongata and the pons.

hindbrain

Featural analysis or distinctive features theory

how we recognize letters, individual parts.

cognitive psychology

influences on the study of cognition

Positron Emission Tomography (PET)

inject with a radioactive glucose measure where the compound goes to (assumption is more blood flow equates with activity) combines both brain structure and function scans. measures blood flow to brain regions uses radiation, more invasive shows which region is most active.

amygdala

involved in emotional memories

Hippocampus

involved in the formation of declarative memories

basal ganglia

involved in the production of motor behaviors. These deteriorate in Parkinson's disease. Forebrain

Cerebrum

largest structure in the brain (the wrinkled part).

Lateralization of Function: left vs. right

left - language - analysis Right - spatial skills - synthesis

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)

magnetic coil placed above target area in the brain depending on rate of the pulse, the underlying brain area will be more excited or inhibited.

Recognition by Components Theory

more for visual objects feature of objects : geons People can perceive objects more accurately and easily if their vertices (basic geon shapes) are intact.

-Frontal Lobe - fine motor movement (muscle movements of the body)

motor cortex

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)

no exposure to radiation clearer images that CT scan utilizes a strong magnetic field and radio waves Brain structure scan.

Behaviorism

observable behavior John Watson

The ____________ portion of the cerebral cortex is located at the back of the head and contains the primary visual cortex, which processes incoming visual stimuli.

occipital lobe

-frontal lobe -executive functioning (planning, inhibition of inappropriate behaviors, decision making, etc.)

prefrontal cortex

independent variable

presumed cause; manipulated by the experimenter

dependent variable

presumed effect; measured by the experimenter.

medulla

regulates life suppport hindbrain

quasi-experiment

the presumed cause that you want to investigate cannot be controlled and randomly assigned by the researcher. Gender Age Ethnicity Educational Background

cerebral cortex

the surface layer of the cerebrum.

Gestalt Psychology

the whole is greater than the sum of its parts