Cognitive Psychology Exam 1

Limbic System (emotions/drives/reward)

Amygdala - emotion/fear/rage Hypothalamus - controls hormones, homeostasis Hippocampus - new memories

Theresa, the assistant principle of a middle school, often finds herself dealing with accusations of wrongdoing made by one student against another. When she does so, she will not accept circumstantial evidence. Instead, Theresa allows only evidence that she can see, or "hard," observational evidence, to be used in deciding whether a student has violated rules. Theresa could be referred to as a(an) A. Monist B. Empiricist C. Ratinalist D. Nativist

B. Empiricist

In an experimental design, what is the variable of interest that is manipulated by the researcher? A. extraneous variable B. independent variable C. dependent variable D. confounding variable

B. independent variable

What is the main function of dendrites? A. transferring oxygen from the blood to the neurons B. receiving signals from other neurons C. transferring information to other neurons D. Wrapping neurons in myelin sheath

B. receiving signals from other neurons

The information-processing approach A. is the modern version of behaviorism B. was facilitated by the early research of computer science C. is primarily used to explain cognitive development

B. was facilitated by the early research of computer science

Brainstem/Cerebellum

Basic life functions: breathing, sleep, basic movement

Highly quantitative and experimental; animals

Behaviorism is __________ and ____________ and is often uses __________ for experimental control.

1900s

Behaviorism was dominant in the early

Weber-Fechner Law 1850

Both laws relate to human perception, more specifically the relation between the actual change in a physical stimulus and the perceived change.

Which approach emphasizes observable evidence as the means to acquiring new knowledge? A. Rationalism B. Monism C. Empiricism D. Nativism

C. Empiricism

Which approach emphasizes logical analysis as the means to acquiring new knowledge? A. tabula rasa B. synthesis C. rationalism D. empiricism

C. Rationalism

A person who lacks normal emotional reactions may have damage to the ___ while a person who cannot hear despite intact ears may have damage to the ___. A. parietal Lobe; hippocampus B. Motor Cortex; frontal lobe C. amygdala; temporal lobe D. occipital lobe; corpus callosum

C. amygdala; temporal lobe

The main functions of the temporal and occipital lobes, respectively, are A. visual processing and auditory processing B. taste and smell processing C. auditory and visual processing D. smell and taste processing

C. auditory and visual processing

Donders' 1868 choice reaction time experiment was to study: A. auditory processing B. childhood attachment styles C. decision making D. personality development

C. decision making

The limbic system is important for A. visual and auditory processing B. relaying sensory information C. emotion and Motivation D. motor information

C. emotion and Motivation

When recording from a single neuron, stimulus intensity is represented by the: A. strength of each action potential B. size of the synapse C. firing rate of action potentials D. type of neurotransmitter that is released

C. firing rate of action potentials

Transduction of light energy into neurons firing occurs in the A. cornea at the front of the eye B. lens at the front of the eye C. retina at the back of the eye D. optic nerve at the back of the eye

C. retina at the back of the eye

When someone opens a door, we do not experience the door as becoming distorted in form, from a rectangle to a diamond to a flat, thin stripe. Rather, we recognize the door as remaining in its original form. This phenomenon is called ________. A. distal B. proximal C. shape D. size

C. shape

Damage to the temporal region of the cortex can often lead to ______, in which a person is unable to pay attention to more than one object at a time A. akinetopsia B. Prosopagnosia C. simultagnosia D. optic altaxia

C. simultagnosia

If a researcher uses and EEG to measure the brains response to a visual stimulus, sometimes neural areas other than those that process visual stimuli will also happen to be active at the same time. How do researchers determine which neural areas are responding only/specifically to the visual stimulus. A. they represent the visual stimulus at a very high intensity B. they measure activity of just one neuron at a time C. they take the average of several EEGs D. all of the above

C. they take the average of several EEGs

manipulating internal symbolic representations

Cognition/intelligence = responding appropriately to input by _______ _______ ________ _______ of the world of the world

cerebral cortex

Complex stuff: higher thought, perception, skilled action. Made up of 4 "lobes".

Which imaging techniques uses electrodes to record electrical activity emitted from a persons scalp? A. TMS B. PET C. FMRI D. EEG

D. EEG

The frontal lobe is responsible for A. sensing touch, pressure, and body position B. Visual processing C. auditory processing D. Higher thought and motor processing

D. Higher thought and motor processing

By comparing reaction times across different tasks, Donders was able to conclude how long the mind needs to perform a certain cognitive task. Donders interpreted the difference in reaction time between the simple and choice conditions of his experiment as indicating how long it took to A. perceive the stimulus B. move a finger C. attend to the stimulus D. Make a decision about the stimulus

D. Make a decision about the stimulus

The Cognitive Revolution and early Cognitive Psychology: A. married empirical, experimental methods with the study of inner, mental experiences B. initially framed the brain as analogous to a computer C. saw thinking as manipulating internal symbolic representations D. all of the above E. none of the above

D. all of the above

According to the ______ theory of form perception, we attempt to match basic characteristics of a pattern to those stored in memory, rather than to match a whole pattern to a template or prototype. A. constructive-perception B. prototype C. computational D. feature-matching

D. feature-matching

_______ refers to a severely impaired ability to recognize human faces A. akinetopsia B. glaucoma C. simultagnosia D. prosopagnosia

D. prosopagnosia

Helmholtz - 1850

Developed Young-Helmholtz trichromatic theory of color vision; measures nerve transmission in the twitch of a frog leg (50 m/s)

positive

Sodium (Na+) is a _______ charge

parietal lobe

Spatial information Touch Body position Integrating sensory information

temporal lobe

Hearing Understanding language Recognition and categorizing (found by the temple/ears)

Action potentials are all or nothing.

If there is not enough total positive (+) input to reach the threshold for an action potential, then nothing happens. The cell does not "fire slightly" or "fire weakly".

localized function

Imagine if someone in 1880 performed an experiment where they found that removing one specific part of a dog's brain resulted in the dog constantly overeating, but removing other areas never had that effect. Imagine they also found a specific area in the dog's brain that, when given a jolt of electricity, caused the dog to bark, whereas zapping any other part of the dog's brain never caused barking. This imaginary experiment would likely have been taken as evidence for the ____ position in the debate about brain areas.

negative

In its normal resting state, a neuron has a ___________ electrical charge of -70mV, so we say it is polarized

describe the structure of neurons

Input comes in to the dendrites They send info to the cell body (soma) That sends info down the axon and out the terminal button(s) at the end of the axon branch(es)

corpus callosum

The left and right hemispheres of each lobe communicate through the

Neuropsychology

The study of the effects of brain damage in humans.

T/F: All neurons are constantly firing at a baseline rate

True

T/F: Information from the left visual field is processed by the right hemisphere

True

T/F: Some neurons may cancel each other out depending on the amount of inhibitory vs excitatory synapses allowed to fire

True

Donders (1868) Reaction Time experiment

Measured how long it takes to make a decision, using reaction time (RT)

Physiology

arguments whether brain areas have specialized functions (localized modules) or if function is distributed/unified

single cell recording

attach an electrode to individual neurons and see when they fire. Identify what that neuron is "tuned to", what it fires for.

Behaviorism rejects introspection

behavior is objectively measureable but consciousness is not. Goal of psychology is to predict and control behavior.

Radical Behaviorism

can't study internal mental states, just stimulus and response contingencies. Psych shouldn't study the 'mind' or 'mental'

Newell & Simon (1956)

create a computer program able to prove mathematical theorems. A "thinking computer"??

gene editing

creating animals that lack certain cells/receptors (or have ones they otherwise wouldn't) to see how that affects behavior (ex: PTC tastes bitter to us but not mice; but we can give them our gene for that bitter receptor and they are able to perceive that taste)

Ivan Pavlov ~1897 (behaviorism)

dogs' salivate to cues associated with food; classical conditioning = associations between things

EEG (electroencephalogram)

electrical activity measured in response to an event or change Captures timing precisely, but it's measured at the scalp, so not very spatially precise

Start from observable things:

empiricist philosophy, physiology, experimental psychology, behaviorism

Franz Joseph Gall - 1800

founder of phrenology who proposed that different parts of the brain performed different tasks. (diff. functions localized in different brain modules).

action potential

if the cell body receives enough positive charge, it 'fires' an electrical signal down the axon. This is called an

Rationalism

knowledge from deduction/thinking

B.F Skinner - 1950 (behaviorism)

leave internal states out of a causal account of behavior; emphasize role of environment and conditioning; operant conditioning = reward/punishment

MEG magnetoenceophalography

measure magnetic fields outside the head, emitted as a side-effect of electrical currents from action potentials Like EEG, it's accurate for timing but less accurate spatially (for location of activity)

inferred from behavior

Mental processes cannot be measured directly, but can be _____________ like how long it takes them to respond

cerebral cortex (four lobes)

Occipital Lobe Temporal Lobe Parietal Lobe Frontal Lobe (each lobe has a right hemisphere and a left hemisphere)

philosophy and physiology

Psychology developed from a combination of ____________ and ________________

philosophy and physiology

Psychology is often viewed as developing from the merging of ____.

Match these pairs: Behaviorism, empiricism, experimental psychology, introspection, phenomenology, rationalism

rationalism/empiricism; experimental/introspection; behaviorism/phenomenology

Start from inner, mental experience:

rationalist philosophy, introspection, phenomenology Cognitive Revolution:

Lesions

selectively damaging/removing or temporarily shutting down part of the brain to see how it affects behavior (learning rate, memory performance, emotional reactions, etc.) -cooling to slow neurons

Wundt - 1880

speak thoughts as you do a task; report on elementary components of thought

Behaviorism

study the relation between observable behavior and environmental stimulus

Phenomenology

studying subjective (inner) experience; first-person perspective; what it is like to be someone/something

Empiricism

the belief that accurate knowledge can be acquired through observation. knowledge from experience/data

Hermann Ebbinghaus - 1885

the first person to study memory scientifically and systematically; used nonsense syllables and recorded how many times he had to study a list to remember it well

left

the hemisphere important for language/speech.

Synapse

the junction between the axon tip of the sending neuron and the dendrite or cell body of the receiving neuron

Cognitive Psychology

the study of how people perceive, learn, remember, and think

philosophy

the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence

subtraction method

(Choice Task RT) - (Simple RT) = time to make a decision.

polarized

(far from neutral- can be positive or negative it just means its far from neutral)

Methods of Cognitive Psychology

Self report - survey data Case Studies (Phineas Gage, feral Genie, etc.) Naturalistic Observation (e.g., observe factory) Computer simulations / AI

Introspection

Self-observation and verbal reporting of conscious thoughts and feelings

T/F: moving the right hand is controlled by the frontal lobe

False

single dissociation

-damage to a specific area impairs function A but not function B -Ex: a patient can identify friends and family members by their voice but not by sight, so the damaged area might be related to visual face identification

Franz & Lashley - early 1900s

-equipotentiality - the idea that if one part of the brain is damaged, other parts of the brain will carry out the memory functions for that damaged part. -anti-localization (lesion in cat brain disrupts function, but learning comes back; other parts take over function)

Broadbent's Model 1958 (sequence of stages)

-information processing system -Just like a computer, the human mind takes in information, organizes and stores it to be retrieved at a later time

double dissociation

-when damage to one area impairs function A only (B is fine), but damage to a different area impairs function B only (A is fine). -Gives much stronger evidence that those areas really are involved in function A and B, respectively. -Ex: damage to Broca's area impairs language production (speaking) but they can understand fine, while damage to Wernicke's area impairs language comprehension (understanding), but they can produce/speak fine.

The brain is how much of your body weight

1/40th 1/5th of glucose, oxygen, blood circulation

Penfield - 1950

-Canadian neurosurgeon who used electrodes and electrical stimulation techniques to "map" out different parts of the brain during surgery -stimulate brain during epilepsy surgery

Korbinian Brodmann - 1900

-Mapped the cerebral cortex -maps cellular architecture of brain, says anatomical differences -> functional differences

corpus collosum

-Split-brain patients have had their ________ surgically cut. -Generally to treat severe seizures.

Depolarization

-The process during the action potential when sodium is rushing into the cell causing the interior to become more positive. -positive charges, making the neuron less extreme and more towards neutral- not as polarized

contralateral processing

-The right hemisphere of each lobe controls and processes info from the left half of the body -The left hemisphere of each lobe controls and processes info from the right half of the body

Computers arrive

-Turing 1936: theoretical model for a machine to calculate outputs from inputs -Proved that a single such machine can in theory carry out any algorithm that is calculable. -modern form comes out by 1940

occipital lobe

-Vision Specialized areas for: Color - b&w or color motion Form - sphere vs rectangle, etc location

An empiricist ____. A. believes that knowledge is acquired through experience and observation B. is a follower of Plato's rationalist philosophy about the source of knowledge C. supports the idea of mind-body dualism D. believes that the mind and the body are separate entities

A. believes that knowledge is acquired through experience and observation

Neurotransmitters are A. chemical substances that carry messages between neurons B. the part of a neuron that receives signals from other neurons C. types of neurons that connect other neurons together D. electrical signals that zap across the synapse

A. chemical substances that carry messages between neurons

A psychologist claims that some aspects of cognition that we traditionally assumed were processed as abstract representations in the brain are actually "offloaded" onto our body or the external world. For example, thanks to writing technology, some of our memory processes are now offloaded onto paper or post-it notes (e.g. a to-do list). This psychologist is likely working in what area? A. embodied cognition B. social-cognitive neuroscience C. information processing D. introspection

A. embodied cognition

Neuroscience research by Hubel and Wiesel (1979) measured the response of individual neurons to lines of different orientations. The results of this research are most compatible with the _____ approach to object recognition. A. feature-matching B. template C. parallel distributed processing D. chemical

A. feature-matching

Erica is conducting experimental research in which she is looking at the effect of type of music on intellectual development. What is the independent variable in this example? A. type of music B. Intellectual Development C. the control group D. the experimental group

A. type of music

Split brain patients sometimes have difficulty reconciling information that is ___ and thus largely processed in the left hemisphere with information that is ___ and thus generally localized in the right hemisphere. A. verbal; spatial B. Spatial; auditory C. visual; auditory D. verbal; olfactory

A. verbal; spatial

Jean Pierre Flourens - 1820

First physiological psych. that pioneered the exp method of carrying out localized lesions of the brain in living pigeons and rabbits and carefully observing their effects of behavior. - Different regions of the brain performed different functions. - brain has "community of reaction" (unity)

frontal lobe

Judgment, planning, reasoning Personality Integrating information over time Voluntary movement (motor cortex)

John Watson 1910 (behaviorism)

nurture > nature; Little Albert

Titchener - 1900

only trained introspection is valid; describe raw sense data (e.g. perception of size, color, form, rather than entire object)

Receptors

parts of the cell membrane that receive the neurotransmitter and initiate or prevent a new electric signal