PSY 211 UNCW Exam 1 (ch 1-4)

principle of good figure

(simplicity or prägnaz) Every stimulus pattern is seen in such a way resulting in the most simple structure possible (ex. mosaic, sun made from triangles and a circle)

Donders (1868)

- Mental chronometry - Reaction-time (RT) experiment - how long it takes to make a decision

Strayer and Johnston

- Simulated driving task - Participants on cell phone missed twice as many red lights and took longer to apply the brakes - Same result using "hands-free" cell phone

top-down processing

- perception begins w/ a person's prior knowledge or expectations - occurs quickly or "automatically"

bottom-up processing

- perception begins w/ stimulation of receptors - parts identified, put together, and then recognized

Hemholtz's Theory of Unconscious Inference

- perception is the result of unconscious assumptions - (likelihood principle) we perceive the world in the way that is "most likely" based on past experiences

Gauthier's Greeble Study

- the greebles are an invented category of novel objects used in experiments about face recognition - suggests that we can improve our ability to recognize faces and objects, and that the FFA is not strictly used for recognizing human faces.

Gestalt Laws

Perceptual rules that organize stimuli

Perception

The act of becoming aware through the senses

Bayesian inference

The idea that our estimate of the probability of an outcome is determined by the prior probability (our initial belief) and the likelihood (the extent to which the available evidence is consistent with the outcome).

cerebral cortex

The intricate fabric of interconnected neural cells covering the cerebral hemispheres; the body's ultimate control and information-processing center.

dichotic listening

The procedure of presenting one message to the left ear and a different message to the right ear.

Cognitive Revolution

The shift away from strict behaviorism, begun in the 1950s, characterized by renewed interest in fundamental problems of consciousness and internal mental processes.

Mindfulness

The state of being alert and mentally present for one's everyday activities.

behavior

The way an organism reacts to changes in its internal condition or external environment.

principle of familiarity

Things are more likely to form groups if the groups seem familiar or meaningful (ex. seeing shapes in clouds)

principle of common fate

Things moving in the same direction appear to be grouped together (ex. flock of birds flying)

cognitive map

a mental representation of the layout of one's environment

illusory conjunction

a perceptual mistake where features from multiple objects are incorrectly combined

Tolman (1938) rat maze experiment

a rat is placed into a maze to find food and quickly learns; results showed that the rat created a cognitive map of the spatial layout of maze

cocktail party effect

ability to attend to only one voice among many

fusiform face area (FFA)

an area in the temporal lobe that contains many neurons that respond selectively to faces

functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)

an imaging technique used to examine changes in the activity of the working human brain by measuring changes in the blood's oxygen levels

information processing approach

based on insights associated w/ the computer; based on the idea that humans process the info they receive

divided attention

concentrating on more than one activity at the same time

Ebbinghaus

created the forgetting curve and serial position effect in memory

mind

creates and controls mental functions; creates the representations of the world

principle of neural representation

everything a person experiences is based not on direct contact with stimuli, but on representations in the person's nervous system

change blindness

failing to notice changes in the environment

inattentional blindness

failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere

Behaviorism

founded by John Watson, did "Little Albert" experiment associated w/ classical conditioning

cognition

hidden processes of which we may not be aware

Simons and Chabris

inattentional blindness

Broadbent's Filter Model

input -> filter -> detector -> memory

perceptual illusions

misperceptions or interpretations of stimuli that do not correspond to the sensations received

sparse coding

neural coding based on the pattern of activity in small groups of neurons

feature detectors

neurons that respond to specific visual features, such as orientation, size or the more complex features that make up environmental stimuli

Delboeuf Illusion

optical illusion of relative size perception (ex. two circles next to each other that are the same size but don't seem like it)

frontal lobe

receives signals from all of the senses and is responsible for coordination of the senses, as well as thinking and problem solving

population coding

representation of a particular object by the pattern of firing of a large number of neurons

paretial lobe

responsible for perceptions of touch, pressure, and pain

feature search

search for a target defined by a single attribute, such as a salient color or orientation

conjunction search

search for a target defined by the presence of two or more attributes

overt attention

shifting attention from one place to another by moving the eyes

covert attention

shifting attention from one place to another while keeping the eyes stationary

principle of similarity

similar things appear to be grouped together (ex. fruits or veggies at the store)

Sensation

simple stimulation of a sense organ

localization of function

specific functions are served by specific areas of the brain

Analytic Introspection (Wundt)

technique in which trained participants described their experiences and thought processes in response to stimuli

selective attention

the focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus

levels of analysis

the idea that a topic can be studied in a number of different ways, with each approach contributing its own dimension to our understanding

specificity coding

the idea that an object could be represented by the firing of a specialized neuron that responds only to that object

distributed representation

the idea that specific cognitive functions activate many areas of the brain

savings (forgetting) curve

the plot of percent savings vs. time - shows that memory drops rapidly for the first 2 days after learning and then levels off

experience dependent plasticity

the process through which neural connections are created and reorganized throughout life as a function of an individual's experiences

experience expectant plasticity

the process through which the normal wiring of the brain occurs in part as a result of experiences that every human who inhabits any reasonably normal environment will have

Behaviorism

the science of behavior that focuses on observable behavior only

cognitive neuroscience

the study of the psychological basis of cognition

principle of proximity

things near each other appear to be grouped together (ex. spotting groups of people in crowded place)

Kabat Zinn

this person developed mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR)

temporal lobe

A region of the cerebral cortex responsible for hearing and language.

occipital lobe

A region of the cerebral cortex that processes visual information

visual search

A task in which participants are asked to determine whether a specified target is present within a field of stimuli.

extrastriate body area (EBA)

An area in the temporal cortex that is activated by pictures of bodies and parts of bodies, but not by faces or other objects.

parahippocampal place area (PPA)

An area in the temporal lobe that contains neurons that are selectively activated by pictures of indoor and outdoor scenes.

stimulus salience

Characteristics such as bright colors, high contrast, and highly visible orientations that cause stimuli to stand out and therefore attract attention.

Stroop Effect

Explains the decreased speed of naming the color of ink used to print words when the color of ink and the word itself are of different colors. (ex. trying to say the word "red" when its written in yellow)

Broadbent (1958)

Flow diagram representing what happens as a person directs attention to one stimulus Unattended information does not pass through the filter

mirror neurons

Frontal lobe neurons that fire when performing certain actions or when observing another doing so. The brain's mirroring of another's action may enable imitation, language learning, and empathy.

binding

In the sense of vision, the bringing together and integration of what is processed by different neural pathways or cells.

Neurons

Individual nerve cells in the nervous system that receive, integrate, and transmit information.

Ebbinghaus' memory experiment

Method: 13 nonsense syllables followed by a delay and forgetting then measure time to relearn the list. Results: Forgetting occurs rapidly in the first 1 to 2 days

action pathway

Neural pathway, extending from the occipital lobe to the parietal lobe, that is associated with neural processing that occurs when people take action. Corresponds to the where pathway.

perception pathway

Neural pathway, extending from the occipital lobe to the temporal lobe, that is associated with perceiving or recognizing objects. Corresponds to the what pathway.