Cognitive Psychology Exam 1

how many lobes are there in the brain

4 lobes

According to the perception/action approach, explain how the perception of the gap in my backyard fence would differ between the rabbit in my backyard and me.

According to this approach, the rabbit would see the gap as one it could likely pass through, whereas I would see it as something I could not pass through.

How do brain recording techniques allow for experiments that cannot be done with clinical case study patients?

Can record from specific areas of the brain to see activity under controlled conditions.

What are two "metaphors of the mind" that have influenced the development of theories of cognition?

Computers and wax tablets.

What are two developments that led to a rapid expansion of the field of cognitive psychology after the mid-twentieth century?

Computers, Chomsky's arguments against Skinner's description of language development, and Neisser's text.

feature analysis theory e.g.

E F not B P

In what ways is the single-cell recording technique different from other brain recording techniques?

Exact location can be determined, but it is invasive in that a needle is inserted into the subject's brain.

Which of the three approaches to perception would describe perception of a tree as more than the addition of its branches, leaves, roots, flowers, etc.?

Gestalt

Describe some disadvantages of using clinical case studies to connect brain function and cognition.

Lack of control over the damage, meaning damage could be widespread and in areas the researcher is not intending to study; results may not generalize to large groups.

5. Explain how you know which research design is being used.

Looking for the relationship between two measured variables.

Which brain recording technique(s) measure(s) a change in blood flow to different areas of the brain?

PET scan

optic flow

The information in the environment about movement where farther objects appear to be passing by more slowly than closer objects

In what way does the discovery of mirror neurons support the connection between perception and action?

The presence of mirror neurons in our brain shows that we are processing the actions of objects in our environment

Two objects appear in a scene: an elephant and a mouse. The mouse is much closer than the elephant. Explain how you might know that the mouse is closer from cues in the scene.

The retinal image of the mouse might be larger or of the same size as the elephant; there may be linear perspective cues to indicate distance.

8. In what way does an experiment differ from other research designs?

The use of an independent variable allows for a better test of causal relationships.

Explain the difference in processing of visual stimuli that occurs in the ventral and dorsal brain pathways.

The ventral pathway helps identify what an object is and the dorsal pathway helps identify where an object is.

Describe Donders's experiments and explain how they propose to measure cognitive processes.

These experiments measured the time to make a simple key press, and the time to make a cognitive decision and to make a simple key press. By subtracting out the time to make the key press from the time to make the decision and the key press, Donders proposed that the time difference is the time it took to make the cognitive decision.

How might mirror neurons be useful in social perception?

They can help us understand the emotions and motives of another person.

The results indicated a positive relationship between the variables that were measured. Explain what this means.

This means that people with a higher estimation of their memory abilities showed higher memory performance in the test.

What is meant by localization and lateralization of brain function?

This means that specific areas of the brain (location or hemisphere) are primarily responsible for specific functions.

Explain how tasks that initially require controlled attention can become automatic.

With a lot of practice, a task can be become automatic as we need less conscious attention to complete it.

first step in perception is

a separate process called sensation

cognition

acquisition, storage, transformation, use of knowledge

mcclelland rumelhart model

aka parallel distributed process (pdp) model

perception

all that we have talked about takes less than a second

info sent to v1 first then sent forward for more processing

along the ventral and dorsal pathways

recognition by components model (structural theory) beiderman

analyze and compare to combinations of geons in memory

hearing =

auditory cortex in the temporal lobe

research methods cog. neuroscience

autopsy, brain surgery, brain injury, neuroimaging

gestalt principles of perceptual organization

basic tendencies to try to make sense of things

cones

bright light, pick up detail

visual system

can recognize object even when unclear within about 1/10 of a second

motion agnosia

can't recognize movement by vision

prosopagnosia

can't recognize ppl by fave everyone looks the same

research methods cog. psyc

case studies, correlational studies, experimental studies,

divided attention e.g.

cell phones and accidents parents leaving children in cars

embodied cognition approach

cognitive processes are a means to interact with the world

feature analysis theory

compare feutres to memory

prototype theory

compare stimulus to idealize pattern in memory

template matching theory

compare stimulus to template in memory

Which of the three approaches to perception would describe perception of an object in terms of the geons that make up the object?

computational

top down

concept driven ( fill in the blank)

bottom up

data driven

Which core principle of the scientific method involves the identification of the underlying causes of behavior?

determinism

rods

dim light

cognition is everything we

do feel and understand

divided attention

driving while talking to a friend

Subjects are asked to perform an arithmetic task while also attempting to remember lists of words for later recall. The researchers in this study compared the performance on the memory task with and without the accompanying arithmetic task to determine if the arithmetic task interferes with one's performance on the memory task. This study used the ____________ methodology to study attention abilities.

dual-task

biological perspective

due to networks of concepts in neuronal connections

When EEG recordings are connected to the timing of the presentation of a stimulus, it is called

event-related potential or ERP.

fusiform face are

face recognition

problems feature analysis

facial expressions, changing features

selective attention

focus on some things while ignoring other things

From Phineas Gage, researchers learned that the _____________ lobe of the brain is important for reasoning abilities and control of emotion.

frontal

prototype theory problems

how are prototypes formed

gestalt psychology e.g.

illusory contours, figure-ground

Not noticing a change in the environment from moment to moment is called

inattentional blindness

mcclelland helps to deal with

into that might be unclear & relates to the way the brain works

representationalist approach

knowledge is held in a memory as representations that we can operate on

selective attention e,g,

lectures

template matching theory problem

life is variable we would need millions of templates to process everything

The MEG technique provides better

location accuracy than EEG.

top-down e.g.

memory, senses (perceptions)

Schneider and Shiffrin's (1977) experiments showed that when the targets and distractors were ___________, the task became automatic for the subjects.

of the same types

embodied cognition provides

or affords us information so that we can do things in the world

perception

other parts of the cortex aid in perception making what our eyes have picked up meaningful

Which core principle of the scientific method involves the assumption that simpler explanations of behavior are preferred?

parsimony

association areas =

parts of the brain that put sensory input together into a cohesive whole or put sensations together to make more complex perceptions

Which of the three approaches to perception would describe perception of a doorway in terms of whether it can be walked through?

perception/action

selective attention helps us avoid

perceptual chaos

motion agnosia e.g.

pouring coffee all the way

feature analysis theory distinctive features

pressent in one patter nut not another

v1

primary visual cortex

visual agnosia

problems recognizing something visual

LGN

provides correlations between spatial and temporal information from eyes and ears

The measure used by researchers that indicates the speed with which someone completes a task is known as

reaction time

Which of the following parts of a sensory system is responsible for transforming stimulus energy into neural signals?

receptor cells

experimental studies

response time and accuracy of responses

ventral pathways

sideways/what

Which brain recording technique(s) is (are) often limited to laboratory animals because it requires insertion of a recording needle into the brain?

single cell recording

In Treisman and Gelade's (1980) experiments on visual search for a target, the targets in the _____________ condition seemed to pop out of the displays.

single feature

object recognition

stimulus identified

bottom up e.g.

stimulus, senses (perceptions), stimulus

dorsal pathways

top/where spacial

representationalist approach metaphor

uses a computer metaphor as its basis

sensation includes

vision hearing touch smell taste and kinesthetic senses

vision =

visual cortex in the occipital lobe

gestalt psychology

we see many patterns in wholes rather than parts

The dorsal visual pathway extends into the motor cortex,

whereas the ventral visual pathway extends into the temporal lobe where language is processed.

representationalist works well

with research on neuroscience