Cognitive Psychology - Ch. 2

You are walking down the street and see a nice car drive by. You notice its color, movement, and shape. All of these features are processed

in different parts of the brain.

Which of the following is similar to early ideas scientists had about the brain's physical properties?

A web

Which parts of neurons are also known as a "nerve fiber"?

Axons

Josiah is trying to speak to his wife, but his speech is very slow and labored, often with jumbled sentence structure. Josiah may have damage to which area of the brain?

Broca's area

What does the principal of neural representation state?

Everything a person experiences is based on representations in the person's nervous system.

Sarah has experienced brain damage making it difficult for her to understand spatial layout. Which area of her brain has most likely sustained damage?

Parahippocampal place area (PPA)

Before the advent of intercoms, old mansions had a sash in each room. Each sash was connected to a bell on a master board in the servants' office. When someone pulled a sash in a particular room, a bell corresponding to the room would ring on the master board, informing a servant where to go to provide assistance. This system is similar to which of the following?

Specificity coding

What is the gap between the end of a neuron's axon and the dendrites or cell body of another neuron known as?

Synapse

Why is it easier to study brain tissue from newborn animals than brain tissue from adults?

The density of cells in a newborn brain is small compared with the density in an adult brain.

Early studies of brain tissue that used staining techniques and microscopes from the 19th century described the "nerve net." These early understandings were in error in the sense that the nerve net was believed to be

continuous.

Brain imaging has made it possible to

determine which areas of the brain are involved in different cognitive processes.

Neurons that respond to specific qualities of objects, such as orientation, movement, and length, are called

feature detectors.

Barbara has recently been diagnosed with abdominal cancer. Her oncologist wants to determine the best treatment method to eliminate the tumors. Her gastroenterologist is focused on relieving her symptoms and restoring normal digestive functioning. Barbara's psychologist works to help minimize her anxiety and keep her spirits up. The fact that these doctors are considering Barbara's situation with different goals and from different perspectives is similar to the idea of __________ presented in your textbook.

levels of analysis

If the intensity of a stimulus that is presented to a touch receptor is increased, this tends to increase the __________ in the receptor's axon.

rate of nerve firing

The idea that an object could be represented by the firing of a specialized neuron that responds only to that object is called _____________.

specificity coding

A synapse is

the gap that separates two different neurons.

Edgar Adrian studied the relationship between nerve firing and sensory experience by measuring how the firing of a neuron from a receptor in the skin changed as he applied more pressure to the skin. He found that

the rate of nerve firing increased as he increased the pressure.