Cognitive psychology chap 2

What is a key difference between dendrites and axons?

One sends information and the other receives information.

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)

The fusiform face area (FFA) in the brain is often damaged in patients with

prosopagnosia.

Groups of interconnected neurons are referred to as

neural circuits.

Groups of neurons or structures that are connected within the nervous system are called__________.

neural networks

A 10-month-old baby is interested in discovering different textures, comparing the touch sensations between a soft blanket and a hard wooden block. Tactile signals such as these are received by the __________ lobe.

parietal

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

The idea that specific cognitive functions activate many areas of the brain is known as

distributed representation.

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

feature detectors.

Which substance is released when signals reach the synapse at the end of the axon?

Neurotransmitters

Brain imaging has made it possible to

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

Action potentials occur in the

axon

A synapse is

the gap that separates two different neurons.

When the axon is at rest, the inside of the neuron has a charge that is 70 millivolts more negative than the outside. This difference will continue as long as

the neuron is at rest.

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.

Which of the following statements is the most accurate with regard to specificity coding?

It is unlikely to be correct because there are too many stimuli in the world to have a separate neuron for each.

Which part of the nervous system picks up information from the outside environment?

Receptors

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.

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

Your author points out that studying the mind requires both __________ and __________ experiments.

behavioral; physiological

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.

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.

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

Paul Broca's and Carl Wernicke's research provided early evidence for

localization of function.

Recording from single neurons in the brain has shown that neurons responding to specific types of stimuli are often clustered in specific areas. These results support the idea of

localization of function.

The value that stays the same as long as there are no signals in the neuron is known as

resting potential.

When conducting an experiment on how stimuli are represented by the firing of neurons, you notice that neurons respond differently to different faces. For example, Arthur's face causes three neurons to fire, with neuron 1 responding the most and neuron 3 responding the least. Roger's face causes three different neurons to fire, with neuron 7 responding the least and neuron 9 responding the most. Your results support __________ coding.

sparse

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

Which organ is unique in that it appears to be static tissue?

Brain

Which of the following terms does NOT reflect functional network activity in the brain?

Consistent

What does the principal of neural representation state?

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

Taking clay and sand to create bricks, which are then used to build modular wall panels, which are then assembled to construct tall buildings, is similar to which of the following neural concepts?

Hierarchical processing

Which of the following statements best describes how neurons communicate with one another?

A chemical process takes place in the synapse.

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

A web

Which part of a neuron transmits signals to other neurons?

Axons

What is the metabolic center of an individual neuron?

Cell body

Determining the sequence of DNA in humans was a major scientific advance that opened the door to new ideas about illness and approaches to treatment. An individual's unique DNA sequence is similar to which of the following?

Connectome

Which of the following could be considered as always taking a "working vacation"?

Default mode network

The __________ lobe of the cortex receives information from all of the senses and is responsible for coordination of the senses, as well as higher cognitive functions such as thinking and problem solving.

frontal

In the mid-20th century, the study of the mind began using which technique or model inspired by digital computers?

Information processing model

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.

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.