Cognitive Psych

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using senses (sight, hearing, recognizing environment)

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perception

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focus on something specific, like cell phones

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attention

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knowledge of things like names. worsens with age. often faulty at crime scenes

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memory

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use of sentences

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language

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weighting out options, making choices

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reasoning and decision making

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pondering evidence to make determinations about occurrences

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problem solving and reasoning

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the mental processes that are involved in perception, attention, memory, problem solving, reasoning, and making decisions

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cognition

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the branch of psychology concerned with the scientific study of cognition

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cognitive psychology

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person associated with reaction time

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Donders (1868)

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measuring how long a cognitive process takes

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mental chronometry

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the interval between presentation of a stimulus and a person's response to the stimulus (one of the most widely used measures in cog. psych)

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reaction time

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(in perceiving a light) one location for the light, participants push button as quickly as possible after light is illuminated

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simple reaction time

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light could appear on left or right. participants push one of two buttons, based on the light's location

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choice reaction time

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some of our perceptions are the result of unconscious assumptions that we make about the environment (rectangles overlapping)

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unconscious inference

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ex. reading a list of nonsense syllables out loud, determining how many repetitions it takes to repeat the list w/o error. Then waiting a period of time and relearning the list using the same procedure (usually taking fewer repetitions)

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savings method

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our experience is determined by combining basic elements of experience called sensations

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structuralism

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

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analytic introspection

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objective, experimental branch of psych., prediction and control of behavior

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behaviorism

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a shift in psych from the behaviorist's stimulus-response relationships to an approach in which the main thrust was to explain behavior in terms of the mind (1950s)

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cognitive revolution

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new way to study the mind after the invention of the computer

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information-processing approach

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measuring the relationship between physiology and behavior (in light experiment, having a physiological and mental component)

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behavioral approach

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(Shepard and Metzler) rotating images using the human mind

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mental rotation

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used to understand the big picture

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models

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explains the basic processes that occur in memory. pics of info flowing form one stage to the next (not complex enough)

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modal model of memory

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can take in a large amount of info, but it fades rapidly (0.5 seconds)

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sensory memory

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receives some sensory memory and holds info for 15-20 seconds unless rehearsed

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short-term memory

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info can be stored for long periods of time

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long-term memory

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interdisciplinary study of the mind (psych, ling, anthro, neuro, comp sci, phil)

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cognitive science

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conscious experience that results from stimulation of the senses (depends on both incoming stimulation and existing knowledge)

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perception

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knowledge humans have gained from their experience in perceiving

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perceptual intelligence

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processing that starts with information received by the receptors (data-based processing) (incoming data)

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bottom-up processing

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processing that involves a person's knowledge (and expectations) (knowledge-based processing)

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top-down processing

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demonstration in which presentation of a "rat-like" or "man-like" stimulus picture can bias perception of another picture that is presented immediately afterward, so that it is more likely to be perceived as a rat or a man. An example of the technique of priming.

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rat-man demonstration

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cells that are specialized to receive and transmit information in the nervous system

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neurons

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part of a cell that contains mechanisms that keep the cell alive. (in some neurons, the cell bodies and the dendrites associated w/ them receive info from other neurons)

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cell body

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structures that branch out from the cell body to receive electrical signals from other neurons

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dendrites

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part of the neuron that transmits signals from the cell body to the synapse at the end of the axon (nerve fiber)

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axon

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specialized neural structures that respond to environmental stimuli such as light, mechanical stimulation, or chemical stimuli

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sensory receptors

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the transformation of one form of energy into another form of energy

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transduction

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a network of neurons that lines the back of the eye

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retina

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the bundle of about 1 million nerve fibers (in humans) that leaves the back of the eye (carries signals that were generated and processed in the retina)

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optic nerve

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electrical potential that travels down a neuron's axon (stimulus intensity = rate of firing)

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action potentials

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small wires that are used to record electrical signals from the axons of neurons

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microelectrodes

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a property of action potentials (they travel unchanged down the length of an axon)

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propogated

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space between the end of an axon and the cell body or dendrite of the next axon

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synapse

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chemicals that are released at the synapse in response to incoming action potentials

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neurotransmitters

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neurotransmitter that causes an excitatory effect on a membrane (causes an increase in firing or an increase in the likelihood of firing)

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excitatory neurotransmitter

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neurotransmitter that causes an inhibitory effect on a membrane (causes a decrease in firing or decrease in the likelihood of firing)

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inhibitory neurotransmitter

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an effect caused by excitatory neurotransmitters that increases the rate or likelihood of nerve firing

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excitation

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an effect caused by an inhibitory neurotransmitter that decreases the rate of nerve firing or likelihood of nerve firing

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inhibition

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interactions between neurons that cause a target neuron or group of neurons to respond to specific stimuli

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neural processing

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group of interconnected neurons that are responsible for neural processing

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neural circuit

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synapsing of a number of neurons onto one neuron

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convergence

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a type of neuron in the visual cortex that responds best to presentation of an oriented bar of light

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simple cells

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a type of neuron in the visual cortex that responds best to a moving, oriented bar of light. responding often occurs to a specific direction of movement

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complex cells

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a type of neuron in the visual cortex that responds best to an oriented bar of light of a particular length moving in a particular direction

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end-stopped cells

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

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feature detectors

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the representation of specific stimuli or experiences by the firing of neurons

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neural code

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the representation of a specific stimulus by the firing of neurons that respond to only that stimulus (ex. signaling of a person's face by the firing of a neuron that responds only to that person's face)

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specificity coding

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a neuron that responds only to a highly specific stimulus (could be a specific image, such as a picture of a person's grandmother, or a concept, such as the idea of a grandmother in general, or a person's real life grandmother. not a generally accepted concept.

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grandmother cell

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representation of an object experience by the firing of a number of neurons

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distributed coding

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the 3mm thick outer layer of the brain that contains the mechanisms responsible for higher mental functions such as perception, language, thinking, and problem solving

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cerebral cortex

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the lobe on the side of the brain that contains mechanisms responsible for language, memory, hearing, and vision

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temporal lobe

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the lobe at the back of the brain that is devoted primarily to analyzing incoming visual information

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occipital lobe

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the lobe at the top of the brain that contains mechanisms responsible for sensations caused by stimulation of the skin and also some aspects of visual information

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parietal lobe

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the lobe in the front of the brain that serves higher functions such as language, thought, memory, and motor functioning

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frontal lobe

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brain structures located beneath the cerebral cortex. (ex. amygdala, hippocampus, thalamus)

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subcortical structures

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a subcortical structure that is important in forming memories. may be involved in retrieving older episodic memories.

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hippocampus

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a subcortical structure that is involved in processing emotional aspects of experience, including memory for emotional events

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amygdala

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a subcortical structure that is important for processing information from the senses of vision, hearing, and touch

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thalamus

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location of specific functions in specific areas of the brain (ex. areas have been identified that are specialized to process information involved in the perception of movement, form, speech, and different aspects of memory)

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localization of function

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

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fusiform face area (FFA)

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the study of the behavioral effects of brain damage in humans

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neuropsychology

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a situation in cases of brain damage, in which the damage causes a problem in one function while not affecting other functions

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dissociations

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a situation that occurs in cases of brain damage, in which the damage causes a problem in one function while not affecting other functions. one function is present and another is absent.

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single dissociation

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a situation in which a single dissociation can be demonstrated in one person, and the opposite type of single dissociation can be demonstrated in another person

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double dissociation

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techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) that result in images of the brain that represent the brain activity, which is measured in response to specific cognitive tasks

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brain imaging

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a brain-imaging technique involving the injection of a radioactive tracer

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positron emission tomography (PET)

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the technique used in brain imaging in which baseline activity is subtracted from the activity generated by a specific task. the result is the activity due only to the task that is being studied

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subtraction technique

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a brain-imaging technique involving the measurement of how blood flow changes in response to cognitive activity. unlike pet, this technique does not involve the injection of a radioactive tracer

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function magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)

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a mechanism that causes neurons to develop so they respond best to the type of simulation that they experience

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experience-dependent plasticity

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a model of object recognition that proposes that recognition occurs when a stimulus matches a specific template (not accepted)

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template matching

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McClelleand and Rumelhart's model of word recognition that proposes that word recognition is based on activation, sent through three levels: the feature level, the letter level, and the word level

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interactive activation model

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part of the interactive activation model of word recognition that contains feature units. These units receive inputs form stimuli in the environment and respond to specific features such as straight lines, curved lines, or lines with a specific orientation

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feature level

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units in the interactive activation model of word recognition that respond to specific features

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feature units

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part of the interactive activation model of word recognition that contains letter units, which respond to specific letters. Letter units receive inputs from feature units.

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letter level

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units in the interactive activation model of word recognition that respond to specific letters

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letter units

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part of the interactive activation model of word recognition that contains word units, which are all of the words that a person knows. Word units receive input form letter units.

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word level

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units in the interactive activation model of word recognition that respond to specific words

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word units

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a feature-based approach to object perception that proposes that the recognition of objects is based on three-dimensional features called geons

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recognition-by-components (RBC) theory

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the basic feature unit of the recognition-by-components approach to object perception. they are basic three-dimensional volumes (36?)

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geons

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in recognition-by-components theory, the idea that geons can be identified when viewed from many different angles

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view invariance

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in recognition-by-components theory, properties that give geons the property of view invariance (parallel edges, etc)

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view invariant properties

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in recognition-by-components theory, the property that geons can be distinguished from each other from almost all viewpoints

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discriminability

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in recognition-by-components theory, the property that geons can be perceived under "noisy" conditions that obscure part of the geon

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resistance to visual noise

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the process of organizing elements of the environment into separate objects

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perceptual organization

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a group of psychologists who disagreed with the structuralist approach to perception. they proposed the laws of perceptual organization and were concerned with how figure is separated from ground. they were concerned with mechanisms such as fixation that inhibit problem solving.

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Gestalt psychologists

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an approach to psychology that explained perception as the adding up of small elementary units called sensations

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structuralism

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the small elementary units that, according to the structuralists, are added together to create perceptions

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sensations

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rules proposed by the Gestalt psychologist to explain how small elements of a scene or a display become perpetually grouped to form larger units

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laws of perceptual organization

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law of perceptual organization that states that every stimulus pattern is seen in such a way that the resulting structure is as simple as possible

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law of Pragnanz (law of good figure, law of simplicity)

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the law of perceptual organization that states that similar things appear to be grouped together

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law of similarity

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law of perceptual organization stating that points that, when connected, result in straight or smoothly curving lines, are seen as belonging together. in addition, lines tend to be seen as following the smoothest path

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law of good continuation

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law of perceptual organization that states that things that are near to each other appear to be grouped together

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law of proximity (law of nearness)

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law of perceptual organization that states that things moving in the same direction appear to be grouped together

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law of common fate

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law of perceptual organization that states that things are more likely to form groups if the groups appear familiar or meaningful

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law of familiarity

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a "rule of thumb" that provides a best guess solution to a problem

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heuristic

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a procedure that is guaranteed to solve a problem

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algorithm

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the ambiguity of the retinal image caused by the fact that a particular image could be caused by an infinite number of objects, with different sizes, shapes, orientations, and located at different distances from the eye

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inverse projection problem

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the process of perceiving individual words from the continuous flow of the speech signal

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speech segmentation

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when a large object is occluded by a smaller one, we perceive the large object as continuing behind the smaller one

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occlusion heuristic

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the assumption that light is coming from above. this can influence how we perceive 3d objects that are illuminated by light

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light from above heuristic

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in language, the chances that one sound will follow another sound

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transitional probabilities

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the process of learning about transitional probabilities and other characteristics of the environment (present in 8 mos old infants)

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statistical learning

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

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parahippocampal place area (PPA)

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

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extrastriate body are (EBA)

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the idea that letters are easier to identify when they are part of a word than when they are not seen in isolation or in a string of letters that do not form a word

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word superiority effect

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in the interactive activation model of word recognition, activation that is sent from word units back to each of the letter units for that word

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feedback activation

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an approach to object perception developed by Anne Treisman that proposes that object perception occurs in a sequence of stages in which features are first analyzed and then combined to result in perception of an object

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feature integration theory (FIT)

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the first stage of Treisman's feature integration theory, in which an object is analyzed into its features

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preattentive stage

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a situation that has been demonstrated in experiments by Anne Treisman, in which features from different objects are inappropriately combined

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illusory conjunctions

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the second stage of Treisman's feature integration theory. According to the theory, attention causes the combination of features into perception of an object

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focused attention stage

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a condition caused by brain damage that causes a person to have difficulty focusing attention on individual objects

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Balint's syndrome

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focusing on specific features of the environment or on certain thoughts or activities

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attention

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the ability to focus on one message and ignore all others

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selective attention

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the procedure of repeating a message out loud as it is heard. commonly used in conjunction with studies of selective attention that use the dichotic listening procedure

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shadowing

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

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dichotic listening

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the ability to focus attention on one message and ignore others

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cocktail party phenomenon

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a model of attention that proposes that selective attention is achieved by a filtering out of unintended messages (Donald Broadbent) (sensory memory, filter, detector --> short term memory)

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filter model of attention

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model of attention that explains selective attention by early filtering-out of the unattended message. in this model, the filtering step occurs before the message is analyzed to determine its meaning

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early-selection model

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Anne Treisman's model of selective attention that proposes that selection occurs in two stages. In the first stage, the attenuator analyzes the incoming message and lest through the attended message, but at a lower attenuated strength

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attenuation theory of attention

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in Treisman's model of selective attention, this analyzes the incoming message in terms of physical characteristics, language, and meaning. Attended messages pass through this at full strength, and the unattended messages pass through with reduced strength

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attenuator

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a component of Treisman's attenuation theory of attention. This processing unit contains stored words and thresholds for activating the words. This helps explain why we can sometimes hear a familiar word, such as our name, in an unintended message

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dictionary unit

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a model of selective attention that proposes that selection of stimuli for final processing does not occur until after the information in the message has been analyzed for its meaning

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late selection model

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how much of a person's cognitive resources are used to accomplish a task. This is important for some explanations of selective attention and also for explanations of how people process information in working memory

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task load

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a task that uses most or all of a person's resources and so leaves little capacity to handle other tasks

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high-load task

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a task that uses few resources, leaving some capacity to handle other tasks

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low-load task

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a procedure in which participants are instructed to respond to a target stimulus that is flanked, or surrounded by distractor stimuli that they are supposed to ignore. the degree to which the distractor interferes with responding to the target is taken as an indication of whether the distractor stimuli are being processed

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flanker-compatibility task

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the ability to pay attention to, or carry out, two or more different tasks simultaneously

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divided attention

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processing that occurs automatically w/o the person intending to do it, and which also uses few cognitive resources. Associated with easy or well-practiced tasks

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automatic processing

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an effect originally studied by JR Stroop, using a task in which a person is instructed to respond to one aspect of a stimulus, such as the color of ink that a word is printed in, and ignore another aspect, such as what the word spells. effect is that people find this task difficult when the ink color differs from what the word spells

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stroop effect

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processing that involves close attention. in Schneider and Shiffrins's experiment, it was needed in the difficult, varied mapping condition of the experiment, even after extensive practice

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controlled processing

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eye movements from one fixation point to another

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saccades

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in perception and attention, a pausing of the eyes on places of interest while observing a scene

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fixation

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a device for measuring where people look (fixate) in a scene and how they move their eyes from one fixation point to another

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eye tracker

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bottom-up factors that determine attention to elements of a scene. ex. color, contrast, orientation. the meaningfulness of the images (top down factor) does not contribute to this

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stimulus salience

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a map calculated by Parkhurst and coworkers based on stimulus salience, which indicates how observers will fixate different areas of a scene

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saliency map

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a person's knowledge about what is likely to be contained in a particular scene. this knowledge can help guide attention to different areas of the scene, for example, knowledge of what is usually in an office may cause a person to look toward the desk to see the computer

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scene schema

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not noticing something even though it is in clear view, usually caused by failure to pay attention to the object or the place where the object is located

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inattentional blindness

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a procedure in which participants are given a cue which will, usually, help them carry out a subsequent task. used in visual attention experiments in which participants are presented with a cue that tells them where to direct their attention

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precueing

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models of attention that propose that attention operates on whatever stimuli are at a particular location. this contrasts with object-based attention, in which attention is focused on a particular object

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location-based attention

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model of attention proposing that the enhancing effects of attention can be located on a particular object

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object-based attention

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a developmental disorder in which one of the major symptoms is the withdrawal of contact from other people. attention is directed differently.

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autism

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experiencing a sensory impression in the absence of sensory input

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mental imagery

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a type of mental imagery involving vision, in which an image is experienced in the absence of a visual stimulus

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visual imagery

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the debate about whether thought is possible in the absence of images

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imageless-thought debate

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learning that occurs when a participant is presented with pairs of words during a study period and then is tested when one of the words is presented, and the task is to recall the other word

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paired-associate learning

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a hypothesis associated with Palvio's dual coding theory that states that concrete nouns create images that other words can hang onto, and this enhances memory for these words

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conceptual-peg hypothesis

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a process of mental imagery in which a person scans a mental image in his or her mind

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mental scanning

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the debate about whether imagery is based on spatial mechanisms such as those involved in perception, or on propositional mechanisms that are related to language

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imagery debate

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a representation in which different parts of an image can be described as corresponding to specific locations in space

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spatial representation

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a phenomenon that accompanies a mechanism, but is not actually part of the mechanism (lights that flash on a mainframe computer as it operates)

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epiphenomenon

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a representation in which relationships are represented by symbols, as when the words of language represent objects and the relationships between objects

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propositional representation

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corresponds to spatial representation. So called because a spatial representation can be depicted by a picture

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depictive representations

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an explanation proposed to account for the results of some imagery experiments that states that participants unconsciously use knowledge about the world in making their judgments (against depictive or spatial representation)

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tacit-knowledge explanation

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a task used in imagery experiments in which participants are asked to form a mental image of an object and to imagine that they are walking toward this mental image

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mental-walk task

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a type of category-specific neuron that is activated by imagery

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imagery neuron

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a procedure in which magnetic pulses are applied to the skull in order to temporarily disrupt the functioning of part of the brain

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transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)

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a problem caused by brain damage, usually to the right parietal lobes, in which the patient ignores objects in the left half of his or her visual field

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unilateral neglect

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a method for remembering things in which things to be remembered are placed at different locations in a mental image of a spatial layout

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method of loci

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a method for remembering things in which the things to be remembered are associated with concrete words

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pegword technique

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models that people create about what will happen following different decisions

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mental stimulation

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applying a rule to solve a mechanical reasoning problem

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rule-based approach