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191 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
Cognitive Psych |
the branch of psych concerned with the scientific study of the mind |
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Mind |
role in memory, problem solving, decision making, functioning and survival and routine stuff |
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Main cognitive psych question |
how does the mind achieve what it does |
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Donders 1868 experiment |
how long does it take to make a decision? measured reaction time but have to infer mental responses bc cannot be directly measured |
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Wundt's Psych Lab 1879 |
analytic introspection to describe experience structuralism |
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Structuralism |
overall experience is determined by combining basic elements of experience called sensation |
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Ebbinghaus' Memory Experiment |
how rapidly info that is learned is lost over time using quantitative method by repeating lists of non sense syllables and timed each trial with delays between |
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Savings + Ebbinghaus |
original time to learn the list minus time to relearn after delay |
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Savings Curve +Ebbinghaus |
memory drops fast for first 2 days and then levels out |
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William James Principles of Psych |
observations about the operations of his own mind in order to discover the nature of attention |
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Tolman and Re Emergence of Cognition |
rat in maze looking for food tries all paths not just previously rewarded ones- infer cognition |
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Die Cognition Rise Behaviourism |
watson, skinner, classical and operant positive withdrawal of negative reinforcement |
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Info Processing Approach |
traces sequences of mental operations involved in cognition (# of stages) |
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AI and Info Theory |
Newell and Simon create the logic theorist program. used human like reasoning process to solve problems |
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Beilock and Choking Under Pressure |
more likely to show up in hard and high stakes tasks |
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Models |
representations of structures or processes that help us visualize/explain the structure/process 2 kinds |
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Structural Models |
represent structures in the brain involved with specific functions simple and low detail but important info visualize layout + easier to study |
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Process Models |
illustrate how a process operates make complicated systems easier to understand and provide a starting point for research |
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Change Blindness |
failure to detect change in environment |
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Lab Procedure of Change Blindness |
pic 1: photo of scene/object mask: blank screen pic 2: alternate photo |
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Outcome of Research on Change Blindness |
surprisingly hard, poor performance though confident prior to procedure |
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Cognition |
create representations of the world used for goals, survival, adapt create and control mental functioning thinking |
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Psychophysics |
behaviour + movement processes and understanding behaviour through movement/change v math |
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Cognitive Study |
look at visible consequences from invisible causes |
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Absolute Threshold |
limits of perceptual system, just noticeable difference |
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Problems with Introspection |
variability, unconscious, inaccurate |
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Pavlov |
classical conditioning |
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Thorndyke |
contingency reinforcement |
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Watson |
remove references to the mind, baby albert, behaviourism |
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Skinner |
operant conditioning |
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The Computer Revolution |
information processing, metaphor for human thinking. info goes in, stuff happens we can't see, output |
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The Working Memory Model |
visualize computer process |
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Ai |
feedback loop so self modifying non reliant on human programming once started |
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PDP/Parallel Distributive Processing |
model designed to work like human brain |
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Cognitive Neuroscience |
the study of the physiological basis of cognition |
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Levels of Analysis |
a topic can be studied in a number of different ways, with each approach contributing its own dimension to our understanding |
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3 Methods Used to Study Cog Neuroscience |
recording from single neurons, effects of brain damage, creating images of the brain |
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Basic Neuron Parts |
cell body, dendrites, axons, synapse, receptors, neural circuits |
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Cell Body |
metabolic centre and keeps cell alive |
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Dendrites |
branch out form cell body and receive signals |
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Axons |
long processes that transmits signals to other neurons |
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Synapse |
small gap between axon and dendrite or cell body of another neuron |
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Neural Circuits |
neurons form cliques and only talk to some people |
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Receptors |
pick up info from environment |
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Recording Neurons |
use micro electrodes
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Resting Potential |
the value which stays the same as long as there are no signals in the neuron |
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Nerve Impulse |
gets transmitted down axon |
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Action Potential |
the impulse, lasts a millisecond |
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Neurotransmitter |
released when signal reaches synapse at axon end. if crowded sensation is intense, if separated sensation is weak |
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Principle of Neural Representation |
everything you experience is based on representations in nervous system rather than direct contact |
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Hierarchical Processing |
progression from lower to higher brain areas |
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Specificity Coding |
a neuron for every different thing encountered (unlikely too many things in the world) |
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Population Coding |
representation of an object by pattern of firing of many neurons |
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Sparse Coding |
representation of an object by pattern of firing of few neurons (similar process when remembering is likely) |
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Localization of Functioning |
specific functions are served by specific areas of the brain (most cog functions served by cerebral cortex) |
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Broca's Area |
specialized for speech - producing language |
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Wernicke's Area |
speech was fluent and grammar correct but incoherent - comprehending language |
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Occipital Lobe |
visual cortex |
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Temporal Lobe |
auditory cortex for hearing |
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Parietal Lobe |
holds somatosensory cortex for touch |
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Frontal Lobe |
coordinates senses and higher cognitive functioning |
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Prosopagnosia |
damage in temporal lobe - unable to recognize faces |
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Double Disassociation |
if damage to one area of the brain causes function A to be absent while function B is present and damage to another area does the opposite |
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Brain Imaging |
shows which areas are activated by different cognition |
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fMRI |
measures activity in small cubed brain areas called voxels, use big magnet to interrupt brain functions, picks up chemical trace of neural activity |
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Parahippocampol Place Area |
images of in/outdoors activate this brain area |
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Extrasriate Body Area |
images of bodies (not faces) and parts |
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Distributed Representation |
specific cognitive functions activate many areas of the brain, so localization happens but everything we experience is too complex to activate just one area |
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Neural Networks |
groups of neurons/structures connected together |
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Fusiform Gyrus (fusiform face area) |
on underside of brain, we see faces all over the place |
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Double Disassociation |
when someone loses this ability but maintains this one and an opposite (ex: patient B.E) |
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B.E |
had a stroke and lost ability to do most arithmetic but understood the relation between numbers and could solve problems with strategies and the researchers found people with opposite symptoms |
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The HM lie |
damage isn't localized, sliced up his brain and research didn't reflect the initial claim of local trauma, interviews with fam said he had memory problems previous to accident |
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Transcranial Interruptions |
use powerful magnet to interrupt function of brain temporarily in order to simulate lesions |
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Advantages of Transcranial Interruptions |
precise timing and fairly good localization. enable inferences about causal links between area and behaviour |
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Disadvantaged of Transcranial Interruptions |
impossible to stimulate deep brain structures. can't know if area is necessary to functioning |
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Neural Activation |
sodium potassium pumps, action and resting potentials |
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Gaba |
neurotransmitter that shuts down impulses, a chemical that mimics this is alcohol |
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Limits to fMRI |
brain constantly very active so lots of stuff lights up, have to use subtractive techniques (compare resting vs active states) |
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Limits to Neuroimaging |
everyone has a unique brain so hard to generalize, can't say certainly why something is active, noise from thoughts present, use stat inferences to extrapolate activity, potential bug that could invalidate 15 years of research |
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EEG Limits |
hard to do with infants, must train subjects, can't put kids through fMRI bc too wiggly and blinky, only done if absolutely essential |
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Principles of Localization |
higher order functions controlled by neocortex, where sensory info comes in and processing happens |
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Perceptual Illusions |
mismatch between perception and reality, constructive process and brain uses shortcuts to assemble which can cause errors |
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Ebbinghaus Illusion |
tricks brain into thinking one circle is bigger than the other because of the size of the dots surrounding it |
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Muller-Lyerr Illusion |
lines are the same length but have arrows pointing in different directions which makes the lines look different lengths |
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Light From Above Bias |
light is generally assumed to come for above and most of the time this is true so light from below looks unnatural |
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Lilac Chaser Illusion |
apparent motion, negative afterimage and troxlier fading |
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Negative Afterimage |
complimentary colour appears after a spot disappears |
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Troxlier Fading |
static background |
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Lateral Antagonism Illusions |
rods vs cones |
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Sensory Systems |
huge amounts of info, ambiguous + flawed, need for top down processes (brain fills in info that it didn't pick up) we actually have ten senses not five |
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Sensory Adaption |
explains why you can't easily smell your own body odour/perfume, desensitized, we perceive changes not constants , unhabituating is difficult |
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Physical to Mental Events |
through transduction made possible by sensory receptors, physical events (light, sound, chemicals) turn into psychological experiences (vision, sound, taste) |
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Transduction |
conversion of one form of energy (ie light) to another form (ie neural impulses) |
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Retina |
rods (night vision) cones (daylight and colour vision) info converges into receptive fields |
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Peripheral Vision |
really good with night vision because more rods in this area, more cones in direct vision |
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Trichromatic Theory |
suggests there are three types of colour receptors with every other colour being additive of subtractive combinations of the three: red, green, and blue |
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Opponent Process Theory |
suggests that all colour experiences arise from three systems each of which include 2 opponent elements: red vs green, blue vs yellow, black vs white |
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The Visual Pathway |
left side of each eye ball goes to the centre of the optical cortex, right side does the same |
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Depth Perception |
monocular cues, linear perspective, texture gradients, interposition, relative size, height in plane, light and shadow |
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The Spiral Motion After Effects |
neurons coding motion habituate- sensory adaption, brain takes over + assumes things are moving, don't need neurons anymore, brain still processes motion (max 30 sec later) |
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Motherese |
baby talk, speak in higher positive tones, try to respond. enjoy smiles good for development. |
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Auditory Processing |
need for two auditory receptor mechanisms, location info calculated as cognitive processes with visual depth perception being similar |
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McGurk Effect |
vision impacts how we interpret sound |
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Tritone Paradox |
brain have a preference of what you hear so you may not hear exactly |
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Sheppard Tone Illusion |
help explain why music has such an impact on life (combo of perception and top down attention) |
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Perception |
experiences resulting from stimulations of senses |
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Perceiving a Scene |
necessary to go beyond the pattern of light and dark that a scene creates on the retina |
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AI prob: Inverse Projection Problem |
the task of determining the object responsible for a particular image on the retina (start with retinal image and extend rays from the eyes) ambiguous bc image could be from a number of objects |
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AI prob: Hidden/Blurred Objects |
parts hidden continue to exist, which humans know |
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AI prob: Different Viewpoints |
continually changing based on angle of view |
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AI prob: Viewpoint INvarience |
the ability to recognize an object seen from different viewpoints |
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Bottom Up Processing |
the sequence of events from eye to brain |
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Top Down Processing |
originates in brain at top of perceptual system (factors like environmental knowledge, expectations people have, additional info) |
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Perceiving Objects |
depend on orientation and context/previous knowledge/familiarity |
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Hearing Words in a Sentence |
experience with language influences perception (a Spanish and English speaker can receive identical stimuli but experience different perceptions) |
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Speech Segmentation |
because knowledge of language people are able to tell when one word ends and the next begins |
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Direct Pathway Model |
pain occurs when receptors in skin (nociceptors) are stimulated and send signals in a path from skin to brain |
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Modern Pain Model |
pain influenced by what a person expects (placebo, distraction) |
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Helmholtz's Theory of Unconscious Inference |
our perceptions are the results of unconscious assumptions/ inferences we make about the environment (resembles problem solving but happens rapid and unconsciously) |
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Gestalt Principles of Organization |
reject structuralism, various principles to help explain perception including apparent movement, good continuation, law of pragnanz, principle of similarity |
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Apparent Movement |
although movement is perceived, nothing is actually moving which leads to 2 conclusions) perception can't be explained by sensation and the whole is different from the sum of its parts |
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Principle of Good Continuation (PPO) |
when connected, points result in straight/smoothly curving lines which tend to be following the smoothest path. overlapping objects continue existing when covered |
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Law Of Pragnanz (PPO) |
every stimulating pattern is seen in such a way that the resulting structure is as simple as possible |
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Principle of Similarity (PPO) |
similar things appear to be grouped together |
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Regularities of the Environment |
perception influenced by knowledge of characteristics of the environment that occur frequently |
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Oblique Effect |
there are more vertical and horizontal orientations in the environment that oblique (angler) orientations |
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Semantic Regularities |
meaning of a scene/ the characteristics associated with functions carried out in different types of scenes |
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Scene Schema |
the knowledge of what a given scene typically contains |
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Bayesian Inference |
our estimate of the probability of an outcome is determined by 1) prior probability and 2) likelihood |
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Prior Probability |
our initial belief about the probability of an outcome |
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Likelihood |
the extent to which the available evidence is consistent with the outcome |
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Theory of Natural Selction |
characters that enhance survival abilities and reproduction (pass on to future generations) |
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Experience Dependent Plasticity |
the mechanism through which the brain is changed by experience (neurons change to respond more strongly to specific aspects of a familiar environment) |
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Perception and Action |
coordination continually occurring between perceiving stimuli and taking action toward them |
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Brain Ablation |
study the effects of removing parts of animal brains |
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Neuropsychology |
study of behaviours of people with brain damage |
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Object Discrimination Problem (Brain Ablation Experiment) |
pick the correct shape after being shown what subject is looking for |
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Landmark Discrimination Problem (Brain Ablation Experiment) |
pick food closest to cylinder- hard without temporal + pareital lobe |
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What Pathway |
pathway leading from striate cortex to temporal lobe |
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Where Pathway |
pathway leading from striate to parietal lobe |
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D.F Case Study |
two streams, one to judge orientation and one for coordination of vision and action |
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Perception Pathway |
visual cortex to temporal lobe (where the D.F damage was) |
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Action Pathway |
visual cortex to parietal lobe |
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Perception and Memory |
neurons in hippocampus (involved with storing memories) that responds to both seeing pictures and remembering them later |
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Attention |
the ability to focus on specific stimuli or locations |
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Selective Attention |
attending to one thing while ignoring others |
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Distraction |
one stimulus interfering with the processing of another |
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Divided Attention |
paying attention to more than one thing at a time |
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Attentional Capture |
a rapid shifting of attention usually caused by a stimulus like loud noise, bright light, or sudden movement |
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Visual Scanning |
movements of the eyes from one location or object to another |
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Dichotic Listening |
presenting different stiuli to left and right ears |
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Cocktail Party Effect |
the ability to focus on one stimulus while filtering out other stimuli |
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Broadbent's Filter Model of Attention |
sensory memory, filter, detector, and short term memory |
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Sensory Memory |
hold incoming info for a fraction of a second then transfer to filter |
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Filter |
id the message being attended based on physical characters and lets only this pass through to the detector, all else filtered out |
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Detector |
processes the info from passed along message to determine higher level characteristics of it (ie meaning) |
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Short Term Memory |
holds info for 10-15 seconds then transfers to long term which holds forever |
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Bottleneck Model |
Broadbent's model restricts info flow |
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Early Selection Model |
Broadbent's filter eliminates the unattended info right at start of info flow |
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Dear Aunt Jane |
Moray's experiment revealed that unattended ear picks up on stuff at some level and takes meaning into account |
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Attenuator |
analyze incoming info in terms of physical characters , language, and meaning |
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Attenuation Model of Attention |
info in the channel is selected but language and meaning can also be used to separate messages |
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Dictionary Unit |
message is analyzed and previously stored words within this are activated when coinciding with message |
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Late Selection Model of Attention |
words can be processed to the level of meaning even if unattended done before the message foes to further processes |
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Processing Capacity |
the amount of info people can handle and sets a limit on their ability to process incoming info |
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Perceptual Load |
related to the level of difficulty of a task (low and high load tasks) |
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Lavies Load Theory of Attention |
low load cognitive tasks that use few cognitive resources may leave resources available for processing unattended task |
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Stroop Effect |
the names and colours of the words create a conflicting response and therefore slow responding time |
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Overt Attention |
shifting attention form one place to another by moving eyes |
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Covert Attention |
shifting attention from one place to another while keeping eyes stationary |
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Central Vison |
area you're looking at |
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Peripheral Vision |
off to the side |
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Fovea |
objects in central vision fall here, great detail vision |
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Fixation |
briefly pause on stimulation |
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Saccadic Eye Movements |
a rapid/jerky movement from one fixation to the next |
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Stimulus Salience |
the physical properties of the stimulus such as colour, contrast, or movement |
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Saliency Map |
analyze characteristics (colour, orientation, intensity) at each location in the scene and combining these values |
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Precueing |
determine whether presenting a cue indicating where a test stimulus will appear enhances the processing of of the target stimulus |
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Same Object Advantage |
faster responding occurs when enhancement spreads within an object |
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Automatic Processing |
occurs without intention and at cost of only some cognitive resources |
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Innatentional Blindness |
not attending to something that is clearly visible |
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Binding |
the process by which features suck as colour, form, motion, and location are combined to create our perception of a coherent object |
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Binding Problem |
the question of how an objects individual features become bound together |
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Feature Integration Theory |
two stages including pre attentive phase and illusory conjunctions |
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Pre Attentive Phase |
objects are analyzed into separate features and exist independently of each other at this stage |
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Illusory Conjunctions |
combine features from different stimuli and think they're all from one when they aren't |
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Focused Attention Stage |
free floating features are combined then we perceive the object |
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Feature Search |
when looking for a single feature |
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Conjunction Search |
when looking for a combination of features |
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Topographic Map |
spatial map of visual stimuli on visual cortex (attention maps) |