Cognitive Psychology - Exam 1

Front 1

What is cognitive psychology?

Back 1

The scientific study of the human mind. How we perceive, learn, remember, and think.

The study of the structyres and processes of the mind and brain that take in, transform, and use information.

Front 2

The two things we can observe are the manifestations (products, output) of the mind. What are they?

Back 2

Behavior & Physiology

Front 3

3 Theories describing the mind.

Back 3

1. Introspectionism

2. Behaviorism

3. Cognitivism

Front 4

What is introspectionism?

Back 4

Individual introspection of own mind.

Front 5

Who are two famous introspectionists?

Back 5

Wundt & Titchner (counted his own sensations)

Front 6

3 Problems with introspection

Back 6

1. Difficult to verify

2. Private events, not public

3. Evalulates the end product, not the process itself.

Front 7

What is behaviorism?

Back 7

Don't peek at the black box! Observe only correlations between stimulus and response.

Front 8

Who are 3 famous behavioralists?

Back 8

Pavlov, Skinner & Watson

Front 9

What does behaviorism emphasize?

Back 9

What can be directly observed. Ignore the unobservable mind.

Stimuli, responses, reinforcements/rewards.

Rats in mazes.

Front 10

What are the 2 problems with behaviorism?

Back 10

1. Can't account for diversity of human behavior.

2. Limits science to only the observable.

Front 11

What is cognitivism?

Back 11

Infer what is going on in the black box (based on stimulus and response).

Front 12

What is a dependent variable?

Back 12

What you measure/analyze. Results depend on the independent variable.

Ex. reaction time, accuracy, brain activity

Front 13

What is an independent variable?

Back 13

What you manipulate/change in an experiment.

Ex. number of things to be memorized, amount of alcohol ingested, passage of time.

Front 14

What is a main effect?

Back 14

Variation in independent variable lead to observable changes in dependent variable. Represented by a non horizontal line. Without a main effect, the line is completely horizontal. You can have more than one main effect if you have more than one independent variable.

Front 15

What does a graph look like when there are interactions between more than one independent variable?

Back 15

There is an intersection of the main effect lines of each. If there is no intersection and the lines are parallel, there are no interactions between the independent variables. Requires atleast 2 independent variables.

Front 16

What is mental chronometry?

Back 16

Study and evaluation of the time of mental events. Compares time difference between detection and choice tasks. Detection = choice - detection.

Front 17

What are the three stages of mental chronometry?

Back 17

Stimulus

1. Receive

2. Transform

3. Send

Response

Front 18

3 problems with subtractive method of mental chonometry (Donders).

Back 18

1. Assumption of pure insertion - all stages remain the same after a new one is added. But really, adding a new stage CAN influence another.

2. Assumption of additivity - the durations of all stages add together to yield the reaction time. But really stages can act in PARALLEL. This would cause us to consistantly underestimate the real decision time.

3. Assumption that we already know what the stages are.

Front 19

Donders' 2 contributions to cognitive psychology.

Back 19

1. The idea that you can measure mental events.

2. The choice - reaction time procedure.

Front 20

What is perecption?

Back 20

The means by which information acquired from the environment via the sense organs is transformed into experiences, events, sounds, tastes, etc.

Front 21

3 Stages of Perception

Back 21

1. Distal stimululs - actual object

2. Proximal stimulus - the physical encoding of this object on our sensory organs.

3. Percept - the representation of the object in our mind

Front 22

What is "lack of correspondence'?

Back 22

When the percept doesn't correspond to the distal stimulus. Optical illusions.

Front 23

What is "paradoxical correspondence"?

Back 23

When proximal stimulus doesn't correspond to distal stimulus, but percept still does. Based on our minds understanding of constancies in the world.

Ex. Moving objects

Front 24

What is perceptual constancy, and what are the three constancies?

Back 24

Our perception of an object's features remains constant even when viewpoint (and proximal stimulus) changes.

1. Size (doesn't change with distance)

2. Color (doesn't change with lighting)

3. Shape (doesn't change with angle

Front 25

What are the two sets of theories of perception?

Back 25

1. Direct vs. Constructivist

2. Bottom up vs. Top Down

Front 26

What are the 3 ideas behind direct perception?

Back 26

1. Environment provides all necessary cues for perceiving surroundings.

2. Our brains are pre-wired to pick up these cues.

3. Stimulus information is almost always unambiguous

Front 27

What are the ideas of constructuvism?

Back 27

Perception uses data from the world AND our prior knowledge and expectations. Sensory information is sometimes ambiguous.

Front 28

What is bottom-up processing?

Back 28

Processing driven by external stimulus, rather than internal knowledge. Direct perceptuion assumes this.

Front 29

What is top down processing?

Back 29

Processing that is driven by knowledge and expectations.

Front 30

What are the 8 depth cues? Which are binocular?

Back 30

1. Linear perspective (monocular)

2. Shape (monocular)

3. Relative Size (monocular)

4. Interposition (monocular)

5. Shadows (monocular)

6. Retinal disparity (binocular)

7. Accomodation (monocular)

8. Convergence (binocular)

Front 31

How do we perceive the distal stimulus visually?

Back 31

Light is emitted from a light source. Some frequencies are absorbed by distal stimulus, others are reflected. Reflected light meets the eye.

Front 32

What is the black center of the eye called?

Back 32

Pupil

Front 33

What is the surrounding color of the eye called?

Back 33

Iris

Front 34

What is the white of the eye called?

Back 34

Sclera

Front 35

Where is the lens of the eye located?

Back 35

Behind the pupil and cornea

Front 36

After light enters the eye, what nerve layers does it pass before hitting the retina?

Back 36

1. Ganglion

2. Bipolar

3. Photoreceptor (rod or cone)

Front 37

What causes blindspot?

Back 37

The optic nerve emerges with the retina, but the optic nerve itself does not have photoreceptors.

Front 38

2 Facts of Rods

Back 38

1. Detect brightness

2. Concentrated in the retina

Front 39

3 Facts of Cones

Back 39

1. Detect color

2. Concentrated in the Fovea

3. Come in blue, green, red

Front 40

3 functions of center surround retinal perception

Back 40

1. Point detection

2. Edge detection

3. Brightness/darkenss detection

Front 41

What are the two types of Ganglion cells, and how do they differ?

Back 41

1. Magno

2. Parvo

Front 42

What are the three qualities of magno ganglion cells?

Back 42

1. Transient (short lived) response

2. Large receptive field

3. Detect movement/location

Front 43

What are the three qualities of parvo ganglion cells?

Back 43

1. Sustained response

2. Small receptive field

3. Detect patterns/color/form

Front 44

Where do magno and parvo ganglion cells project (after the optic nerve)?

Back 44

Lateral Geniculate Nucleous (of Thalamus)

Front 45

After light hits the eye, track the projection from start to end.

Back 45

1. Pass cornea

2. Pass lens

3. Hit photoreceptor cells on retina

4. Project to bipolar cells

5. Project to ganglion cells (magno or parvo)

6. Project to optic nerve

7. Project to LGN of thalamus

8. Project to occipital lobe (visual cortex)

9. Project to parietal/dorsal ("where") or temporal lobe/ventral ("what")

Front 46

What are the three types of cells in the visual cortex?

Back 46

1. Simple cortical cells

2. Complex cortical cells

3. Hypercomplex cells

Front 47

What are the three things that cause a simple visual cell to fire?

Back 47

1. Bars of light in..

2. Specific orientation

3. Specific retinal position

Front 48

What 2 things do complex visual cells detect?

Back 48

1. Edges

2. Movement

Front 49

What 3 things do hypercomplex cells detect?

Back 49

1. Very specific shapes

2. Corners

3. Gaps

Front 50

Three reasons why visual edge detection is important.

Back 50

1. Edges in images correspond to edges in real life

2. Edges offer depth cues

3. Edges allow parts of 3D objects to be identified

Front 51

What do PET scans monitor?

Back 51

1. Mental activity

2. Neural activity

3. Blood flow

4. Radioactive tracers

5. Emitted positrons

Front 52

What does the Kohler experiment measure?

Back 52

PET scans comparing ventral and dorsal stream for object (ventral) and spatial (dorsal) tasks.

Front 53

What are the three theories for bottom-up (pattern recognition) processing? (VENTRAL STREM - identifying objects)

Back 53

1. Template

2. Features

3. Structural descriptions (RBC)

Front 54

What are the 2 problems of template theory?

Back 54

1. Transformations

2. Obstructed Objects

Front 55

What are the 3 ideas behind feature theory?

Back 55

1. The visual system decomposes scenes into primative features

2. Theoretically, we should be using this information gathered

3. Grandfather cells do not exist in temporal lobe

Front 56

4 Evidences for feature theory?

Back 56

1. Physiology (recordings from neurons) - we are using the information we have gathered

2. Stabilized retinal images - when we prevent eye shaking, features are the first images we lose

3. Visual search - when searching for certain letters in a pool, we are able to identify them if they have distinguishible features

4. Caricatures - people recognize caricatures more quickly than actual people

Front 57

What is the name for the feature theory computer simulation?

Back 57

Pandemonium Model

Front 58

What are the four demons of the pandemonium model, and what do they do?

Back 58

1. Image demon - receives sensory input

2. Feature demons - decode specific features and amounts

3. Cognitive demons - shout to decision demons when they receive lots of imput from image and feature demons

4. Decision demon - listens for largest shout, identifying the input

Front 59

2 problems with feature theory

Back 59

1. Relationships between features - p and d are same thing in different orientations

2. Different arrangements of same features can produce different objects

Front 60

What is the matching process for RBC?

Back 60

1. Detect elemetary features- edges

2. Find non-accidental properties

3. Determine component geons

4. Match to memory

Front 61

3 Evidences for RBC

Back 61

1. Partial or Degraded objects - hard to identify objects without their non accidental properties

2. Object complexity - people are better at recognizing more complex objects because they have more distinguishable features

3. Unusual orientations - difficult to identify objects when their non accidental properties cannot be found

Front 62

3 problems with RBC

Back 62

1. Similar objects can still be reconized

2. Structural representation neurons haven't been observed in the brain

3. Context Effects - what we think we see can be altered by its context

Front 63

3 things RBC theory is good at explaning

Back 63

1. Transformations

2. Relationships between objects

3. Explaining how we make sense out of nonsense objects

Front 64

What is the basic idea regarding stimulus while top-down processing?

Back 64

The same stimulus is presented, but our existing knowledge has bias for the representation and meaning of the stimulus.

Front 65

What are the 3 types of top-down processing?

Back 65

1. Expectation/Bias

2. Context

3. Higher levels of analysis that affect lower ones

Front 66

What is the expectation/bias theory of top-down processing?

Back 66

Your own expectations and biases can affect the way you perceive something. Based on thresholds for detecting stimulus.

Front 67

How is the expectation/bias theory of top-down processing tested?

Back 67

Signal detection tasks. Where one must detect a signal within background noise.

Front 68

In signal detection, what is sensitivity?

Back 68

How easy/difficult it is to distinguish sound from noise. Distal stimulus doesn't change. Our ability to detect can be based on our own physicial abilities as well as our thresholds for detection.

Front 69

In signal detection, what does the threshold represent?

Back 69

Your amount of bias for detecting a stimulus.

Front 70

In signal detection, how do you measure accuracy?

Back 70

Hits + Correct Rejections. You can get the same accuracy even after altering the bias threshold.

Front 71

How do you create bias in signal detection?

Back 71

Create pay offs for either hits or correct rejections.

Front 72

In signal detection, what are the three things accuracy depends on?

Back 72

1. Proportion of Hits and Correct Rejections

2. Bias

3. Sensitivity

Front 73

What is the context theory of top-down processing? 2 Examples.

Back 73

When perecption of an object is affected by its surroundings.

1. Subjective contours

2. Letter recognition

Front 74

2 Examples of "Higher levels affecting lower levels" theory of top-down processing

Back 74

1. Word Superiority Effect

2. Interactive Activation Model

Front 75

Letters are identified as they appear...

Back 75

1. In a word (best)

2. In a pseudo word (intermediate)

3. By themselves (worst)

Front 76

How was the word superiority effect tested (how did they rule out guessing)?

Back 76

By using pseudo words vs. letters rather than real words vs. letters. Because a letter in a pseudo world has an equal probability of existing, whereas letters in words do not.

Front 77

In the interactive activation model, top down processing exsits at which level?

Back 77

Word ---> Letter level. NOT Letter --->Feature level.

Front 78

Who is the subject in the Sacs article, and what did he suffer from?

Back 78

Dr. P, visual agnosia

Front 79

Who is the subject in the McCloskey article, and what did he suffer from?

Back 79

AH, spatial agnoisa

Front 80

What are the two types of attention?

Back 80

Divided and Focused

Front 81

What is the stroop task?

Back 81

Measuring time to read lines based on words and color. Depends on focused attention.

Front 82

What are the two ways for distinguishing 2 streams of auditory information?

Back 82

1. Location

2. Physical characteristics (pitch, intensity)

Front 83

What is the early filtration theory of double auditory listening?

Back 83

Both stimulus are detected, but a filter separates the unattended stimulus from being recognized. Recognition = interpretation.

Front 84

What are the 3 evidences against the early filtration theory of auditory listening?

Back 84

1. Galvanic skin response to conditioned words in unattended stimulus.

2. Idenitification of own name

3. Bilinguals will notice if both ears are getting the same information, just in different languages.

Front 85

What is the attenuation theory of double auditory listening?

Back 85

Unattended stimulus is sometimes able to reach recognition, but most is dampened, and only very important/meaningful information will get fully through to recognition.

Front 86

What is the late filter theory of double auditory listening?

Back 86

All stimuli reaches recognition level, recognition level is where unattended information doesn't reach conscious awarenes.

Front 87

What are the three filter theories of double auditory listening?

Back 87

1. Early filtration

2. Attenuation

3. Late filtration

Front 88

What are the two ways to shift visual attention?

Back 88

1. Covertly - mental shifts in attention, without selectively attending by shifting eyes or head to the source of desired object

2. Overtly - selectively focusing by moving head and eyes in direction of the desired object

Front 89

What did Posner experiments test?

Back 89

Covert attention shifts, measured in reaction time with and without guidance, and with false guidance.

Front 90

What are the three steps of for the subject in Posner's experiments?

Back 90

1. Disengage (hypothetically the correct arrow does this for you)

2. Move

3. Engage

Front 91

In feature integration theory, what is the glue?

Back 91

Focused attention - the spotlight

Front 92

Unless under the spotlight, stimuli are processed __________ in feature integration theory.

Back 92

in parallel

Front 93

In Treisman's studies, when was glue (focused attention) unnecessary, and when was it necessary.

Back 93

Unnecessary - unitary feature is enough to distinguish desired object from noise.

Necessary - conjunction of features, desired object is not able to be easily distinguished based on one feature alone.

Front 94

In Treisman's studies, what are the two types of visual search?

Back 94

1. Feature - independent of number of distractors

2. Conjunction - depends on number of distractors

Front 95

What is visiospatial neglect?

Back 95

Right parietal lobe damage causes. Subjects do not process information on the left side of space, though their sight is fine.

Front 96

What are the two theories of visiospatial neglect?

Back 96

1. Disengaging Deficit - inability to disengage from right side of space, because disengaging mechanism is in right hemisphere

2. Unbalanced competition - damage to right hemisphere causes left hemisphere to dominate in visual spatial processing. Dominant side inhibits processing of the inferior.

Front 97

What are the two ways an image can be represented in the mind?

Back 97

1. Depictive

2. Propositional

Front 98

What are the 4 ideas underlying the imagery debate?

Back 98

1. Interference

2. Scanning

3. Zooming

4. Transforming

Front 99

What are the 3 ideas behind depictive visual imagery?

Back 99

(The image in the mind)

1. No truth value

2. All elements are relevant

3. Good for concrete and spatial information

Front 100

What are the 3 ideas behind propositional visual imagery?

Back 100

(Everything but the image)

1. Has a truth value

2. Not all elements are relevant

3. Better for abstract concepts

Front 101

What is the difference between dichotic and binaural listening?

Back 101

Dichotic - two different messages, one in each ear.

Binaural - two different messaeges, no separation.

Front 102

In dichotic listening, what is shadowing?

Back 102

The message you can actually repeat back (not the one that is ignored).

Front 103

When are the 3 times visual memory is poor?

Back 103

1. For unimportant and unattendended details

2. When stimuli lack meaning

3. When foils are similar

Front 104

What three things does good visual recognition require?

Back 104

1. Attention to details

2. Meaningfulness and relevancy of details

3. Distinctive alternatives

Front 105

Why is memory bad for unattended details?

Back 105

We don't create verbal code for unattended features

Front 106

Why is memory bad when foils are similar?

Back 106

Visual code doesn't help

Front 107

What are the 8 heuristics of visual mind maps?

Back 107

1. Symmetry

2. Right angle bias (rectilinerization)

3. Rotational (Reno vs. San Fran)

4. Alignment (Florida vs. Chile)

5. Relative Position (Bulk Position) (Seattle vs. Montreal = USA vs Canada)

6. Subjective Clusters (Similarity)

7. Observer Perspective (Familiarity)