Cognitive Psychology Midterm 1

Front 1

nativism vs. empiricism

Back 1

Plato: we are born with knowledge/skills (nativism)
Aristotle: we gained knowledge through learning (empiricism)

Front 2

structuralism vs. functionalism

Back 2

Wundt: can break mental activities into their constituents (structuralism)
James: understand purpose of mental structures (functionalism)

Front 3

introspection vs. behaviorism

Back 3

introspection: examine own behaviors (Wundt/James)
behaviorism: focus on observable, explain behavior, not thought, simple theories

Front 4

Tolman rat maze experiment

Back 4

latent learning; behaviorism says that rats learn to run maze ONLY because they get food at the end of the maze;
experiment showed that when one group who had been exposed to no food at end suddenly had food at end, didn't show gradual learning;
conclusion: had learned the maze without food incentive, only showed knowledge with food

Front 5

brain structure vs. brain function

Back 5

structure: viewed with MRI, can see structural differences (i.e. London cabbies)
function: viewed with fMRI, can see areas that are activated during various tasks, uses BOLD imaging, subtractive method

Front 6

fMRI

Back 6

shows blood carrying nutrients to active neurons = BOLD imaging; doesn't measure neuronal activity directly, instead blood flow, uses subtractive method
Problems: assumes that neighboring neurons are representing same thing (covers large area); blood flow is slower than neuron firing rates (18 s)

Front 7

subtractive method

Back 7

fMRI method in which the brain scans of controlled subjects are mathematically subtracted from the brain scans of experimental subjects, so that the remaining brain areas are the ones implicated for the independent variable

Front 8

converging methodology

Back 8

multiple strategies are relied upon to answer the same question, if all the strategies point in the same direction, the experimenter can be reasonably sure the conclusions are valid

Front 9

mental imagery

Back 9

"seeing with the mind's eye," an internal visual representation derived in the absence of retinal stimulation; debate: symbolic representation vs. visual perception

Front 10

symbolic representation vs. visual perception

Back 10

symbolic representation: mental imagery are represented in non-visual ways
visual perception: imagery relies on visual, spatially organized processes; supported by behavioral evidence (quicker to describe features of an imagined rabbit when next to a fly than an elephant because there is no need to "zoom in," takes longer to think of walking across map than across a smaller area, etc.); BUT maybe not using perceptual processes, but carrying out simulations in a symbolic way, demand characteristics

Front 11

change blindness

Back 11

inability to detect changes in an object or scene; selectively attend to some information; visual details of object properties are not retained automatically from one view to the next

Front 12

endogenous (dorsal) vs. exogenous (ventral) attentional systems

Back 12

endogenous: located in a more dorsal region of the brain; goal-directed, top-down, voluntary
exogenous: located in a more ventral area of the brain; stimulus-driven, bottom-up, involuntary

Front 13

Broadbent's early filter theory

Back 13

filter occurs after detection, but before recognition
input --> detection --> filter --> recognition
(then how do you explain the cocktail party theory?)

Front 14

Treisman's attenuation theory

Back 14

analyze incoming message -- physical properties, and semantic properties (which requires more effort); semantic properties can be picked up, of related to what we're attending to

Front 15

Deutsch & Deutsch's late selection theory

Back 15

all messages processed for some meaning
input --> detection --> recognition --> filter;
ex. "standing near the bank" dichotic listening task

Front 16

shadowing task

Back 16

participants are asked to repeat words being played to one ear while ignoring words being played to the other

Front 17

Cherry -- dichotic listening task

Back 17

play two separate streams of talking, one to each ear, and instruct participant to listen to only one

Front 18

Lavie's perceptual load theory

Back 18

everyone has limited attentional capacity, out ability to process info that we are not attending to depends on the attention allocated to the primary task; when shadowing something easy, we can get semantic content from unattended info

Front 19

automatic vs. controlled processes

Back 19

automatic: occurs without intention, doesn't give rise to conscious attention or interfere with other mental activities
controlled: the opposite

Front 20

Stroop task

Back 20

color words are listed, but the word itself is a different color than its meaning; instructed to say the color, not read the word; difficult task
shows that reading is automatic, have to override to say the color

Front 21

well-structured vs. ill-structured problems

Back 21

differ in feelings of "warmth"
well-structured: introspectively, people feel closer to the answer as they get closer to the answer
ill-structured: introspectively, people don't feel closer to the answer as they get closer

Front 22

negative vs. positive transfer

Back 22

positive transfer: applying previous knowledge to a new problem, which has a helpful effect on solving the problem
negative transfer: the application of previous knowledge to a new problem, which has hindering effects

Front 23

incubation

Back 23

after a period away from a problem, people take a new approach and solve it successfully; helpful for low-knowledge individuals in negative-transfer problem solving, harmful for high-knowledge individuals in negative-transfer problem solving

Front 24

generate-and-test vs. means-end-analysis vs. insight

Back 24

generate-and-test: method of problem solving in which one randomly generates solutions and test if solutions are successful
means-end-analysis: problem solving method in which one reduces distance between current state & goal state by setting up sub-goals
insight: problem solving method which involves conceptual reorganization that results in a new, non-obvious interpretation; often identified as a form of creativity

Front 25

backup avoidance

Back 25

tendency to avoid abandoning a difference reduction strategy; don't want to work backwards

Front 26

working memory's effect on insight

Back 26

higher working memory generally correlated with poorer performance on insight problems; those wit DLPFC damage did better on insight problems than those with other area damage

Front 27

sleep's effect on insight

Back 27

Wagner, et al.
those who slept were able to see shortcut/pattern, and did better at the task; sleep may restructure existing memory traces

Front 28

focused vs. divided attention

Back 28

focused: (aka selective attention) people select certain inputs rather than others
divided: people attend and respond to all simultaneous inputs; can tell us about processing limitations and attentional mechanisms and capacity

Front 29

covert attention

Back 29

Posner's idea that the attentional spotlight can shift to a different spatial location in the absence of movement

Front 30

location- vs. object-based attention

Back 30

location-based attention: "attentional spotlight" focused visual attention in a small region of the visual field that can be seen clearly
object-based attention: which attention is directed at a specific object, rather than a region

Front 31

visual search paradigm (feature vs. conjunction search)

Back 31

visual search task: a specified target must be detected as rapidly as possible
feature search: visual search task in which Ss were instructed to look for an object with one specific feature (doesn't require focused attention)
conjunction search: visual search task in which Ss were required to look for an object based on a conjunction of features (requires focused attention)

Front 32

information processing vs. embodied cognition

Back 32

information processing: theory that humans take in input, encode and give meaning to the information, and combines with old information; often this is used as a comparison to the human mind as a computer
embodied cognition: idea that aspects of cognition are shaped by the body (motor system, perceptual system, body's interactions with the environment, etc.)

Front 33

expertise and automization

Back 33

experts may shift problem solving from limited-capacity working memory to infinite-capacity long term memory, which increases efficiency and accuracy in problem solving; however, this can be a hindrance when solving problems structurally different from the norm

Front 34

Roediger & Karpicke article -- Test-enhanced learning

Back 34

Experiment 1 showed that testing helped retain information better than additional studying over time (2 days, 1 week)
Study 2
Figure 2: repeated study, single test, then repeated test helped retention in that order for 5 minutes, but reversed for 1 week
Figure 3: most forgetting over one week for repeated study condition, less for single test, and least for repeated testing
Conclusion: testing of material helps long-term retention

Front 35

Willems, et al.: body specificity hypothesis

Back 35

body-specificity hypothesis: because of embodied cognition, neural representation of word meanings should be different for people with different kinds of bodies
Experiment showed that right-handers have more difference in activation in the premotor cortex for manual over non-manual words in the LEFT hemisphere; the reverse is true for left-handers

Front 36

Green & Bavelier: Flanker task and attentional blink in gamers & non-gamers

Back 36

FIgure 1 (compatibilty flanker task): showed that compatibility effect decreased with task difficulty for non-gamers, compatibility effect stayed the same for gamers as difficulty increased, showing that gamers have greater attentional resources
Figure 4b: (attentional blink) With small lag, gamers performed better at attentional blink task than non-gamers (this difference shrunk as lag time increased); showed gamers had greater capacity for visual attention

Front 37

Oliviers & Nieuwenhius: Attentional blink

Back 37

Four conditions: free association, music listening, reward, control
Results: those in music listening condition performed better at attentional blink task, then free association (reward and control about same)
*shows that diffuse attention results in better performance on attentional blink task

Front 38

Wagner, et al.: sleep and insight

Back 38

testing if sleep (as opposed to sleep deprivation, or just being awake during the day) helps with insight (figuring shortcut in task)
Figure 1: shows that more Ss gained insight in sleep condition than other two
Figure 3: shows that no-insight sleepers were much faster, whereas insight sleepers showed a slowing of RT at first, indicating that they were having a restructuring of thought about the problem

Front 39

Beeman: the "aha" moment

Back 39

Showed neural imagery (EEG and fMRI) to show brain activation right before an insight (compound RAT)
Figure 1A: showed that EEG activity for those with insight and non-insight differs in that about 300 ms before button press (indicating insight) there was a burst of activity
1B: shows that right anterior temporal lobe is the location of this burst of activity
1C: shows corresponding fMRI activity in the same region (right anterior superior temporal gyrus)

Front 40

Glenberg & Kaschak: Action sentence compatibility effect

Back 40

When asked if a sentence such as "Courtney handed you the notebook" makes sense, you are faster to respond "yes" if the lever moves toward you to signify yes, than if you have to move away from yourself.

Front 41

Strayer and Johnston: dual task paradigm (driving & cell phone)

Back 41

task: follow light around screen w/ mouse, do nothing when flashes green, click when flashes red
conditions: task alone, task plus shadow list of words, task plus shadow one of two lists of words
results: reaction times much slower when had to shadow, and ESPECIALLY when had to shadow 1/2 lists
can be extrapolated to driving w/ cell phone

Front 42

Metcalf & Wiebe: feelings of "warmth" and insight

Back 42

for well-structured problems (algebra) people felt "warmer" at getting the right answer as the time they actually got the answer drew near; Ss solving insight problems did not feel closer to the answer, even 15 seconds before they figured it out; shows that insight is "a sudden flash of illumination"

Front 43

Thomas & Lleras: embodied cognition and insight

Back 43

had Ss try to solve string-hanging-from-the-ceiling problem; then had them either swing their arms or stretch their arms
Result: those who swung their arms were better able to solve the problem
(positive transfer/embodied cognition)

Front 44

Ricks, Turley-Ames & Wiley: RAT, baseball experts vs. non-experts

Back 44

give RAT test to baseball experts, performed worse than non-experts on problems where one of the words could be related to baseball, but the others didn't work.
(negative transfer)