Psy 322 Exam 2

Front 1

Define Knowledge

Back 1

The Mental representation used for a variety of cognitive functions

Front 2

define categorization

Back 2

the process by which bits of information are placed into categories

Front 3

why do we categorize information?

Back 3

categories allow us to quickly glean information about new inputs

Front 4

describe the “puppy” the first time you see a horse

Back 4

it’s not that we cannot discern any difference
rather, we have not yet created a new category

Front 5

Definitional approach to categories

Back 5

determine membership in category by whether the object meets the definition of the category
doesn’t work well
says we need separate categories for dogs and three-legged dogs
a papisan is defintely a chair, but doesn’t look like our definition at all...

Front 6

Prototype approach to categories

Back 6

uses the “typical definition” for the category
which is abstract
allows for deviation without distroying the usefulness of the category

Front 7

Rosch’s ranking by category

Back 7

“sparrow” is very birdlike indeed
penguins less so
bats even less so
a chair, way less

Front 8

high v. low prototypicality

Back 8

Rosch
a sparrow is more typical and thus better represents the prototypical bird
while a penguin represents it less well
speed of processing depends on prototypicality

Front 9

Prototypical approach and priming

Back 9

Rosch
things that are definitely green but farther from the prototype take longer to positively or negatively identify

Front 10

Exemplar approach to categories

Back 10

concept is represented by multiple actual examples
(not abstractions)
so you compare the item to stored examples
works great with variables

Front 11

How do we use the exemplar approach?

Back 11

similar to prototype, we rank based on family resemblance
but as more cases are atypical, we can account for them
works great with variables

Front 12

when might we switch between proto and exemplar approaches?

Back 12

exemps might be better for small categories
protoyp for larger

Front 13

Specificity and categorizatoin

Back 13

Global features
basic features
specific features
note that basic features may be the most informative, becuse specifics add little information

Front 14

Semantic network approach

Back 14

the big, upside-down tree
branched items share characteristics

Front 15

cognitive economy

Back 15

major benefit of a semantic network
similar items share properties, so we needn’t classify each item with all of its own charateristics laid out

Front 16

semantic network:
spreading activation

Back 16

activation of the network spreads from node to node
this allows for a priming effect

Front 17

Lexical Decision Task

Back 17

read two words quickly, ask if both are words
closely related words showed faster reaction time
perhaps because of spreading activation

Front 18

Criticism of semantic network model

Back 18

cannot explain typicality effects
some sentence-verification results show variance based on personal experience, suggesting a more-tangled network

Front 19

collins and loftus:
revision of semantic network model

Back 19

allowed for more freedom in network connections
with shorter links for more closely related concepts
no hierarchy: based on personal experience
works better to describe results of lexical decision task
but lacked falsifiability

Front 20

Connectionist approach

Back 20

neuron-like units
inputs, then some hidden unit does filtering and directing, then outputs
”parallel distributed processing”
knowledge is the represented in the distributed activity of many units
explains: generalization of learning, graceful degradation (gradual performance loss as parts are damaged, instead of simply breaking the chain)

Front 21

parallel distributed processing

Back 21

feature of the the Connectionist Approach
knowledge represented in the distributed activity of many units

Front 22

Categories and brain anatomy

Back 22

different areas may be specialized to process different categories
categories are reperesented by distributed activity (including similar patterns for similar features)

Front 23

Mental Imagery

Back 23

experiencing sensory impression in the absence of sensory input
provides another way to access info, beyond purely verbal techniques such as “what is the captitol of France?”

Front 24

why do we recall lists of items better if they’re nouns?

Back 24

we can mentally image objects better than concepts
conceptual peg hypothesis

Front 25

conceptual peg hypothesis

Back 25

we create mental pictures that let us access the memory of the item
boat-hat

Front 26

manipulation of mental imagery

Back 26

with age, we get better at mentally manipulating the images in our minds
(turn the hat upside down)
when rotating images, further rotation results in longer response times

Front 27

how accurate are we at perceiving distance, etc, in our mental images?

Back 27

we do have some representation of distance in our minds -- remember activity where we visualized the walk to starbucks, then to manley -- just picturing it actually took longer
then arrows pointing at dots -- the farther away the arrow, the longer the response time, because we’re recreating the image in order to make the judgement

Front 28

distance and detail in mental imagery

Back 28

remember the rabbit and elephant, and rabbit and fly?
you have to mentally zoom to see details on the rabbit, thus losing info on the elephant
but for the fly, RT is must lower, even though it’s the same scale ratio
the concept of distances changes our ability to imagine traversing that distance

Front 29

Perception v. Imagery

Back 29

a difference there, but an overlap in brain function
some of the same neurons fire when asked to imagine a baseball as when shown a baseball
so, these are category-specific neurons...
but there’s a differnece in visual cortex activation

Front 30

visual cortex activation:
perception v. imagery

Back 30

similar neurons light up, but there are differences

Front 31

regions that light up during both perception and imagery

Back 31

frontal lobe
visual cortex

Front 32

TMS

Back 32

transcranial magnetic stimulation
disrupts brain function in very specific areas for short periods of time
so if behavior is disrupted, the deactivated part of the brain is what is causing the behavior

Front 33

results of TMS testing on perception and imagery

Back 33

theoretically, zapping occipital lobe should only affect perception, frontal lobe only imagery
but there is overlap: both tasks are slowed in both circumstances
perhaps we perceive items, but use th the frontal lobes to name and categorize them...

Front 34

Unilateral neglect

Back 34

when patient ignores one half of the visual field
when asked to draw an image, the affected patient will only draw half of the object

Front 35

brain damage and dissociations between imagery and perception

Back 35

one guy could look at and reproduce a drawing of a cat, but not from his imagination
the other guy, with different brain damage, couldn’t name a picture of a cat, but could draw a cat from memory

Front 36

Synesthesia represents?

Back 36

evidence for separate but shared mechanisms in imagery and perception

Front 37

flipping mental images of ambiguous figures

Back 37

difficult!
perception can be quickly accessed, but one mental image may be stronger than the other...

Front 38

ways to use imagery to improve memory

Back 38

visually interacting images (hat-boat)
method of loci (items in a house)
pegword technique (one-bun, two-shoe)

Front 39

peg word

Back 39

associate mental images with each peg item
one-bun, two-shoe, three-tree

Front 40

define language

Back 40

hierarchical system
governed by rules
that uses a system of sounds or symbols
to express ideas

Front 41

Universal traits of language

Back 41

hierarchical -- sounds make words, words make sentences, sentences make novels
governed by rules regarding arrangement of components (although the rules themselves differ by culture)

Front 42

language development across cultures

Back 42

even cats have learned some language rules
all cultures use mimicking, etc
like the kids at the fridge
all have nouns, verbs, questions, tenses, etc
and don’t forget baby language

Front 43

Dunstan

Back 43

baby language!
universal language comprised of five sounds which occur naturally as a result of the bodily functions they represent

Front 44

Skinner v. Chomsky

Back 44

Skinner says we learn language through reinforcement
Chomsky says language is in our genes, because of the universaility of traits, and the fact that children create sentences they’ve never heard before

Front 45

define psycholinguistics

Back 45

studying the psychological process by which humans attain and use language

Front 46

Lexicon

Back 46

all the words a person understands
what they mean, how they sound, how they’re used

Front 47

Phoneme

Back 47

shortest segment of speech that, if changed, changes the meaning of the word
and it’s phonics -- the sound, not the spelling

Front 48

Morphemes

Back 48

smallest unit of language that has meaning or grammatical function
so friendliest has friend, li, and est, all of which add meaning
”doed” or “funner” show inappropriate combinations of morphemes

Front 49

Phonemic restoration effect

Back 49

we can fill in missing phonemes bsed on context
because of our familiarity with the language

Front 50

Speech segmentation

Back 50

the component pieces of speech: Context
understanding of meaning
understanding of sound and syntax
statistical learning

Front 51

Word frequency effect

Back 51

we respond more rapidly to high-freq words
measured in a lexical decision task

Front 52

eye movement measurements and text

Back 52

we jump over some words without looking at them at all, and are still able to grasp meaning
we’ll look at low-freq words longer
and maybe every single letter if we need to interpret something we’ve nver seen before

Front 53

context effects and text

Back 53

we attempt to figure out what a sentence means as we read it

Front 54

lexical ambiguity

Back 54

words and syntax have more than one meaning
”the rabbi married my sister”
we need to find context within the situation to determine meaning
including waiting for further words to be added to switch meaning...

Front 55

Lexical priming

Back 55

1. stimulus activates a representation of the stimulus
2. and we can respond more rapidly if activation is still present when stimulus is presented again
remember bug and spy and all that ... same category played in background makes response time faster, same word in different category (like bug) doesn’t have the same effect

Front 56

bug + insect/spy

Back 56

example of lexical priming...

Front 57

define semantics

Back 57

the meanings of words and sentences
(So things can be gramatically correct but still semantically wrong)

Front 58

define syntax

Back 58

rules for combining words into sentences

Front 59

brain regions and semantics/syntax

Back 59

different areas light up when understanding meaning v. producing grammatically correct words
so you can have difficulty grasping meaning, or you can have troulbe producing correct words
but you don’t necessarily have both

Front 60

Parsing language

Back 60

mentally grouping words in a sentence into phrases
the central process for determining the meaning of a sentence
cast iron sink

Front 61

Parsing: syntax first approach

Back 61

grammatical structure of the sentence determines parsing
Late Closure
Garden Path
not everyone agrees

Front 62

Late Closure Parsing

Back 62

syntax first approach to parsing
parser assumes a new word is part of current phrase (so the sink in cast iron sink, until we added the s to make it a verb)

Front 63

Garden Path Parsing

Back 63

syntax first approach to parsing
reader follows wherever you take her, including making the wrong decision
until there’s enough information to clarify your meaning

Front 64

Parsing: Interactionist approach

Back 64

Semantics has a greater influence over interpretation than syntax
which allows for lexical ambiguities to be resolved
the spy saw the man with the binoculars...

Front 65

Tannenhouse apple towel thing

Back 65

eye movements change when information suggests a revision of our interpretation
suggesting that syntactic and semantic info is used simultaneously

Front 66

what has the primary role in interpreting sentences: semantics or syntax

Back 66

tannehouse and his apple towel thing say both are used simultaneously

Front 67

Understanding stories:
coherence

Back 67

we form a representation that makes one part of the text relate to another part of the text
we assume that the first and last paragraphs are connected
we assume the story is coherent

Front 68

Understanding stories:
inference

Back 68

readers create information that is not explicitly stated
maybe this is why the book is better than the movie...
reader will claim that things were written or said that werent, based on inference

Front 69

Why do we claim things were written or said that werent?

Back 69

inference!

Front 70

Anaphoric inference

Back 70

this is how pronouns work...
we don’t have to repeat the name, because we’ve already estabilished a connection between it and a known set of pronouns

Front 71

Instrumental Inference

Back 71

we can infer that shakespeare was using a quill pen to do his work...

Front 72

Causal Inference

Back 72

we can determine that events in one clause affected the events in another

Front 73

Types of Inference

Back 73

anaphoric
instrumental
causal

Front 74

Situation Model

Back 74

we create mental imags to go along with a story
and thus represent events as if experiencing them
from the protag’s POV
so, reaction times were faster for a horizontal nail than a vertical nail when presented with “he hammered the nail into the wall”

Front 75

Physiology of simulations

Back 75

approximately the same areas light up as when actually doing the task
but less so
so if you read the word “legs” you get the same activation, though less intense, as when you move your leg

Front 76

Semantic coordination (conversation)

Back 76

conversations go quickly and smoothly if participants have shared knowledge
like when we talk in half thoughts, etc...

Front 77

Given-new contract

Back 77

the speaker constructs sentences so they include given info and new info, which allows the new info to become given, and so on...

Front 78

example of given-new contract

Back 78

Ed was given an alligator for his birthday
given here is that he had a birthday, new is the alligator info
then: the alligator was his favorite present:
given is he got the alligator for his birthday, new is that it was his favorite present

Front 79

Syntactic priming

Back 79

how one mimicks slang and accents
the production of a grammatical construction by one person increases the chance that the other person will use the same construction
and this reduces the computational load (speaking similarly requires less cognitive resources)

Front 80

Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

Back 80

language influences thought
like the spectrum of blues... we have special names to further differentiate the blues

Front 81

categorical perception

Back 81

stimuli in same categories are more difficult to discriminate than stimuli in two different categories
“Are these colors different (light blue and sky blue)” v. red and green

Front 82

language and color perception

Back 82

different languages can affect color perception (russian description of the blue chips was different)
but different languages have a similar “best” example of a color