Psychology Final Exam

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ablation

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removal of cells or tissues, often through surgical means

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adaptive control of thought model of memory

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a theory of memory developed by John Anderson that specifies a networked memory comprised of working memory, declarative memory, and procedural memory

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affordance

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a perceptual property of objects, places, and events that makes clear what actions or behaviors on the part of the perceiver are permitted in interaction with the object, place or event

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amygdala

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involved in mood, aggression, feeling, instinct and short-term memory

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anchoring

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a decision-making heuristic in which final estimates are heavily influenced by initial value estimates

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anterograde amnesia

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no memory after a brain injury

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artifact concept

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manufactured or human-designed objects

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attention hypothesis of automatization

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attention is needed during a learning phase of a new task

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attentional capture

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certain stimuli seem to "pop out" and require a person to shift cognitive resources to them, automatically

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attenuation theory

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unattended perceptual events are transmitted in weakened form but not blocked completely before being processed for meaning

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automatic processing

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the carrying out of a cognitive task with minimal resources. Typically, it occurs without intention, interferes minimally with other cognitive tasks and may not involve conscious awareness

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basic-level categories

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2nd level: grapes, pants, car

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behaviorism

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branch of functionalism, references to unobservable, subjective mental states (consciousness) and processes (expecting, believing, remembering, perceiving, etc), rejected introspection

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between-subjects design

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different participants are assigned to different experimental conditions and the researcher looks for the differences in performance between the two groups

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bottom-up process

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guided by environmental input. Also called "data-driven" process

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calibration curve

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plotting confidence against accuracy, the closer the curve is to the 45-degree line, the better the calibration, or "fit," between the two

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CAT

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when a highly focused beam of x-rays is passed through the body from many different angles. Differing density of the organs of the body result in different deflections of the x-rays, which allows visualization of the organ

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central executive of working memory

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working memory responsible for directing the flow of information and selecting what information to work with

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cerebellum

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directs the flow of information, part of the brain that controls balance and muscular coordination

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cerebral cortex

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the surface of the cerebrum, the largest structure of the brain, containing both sensory and motor nerve cell bodies

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change blindness

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the inability to detect changes to an object or scene, especially when given different views of that object or scene, illustrates top-down processing

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characteristic feature

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a feature that is typically a part of an object or concept

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classical view of concepts

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the features represented are individually necessary and sufficient. 1) it assumes the concepts mentally represent lists of features 2) either something has all the necessary features or it lack so one of more features 3) there is not such thing as a "better" triangle

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coding

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the form in which information is held

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cognitive economy

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properties and facts are stored at the highest level possible. For example, the fact" is alive" would be stored with the node for "animal" rather than "dog" or "cat"

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cognitive illusions

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systematic biases and errors in human decision making

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cognitive overload

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when available information exceeds processing capacity

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confirmation bias

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tendency to seek only information consistent with one's hypothesis

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connectionism

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emphasizing parallel processing of information through immense networks of interconnected nodes. Sometimes referred to as "neural networks"

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constructivist approach to perception

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understanding of perception as a process requiring the active construction of subjective mental representations not only from perceptual information, but from long-term memory as well

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context effects

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recall is best when performed in the original environment

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controlled processing

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process by which an individual establishes the criteria and options of consideration

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corpus callosum

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the large neural structure containing fibers that connect the right and left cerebral hemispheres

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cue overload

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principle of memory that states a retrieval cue will be most effective when it is highly distinctive and not related to any other target memories

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declarative memory

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contains knowledge, facts, and information and is explicitly represented and consciously accessible

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demand characteristic

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a property of certain tasks such that an experimental subject's behavior or responses are "cued" by the task itself

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descriptive model of decision making

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simply detail what people actually do when they make decisions, describing actual performance

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dichotic listening task

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participants could not recall the content of the unattended message or the language in which it was spoken

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direct perception

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perception consists of the direct acquisition of information from the environment

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distal stimulus

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objects and events in the world to be perceived

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divided attention

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the way that someone allocates cognitive resources to two or more tasks that are carried out simultaneously

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dual-coding hypothesis

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Paivio's assertion that LTM can code information in two ways, verbally and visually, and that items coded both ways (pictures) are more easily recalled than items coded in one way (abstract words)

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echo

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sensory memory for auditory material, may last longer than icons

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ecological approach

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emphasizes the natural contexts or settings in which cognitive activities occur, and the influences such settings have in the ways in which cognitive activities are acquired, practices and executive

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ecological validity

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observational studies really do occur in the real world and not just in an experimental laboratory

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EEG

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used to detect different states of consciousness with metal electrodes placed all over the scalp

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elimination by aspects

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the elimination of alternatives that exceed a threshold value on one or more dimensions

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empiricism

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knowledge comes from an individual's own experience, from the information that people collect from their senses and experiences

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encoding specificity

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when material is first put into LTM, encoding depends on the context in which the material Is learned. The manner in which information is encoded is specific to that context

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encoding variability

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the way the encoding of infrmation varies as a function of context

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episodic memory

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holds memories of specific events in which you yourself somehow participated

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event-related potential (ERP)

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measures an area of the brain's response to a specific event using electrodes on scalp

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executive functioning

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part of the prefrontal cortex involved in planning, making decision, implementing strategies, inhibiting inappropriate behaviors

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exemplar view of concepts

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people categorize new instances by comparing them to representations of previously stored instances

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exhaustive search

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even when match is found, keep comparing until the end

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expected utility theory

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if you always choose so as to maximize expected utility, then over a sufficiently large number of decisions, your own satisfaction will be highest

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experimenter expectancy effect

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sometimes experimenters unconsciously give subtle cues to participants

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explicit memory

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things that are consciously recollected

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faculty psychology

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different mental abilities were independent and autonomous functions, carried out in different parts of the brain

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family resemblance structure of concepts

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a structure in which each member has a number of features, sharing different features with different members

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fan effect

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the more facts about a particular concept, the more time they need to retrieve a particular fact about that concept

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feature

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come in two types: defining, meaning that the feature must be present in every example of the concept, and characteristic, meaning the feature is usually present

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feature comparison model of semantic memory

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words or concepts are mentally represented in terms of features

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feature integration theory

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the idea that we perceive objects in two distinct stages: first, automatically we register the features of objects and second, attention allows us to "glue" the features together into a unified object

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filter theory

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there are limits on how much information a person can attend to at any given time, therefore, if the amount of information available at any given time exceeds capacity, there person uses an attention filter to let some information through and block the rest

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flashbulb memory

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when people can recall their personal circumstances at the time they heard of or witnessed an unexpected and significant event

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fMRI

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noninvasive, nonradioactive means of assessing blood flow to various brain regions relying on the fact that blood has magnetic properties

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forebrain

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contains thalamus, hypothalamus, hippocampus, amygdala, and cerebral cortex

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form perception

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the segregation of the whole display into objects and the background

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framing effect

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people evaluate outcomes as changes from a reference point, their current state. Depending on how their current state is described, they perceive certain outcomes as gains or losses

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frontal lobe

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contains motor cortex, premotor cortex and the prefrontal cortex

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functionalism

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James asked why the mind works the way it does, assumed that the way the mind works has a great deal to do with its function (the purposes of its various operations)

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gambler's fallacy

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incorrect belief that the likelihood of a random event can be affected by or predicted from other, independent events

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genetic epistemology

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Jean Piaget's approach to describing the intellectual structures underlying cognitive experience at different developmental stages

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geon

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simple geometric components

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Gestalt principles of perception

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proximity, similarity, good continuation, closure, common fate

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Gestalt psychology

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psychological phenomena could not be reduced to simple elements, but rather had to be analyzed and studied in their entirety

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heuristic

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rules of thumb or shortcut method used in thinking, reasoning or decision making

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hierarchical semantic network model of semantic memory

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model of semantic memory organized in terms of nodes and links, which stores properties at the highest relevant node to conserve cognitive economy

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hindsight bias

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a tendency to exaggerate the certainty of what could have been anticipated ahead of time

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hippocampus

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involved in learning, memory, and emotion

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human factors engineering

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designing equipment and machinery to suit the capacities of the people operating it

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hypothalamus

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regulates basic biological functions, including hunger, thirst, temperature, and sexual arousal also involved in emotion

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icon

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brief visual memory that holds info for 1 second in an unprocessed form

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illusory correlation

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the phenomenon of seeing the relationship one expects in a set of data even when no such relationship exists

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image theory

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two stages: 1) noncompensatory screening of options against the decision maker's image of values and future, in which the number of options is reduced to a very small set and 2) if necessary a compensatory choice process

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imaginal scanning

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a task in which a participant is asked to form a mental image and to scan over it from one point to another

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implicit encoding

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information stored unintentionally

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implicit memory

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not deliberate or conscious but shows evidence of prior learning and storage

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inattentional blindness

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the phenomenon of not perceiving a stimulus that might be literally right in front of you, unless you are paying attention to it

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information-processing approach

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draws an analogy between human cognition and computerized processing of information, cognition can be thought of as information passing through a system

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knowledge-based view of concepts

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doesn't just compare features of the objects to features of stored representations, instead the person uses her knowledge of how the concept is organized to explain why certain instances happen to be in the same category

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lateralization

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specialization of function of the two cerebral hemispheres

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late-selection theory

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all messages are routinely processed for at least some aspects of meaning, of which message to respond to thus happens "late" in processing

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levels-of-processing theory of memory

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memory is thought to depend not on how long material is stored or on the kind of storage in which the material is held but on the initial encoding of the information to be remembered

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lexical decision task

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participants see a series of letter strands and are asked to decide if the letter strings form real words

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lexicon

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mental dictionary that holds the processor's memory of words, spelling, pronunciation, etc

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limited-capacity processors

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only being able to do so many things at one time, assumes that info is received, processed and stored differently for each kind of memory

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localization of function

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the "mapping" of brain areas to different cognitive or motor functions, identifying which neural regions are active when different activities take place

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long-term potentiation

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neural circuits in the hippocampus that are subjected to repeated and intense electrical stimulation develop hippocampal cells that become more sensitive to stimuli

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LTM

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capacity is unlimited, semantic similarity affects LTM

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medulla oblongata

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transmits information from the spinal cord to the brain and regulates life support functions such as respiration, blood pressure, coughing, sneezing, heart rate

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memory consolidation

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new information "initially persists in a fragile state and consolidates over time; brain injury can disrupt this process, causing newly learned information to be lost

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memory systems

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an episodic or semantic memory that operates on distinct principles and stores a distinct kind of information

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memory trace

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the encoded mental representation of the to-be-remembered info that is not rehearsed

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method of loci

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mnemonics: requires the learner to imagine a series of places that have some sort of order to them (path from dorm to class, imagining all the landmarks on the way, dividing the material I want to remember)

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midbrain

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involved in relating information between other brain regions, helps keep us awake and alert

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modality specific

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the visual sensory memory contains visual info, the auditory sensory memory contains auditory info

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Modal model of memory

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assumes that information is received, processed, and stored differently for each kind of memory

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mood-dependent memory effect

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a person would recall more information if he or she were in the same mood at recall time as at encoding time

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MRI

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requires no exposure to radiation and often generates clearer pictures

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multiattribute utility theory (MAUT)

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provides a means of integrating different dimensions and goals of a complex decision, 6 steps

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nativism

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emphasizes the role of native ability over the role of learning in the acquisition of abilities and tendencies

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natural-kind concept

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things that are naturally occurring in some environment (gold, tiger)

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nominal-kind concept

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concepts that have clear definitions

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nonanalytic concept formation

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also called implicit learning, requires that people pay attention to individual exemplars, storing information about and representation of them in memory

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normative model of decision making

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ideal performance under ideal circumstances

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occipital lobe

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only processes visual information

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paired associated learning

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participants hear lists of pairs

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pandemonium model

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model of letter perception based on a bottom-up hierarchy of feature detectors

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paradigm

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body of knowledge that selects and highlights certain issues for study

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parallel search

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comparing Titanic to all movie titles in the list

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parietal lobe

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contains primary somatosensory cortex

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partial-report technique

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tone that represented which row of letters to repeat; people recalled 3 of 4 letters

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pattern recognition

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the recognition of a particular object as belonging to a class of objects

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percept

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meaningful interpretation of the proximal stimulus

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perceptual equivalence

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many of the same kinds of internal processes used in mental visualization are used in visual perception as well, imagery can "prime" the visual pathway used in detecting an actual stimulus

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perceptual learning

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changes in the perception that occur as a function of practice or experience with the stimuli

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PET

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involves injecting a radioactive compound, measuring the blood flow to different regions of the brain, showing which areas are most active at a particular time

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phases of decision making

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setting goals, make plans, gather information, structure decision, make a final selection

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phoneme

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basic units of sound

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phonological loop of working memory

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used to carry out subvocal rehearsal to maintain verbal material

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phrenology

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discredited idea that psychological strengths and weaknesses could be precisely correlated to the relative sizes of different brain areas

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pons

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acts as a relay center, facilitating the "crossover" of information between the left side of the body and right side of the brain, etc, and involved in balance

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prefrontal cortex

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involved with executive functioning

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prescriptive model of decision making

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tells us how we "ought" to make decisions and take into account the fact that circumstances to which decisions are made are rarely ideal and provide guidance about how to do the best we can

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primacy effect

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retaining information from the beginning of a task

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primary somatosensory cortex

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organized such the each part of it receives information from a specific part of the body, the more sensitive an area of the body, the more area of the brain is dedicated to it

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priming

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a word that is especially ready to be recognized

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principle of categorization

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material organized into categories is more easily recalled than information with no organization

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proactive interference

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material learned first can disrupt retention of later learned material

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procedural memory

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information concerning action and sequences of actions and is implicitly represented and thus perhaps not consciously accessible

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process dissociation framework

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any task relies on a combination of abilities

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production rules

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specify a goal to achieve, one or more conditions that must be true for the rule to apply, and one or more actions that result from applying the rule

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propositional theory of visual images

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believe there is a single code, neither visual nor verbal but propositional in nature that is used to store and mentally represent all information (CITY - New York, WESTOF - New York, Boston)

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prosopagnosia

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specific agnosia for faces

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prototype

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an idealized representation of some class of objects or events

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prototype view of concepts

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denies the existence of necessary feature lists, instead accepting that concepts have one or more "core" representation, based on a family resemblance structure, but have no rigid boundaries

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proximal stimulus

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reception of information and its registration by a sense organ, retinal image is then formed…

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psychological essentialism

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the idea that people possess implicit theories about fundamental characteristics that all instances of a concept contain

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psychological refractory period (PRP)

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an interval of time following presentation of a first stimulus during which a person cannot respond to a second stimulus because of a central bottleneck in attentional processing

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quasi-experiments

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involves nonrandom assignment to certain experimental conditions

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recency effect

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remembering items at the end of a list

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recognition-printed decision making

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decision makers choose options based on analogy of a given situation with previously encountered situations

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relational-organizational hypothesis

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the idea that visual imagery aids memory by producing a greater number of associations

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repetition priming

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facilitation of the cognitive processing of information after a recent exposure to that same information (button → _u_to_)

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representativeness heuristic

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expecting the results to be representative of the process that generated them

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retention duration

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if not rehearsed, info is lost from STM in 20 seconds

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retrieval cue

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a stimulus that helps someone recall information or a memory

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retroactive interference

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when subsequently learned material interferes with recalling earlier learned material

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retrograde amnesia

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amnesia for previous events before brain damage

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schema

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organized framework for representing knowledge that incorporates both general knowledge about the world and information about particular events

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schema theory

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we don’t filter, attenuate, or forget unwanted material, we never acquire it in the first place

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schemata/scripts view of concepts

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schemata can be organized hierarchically, shares features with prototype (both store information that is abstracted across instances) and exemplar (both store information about actual instances)

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script

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a schema for routine events (going to a restaurant)

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selective attention

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we usually focus our attention on one or a few tasks rather than on many

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self-terminating search

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search until title is found

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semantic memory

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the information recalled is generic, it doesn't have much to do with your personal experience

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semantic network

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the collection of nodes associated with all the words and concepts one knows about

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semantic priming

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exposure to one word facilitates the recognition of a semantically related word (nurse → doctor)

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sensory memory

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unattended info presented very quickly is stored only briefly, has a large capacity, but length of time info can be stored is really short, info is unprocessed

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serial position effect

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items at the beginning or end of a list are more easily recalled than items from the middle

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size constancy

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the idea that proximal stimulus is not the same as the percept

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source-monitoring error

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people's inability to remember the original source of their memories

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space around the body

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refers to the area immediately around you, people localize objects in this space along three axes that are extensions of the body (front-back, up-down, left-right)

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space of navigation

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large spaces that people walk through, explore or travel to and through, too large to perceive from one place so it must be integrated from different pieces of information that are not immediately comparable

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space of the body

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knowledge of where the different parts of one's body are located at any given moment, knowing what other objects body parts are interacting with, and internal sensations, used to direct body spatially

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spacing effect

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if you repeatedly study the same material, you are much better off than cramming

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spatial cognition

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how people represent and navigate in and through space

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spatial equivalence

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the spatial arrangement of the elements of a mental image corresponds to the way objects are arranged on actual physical surfaces

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spreading activation

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the idea that excitation spreads along the connections of nodes in a semantic network

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spreading activation theory

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when one node is activated, the excitation of that node spreads down the paths or links to related nodes. As activation spreads outward, it decreases in strength, activating very related concepts a great deal, but activating distantly related nodes only a little bit

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state-dependent learning

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material learned while someone is drunk is better recalled when the person is drunk again

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state-dependent memory

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is found only with recall and not with recognition tasks

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STM

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attended info is held for periods of up to 20 or 30 seconds, acoustic similarity affects STM

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Stroop task

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naming the colors of words

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structural equivalence

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visual images are formed in pieces that are assembled into a final rendition, the structure of mental images corresponds to that of actual perceived objects, in the sense that the structure is coherent, well-organized, and can be reorganized and reinterpreted

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structuralism

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Wundt's focus on what the elemental components of the mind are rather than on the question of why the mind works as it does

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subjective contours

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illusory outline created by certain visual cures that lead to erroneous form perception

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subjective probability

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an intuitive estimate of the likelihood of occurrence of an event

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subordinate level of categories

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1st level: fruit, clothing, vehicle

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sunk cost effect

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the greater tendency to continue an endeavor once an investment in money, effort or time has be made

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superordinate level of categories

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3rd level: concord grape, jeans, sports car

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tacit knowledge

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people's underlying and implicit beliefs about a task or event

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template

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stored pattern or model to which incoming information is matched in order to be recognized and classified

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temporal lobe

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involved in processing of auditory information and in some aspects of memory

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thalamus

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relay station for sensory information and involved memory

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top-down process

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the perceiver's expectations, theories, or concepts guide the selection in the pattern recognition process

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transformational equivalence

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imagined and physical transformations exhibit the same characteristics and are governed by the same laws of motion (mental rotation)

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typicality effect

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typical instances of a concept are responded to more quickly than atypical instances; robins are typical birds, penguins are not

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utility

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measure of a person's happiness, pleasure, or satisfaction with a particular outcome

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visual agnosia

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impairment in the ability to interpret (although seeing) visual information

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visual search task

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subjects are asked to detect the presence of a particular letter/number against an array of other letters/numbers

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visuo-spatial sketch pad of working memory

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used to maintain visual material through visualization

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whole-report technique

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presented 12 letters for 50-500 milliseconds; people could recall 4-5 letters

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within-subjects design

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exposes the same experimental participants to more than one condition and researcher then compares the performance of the participants in the first condition to the same participants in another condition

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word superiority effect

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participants can more accurately identify letters presented in the context of words than presented alone or in the context of nonwords

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working memory

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contains information the system is currently using