Cognitive Psychology Chapter 2

Front 1

What are levels of analysis?

Back 1

refers to the idea that a topic can be studied in a number of different ways, with eachapproach contributing its own dimension to our understanding.

Front 2

What is a nueron?

Back 2

small units (basic building blocks) that create and transmit information that we experience and know-brain has billions of them and it can regrow in the himocampus

Front 3

What is the cell body?

Back 3

the metabolic center ofthe neuron; it contains mechanisms to keep the cell alive.

Front 4

What are the functions of dendrites?

Back 4

branch out from the cell body is to receive signals from other neurons

Front 5

What are axons?

Back 5

Also called nerve finders-are usually long processes that transmit signals to other neurons

Front 6

What is the synapse?

Back 6

The small gapbetween the end of a neuron’s axon and the dendrites or cell body of another neuron

Front 7

What are neural circuits?

Back 7

interconnected neurons

Front 8

What are receptors?

Back 8

neurons in the brain,there are also neurons that are specialized to pick up informationfrom the environment, such as the neurons in the eye, ear, and skin

Front 9

What is action potential?

Back 9

when the neuron receives a stimulus and responds to it. Its a all or nothing

Front 10

What is resenting potential?

Back 10

the value stays the same as long as there areno signals in the neuron

Front 11

What re neurotransmitters?

Back 11

makes it possible for the signal to be transmitted across the gap that separates theend of the axon from the dendrite or cell body of another neuron

Front 12

What is the frequency in action potentials?

Back 12

-electrical signals are representing the intensity of thestimulus, so pressure that generates “crowded” electrical signals feels stronger thanpressure that generates signals separated by long intervals

- the shape and height of the action potential remainedthe same as he increased the pressure, but the rate of nerve firing—that is, the number ofaction potentials that traveled down the axon per second—increased

Front 13

What is the principle of neural representation?

Back 13

everything a person experiences is based not on direct contact with stimuli, but onrepresentations in the person’s nervous system

Front 14

What are feature detectors?

Back 14

they responded to specificstimulus features such as orientation, movement, and length

Front 15

What is hierarchal processing?

Back 15

What is happening is thatneurons in the visual cortex that respond to relatively simple stimulisend their axons to higher levels of the visual system, where signalsfrom many neurons combine and interact; neurons at this higherlevel, which respond to more complex stimuli such as geometricalobjects, then send signals to higher areas, combining and interactingfurther and creating neurons that respond to even more complexstimuli such as faces

Front 16

What is single cell recording?

Back 16

-Used to measure electro-physiological responses of single neurons

-When a neuron generates an action potential, the signal propagates down the neuron as a current which flows in and out of the cell through excitable membrane regions in the soma and axon. A microelectrode is inserted into the brain, where it can record the rate of change in voltage with respect to time

Front 17

What are sensory codes?

Back 17

refers to how neurons represent various characters of the environment

Front 18

What are specificity coding?

Back 18

Theidea that an object could be represented by the firing of a specialized neuron that respondsonly to that object

Front 19

What is population coding?

Back 19

the representation of a particular object by the pattern of firing ofa large number of neurons

Front 20

What is sparse coding?

Back 20

occurs when a particular object is represented by a pattern of firing ofonly a small group of neurons, with the majority of neurons remaining silent

Front 21

What is localization of function?

Back 21

specificfunctions are served by specific areas of the brain

Front 22

What is the function of the cerebral cortex?

Back 22

-most of the cognitive functions are served in here

-It is a layer of tissue about 3 mm thick that covers thebrain. The cortex is the wrinkled covering you see when you look atan intact brain

Front 23

What is Broca's area?

Back 23

An early report of localization of function based on a stroke patient wasPaul Broca’s (1861) proposal that an area in the left frontal lobe, now calledBroca’s area , is specialized for speech. His proposal was basedon his study of a patient who had suffered damage to his frontal lobe andwas called “Tan” because this was the only word he could say

Front 24

What is Wernicke area?

Back 24

In 1879, CarlWernicke studied another group of patients with damage in an area of the left temporal lobe, now called Wernicke’s area , whose speech was fluent andgrammatically correct but tended to be incoherent.

Front 25

What is the function of the occipital lobe?

Back 25

vision

Front 26

What is the function of the temporal lobe?

Back 26

auditory

Front 27

What is the function of the parietal lobe?

Back 27

-relieves signals form the skin

-responsible for perceptionsof touch, pressure, and pain

Front 28

What is the function of the frontal lobe?

Back 28

receivessignals from all of the senses and is responsible for coordinationof the senses, as well as higher cognitive functionslike thinking and problem solving

Front 29

What is double association?

Back 29

-occurs if damage to one area of the brain causes function A to beabsent while function B is present, and damage to another area causes function B to beabsent while function A is present

-enables us to conclude that functions A and B are served by different mechanisms, whichoperate independently of one another

Front 30

What is brain imaging?

Back 30

which makes it possibleto determine which areas of the brains of humans are activated by different cognitions