Psych 240 Exam 1

Front 1

What is Cognitive Psychology?

Back 1

It is the study of the structures and processes of the mind and brain that take in, transform, and use information

Front 2

What does "the black box problem" refer to?

Back 2

It refers to the fact that the mind is a black box -- i.e. it is unobservable

Front 3

What are the manifestations of the mind that cognitive psychologists can observe?

Back 3

Behavior and Physiology

Front 4

What are three approaches to surpassing the "black box problem?"

Back 4

1) Introspectionism
2) Behaviorism
3) Cognitivism

Front 5

What is introspectionism? Which two dudes advanced this way of thinking?

Back 5

It was a technique popular in the late 1800s and early 1900s; it essentially claims that we can try to figure out how the mind works just by looking inside yourself (introspecting) when we think and perceive stimuli.

Wundt and Titchener advanced this way of thinking

Front 6

More specifically, what did Titchener do? What is our problem with it?

Back 6

He used introspection to develop a taxonomy of possible sensations for each sensory organ in the body.

Our problem with this is that it's entirely subjective.

Front 7

What are three problems with Introspection besides the one discussed in the context of Titchener's Taxonomy?

Back 7

1) Introspection is hard to verify. There is no way to possibly verify another individual's introspection.

2) Introspection revolves around private events, not public ones.

3) Introspection only observes the end product of the processing (cognition itself). We are unaware of the actual processes that underlie cognition.

Front 8

What is Behaviorism? Who are three psychologists we associate with this movement?

Back 8

This is the extreme counterargument to Introspection. Behaviorists argued that it was possible that the mind didn't even exist -- all we could do is obvserve stimuli and responses. What behaviorism did was study the relationship between stimuli and responses and how they came to be associated.

We associate Ivan Pavlov, Watson, and Skinner with this movement.

Front 9

What was behaviorist John Watson's claim?

Back 9

He claimed that thinking is just a form of subvocalized speech -- the idea here is that there's nothing inside the "black box." It's all just behavior.

Front 10

What are two problems with Behaviorism?

Back 10

It cannot account for the diversity of human behavior and the idea of limiting science to the observable is a terrible idea.

Front 11

What is Cognitivism?

Back 11

This line of thinking allows psychologist to INFER what's going on inside the box through unique methodology. The mainstream assumption is that the mind is somewhat like a computer program -- information enters, is translated, stored, and processed, and then an output is generated.

Front 12

What is an independent variable? What's a dependent variable?

Back 12

Heaven help you if you don't know this.

Front 13

How is an interaction between two independent variables shown on a graph?

Back 13

Lines that aren't parallel

Front 14

Who was Donders and what did he do?

Back 14

He exploited the idea that mental processes take time by using mental chronometry -- the study of the time course of mental processes

Front 15

What happens in each stage of information processing?

Back 15

Each stage receives information from the previous stage, transforms the infromation, and sends the information to the next stage when it's done.

Front 16

What are three problems with the subtractive method?

Back 16

1) The assumption of pure insertion -- adding the decision stage may influence another stage (like detection).

2) The assumption of additivity: stages might operate in parallel

3) It assumes that the experimenter already knows what the stages are.

Front 17

What did Huppert and Piercy do?

Back 17

They studied memory performance in patients with Korsakoff's syndrome. They gave 5 amnesiacs and 5 control patients a series of tests for memory for pictures. They found that amnesiacs couldn't identify 20 pictures they had already seen among 40 total pictures.

Then Huppert and Piercy ran a second study allowing korsakoff's patients more time to ENCODE the pictures. They found that this allowed the two groups to score similarly on the test.

Front 18

What is Perception?

Back 18

Perception is the means by which information acquired from our environment (via sense organs) is transformed into our experiences.

Front 19

What are three stages in perception?

Back 19

1) Distal Stimulus -- sound waves, objects reflecting light rays -- These things interact with our sense organs
2) Proximal Stimulus -- The pattern of interaction between the distal stimulus and our sense organs
3) Percept -- What we see/hear in our mind's eye. It's our experience of the world.

Front 20

What is meant by Paradoxical Correspondence?

Back 20

When the proximal stimulus does NOT correspond to distal stimulus, but the Percept does!!

For example, moving cars, moving eyes

Our situational context allows us to adapt to perceive the world as it really is, instead of what the distal-proximal stimuli interaction is.

This is an adaptation!

Front 21

What is perceptual constancy?

Back 21

This is a SUBSET of paradoxical correspondance.

Our perception of an object's features remains constant even when viewpoint changes.

Front 22

Size:_____::Color:______::______:angle

: = doesn't change

Back 22

Distance, Light, Shape.

Front 23

What are two theoretical approaches to perception?

Back 23

1) Direct Perception
2) Constructivist Theory

Front 24

What does the theory of direct perception say?

Back 24

There's enough information/subtle cues in the environment that our brains can understand it. Our brains are hard-wired to understand this, and the stimulus is unambiguous.

Front 25

What does the theory of constructivism say?

Back 25

Perception uses data from the world AND our prior knowledge and expectations to deal with often ambiguous information.

Front 26

What is Bottom-up processing?

Back 26

The idea that processing is driven by external stimuli, rather than internal knowledge.

Front 27

What is Top-down processing?

Back 27

The idea that processing is driven by knowledge & expectations.

Front 28

Is constructivism just top-down processing?

Back 28

NOPE. It's both!

Front 29

What are some cues that our mind uses to perceive depth?

Back 29

Linear perspective
Shape
Relative size
Interposition
Shadows
Retinal disparity
Accommodation
Convergence

Front 30

What is a monocular cue?

Back 30

A cue that you only need one eye to perceive. Binocular cues, of course, require two eyes.

Front 31

What is a shape cue?

Back 31

Also referred to as a texture gradient. The farther something is, the more densely packed the shapes/textures are.

Front 32

What is foreshortening?

Back 32

The idea that, when something is tilted, the 2D shape is going to change. At a distance, the tilt changes because we view things at an angle.

Distortion of shape due to distance.

Front 33

How are shadows used as depth cues?

Back 33

We can observe shadows relative to where (we think) the sunlight is.

Front 34

What is meant by retinal disparity?

Back 34

Things that are farther away are projected to close places on the retina

Front 35

Define Convergence:

Back 35

You go cross-eyed when you have objects that are close to you.

Front 36

What is motion parallax?

Back 36

You are moving. The farther away something is, the slower it moves across my retina.

Front 37

What are the three layers of cells in the retina?

Back 37

1) Ganglion Cells
2) Bipolar Cells
3) Photoreceptor Cells

Front 38

Which cells are furthest back in the eye?

Back 38

Ganglion cells! Wierd, right? The tails of the ganglion cells form the optic nerve. The rods and cones are in front of the retina.

Front 39

What are two kinds of photoreceptors?

Back 39

Rods and Cones

Front 40

Rods detect ________

Back 40

Brightness

Front 41

Cones detect ___________

Back 41

Color cells.

Front 42

Which kind of photoreceptors are concentrated in the fovea?

Back 42

Cones

Front 43

What are the three type of cone cells? aka what three colors are detected?

Back 43

Blue, green, and red!!

Front 44

What is the reason for the center-surround organization?

Back 44

It helps with point detection, edge detection, and light-on-dark or dark-on-light detection.

Front 45

What are two kinds of ganglion cells?

Back 45

M&P Cells. These turn into -----

1) Magnocellular -- Transient response, large receptive field, movement/location

2) Parvocellular -- sustained response, small receptive field, patterns/color/form

Front 46

How many layers of cell in a cortex?

Back 46

6.

Front 47

What are three kinds of cells in the visual cortex?

Back 47

Simple, complex, and hypercomplex

Front 48

What are simple cells sensitive to?

Back 48

Bars of light at specific orientations at specific locations in the visual field

Front 49

What are complex cells sensitive to?

Back 49

Edges and single movements

Front 50

How about hypercomplex cells?

Back 50

Very specific shapes, corners, and gaps.

Front 51

What are the two streams?

Back 51

Dorsal --- Where -- goes to parietal lobe
Ventral -- What? -- goes to temporal lobe

Front 52

What is Template Theory?

Back 52

The idea that we literally go pixel by pixel in order to match our percept to templates of objects that we have in LTM

You take perceptual representation and systematically compare it to template representations, looking for the BEST MATCH.

Front 53

What are some problems with Template theory?

Back 53

Well, if we're doing a literal step-by-step comparison, then transformations of an image (90 degrees clockwise, etc) would pose a major problem!

So would blocking some part of an object. If I see half a soccer ball, the other half being obstructed by a rock, a goalpost, etc. I still recognize it as a soccer ball. No complete image. Yet we still recognize it.

Front 54

What is Feature Theory?

Back 54

Feature theory revolves around the idea that we use features of objects to build pattern recognition. Maybe we have a list of low-level features in the object and we use those to do pattern recognition

This is more precise for how our visual system breaks down images.

Front 55

What are three pieces of evidence for feature theory?

Back 55

1) Physiology -- recordings from neurons themselves

2) Stabilized retinal images -- our eyes shake back and forth ever so slightly in order to give neurons a "break." Pretty soon, specific features start to drop out of your vision.

3) Visual search --

Front 56

What is the pandemonium model?

Back 56

A computer implementation of feature theory.

Front 57

Why are caricatures relevant?

Back 57

We're faster at recognizing caricatures than we are at recognizing real photographs.

Support feature theory because the emphasis on important specific features allow us to recognize the person faster

Front 58

What's wrong with feature theory?

Back 58

Feature theory doesn't take into account the RELATIONSHIP between the features. But we can tell the difference between a P, d, and b.

Front 59

What is the recognition by components theory?

Back 59

We break objects down into features, and then we build them into GEONS.

Also takes into account "non-accidental" properties

Front 60

What is the RBC matching process?

Back 60

Detect elementary features, edges

Find non-accidental property

Determine component geons

Match to memory

Front 61

What are 3 pieces of evidence for RBC?

Back 61

1) Partial or degraded objects -- if you take out non-accidental properties, the object gets really damn hard to identify

2) Object complexity -- people are faster at recognizing complex objects (weaker piece of evidence). Biederman conjectures that this is because our representations (templates) are very complicated.

3) Unusual orientations --

Front 62

What are some problems with RBC?

Back 62

A lot of objects in the world are structurally similar to each other. Yet we can still tell the difference.

Also, there's still just not a lot of neurological evidence.

And the BIGGEST problem is context effects.

Front 63

Where does Top-Down processing originate?

Back 63

Higher cognition, proceeding downwards towards sensation

Front 64

What are three types of top-down processing?

Back 64

1) Expectation/Bias
2) Context Effects
3) Higher levels of analysis that affect lower ones

Front 65

What does Expectation/Bias refer to?

Back 65

It refers to the fact that our own expectations or biases can affect the way we perceive something

Front 66

What does context effects refer to?

Back 66

When perception of an object is affected by its context/environment

Front 67

What are some examples of context effects?

Back 67

Subjective contours and letter recognition

Front 68

What is the word superiority effect?

Back 68

We are faster at recognizing letters in the context of words.

Front 69

What is focused attention?

Back 69

When an individual allocates all of their attention to one stimulus, ignoring other inputs/stimuli

Front 70

What is divided attention?

Back 70

When an individual has to split attention to focus on more than one stimuli. Turns out you can automate processing of two or more channels of info by training consistently (driving a car, flying an airplane)

Front 71

What does the stroop task measure?

Back 71

Focused attention. It's very hard to ignore the word because reading is automatic. When an automatic process has to be ignored in favor of a relatively harder process, this is called stroop interference

Front 72

What is dichotic listening?

Back 72

You listen to two different things (1 in each ear) and then repeat only one of the messages.

Front 73

What are bases for selection that help us out with dichotic listening?

Back 73

1) The location of the stimulus makes it easier to identify
2) Physical characteristics make it easier to distinguish and attend to one stimulus


It's still very hard to keep track of coherent meaning;

Front 74

How about the unattended message?

Back 74

We are not attending to it -- we have very little memory for the message, we don't notice if it's in another language, and we aren't even aware of the meaning.

Front 75

What is the early filtering theory?

Back 75

Detection --> filter --> Recognition

Front 76

What are some problems with the early filtering theory?

Back 76

Well, you do notice your own name, bilinguals notice when the unattended message in a different language means the same as attended message, and you get a galvanic skin response to conditioned words (words conditioned during unattended message).

Front 77

Whats the difference between attenuation and late filtering?

Back 77

The attenuator (volume knob) happens before recognition, whereas late filter happens after recognition.

Front 78

What are two shifts of visual attention?

Back 78

Overt and Covert.

Front 79

What's the posner task?

Back 79

This is the valid, invalid, neutral orienting task. Good cue, bad cue, etc.

Front 80

What is Feature Integration Theory?

Back 80

According to Treisman, you "glue" features together by focusing attention at a particular location.

Front 81

What happened with the visual search task?

Back 81

Feature search: automatic, fast ("pop-out"), independent of number of distractors

Conjuntion search: controlled, slow, effortful, dependent on number of distractors

Front 82

What kind of brain damage is seen in visuospatial neglect?

Back 82

Right parietal damage

Front 83

What is Posner's theory of neglect?

Back 83

He thought it happens because patients have a difficult time disengaging attention from right side of space.

Front 84

What is the Unbalanced theory of neglect?

Back 84

Hemispheres inhibit each other. Without the right side to inhibit the other, the left side dominates.

Front 85

What did Standing do?

Back 85

He tried to push the limits of visual memory.

Front 86

When is Visual Memory bad?

Back 86

When we have to recall unimportant and unattended details
When stimuli lack meaning
When foils (distractors) are similar

Front 87

What is the Dual Code Hypothesis?

Back 87

Maybe we make a visual AND a verbal code for recognizing objects

Front 88

How did Tollman demonstrate that Rats were creating a cognitive map?

Back 88

They were taking shortcuts whenever possible.

Front 89

What is a heuristic?

Back 89

A quick and dirty rule of thumb that works most of the time.

Front 90

What is rectilinearization?

Back 90

Our bias for right-angles

Front 91

How is relative position different from the alignment heuristic?

Back 91

Because with the RP heuristic, we're using the relative positions of LARGER objects.

Front 92

What is observer perspective?

Back 92

The number of landmarks we remember increases the distance estimates.

Front 93

Propositional code

Back 93

1. Propositional representations are very powerful, represent a lot of ideas
2. Propositions have truth values -- it's either true or false.
3. The parts of the propositional code don't necessarily have a concrete value in the image (THE globe is on the desk).

Front 94

Depictive code

Back 94

Just like an analog of the thing you're trying to imagine.

Front 95

What are interference effects and what do they have to do with these codes?

Back 95

Basically interference effects have to do with the competition for resources when trying to do similar things. If two things interfere, then they require the same mental system.

Front 96

Why does Kosslyn's image scanning task support Depictive code?

Back 96

Because it shows that it takes physical time to scan the image and shift your attentional spotlight.

Front 97

What are demand characteristics?

Back 97

Sometimes we see experimental evidence because subjects behave how they believe experimenters WANT them to act.

Front 98

Why is imagery DIFFERENT from perception?

Back 98

Functional Equivalence hypothesis: functionally, imagery and perception are very similar. But they're not exactly the same.

Why?

Imagery doesn't have the same metric qualities that perceptions do (bisected rectangles)

Front 99

Why do ambiguous figures support the idea that imagery and perception are different?

Back 99

Because it's easy to see ambiguous figures when we perceive them, but not when we imagine them

Front 100

What are the three components of compromise theory?

Back 100

Basic code is propositional for long term storage
Propositional code is used to create depictive image
Depictive image can be scanned, zoomed, etc.

Front 101

How do we know that visual cortex is more active during imagery tasks than perception tasks?

Back 101

PET study