PSYC 358 Unit 1 & 2

test 1

information processing approach

an approach that traces sequences of mental operations involved in cognition

cognition

the mental processes, such as perceptiom, attention, and memory which is what the mind creates.

cognitive psychology

the study of mental processes, which includes determining the characteristic and properties of the mind and how it operates.

reaction time

how long it takes to respond to a presentation of a stimulus

Franciscus Donders

did one of the first experiments that today would be a cognitive psych experiment.

simple reaction time

the reaction time when faced with a simple task only based on reaction (hit a button for a light)

choice reaction time

the time it takes for someone to make a choice (hitting left or right button depending on choice)

structuralism

our overall experience is determined by combining basic elements of experience

basic elements of experience

sensation

wilhelm wundt

big structuralism guy - established the first lab of scientific psyc

analytic introspection

trained participants describe their experiences and thought processes in response to stimuli

Herman Ebbinghaus

a researcher interested in determining the nature of memory and forgetting - specifically how rapidly information that is learned is lost over time - quantitative measurment of mental processes

Ebbinghaus experiment

repeated nonsense syllables, waited for a specific amount of time, and then determined how long it took to relearn

savings

how much was forgotten after a delay

savings curve

memory drops rapidly for the first 2 days after the initial learning and then levels off - memory can be quantified

william james

creator of the first psyc textbook, still has valid observations today

john watson

founder of behaviorism bc he was tired of analytic introspection

behaviorism

studying directly observable behavior instead of just the mind

classical conditioning

pairing a stimulus with a neutral stimulus and getting a new response

operant conditioning

focused on how behavior is strengthened from positive and negative reinforcers

bf skinner

famous for his role in operant conditioning, skinner box with rat food bar pressing

cognitive map

a conception that the rat had of the maze he was in - showed the rat was not being conditioned but was actually learning

chace tolman

outside of mainstream behaviorism, cognitive map

language is learned by (skinner)

operant conditioning

Noam Chomsky

linguist, language is not determined by imitation or reinforcement, but by an inborn biological program

cognitive revolution

shift from behaviorist focus on stimulus response to focusing on the operation of the mind

scientific revolution

shift from one paradigm to another

paradigm

a system of ideas that dominate science at a particular time

information processing approach

an approach that traces sequences of mental operations involved in cognition

Colin Cherry

performed attended vs non attended experiment, discovered people could hear the unattended message but were unaware of the contents

artificial intelligence

making a machine behave in ways that would be intelligent if a human were so behaving

episodic memory

life event memories

semantic memory

facts

procedural memory

physical actions

neuropsychology

study of people with brain damage

electrophysiology

measuring electrical responses of the nervous system, made it possible to listen to the activity of single neurons

PET scan

made it possible to see which areas pfthe hu,an brain are activated during cognitive activity.

fMRI scan

same as pet but with a higher resolution and no radioactive tracers

levels of analysis

a topic can be studied in a number of different ways, with each approach contributing its own dimension to our understanding

neuron doctrine

the idea that individual cells transmit signals in the nervous system and are not continuous with other cells

nerve net theory

a continuous network of nerves, like a highway in which there are side roads but no stoplights.

cell body

contains methods to keep the cell alive

denrites

recieves signals

axons

long processes that transmit signals to other neurons

synapse

the gap between the end of a neurons axon and the dendrites where neurotransmitters are released

neural circuts

interconnected neurons

principle of neural representation

everything a person experiences is based on representations in the persons nervous system

feature detectors

respond to a specific stimulus feature such as orientation, movement, and length

experience dependent plasticity

structure of the brain is changed by experience (kittens reared horizontal vs vertical)

visual cortex

back of the brain

temporal lobe

neurons in the temporal lobe respond to complex stimuli

hierarchial processing

progression from lower to higher areas of the brain

problem of sensory coding

problem with how neurons represent various characteristics of the enviornment

specificity coding

an object could be represented by the firing of a specialized neuron

population coding

representation of a particular obhect by the pattern of firing of a large number of neurons

sparse coding

an object is represented by a pattern of firing of only a small group of neurons

localization of function

specific functions are served by specific areas of the brain

cerebral cortex

wrinkled covering that serves in performing many cognitive functions

subcortical areas

located below the cerebral cortex

cortical equipotentiality

idea that the brain operated as an indivisible whole as opposed to specialized areas

brocas area

when damage is caused to this area, they exhibit slow labored ungrammatical speech thats mostly characterized as just sound

wernickes area

when damage is done to this area,, fluent and grammatically correct speech is produced, but it is incoherent

parietal lobe

responsible for touch, pressure, and pain

ocipital lobe

where the visual cortex is, damage can result in blindness

frontal lobe

recieves signals from all the senses and is responsible for coordnation of the senses and thinking/problem solving

prosopagnosia

inability to recognize faces - from damage to the temporal lobe on the lower right side of the brain

double dissociation

occurs if damage to one area of the brain causes function A to be absent while function B to be present and vice versa

fusiform face area FF

a region in the brain that is responsible for processing and recognizing faces. It is located in the fusiform gyrus, which is part of the temporal lobe. plays a crucial role in facial recognition and is involved in various aspects of face perception, such as identifying familiar faces and detecting facial expressions.

parahippocampal place area PPA

responsible for recognizing indoor or outdoor and spatial layout

extrastriate body area EBA

recognizes body parts but not faces

distributed representation

activating many parts of the brain at once

neural networks

interconnected areas of the brain that can communicate with each other

structural connectivity

the brain’s “wiring diagram” created by nerve axons that connect different brain areas.

TWI (track weighted imaging)

based on detection of how water diffuses along the length of nerve fibers

connectome

refers to the complete map of neural connections or pathways in the brain.

functional connectivity

if two parts of the brain are correlated, they are functionally connected

visual network

vision, visual perception

somato-motor

movement and touch

dorsal attention

attention to visual stimuli and spatial locations

executive control

Higher-level cognitive tasks involved in working memory (see Chapter 5) and directing attention during tasks

Salience

Attending to survival-relevant events in the environment

default mode

Mind wandering, and cognitive activity related to personal life-story, social functions, and monitoring internal emotional states