Cognition Exam 1

working memory

a cognitive system with a limited capacity that can temporarily hold info while manipulating it to be used by other cognitive systems

deterministic

the view that all acts (including human acts) have antecedent causes in the physical world

nondeterministic

the view that at least some acts have antecedent causes outside the physical world; studying the mind is futile because we have free-will

nativist

the view that much of human knowledge is innate

empiricist

the view that most human knowledge is acquired over one’s lifetime through experience

associationism

the belief that knowledge begins with sensory information and that sensations may form more complex ideas

structuralism

a school of psychology in late 19th century, the goal of which was to describe structures that comprise thought; researchers often used the introspective method

functionalism

a school of psychology in late 19th century that held that the functions of mental processes were paramount and that psychologists should therefore focus on describing the function of thought processes

introspectionism

a method of studying the mind that became nearly synonymous with structuralism; method entails observing one’s thought processes, but more experienced should train a novice; researchers used introspection to describe basic components of consciousness; championed by Wundt

behaviorism

an approach to psychology that claims that the appropriate subject matter of psychology is behavior, not mental processes; also emphasizes that psychologists should focus on that which is observable; championed by Watson in early 20th century

reflex

an automatic action by the body that occurs when a particular stimulus is perceived in the environment

conditioned reflex

a reflex that is learned i.e. that is a product of experience

classical conditioning

a training procedure which produces a conditioned reflex

unconditioned stimulus

in classical conditioning, a stimulus that leads to a consistent response from the animal before any training begins

unconditioned response

in classical conditioning, the response to an unconditioned stimulus

conditioned stimulus

in classical conditioning, a stimulus that before training doesn’t elicit a consistent response; during training, it’s paired with the unconditioned stimulus

conditioned response

in classical conditioning, the response elicited by a conditioned stimulus after training; similar but not identical to unconditioned stimulus

operant conditioning

learning whereby the animal (or person) makes a response that has consequences i.e. reward and punishment

fixed-action patterns

complex behaviors in which an animal engages, despite very limited opportunities for practice or reward; usually taken as evidence for innate/inborn learning

practice

in developing expertise, an activity designed to improve skill and therefore must include corrective feedback and repetition and must be at an appropriate level of difficulty

critical period

a window of opportunity during which a particular type of learning will be easy for the organism; if missed, learning id more difficult or even impossible

generative

a property of systems that can produce new, novel output; language is generative (you can produce and understand completely novel utterances); seemed difficult to achieve with behaviorist accounts of language (successful in predicting likelihood of repeating an action, but not in describing how a novel action could be generated)

representation

a symbol for an entity or concept in the real world

process

manipulates representations in some way

information processing

an approach to studying the human mind; assumes humans are processors of information and that representations and processing operating on them underly cognition; assumes information is processed in stages

abstract construct

a theoretical set of processes and representations that you think are useful in explaining some data e.g. articulatory loop of working memory

observable behaviors

behaviors that are a response to cognitive tasks; an individual’s response to a task

solvable problems

theories which can be falsified by evidence

target

term used in visual search experiments for the item that the participant is expected to find; also used in recognition memory experiments to denote the to-be-remembered material at test

participant

anyone who provides data for psychological research

descriptive research

one describes some behavior as they find it in the world; includes naturalistic observation, cases studies, and self-report

naturalistic observation

observing behavior as they find it in the world

case study

researcher observes an individual on a number of occasions, interacting with participant (usually not naturalistic)

relational research

examines 2 or more aspects of the world with an eye to seeing whether they are related (correlation)

experimental research

measures whether 2 things are related by changing one factor while holding other factors equal and observing the effect of the change on the other thing

independent variable

variable that researcher manipulates

dependent variable

variable that a researcher thinks will vary, depending on how independent variable is manipulated

ecological validity

when studies accurately reproduce real-life situations, allowing easy generalization in their findings

localization

finding a location in the brain that supports a cognitive process or function

CT scan

computed topography scan; retains volumetric info by measuring thin slices in brain rather than squashing them together

MRI

magnetic resonance imaging; a technique that uses magnetic properties of hydrogen for showing 3D structure of the brain; important for lesion studies BUT doesn’t show activation

neurons

cells in brain that support cognition

single-cell recording

technique in which a very fine probe is inserted in the brain that can record activity of a single neuron or small group of neurons

electroencephalogram

EEG, a technique for recording electircal activity in brain in which electrodes are placed outside scalp; used to localize brain activity (not great, gives general area) and is useful for its temporal accuracy (when neural activity takes place)

event-related potentials

method of averaging EEG waves from many trials to eliminate random variation

functional magnetic resonance imaging

fMRI, technique to localize human brain activity during cognitive task; depends on fact that magnetic property of blood changes depending on whether it carries oxygen

converging operations

strategy of using multiple techniques to address a question, to make up for the fact that each technique has some flaws

inverse projection problem

the problem of recovering 3D shape from a 2D projection, such as projection on the retina

retina

the layer of light-sensitive cells on the back of the eye

shape and orientation indeterminacy

refers to the fact that shape and orientation are indeterminate from a 2D projection

luminance

The amount of light your eye receives dependent on several factors: amount of illumination, reflects cs of an object, and whether object is in shadow

Likelihood principle

Suggestion that among the many ways of interpreting an ambiguous visual stimulus, the visual system will interpret it as the stimulus that is most likely to occur in the world

Local contrast

Dependence of perceived surface lightness on ratios of lightness of areas that are next to one another and are in the same plane

Depth cues

Cues that inform our visual system how far away an object is; divided into 2 classes: oculomotor depth cues and those based on retinal image

Accommodation

A cue to distance in visual perception; depends on sensing how much lens of eye has changed shape in order to focus image on retina; shape change varies with distance of an object

Convergence

A cue to distance; as an object gets closer, an observer crosses their eyes more to keep image of object on center of fovea of each eye; extent to which eyes are crossed can be used as a cue to distance

Fovea

The part of the retina that’s most accurate in discerning fine details; near center of retina

Retinal disparity

The disparity in retinal location of the same image for 2 eyes

Stereopsis

A cue to distance that depends on the fact that our 2 eyes get slightly different views of objects

Familiar size

Using one’s knowledge of typical size of an object as a cue to likely size and distance of an object

Pictorial cues

Cues to distance that can be used in 2D pictures

Relative height

Cue to depth; objects higher in picture plane are farther away, lower are closer

Linear perspective

Cue to depth; parallel lines converge in the distance, so closer they are to converging, the farther away the location

Texture gradient

Cue to depth; a field is assumed to have a uniform texture gradient, so if more detail is visible in part of the field, it is assumed to be closer

Atmospheric perspective

Cue to depth; objects in distance look less distinct because they are viewed through more dust and water particles in the air that scatter light

Bottom-up processing

Processing that starts with unprocessed sensory information and builds toward more conceptual representations

Top-down processing

Processing in which conceptual knowledge influences processing or interpretation of lower-level perceptual processes

Parsing paradox

For some ambiguous figures, it seems impossible to identify the figure without knowing it’s parts, but it’s parts can’t be identified unless one knows the figure

Inferential approach

An approach to visual perception which assumes that information in the environment is insufficient for perception and therefore visual system must make inferences to recover shapes and movements of objects in the environment

Ecological approach

Emphasizes that environment has rich sources of information in it and that computations the visual system needs to perform are probably not that extensive

Eye height

The height of the observer’s eyes from the ground; can be used as a cue to object size

Vector flow field

Gibson’s alternative to retinal image; argued information for perception was instead overall pattern of motion of points of light over time across our visual field

Viewer-centered representation

Representation in memory specific to your viewpoint

Object-centered representation

A mental representation of what an object looks like relative to the object itself; can support recognition of object viewed from any perspective

Prosopagnosia

A neurological syndrome characterized by a difficulty in recognizing faces via visual input

What/Where Hypothesis

Hypothesis that visual system segregated analysis of what objects are (object Recognition) and where they are (spatial location)

What/How hypothesis

Alternative to what/where hypothesis, holds that visual system segregates analysis of what objects are (object recognition and location) and how to manipulate them (visual information dedicated to motor system)

Visual agnosia

A neurological syndrome characterized by a difficulty in identifying objects using visual input

Optic ataxia

A neurological syndrome characterized by a deficit in visually controlled reaching, but not in identifying objects

Recognjtion

A match between visual input and mental representation of the object

Attention

The act or state of applying the mind to something

Disjunctive search

In a visual search task, When target differs from distractors by just one feature (like a red Q in black Qs)

Conjunctive search

In a visual search task, When there is more than one feature to distinguish target from distractor (like size and color)

Feature integration theory

a theory of attention in which attention is a process needed to bind features together in objects; when attention is diverted/overloaded, features may be wrongly recombined, giving rise to illusory conjunctions

Selective

The assumption that one is able to disburse limited resource of attention as desired

Visual search task

A task in which research participants must search a display of objects for a target

Preattentively

Processing that occurs regardless of whether attention is applied to stimulus

Illusory conjunction

prediction of feature integration theory; errors of combinations of features caused by interrupting attentional binding process

Early filter

Theory proposing attention acts as a filter early in the processing stream; implies all sensory stimuli are analyzed for physical characteristics but only those that are attended to are analyzed for semantic characteristics

Dichotic listening task

Task in which participants listen to material on headphones and each side plays a. Different message; participants attend to one message and shadow (repeat aloud) the message; used to study how much the unattended material is processed

Late filter

Theory proposing attention acts as a filter late in the processing stream; implies all sensory stimuli are analyzed for physical characteristics and meaning but only those that are attended to enter awareness

Cocktail party effect

When an unattended stimulus is noticed based on its meaning (like hearing one’s name in another conversation in the middle of a noisy party)

endogenous

a type of attention that nis driven by an internal goal and controlled by the observer

exogenous

a type of attention driven by external cues and not under control of the observer

dual task paradigm

paradigm requiring participants to perform 2 tasks simultaneously; used to study limits of attention

discrete task

a task in which each trial has a discrete beginning and ending

response to stimulus interval

the time after the participant has responded but before next stimulus has appeared

automatic

a process that takes few or no attentional resources and that happens without intention, given the right set of stimuli in the the environment

continuous task

a task in which there is no obvious beginning and ending to each trial; there is a continuous stream of stimuli and responses

response selection

a hypothetical stage of processing in which a response to a stimulus to selected (e.g. to push a button) but the actual preparation of motor act (e.g. finger movement) is not yet complete