PSY 200 Exam 1

Ebbinghaus's saving curve

Forget a large amount of information quickly; memory retention drops soon after learning; rate of forgetting slows with more time.

fMRI

Brain activity in different brain areas through blood flow; useful for studying mental processes because of high spatial resolution and specific brain activity.

EEG

Brain electrodes on scalp to measure brainwaves.

PET

Radioactive tracers measure specific brain activity.

Saffran et al.'s conclusion

Infants of 8 months old are capable of learning statistical regularities with just 2 minutes of training.

Top-down processing

Our perception of language depends on prior knowledge we already know about a situation.

Gestalt approach to perception

Organized wholes, not learned proximity and closure.

Helmholtz's approach

Based on past experiences.

Bayesian approach

Probability and prior knowledge of what is most likely.

Regularities approach

Common patterns/regularities in our environment/experiences.

Ungerleider and Mishkin's experiment

Used brain ablation method to demonstrate what and where streams in the cortex.

Object discrimination

Temporal lobe damage affects the object discrimination WHAT pathway (ventral).

Landmark discrimination

Parietal lobe damage affects the landmark discrimination WHERE pathway (dorsal).

Structuralism

1st approach; break down into mental processes like feelings and sensations; subjective and unreliable.

Analytic introspection

A method of structuralism where individuals verbally describe their thoughts; highly subjective.

Behaviorism

2nd approach; focuses on observable behavior measures stimulus-response; measurable and scientific.

Wundt and Titchener

Founders of structuralism.

Watson and Skinner

Key figures in behaviorism.

SIMPLE REACTION TIME TASK

Respond quickly as possible to SINGLE stimulus

CHOICE REACTION TIME TASK

Respond quickly to MULTIPLE stimulus; involves DECISION MAKING

CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

Unconditional stimulus linked to response; INVOLUNTARY automatic response

OPERANT CONDITIONING

Behavior through rewards and punishment; VOLUNTARY choose your actions

COGNITIVE MAP

Mental representation of spatial layout of environment; Learning can occur even without an award

LATENT LEARNING

Mental processes guide behavior without immediate reinforcement

ELECTROPHYSIOLOGY

Study of electrical activity in neurons; EEGs show WHEN not WHERE

NEUROPSYCHOLOGY

Study of behavior AFTER brain DAMAGE; Shows DAMAGE not WHEN or WHERE

BRAIN IMAGING

Technique to visualize ACTIVE brain regions during TASKS; fMRI and PET provide HIGH WHERE resolution

FORGETTING

Decline in memory; forgetting happens rapidly at first

SAVING

Time it takes for relearning info; calculated as (Original time - relearning time) / Original time * 100

FRONTAL LOBE

Responsible for motor tasks, reasoning, planning, and speech

PARIETAL LOBE

Responsible for touch, pain, and spatial awareness

TEMPORAL LOBE

Responsible for hearing, language, and memory

OCCIPITAL LOBE

Responsible for vision

SENSORY MEMORY

Lasts for milliseconds; large but brief

SHORT TERM MEMORY

Holds 7 items for about 20 seconds

LONG TERM MEMORY

Can last for minutes to unlimited time; considered permanent

ACTION PATHWAY

Dorsal Parietal pathway responsible for spatial location and movement

PERCEPTION PATHWAY

Ventral Temporal pathway responsible for recognizing objects, faces, and shapes

OBJECT DISCRIMINATION TASK

Identify object; choose triangle over circle to get food

LANDMARK DISCRIMINATION TASK

Locate objects; pick closest to the landmark

BOTTOM-UP PROCESSING

Processing based on new sensory input

PHYSICAL REGULARITIES

Low level features like lines, edges, vertical, horizontal

SEMANTIC REGULARITIES

High level patterns related to the function of objects in a scene

UNCONSCIOUS INFERENCE

Educated guess about the world based on past experiences

BAYESIAN INFERENCE

Combines PRIOR and CURRENT sensory information to compute the most probable interpretation

Helmholtz's theory of unconscious inference

Educated guess based on past experience

Viewpoint Invariance

Recognize an object from different angles

Inverse Projection

One image could be any possibility

Good Continuation

Perceive lines that run smoothly/uninterrupted

Simplicity/Good Figure

Overall simplicity; perceive shapes in simplest form

Apparent Motion

Illusion of movement; two more stimuli presented next to each other with no movement

Common Motion

Grouping objects based on same movement; birds of a feather flock together

Filter Model of Attention Broadbent

Only one message is processed fully while others are blocked

Attenuation Model of Attention Treisman

All messages are processed but some are stronger than others

Early Selection Model

Filter information first early before meaning; physical

Late Selection Model

All info is collected for meaning first and selection information later; semantic/importance

Change Blindness

Failure to notice a large change when change occurs

Inattentional Blindness

Unexpected stimuli is missed because our attention fixates on something else

Change Detection Task

Task to measure changes in stimuli to study attention

Conjunction Search

Combo of two; is slower

Feature Search

Searching for a single feature

Visual Search

Looking for specific stimulus selectively

Binding

Combining multiple features to make one object

Overt Attention

Moving eyes towards an object; attention through eyes

Covert Attention

Shifting attention without moving eyes; mental spotlight

Saccades

Rapid eye movement

Selective Attention

One specific stimulus while ignoring others

Divided Attention

Two or more stimuli

Pre Attentive Stage

First automatic stage of perception; e.g., noticing color or shape

Focused Attention Stage

Second stage where features are bound together to identify an object

High Load Task

Lots of attention needed; e.g., hard math problem

Low Load Task

Small attention needed; leaves room for distractor stimuli

Automatic Processing

Fast, unintentional, effortless processing

Processing Capacity

Available attention

Load Theory Lavie

How much distractor/irrelevant stimuli is processed based on high vs low load tasks

Feature Integration Theory Treisman

How we bind features into one object; involves pre attentive and focused stages

Gauthier's 'Greeble' Experiment

Trained to recognize Greebles along with faces; found that fusiform face area is an expertise area, not just a face area

Cognitive distraction

Dangers of a phone comes from cognitive distraction

Handheld vs screen phone distraction

No difference in handheld vs screen phone distraction

Divided distraction

Just as easily distracted due to divided distraction

Saffran's experiment

8 month old babies tested syllables with grouping of some syllables

Infants' ability to group syllables

Infants were able to point out these groupings

Statistical learning

Infants have Statistical learning and top down processing

Language regularities

Language is dependable on regularities

Choice reaction time vs simple reaction time

Choice reaction time takes longer than simple reaction time

Decision making

CONCLUDE that decision making takes longer

Ebbinghaus's memory experiment

First measurable test of memory

Forgetting curve

Created forgetting curve

Retention and saving of memory

Introduced retention and saving of memory

Likelihood Principle

Perceive object most likely to be explainable

Speech Segmentation

Dividing continuous speech into words

Scene Schema

What typically is found in a scene

Cocktail party phenomenon

Focus on one convo while filtering out others

Information processing system

Links mind to computer input, processing, output

Dictionary Unit

Treisman's attenuation model, stored words and thresholds to activate

Salience

What makes a stimulus stand out

Illusory Conjunction

Incorrect combining features from different objects

Same Object Advantage

Already looking at an object notice things on it faster, attention spreads across an object