Cognitive Psychology Term Test 1

Eight Critical Thinking Strategies

1. Ask questions

   1. COMMON SENSE IS A MYTH

2. Define your terms

3. Consider the source of evidence

4. Analyze assumptions and biases

   1. Primacy effect

   2. Anchoring effect

   3. Confirmation bias

5. Avoid emotional reasoning

6. Don’t oversimplify

7. Consider other interpretations

   1. Occam’s razor

8. Tolerate uncertainty

Primacy effect

Memory bias where we remember information from a first instance or event better than information that follows the first.

Anchoring effect

Cognitive bias where people rely heavily on the first piece of information they receive when making decisions

Cognitive psychology

The scientific study of mental processes

Perception

Interpreting and organizing sensory information

Attention

The cognitive mechanism that allows individuals to focus on specific stimuli, features, or mental tasks while filtering out competing distractions

Memory

The processes involved in acquiring, storing, retaining, and later retrieving information, experiences, and skills over time

Language

A system of communication using arbitrary symbols combined according to grammatical rules to convey complex thoughts and ideas

Problem solving

The cognitive process of finding a solution to overcome obstacles when a path to a specific goal is not immediately obvious

Decision making

The process of evaluating multiple options, assessing potential risks and outcomes, and choosing a specific course of action

Reasoning

The cognitive process of drawing logical conclusions, making inferences, and forming judgements based on available facts, premises, or evidence.

The Cognitive Revolution

Shift from behaviorism toward the study of internal mental processes.

What is behaviorism focused on?

Observable stimuli, observable responses, and the stimulus-response relationships

What did the cognitive revolution argue?

Behavior cannot always be explained without considering the mental processes that occur between the stimulus and response.

What are the four main stages of the Information-Processing approach?

The mind can be conceptualized as a system that:

1. Receives information

2. Processes or transforms that information

3. Stores or interprets information

4. Produces a response

Donders’ main contribution to cognitive psychology

Used reaction time to infer the duration of mental processes through

1. Simple reaction time

2. Choice reaction time

3. Subtraction method

Simple reaction time

The time it takes to make a single, pre-planned response to a single stimulus

Choice reaction time

The time it takes to identify multiple stimuli and select a different response for each

Subtraction method

By subtracting the reaction time of a simpler task from that of a more complex task, the time it takes to complete specific mental processes can be measured

Ebbinghaus’ main contribution to cognitive psychology

Studied memory scientifically using controlled methods such as:

1. Forgetting over time

2. Relearning

3. Savings

4. The idea that memory can remain even when conscious recall fails

Savings method

Relearning something that was previously forgotten is much faster than learning it the first time. The difference in time or number of repetitions required is called “savings” (Time saved relearning it)

This helped prove that memory exists even without conscious recall.

Heimholtz’s main contribution to cognitive psychology

Argued that perception involves unconscious inference

Unconscious inference

The process by which the brain automatically interprets sensory input using prior knowledge, probability, and experience about the environment to form a perception of reality.

Behaviorial approach

Measuring observable behavior to infer underlying cognitive mechanisms

Reaction time

Measures the speed of a response to determine how long specific mental processes take

Accuracy

Measures the rate or types of errors a participant makes to assess cognitive performance and limits

Neuropsychology

The study of individuals with brain damage or lesions to discover which brain areas are necessary for specific cognitive functions.

Brain imaging

Techniques like fMRI or PET that measure brain activity while a person performs a cognitive task

Single-neuron recording

A method that records electrical signals directly from individual neurons using microelectrodes to see what specific stimuli cause them to fire

Core methods principle

Mental processes may be inferred from observable behavior and physiological measures

What are the primary parts of a basic neuron

Dendrites

Cell body (Soma)

Axon

Synaptic terminals

Dendrite function

Receives incoming signals

Cell body (Soma) function

Integrates information

Axon function

Transmits the electrical signal

Synaptic terminal function

Releases neurotransmitters

Electrical communication

Occurs WITHIN a single neuron via action potentials

Chemical communication

Occurs BETWEEN neurons via neurotransmitters

Resting membrane potential

The electrical charge difference across a neuron’s membrane when it is at rest

Basic Action Potential sequence

1. Neuron receives input

2. Membrane becomes more positive

3. Threshold is reached

4. Action potential occurs

5. Signal travels down the axon

6. Neurotransmitters are released

All-or-None principle

Once threshold is reached, an action potential occurs. A stronger stimulation does not produce a larger action potential but may increase the frequency of action potentials.

Synaptic cleft function

The tiny physical gap between the axon terminal of the sending neuron and the receptors of the receiving neuron where chemical transmission occurs.

Excitatory signal

Increases the likelihood that a neuron will fire (Glutamate)

Inhibitory signal

Decreases the likelihood that a neuron will fire (GABA)

Central nervous system (CNS)

Brain and spinal cord

Peripheral nervous system (PNS)

All nerves connecting the CNS to the rest of the body

Cognitive neuroscience

The study of the physiological basis of cognition and involves an understanding of both the nervous system and the individual units that comprise that system

Levels of analysis

The practice of studying a single topic at multiple biological and behavioral levels—ranging from chemical reactions and individual neurons to specific brain structures and full brain networks

Neuron doctrine

The fundamental concept that individual, discrete cells called neurons are the basic building blocks and structural units of the nervous system, communicating across physical gaps rather than forming a continuous unbroken network

Principles of neural representation

The idea that everything a person experiences is not based on direct contact with reality, but on internal representations generated by patterns of neural firing in the nervous system

Feature detectors

Specialized neurons in the visual cortex that respond selectively to specific physical properties of a visual stimulus such as orientation, movement, location, or edges.

Specificity coding

The idea that a specific stimulus or face is represented by the firing of a single neuron dedicated solely to that item

Population coding

The representation of a stimulus by the pattern of firing across a large group of many neurons working together

Sparse coding

The representation of a stimulus by the pattern of firing across a small, specific subset of neurons, while the majority remain silent

Localization of function

The principle that specific regions of the brain are specialized to perform specific cognitive or physical functions

Broca’s area & Damage

Located in the frontal lobe; specialized for speech production

Damage: Results in slow, effortful, nonfluent speech with intact comprehension.

Wernicke’s area & Damage

Located in the temporal lobe; specialized for language comprehension

Damage: Results in fluent but meaningless speech with severe comprehension deficits

Fusiform Face Area (FFA)

Area on the underside of the temporal lobe specialized for face recognition

Prosopagnosia

The inability to recognized familiar faces despite normal vision for other objects. Caused by damage to the ____.

Distributed representation

The principle that complex cognitive functions activate many different, interconnected areas of the brain simultaneously

Structural connectivity

The physical, anatomical “wiring diagram” of the brain, composed of nerve fiber tracks, axons, and white-matter pathways that physically connect different brain regions

Functional connectivity

The degree to which neural activity in different brain regions is correlated

Resting-state fMRI

An fMRI technique that measures spontaneous, low-frequency fluctuations in brain activity while a person lies quietly in the scanner without performing a specific task

What is the left visual field dominant for?

Motor function (Goes to right hemisphere)

What is the right visual field dominant for?

Language (Goes to left hemisphere)

What are the complementary biological levels of a cognitive process?

1. Chemical reactions

2. Individual neurons

3. Brain structures

4. Networks of brain structures

Parahippocampal place area (PPA)

Region in the temporal lobe that processes visual information about spatial layouts, places, and environmental scenes

Sensation

Detection of physical stimuli

Perception

Organization and interpretation of sensory information

Bottom-Up processing

Begins with:

• Sensory input

• Information reaching sensory receptions

• Basic stimulus features

Top-Down processing

It uses expectations, prior knowledge, experience, and context.

How does perception use bottom-up and top-down processing?

Perception involves both. Sensory information and prior knowledge influence perception and new sensory evidence changes an initial interpretation

Inverse projection problem

A retinal image does not uniquely specify the object that produced it. This means different objects or environmental arrangements can produce similar retinal images. Therefore, the brain must infer what object in the environment is most likely to be produced in that retinal image.

Object perception

Recognizing an object involves more than simply detecting visual features. The visual system integrates information such as:

• Shape

• Orientation

• Edges

• Color

• Context

Experience & Expertise

The perceptual expertise can influence brain activity

Gestalt Principle of Proximity

Visual elements that are close to one another tend to be perceived as grouped together

Gestalt Principle of Similarity

Visual elements that look similar in shape, size, color, or orientation tend to be perceived as grouped together.

Gestalt Principle of Closure

The tendency to perceive incomplete or fragmented figures as complete, whole objects by filling in missing gaps mentally

Gestalt Principle of Good Continuation

The tendency to perceive intersecting or overlapping lines and patterns as continuing smoothly along their original path rather than breaking abruptly

Dichotic listening

An experiment task where different auditory messages are presented simultaneously to each ear

Shadowing

The process of repeating attended auditory message aloud as it is being heard

Broadbent’s Early Selection model

The theory that attention acts as an early filter based purely on physical properties, blocking unattended information before it is processed for meaning

Major problem in Broadbent’s Early Selection model

People sometimes notice meaningful information in an unattended channel

Cocktail Party effect

The ability to focus on a single conversation in a noisy room while still noticing personally meaningful information from background noise

Treisman’s Attentuation Model (Intermediate Selection)

Model proposing that unattended information is weakened rather than completely blocked, allowing important words to reach awareness

Multitasking

Attempting simultaneous processing

Task switching

Rapidly alternating attention between tasks

Switch costs

The penalty of switching tasks, resulting in slower response times, temporary difficulty re-engaging, and increased errors.

Inattentional blindness

Failure to notice a visible stimulus because attention is focused elsewhere

Change blindness

Failure to notice a change in the environment

Attentional control

Refers to how attention is directed and maintained. Attention can be influenced by:

• Goals

• Expectations

• Stimulus salience (Quality that makes a stimulus stand out)

• Competing information

Feature Integration theory

Basic visual features (color, orientation, shape, and location) are initially processed automatically and seperately. However, attention helps bind these features together into a coherent object.

Illusory Conjunctions

Errors where features from different objects are combined incorrectly because attention was limited during feature binding. Occurs due to overloaded attention.