ERGO 2

FRANCISCUS DONDERS 1868

physilogist who performed the 1st cognitive pscyhology experiment

Wilhelm Wundt 1879

Scientist who established the 1st lab of scientific psychology

Hermann Ebbinghaus 1885

psychologist who studied the quantitative measurement of mental processes

William James 1890

psychologists who wrote the 1st psychology textbook, some of his observations are still valid today

Mind

system that creates mental representations of the world and controls mental functions

cognition

mental processes involved in perception, attention, memory, language, problem solving, reasoning and decision making

cognitive pschology

scientific study of the mind and mental processes

reaction time

measurement of how long it takes to respond to stimulus

simple reaction time

measurement of how long it takes to respond to the presence/absence of a single stimulus

choice reaction time

measurement of how long it takes to react to one of multiple stimulus

structuralism

approach to psychology that explained perception as the combination of small elementary units called sensation

savings

measured used by Ebbinghaus to determine the magnitude of memory left from initial learning

savings curve

plot showing the amount remembered us the time between initial learning and testing

behaviourism

approach by John Watson stating that observable behavior provides the only valid data for psychology

classical conditioning

pairing of a neutral stimulus that elicits a response changes the response to the neutral stimulus 

analytic instropection

procedure in which participants described their experience and thought processes in response to stimuli

operant conditioning

theory that behavior is strengthened by presentation of positive reinforcers / withdrawal of negative reinforces

cognitive map

mental conception of a spatial lay-out

cognitive revolution

shift in psychology from the behaviorist approach to explaining behavior in terms of mind

information-processing approach

concept of psychology that descrives the mind as processing data through a sequence of stages

Artificial Intelligence

ability of a computer to perform taks usually associated with the human mind

dichotic listening

procedure of presenting one message to the left ear and a different message to the right ear

empiricist approach

approach that emphasizes the role of experimenting in gaining knowledge

interleaving

intermixing different topics within a particular domain

rationalist approach

study & theory of the mind emphasizing philosphy, deductive reasoning and logic

hierarchical processing

neural movements  that occurs in a progression from lower to higher areas of the brain

dendrite

structure that branches out from the cell body to receive electrical signals from other neurons

receptor

specialized neutral structure that responds to environmental stimuli, mechanical stimulation or chemical stimuli

localization of function

idea that specific areas of the brain are responsible for specific operations

feature detectors

neurons that respond to specific visual stimuli such as orientation, movement and length

neurotransmitter

chemical that is released at the synapse in response to incoming action potentials

neural circuit

group of interconnected neurons that are responsible for processing

wernicke’s area

region in the temporal lobe associated with understanding language

FFA (Fusiform face area)

region in the brain responsible for recognizing human features

distributed representation

idea that specific cognitive functions active many areas of the brain

broca’s area

region in the frontal lobe associated with the body of language, cell body, axon, synapse, nerve impulse

occipital lobe

part of the back of the brain that is devoted primarily to analyzing incoming visual information

voxel

small cube-shaped area in the brain used in analyzing data from brain scanning experiments

prosopagnosia

conditioned caused by temporal lobe damage that is characterized by an inability to recognize faces

magnetoencephalography (MEG)

measures the magnetic field generated by electrical activity of neurons in the brain

action potential

impulse responsible for transmitting neutral information for communication between neurons

parahippocampal place area (PPA)

region in the brain containing neurons selectively activated by pictures of indoor and outdoor sense

neural network

group of structures that are connected together

temporal lobe

an area of the side of the brain that conatins mechanisms responsible for language, memory, hearing & vision

fucntional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI)

technique that measures how blood flow changes in response to cognitive activity

population coding

neural representation of a stimulus by the pattern of firing of many neurons

cerebral cortex

outer layer of the brain that contains the mechanisms responsible for higher mental functions

extrastriate body area (EBA)

region in the temporal cortex activated by pictures of the human form, not by faces

neuron

cell that is specialized to receive and transmit information in the nervous system

Nerve net

network of continuously interconnected neuron fibers

Principle of Good Continuation - Gestalt Principle of Organization

ideas that humans perceive 2 objects that overlap each as a single, uninterrupted objects

Principle of Similarity - Gestalt Principle of Organization

idea that things that resemble each other appear to be grouped together

Principle of Simplicity - Gestalt Principle of Organization

concept that every stimulus is perceived in its most uncomplicated form

perception

conscious experience that results from stimulation of these senses

inverse projection problem

task of determining the object that caused a particular image on the retina

viewpoint invariance

ability to recognize an object seen from different outlooks

bottom-up processing

sequence of events that starts with information received by the receptors

top-down processing

sequence of events that involves a person’s knowledge or expectations

speech segmentation

process of perceiving individual words within the continuous flow of the language signal

likelihood principle

perception of the object that is expected to have caused the pattern of stimuli received

unconscious inference

idea that some of our perceptions result from unmindful assumptions we make about the environment

principles of perceptual organization

proposal that explains how small ekements of a scene become perceptually grouped to form larger units

principles of perceptual organization (2)

belief that light usually comes from a higher level

oblique effect

finding that vertical & horizontal orientations can be perceived more easily that other orientations

physical regularity

commonly occuring property of the environment

semantic regularity

characteristics associated with the functions caused out in different types of scene

bayesian interference

ideas that estumation of the probability of an outcome is determined by prior probability and likelihood

likelihood

in bayesian interference, the extend to which the available evidence is consisted with the outcome prior

prior

peron’s initial belief about the probability of an outcome

scene schema

person’s knowledge about what is likely to be obtained in a particular setting

theory of natural selection

characteristics that enhance an animals ability to survive and reproduce will be passed on

landmark discrimantion problem

task of remembering an objects’s location and choosing that location after a delay

object discrimination task

experiment of remembering something based on shape and choosing it when presented with another team

what pathway

part of the brain associated with perceiving / recognizing objects

where pathway

part of the brain associated with neural processing that occurs when people locate objects in space

action pathway

neural tract extending from the visual cortex to the parietal lobe associated with taking action

brain lesioning

removing part of the brain

placebo

a procedure/spill that patients belive delivers active ingredients but which contains no active ingredient

visual agnosia

inability to recognize everyday objects familiar faces and geometrical shapes

Attention

Focusing on specific features, objects or locations, or on certain thoughts or activities

attentional bias

The tendency to pay attention to some things while simultaneously ignoring others

Attentional capture

A rapid shifting of attention, usually caused by a stimulus such as a loud noise, bright light, or sudden movement

Attenuation model of attention

Anne Treisman's model of selective attention proposes that selection occurs in two stages. In the first stage, an attenuator analyzes the incoming message and lets through the attended message - and also the unattended message, but at a lower (attenuated) strength

Attenuator

In Treisman's model of selective attention, the attenuator analyzes the incoming message in terms of physical characteristics, language, and meaning. Attended messages pass through the attenuator at full strength and unattended messages through with reduced strength

Automatic processing

Processing that occurs automatically, without the person's intending to do it, and that also uses few cognitive resources. Automatic processing is associated with easy or well-practiced tasks

Balint's syndrome

A condition caused by brain damage, in which a person has difficulty focusing attention on individual objects

Binding

Process by which features such as color, form, motion, and location are combined to create perception of a coherent object

Binding problem

The problem of explaining how an object's individual features become bound together

Bottleneck model

Model of attention that proposes that incoming information is restricted at some point in processing, so only a portion of the information gets through to consciousness. Broadbent's model of attention is an example of this

Change blindness

Difficulty in detecting changes in similar, but slightly different, scenes that are presented but one after another. The changes are often easy to see once attention is directed to them but are usually undetected in the absence of appropriate attention

Cocktail party effect

The ability to focus on one stimulus while filtering out other stimuli, especially at a party where there are a lot of simultaneous conversations

Cognitive load

The total amount of mental effort used in working memory

Conjunction search

Searching among distractors for a target that involves two or more features, such as "horizontal" and "green"

Covert attention

Occurs when attention is shifted without moving the eyes, commonly referred to as seeing something "out of the corner of one's eye". Contrasts with overt attention

Cueing

A procedure for testing memory in which a participant is presented with cues, such as words or phrases, to aid recall of previously experienced stimuli

Dictionary unit

A component of Treisman's attenuation model of attention. This processing unit contains stored words and thresholds for activating the words. It helps explain why we can sometimes hear a familiar word, such as our name, in an unattended message. See also attenuation model of attention

Distraction

Occurs when one stimulus interferes with attention to or the processing of another stimulus

Divided attention

The ability to pay attention to, or carry out, two or more different tasks simultaneously

Dot-probe task

Task or paradigm in which two pictures (or words) are briefly presented left-right or above-below a fixation point. Next, one of them is replaced by a target, to which participants have to respond to as quickly as possible

Early selection model

Model of attention that explains selective attention by early filtering out of the unattended message. In Broadbent's early selection model, the filtering step occurs before the message is analyzed to determine its meaning