Cognitive Psychology Terms FINAL

Introspection

To observe and record the contents of one’s own mental life

Behaviorist Movement

Principles regarding how behavior changes in response to different configurations of stimuli (rewards and punishments)

Transcendental Method

using observable facts to determine underlying causes

Response Time (RT)

The amount of time needed for a person to respond to a particular event

Cognitive Neuroscience

Studying the brain and nervous system to understand humans’ mental functioning

Clinical Neuropsychology

Studies how brain functioning affects thinking, behaviour, and emotions

Neuroimaging Techniques

Examining the activation pattern within a brain

Cornea

transparent tissue at the front of each eye that focuses on incoming light (with the lens)

Lens

transparent tissue near the front of each eye, focuses on incoming light (with the cornea)

Retina

Light-sensitive tissue that lines the back of the eyeball

Photoreceptors

Cells on the retina that are sensitive to light and respond when they are stimulated by light

Rods

Photoreceptors that are sensitive to very low light levels but unable to discriminate hues and have low acuity

Cones

Photoreceptors that can descriminate hues and have high acuity

Acuity

Ability to see fine detail

Fovea

center of the retina and region on the eye which acuity is best. (fovea aligns with the object)

Bipolar Cells

bipolar cells receive their input from photoreceptors and transmit their output to the retinal ganglion cells

somatic

connects emotional processing with physical sensations

Lateral Geniculate Nucleus (LGN)

First destination for visual information sent from eyeball to the brain

Lateral Inhibition

inhibits the activity of neighboring cells. optic nerve creates edge enhancement

Mach Band

region perceived to be darker if it’s adjacent to a bright region, and vice versa

Single-cell recording

recording the moment-by-moment activation level of an individual neuron within a healthy brain

Receptive field

portion of a visual field which a cell within the visual system responds. If the appropriate stimulus appears in the appropriate position, the firing rate will change

center-surround cells

neuron in the visual system (donut-shaped). Stimulation in the center has one effect while the surrounding ring has the opposite effect

Area VI

site where for information about the visual world first reaches the brain

Parallel Processing

system in which many steps are going on at the same time

Serial Processing

system where only one step happens at a time

what system

object recognition (cortex —> temporal lobe)

where system (cortex —> parietal lobe)

spatial localization of objects aand coordination of movements

binding problem

challenge of combining separate cognitive information into a single experience

Neural Synchrony

neurons fire electrical signals in a coordinated, timed way

Conjunction Error

correctly perceive what features are present but misperceive how the features are joined (red circle and green square seen as red square and green circle)

Reversible Figure

drawings perceived in multiple ways (duck/rabbit)

Figure/Ground Organization

processing step which the perceiver determines which aspects of stimulus belong to the central object and what’s in the background

Gestalt Principles

organize visual information into meaningful patterns instead of separate pieces

Visual Features

elements of a visual pattern (lines, curves) that form the overall pattern

Perceptual Constancy

perceiving properties of objects in the world despite changes in sensory information ( As a friend walks toward you down a long hallway, the image they project on your retina grows much larger. Even though they take up more of your field of vision, you do not perceive them as actually growing—you perceive them as walking closer)

Size Constancy

perceive an object's size as constant even when its distance from us changes (distance of person)

Shape Constancy

perceive an object's shape as constant even when viewed from different angles (door)

Brightness Constancy

perceive an object's surface as having a relatively stable lightness despite changes in illumination (paper in shadow)

Unconscious Inference

Your brain automatically makes assumptions to interpret sensory information (assuming a person is far away rather than they’re small)

Distance Cues

visual information that helps your brain judge how far away objects are from you. They help you perceive depth and see the world in 3D.

Binocular Disparity

difference in image in what you see when you close your right eye then left eye

Monocular Distance Cues

visual clues that help you judge how far away objects are using just one eye (ex: interposition: when an object blocks another, it’s assumed to be closer)

Pictorial Cues

Work in static pictures (texture gradient)

Interposition

objects farther away are blocked from view by closer objects

Linear Perspective

cue for distance base don lines that converge as they get further away (road)

Motion Parallax

when person moves, nearby objects move quicker than further objects

Optic Flow

Image grows larger as the viewer approaches, and shrinks when viewer retreats

Bottom-Up Processing

start with basic features and combines it into meaningful info

Top-Down Processing

prior knowledge —> interpret sensory information

Visual Search Task

searching for a target among distractors (gorilla video)

Mask

concealing behaviour to fit social expectations

Priming

one input/cue prepares a person for an upcoming input or cue (experience affects future event)

Repetition Priming

priming that occurs simply because a stimulus is presented again - processing is more efficient

Word-Superiority Effect (WSE)

it's easier to recognise a letter when it's part of a word you know (Work instead of WZRB)

Well-Formedness

how much a stimulus follows the rules or familiar patterns of a system, such as the rules of a language (work is high formedness, wxrb is low formedness)

Feature Nets

networks of connected networks that helps explain how we recognise letters, words, and other visual stimuli

Tachistoscope

device that allow presentation of stimuli for precisely controlled amounts of time

Activation Level

how active a detector, concept, or representation is in your brain at a particular time.

Response Threshold

minimum level of activation a detector needs to reach before it produces a response, such as recognising a letter or word.

Bigram Detectors

units in a recognition system that respond or fire whenever a specific letter pair is in view

Local Representation

representing or processing the individual parts or features of something rather than the whole object (features of letters like curves and lines)

Distributed Representation

many units work together to represent one thing/combined pattern of activation

Excitatory Connection

Link from one node to another such that activation of one node activates the other

Inhibitory Connection

Link from one node to another that decreases the activation level of the other

Recognition By Components (RBC) Model

your brain recognises objects by identifying their basic geometric components, called geons

Geons

3D shapes we use to recognize objects

Prosopagnosia

difficulty recognizing faces even when their vision is normal

Inversion Effect

difficulty recognizing object when the object or face is upside down

Holistic Perception

processing an object as a whole rather than a collection of separate parts (facial features)

Selective Attention

focusing on one task while ignoring other stimuli that are also on the scene

Dichotic Listening

person hears different auditory information in each ear at the same time

Attended Channel

message you focus on

Unattended Channel

message you ignore

Shadowing

repeating back a verbal input word for word

Filter

hypothetical mechanism that would block potential distractors from further processing

Fixation Target

point you are instructed to look directly at and keep your eyes focused on

Inattentional Blindness

fail to notice something visible because your attention is focused on something else.

Change Blindness

fail to notice a change in a visual scene, especially when something distracts you or interrupts your view.

Early Selection Hypothesis

filter information before fully processing its meaning

Late Selection Hypothesis

incoming information is processed for meaning before filtering

Biased Competition Theory

stimuli compete for attention, and bottom-up and top-down factors influence which stimuli win.

Spatial Attention

focus attention on a particular attention in space, allowing you to process information there more effectively (While your eyes look straight ahead at the highway, your spatial attention shifts instantly to the left-side mirror when you notice a blur of headlights, allowing you to react quickly)

Limited-Capacity System

the brain has limited processing resources, so attention must prioritise information.

Mental Resources

process or capacity needed for performance but in limited supply

Endogenous Control of Attention

voluntarily direct your attention based on your goals, intentions, or expectations.

Exogenous Control of Attention

automatically directed attention, reflex response, not voluntary

Feature Integration Theory

brain takes apart and reassembles visual information to perceive whole objects

Divided Attention

skill of performing multiple tasks simultaneously

Executive Control

the top-down mental management system in the brain that regulates thoughts, emotions, and actions to achieve goals

Perseveration Error

sticking with an old response or rule when you need to change.

Goal Neglect

people fail to keep their goal in mind so they rely on habitual responses even if it doesn’t move them toward their goal

Automaticity

a process becomes fast and requires little conscious attention through practice (writing, reading)

Stroop Interference

naming color instead of word

Acquisition

placing new information into long-term memory

Storage

maintaining information in memory over time

Retrieval

locating information in memory and activating that information for use

Modal Model

1. Sensory Memory

2. Short-Term Memory

3. Long-Term Memory

Sensory Memory

holds the “raw” sensory form

Short-Term Memory

working memory