PSYC 3310: Memory & Cognition Lecture Review

Comprehensive set of vocabulary flashcards covering key definitions, historical figures, conditioning models, neuroanatomy, and brain imaging techniques from PSYC 3310.

Cognitive Psychology

The scientific study of mental processes involved in acquiring, storing, manipulating, and using knowledge in new situations.

Simple RT Task

A task used by Donders (1868) where a participant pushes a button quickly after a light appears.

Choice RT Task

A task used by Donders (1868) where a participant pushes one button if a light appears on the right side and another if it appears on the left side.

Donders' Reaction Time Experiment Outcome

Demonstrated that Choice RT takes $1/10\text{th s}$ longer than Simple RT, showing that mental responses cannot be measured directly but can be inferred from behavior.

Structuralism

An approach championed by Wilhelm Wundt (1879) stating that experience is determined by combining basic elements called sensations.

Analytic Introspection

A method where participants are trained to describe their experiences and thought processes in response to stimuli.

Savings

A measure created by Ebbinghaus (1885) calculated as: $\text{Savings} = (\text{Original time to learn the list}) - (\text{Time to relearn the list after a delay})$.

Savings Curve

A graph plotting savings as a function of retention interval to demonstrate rates of forgetting over time.

Behaviorism

An approach proposed by John Watson in the early 1900s that eliminated the mind as a topic of study and focused strictly on directly observable behavior.

Classical Conditioning

A procedure where a neutral event is paired with an event that naturally produces an outcome until the neutral event produces that outcome on its own.

Operant Conditioning

A method of behavior shaping advocated by B.F. Skinner where behavior followed by rewards is more likely to recur, and behavior followed by punishment is less likely to recur.

Cognitive Map

A mental representation of spatial layout, as demonstrated by Edward Tolman (1948) when rats navigated a four-armed maze to find food.

Information-Processing Approach

An approach emerging in the 1950s inspired by digital computers that seeks to explain mind and behavior in sequential processing stages.

Dichotic Listening

An experimental technique used by Cherry (1953) where distinct messages are presented simultaneously to the left and right ears, requiring shadowing of one message.

Broadbent's Filter Model

A 1958 flow diagram showing that unattended visual or auditory information is filtered out and does not pass through to higher processing.

Cognitive Neuroscience

The study of the physiological basis of cognition, focusing on both the nervous system and its individual cellular units.

Neuropsychology

The branch of psychology that studies the behavior of individuals who have sustained brain damage.

Electrophysiology

The branch of neuroscience that measures electrical responses of the nervous system, including individual brain neurons.

Neurons

Specialized cells designed to create, receive, and transmit information throughout the nervous system.

Neuron Cell Body

The part of a neuron containing metabolic mechanisms required to keep the cell alive.

Axon

A fluid-filled tube extending from the neuron's cell body that transmits electrical signals to other neurons.

Dendrites

Multiple branching structures that extend from the neuron cell body to receive incoming signals from other neurons.

Nerve Net Theory

An early continuous network theory proposing that uninterrupted signals flow endlessly from one connected neuron to another.

Neuron Doctrine

The principle formulated by Santiago Ramón y Cajal establishing that individual cells transmit signals in the nervous system and are not physically continuous with one another.

Synapse

The tiny physical gap between the axon terminal of one neuron and the dendrite or cell body of another.

Resting Potential

The state of an inactive neuron where the internal electrical charge is $-70\text{ mV}$ relative to the outside.

Action Potential

A impulse that travels down a neuron's axon, causing the internal voltage to rise to $+40\text{ mV}$ relative to the outside before returning to negative.

Principle of Neural Representation

The concept stating that everything a person experiences is based on representations created inside their nervous system.

Feature Detectors

Neurons in the visual cortex discovered by Hubel & Wiesel (1960s) that fire selectively in response to specific types of visual stimuli.

Hierarchical Processing

The structural progression of perception where signals ascend from lower cortical regions detecting simple features to higher regions combining inputs into complex objects.

Population Coding

The representation of a specific object by the pattern of firing across a large group of neurons.

Localization of Function

The principle that specific cognitive functions are served by specific localized areas of the brain.

Cerebral Cortex

A $3\text{ mm}$ thick layer covering the brain containing mechanisms responsible for high-level cognitive functioning.

Broca's Area

A region in the left frontal lobe responsible for speech production; damage causes difficulties forming words despite intact language comprehension.

Wernicke's Area

A region in the left temporal lobe responsible for language comprehension; damage results in fluent but grammatically incoherent speech.

Double Dissociation

A research finding where brain damage in region X causes Function A to be absent while Function B is present, and damage in region Y causes Function B to be absent while Function A is present.

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)

A brain imaging technique that measures function by recording the Blood Oxygen-Level Dependent (BOLD) signal in active areas.

Fusiform Face Area (FFA)

An area in the temporal lobe that responds specifically to faces; damage to this area leads to prosopagnosia.

Parahippocampal Place Area (PPA)

An area in the temporal lobe specialized for processing images of indoor and outdoor scenes.

Extrastriate Body Area (EBA)

A cortical region that responds specifically to pictures of human bodies and body parts.

Functional Connectivity

The degree of correlated neural activity across distributed brain regions working simultaneously to support a specific cognitive task.