BCSC 1111 Midterm

What is introspection in structuralism?

It is a technique used today such as a survey of feelings, basically having people survey their cognitive experiences, an example would be rating your feelings on a scale, it is still used today

What is the purpose of introspection

to gain self awareness by examining your own mind

What is structuralism?

It focuses on the "structure" (elements) of the human mind and seeks to explain mental states through introspection which is basically self reflection

What is functionalism?

The "why," It is interested in the why of the functions of the brain, not interested in the elements of the brain.
basically the functions of the mental operations

what are some questions functionalism might seek to answer?

Why do we have the emotion of fear?
why do we categorize objects?
why do we forget trivial things?

What are the differences between structuralism and functionalism?

They differ in methods and focuses, structuralism believes the best experimental setting is the laboratory while functionalism wants to study mental phenomena in real life settings.

what is empiricism?

The idea that knowledge is built upon one's own experiences and senses

What is the role of experiences in empiricism?

basically people become who they are bc of past learning and experiences

What is ecological approach?

explains behavior in relation to the subjects environment.

how is ecological approach related to functionalism?

it is derived from functionalism with a stronger emphasis on real-life settings

How does our memory search relate to the ecological approach?

it links a cognitive process (memory search) with a real world behavior (foraging/searching for food) basically, we stop on one subject and exhaust all of its resources before (search jumping) moving to the next topic, like gatherers thousands ago pick all the food from one bush before moving to the next.

What is behaviorism?

Focuses on observing and studying behavior and not cognitive processes

How do behaviorists investigate/explain human behavior?

They do this by focusing on observable actions and how they are shaped by the environment through learning and conditioning

Operant conditioning

A voluntary reaction to a stimulus (B.F. Skinner)

Classical conditioning

An involuntary reaction to a stimulus (Ivan Parlov's dogs)

Why do behaviorists oppose introspection?

They oppose it because of a lack of objectivity, they want something that is more observable

What is nativism?

the theory that certain abilities and knowledge are innate, or inborn, and not solely a product of experience or environment

What are some major claims in nativism?

Humans are born with an innate ability to understand language.
Generative grammar which states that we learn rules to generate words and sentences but are not necessarily aware of these rules

What are some major claims in nativism?

Humans are born with an innate ability to understand language.
Generative grammar which states that we learn rules to generate words and sentences but are not necessarily aware of these rules

How did Chomsky and Skinner differ in their beliefs about language?

Chomsky believed in innateness, that humans are born with the ability to process language, and Skinner favored behaviorism that stated that humans learned language through experiences and being taught

What is between-subjects design?

An experiment that compares behavior between two seperate groups

What is within-subjects design?

An experiment that compares if a person behaves differently in different conditions

What is the difference between between-subjects and within-subjects design?

Between-subjects has more than one group being exposed to the same conditions to see how they perform while within-subjects has all participants exposed to multiple conditions

Can there be an experiment that uses between-subjects and within-subjects design?

Yes, this would be mixed design which would be more than one group and every participant in each group is tested in multiple conditions and then comparing groups A's and B's performance in each condition

Give an example of a mixed design

An experiment comparing first and second language's perception of multiple accents

Give an example of between-subjects design

Comparison of a first and second language speaker's perception of one accent

Give an example of a within-subjects design

Comparison of an aphasic patient's sentence comprehension performance in noisy and quiet environments.

What is experimental design?

the structured process of planning and conducting an experiment to test a hypothesis and establish a cause-and-effect relationship between variables

What is the difference between independent and dependent variables?

Independent variables are what you alter in the experiment to influence the dependent variables and dependent variables are the actual data that you collect

Why is a dependent variable named "dependent?"

Bc the dependent variable, the data of the experiment, all depends on the changes made to the experiment, the independent variable

What is a confounding variable?

A factor in the experiment that you are not interested in but did not control for, basically unimportant and adds "noise" to your data

How might a confounding variable impact data?

they add noise to the data, it could distort the results by creating a false or misleading association between the independent and dependent variables

What is the cognitive neuroscience approach?

It is an interdisciplinary field that studies how the brain's physical and chemical activity gives rise to mental processes like perception, memory, and decision-making

What is MRI?

Focuses on the "where" - localization of brain functions
Usually refers to anatomical/structural scans.
is used to understand the functions of the brain and where they happen.

What is EEG?

Tells us WHEN things happen.
Scalp recording of electrical activities emitted from neural transmission. Can tell us processing time course: automatic processing, decision making, responses.

What are main differences between MRI and EEG?

MRI scans where the functions are, EEG scans when the functions are occurring

What does fMRI measure?

Blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) signal

What does EEG measure?

Electrical activities from neural transmission

What are the limitations of fMRI?

The high cost
Ferromagnetic devices
Poor temporal resolution (i.e. timing)

What are the limitations of EEG?

It has bad spatial resolution. Specifically it can't exact location of processes, anatomical details of the brain, connections among brain regions, and mental process that don't have distinct ERP's.

What kind of research questions can be answered by fMRI?

Which parts of our brain are involved in face recognition?

What kind of research question can be answered by EEG?

How much time does it take to recognize a word?

What is priming?

Processing of a current input/event is unconsciously influenced by a prior input/event (prime). It is a behavioral paradigm to investigate time course of processing.

How does priming work?

Priming works by exposing a person to a stimulus that influences their response to a subsequent, related stimulus, making associated memories or behaviors more accessible in the brain.

What are two examples of behavioral methods that investigate time course of input processing?

Priming and eye-tracking

How does eye-tracking work?

The tester will use technology to track the subjects eyes movements when presented with an auditory word to see how long it takes for their eyes to move to the correct stimulus.

how does eye tracking tell us the time course of processing?

By measuring eye movements, we can track how long it takes cognitive processes, like attention, to work.

What are two major modeling approaches in cognitive science?

The box arrow and connectionist model.

What are boxes and arrows models?

Also called information processing. A model that explains how stimulating our cognitive processes by using a computer metaphor. It is a visual diagram that represents boxes for components and arrows to represent the relationships between them. Input processing and output generation

What are two strategies for approaching information flow/boxes and arrows models?

Bottom up and top down/interactive

What is connectionism/Artificial neural network?

It is a computational model of brain functioning that believes cognitive processes behave as a complex network of related concepts. When you stimulate one concept (a node) it then stimulates another concept (neuron). A node can be connected to multiple neurons and activation of one node can be spread to other nodes (i.e. spread activation). Developed into machine learning, deep learning, and AI.

What is an example of bottom up processing?

Stubbing your toe and understanding the pain. Recognizing the letter N. Feeling a breeze.

What is an example of top down processing?

Reading, you don't read every letter but instead your brain fills in the gaps to understand the information. Recognizing a friend even when they are far away. Identifying an object in bad lighting.

Observation methods are observed from what approach and why?

They are derived from the ecological approach because ecological approach is all about believing humans are complex beings simply interacting with their environment. It emphasizes the importance of the relationship between the subject and their environment.

What is controlled observation?

It is non-naturalistic and a combination of experiment and observation. Basically you control some factors of the experiment but for the most part you are just watching to see what happens.

Why is controlled observation special?

It allows researchers to observe behavior under strict conditions which increases reliability and allows potential to establish a cause and effect relationship.

Is controlled observation like the experimental approach?

No, they both involve messing with variables but controlled observations is just watching the effect, while an experimental study has researcher intervention along with more manipulation of variables.

What is naturalistic observation?

A researcher does not mess with any variables, you are just observing natural behaviors. This makes it more natural than lab experiments and adds ecological validity but lacks experimental control and might take a lot of time.

What is non-naturalistic observation?

Observing behavior in a predetermined setting. Clinical interviews that usually start open-ended questions then followed with another set depending on those responses.

What is an example of controlled observation?

Manipulating the comfort level of a lecture hall to see if it will affect class attendance. Manipulating the type of products that customers will see first when entering a store to see if it affects what they buy.

What is an example of naturalistic observation?

Jane Goodall and the chimpanzees

What is an example of non-naturalistic observation?

A clinical interview about depression.

What is the goal of evolutionary approach?

The goal is to understand cognition by finding evidence in evolution.

What is evolutionary approach?

To look for the origin and evolution of human intelligence to explain cognition.

How do we use evolutionary approach to study cognition?

We can look at what fossil records tell us about cognitive evolution and evidence from nonhuman primates.

What is white matter?

Fatty tissue surrounding nerve fibers, serves as connections between regions, and located under grey matter.

What is grey matter?

What is grey matter?

It is in the outer layer - cerebral cortex and can be divided into many cortical regions according to its functions. It plays a crucial role in allowing you function normally from day to day.

Can we create a one-to-one mapping from brain functions to brain regions?

No, there are not many one-to-one mappings

What is Faculty Psychology?

What is Faculty Psychology?

It believes that the mind has a set of independent faculties or modules. Mental abilities (viewed as faculties of the mind) are independent of each other. Each ability/function is associated with a brain region.

What is Phrenology?

Made by Johann Spurzheim and was developed from faculty psychology. Believes that the size of the brain region (measured on the skull) corresponds to the power of its functions. Also like faculty believes that faculties are independent of each other.

Why is phrenology not a valid theory?

It lacks scientific evidence, there is no correlation between the size of brain functions and personality.

What are the four lobes of the cerebral cortex?

Frontal, parietal, occipital, temporal

What are the major functions of the frontal lobe?

Language production, motor control, cognitive control/self processing

What are the major functions of the temporal lobe?

Auditory processing, language comprehension, object/face recognition

What are the major functions of the temporal lobe?

Auditory processing, language comprehension, object/face recognition

What are the major functions of the parietal lobe?

Attention, primary somatosensory cortex

What are the major functions of the occipital lobe?

Visual processing

What is apart of the forebrain?

Cerebral cortex + white matter + limbic system

What is apart of the Limbic system?

The thalamus, hypothalamus, and hippocampus and amygdala.

What does lateralization of functions mean?

Certain functions are lateralized (i.e. dominant in one hemisphere)

How is lateralization of functions studied?

How is lateralization of functions studied?

Split brain research which is where you cut the corpus callosum (the connection between left and right hemisphere) and see if subject can recognize objects in left or right field.

In split brain research, if an object is presented in left visual field or touched with left hand, will the subject be able to recognize and name it?

They can recognize it but cannot name it as the information can't be sent to the left hemisphere.

In split brain research, if an object is presented in right visual field or touched with right hand, will the subject be able to recognize and name it?

They can recognize and name it as the information is processed on the same side as the language regions (left hemisphere)

If a person was born without their left hemisphere and it turned out they could still talk almost like normal even if their development was delayed, what would be the main reason for this?

If the damage to one side occurs early in adolescence, the other side of the brain takes over both functions, so in this case, the right brain would begin taking over language processing even if it wasn't perfect.

What does it mean for a sentence to be grammatical, in regards to broca's area?

We can understand language but without Broca's area we would struggle to speak grammatically correct. It means that it follows the preset rules of grammar. A non grammatical sentence could be "I coffee some want" while grammatical would be "I love coffee"

What is an example of non-linguistic sequences?

Riding a bike or walking could be an example. If the non-linguistic sequence is not performed correctly (maybe you miss a step and trip) it is ungrammatical.

What is an example of non-linguistic sequences?

Riding a bike or walking could be an example. If the non-linguistic sequence is not performed correctly (maybe you miss a step and trip) it is ungrammatical.

What are the implications of the study on implicit sequential learning (Petersson et al's 2012)?

It proves that processing of artificial grammar is similar to that of real linguistic sequences. We can understand implicit learning of sequences without prior knowledge.

How does the study on implicit sequential learning (Petersson et al's 2012)?

Subjects were exposed to many letter stings and grammatical sequences and typing it out after. The testing phase included a sequence classification task. It showed that ungrammatical sequences took more effort to process than grammatical.

How does the study on implicit sequential learning (Petersson et al's 2012)?

Subjects were exposed to many letter stings and grammatical sequences and typing it out after. The testing phase included a sequence classification task. It showed that ungrammatical sequences took more effort to process than grammatical.

What was the goal of the study on implicit sequential learning (Petersson et al's 2012)?

To see the difference in reaction to ungrammatical and grammatical sequences.

What is the difference between perceiving something and recognizing it?

Perceiving something means to interpret and comprehend sensory information however recognizing is a higher level of cognitive processing where you identify something based off of prior knowledge.

What is the role of perception in recognition?

You must perceive something in the environment first as a distal stimulus before taking it in identify and classify it.

What happens when you process something you already know?

To recognize by its real label, you need a prestored memory trace and memory recall.

What happens when you process something you have never seen before?

If the object name is unknown, we can label/describe it in our own way. When we encounter it again, we can recognize it by its real label (if we know it now) or by the label/description we created.

What is the main focus of Gestalt principles?

Holistic processing, where input is processed in its entirety rather than as individual parts.

What does the principle of proximity refer to?

Grouping items based on the distance between them.

How does the principle of similarity function in perception?

It groups items based on their similarity to one another.

What does the principle of continuation suggest?

We tend to interpret stimuli in the simplest way possible.

What is meant by the principle of closure?

The ability to perceptually fill in missing parts of a stimulus, such as recognizing an unfinished circle.