Cognitive Processing Chapters 1-5

Cognitive Psychology

The scientific study of the acquisition, retention, and use of knowledge

Patient H.M.

A man whose brain surgery in 1953 led to profound memory loss, making him a landmark case in neuroscience and psychology.

Cognitive Revolution

A succession of changes in the field of psychology in the 1950s and 1960s

Wilhelm Wundt

1832-1920. Often regarded as the “father of experimental psychology”

Introspection

A method in which people observe and record the content of their own mental lives and the sequence of their own experiences

Conscious Mental Events

In Wundt and Titchener’s view, psychology needed to focus on the study of ____________________ - feelings, thoughts, perceptions, and recollections

John B. Watson

• 1878-1958

• Prominent advocate for the behaviorist movement

• Was intrigued by babies’ behaviour and learning

Mary Whiton Calkins

The first woman to serve as president of the American Psychological Association (in 1905)

Rosalie Rayner

• 1898-1935

• Watson’s assistant and wife

• played an important role in his research

Transcendental Method

• Begin with the observable facts and work backward from these observations

• Sometimes called “inference to best explanation”

• The heart of most modern science

Immanuel Kant

• 1724-1804

• Philosopher

• Made major contributions to many fields, and his transcendental method enabled him to ask what qualities of the mind make the experience possible

Ulric Neisser

• 1928-2012

• Wrote Cognitive Psychology (1967)

• influence was so significant that many scholars refer to him as the “father of cognitive psychology”

Floy Washburn

• 1871-1939

• The first woman in the United States to receive a psychology doctorate

• Became president of the American Psychological Association in 1921

• Major contribution was a book, published in 1908, entitled The Animal Mind

Edward Tolman

• 1886-1959

• A researcher who counted both as a behaviourist and as one of the forerunners of cognitive psychology

• Argued that it was a mistake to understand learning simply as a change in behaviour. Instead, he argued, learning involved something more abstract: the acquisition of new knowledge

B.F. Skinner

• 1904-1990

• Influential American behaviourist

• In 1957 he applied his style of analysis to humans’ ability to learn and use language, arguing that language use could be understood in terms of behaviours and rewards

Noam Chomsky

• b. 1928

• Noted that Skinner’s view could not explain the creativity of language (our ability to produce and understand sentences we’ve never encountered before)

Gestalt Psychologists

• Argued that behaviours, ideas, and perceptions are organized in a way that cannot be understood through a part-by-part, element-by-element analysis of the world

• Instead, they claimed, the elements take on meaning only as part of the whole - and therefore psychology needed to understand the nature of the “whole”

Frederic Bartlett

• 1886-1969

• Was the first professor of experimental psychology at the University of Cambridge

• Best known for his studies of memory and the notion that people spontaneously fit their experiences into a “schema” and then rely on the schema both to guide their understanding and (later) to guide their memory

Donald Broadbent

• 1926-1993

• British Psychologist

• Deeply interested in applied issues, and much of his work was focused on ways in which we could improve the communication between airplanes and control towers

• also one of the earliest researchers to use the language of computer science in explaining human cognition

Response Time (RT)

How long someone needs to make a particular response

Cognitive Neuroscience

The effort toward understanding humans’ mental functioning through close study of the brain and nervous system

Clinical Neuropsychology

The study of brain function that uses, as one of its main data sources, cases in which damage or illness has disrupted the working of some brain structure

W.E.I.R.D.

Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic

Capgras Syndrome

• Rare delusional misidentification disorder in which a person believes that someone close to them—often a family member or caregiver—has been replaced by an identical-looking imposter

• Emotional processing is disrupted

• Relatively rare, but it can result from various injuries to the brain

• Sometimes found in people with Alzheimer’s syndrome

Hindbrain

• Located at the very top of the spinal cord

• Includes structures critical for controlling key life functions e.g. rhythm of heartbeat

• Also plays an essential role in maintaining the body’s overall posture and balance

• Also helps control the brain’s level of alertness

Cerebellum

• The largest area of the hindbrain

• Important for the coordination of body movements

• Damage to this area can cause problems in spatial reasoning, as well as problems integrating the input received from various sensory systems

• Also involved in some aspects of language use, especially language production

Midbrain

• Plays an important part in coordinating the precise movements of the eyes as they explore the visual world

• Also contains circuits that relay auditory information from the ears to areas in the forebrain where this information is processed and interpreted

• Also contains structures that help regulate the experience of pain

Medulla

• Part of the hindbrain

• Controls vital functions such as breathing and heart rate

Pons

• Part of the hindbrain

• Latin for “bridge”

• The main connection between the cerebellum and the rest of the brain

Forebrain

• Surrounds the midbrain and most of the hindbrain

Cortex

Makes up 80% of the human brain

Convolutions

Folds and grooves of the cerebral cortex that maximize surface area, enabling complex cognitive functions within the limited space of the skull

Subcortical Structures

Located below the cerebral cortex and surrounding white matter, forming the brain’s foundational processing centers

Thalamus

Acts as a relay station for sensory information going to the cortex

Hypothalamus

• Directly underneath the thalamus

• Plays a crucial role in controlling behaviours that serve specific biological needs - behaviours that include eating, drinking, and sexual activity

Limbic System

a network of interconnected brain structures—such as the amygdala, hippocampus, hypothalamus, thalamus, basal ganglia, and cingulate gyrus—that regulates emotion, memory, motivation, behavior, and olfaction. It sits deep within the brain beneath the temporal lobes and above the brainstem, playing a central role in survival responses, stress regulation, and long‑term memory formation

Amygdala

• An almond-shaped structure that seems to serve (in part) as an “emotional evaluator,” helping an organism detect stimuli associated with threat or danger

• presentation of scary faces causes high levels of activity in this area

• also important for detecting positive stimuli (indicators of safety or available rewards)

Corpus Callosum

The largest bundle of fibers that carry information back and forth between the two hemispheres

Left Hemisphere

Many aspects of language processing are lodged in the __________________

Right Hemisphere

Seems crucial for a number of tasks involving spatial judgement

Neuroimaging Techniques

Provide high-quality, 3-D “pictures” of living brains

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI scans)

Relies on the magnetic properties of the atoms that make up the brain tissue and provides detailed structural images

Positron Emission Tomography (PET scans)

A medical imaging technique that helps visualize metabolic activity in tissues and organs, often used to detect cancer, heart disease, and brain disorders.

Computerized Axial Tomography (CT scans)

• A noninvasive diagnostic imaging procedure that uses special X-rays measurements to produce horizontal, or axial, images (often called slices) of the brain

• Can provide more detailed information about brain tissue and brain structures than standard X-rays of the head, thus providing more data related to injuries and/or diseases of the brain.

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI scans)

• Provides functional imaging

• Measure the oxygen content in blood flowing through each region of the brain

Electroencephalogram (EEG)

A recording of the brain’s electrical activity

Event-Related Potentials

Changes in the EEG in the brief periods just before, during, and after the event

Fusiform Face Area (FFA)

Is especially active whenever a face is being perceived

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)

• This technique creates a series of strong magnetic pulses at whatever location on the scalp the researcher chooses, and these pulses activate the neurons directly underneath this scalp area

• Produces a temporary lesion

• can provide crucial information about the functional role of that brain area

Localization of Function

the psychological and physiological concept that specific areas of the brain control distinct thoughts, feelings, and behaviors

Brain Manipulation

Giving a drug that blocks a neurotransmitter and observing how this changes behaviour is an example of what research strategy?

Motor Areas

Contain brain tissue crucial for organizing and controlling bodily movements

Sensory Areas

Contain tissue essential for analyzing the information received from the senses

Association Areas

Support many functions, including the essential (but not well-defined) human activity we call “thinking”

Primary Projection Areas

the initial regions in the cerebral cortex that receive basic sensory input from the body or send out primary motor commands

Primary Motor Projection Areas

Departure points for signals leaving the cortex and controlling muscle movement

Primary Sensory Projection Areas

Arrival points for information coming from the eyes, ears, and other sense organs

Contralateral Control

Stimulation to the left hemisphere leading to movements on the right side of the body, and vice versa

Somatosensory Cortex

• the part of your brain that processes information from your body’s senses – like touch, pressure, temperature, and pain

• located in the parietal lobe and organized as a “body map” called the sensory homunculus

• Damage to this area can cause numbness, tingling, tactile agnosia, or phantom limb pain—but the brain can adapt

Association Cortex

the part of the brain's outer layer that handles complex thinking, memory, and perception instead of raw movement or basic senses

Apraxias

Disturbances in the initiation or organization of voluntary action

Apraxias

Some lesions in the frontal lobe produce ___________

Agnosias

• Other lesions (generally in the occipital cortex, or in the rearmost part of the parietal lobe) lead to _____________, disruptions in the ability to identify familiar objects

• usually only affect one modality only (e.g. would not affect both vision and touch)