Purdue PSY 200 Exam 1

Behaviorism

Using observable behavior as the basis for studying psychology, without reference to unobservable mental processes

Choice Reaction Time

time to detect the presentation of a stimulus, make a decision about it and respond

Classical Conditioning

procedure in which pairing a neutral stimulus with a stimulus that elicits a response leads to the neutral eliciting a similar response

pavlov dog

Cognitive Models

representations of structures or processes involved in cognition

Cognitive Neuroscience

"Science of the physiological basis of cognition"

Focuses on brain structure and function

Cognitive Psychology

scientific study of the mind. systematic study of through observation and experimentation. Creates and controls mental functions

Cognitive Science

interdisiplinary work including psychology, computer science, linguistics, neuroscience, philosophy

Comparative Psychology

science of the minds of non-human animals

Diffusion Model

Information-processing view

Introspection

Trained participants describe their experiences and thoughts in response to stimuli

Mental Chronometry

inferring the timing of a cognitive process by measuring the time taken to raise your hand

Operant conditioning

procedure in which behavior is strengthened by presenting positive reinforcement or withdrawing negative reinforcement

skinners rats

Reaction/Response time

Time between stimulus presentation and an observable response

Simple reaction time

time to detect the presentation of a stimulus and respond

Structuralism

our overall experience is just a combination of basic sensations

Subtractive Method

Action potential

A brief electrical signal that travels down a neuron's axon and is involved in transmitting neural information

Broca's aphasia

Broca's area: region of frontal lobe involved with language

Aphasia: difficulty using language to express thought

ex: "book book two table" = Two books on table

Cerebral cortex

Outer layer of the brain that accomplishes higher mental functions

Four lobes of Cerebral Cortex

Frontal lobe

Parietal lobe

Occipital lobe

Temporal lobe

Cognitive neuroscience

Electroencephalography (EEG)

Electrodes placed around scalp to measure electrical activity emanating from neurons within brain. Record brainwaves.

Event-related potentials (ERP's)

EEG recordings time-locked to an event and averaged across many trails

ADV: Very precise timing (>fMRI)

DV: poor spatial resolution

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)

generates images of brain activity by measuring changes in blood flow. Done via magnetic field and measuring disturbances

ADV: imaging w/o surgery

DV: Expensive

Lesions

cutting or removing brain tissue to examine behavior.

Localization of function

Some mental functions are achieved by specific brain areas.

Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS)

Shining light into skull and detecting how much is absorbed by brain. (brain activity leads to changes in blood flow that affect light absorption)

ADV: Portable and inexpensive

DV: Only activity in outer cortex can be examined

Neuron

A specialized cell that receives and transmits information in the nervous system

Neuropsychology

Study of behavioral effects from brain damage

Neurotransmitters

Chemicals released from vesicles in Neuron's axon

Phrenology

pseudoscience that assumed mental "propensities" are associated with specific brain areas and can be measured from skull surface

Prosopagnosia

an inability to recognize faces

Single-cell recording of neurons

Electrode inserted in brain tissue until tip is near neuron. Action potentials recorded while animal does task

ADV: precise timing

DV: Primary on animals who are different

synapse

gap between neurons

Topographic organization

Adjacent areas of the cortex process adjacent areas of the sensory field.

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)

Electric coil placed over part of brain area that sends currents to stimulate neurons temporarily activating or deactivating brain areas

ADV: Enables cause and effect

DV: Cannot stimulate deep in brain

Wernicke's aphasia

W's area: Temporal lobe involved in language comprehension

aphasia: difficulty understanding language; production of meaningless speech.

ex: "Mother is away here working her work out to get better.. but when she's looking, another time because she's getting too"

Algorithms

step-by-step procedures guaranteed to solve problems

Bottom-up processing

using sensory information from the environment

Constructivism

Perception involves actively constructing a percept based on sensory information from the environment and prior knowledge and expectations

Direct perception

perception is based solely on information from the environment

Distal perception

object in the environment

Feature analysis

Type of Bottom up processing

breaking down stimulus into components and finding distinctive features to recognize stimulus

Geon

geometrical ions, 3 dimensional volume

36 different geons

resistance to visual noise: gens can be perceived in "noisy" images

Heuristics

"rules of thumb" that provide best-guess solutions to problems

Interactive activation model

neural network model in which activation propagates through interconnected nodes

Law of common fate

things moving in the same direction appear to be group together

Law of good continuation

points belong together when they connect to form straight or smoothly curving lines

Law of good figure

stimulus pattern is seen such that the resulting structure is as simple as possible

Law of proximity

Things that are near to each other appear to be grouped together

Law of similarity

similar things appear to be grouped together

Percept

Meaningful interpretation of the proximal stimulus (e.g. stop sign)

Perception

Experience that results from sensation (stimulation of senses)

Perceptual constancy

Perceiving something to be unchanging in the environment despite changes in sensory input

Principle of componential recovery

object is recognized only if we can perceive its geons

Prototype matching

Type of bottom-up processing

comparing pattern of stimulation with single idealized

eg: triangle dot example. Don't need prototype presented to get idealized

Proximal stimulus

Pattern of stimulation registered by the senses

Recognition-by-components theory

We percieve objects by identifying features called geons

Sensation

absorbing raw energy (light, sound) through sensory organs

Template matching

Type of bottom up processing

comparing pattern of stimulation with previously stored patterns "templates" in memory

ex: machine-readable numbers on checks

DV: impossibly large # templates need for memory

Top-down processing

using prior knowledge and expectations

Transduction

process by which raw energy is converted to neural signals

Word superiority effect

Top-down

Test showed accuracy was higher when letters appeared in words than isolation

Conceptual peg hypothesis

concrete words create images that other words can hang onto, enhancing memory for those words

Dissociation

situation in which brain damage impairs one function while not affecting other functions

Epiphenomenon

accompanies the real mechanism but is not actually part of it

Mental imagery

experiencing a sensory impression in the absence of sensory input

Method of loci

items to be remembered are placed at different locations in a mental image of a spatial layout

Pegword technique

items to be remembered are associated with concrete words

Propositional representation

relationships are represented by abstract (e.g. language)

Spatial representation

Different parts of an image correspond to different locations in space

*image may contain inaccuracies

ex: penny example

Unilateral neglect

ignoring objects in half of the visual field

Visual imagery

experiencing an image in the absence of visual stimulus

Functions of Frontal lobe

movement, reasoning, behavior, memory

Function of Temporal lobe

Speech, hearing, emotions

Parietal lobe

telling right from left, language, sensation, reading

Occipital lobe

vision