PSYC 230 Exam 1 - UNC Chanon

Early 1800's

the mind cannot study itself

Later 1800's

i. Donders - RT of decision making

ii. Ebbinghaus- time course of forgetting

Early 1900's

Watson & Skinner: behaviorism

Mid 1900's

PC and Al's, Chomsky and Neisser (1st textbook)

neuropsychology

study cases of brain damage

Experimental Psychology: attention

study accuracy and reaction time

soma

cell body; nucleus

dendrites

collect info (receive), many

axon

send info (transmit), one, can be myelinated

neurons receive a signal...

physical or chemical

receptor cells (sensory neuron)

physical, rods/cones or touch

interneurons

a neuron that transmits impulses between other neurons, especially as part of a reflex arc

sodium diffuses through dendrites to cell body...

passive current; strong enough to reach a threshold point before action current can begin

Steps of Action Potential

a. Sodium channels open (depolarization)

a) Triggered by diffusing sodium by dendrites to cell body

b. Potassium channels begin to open (hyperpolarization)

c. The axon returns to its resting potential

d. The ion pump restores the normal distribution of sodium and potassium ions

at rest...

inside of cell is negative compared to outside of cell

When is the inside of the cell most positive?

Na+ channels become refractory

Myelination- why?

a. Makes signal travel faster

b. Where myelin is wrapped around the axons, the ion channels are unable to open

c. Develop as you develop

Single Cell Recording

Pros: high spatial resolution and precise timing (temporal)

Cons: hard to pin point specific cells and what produces the activity in those cells, behavior of cells is more than the sum of its parts, usually cannot be done in humans (invasive)

ERP

pros: precise timing (temporal), noninvasive

cons: poor spatial, requires many trials

EEG

general states of consciousness; like a worse version of ERP

MRI

structure

uses magnetic properties of hydrogen atoms

fMRI

pros: high spatial, noninvasive

cons: low temporal

uses magnetic properties of hemoglobin

indirect measure of neural activity

Phrenology

pseudoscience; things that are localized int he skull

Phineas Gage

a) First neuropsychology patients

b) Railroad spike went through the front of this head

c) "no longer gage"- not impulse control

d) First evidence that a specific part of the brain may be responsible for a specific function

The Perceptual Process

1. Environmental Stimulus

2. Stimulus on the receptors

3. Transduction

4. Processing

5. Perception

6. Recognition

7. Action

perception

the experiences resulting from stimulation of the senses

What stages of the perceptual process may be affected by knowledge?

perception and recognition

Top-down vs. Bottom-up processing

1. Bottom-up processing refers to processing sensory information as it is coming in

2. Top-down processing refers to perception that is driven by cognition

What stages of the perceptual process may be affected by top-down processing?

processing, perception, recognition and action

Pain Management

1. Expectation: explanation of surgery

2. placebo effect

3. Attention: virtual reality (burn victims)

Helmholtz's unconscious inference

the likelihood principle- assumptions happening rapidly and unconsciously

Sensations combine to make perceptions. But...

1. Apparent motion is a perception not made from an actual sensation

2. Modal completion is a perception not made from an actual sensation

3. Gestalt: Whole ≠ ∑ of Parts

4. Modal (perception) and amodal (behind) completion

Law of Good Continuation

We tend to continue contours whenever the elements of the pattern establish an implied direction.`

Law of Simplicity or Pragnanz

1. states that forms with the most simplicity, regularity, symmetry, and ease of remembrance are most easily understood. People tend to see the interpretation of picture that makes the most sense to them based on logic, intuition, and past experience.

Law of similarity

1. We tend to group objects with similar properties (color, shape, texture).

Law of proximity

1. Objects that are positioned close to one another are often seen not as separate parts, but rather as one coherent whole.

Law of Common Fate

leads us to group together objects that move in the same direction.

Principle of Common Region

Elements that are within the same region of space are grouped together.

ex) Different background color

Physical Regularities

1. More vertical and horizontal lines in the environment

2. When one object is occluded - it come out the other side

3. Light from above assumption

Semantic regularities

1. Meaning of scene

2. Schema (knowledge of what belongs in a scene)

Bayesian Inference: one's estimate of the probability of a given outcome is influenced by...

1. The prior probability (our initial belief about the probability of an outcome)

2. The likelihood of a given outcome (based on current evidence)

What would happen if you never were exposed to a certain orientation of line?

If not expose, no ability to see them

ex) kitten video

Can you train FFA to respond to new stimuli?

yes; greebles

not just faces; also expertise

homunculus

man with enlarged body parts that correspond to sensitivity of area

What happens in the brain when you remove a finger?

Body parts that are still there will take over the representation of the missing finger in the somatosensory cortex

Training/ practice in the somatosensory cortex

1. Right hand musicians who play string instruments have greater representation of their left hand on their cortex

2. Actually changing your brain as you practice

Phantom Limb

feeling or sensation of missing limb

foot --> genitals

Evidence for taking over other senses?

1. Brail takes of occipital lobe (because never really used before anyways)

2. Blind person has a stroke and damaged occipital lobe and couldn't read brail anymore

Cone of Confusion

To your ears, sounds from opposite sides of the circle have the same volume and time difference

temporal lobe

what pathway

ventral pathway

what pathway

Patient D.F.

what pathway

Damage to what pathway

can't discriminate between objects

can't copy (CAN draw from memory)

can't line up card to slot (perception)

conscious

what pathway

agnosia

the inability to figure out what an object is

parietal lobe

where pathway

dorsal pathway

where pathway

Patient R.V.

where pathway

damage to where pathway

can line up card (action)

cannot tell location of a landmark

subconscious

where pathway

double dissociation

demonstrates that the two functions are localized in different areas of the brain

prosopagnosia

The inability to recognize or differentiate among face, although other objects can be identified

what pathway (ventral)

inattentional blindness

a psychological lack of attention that is not associated with any vision defects or deficits. It may be further defined as the event in which an individual fails to perceive an unexpected stimulus that is in plain sight.

change blindness

a perceptual phenomenon that occurs when a change in a visual stimulus is introduced and the observer does not notice it. For example, observers often fail to notice major differences introduced into an image while it flickers off and on again.

Broadbent's Early Selection Theory

info comes in through sensory input

limited capacity that can be semantically analyzed

filters out early (at input)

Cocktail Party Phenomenon

electively attend to one conversation in a noisy room

Cherry's Shadowing Experiments

ignored input-> Lincoln statement

attended input-> horse statement

dichotic listening

shadowing-> repeating allowed the attended input

Cherry found that participants were able to detect their name from the unattended channel, the channel they were not shadowing.

Treisman's Attenuation theory

filter out at semantic encoding

unattended channel is not filtered out but rather degraded (attenuated)

some unattended info can break through (like your name)

late theory

filter out at output

What do ERP's suggest?

ERP Effects of Attention suggested ignored stimuli are processed, just not as much as attended stimuli

IF Late Theory were true... same size in P1 for component for both attended and ignored stimuli

Processing Capacity

how much information a person can handle at any given moment

Perceptual Load

the difficult of the task

High-load (difficult) tasks use higher amounts of processing capacity

Low-load (easy) tasks use lower amounts of processing capacity

Stroop Task

the interference occurs because words are read faster than colors are named

Attentional Blink Paradigm

Attentional resources are used up by processing the 1st target, and causes a "blink" for the 2nd target

over attention

the focus of attention follows the gaze of the eye

ex) eye-tracking

covert attention

the focus of attention is in the peripheral vision

ex) Helmholtz

precuing

directing attention without moving the eyes

Participants respond faster to a light at an expected location than at an unexpected location, even when eyes kept fixed

Divided Attention

As more attention was directed towards the target, amplitude for the ERPs increased, especially occipital P1 and N1 components.

As attention was divided, P1 and N1 decreased/ got smaller

Inhibition of Return

i. The same pattern of behavioral and ERP results exists with reflexive attention.

ii. However after about 300ms the enhancement of the valid stimulus is no longer present.

iii. In fact, the processing of the invalid stimulus is now enhanced.

iv. You get bored unconsciously

v. All of these studies are comparing two locations

visual search

a type of perceptual task requiring attention that typically involves an active scan of the visual environment for a particular object or feature (the target) among other objects or features (the distractors)

conjunction search

Searching for a specific combination of two stimulus features

attentional control settings

specifies features (e.g., color) that are relevant to current goals

ex) Where's Waldo?

inconsistent object in a scene

does NOT capture attention but will HOLD it longer

Memory and Familiarity

i. Working memory

1) Subjects responded faster to the discrimination task when it occurred at the location of the item that was being held in working memory.

ii. Long-term memory

1) If attention is drawn to a location, processing of subsequent information at the same location will be enhanced.

Mental Rotation Studies

As rotation degrees increased, the longer it took you to respond

Mental Scanning Task

Participants create mental images and then scan them into their minds

Map Task- Kosslyn

linear relationship

the further the distance, the longer the mental processing

Propositional - Pylyshyn

i. Spatial representation is an epiphenomenon

i) Accompanies real mechanism but is not actually a part of it

ii. Proposed that imagery is propositional

i) Can be represented by abstract symbols

iii. Tacit knowledge

i) Kosslyn's results can be explained by using real-world knowledge unconsciously

ii) We know that Greensboro is closer than Asheville

iii) We just know info and apply it to our behavior

Spatial - Finke and Pinker

Longer reaction time when greater distance between arrow and dot (as if they were mentally "traveling")

Not instructed to use visual imagery

No time to memorize, no tacit knowledge

Spatial or Propositional?

Spatial b/c...

imagery works like perception

viewing distance study: elephant vs. bunny then bunny vs. fly

when bigger, you can see details more clearly

Interactions of imagery and perception

i. If imagery affects perception, or vice versa, that suggests they have access to some of the same mechanisms

dim projection study- no one noticed the projectors, but they influenced their visualizations

Farah- priming by imagery study

Kosslyn's theory

1. Develops metaphor of images as spatial displays on cathode ray tube

2. Mental images temporarily generated fro propositionally encoded info in long-term memory

3. Mental images "projected" onto visual buffer (where perceptual representations also appear)

Imagery and the brain

imagery neurons responding to both perceiving and imagining an object (overlap in brain activation)

Neural Mind Reading

i) fMRI technique used to study perceptual things

ii) You have people look at some particular image and while they're looking at it you look at their brain activity

iii) You can essentially build a library of their brain activity

iv) Experimenter can predict what visual orientation the subject is looking at just by looking at their brain activity

ex) Crime scene video

Method of Loci

Visualizing items to be remembered in different locations in a mental image of a spatial layout

Pegword technique

i. Associating images with words

ii. Pair each thing to be remembered with a pegword

iii. Create a vivid image of things to be remembered with the object represented by the word

Internal Perspective vs. External perspective

(sports)

Thinking about taking the shot vs. looking above a basketball game to remember a play

two keys to vivid imagery

1. vividness

2. controllability

imagery vs. physical practice

Should be used in addition to physical practice

Physical practice is better than imagery practice

Imagery practice is better than no practice

aphantasia

when you can't create visual images

people do not realize they have this

can effect other senses