BCS 111 Midterm Review

Frontal lobe functions

language production, motor control, cognitive control/self-processing

Temporal

auditory processing, language comprehension, object/face recognition

Parietal

attention, primary somatosensory cortex

Occipital

visual processing

Limbic system and their functions

-

Thalamus

relays info to cortex

Hypothalamus

regulation of thirst, hunger, desire, and temperature

Hippocampus

memory

Amygdala

emotion

Lateralization

example

Evolution of brain functions: Implications of Petersson et al’s (2012) fMRI study

• Learning of sequences: similar to learning a language

• Processing of artificial grammar is similar to that of real linguistic sequences

(cont)

• Implicit learning of sequences without
  prior knowledge

• Original function of Broca’s area: potentially a region for general sequential processing

Memory chart

Typical visual perception stages

Distal stimulus → Proximal stimulus (processed in Visual Cortex) → Percept (processed in Temporal cortex)

Evidence for prototype: Posner and Keele

• Goal of the study: to see if we can form a prototype by getting exposed to a large amount of exemplars

  • One example: seeing a bunch of distorted/blurry faces (exemplars) and see if you can figure out what the “original” face (prototype) looks like

• Training: present one pattern at a time (each pattern is derived from one of the 4 original prototypes)

Classification task

Compare one dot pattern to the other 4 patterns that were derived from 4 different prototypes (feedback provided)

Testing

Three types of stimuli: new distortions (not seen before), old distortions, original prototype (not seen before)

• Classification task: same as in training

Key points from Posner and Keele’s study

• Same task in both training and testing

• Feedback given only during training

• NO feedback during testing

• Conclusion: prototype formed during training

Categorical Perception

Evidence against the filter theory: When we notice something from the unattended ear in the DLT task

When message in the unattended ear

• In English but with an “oddball” (reversed speech)

• In English and with our name

• Continues the message from the unattended ear (“switch ear”)

They’re also examples of top-down processing

brain activation

How to test “automatic processing”

Four independent variables

Varied vs consistent

• Varied - the target in the current trial could become a distractor in another trial

• Consistent - the target won’t become a distractor in another trial (because they are different types: letter vs number)

the other 3

• Frame size (e.g. size of crowd) - # of letters/numbers in each display

• Frame time (duration) - 20-800ms

• Memory set size - number of targets

Study

Consistent mapping - ONLY thing that matters is frame time

Varied mapping - all variables have an affect

Sensory memory

Initial and brief storage of (under-processed) sensory input

Testing processing and short-term storage capacity

Forgetting

Is rehearsal useful in all tasks? Not necessarily 

• In probe digit - slower presentation hindered performance

• In free recall - it helped performance

Working memory

Visio-spatial sketch-pad → visual semantics

Episodic buffer → episodic long-term memory

Phonological loop → language