cognitive psych

section 3

cerebral cognitive

critical for most cognitive functions

lobes of the cerebral cortex

frontal

parietal

temporal

occipital

frontal lobe

• executive functions

• decision making

• reasoning

temporal lobe

• memory

• auditory functions

• language processing

• face processing

parietal lobe

• tactile information

• position of objects in space

occipital

• vision

hemispheric lateralization

tendency for some cognitive functions to involve either the left or right hemisphere more heavily

left hemisphere

• language processing

• sequential information processing

right hemisphere

• visuospatial attention

• holistic information processing

somatosensory cortex

receives sensory information from the body

primary motor cortex

controls voluntary movement

sensory processing

sensation is made possible by receptors

receptor

specialized neuron that receives information from the environment

trnasduction

converting information from environmental stimuli into electrochemical impulses that can be interpreted by the brain

sensation

process of receiving, converting, and transmitting raw sensory info from the external and internal environments to the brain

perception

• process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting sensory information

• construction of a mental representation of the external environment

• influenced by experience-based expectations from memory

visual processing

the retina is made up of sensory receptors called photoreceptors

two types photoreceptors

cones

rods

cones

highly concentrated in fovea (center of visual field).

responsible for color vision

rods

highly concentrated in peripheral areas outside the fovea. responsible for night vision

visual processing

visual light passes through the pupil and is projected onto the retina

auditory processing

humans can hear frequencies between 20 and 20,000 Hz

sensory cells at different locations in the cochlea are tuned to different frequencies of sound

sound waves

mechanical vibrations travelling through a medium (usually air) can be defined in terms of

• amplitude

• frequency

amplitude

how intense are the oscillations - loudness

frequency

how many oscillations per second - pitch