Chapter 4: Cognition, Consciousness, and Language

The three steps in the information processing model

encoding, storage, retrieval

An elderly man is taken to his doctor by his daughter. His daughter says that during the past two days, he has been speaking to his wife who has been deceased for four years. Prior to that, he was completely normal. The elderly man likely has:

delirium, onset is too rapid to be dementia

Sensorimotor stage of cognitive development

Focuses on manipulation of environment for physical needs, circular reactions, ends with object permanence

Preoperational stage of cognitive development

Symbolic thinking, egocentrism,

Concrete operational stage of cognitive development

understands conservation and feelings of others, can manipulate concrete objects logically

Formal operational stage of cognitive development

can think abstractly and problem solve

A child plays with a tool set noting that a nail can only be hit with a hammer. when a friend suggests using the handle of a screwdriver, the child objects. This is an example of

functional fixedness

A doctor uses a flow chart to treat a patient with sepsis. given its use in problem solving, a flowchart is an example of

algorithm

a patient in a mental health facility believes the sky is pink despite several trips outside the patient still declares the sky is pink. which psychological principle does this represent?

belief perseverance

Alpha Waves

occur when we are awake but relaxing with our eyes closed

Beta Waves

occur when we are awake and attending to a mental task

Delta Waves

low frequency, high voltage sleep waves that occur when you are deep in sleep

Theta Waves

occur when you are entering stage one of sleep

What two hormones are associated with circadian rhythms

melatonin and cortisol

Dyssomnia

disorders in which duration or timing of sleep is disturbed (insomnia, nacolepsy, sleep apnea)

Parasomnia

disorders in which abnormal behavior occurs during sleep (night terrors, sleep walking)

Which four drugs increase GABA activity

alcohol, brabiturates, benzodiazepines, marijuana

Which three drugs increase dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine

ampethamines, cocaine, ecstasy

What are the 3 structures of the mesolimbic reward pathway and what is the neurotransmitter used

nucleus accumbens, medial forebrain bundle, and ventral tegmental area.

Use dopamine

Controlled (effortful) processing

used when maintaining undivided attention on a task and used for new or complex actions

Automatic Processing

used for less critical stimuli in divided attention, typically familiar or repetitive actions

Cocktail party effect

when you are surrounded by stimuli in a party but can still pick out your name being said, seems to show that we are still processing all the information even if we aren’t aware of it

development of language in children

Babbling (9-12 mos)

One word per month (12-18mos)

Explosion of language (18-20mos)

Longer sentences (2-3 years)

Language largely mastered (5 years)

Nativist (Biological)

We have an innate ability to pick up language using the language acquisition device

Learning (Behaviorist)

We condition children by reinforcing sounds that resemble the native tongue

Social interactionist

Children learn language through listening and then further strengthen the connections when communicating with others

Broca’s aphasia

difficulty producing language

Wernicke’s aphasia

loss of language comprehension

Conduction Aphasia

can interpret and speak but cannot repeat speech

availability heuristic

used to make decisions based on how easily similar instances can be imagined

representativeness heuristic

making decisions based on how much a particular item or situation fits a given prototype or sterotype

heuristics

shortcuts or rules of thumb when making decisions

Slow wave sleep (SDS)

Stages 3 and 4 of sleep, area where most sleep disorders occur, associated with consolidating declarative memories

Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep

mind appears awake on EEG although body is completely paralyzed, associated with consolidating procedural memories