cog psych final sec 3

Conceptual knowledge

Knowledge about objects/events that allows recognition and inference.

Concept

Mental representation of a category.

Category

Group of items with shared properties.

Categorization

Process of assigning items to categories.

Definitional approach

Categorizing by strict rules; often inaccurate because not all members share all features.

Family resemblance

Members of a category share overlapping features rather than identical ones.

Prototype approach

Categorizing by comparing to the average or typical member of a category.

Typicality effect

Faster recognition of typical category members.

Exemplar approach

Categorizing by comparing to stored individual examples.

Exemplars

Individual remembered items of a category.

Basic level

Most common and informative category level (e.g., “dog”).

Superordinate level

Broad category level (e.g., “animal”).

Subordinate level

Specific category level (e.g., “poodle”).

Semantic network model

Concepts as nodes connected by links; uses cognitive economy.

Nodes

Represent concepts in a network.

Links

Connections between concepts.

Cognitive economy

Store properties at the highest possible level to reduce redundancy.

Spreading activation

Activation of one concept spreads to related concepts; explains priming.

Connectionism / PDP models

Concepts represented by distributed patterns of activation in networks.

Units

Input, hidden, and output nodes in a PDP network.

Connection weights

Strengths of connections between units.

Back propagation

Learning method that adjusts weights based on errors.

Sensory-functional hypothesis

Living things represented by sensory features; tools by function.

Multiple factor approach

Concepts depend on multiple features; crowding occurs when features overlap.

Semantic category approach

Brain has specialized regions for important categories.

Embodied approach

Knowledge grounded in sensorimotor systems.

Mirror neurons

Neurons that fire during action observation or execution.

Semantic somatotopy

Brain activation corresponds to body parts during concept thinking.

Spoke and hub approach

Concepts represented by sensory “spokes” and a central hub (ATL).

Semantic dementia

Damage to ATL causing broad conceptual knowledge loss.

Mental imagery

Mental representation of objects or events not physically present.

Visual imagery

Mental images specifically involving visual information.

Paivio (1963) paired-associates study

Concrete words remembered better; imagery improves memory.

Conceptual peg hypothesis

Concrete words serve as “pegs” to attach other information.

Shepard & Metzler (1971) mental rotation study

Reaction time increases with rotation angle of 3D objects.

Mental chronometry

Measuring time taken to perform mental tasks.

Imagery vs perception mechanisms

Investigates whether imagery uses the same brain processes as seeing.

Kosslyn et al. (1978) 1

Imagining and perceiving activate similar brain mechanisms.

Imagery debate

Whether mental images are spatial (depictive) or propositional (language-like).

Spatial (depictive) representation

Mental images preserve spatial relationships like a picture.

Propositional representation

Mental images represented as abstract symbols or language-like code.

Kosslyn (1978) study

Supports spatial representation; reaction times reflect imagined distances.

Farah (1985) study

Supports spatial representation; interference occurs at same locations for perception and imagery.

Imagery neurons

Neurons firing during both perception and mental imagery.

Le Bihan et al. (1993)

fMRI shows similar activity for viewing and imagining.

Kosslyn (1995)

Visual cortex active during imagery.

Ganis et al. (2004)

Frontal lobe equally active for viewing/imagining; occipital lobe more for viewing.

TMS studies (Kosslyn et al., 1999)

Disruption of visual areas slows viewing and imagining.

Achromatopsia

Color blindness affecting perception and imagery.

Unilateral neglect syndrome

Ignoring one side of space; affects perception and imagery.

Visual agnosia

Can draw from memory but cannot recognize objects.

Mnemonic

Memory aid.

Method of loci

Link items to familiar locations.

Pegword method

Link items to ordered rhymes or “pegs.”

Individual differences in imagery

People vary in vividness, control, and use of imagery.

Language

System of communication using symbols and rules to convey meaning.

Creative property

Ability to produce/understand new sentences.

Hierarchical property

Organized levels: phonemes → morphemes → words → sentences.

Rule-based property

Governed by grammar and syntax.

Broca’s area

Speech production; damage causes non-fluent speech.

Wernicke’s area

Language comprehension; damage causes fluent but nonsensical speech.

Skinner’s viewpoint

Language learned through reinforcement and imitation.

Chomsky’s viewpoint

Innate language ability; universal grammar.

Psycholinguistics

Study of psychological processes in language.

Comprehension

Understanding language.

Representation

How language knowledge is stored.

Production

Speaking/writing language.

Acquisition

Learning language.

Word frequency

How often a word occurs.

Word frequency effect

High-frequency words recognized faster.

Lexical decision task

Judge if letters form a real word.

Pronunciation variability

Accents, speed, or relaxed speech.

Speech segmentation

Identifying word boundaries in continuous speech.

Phonemic transition probabilities

Likelihood of one sound following another; aids segmentation.

Semantics in segmentation

Context aids word identification.

Lexical ambiguity

Words with multiple meanings.

Context in ambiguity

Determines intended meaning.

Meaning dominance

Some meanings more frequent (biased = dominant, balanced = equal).

Syntax

Sentence structure rules.

Parsing

Determining sentence structure during comprehension.

Garden path model

Initial misinterpretation corrected after reading.

Heuristic

Mental shortcut in parsing.

Late closure

Attach new words to current clause if possible.

Constraint-based parsing

Uses word meaning, context, memory, and experience.

Narrative

Story with sequence of events.

Coherence

Logical, connected understanding of text.

Anaphoric inference

Connects pronouns to antecedents.

Instrument inference

Infers tools used for actions.

Causal inference

Infers cause-effect in stories.

Situation model

Mental representation of story world.

Given-new contract

Present known info first, new info second.

Common ground

Shared knowledge; aids conversation.

Syntactic coordination

Matching sentence structures with others.

Prosody

Rhythm, stress, intonation of speech.

Structured sequences

Predictable order of elements in language or music.

Broca’s aphasia

Impairs language production; may affect music syntax.

Congenital amusia

Impairs music perception; may affect prosody.

Neuroimaging studies

Music and language share overlapping brain areas.

Problem

Situation with current and goal states.

Current state

Present situation.