PSY654 Final Exam (Exam 3) Lecture 16-18

Cognitive Psych Lecture 16-18

Aristotle

* Thoughts aren’t possible without image
* There is variability: some people may experience visual image, some people may not
* Part and parcel of our conscious experience

Wilhem Wundt

* Explored visual images and consciousness
* He was the first person to have a psychology lab in Germany
* His research focused on perception
* our conscious experience of the world is widespread with these visual images that we have: imagery general of our interaction of the world

Francis Galton

* view of imagery: individual variation
* explored why some people experience more visual imagery than others
* cousin of Charles Darwin
* Contributed to statistics and different things that ended up being relevant for psych research
* his view of individual variation was in proportion to eugenics → problematic contribution

John Watson

* imagery focus was primarily on behaviourism
* explored how imagery can be unreliable since we rely on the individual to report to us what they are thinking/imagining → questioned the accuracy
* wanted to focus on a measure that is more precise

The timeline where the study of imagery was geared towards a more precise measure (like behaviorism)

1940’s to the 1960’s

Timeline where new information was presented to study visual imagery more

1970’s - onwards

Alan Paivio

* learn new information better when they are concrete and we can form visual images around that info
* “boat-hat” rather than “truth justice”
* concrete is easier to imagine and easier to remember → imagery helps our memory

Roger Shepard and Jacqueline Metzler

* Our ability to think about and manipulate information is important in terms of how we think about the world
* Working memory: we can manipulate visual-spatial information
* Visual-spatial: makes up a lot of our working memory and ability
* Task: mental rotation was invented by these two

The view on imagery from 70’s to 80’s

* received evolving work that saw how important imagery is to our day-to-day abilities
* started to see the distinction between **imagery** and **perception** → how they are also similar to one another

Zenon Pylyshyn

suggested that imagery is what we would call an epiphenomenon

Epiphenomenon

* you can experience imagery but it doesn’t really serve any function
* something our brains can do but doesn’t necessarily serve any function
* Example: a cat under the table → you can imagine it but how does this serve you

What did Pylyshyn argue about imagery as an epiphenomenon?

* Argued that whether or not you have that experience of mental imagery, you can still understand what’s going on (around you)
* His primary question: does forming mental image help you in any way?
* Does it support our cognitive ability → opposed views of mental imagery

Stephen Kosslyn studies these ***2*** ***concepts*** about imagery

1. Mental Scanning
2. Size in Visual Field

Kosslyn studied how visual imagery is very useful in our everyday lives (true or false)

true

Kosslyn studied how visual imagery is ***not*** similar to how we perceive the world around us (true or false)

false

Explain Mental Scanning

* This study found that the further apart a distance is in actuality, the longer it took for people to mentally scan to get from landmark/location to the next
* Further apart and longer in real life to get there -→ applies in imagery too
* Relative distance
* Provided evidence that perception and imagery rely on the same principles

Explain Size in Visual Field

* The way we perceive the world is similar to how we imagine them too
* Approach a car in real life → gets bigger
* Approach a car in mind → mentally gets bigger
* Visual field: everything we see falls within our visual field → we try to fit things into our visual field when we imagine them
* We adjust our distance from objects to fit them in our visual fields in real life and in imagery
* Bunny, elephant, fly → details for the relatively larger animal is better seen

Cheves Perky (1910)

* had participants stare into a blank wall and imagine things
* wall is translucent and is flashing projections unto a wall
* when told to imagine a banana, they also project a banana unto the wall
* participants would take the image being faintly projected unto the wall and adopt it as the thing they are imagining
* Added evidence that perception and imagery are closely related to each other → a line between reality and fiction

Single Cell Recording

* Neuromachinery we use to perceive the world is the same machinery we use to imagine the world
* **fusiform cortex** (used to see faces) also holds visual imagery as well → done by similar parts of the brain
* Stimulated by doctors during surgery and produces spontaneous images/ see faces

Brain Imaging

* Occipital lobe: involved in perceiving pictures and also imagining pictures → visual cortex is active too
* Visual center of brain is involved in perceiving the world and also imagery
* Overlap between perception and imagery

TMS (transcranial magnetic stimulation)

* Uses magnetic pulse to temporarily knock out function of the brain
* Must be near the skull
* Can impair visual functioning but using it on occipital/visual cortex

Kosslyn on TMS

* asked participants if the orientation of each quadrant are the same
* they would say no
* but if you apply TMS before the questions is asked, trouble answering the question

Effect of TMS on Imagery

by temporarily knocking out the function of the visual cortex, it can impairs our ability to perceive things and to see imagery in our world around us too

Neuropsychology (visual cortex damage)

* if we damage the visual cortex, our field of **vision** ***shrinks***
* part of the brain that processes the visual field is no longer available to us
* when imagining the world around them, visual field is also reduced in size

Neuropsychology: Unilateral neglect

* visual deficits: their ability to imagine can be impaired but not necessarily gone → still able to process and imagine __spatial orientations__
* Parietal lobe damage: lose the ability to be aware of the space around us
* Damage right side of the Parietal Lobe: can describe everything on right side but no the left; opposite processing; deficit there

Neuropsychology: Imagery can be dissociated from Vision

* literature that disproportionate damage to vision shows that mental imagery is still relatively well intact and vice versa → depends on the locus of the damage
* Partially overlapping
* parts of our brain can overlap for vision and imagery, but some parts are solely devoted to each

Method of Loci (Simonides: Philosopher)

* we can use spatial locations, particularly familiar spatial locations to help us memorize things
* Hypothetical floor plan: associate objects with that location; when needing to recall information → imagine walking through that location
* Technique works remarkably well
* Also referred to by Memory Palace Technique by some

Peg-word Method

* get a rhyme that’s easy to remember
* associate each part of that rhyme with something you want to remember
* example: one-bun, two-shoe, three-four, four-door

Mental Practice: Athletics

swimmers in butterfly stroke: those that engaged in real practice as well as imagining their practice (imagery) had the best performance

What was the problem with “The Secret”

Imagining your goal is fine, but expecting for it to come to you without work is the issue of this approach

Outcome Vs. Process Stimulation (Shelley Taylor and Colleagues, 1980-90s)

* students who engaged in outcome simulation (imagined getting an A) and thought of strategies to achieve their outcome had the highest grades
* Taylor: Imagining what you need to do makes things more concrete and helps you plan for contingencies towards that plan
* Improve chances for success by imagining what you want to achieve + the process to get there

Temporal Discounting

* When reward that is immediate is found to be more appealing compared to the future reward
* Solution: get people to think about their future in a more concrete way
* make future goal more concrete to help them overcome making impulsive decisions

What is language?

* a set of sounds/symbols to express thoughts, feelings, etc.
* Other animals can do so as well

Are all language verbal?

No. Honeybees can communicate by flying around in space; various spatial orientation

What are the two things that make human language unique?

It is Hierarchical and Rule-based/Syntax

Hierarchical

* The letters that make up our alphabet can be used to make up many more words → make more sentences → more ideas
* making basic aspects of language to complex aspects to create more meaning and more things to communicate

Rule-based/ Syntax

* all units of language can be organized with one another
* although units of language are arranged in a hierarchical structure, there’s a basic set of rules we follow
* Number of ideas and stories is infinite despite limited language → makes human language unique

What is the most basic unit of the english language?

Letters

Phonemes

* basic units of sound
* 47 in English
* “Bit” = b/i/t

Why are there 47 phonemes in English if there’s only 26 letters?

We can make different sounds depending on what context it’s found e.g., “e” in “we” and “wet”

Morphemes

* smallest unit of sound with meaning or grammatical function
* two morphemes: “bedroom” bed/room or “trucks” truck/s

How is perception affected by meaning? and what are the three evidences?

* context guides our ability to perceive language
* Phonemic restoration effect, perceiving words in sentences, Word superiority effect

Phonemic Restoration Effect

The phoneme can be cut out in situations but your brain is recreating/restoring it to allow you to perceive the language you’re being exposed to

Perceiving words in sentences

* Pollack and Pickett (1964): identify 50% percent of the words
* Example: Big Girl and Big Earl
* Hard time identifying individual words outside the context of the sentence in which they are presented
* Pollack and Pickett’s study found that: it’s difficult to identify individual words outside the context of the sentence in which they are presented

Word Superiority Effect

* The ability to perceive letters is facilitated by their occurrence in words
* Fork and Rfok → easier to remember that Fork ends with K than Rfok ends with K
* Words facilitate the processing of a letter: so strong that even if one letter is presented in a different context → it’s hard to identify the word

Word Frequency Effect

* The higher the frequency of the word (the more likely we experience/encounter the word in our day to day lives), the more likely we are to remember the words
* This determines how easily we are able to process it

Lexical Ambiguity

* Some words have more than one meaning and it matters in terms of how easily we process language
* Balanced meanings → slows us down, we need to think more because they have equal dominance
* Biased meaning → faster process; dominant meaning we are used to seeing the world around us

Meaning Dominance

* More than one meaning, equally strong or is one meaning stronger than the other?
* Biased: one meaning is stronger (tin)
* Balanced: equally likely to hear both definitions (cast)

Syntax

Rules to construct language

Semantics

Meaning we derive from language

What are the two pieces of evidence found regarding the syntax and semantics of human language?

1. Broca’s Aphasia
2. Wernicke’s Aphasia

Broca’s Aphasia

* Difficulty with syntax, inability or difficulty to produce or generate language
* Left frontal lobe
* Person with this has no problem understanding but ability to produce language is impaired

Wernicke’s Aphasia

* difficulty or inability in comprehending language; understanding would be difficult so communication may be nonsensical
* Left Temporal Lobe

Parsing and Garden Path Sentence

* Starts out meaning one thing and the meaning shifts into something else but there’s no clear indication the change occurred
* Can be fixed with a coma
* “After the musician played the piano was wheeled off the stage” → important shift of meaning that wasn’t indicated
* Changed: After the musician played the piano, the piano was wheeled off the stage

Syntax first approach parsing (late closure)

* when we read sentences, unless we are indicated by some grammatical structure like a comma that something changes, we assume every new word is part of the sentence
* the main meaning of the sentence → assume things go together

Influence of Knowledge

* background knowledge/past experiences
* past knowledge is a top-down way to help us process the meaning of the sentences

Interactionist Approach to parsing

* we use syntax (word by word) to construct meaning
* we also use semantic background knowledge to also make meaning
* both come to play and help us derive meaning and avoid confusion