cognitive processes midterm #2

what is selective attention

attending to one thing while ignoring others

what is divided attention

paying attention to more than one thing at a time

what is the dichotic listening research study

one message is presented to the left ear and another to the right, can we completely filter out the message to the unattended ear and attend only to the shadowed message? results: knew that there was a message, knew the gender of the speaker (cocktail party effect)

in selective attention, where does the attention filter occur?

early

what is the early selection model

filters message before incoming info is analyzed for meaning

what is sensory memory in broadbents filter model

holds all incoming info for a fraction of a second, transfers all info to the next stage

what is the filter in broadbents filter model

identifies attended messages based on physical characteristics, only the attended message is passed on to the next stage

what is the detector in broadbents filter model

processes all info to determine higher-level characteristics of the message

what is short-term memory in broadbents filter model

receives output of detector, holds info for 10-15 seconds, may transfer it to long-term memory

what is the intermediate selection model in treismans attenuation model

attended messages can be seperated from unattended ones early in info-processing

what does the attenuator do in treismans attenuation model

analyzes incoming messages in terms of physical characteristics, language, and meaning (the attended message passes through the attenuator at full strength, the unattended message passes through weakly)

what is the dictionary unit in treismans attenuation model

it contains words, each with a threshold for being activated, words that are common or important have low thresholds, uncommon words have high thresholds

what is the late selection model

selection of stimuli for final processing doesn’t occur until after info has been analyzed for meaning

what did Mackay discover in 1973

in the attended ear, participants heard ambiguous sentences, participants chose which was closest to the meaning of the attended message, the meaning of the biasing word affected participants choice, participants were unaware of the presentation of the biasing words

what is processing capacity

how much info a person can handle at any given moment

what is perceptual load

the difficulty of a given task

what is a high perceptual load

difficult, use higher amounts of processing capacity

what is a low perceptual load

easy, use lower amounts of processing capacity

what is the stroop effect

name of the word interferes with the ability to name the ink colour, individuals cannot ignore the meanings of the words

what are saccades

rapid movements of the eyes from one place to another

what are fixations

short pauses on points of interest

what is stimulus salience

areas that stand out and capture attention, a bottom up process, this process depends on stimulus characteristics

colour and motion are what

highly salient

what is scene schema

knowledge about what is contained in typical scenes

what is precueing

directing attention without moving the eyes (participants respond faster to a light appearing at an expected location than at an unexpected location)

how does attention affect physiological responding

attention enhances neural responding, attentional processing is distributed across a large number of areas in the brain, using fmri to detect cortical activity during a search task, attention to an expected direction of motion caused brain activity to increase in a number of brain areas

what did schneider and shiffrin determine in 1977

divide attention between remembering the target and monitoring rapidly presented stimuli

define memory set

one to four characters called target stimuli

define test frames

could contain random dot patterns, a target, and distractors

automatic processing occurs without what

intention and only uses some of a persons cognitive resources

task shifting is what

a shifting of attention and cognitive resources between tasks

multitasking occurs when

when a person divides attention between tasks requiring focus, while simultaenously switching between them

divided attention becomes more difficult when what

when tasks are harder

what happened in the 100 car naturalistic driving study

video recorders placed in cars, accident risk is 4x higher when using a cell phone

what did strayer and johnston determine in 2001

during simulated driving participants on phone missed twice as many red lights and took longer to apply the brakes, the same result ocurred using a hands free cell phone

what is location based attention

moving attention from one place to another

what is object based attention

attention being directed to one place on an object

what did egly determine in 1994

participants saw two side by side rectangles, followed by a target cue, reaction time is fastest when target appeared where indicated, reaction time was faster when the target appeared in the same rectangle

the enhancing effect does what

spreads throughout the object

attention can be based on what

the environment, static scenes or scenes with few objects

what is binding

the process by which features such as colour, form, motion, and location are combined to create our perception of a coherent object

what are the qualities of the preattentive stage?

automatic, no effort or deliberate attention, the individual is unaware of the process, object analzyed into features

what did treisman and schmidt determine in 1982

participants report a combination of features from different stimuli, illusory conjunctions occur because features are free floating, participants were instructed to ignore black numbers and focus on objects, they could correctly pair the shapes and colours

what are the qualities of the focused attention stage

attention plays a key role, features are combined

explain balints syndrome

the condition arises from damage to the parietal lobe

what does top down processing influence

processing when participants are told what they would see

what does top down processing combine with

feature analysis to help one perceive things accurately

what is the physiology of attention

attention enhances neural responding, attentional processing is distributed across a large number of areas in the brain

explain attention processing distributed across the cortex

using fmri to detect cortical activity during a search task, attention to an expected direction of motion caused brain activity to increase in a number of brain areas

define memory

processes involved in retaining, retrieving and using info about stimuli, images, events, ideas, and skills after the original info is no longer present

when is memory active

any time some past experience has an impact on how you think or behave now or in the future

what is sensory memory

initial stage that holds all incoming info for seconds or fractions of a second

what is short term memory

holds five to seven items for about 15-20 seconds

what is long term memory

can hold a large amount of info for years or even decades

what are control processes

active processes that can be controlled by the person (rehearsal, strategies used to make a stimulus more memorable, strategies of attention that help you focus on specific stimuli)

what is persistance of vision

retention of the perception of light (trail of light from a moving sparkler, frames in film)

how do you measure the capacity and duration of sensory memory

an array of letters is flashed quickly on a screen, participants are asked to report as many as possible

what is the whole report method

participants heard tone that told them which row of letters to report, the average report was 3.3 out of 4 letters, participants could report any of the rows

what is delayed partial report method

presentation of tone delayed for a fraction of a second after the letters were extinguished, performance decreases rapidly

what is iconic memory

brief sensory memory of the things that we see, it is responsible for the persistence of vision

what is echoic memory

brief sensory memory of the things that we hear, it is responsible for the persistence of sound

how do you measure the duration of short term memory

read three letters, then a three digit number, begin counting backwards by threes, after a set time recall three letters, after 3 seconds of counting participants performed at 80%, after 18 seconds of counting participants performed at 10%, reduction in performance is explained by decay, the vanishing of a memory trace due to the passage of time and exposure to competing stimuli

what is digit span

how many digits a person can remember (usually 5 to 8)

what is chunking in change detection

small units can be combined into larger meaningful units

what is chunk

a collection of elements strongly associated with one another but weakly associated with elements in other chunks

what did ericsson and coworkers do in 1980

trained a college student with average memory to use chunking, the student demonstrated an initial digit span of 7, after 230 one hour training sessions the student could remember up to 79 digits, this performance was achieved by chunking them into meaningful units

what is working memory

limited capacity system for temporary storage and manipulation of info for complex tasks such as comprehension, learning, and reasoning

what is working memory set up to do

process different types of info simultaneously

when is working memories functions hampered

when similar types of info are presented simultaneously

what is the phonological similarity effect

letters of words that sound similar are confused

what is the word length effect

memory for lists of words is better for short than long words, rehearsing long words and producing them during recall takes longer

what is articulatory suppression

speaking prevents the rehearsal of items to be remembered, it reduces memory span, it eliminates word length effect, it reduces the phonological similarity effect for reading words

what is the visuospatial sketchpad

the creation of visual images in the mind in the absence of a physical visual stimulus

what is the central executive

this process acts as the attention controller, it allows attention to be focused divided and switched, it controls suppression of irrelevant info

what is preservation

repeatedly performing the same action or thought even if it is not achieving the desired goal

what is the episodic buffer

backup store that communicates with long term and working memory components, holds info longer and has greater capacity than phonological loop or visuospatial sketchpad

what is the effect of damage to the prefrontal cortex

the prefrontal cortex is responsible for processing incoming visual and auditory info, monkeys without a prefrontal cortex have difficulty holding info in working memory

what did stokes determine in 2015

info is stored in short term changes in neural networks

define activity state

info to be remembered causes neurons to fire

define synaptic state

neuron firing stops but connections between neurons are strengthened

describe long term memory

an archive of info about past events and knowledge learned, works closely with working memory, storage stretches from a few moments ago to as far back as one can remember, recent memories are more detailed

what is a serial position curve

created by presenting a list of words to a participant, one after another

what is the primacy effect

the tendency for the beginning of a list of words to be better remembered than the middle

what is the recency effect

the tendency for the end of a list of words to be better remembered than the middle

what does coding refer to

the form in which stimuli are represented in memory

what is recognition memory

the ability to identify a previously encountered stimulus

what happens when a hippocampus is removed

retained short term memory but unable to transfer info to long term memory, unable to form new long term memories

what happens with a damaged parietal lobe

short term memory impaired but functional long term memory was retained, able to form and hold new memories

which memory type involves mental time travel

episodic

what happens with a damaged hippocampus

no episodic memory, cannot relive past events, semantic memory intact, can remember general info about the past

what type of memory is involved with familiarity

semantic

what type of memory is involved with recollection

episodic

what is prospective memory

remembering and performing actions planned for later

what is the constructive episodic simulation hypothesis

episodic memories are extracted and recombined to create simulations of future events, this function helps us to anticipate future needs and guide behaviours, this adaptive function is similar to mind wandering

when does implicit memory occur

when learning from experience is not accompanied by conscious remembering

what is priming

presentation of one stimulus changes the response to another

what is conditioning

remembering associations between stimuli and reactions or actions and consequences

what is skill memory

memory for actions

what is the propogandxa effect

people are more likely to rate statements read or heard before as being true

what is classical conditioning

pairing a neutral stimulus with a reflexive response, involves implicit memory when person has forgotten about original pairing of the stimulus and the response