PSYCH 258 Midterm 1: Ch1-5

Cognition

the sum of “intelligent” mental activities, the acquisition and processing of sensory information about the world in order to make behavioural decisions

Basic Research

scientific research whose goal is to try to understand the world and its phenomena, without regard to a specific end-use of this knowledge

Applied Research

research that is concerned with the end goal of developing a an application or solution to a problem

Human Factors

psych field concerned with applying scientific findings to the design of systems humans interact with

Artificial General Intelligence

type of artificial intelligence possessing the capacity to understand, learn, and apply knowledge across a wide range of tasks at a level comparable to humans

Neuroscience

study of the physical brain and related systems

Cognitive Psychology

study of intelligence using behavioural experiments

Computational Modeling

understanding of the brain is based on simulating brain processes/functions using computer-based models

Mind-Body Problem

debate of how mental events are related to or caused by physical mechanisms taking place in the body

Dualism

mind and body are different substances/properties

Monism

view that there is only one kind of basic substance in the world

Physicalism/Materialism

type of monism in which the only kind of reality is physical reality, and cognition is just another physical phenomenon

Idealism

type of monism in that reality is entirely mental

Neutral Monism

holds that there is only one kind of substance, neither just physical or mental

Structuralism

school of psychology introduced by Wundt relying on introspection on conscious mental states to understand the components of the mind

Introspection

technique employed by structuralists to study the mind by training individuals to examine their conscious experiences

Blindsight

phenomenon in which someone reports blindness due to cortical damage but still demonstrates behaviour that shows some perception

Think-Aloud Protocol

research method involving participants verbally describing their thought process as they perform a specified task

Behaviourist

school of psychology founded by Watson emphasizing using observable stimuli and behaviours as basis of scientific experimentation

Classical Conditioning

An involuntary behaviour is paired with a stimulus, eventually leading the behaviour to be elicited by stimulus alone

Operant Conditioning

conditioning method reinforcing certain behaviours through a system of rewards and punishments

Reinforcement Learning

form of behavioural conditioning based on punishment and reward feedback

Latent Learning

learning occurring in absence of punishment/reward

Algorithm

set of operations that produces the input/output mapping of a function

Transistor

device used in computers to control whether or not a current flowed through parts of a system

Cognitive Revolution

movement in the 1950s proposing that the mind could be understood as a computational system

Information Processing

approach to human cognition that views it as a type of computation with sensory info as input, processed by the brain to determine a behavioural output

Cognitivism

psych approach that uses behaviour as a method for developing and testing underlying processes of the mind

Stroop Effect/Stroop Interference

psychological phenomenon in which reporting the ink colour of words is slowed down when the words spell out the name of a different colour

Signal Detection Theory

means to measure the ability to differentiate between information-bearing patterns (stimulus) and random patterns that distract from the information

Correctness

measures whether or not a given response is accurate

Thresholds

stimulus may be manipulated along one or several dimensions in order to test what level or change in the stimulus people are able to detect

Reaction Time

measures how long it takes a participant to produce a response

Speed-Accuracy Tradeoff

refers to when participants sacrifice accuracy or speed or vice versain an experiment

Trials

repetitions of an experimental condition, typically used to compensate for variability across attempts

Cognitive Neuroscience

scientific field merging brain imaging with behavioural experimentation

Behavioural Neuroscience

scientific field that assesses behaviour and neurological factors in animals as models of human function

Optogenetics

technique used to control the activity of brain cells based on introducing light-sensitive proteins into cells and activating them with lighy

Computational Neuroscience

scientific field that uses computer models of the brain to model real brain function

Brainstem

stalk-like structure at base of the brain, connecting it to the spinal cord. Regulates involuntary functions like heart rate and breathing

Hypothalamus

small, complex cluster of neurons that regulates multiple involuntary functions

Gray Matter

topmost layer of the cortext made of cell bodies

White Matter

layer under gray matter consisting of axonal nerve tracts

Encephalization Quotients (EQ)

measures actual brain size relative to the size that would be predicted based on body size along

Contralateral

one side of the brain controls/receives input from the opposite side of the body

Mental Chronometry

scientific study of the speed of mental processes

Functional Localization

concept that certain cognitive functions reside in specific regions of cerebral cortex

Neuropsychology

study of brain function and impairment due to brain pathology

Aphasia

loss of language comprehension or expression due to brain damage

Broca’s Aphasia (Expressive Aphasia)

due to damage in the inferior frontal gyrus, causing difficulty producing speech/language

Wenicke’s Aphasia (Receptive Aphasia)

due to damage to the superior temporal gyrus that leads to fluid but nonsensical speech production, and difficulty understanding spoken language

Electroencephalography (EEG)

measures the electrical activity of the active brain that travels through the scalp

Event-Related Potential (ERP)

rapid changes in electrical potential as measured by EEG due to the onset of a stimulus

fMRI

technique in cognitive neuroscience for measuring ratios of oxygenated blood flow in the brain in order to determine task related neural activity

MVPA (multi-variate pattern analysis)

data analysis that uses machine learning to decode what task/stimulus a participant is engaging in based on the distribution of activity across the brain

Block Design

experimental design in which participants conduct multiple trials of each condition to reduce uncontrolled variability

fNIRS (functional near-infrared spectroscopy)

cognitive neuro technique which uses near-infrared light in order to measure oxygenated vs non-oxygenated hemoglobin

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

research technique using magnetic pulses to disrupt localized brain processing in order to observe effects on cognitive brain function

Neuroplasticity

ability for the brain to reorganize the spatial arragement of its function

Dendrites

branch like projections that protrude from the cell body

Axon

longer projection protruding from the cell body

Synapse

site between axon terminal and receiving neuron dendrites at which communication between two neurons occurs

Neurotransmitters

chemical agents that serve as messengers between neurons

Synaptic Vesicles

storage sites within a neuron that hold neurotransmitters prior to release

Receptors

sites on the dendrite of a neuron to which neurotransmitters can bind

Reuptake

a process in which neurotransmitters in the synaptic cleft are reabsorbed by a sending neuron

Action Potential

all or none firing of a neuron that leads to the release of neurotransmitters

Excitatory

firing of a neuron causes a receiving neuron to fire more frequently

Inhibitory

firing of a neuron causes a receiving neuron to fire less frequently

Sensory/receptor neuron

specialized neurons that are activated by physical stimulation of the body

Transduction

conversion of information from the physical domain to a neural code

Motor Neuron

neurons that activate muscle fibres

Association Neurons

neurons that receive input from other neurons and send output to other neurons

Neural Convergence

multiple neurons send signals to a single neuron

Specificity Encoding

theory of neural coding in which a complex pattern/object is encoded by the response of a single neuron

Distributed Encoding (Population Encoding)

theory of neural representation in which complex patterns or objects are represented by the distribution of activation across many neurons

Sparse Coding

a small number of neurons are active for any given complex stimulus; the particular combination of neurons (not activation level) is what allows the brain to identify a specific stimulus

Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs)

type of machine learning models based loosely on the brain, consisting of layers of nodes connected by modifiable weights that determine their activations

Activation Level

numerical value of a node in a neural network

Connection Weight

a numerical value that determines the strength and direction of the influence between two nodes

Activation Function

a function that takes in the weighted sum of the previous layer’s inputs and returns the activation level of the node

Input Layer

first layer of an ANN, the activation level of each node is determined by the value of the data itself

Output Layer

final layer of an ANN that represents the network’s decision about the input

Hidden Layers

intermediate layers between input and output in an ANN, encoding patterns in the input layer/previous layers

Training Set

dataset used to train a neural network

Error or Loss

difference between the observed output and the correct output of an ANN

Backpropagation

a technique for changing the weights of a neural network to reduce the error

Validation Set

dataset is used to test the performance of an ANN after it has been trained to determine whether it can generalize to unseen examples

Discriminative Models

class of machine learning models trained to determine which class/category a given input is derived from

Generative Models

type of machine based learning trained to produce novel examples of a certain catergory of data

Self-discrepancy Theory

the self is compared with two points of reference, the ideal self, and the ought self, discrepancies between the actual, ideal, and ought self creates psychological discomfort

Actual-Ideal Discrepancy

actual self does not align with the ideal, resulting in dejection-related emotions

Actual-Ought Discrepancy

actual self does not align with ought self, associated with presence of negative outcomes which results in agitation-related emotions

Theories of Individual Comparison

learning about the self through comparing ourselves with other individuals, consists of Social Comparison Theory and Self-Evaluation Maintenance Theory

Social Comparison Theory

proposes that we form a definition of the self by comparing ourselves with those around us because beliefs, feelings, and behaviours are subjective without an objective benchmark

Upward Comparisons

comparing themselves with someone they believe to be better than them

Downward Comparisons

comparing self with someone they believe to be worse than them

Self-Evalutation Maintenance Model

Comparison with someone who is successful results in self-reflection/social comparison, depending on whether that success is in a relevant domain, and on whether we are certain of our own performance in that domain

Social Reflection

derive self-esteem from the accomplishments of those who are close to us, without considering one’s own achievement in that domain; occurs only when the domain of success is irrelevant to us and when we are certain about abilities in that particular domain

Theories of Group Comparison

how membership in social groups contribute towards the definition of our self-concept