COG PSYCH TEST 2

optic array

the pattern of light falling on the retina; provides information about the layout of objects in the environment

optic flow

changes in pattern of light when either the observer moves through the environment or objects in the environment move relative to the observer; medial superior temporal area is strongly responsive

focus of expansion

the point towards which someone is moving, which does not appear to move (but objects outside the point appear to move away from it as the observer moves through the environment)

invariant

characteristics of the optic array that do not change through the environment (ex: focus of expansion)

affordances

potential uses of objects (thought that an object can be used for is directly perceivable and automatically perceived, rather than something which must be learned)

future path

the direction in which someone is moving

tangent point

the point on the road where the direction of the inside edge appears to reverse

where would the tangent point be if the road curved to the right?

right inside line

what is tau

specifies the time to contact with an approaching object

how to calculate tau

based on the size of an object’s retinal image divided by its rate of expansion

what does a larger tau correlate with

a shorter time before making contact

what is tau dot

the decline in tau over time

when is the planning system used

before starting a movement

when is the control system used

during the movement

what does the planning system do

selects an appropriate target, decides how to interact with it and figures out appropriate timings

what is the planning system influenced by

person’s goals and the nature of the object

what is the speed of the planning system

relatively slow because of the amount of required information and conscious processes

what does the control system do

ensures movements are accurate and makes adjustments when needed based on further visual feecback

what is the control system influenced by

influenced by the target’s spatial characteristics such as size, shape,

what is the speed of the control system

relatively fast because it uses less information and is less conscious

what lobe is important for control processes

superior temporal lobe

what lobe is important for the planning system

inferior parietal lobe

ideomotor apraxia

condition characterised by difficulty planning and carrying out learned movements

what do patients with ideomotor apraxia usually have damage to

damage to inferior parietal lobe

what system does ideomotor apraxia affect

planning system

optic ataxia

condition in which there are problems with making visually guided movements in spite of reasonably intact visual perception.

what system does optic ataxia affect

control system

what did johansson think about humans’ ability to perceive biological motion

is innate, spontaneous, and automatic

change blindness

failure to detect various changes in the visual environment

inattentional blindness

failure to perceive otherwise salient events when they are not attended to / failure to detect an unexpected object appearing in visual field

what is the gorilla video an example of

inattentional blindness

five processes required for observers to detect changes

attention must be paid to the change location

the pre-change visual stimulus at the change location must be encoded (i.e., stored) into memory

the post-change visual stimulus at the change location must also be encoded into memory

the pre- and post-change stimuli must be compared

the discrepancy between pre- and post-change stimuli must be consciously recognised

what part of the brain is important for processing biological motion

the superior temporal sulcus

what are the three reasons that human motion perception has been shown to be different from other types of motion perception

biological motion is the only type of motion we can perceive and produce ourselves

most people spend more time perceiving and trying to understand the motion of other people than other types of visual motion

peoples’ movements provide a rich source of social and emotional information

in what type of animal were mirror neurons first found

monkeys

what does the mirror neuron system do in humans

claims to be important for imitating and understanding the action of conspecifics; appears important for understanding the intentions of others, empathy, theory of mind, and other socially important cognitive functions

what does the mirror neuron system NOT do

function to exactly copy the motor activity required to imitate an action

active attention

refers to attention which is controlled by top-down processes such as the individual’s goals and expectations

passive attention

refers to attention which is controlled by bottom-up processes e.g., being drawn by salient external stimuli such as a loud noise or colorful object

focused/selective attention

involves attending to only one stimulus (and often involves ignoring task-irrelevant stimuli)

divided attention (multitasking)

when two or more stimuli must be attended and responded to at the same time

external attention

refers to attention paid to information from outside of ourselves, such as sensory information from external stimuli

internal attention

refers to attention paid to information from inside ourselves, such as memory and task rules (i.e., remembering what we need to do to successfully complete a given task)

cocktail party problem

problem of understanding how a person can pay attention to one voice in a noisy environment, such as one voice amongst many overlapping voices

dichotic listening task

listening task that involves separating auditory messages presented to each ear, where the participant is instructed to attend to only one input

shadowing

in a dichotic listening task, the participant is tasked with repeating one of the presented auditory stimuli (i.e., repeating what one voice is saying)

who had the filter or early selection theory

broadbent

what did the filter or early selection theory state

a filter in early processing allows information from one message through the filter based on its physical characteristics

any other inputs remain briefly in a sensory buffer and are rejected unless they are attended to rapidly

who had the attenuation theory

treisman

what did the attenuation theory state

posits that the processing bottleneck’s location is more flexible

processing starts based on physical cues, syllable patterns and specific words, then moves on to grammatical structure and meaning

if insufficient processing capacity to permit full stimulus analysis occurs, later processes are omitted

who had the late selection theory

deutsch and deutsch

what did the late selection theory state

posits that all stimuli are fully analysed, with the most important or relevant stimulus determining the response

therefore, this theory suggests that the bottleneck occurs late in processing

this model assumes that the differences between attended and unattended messages are due to there being less processing of unattended than attended messages

what does load theory explain?

distractibility during tasks

perceptual load

refers to the perceptual demands of the current task (i.e., the amount of visual information and clutter, edges, etc. present in the visual field)

what does a higher perceptual load during a task associate with

lower distractibility

perceptual load’s effects on attentional processes are relatively

automatic

cognitive load

refers to demands on cognitive resources such as working memory

higher cognitive load is associated with

higher distractibility

high-load tasks require more/less of our perceptual capacity

more of our perceptual capacity

distraction effects are greater/lower when cognitive load is high

greater when cognitive load is high