PSC 100 midterm 1

Q: What is the definition of Cognitive Psychology?

A: The scientific study of knowledge, specifically how it is acquired, retained, and used.

Q: Contrast Rationalism and Empiricism.

A: Rationalism (Plato) argues knowledge is innate and found through logical analysis.

Empiricism (Aristotle) argues knowledge comes from observing the physical world (the mind is a "blank slate").

Q: What is the "Transcendental Method" (Immanuel Kant)?

A: A method where you start with observable facts and reason backward to determine the cause ("Inference to the best explanation").

Q: What is Introspection?

A: "Looking within" to observe and record one's own thoughts. Used by Wundt and Titchener.

Q: What are the main limits of Introspection?

A: Some thoughts are unconscious, claims are impossible to test/measure, and self-report accuracy is unknown.

Q: What was the focus of Behaviorism?

Observable behaviors and stimuli. It argued that internal mental states were irrelevant because they couldn't be scientifically studied.

Q: Why did Behaviorism fail to explain language?

A: As Noam Chomsky argued, it couldn't explain the "creativity" of language or how people produce brand-new sentences they've never been rewarded for.

Q: What was Edward Tolman’s contribution?

A: He showed that rats in a maze developed "cognitive maps" (latent learning) without immediate changes in behavior or rewards.

Q: What is the Gestalt Psychology view?

A: The "whole" is different than the sum of its parts; mental processes cannot be understood by only looking at discrete units.

Q: How did computers influence the Cognitive Revolution?

A: They provided a metaphor for the mind, leading to the Information-Processing approach (using terms like "buffers" and "processors").

Q: Who was Patient H.M.?

A: A famous patient with amnesia who could remember the past but could not form new explicit memories, demonstrating the role of memory in our sense of self.

Q: What is the most frequently used variable in cognitive research?

A: Reaction Time (RT), also known as Response Time.

Q: What is Clinical Neuropsychology?

A: The study of brain function based on damaged brain structures.

Q: Who is considered the "father of cognitive psychology"?

A: Ulric Neisser

Q: What are "Schemas" according to Frederic Bartlett?

A: Mental frameworks people spontaneously use to interpret experiences and aid memory.

What are the three levels at which psychological phenomena can be explained?

1. Biology: Explanations based on brain structures and chemicals.

2. Mental States: Explanations based on thoughts and feelings.

3. Social/Cultural: Explanations based on external influences and environment.

What are the different "scopes" of psychological research?

Research can apply to all human beings, certain groups (e.g., clinical populations), individual people, or specific actions by a specific individual.

Name the three primary parts of a neuron and their functions.

1. Dendrites: Detect incoming signals.

2. Cell Body: Contains the nucleus and cellular machinery; integrates signals. 3. Axon: Transmits signals to other neurons

What is the All-or-None Law in neural communication?

An action potential (spike) is always the same magnitude. The signal's strength is communicated through frequency (spikes per second), not the size of the spike.

How does communication differ within a neuron versus between neurons?

Communication within a neuron is electrical (action potential). Communication between neurons is chemical (neurotransmitters crossing the synaptic gap).

What are the primary functions of Glia?

They guide the development of the nervous system, repair damage, control nutrient flow (including oxygen), and provide electrical insulation via myelination.

What are the three main structures of the human brain?

1. Hindbrain: Includes the cerebellum (balance/coordination) and brainstem (life functions).

2. Midbrain: Coordinates eye movement, relays auditory info, and regulates pain.

3. Forebrain: Includes the cerebral cortex and subcortical structures.

Match the subcortical structure to its function: Thalamus, Hypothalamus, Amygdala, Hippocampus.

Thalamus: Sensory relay station.

• Hypothalamus: Biological needs (eating, etc.).

• Amygdala: Emotional processing.

• Hippocampus: Learning and memory

Name the four lobes of the cerebral cortex and their primary sensory/motor roles.

Frontal Lobe: Motor executive functions (Primary Motor Projection Area).

• Parietal Lobe: Skin sensations (Somatosensory Area).

• Temporal Lobe: Auditory sensations (Primary Auditory Cortex).

• Occipital Lobe: Visual sensations (Primary Visual Cortex).

Categorize these methods: MRI, CT, fMRI, PET.

Structural (What it looks like): MRI and CT scans.

• Functional (What it is doing): fMRI (traces oxygenated blood) and PET (traces radioactive substances)

What is the result of a severed Corpus Callosum?

It limits communication between hemispheres. For example, a patient may be able to see an object in their left visual field and pick it up with their left hand, but cannot name it because the right hemisphere lacks language centers.

Define Apraxia, Agnosia, and Aphasia.

Apraxia: Disturbance in initiating or organizing voluntary action.

• Agnosia: Problem identifying familiar objects.

• Aphasia: Problem producing or understanding language.

Why are neuroimaging techniques (like fMRI) considered "correlational," and what provides "causal" data?

Imaging only shows what is active during a task. Causal data comes from Brain Lesions or TMS (Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation), which actively manipulate brain function to see the resulting effect.

What are the three primary contributors to how we perceive the world?  

1. Sensory processes 2. Context / action 3. Experience / knowledge

What is akinetopsia, and what are its symptoms?  

It is the inability to perceive motion. Patients (such as Patient L.M.) see "nothing between" location changes, making tasks like pouring coffee or tracking moving cars difficult.

Define the two primary properties of seeing: Sensitivity and Acuity.

• Sensitivity: The dimmest light you can detect.  

  • Acuity: The smallest spatial detail that can be resolved (often measured by the Snellen E test).  

Compare the functions and locations of Rods and Cones.

• Rods: Sensitive to low light, lower acuity, color-blind, and absent in the fovea.  

  • Cones: Require brighter light, higher acuity, color-sensitive, and concentrated in or near the fovea.  

What is the path of a neural signal from the eye to the brain?

• 1. Retina: Photoreceptors $\rightarrow$ Bipolar cells $\rightarrow$ Ganglion cells. 2. Thalamus: Signal travels via the optic nerve to the Lateral Geniculate Nucleus (LGN). 3. Occipital Lobe: Primary visual cortex (Area V1).

What is lateral inhibition and its main perceptual result?

• It occurs when stimulated cells inhibit the activity of neighboring cells. This results in edge enhancement, helping the brain detect object boundaries.  

How do "dot detector" (center-surround) cells respond to light?  

• Light in the center increases firing rates.  

  • Light in the surround decreases firing rates below baseline.  

• Light covering the entire field results in no change from baseline.  

Distinguish between the Ventral and Dorsal pathways.

• What System (Ventral): Connects the occipital lobe to the inferotemporal cortex; aids in identifying objects.  

• Where System (Dorsal): Connects the occipital lobe to the posterior parietal cortex; aids in perceiving location and guiding action.  

Name at least four Gestalt principles used to interpret ambiguous scenes.  

1. Similarity: Grouping similar items together.

2. Proximity: Grouping items that are close together.

3. Good Continuation: Seeing continuous forms rather than disconnected parts.

4. Closure: Biased toward perceiving complete, intact figures.

5. Simplicity: Interpreting forms in the simplest way possible.

What is perceptual constancy?

The ability to perceive constant object properties (size, shape, brightness) even when sensory input changes due to viewing distance, angle, or illumination.

What is perceptual constancy?

The ability to perceive constant object properties (size, shape, brightness) even when sensory information (retinal image) changes due to viewing circumstances. It is a property of the ventral stream ("what" pathway).

Define Unconscious Inference.

The brain’s process of "calculating" an object's true size or shape by taking distance cues into account (e.g., if an object’s retinal image is small but it is far away, the brain "doubles" the perceived size).

What is Binocular Disparity?

A depth cue based on the difference between the two eyes' views of the same stimulus.

List three Monocular Pictorial Cues.

1. Interposition (occlusion), 2. Linear perspective, 3. Texture gradients.

Difference between Motion Parallax and Optic Flow.

Motion Parallax: Near objects move across the visual field faster than distant objects.

• Optic Flow: The pattern of stimulation changes across the entire visual field as you move toward or away from an object.

Apperceptive Agnosia vs. Associative Agnosia.

Apperceptive: Can see features but cannot perceive the object as a whole (cannot copy drawings).

• Associative: Can see/draw the object but cannot link it to visual knowledge or name it.

Bottom-up vs. Top-down processing

Bottom-up: Data-driven; processes shaped directly by the stimulus.

Top-down: Concept-driven; processes shaped by knowledge, context, and expectations.

What is the Word-Superiority Effect (WSE)?

The finding that it is easier to recognize a letter when it is part of a word than when it is presented in isolation.

How do Feature Nets explain recognition?

A hierarchy of detectors (Features → Letters → Bigrams → Words). Detectors fire when they reach a threshold based on input frequency and recency.

What is Well-Formedness?

How closely a letter sequence follows spelling rules (e.g., "HIKE" vs "HZYQ"). Higher well-formedness leads to easier recognition and "regularization" errors (misreading DPUM as DRUM).

What makes the McClelland and Rumelhart Model different from basic feature nets?

It includes inhibitory connections and top-down flow (higher-level word detectors influence lower-level letter detectors).

What is the Recognition-by-Components (RBC) model?

A model suggesting we recognize 3D objects by identifying their basic building-block shapes called geons (viewpoint-independent).

What is Prosopagnosia?

A specific inability to recognize faces, despite normal vision, often linked to the Fusiform Face Area (FFA).

Why is face recognition considered Holistic?

It depends on the overall configuration and relationship of features rather than an assembly of individual parts (evidenced by the inversion effect and composite effect).

Q: The Mach bands illusion is attributed to what?

Lateral inhibition

If a star disappears when you look directly at it, where is the light falling?

The fovea (which contains mostly cones, while rods are better for low light in the periphery).

What is the definition of Selective Attention?

The skill through which we focus on one input or task while ignoring other stimuli.  

What is Unilateral Neglect Syndrome?

A condition where patients are unable to attend to inputs from one side of the body, typically due to damage in the right parietal cortex.

In a dichotic listening task, what is "Shadowing"?

The process of repeating out loud the information from the attended channel to ensure focus.

What is the "Cocktail Party Effect"?

The phenomenon where personally important information, such as your own name, can be noticed even when it is in an unattended channel.  

What is Inattentional Blindness?

The failure to see a prominent stimulus that is directly in view because you do not expect it or are focused on something else.  

What is Change Blindness

The inability to detect changes in a scene despite looking at it directly

What is the difference between Early and Late Selection hypotheses?

Early selection suggests unattended info is never perceived, while late selection suggests all info is analyzed but unattended info is quickly forgotten.  

What is Repetition Priming?

Stimulus-driven priming produced by a prior encounter with a stimulus that requires no effort or cognitive resources.

What is Expectation-driven Priming?

where you deliberately direct your attention toward a specific stimulus you expect to encounter, which speeds up your ability to recognize it but can also slow you down if your expectation is wrong.

Why does expectation-based priming have a "cost"

Because it relies on a limited-capacity system; being misled by a cue results in slower response times as attention must be redirected.  

What are the three control systems for attention?

The Orienting system (shifting attention), the Alerting system (sustaining attention), and the Executive system (controlling voluntary actions).

Which brain area is linked to the Executive system for controlling voluntary actions?

The Anterior cingulate gyrus.

How do ADHD symptoms relate to these neural networks?

Difficulty sustaining attention is linked to the Alerting system (right frontal cortex), while impulsivity (blurting out answers) is linked to the Executive system (anterior cingulate)

You are at a cocktail party. What are you most likely to hear from an unattended conversation?

That the person next to you mentions your name

Why is talking on the phone while driving dangerous even if the road is in view?

It is an example of inattentional blindness.

What is the explanation for slower response times on trials with misleading spatial cues?

There are costs because spatial attention is a limited-capacity system and the "spotlight" must move back from the misled location.

What are the three systems in the "Attention as a Spotlight" control system?

1. Orienting system: Shifting attention (Disengage → Shift → Engage).

2. Alerting system: Maintaining an alert state (e.g., studying).

3. Executive system: Controlling voluntary actions.

Distinguish between Endogenous and Exogenous control of attention.

Endogenous: Goal-directed/voluntary (e.g., looking for a specific person in a crowd).

• Exogenous: Stimulus-driven/involuntary (e.g., reacting to an ambulance siren).

What factors influence where we "shine" the attentional beam?

Visual prominence, level of interest, importance, beliefs/expectations, culture, and the "ultra-rare item effect" (overlooking rare things).

What is the "Barbell" experiment evidence for spatial vs. object attention?

Patients with unilateral neglect syndrome initially ignore one side of space, but if they lock onto an object (like one side of a barbell) and it rotates into the neglected space, they continue to attend to it, suggesting attention can be object-based, not just spatial.

What is the "Binding Problem" and how is it solved?

The challenge of reuniting separate features (color, shape, motion) into a single object. It is solved via Spatial position, Neural synchrony (neurons firing together), and Attention.

What are the two stages of Feature Integration Theory?

1. Preattentive stage: Parallel, efficient processing of individual features. 2. Focused attention stage: Features are bound together; requires attention. Without enough attention, "conjunction errors" (mixing up features of different objects) occur.

How does priming affect perception?

Priming facilitates the processing of desired inputs and inhibits unwanted inputs. It depends on the ability to anticipate an upcoming stimulus.

Compare Repetition Priming vs. Expectation-based Priming.

Repetition Priming: Produced by a prior encounter with the stimulus; it is NOT effortful.

• Expectation-based Priming: Produced by anticipating the stimulus; it IS effortful.

When does divided attention fail?

When the combined resource demand of multiple tasks exceeds the available mental resources.

Are mental resources specific or general?

Both.

Task-specific resources mean similar tasks (two verbal tasks) interfere more.

Task-general resources (like Executive Control) mean even different tasks (driving and talking on a phone) can interfere with each other.

What functions does Executive Control perform?

Keeping goals in mind, organizing mental steps, shifting plans, and inhibiting automatic responses.

What errors result from Prefrontal Cortex (PFC) damage?

1. Perseveration error: Repeating the same response even when the task changes.

2. Goal neglect: Difficulty organizing behavior toward a specific goal.

How does practice affect resource demand?

Practice diminishes resource demand, decreasing the need for executive control and reducing interference between tasks.

What is Automaticity and its downside?

Tasks that are so well-practiced they require little to no executive control (running on "auto-pilot"). The downside is that they are hard to override (e.g., the Stroop Effect, where reading the word interferes with naming the ink color).