Exam 1 Cognitive Processes

Briefly contrast the following “schools” of psychology:  structuralism, functionalism, and behaviorism.  Specifically, what did each see as the goal of psychological research, and how did they approach the study of cognition?

Structuralism: Wundt and Titchener. Broke down structures of mind into most basic components (sensations, images, feelings). Experimental methods using introspection. Self-examination and self-reporting.

Functionalism: Focus on practical application of psychological principles.

Behaviorism: Concerned with how behavior changes in response to various stimuli, often rewards and punishments.

What do we mean when we say that a cognitive revolution has taken place in psychology? In your answer:

a)     Explain what this means,

b)     Describe the factors that contributed to the revolution, and

c)     Include a thorough explanation of how the cognitive meta-theory differed from the behaviorist meta-theory. 

Factors contributed:

• Human factors engineering (WW2 pilots)

• Tolman’s rats

• Linguistics and language acquisition

• Gestalt psychologists

• Bartletts memory research

• Piaget’s development of children

• Freuds unconscious processing

• Computer science processing

• Cognitive meta-theory: Explaining how behavior relates to mental processes via inferences

• Behaviorist meta-theory: psychology is study of observable behavior. Goal is to predict and control behavior. Stimulus and response links to predict and control behavior.

Introspection and its limitations

Used by Wundt and Titchner in structuralism. Used to understand the internal processes of the mind. Participants trained in certain vocabulary to reflect their conscious thoughts.

Limitations: not replicable, not testable, unconscious thoughts unaccounted for, subjective

Transcendental Method

Observing a processes effects and being curious about its underlying causes. Helped launch the cognitive revolution.

Tolman’s cognitive map research

Argued for the acquisition of new knowledge instead of a change in behavior. The rats were learning the maze layout even though their behavior did not initially change. Emphasized that we needed to talk about invisible mental processes. Helped spur cognitive revolution.

Gestalt Psychology

Emphasized the role of perceivers in organizing their experiences.

Information processing approach in computer science

Interested in how the human mind followed procedures similar to that of computer science

Clinical Neuropsychology

Seeks to understand the functioning of intact, undamaged brains by means of careful scrutiny of cases involving brain damage

Human Factors Engineering

Another cause of cognitive revolution. Machines are only as smart as the humans operating them.

Describe the various techniques of brain imaging mentioned in the text (and in class) and what they can tell us, including the difference between structural imaging and functional imaging.

Structural imaging: CT (3D x-ray) and MRI (Detects magnetism of atoms, detailed).

Functional imaging: PET scan (radioactive tracer put in blood at one point in time. Can do difference imaging) and fMRI scan (Measures brain activity by detecting changes in blood flow) and EEG (records electrical activity through electrodes on skull

Structural imaging: High spatial resolution

Functional imaging: High temporal resolution

Capgras syndrome

when a person believes a family member has been replaced by an identical imposter. The “who pathway” still works, but the emotional pathway is disrupted. Damaged temporal lobe, frontal lobe, amygdala

Amygdala

Plays a central role in emotion

Prefrontal cortex

Used for planning, decision making. Capgras syndrome cannot keep track of what is real or what is not real.

Hippocampus

Long term memories and spatial recognition

Corpus Callosum

Links the left and right side of brain

EEG

Measures atom movement intra neuron

Event related potentials

Changes in measurement before, during, and after an event

Localization of function

Specific jobs done by specific parts of brain.

4 effective study strategies were presented, including the 2 that were the focus of the assigned reading. Describe each of the 4 effective study strategies and explain why they are more effective than simply re-reading notes or sections of the textbook. Then provide concrete examples of how students can use these strategies to help them learn and remember information in their classes.

1. Self-testing

2. Spacing

3. Elaboration

4. Dual Coding

Define bottom-up and top-down processing. Then describe 3 examples that show how top-down processing can influence perception. Make sure each example is specific and illustrates one of the types of evidence for top-down processing we discussed in class

Bottom up processing: Input driven by stimulus

Top down processing: Input driven by knowledge and expectations.

Evidence:

• Illusory contours

• Perceptual constancies

• Perceptual set

What evidence is there that perception may start with simple “feature detectors”?  Be specific about evidence from both physiological and behavioral research that supports this idea.

Physiological evidence: Certain neurons in V1 respond selectively to specific features of visual stimuli.

Receptive fields where each neuron in V1 has a receptive field that influences the neurons firing rate.

FFA is only activated when viewing faces

Behavioral evidence: Pop-out effect

Gestalt principles

rods and cones

Rods: Sensitive to low light. Poor acuity. Packed on outside.

Cones: Sensitive to hues. High acuity. Packed in middle.

Receptive Fields

A cells trigger to fire. Could be a dot, edge, or certain line.

Parallel Processing

Mutual influence among visual systems

What system vs where system

What goes to temporal lobe, where goes to parietal lobe

Gestalt Principles (5)

• Similarity

• Proximity

• Good continuation

• Closure

• Simplicity

size and shape constancy

Correctly perceiving the size of objects despite changes in the retinal image

Perceptual Set

Context and expectations affect how we perceive stimuli. Might perceive an ambiguous image as a duck or rabbit.

Depth Cues

Monocular cues: Relative size, overlap, linear perspective, texture gradient

Binocular cues: Retinal disparity, convergence

Describe Biederman’s Recognition-by-Components (RBC) model of object recognition, including the various levels of analysis, what geons are, and how they are used to recognize objects, according to the model.

1. Feature detectors

2. Geon detectors

3. Geon assemblies

4. Object recognition

5. Top down processing

Geons: geometric ions

Repetition priming

Processing is more efficient when presented for a second time

Word Superiority Effect

better at recognizing letters if they appear in a word

degree of well-formedness

A measure to how well a string a letters conforms to usual patterns

Feature Net

Feature detector → letter detector → word detector

activation level

A measure of the current status for a detector. Will eventually meet a response threshold to send the message. Will be high if input is frequent or recency.

prosopagnosia

Inability to place faces to names. Suggests implicit neural structure for facial recognition

inversion effect

faces are much harder to identify upside down than other objects. Suggests that it uses a different pathway than object recognition

holistic perception

used in face recognition. Faces depend on whole faces configuration. again differs from object recognition.

RBC model

• 30 geons stored in memory

• Geons are used to identify essential contours of objects

• Can be identified by virtually any angle

• Takes just a few geons

• Partial occlusion does not prevent object recognition

• Easier when vertices are present