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: Applied mental processes and studied their effects on everyday life. Cognition interconnected with behavior.

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. 

A. New style of research that focused on mental processes.

B. Shortfalls of introspection and behaviorism. Tolman’s rats demonstrating new knowledge and not just changed behavior.

C. Realizing that we could work from the transcendental method. Looked at the underlying causes that led to the effects of behavior. Behaviorism taught us that something is going on

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

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

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

Frontal lobe. Used for planning. Capgras sundrome 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

A recording of the brains electrical activity

Event related potentials

Derived from EEG. Record the brains electrical activity in response to stimuli.

Brain lateralization

Left: Language, analytical, sequential procesing

Right: Spatial, emotional processing, creative thinking

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.

Examples: Contextual clues in reading (contextual influence)

the stroop effect (when the word says blue but the ink is red. hard to say ink color) (semantic interference)

Rubin’s Vase (figure-ground perception)

Size and shape constancy

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

Cones: Sensitive to hues. High acuity.

Receptive Fields

The portion of the visual field to which a certain cell fires at.

Parallel Processing

Multiple aspects of a stimulus are processed at the same time. The horiztonal cell also fires with the diagonal cell to interpret the scene.

What system vs where system

What goes to temporal lobe, where goes to parietal lobe

Gestalt Principles of Organization

Emphasizes the role of perceivers

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

Depth Cues

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

Binocular cues: Retinal disparity (the greater the disparity, the closer the object is), 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. Viewpoint-invariant representation

   1. Allows recognition of object regardless of orientation

2. Geon Identification

   1. V1 identifies basic geometric shapes (geons). 36 different geons.

3. Object representation

   1. Once geons identified, they create a structural description

4. Matching to memory

   1. If the correct memory is found, the object is recognized

Repetition priming

Priming that happens when a stimulus is presented 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 detectors respond to simple elements in the visual field. Low level feature detectors trigger higher level detectors to form letters then words.

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 recent.

prosopagnosia

Inability to recognize faces

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.