Cognitive psych

Introspection

A careful examination and description of ones own inner mental thoughts and states

3 laws of association

Contiguity or closeness, similarity, and contrast.

Why isnt introspection a popular way of studying human cognition?

It is not possible to check the accuracy of conscious thoughts people claim to have, therefore, its unverifiable

3 major problems with relying on introspection

1. We are largely unaware of many processes influencing our motivation and behavior

2. Our reports of conscious experience may be distorted

3. the delay between experience and reporting

behaviorism

An approach to psychology that emphasises a rigourous experimental approach and the role of conditioning in learning

Bottom up processing

processing that is determined directly by environmental stimuli rather than by induvial knowledge and expectations

Serial processing

this invloves one process occuring at a time. one process is completed before the next starts

top down processing

influenced by peoples expectation and knowledge rather than the stimulus itself

interactive processing

information coming from both top down and bottom up pocesses

Parallel processing

2 or more processes occurring simultaneously

4 approaches of understanding human cognition

1. experimental cognitive psychology

2. cognitive neuroscience

3. cognitive nueropsychology

4. computational cognitive science

experimental cognitove psychology

involves carrying out experiments on healthy individuals(often psychology undergrads)

cognitive neuroscience

carrying out experiments on healthy individuals but extends by using evidence from brain activity

cognitive neuropscyhology

carrying out experiments on brain-damaged people.

computartional cognitive science

includes developing computor models based in part on experimental findings to explain human cognition

stroop effect

A cognitive phenomenon where it's harder to name the color of the ink when the word itself names a different color (e.g., the word "RED" in blue ink). This occurs because reading the word is automatic, causing interference with the task of identifying the ink color.

ecological validity

the extent to which the findings of laboratory studies are applicable to everyday life

hippocampus

subcortical structure particualry important for memory encoding and spatial knowledge

amygdala

consists of left and right structure in the front of the hippocampus. Particulary active in situations that provoke fear and are emotionally arousing

thalamus

very center of the brain and functions as the brains relay station connecting the various parts

FMRI

A brain imaging technique based on imaging blood oxygenation using an mri scanner. good spatial resolution, and reasonable temporal resolution

1. allows you to see the different parts of the brain that becomes active in tasks

2. to see if 2 tasks involve the same parts of the brain

temperal resolution

measures how well a system can accurately capture changes over time,

spatial resolution

measures how well a system can accurately distinguish and locate features in space

Event related potentials(ERPs)

Researchers present specific stimuli (like images, sounds, or words) to participants in an experiment to mimic an event. They then record the brain's electrical activity in response to these stimuli using EEG. By analyzing these Event-Related Potentials (ERPs), researchers can see how the brain processes the stimuli and the timing of different cognitive functions (like attention or memory)

why is it hard to interpret brain imaging studies

1. the brain is always active so they have to compare to a baseline

2. only indicate associations

3. based on the assumption of functional specalization

4. does not answer the “how”

functional specialization

the assumption that cognitive functions occur in specific brain regions

lesion

a structural altercation within the brain caused by disease or injury

modularity

the assumption that cognitive system consists of several fairly independent or separate modules or processors, each of which is specialized for a type of processing

dissociation

as applied to brain damaged patients, intact performance in one task but severly impaired performance on another

double dissociation

some indicuals have intact performance on one task but poor performace on another task, whereas other indivuals exhibit the opposite pattern

TMS

a technique used in which magnetic pulses brefily disrupt the functioning of a given brain area, thus creating a short lived lesion. when pulses are given in succesion its known as rtms.

Computational modeling

constructing computor programs that will simulate or mimic some aspects of human cognitive functioning

connectionist networks

make use of elementary units or nodes connected together in various structures of layers

Meta analysis

combining the data from a large number of similar studies into one large analysis.

sensation

the intake of information by means of receptors and the translation of this information into signals that the brain can process as images, sounds, smells, tastes and so on

perception

the interpretation and understanding of sensations

illusion

you perceive something other than what is physically presented

law of pragnanz

the notion that the simplest possible organization of the visual enviroment is what is perceived

law of proximity

visual elements tend to be grouped together if the are close to each other

figure ground organization

the division of the visual environment into a figure (having distinct form) and ground(lacking distinct form)

pattern recognition

the identification of 2 dimensional patterns by matching the input to category information stored in memory

Template theries

we have templates(forms or patterns stored in long term memory) corresponding to each of the visual patterns we know

feature theories

a pattern consists of a set of features or attributes

object superiority effect

The finding that a feature is easier to process when it is part of a meaningful object than when it is part of an unknown object

recognition by components theory

a theory of human object recognition that explains how people can identify objects by breaking them down into simpler shapes

geons

basic shapes or components that are combined in object recognition

repition priming

finding that stimuli are processed more efficiently the second time they are encountered than the first

visual agnosia

condition where there are great problems recognizing visual objects even though visual sensation still hit the brain and the person still possesses much knowledge about the object

apperceptive agnosia

object recognition is impaired because of deficits in perceptual processing

associative agnosia

perceptual processes are intact but there is dicciculty in accessing relevant knowledge about objects from long term memory on the basis of visual input

holisitic processing

processing involves integrating information from an entire object

part-whole effect

the finding that a face part is recognized more easily when presented in the context of a whole face rather on its own

prosopagnosia

people that have problems recognizing faces

fusiform face area

an area in the brain associated with face processing

bruce-young model

when we look at a familiar face, we first access familiaity information followed by personal information, followed by the persons name

the face-space model

memories for faces can be thought of as places in a multidimensional space, where each dimension represents a typical face characteristic

super-recognizers

people with exceptional face recognition ability

two visual systems

1. vision for perception- used to identify objects

2. vision for action- used for visually guided action

inattenional blindness

the observation that we often fail to notice important objects and events, especially when we are focused on something else

change blindensss

the failure to detect that a visual stimulus has moved, changed, or been replaced by another stimulus

what causes change blindness

due in part to our inability to retain detailed information about visual scene for more than a very short period

subliminal perception

perceptual processing occurring below the level of conscious awareness that can influence behavior

affective blindness

the ability to discriminate among different emotional stimuli in spite of the absence of conscious perception

active and passive attention

active when controlled by top down

passive when controlled bottom up

selective attenion

a situation in which individuals try to attend to only one source of information while ignoring other stimuli

divided attention

a situation in which 2 tasks are performed at the same time

shadowing

repeating word for word one auditory message as it is presented while a second auditory message is presented

covert attention

the attention to an object in the absence in eye movement towards it

zoom-lens theory

proposes that the size of the attentional focus can be adjusted and predicts a tradeoff between the size and processing efficiency because of limited processing capacities

split attention

allocation of attention to 2 or more, non-adjacent regions of visual space

neglect

a disorder of visual attention in which stimuli or parts of stimuli presented to the side opposite the brain damage are undetected and not responded to

cross-modal attention

the coordination of attention across 2 or more sense modalities

Ventriloquist illusion

the mistaken perception that sounds are coming from their apparent visual source

rubber hand illusion

misinterpretation thwt w rubber hand is ones own

body size effect

an extention of body swap illuision where the size of the body mistakenly percieved to be ones own influences the perceived size of objects in the environment

feature integration theory

observers find it easier to detect targets defined by a single feature than those defined by a combo of features

illusory conjuction

mistakenly combining features from 2 different stimuli to perceive an object that isnt present

extinction

a disorder of visual attention in which a stimulus presented to thr side opposite the brain damage is not detected when another stimulus is presented at the same time to the same side as the brain damage

how effecient is multitasking

not as efficent as focusing on one task at a time

controlled processes

are of limited capacity, require attention, and can be used flexibly in changing conditions; serial processing involved

automatic processes

opposite of controlled

psychological refractory period effect

the slowing response to the second of 2 stimuli when they are presented close together in time

free will

challenged by those who claim that nonconscious processes determine our action

masking

suppresion of the processing of a stimulus by presenting a second stimulus very soon after