Cognitive Psych Chapters 1-3

cognition

mental activity, including the acquisition, storage, transformation, and use of knowledge

cognitive psychology

(1) a synonym for cognition; (2) the theoretical approach to psychology that focuses on studying people’s thought processes and knowledge

cognitive approach

a theoretical orientation that emphasizes people’s thought processes and their knowledge

empirical evidence

scientific evidence obtained by careful observation and experimentation

recency effect

a tendency for items at the end of a list to be recalled better than items in the middle of a list

behaviorism

an approach to psychology that focuses on objective, observable reactions to stimuli in the environment

operational definition

in psychology research, a precise definition that specifies exactly how researchers will measure a concept

gestalt psychology

the theoretical approach which emphasizes: (1) humans actively organize what they see, (2) they see patterns, and (3) the whole is greater than the sum of its parts

gestalt

in perception and problem-solving, an overall quality that transcends the individual elements in the stimulus

ecological validity

a principle of research design in which the research uses conditions that are similar to the natural setting where the results will be applied

cognitive science

an interdisciplinary field that tries to answer questions about the mind; cognitive science includes cognitive psychology, neuroscience, artificial intelligence, philosophy, linguistics, anthropology, sociology, and economics

artificial intelligence (AI)

a branch of computer science that explores human cognitive processes by creating computer models that demonstrate “intelligent behavior” and also accomplish the same tasks that humans do

pure artificial intelligence (pure AI)

an approach that designs a computer program to accomplish a cognitive task as efficiently as possible, even if the computer’s processes are completely different from the processes used by humans

computer simulation (computer modeling)

programming a computer to perform a specific cognitive task in the same way that humans actually perform this task

computer metaphor

a way of describing cognition as a complex, multipurpose machine that processes information quickly and accurately

information-processing approach

a theory of cognition proposing that (1) mental processes are similar to the operations of a computer and (2) information progresses through the cognitive system in a series of stages, one step at a time

serial processing

a type of cognitive processing in which a person performs operations one item at a time, rather than simultaneously, in contrast to parallel processing

connectionist approach

a theory describing cognitive processing in terms of networks that link together neuron-like units; these networks perform operations simultaneously and in parallel, rather than one step at a time; also called neural-network approach and parallel-distributed processing approach (PDP)

cerebral cortex

the outer layer of the brain that is essential for cognitive processes

social cognitive neuroscience

a new discipline that uses neuroscience techniques to explore the kind of cognitive processes used in interactions with other people

brain lesion

specific brain damage caused by strokes, tumors, blows to the head, accidents, or other traumas

positron emission tomography (PET scan)

a procedure for measuring blood flow in the brain by injecting the participant with a radioactive chemical, just before this person performs a cognitive task; a special camera makes an image of this accumulated radioactive chemical in the regions of the brain active during the task

functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)

a method of measuring brain activity based on the principle that oxygen-rich blood is an index of brain activity; a magnetic field produces changes in the oxygen atoms in the brain while a person performs a cognitive task; a scanning device takes a “photo” of the changes

event-related potential (ERP) technique

a procedure for recording the very brief, small fluctuations in the brain’s electrical activity in response to a stimulus such as an auditory tone

magnetoencephalography (MEG) technique

a procedure for recording fluctuations in the magnetic fields produced by neural activity while simultaneously providing course-grained information about the neural sources of observed effects

perception

the use of previous knowledge to gather and interpret stimuli registered by the senses; requires both bottom-up and top-down processing

object recognition (pattern recognition)

the process of identifying a complex arrangement of sensory stimuli and perceiving that this pattern is separate from its background

distal stimulus

in perception, the actual object that is “out there” in the environment, for example, a pen on a desk

proximal stimulus

in perception, the information registered on the sensory receptors, for example, the image on the retina created by a pen on a desk

retina

the part of the visual system covering the inside back portion of the eye; the retina contains millions of neurons that register and transmit visual information from the outside world

sensory memory

the large-capacity storage system that records information from each of the senses with reasonable accuracy

iconic memory (visual sensory memory)

sensory memory for visual information; preserves an image of a visual stimulus for a brief period after the stimulus has disappeared

primary visual cortex

the portion of the cerebral cortex located in the occipital lobe of the brain, which is concerned with basic processing of visual stimuli; it is also the first place where information from the two eyes is combined

figure

in gestalt psychology, when two areas share a common boundary, the figure is the area that has a distinct shape with clearly defined edges; this area seems closer and more dominant

ground

in gestalt psychology, when two areas share a common boundary, the area that is seen as being behind the figure, forming the background

ambiguous figure-ground relationship

a perceptual phenomenon studied by gestalt psychologists, in which the figure and the ground of a visual stimulus reverse from time to time, so that the figure becomes the ground and then becomes the figure again

illusory contours

the perception of edges in a visual stimulus even though edges are not physically present; also known as subjective contours

templates

according to an early theory of visual object recognition, the specific perceptual patterns stored in memory

feature-analysis theories

in perception, the proposal that we recognize visual objects, based on a small number of characteristics or components known as distinctive features

distinctive feature

in visual perception, an important characteristic of the visual stimulus

recognition-by-components theory

in visual perception, a theory proposing that people can recognize 3D shapes in terms of an arrangement of simple 3D shapes called geons; geons can be combined to form meaningful objects

geons

in recognition-by-components theory, the simple 3D shapes that people use in order to recognize visual objects

viewer-centered approach

a modification of the recognition-by-components theory of object recognition; however, this approach proposes that people store a small number of views of a 3D object, rather than just one view

bottom-up processing

the kind of cognitive processing that emphasizes stimulus characteristics in object recognition and other cognitive tasks; for example, the physical stimuli from the environment are registered on the sensory receptors; this information is then passed on to higher, more sophisticated levels in the perceptual system

top-down processing

the kind of cognitive processing that emphasizes the importance of concepts, expectations, and memory in object recognition and other cognitive tasks

word superiority effect

the observation that a single letter is more accurately and rapidly recognized when it appears in a meaningful word, rather than when it appears alone or in a meaningless string of unrelated letters

change blindness

the failure to detect a change in an object or a scene due to overuse of top-down processing

inattentional blindness

the failure to notice an unexpected but completely visible object that suddenly appears while attention is focused on some other events in a scene; results from the overuse of top-down processing

holisitic (recognition)

a term describing the recognition of faces and other selected stimuli, based on their overall shape and structure, or gestalt

prosopagnosia

the inability to recognize human faces visually, though other objects may be perceived relatively normally; people with this condition also have comparable problems in creating visual imagery for faces

face-inversion effect

the observation that people are much more accurate in identifying upright faces, compared to upside-down faces

schizophrenia

a serious psychological disorder characterized by lack of emotional expression, hallucinations, disordered thinking, and poor performance on many cognitive tasks

speech perception

the process by which the auditory system records sound vibrations that are generated by someone talking; the auditory system then translates these vibrations into a sequence of sounds that are perceived as speech

phoneme

the basic unit of spoken language, such as the sounds a, k, and th; the English language has about 40 of these

inter-speaker variability

different speakers of the same language produce the same sound differently, and these differences can be traced to individual difference factors associated with different speakers

coarticulation

one of the causes of phoneme variation, in this case created by surrounding phonemes; specifically, when pronouncing a particular phoneme, the mouth remains in somewhat the same shape as when it pronounced the previous phoneme; in addition, the mouth is preparing to pronounce the next phoneme

phonemic restoration

in speech perception, filling in a missing phoneme based on contextual meaning

McGurk effect

the observation that visual information influences speech perception; listeners integrate both visual and auditory information when perceiving speech

speech mechanism approach

in psycholinguistics, the theory that humans are born with a specialized device that allows them to decode speech stimuli; as a result, speech sounds are processed more quickly and more accurately than other auditory stimuli, such as instrumental music; also called speech-is-special approach

phonetic module (speech module)

a special-purpose neural mechanism that specifically handles all aspects of speech perception, but not other kinds of auditory perception

categorical perception

a phenomenon in which two people report hearing a clear-cut phoneme (ex. a clear-cut b or a clear-cut p) even though they actually heard an ambiguous sound between the two phonemes (ex. a sound partway between a b and a p)

general mechanism approaches

the idea that speech perception can be explained without proposing any specialized phonetic module; in other words, humans use the same neural mechanisms to process both speech sounds and non-speech sounds

attention

a concentration of mental activity

divided-attention task

a situation in which people try to pay attention to two or more simultaneous messages, responding appropriately to each message; both speed and accuracy frequently suffer during this task

multitask

an attempt to accomplish two or more tasks at the same time; however, the research shows that people frequently work more slowly or make more mistakes when they try to do this

selective-attention task

a situation in which people are instructed to pay attention to certain kinds of information, while ignoring other ongoing information

dichotic listening

a laboratory technique in which one message is presented to the left ear and a different message is presented to the right ear

shadow

in attention research, a task in which participants can hear two messages; however, they are instructed to listen to only one message and then repeat it after the speaker

cocktail party effect

the phenomenon of noticing one’s own name when it is mentioned in a nearby conversation, even when paying close attention to another conversation

working memory

the brief, immediate memory for the limited amount of material that a person is currently processing; part of this memory also actively coordinates ongoing mental activities; in the current research, the this term is more popular than a similar but older term, short-term memory

Stroop effect

the observation that people take a long time to name an ink color that has been used in printing an incongruent word, even though they can quickly name that same ink color when it appears as a solid patch

emotional Stroop task

when people are instructed to name the ink color of words that could have strong emotional significance to them, they often require more time to name the color of the stimuli, presumably because they have trouble ignoring their emotional reactions to the words

phobic disorder

an anxiety disorder characterized by excessive fear of a specific object

attentional bias

describes a situation in which people pay extra attention to some stimuli or some features

cognitive-behavioral approach

the theory that psychological problems arise from inappropriate thinking (cognitive factors) and inappropriate learning (behavioral factors)

post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

an anxiety disorder characterized by repeated re-experiencing of an extremely traumatic event

visual search

a task requiring the observer to find a target in a visual display that has numerous distractors

isolated-feature/combined-feature effect

in visual-search studies, the finding that people can typically locate an isolated feature more quickly than a combined feature

feature-present/feature-absent effect

in visual search research, the finding that people can typically locate a feature that is present more quickly than a feature that is absent

saccadic eye movement

small changes in eye position during reading in order to bring the center of the retina into position over the words currently being read

fovea

a very small region in the center of the retina that has better acuity than other retinal regions

fixations

brief pauses occurring between saccadic eye movements, in which the visual system acquires information that is useful for reading and other visual tasks

perceptual span

in reading, the number of letters and spaces perceived during a fixation

parafoveal preview

in reading, the information that readers can access about upcoming text while they are currently fixated on a word appearing before that information in text

regressions

in reading, moving one’s eyes backwards to words that appear earlier in a sentence

orienting attention network

a system responsible for the kind of attention required for visual search, in which a person must shift attention around to various spatial locations

unilateral spatial neglect

a perceptual conditioning resulting from brain damage to the parietal region, in which a person ignores part of his or her visual field

executive attention network

a cognitive system that is responsible for the kind of attention one uses when a task focuses on conflict

bottleneck theory

in attention, the proposal that a narrow passageway in human information processing limits the quantity of information to which one can pay attention

feature-integration theory

this theory of attention, developed by Anne Triesman, proposes two elements: (1) distributed attention, processing all parts of the scene at the same time, and (2) focused attention, processing each item in the scene, one at a time

distributed attention

in feature-integration theory, a relatively fast, low-level kind of processing, in which the viewer registers the features of the stimulus automatically and simultaneously, using parallel processing

focused attention

in feature-integration theory, slower serial processing, in which a person identifies objects, one at a time; this kind of processing is necessary when objects are more complex

illusory conjunction

an inappropriate combination of features (ex. combining one object’s shape with a nearby object’s color); formed when the visual system is overwhelmed by too many simultaneous tasks

binding problem

a characteristic of the visual system, in which characteristics such as color and shape are registered separately; as a result, the visual system does not represent these important features of an object as a unified whole

consciousness

a person’s awareness of the external world and of her or his own perceptions, images, thoughts, memories, and feelings

mindless reading

a situation that occurs when a person’s eyes may move forward, but they do not process the meaning of the material being read

mind wandering

a situation that occurs when a person’s thoughts shift away from the external environment, and the person begins thinking about another topic

thought suppression

the attempt, usually unsuccessful, to push an undesirable idea out of consciousness

ironic effects of mental control

the observation that people’s efforts often backfire when they attempt to control the contents of consciousness; as a result, people are even more likely to think about the topic that they are trying to avoid

blindsight

a condition in which an individual with a damaged visual cortex claims not to see an object; however, he or she can accurately report some characteristics of this object, such as its location