cognitive processes mid term #1

what is cognitive psychology

branch concerning the scientific study of the mind

what does cognition refer to

the mental processes, such as perception, attention, and memory, that the mind creates

what did donders do in his 1868 pioneering experiment

measured how long it takes a person to make a decision using reaction time experiments

what reaction time experiments did donders use

measured interval between stimulus presentation and persons response to stimulus

what was donders simple RT task

participant pushes button quickly after a light appears

what was donders choice RT task

participant pushes one button if light appears on right side and another if light is on left side

choice RT-simple RT= what

time to make decision

how long did donders conclude it takes to make a decision

1/10 second

what did wundt establish

first scientific psych lab at the university of leipzig

what approach did wundt develop

structuralism

wundt: an overall experience is determined by combining basic elements of what called what

experience, sensations

how did wundt use the method of analytic introspection

participants trained to describe experiences and thought processes in response to stimuli

what was ebbinghaus’ memory experiment

he read a list of nonsense syllables aloud to determine the number of repetitions necessary to repeat list w/o errors. after taking a break he relearned the list and concluded that short break intervals resulted in fewer repetitions needed

what did william jones do

wrote principles of psychology and taught first psych course at harvard

what two problems with the analytic introspection method did watson find

extremely variable results found per person and results difficult to verify due to focus on invisible inner mental processes

what was watsons new approach to behaviourism that he proposed

observable behaviour provides only data for psychology and eliminates the mind as topic of study

what did BF Skinner investigate and introduce

stimulus-response relationship and operant conditioning

what is operant conditioning

shape behaviour by rewards or punishments, rewarded behaviour more likely to be repeated & vice versa

when was the behaviourist approach dominant

1940s-1960s

who did the little albert experiment

watson

what was Tolman’s rat experiment

trained rats to find food in four-armed maze, when rat was placed in different arm of maze, it went to specific arm where it previously found food, rat had created cognitive map

skinner argued that children learn language through what

operant conditioning

what did chomsky argue

language learning doesn’t rely solely on imitation and reinforcement

when did the cognitive revolution begin

1950s

the scientific revolution is the result of what and can be best described by what

paradigm shifts, the structure of scientific revolution

what is the info processing approach

involves studying the mind based on insights associated with digital computer, this approach proposes mental operations occur in stages

what did broadbent develop

a flow diagram to show what occurs as a person directs attention to one stimulus

what is AI defined as

making a machine behave in ways that would be called intelligent if a human were so behaving

what did neisser do

authored first cognitive psych textbook

atkinson&shiffrin developed a 3 stage model of memory, including sensory, short-term, and long-term memory, what are the durations of each

sensory: less than 1 second

short-term: few seconds, low capacity

long-term: long duration, high capacity

what does episodic memory concern

the retention of life events

what is semantic memory

the retention of information (facts)

what does procedural memory hold

how to perform physical actions

what does neuropsychology study

behaviour of people with brain damage

what does electrophysiology study

electrical responses of nervous system including cortical neurons

what does brain imaging show

which regions are active during cognition

what is the path of perception and memory

chemical processes- neurons activated- brain structures activated- groups of brain structures activated- perception

what is the neuron doctrine

states that the individual nerve cells transmit signals, they are not continuously linked with other cells

what is a neurons signal called

action potential

how do you measure action potentials

microelectrodes pick up electrical signals, they are place near axons, they are active for ~1 second, rate of firing is measured

what is a synapse

the space between the axon of one neuron and the dendrite or cell body of anotehr

what happens when the action potential reaches the end of the axon

synaptic vesicles open and release chemical neurotransmitters

what is the principle of neural representation

all experiences are based on the representations in the person’s nervous system

what did researchers discover after recording from neurons in regions outside the primary visual area

many neurons at higher levels of the visual system fire to complex stimuli like geometrical patterns and faces, a specific stimulus causes neural firing that is distributed across many regions of the cortex

what is a feature detector

a type of neuron that responds best to a specific stimulus

what is experience-dependant plasticity

a brain structure that changes with experience

perception is determined by neurons that fire to specific qualities of what

a stimulus

what is specificity coding

stimulus representation by firing specifically tuned neurons specialized to respond only to a specific stimulus

what is population coding

stimulus representation by the firing pattern of many neurons

the ascension from lower to higher corresponds to perceiving objects that range from what

lower to higher levels of complexity

what is sparse coding

stimulus representation by firing pattern of a small group of neurons, with the majority remaining silent

language production is impaired by what

damage to broca’s area (frontal lobe)

language comprehension is impaired by damage to what

wernicke’s area (temporal lobe)

occipital lobe perceives what

vision

perietal lobe perceives what

touch, temperature, and pain

temporal lobe perceives what

hearing, taste, and smell

what is double dissociation

when damage to one part of the brain causes function A to be absent while function B is present

what does functional magnetic resonance imaging do

measures neural activity by identifying highly oxygenated hemoglobin molecules using voxels (3D pixels)

damage to the fusiform face area causes what

prosopagnosia (inability to recognize faces)

what does the parahippocampal place area (PPA) respond to

places

what does the extrastriate body area respond to

pictures of bodies and body parts

what is the central principle of cognition

most of our experience is multidimensional

what are neural networks

complex structural pathways called networks form the brains information highway

what is structural connectivity

the brains wiring diagram- created by axons that connect brain areas

define connectome

the structural description of the network of elements and connections forming the human brain

what is functional connectivity

how groups of neurons within the connectome function in relation to types of cognition

what is the default mode network (DMN)

this mode of brain function occurs at rest, one of the brains largest networks