Cognitive Psychology - Exam 1

Give a brief history of cognitive psychology, from the founding of
psychology in the 1800’s until modern times. In your review, be sure to
include the techniques and methodologies that were first used to uncover
“cognitive truths,” along with some of the major players in the field. Also
include the reason for a decline in cognitive studies in the early 1900’s, and factors that led to the cognitive revolution

Psychologists started studying thinking in the 1800s. In the early 1900s, John Watson and B.F. Skinner said only behavior should be studied, not thoughts. But Edward Tolman believed thinking and goals still mattered. In the 1950s, the cognitive revolution began. Ulric Neisser helped start modern cognitive psychology. Today, scientists use tools like neuroimaging and computers to study how the mind works.

Ebbinghaus conducted his experiments more than 100 years ago.
Describe his methodology. What were three key findings from his work?

He measured the amount of information retained over a retention interval. He did this by memorizing nonsense syllables. The three key findings from his work were:

• The Forgetting Curve - forgetting doesn’t occur at a constant rate

• The Spacing Effect - spaced repetition improves long-term retention

• The Savings Effect - relearning forgotten information takes less time than learning it for the first time

Independent vs. Dependent Variable

IV: the factor that the researcher changes

DV: the factor that is measured to see if it's affected by the IV

Define and explain the following techniques for understanding human
behavior: experiment. Describe the strengths and weaknesses of each and explain why you might select each particular type of design. Give an example of the kinds of questions you might answer with each

Experiment:

• Definition

  • The way variables are defined/measured. Must have at least one IV and DV

• Strengths

  • can determine cause-and-effect relationships

  • high control over variables reducing confounding factors

• Weaknesses

  • May lack real-world applicability

  • Ethical or practical constraints limit what can be studied

• When to select

  • when you want to test if one variable causes changes in another

  • when you can control or manipulate variables safely

• Example Question

  • Does caffeine intake improve memory performance?

Define and explain the following techniques for understanding human
behavior: a correlational study. Describe the
strengths and weaknesses of each and explain why you might select each
particular type of design. Give an example of the kinds of questions you
might answer with each

Correlational Study

• Defintion

  • a research method that examines the relationship between two or more variables as they naturally occur, without manipulation

• Stregnths

  • can study relationships in natural settings

  • useful when experiments aren’t possible

• Weaknesses

  • Cannot establish causality

  • Possible influence of cofounding variables

• When to select:

  • Wehn you want to explore assoications or predict relationships

  • When manipultion isn’t ethical or feasible

• Example question

  • is there a link between stress levels and sleep quality?

Define and explain the following techniques for understanding human
behavior: a case study. Describe the strengths and weaknesses of each and explain why you might select each particular type of design. Give an example of the kinds of questions you might answer with each

Case Study

• Defintion

  • an in-depth, detailed examination of a single individual, group, or event

• Stregnth

  • provideed rich qualitive insight

  • useful for studying rare complex phenomena

• Weaknesses

  • limited generalizability

  • can be time-consuming and subjective

• When to select

  • when studying unique or rare cases

  • when you want to generate hypotheses for further research

• Example question

  • how does brain damage affect language abilities in a specific patient?

Given an operational definition of attention.

number of correctly identified target stimuli on a computerized tas

What does it mean when we say there is a strong positive correlation
between ice cream consumption and murder? What would be an expected r
value for a strong positive correlation? Does ice cream consumption affect
the murder rate? Does murder rate affect ice cream consumption?

It means that when it gets hot, the murder rate for ice cream could become higher. A goof r value would be 0.70. Temperatue is a strong variable when it comes to ice cream affecting the murder rate. Yes, murder rate can also affect ice cream consumption because it could make people feel queasy, then not wanting ice cream.

What are the two primary reasons we cannot infer causation from a
correlational study? Give examples of each.

Direction of Relationship: A study finds a positive correlation between sleep quality and academic performance.

• Does better sleep lead to better grades?

• Or do students with better grades sleep better because they are less stressed?

Third Variable Problem: There's a correlation between ice cream sales and drowning incidents.

• Eating ice cream doesn’t cause drowning, and drowning doesn't cause ice cream consumption.

• A third variable—hot weather—increases both ice cream sales and swimming activity

You read the paper on study strategies by McDaniel et al. (2009). Identify
the independent and dependent variables in each study and explain how
they were operationally defined. Is note-taking an effective way to study?
What are the advantages and disadvantages? For example, which study
technique takes the most time? Which technique yields the best
performance? Do the data suggest that students should take careful notes
while reading, or recite material after reading?

IV: study condition

• re-read passage 2x

• note taking-read passage 2x and take notes

• 3R-read passage 1x and read

DV: types of answers

• free recall, multiple choice, short answer, and problem solving in E2

• time of testing (immediately and delayed)

• how long did the studying take

Is note-taking an effective way to study; what are the disadvantages and advantages?

• on immediate tests, especially multiple choice tests, it can be effectove but it results in worse performance for free recall and short answer.

Which study technique takes the most time?

• Note-taking

Which technique yields the best performance?

• 3R (Read‑Recite‑Review)

Do the data suggest that students should take careful notes while reading, or recite material after reading?

• Reading

Discuss the way in which Donder’s experiment measured reaction time.
What were the two key conditions, and how did they differ? How did Donder
calculate reaction time? How is this measure limited?

Donders wanted to investigate whether mental processes, which cannot be observed directly, could be measured indirectly by comparing reaction times under different conditions.

Simple Reaction Time and Choice Reaction Time. They differ by choice reaction time includes a decision-making component, whereas simple reaction time does not.

• Measuring reaction time in two tasks (simple and choice),

• Subtracting simple RT from choice RT, and

• Inferring the time required for the cognitive process of making a decision.

Donders’ reaction time method was groundbreaking, but it's limited because it assumes mental steps happen in order, is affected by outside factors, only measures speed (not how we think), and uses overly simple tasks.

Describe the basic parts of a neuron and the function that each part
performs. List 5 different neurotransmitters and the kinds of behavior they
influence.

Parts of a neuron:

• cell nucleus - control center of the cell

• cell body - decides whether to fire a signal and keeps the neuron alive and working

• dendrite - receive signals from other neurons and carry those signals toward the cell body

• axon - it sends the signal from the neuron’s cell body to other cells

• myeline sheath - protects the signal and makes it travel faster along the axon

• axon terminals - they send the message to the next cell using chemicals

Neurotransmitters:

• Acetylcholine - movement, learning, memory

  • alzheimer's patients have too little

• Endorphines - Nature’s pain reliever

  • eating chocolate, exercise

• Serotonin - mood, sleep, hunger, arousal

  • prozac increases serotonin levels

• Dopamine - movement, learning, attention

  • Too much - schizophrenia

  • Too little - Parkinson's

• GABA - eating, sleeping

  • Loss of GABA associated with

    Huntington’s Disease

Describe different techniques used for understanding the relation between behavior and brain structures, including behavioral.

• The Medulla is the base of the brainstem that controls heartbeat breathing, and blood pressure

• Reticular Formation is a nerve network in the brainstem that plays a role in controlling arousal and coordinating vital functions

• Cerebellum is The “little brain” helps coordinate

  voluntary movements, balance, and posture. May also be involved in speech, cognitive functions,

  and emotion

• The Thalamus is the brain’s sensory

  switchboard. It directs messages to the sensory areas in the cortex and transmits replies to the cerebellum and medulla.

• The Amygdala consists of two lima bean-sized neural clusters linked to the emotions of fear and
  anger.

• The Hypothalamus lies below the thalamus.It directs several maintenance activities like eating, drinking, body temperature, and control of emotions

For the neuroimaging techniques, discuss each method in detail, describing the procedures involved and the advantages/disadvantages of each.

• CT - Bleeding in brain, exposure to radiation, typically cost less, takes 5 minutes, less tissue contrast, ok w/ metal implants

• MRI - tumors in brain, magnetic field, cost more esp w/ contrast, takes 30 mins, high detail in soft tissue, no MRI w/ pacemaker

• EEG/ERP - Advantages:

  • Detects very rapid changes in electrical activity, allowing analysis of stages of cognitive activity.

  • One of best techniques for understanding timing!

  • Not as expensive as MEG, fMRI, PET

  Disadvantages:

  • poor spatial resolution

• MEG - Advantages

  • Detects very rapid changes in electrical activity

  • Spatial resolution is also better than ERP, but is still not great.

    Disadvantages

  • Cost; availability; spatial resolution

• PET - Advantages

  -Allows functional and biochemical studies.
  – Provides visual image corresponding to anatomy.

  • Disadvantages
    – Requires exposure to low levels of radioactivity.
    – Provides spatial resolution better than that of ERP, but poorer
    than that of fMRI.
    – Cannot follow rapid changes

• fMRI

  • Requires no exposure to radioactivity.

  • Provides high spatial resolution of anatomical
    details

  • Provides high temporal resolution

Who are Phineas Gage, Kim Peek, HM, Richard Inman, and Clive Waring? For each person, explain how the brain is different and how their abilities are different from those of neurotypical people.

• Phineas Gage

  • metal rod went into hid head, causing brain and cognitive function damage making his behavior and personality change drastically

• Kim Peek

  • no corpus callosum in his left and right hemisphere of his brain but is able to read twice as fast as a regular person and he can recall information faster than anyone

• HM

  • surgeons removed parts of his medial temporal lobes which resulted in him not being able to make long-term memories

• Richard Inman

  • had surgery on his right frontal lobe which turned him from a police officer to a robber

• Clive Waring

  • had a virus that destroyed the hippocampus and now he can’t form new memories and forgets everyhting within seconds

Explain a new approach for treating Alzheimer’s disease that uses light. What has been done thus far and how is this approach different from previous treatments? Why is this approach promising?

Gamma-frequency. It offers a safe, non-invasive, multi-mechanistic alternative or complement to traditional Alzheimer’s treatments

Explain the differences between retrograde and anterograde amnesia. Which one is more likely to have a graded or partial effect and why?

Retrograde - memory lost in the past. More likely to have. a graded/partial effect because it erases some past memories but not all.

Amnesia - memory lost for the future

Describe theories of how we perceive determine differences in pitch, the location of sound, and the volume of sound.

1. Pitch Theory - different pitches produce responses on different places on the basilar membrane. Works well with high pitched sounds

2. Frequency/Volley Theory - different pitches cause the basilar membrane, itself, to vibrate at different frequencies or rates. Works well with low pitched sounds

3. We detect location of sound by relative timing of hair cell responses

4. We detect volume by the number of stimulated hair cells

How do we perceive depth? Describe the different monocular and binocular cues and how we use them to perceive depth.

1. Binocular Cues - the brain informs/provides structure for our perception, averages the two images from our two eyes

2. Convergence - the closer something is, the larger the angle formed by the two eyes, two eyes move inward for near objects

3. Monocular - can be percieved with one eye only, these cues are ones in which brain makes use of info. that exists in the environment. This can be percieved by one eye:

   • • Interposition

     • Relative Size

     • Clarity

     • Texture Gradient

     • Relative Height

Describe in detail how sensation and perception occur for vision and audition. For each sense, be sure to detail the information from the environment that stimulates each sense, the anatomy involved in processing the sensory information, and the pathway that the information follows
through the brain.

• Sensation - Objective, data-driven process that converts physical and chemical energy into neural impulses

• Perception - Subjective process in which brain utilizes experience, knowledge, and context to interpret sensory inputs

Describe how an architect or an interior designer might take advantage of a visual illusion to make a room look different. Name the specific illusion and describe the effect it would have.

Using furniture or shapes to make rooms appear differently to the visual eye

• Terra Subterranea - tricks the brain into precieving depth that’s not there.

• Muller-Lyer - two lines of equal length appear to be different lengths

• Ebbinghaus - objects surrounding a middle area can make it appear smaller or larger

• Ponzo illusion - narrow lines that go on and on trick the brain into thinking the space is getting smaller