Cognitive Psych Exam 1

cognition

perception, paying attention, remembering, distinct things in a category, visualizing, understanding + production of language, problem solving, reasoning & decision making

mind

distinct from the brain;

• forming + recalling memories

• solves problems, considers possibilities, makes decisions

• helps us to survive + function

• creativity + intelligence

• creates representation of world

Donders (1868)

1. How long takes for someone to make decisions

   1. Reaction Time Experiment: measures interval between stimulus presentation and person’s response to stimulus

      1. Simple RT: push button after light appears

      2. Choice RT: push based on if light is on right/left side

William James

1. Observation based on functions of own mind, not experiments

   1. Considered many topics in cognition, thinking, consciousness, attention, memory, perception, imagination, reasoning

behaviorism

eliminates mind as topic of study; study direct observable behavior; Watson

Little Albert Experiment

loud noise when coming in contact with a rat; classical conditioning to establish fear

Pavlov

classical conditioning; dogs salivating

Skinner

conditioning + behaviorism

• operant conditioning

argued children learn language through operant conditioning

• critiqued by Chomsky —> argued children dont’t learn language through imitation and repetition

  • they can say things they’ve never heard

operant conditioning

• behavior by rewards or punishments

• rewarded behavior more likely to be repeated

• punished behavior less likely to be repeated

info-processing approach

study mind based on insights w/ digital computer

• human brain is like a digital computer

Atkinson + Shiffrin’s 3-stage model of memory

• sensory-memory (1 sec)

• short-term (few sec, limited capacity)

• long-term (long duration, high capacity)

episodic

long term; life events

sematic

long term; facts

procedural

long term; physical motions

neuropsych

behavior of ppl w/ brain damage

levels of analysis

look from multiple POVs

• each “viewpoint” can add small amounts of info that considered together, lead to great understanding

neurons

specialized cells to create, receive, and transmit info

• axon, cell body, dendrites

Nerve Net Theory

early concept

• brain composed of continuous interconnected neurons

  • highway w/o stop signs

Neuron Doctrine

contradicted the nerve net theory

• individual nerve cells transmit signals; not continuously linked w/ other cells

  • independent transmission

cell body

contains mechanisms to keep cell alive

dendrites

multiple branches of cell body; receive info

axon

tube w/ fluid —> transmits electrical signal to other neurons

• myelin sheath

Action Potential

• neuron receives signal

• info travels along axon to dendrites of another neuron

microelectrodes pick up electrical signal active w/ second

synapse

space b/w axon of neuron and dendrite/cell body of another

• AP reaches end, synaptic vesicles open + release chemical NTs

neurotransmitters

chemicals that affect electrical signal of receiving neuron, cross synapse + bind w/ receiving dendrites

Representation of neural firing def of mind

system that creates representation of the world so we can act of it to achieve goals

Principle of neural representation

everything a person experiences is based on representation in the person’s nervous system

Feature Detectors

neurons that respond best to specific stimulus

• Hubel + Wiesel (1960s): research w/ visual stimuli in cats

  • orientation, orientation w/ mvmt, size

experience-dependent plasticity

structure of the brain changes with experience

hierarchal processing

when we perceive different objects, we do it in specific order that moves from low to high areas of brain

• ascension from lower to higher areas of brain corresponds to perceiving objects that range from lower (simple) to higher levels of complexity

sensory coding

how neural firing represents characteristics of the environment

1. specificity coding

2. population coding

3. sparse coding

specificity coding

highly special neurons that respond only to specific stimulus

population coding

representation of stimulus by pattern of firing of large # of neurons

sparse coding

rep of stimulus by pattern of firing of only small group of neurons, w/ majority of neurons stay silent

localized representation

specific areas. of brain responsible for specific functions

Broca’s Area

crucial for language production; constructing speech + sentences (frontal lobe)

Broca’s Aphasia

damage to language production; can understand others but cannot speak fluently

Wernicke’s area

language comprehension (temporal lobe)

Wernicke’s aphasia

damage to language comprehension; can speak clearly but of no substance (can’t respond correctly to others)

perception

primary receiving area for senses:

• occipital lobe

• parietal

• temporal

• frontal

occipital lobe

vision

parietal lobe

touch, temperature, pain

temporal lobe

hearing, taste, smell

frontal lobe

coordination of information received from all senses

• decision making

double dissociation

different functions controlled by different parts of brain

• when damage to one part of brain causes function A to be absent while function B present…vice versa

  • served by different mechanisms

fMRI

functional magnetic resonance imaging

• observe neural activity in real time

• measures changes in oxygenated hemoglobin —> correlate to neural activity (in voxels)

fusiform facce area (FFA)

area in the brain (bottom surface of the temporal lobe) that responds to faces

• damages results in prosopagnosia (cannot recognize faces)

prosopagnosia

condition where damage to FFA region results in not being able to recognize faces

parahippocampal place area (PPA)

responds to places (indoor/outdoor) (in the parahippocampal/temporal cortex)

extrastriate body area

responds to pictures of bodies (NOT FACES) and parts of the bodies

• lateral occipitotemporal cortex

central principle of cognition

most of our experience is multidimensional

• multiple areas of the brain work together

• Specific functions processed by many different areas of brain

• Complementary idea to localized representation

connectome

structural description of network of elements and connections forming human brain

• structural connectivity and functional connectivity

structural connectivity

what connects to what (created by axons)

• as unique as fingerprints

function connectivity

how brain regions work together

• observe correlated activity between areas

types of neural networks

visual, somato-motor, dorsal attention, executive control, salience, default mode

dynamics of cognition

flow + activity within + across brains function network changes based on conditions

• change=constant

default mode network

mode when at rest

• one of largest networks

inverse projection problem

fundamental challenge of determining original 3D shape from 2D image

• task of determining object responsible for particular image on retina

• start w/ retinal image and extend outward to source of that image

why so difficult to design a perceiving machine?

1. inverse projection problem

2. object can be hidden/blurred

   1. people can identify if obsured/incomplete

3. occlusion

viewpoint invariance

condition in which object proportion doesn’t change when viewed from different angles

perceptual organization

the process by which the human brain groups and structures fragmented sensory information into coherent, meaningful wholes

• what computers cannot do b/c of lack of prior knowledge/experience

types of machine perception

1. vision via optical camera

2. 3D imaging/scanning via light detecting and ranging (ADAR) sensor/scanner

3. motion detection via accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, fusion sensor

4. thermal imaging

challenge: object recognition (inverse projection problem, occlusion, etc)

human perception uses:

1. environmental energy that stimulates receptors

2. knowledge & expectations the observer brings to the situation

direct perception theories

• bottom-up processing

• perception comes from environmental stim

• parts identified + put together, then recognized

bottom-up processing

senses take in raw details to then establish a larger perception

constructive perceptive theory

**active process

• top-down processing

• ppl actively construct perception using info based on expectations + also internal states

top-down processing

“concept-driven;” brain uses prior knowledge, memories, and expectations to instantly interpret what one is experiencing

• influences perception of language based on individual experience w/ language

speech segmentation

ability to tell when one word ends and another begins

transitional problem/segmentation?

knowing which sound will likely follow another in a word

likelihood principle

perceive the world in the ways that is “most likely” based on our experiences

perceptual organization

process by which small elements become perpetually grouped into large objects

grouping

process by which visual events “put together” into units/objects

segregation

process of separating one area of obj from another

von Helmholtz

developed likelihood principle and unconcious interference

unconscious interference

perception result of unconscious assumptions that we make about the environment

“old view”

structuralism

• perception involves adding up sensations

“new view”

Gestalt principle

• mind groups patterns according to intrinsic laws of perceptual organization

Gestalt Principles

1. good continuation

2. simplicity

3. similarity

4. proximity

5. common fate

6. common region

7. uniform connectedness

good continuation

points when connected (line/curve/etc) are seen as together’ lines to be seen in way as to follow smoothest path

Law of Pragnanz (simplicity)

every stimulus pattern seen so the resulting structure as simple as possible

(when people are encountering a pattern, brain will NATURALLY interpret it in the most simple way)

law of similarity

similar things? the brain will group them together

common region

things in same region of space? will be grouped together

uniform connectedness

connected region of same visual properties: lightness, color, texture, motion —> perceived as single unit over other things that do NOT share similar visual properties

common fate

humans visually perceive elements moving in same direction as unified group

“Regularities of the environment:” physical

• common physical properties of the environment

• oblique effect

• physical regularities

oblique effect

perceive verticals and horizontals more easily than other orientations (diagonal or oblique)

physical regularities

regularly occurring physical properties of the environment

• oblique, uniform connectedness, light-from-above heuristic

“Regularities of the environment:” semantic

meaning of a given scene = related to what happens within the scene

• semantic regularities = characteristics associated w/ functions carried out in diff types of scenes

• conceptual expectations

Scene Schema

knowledge of what a given scene ordinarily contains

• diamonds in a jewelry store

Bayesian inference

one’s estimate of the probability of a given outcome influenced by 2 factors: prior probability (personal belief about frequency) and likelihood of a given outcome (statistical chances of causing it)

interaction of perception + action

constant coordination occurs in brain as we perceive stimuli while also taking action towards them

(a) perceive a cup

(b) reach for cup

© grasp

what pathway

determining identity of object

ventral pathway

where pathway

determining location of object

dorsal pathway

Milner & Goodale (1995)

• perception pathway

  • visual cortex to temporal lobe

  • “what” pathway

• action pathway

  • visual cortex → parietal

  • “where/how” pathway

what happens when the temporal area is removed?

object discrimination

what happens when the parietal area is removed?

landmark discrimination

mirror neurons

neurons respond while subject watches action being performed in same way as if subject performing action

• fMRI found evidence of mirror neuron system

• increasing rate of mirror = subject intention to perform greater

attention

ability to focus of specific stimuli or locations in environment

selective attention

attending to one thing while ignoring others (filter and select)

• do not attend to large fraction of info in environment

• filter out some info and promote other info for deeper processing

divided attention

listening to more than one thing (multi-tasking)