PSY 200 Exam 1 - Swisher, Purdue

Cognitive Psychology

this approach involves using behavioral evidence to enhance our understanding of human cognition

Cognitive Neuropsychology

this approach involves studying brain-damaged patients to understand normal human cognition

Cognitive Neuroscience

this approach involves using evidence from behavior and the brain to understand human cognition

Computational Cognitive Science

this approach involves developing computational models to further our understanding of human cognition; such models increasingly incorporate knowledge of behavior and the brain

Hick-Hyman Law

choosing between left and right stimuli can be done faster and more accurately than when more options are presented or stimuli is more complicated

Speed-Accuracy Trade-Off

you can be faster and less accurate or slower and more accurate

Subtractive Logic - Franciscus Cornelius Donders (1969)

a reaction time task tells how long basic cognitive processes take, then you can estimate the additional time it takes to perform higher level/complex cognitive processes

Bottom-Up Processing

processing directly influenced by physical characteristics of stimuli

Top-Down Processing

processing influenced by a person’s feelings and expectations

Serial Processing

completely processing one stimulus before processing the next

Parallel Processing

multiple cognitive processes occur at the same time, information is processed at the same time

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

part of the brain tissue has been damaged due to disease, genetic condition, concussion, or another acute event

Modularity

the cognitive system consists of modules or processors operating fairly independently of each other, each is specialized

Anatomical Modularity

each module is located in a specific brain area

Subtractivity

Brain damage impairs one or more processing modules but does not change or add anything

Pure Alexia

Severe problems with reading but not other language skills; caused by damage to brain areas involved in visual processing

Dissociation

intact performance on one task but impaired performance on a different task for patients with acquired brain injury

Double Dissociation

when one patient performs normally on one task and is impaired on another task but another patient shows the opposite pattern.

Association

the finding that certain symptoms or performance impairments are consistently found together in numerous brain-damaged patients

Syndrome

the notion that symptoms that often co-occur have a common origin

Case-Series Study

a study in which several patients with similar cognitive impairments are tested; this allows consideration of individual data and of variation across individuals

Diaschisis

the disruption to distant brain areas caused by a localized brain injury or lesion

Sulcus

a groove or furrow in the surface of the brain

Gyrus (plural gyri)

prominent elevated area or ridge on the brain’s surface

Dorsal (Superior)

towards the top of the brain

Ventral (Inferior)

towards the bottom of the brain

Anterior/Rostral

towards the front of the brain

Posterior

towards the back of the brain

Lateral

situated at the side of the brain

Medial

situated in the middle of the brain

Ecological Validity

the applicability (or otherwise) of the findings of laboratory studies to everyday settings

Implacable Experimenter

the situation in experimental research in which the experimenter’s behavior is uninfluenced by the participant’s behavior

Paradigm Specificity

the findings with a given experimental task or paradigm are not replicated even when apparently very similar tasks or paradigms are used

Lesion

damage within the brain resulting from injury or disease; it typically affects a restricted area

Single-Unit Recording

an invasive technique for studying brain function, permitting the study of activity in single neurons

Event-Related Potentials (ERP’s)

the pattern of electroencephalograph (EEG) activity obtained by averaging the brain responses to the same stimulus (or very similar stimuli) presented repeatedly

Positron Emission Tomography (PET)

brain-scanning technique based on the detection of positrons; good at spatial location but not time course

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)

brain-scanning technique based on imaging blood oxygenation using an MRI machine; good at spatial location and time course

Event-Related Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (efMRI)

a form of functional magnetic resonance imaging in which patterns of brain activity associated with specific events (e.g., correct vs incorrect responses on a memory test) are compared

Magneto-Encephalography (MEG)

a non-invasive brain-scanning technique based on recording the magnetic fields generated by brain activity; it has good spatial and temporal resolution

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)

magnetic pulses briefly disrupt brain function in a given area

Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS)

a very weak electrical current is passed through an area of the brain (often for several minutes)

Electroencephalography (EEG)

recording the brain’s electrical potentials through a series of scalp electrodes

BOLD

blood oxygen-level-dependent contrast; this is the signal measured by fMRI

Neural Decoding

using computer-based analyses of patterns of brain activity to work out which stimulus an individual is processing

Functional Specialization

the assumption that each brain area or region is specialized for a specific function (e.g., color processing; face processing)

Reverse Inference

arguing backwards from a pattern of brain activation to the presence of a given cognitive process

Computational Modeling

constructing computer programs that simulate or mimic human cognitive processes

Artificial Intelligence

developing computer programs that produce intelligent outcomes

Cognitive Architecture

Comprehensive framework for understanding human cognition in the form of a computer program

Connectionist Models

Models in computational cognitive science consisting of interconnected networks of simple units or nodes

Back-Propagation

a learning mechanism in connectionist models based on comparing actual responses to correct ones

Production Systems

these consist of very large numbers of “if… then” production rules and a working memory containing information

Production Rules

“if… then” or condition-action rules in which the action is carried out whenever the appropriate condition is present

Working Memory

a limited-capacity system used in the processing and brief holding of information

Converging Operations

an approach in which several methods with different strengths and limitations are used to address a given issue

Principle of Cost Control

costs in terms of energy and space would be minimized if the brain consisted of limited, short-distance connections

Principle of Efficiency

the ability to integrate information across the brain

Retinal Ganglion Cells

retinal cells providing the output signal from the retina

Retinopy

there is mapping between retina receptor cells and points on the surface of the visual cortex

Parvocellular Pathway

most sensitive to color and fine detail; most of its input comes from cones

Magnocellular Pathway

most sensitive to movement information; most of its input comes from rods

Receptive Field

region of the retina in which light influences the activity of a particular neuron

Lateral Inhibition

activity in one neuron decreases because of activity in a nearby neuron

Achromatopsia

a condition caused by brain damage in which there is very limited color perception, but form and motion perception are relatively intact

Ventral Stream/Pathway

“what” pathway; visual processing; object perception and recognition as well as perceptual representation; ends in temporal lobe

Dorsal Stream/Pathway

“how” pathway; visual processing; visually guided action; ends in parietal lobe

Akinetopsia

a brain-damaged condition in which motion perception is severely impaired even though stationary objects are perceived reasonably well

Rods

for vision in dim light, we have numerous

Cones

for color vision and sharpness of image

Red Cones

sensitive to long wavelengths of light

Green Cones

sensitive to intermediate wavelengths of light

Blue Cones

sensitive to short wave lengths of light

Occipital Lobe

lobe mostly in charge of vision, at the back of the brain

Koniocellular Pathway

relays blue-yellow color information from cones which process small wavelengths of light

Contralateral Processing

neural fibers from the eyes cross on the way to the cortex

Retina-Geniculate-Striate System

starts at retina, continues through lateral geniculate, finishes in primary visual cortex

V1 and V2

early visual processing

V3

form processing

V4

color processing

V5/Medial Temporal Lobe (MT)

motion processing

Inferotemporal Cortex

neurons here respond to some semantic categories and forms

First-Order Motion

moving shape is brighter or less bright than background

Second-Order Motion

no difference in brightness between moving shape and background

Binding Problem

the issue of integrating different types of information to produce coherent visual perception

Binding-By-Synchrony Hypothesis

detectors responding to features of a single object fire in synchrony

Allocentric Coding

visual or spatial coding of objects relative to each other

Egocentric Coding

visual or spatial coding dependent on the position of the observer’s body

Optic Ataxia

A condition in which there are problems making visually guided movements in spite of reasonably intact visual perception, damage to dorsal stream

Visual Form Agnosia

A condition in which there are severe problems in shape perception but reasonable ability to produce accurate visually guided actions, damage to ventral stream

Muller-Lyer Illusion

lines with wings facing inward and outward, tricking the mind to think the lines aren’t the same length

Ebbinghaus Illusion

two equally sized dots each surrounded by large dots and small dots, causing them to not look equally sized

Kanizsa Triangle

a white triangle is perceived where none exists

Hollow-Face Illusion

a concave face mask is misperceived as a normal face when viewed from several feet away

Proprioception

an individual’s awareness of the position and orientation of parts of their body

Milner and Goodale

there are two visual systems (ventral and dorsal)

Color Blindness

can still see hues but has to rely on brightness to contrast them, more common in men

Hue

the color and what distinguishes one set of wavelengths from another

Brightness

the intensity of light

Saturation

how much white is present, whether a color is vivid or pale