PSY 200 exam 1

What is the method of introspection?

participants report their own mental processes

What are weaknesses of the introspection method?

results vary from person to person, difficult to verify

What is behaviorism?

studies observable behaviors (stimulus--\>response)

What are some critiques of behaviorism?

doesn't account for generative learning, genetic influences, critical periods, or cognitive strategies

What is generative learning?

when learners construct meaning actively while integrating new ideas into their knowledge base (eg. children constructing new sentences while learning to speak)

What is a critical period?

a period during someone's development in which a particular skill or characteristic is believed to be most readily acquired.

What are the three assumptions of an information processing model?

Humans process information, processes act on representations of objects and events, and cognition involves sequential steps

What did Descartes believe about the pineal gland?

It was the seat of the soul (ventricles controlled brain function)

What is phrenology?

Pseudoscience that claimed that bumps on the skull corresponded with different traits or mental abilities, though no one agreed on the number of mental organs. Used in social Darwinism to justify slavery.

Define localization of function

different parts of the brain contribute to different kinds of information processing

What is a homonculus?

"tiny man" model mapping the body according to the sensory space each part takes up in the cerebral cortex

what is specificity coding?

a single cell codes for a single stimulus

what is distributive coding?

multiple cells fire for a stimulus, and the pattern of firing differs with each stimulus

What are the advantages of distributive coding?

many stimuli can be represented by only a few cells (more efficient use of the brain's resources)

what is hierarchical processing?

the brain processes visual stimuli starting with low level features and moving up in complexity

Where is the temporal lobe located? What are its functions?

functions: hearing, learning, feelings

Where is the frontal lobe located? What are its functions?

functions: thinking, memory, behavior, and movement

Where is the parietal lobe located? What are its functions?

functions: language and touch

Where is the occipital lobe located? What are its functions?

function: vision

Where is the cerebellum located and what are its function?

functions: balance and coordination

where is the brain stem located and what are its functions?

functions: breathing, heart rate, temperature

what does the horizontal view of the brain look like?

what does the coronal view of the brain look like?

what does the sagittal view of the brain look like?

what is an example of a double dissociation?

people with Wernicke's aphasia can't understand words due to damage to the Wernicke's area, meanwhile people with Broca's aphasia can't produce words due to damage to the Broca area. different lesions, opposite effects.

what are three limitations of lesion studies?

small samples, no comparative data from before the injury, confounds due to source of damage

What is TMS?

transcranial magnetic stimulation
creates temporary lesions through sending magnetic stimulation to the scalp

Pros of TMS

simulates lesions and allows for causal inferences
noninvasive

What is EEG?

electroencephalography
measures event related potentials at the scalp

Cons of TMS

Can only target superficial cortical areas

Stimulates regions other than target

Uncomfortable

Pros of EEG

good temporal resolution
inexpensive

What is fMRI?

functional magnetic resonance imaging
scanner measures blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signals

Cons of EEG

coarse spatial resolution
caps not always inclusive for all hair types

Pros of fMRI

great spatial resolution
can identify networks of regions associated with a task

Cons of fMRI

low temporal resolution
indirect measure of neuronal activity

How is behavior research overlooked?

Because neuroscience has more quantitative and technology driven findings, it is often invested in more than behavioral research, even though we have learned more about the brain through behavioral studies than from neuro research.

sensation vs perception

Sensation is arrival of info to brain, perception is interpretation of info in the brain

What is sensory adaptation?

diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation

Define synesthesia

a condition where people experience involuntary perceptions that cross over sensory modalities.

What is the likelihood principle?

We perceive the more likely object to cause an image

list three challenges of visual perception

visual ambiguity
inverse projection problem
invariance

What is visual ambiguity?

one object could be perceived as multiple different objects

What is the inverse projection problem?

an image on the retina can be caused by an infinite number of objects

What is invariance?

the same object looks different from every angle

What is the blind spot?

the point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye, creating a "blind" spot because no receptor cells are located there

What are the 5 Gestalt Principles?

proximity, similarity, closure, continuity, simplicity

Define the gestalt principle of proximity

things that are close to one another seem to belong together

define the gestalt principle of similarity

people tend to group stimuli that are similar

define the gestalt principle of closure

People will group elements to create a sense of closure or completeness

define the gestalt principle of continuity

objects with smooth edges are seen as continuous

define the gestalt principle of simplicity

people assume the simplest objects possible

What are the cultural differences in the Muller-Lyer illusion?

the illusion is more pronounced in western cultures, possibly due to living in a "carpentered world"

What is bottom-up processing?

stimulus affects our perception, data driven (content)

What is top-down processing?

Experience influencing the perception of stimuli (context)

Define reconstual

our perception of an image can change based on suggestion

what is the ventral visual stream?

moves to the temporal lobe, tells us what it is

what is the dorsal visual stream?

moves to the parietal lobe, tells us where it is

What is the fusiform face area?

The FFA is the location that is activated when we see faces.

What is the other-race effect?

poorer recognition of other-race than own-race faces
exposure to other races before age 12 can mitigate this (critical period)

What is the expertise hypothesis?

faces aren't particularly special, the FFA responds to anything greatly familiar to a person, including faces. (eg. a car expert when they see a car)

What is the Parahippacampal place area

The PPA is the location of the brain activated when we see places.

What is wishful seeing?

people subconsciously alter their perception toward their preferences

How does meaning of our work affect our attention?

The more meaningful we find a task, the easier we can pay attention

How does difficulty affect our attention?

If a task is too hard or too easy it gets harder to pay attention, the difficulty level has to be "just right"

What is attention?

a concentration or focusing of mental activity and resources

How does attention relate to consciousness?

Attention refers to the mental processes that set priorities for mental functioning, it determines the content of consciousness

What is the filter theory of attention?

our brains filter through sensory information so only one information source at a time is given awareness and transferred to working memory

What is change blindness?

failing to notice changes in the environment

What is inattentional blindness?

failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere

What is an attentional blink?

Second of two stimuli cannot be identified when it closely follows (100-500ms) the first

disjunctive vs conjunctive search

disjunctive search is looking for what "pops out," so you look through everything in parallel
conjunctive search takes more time because the items are similar at first glance, serial search

What is feature integration theory?

Suggests that there are two stages when perceiving objects: the pre-attentive stage (low level features) and the focused attention stage (conjunctive)

exogenous vs endogenous attention

exogenous: controlled by lower brain functions (automatic)
endogenous: controlled by executive systems and the frontal lobe (voluntary)

location vs object theories of attention

whether attention is directed to a point in space or to objects that occupy various locations

What is same-object advantage?

focusing on two different features on the same object is easier than when they are points on different objects. This is eliminated when spatial cues are given in advance

What is Chun and Potter's Two Stage Theory?

First stage: individual item is presented and recognized
Second stage: 2nd item presented and only basically recognized, not remembered

Is there one kind of attention, or does attention do different things in different situations?

Attention does different things in different situations

What is the purpose of attention? How does it help us to deal with the outside world?

attention lets us filter through the stimuli of the outside world and sort it into levels of focus

Does attention change over space and time, or does it follow where we're looking and our current level of alertness?

Our attention follows where we guide it and is dependent upon our alertness/ investment in a task

What is language?

system of communication using sounds or symbols that enables us to express our feelings, thoughts, ideas, and experiences

What are the key attributes of language?

arbitrary, structured, generative, dynamic

what are phonemes?

smallest unit of sound

what are morphemes?

smallest unit of meaning

what is semantic ambiguity?

expressions have multiple meanings out of context
Either lexical or syntactic

give an example of lexical ambiguity

I saw her duck

give an example of syntactic ambiguity

The chicken is ready to eat

garden path sentences

sentences that begin by appearing to mean one thing, but then end up meaning something else

What is coarticulation?

The influence of preceding and following sounds on how speech sounds are produced

What are disfluencies?

Pauses , repeats, filler words, corrections

What is the good-enough approach to language?

we don't deeply process every single part of language, and we often skip over details

What is the Moses illusion?

an example of good-enough language processing (you don't notice that notice that Moses is mentioned instead of Noah)

What is the McGurk effect?

visual input can conflict and misrepresent what we are hearing

What is the phonemic restoration effect?

"fill in" missing phonemes based on context of sentence and portion of word presented

What is categorical perception?

Perceived sound changes from one category to another at one point, rather than gradually

What is speech segmentation?

the ability to tell when one word ends and another begins even without pauses\--- infants can do this

What is the word frequency effect?

we respond more rapidly to high-frequency words than to low-frequency words

What is meaning dominance?

some meanings of words occur more frequently than others, and we are more likely to perceive that meaning first

What is the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis?

language shapes how people experience their world

What aspects of language can primates understand?

displaced reference, lexigrams, individual signs

What are limitations of teaching primates language?

extensive training, inflexible vocal anatomy, can only respond to questions, lack of recursive grammar