PSYCH240 EXAM 1

UMICH course

Introspectionism

Just writing down what’s happening inside your brain. This method is hard to verify as it is hard to verify, easily sustainable to bias, and pretty much a dead end.

Behaviorism

A learning theory that focuses only on observable stimulus-response behaviors. States all behaviors are learned through conditioned interaction with the environment. Critics argue it's one-dimensional, neglecting free will and internal influences like thoughts and feelings.

Cognitivism

Computational view of the mind, focuses on how information is retrieved, organized, stored, and retrieved. It uses the mind as an information processer, like a computer.

Dependent V Independent

DV: what you measure and analyze, IV: what you manipulate.

Main Effect

If the IV has an effect on the DV (a straight line on a graph shows that there is no effect.)

Interaction

Anytime you have two (or more) IVs that interact on the DV (a crossing or touching of two lines on a graph.) The effect of one IV depends on another IV.

Mental Chronometry

The scientific study of cognitive processing speed. Processing speed is measured by reaction time (RT), which is the elapsed time between the onset of a stimulus (e.g., visual or auditory) and an individual's response.

Simple V Choice Reaction Time

The time it takes to react to a single, straightforward stimulus V the time it takes to react when presented with multiple stimuli, each requiring a different response; both types of reaction times clearly increase with age.

Donder’s Subtraction Method

Measure the total reaction time for a complex task and then subtract the time taken for a simple task. The difference in reaction times is assumed to reflect the time it takes for the specific cognitive process under investigation. (In short, CRT - SRT = the time taken for the decision-making process.)(Assumption of pure insertion, assumption of additivity (maybe they operate in parallel), assumes you know what the stages are.)

Problem with Confirming Evidence

Eliminating alternative explanations is stronger than confirming evidence.

Storage Effect (and what did it falsify)

(Huppert and Piercy) Experiment that looked at study time in picture recognition in amnesia patients. They allowed both the control group and amnesia group to study enough to get 80%, then tested after 10 minutes, one day, and one week. Amnesiacs and control group had same results. It basically just said that amnesiacs do NOT have storage issues but does not rule out an encoding or retrieval deficit.

Dialectic

The cycle of thesis, synthesis, and antithesis. When two schools of thought come together to form a thought that could not have been found without it. How science advances.

Structuralism

Broke down mental processes into basic components. Used introspectionism. Critics (functionalists) believe this method is too concerned with internal behavior, which is not directly observable and cannot be accurately measured.

Functionalism

A response to structuralism, more concerned with what functions people have and why they do what they do, looks at thoughts and behaviors in terms of survival/adaption, is concerned with the practical functions of mental processes/behaviors and how they help individuals meet the demands of their environment.

Learning V Performance

The relatively permanent acquisition of knowledge V the temporary display of knowledge.

Desirable Difficulties

Studying techniques that, although possibly more difficult, are more beneficial to your long term retention of knowledge.

Varying the Conditions of Practice

Doing the same studying techniques can cause your mind to get used to them and can lower its effect. Vary your techniques to improve long-term recall.

Interleaving V Blocking

Study a mixture of topics instead of thoroughly trying to grasp a single thing before moving on.

Perception

The acquirement of stimulus through our sense organs.

Distal Stimulus

The actual thing you are perceiving.

Proximal Stimulus

Your sense organs at work (your retina taking in a view, etc.)

Percept

The mental image you have in your mind of what you are perceiving.

Lack of Correspondance

When your distal (what you’re looking at) is not the same as your percept (the mental image you created.)

Paradoxical Correspondance

When your proximal (sense organs) does not correspond to your distal (what you are looking at), but the percept (mental image) does.

Perceptual Constancy

Your viewpoint of an object and it’s features stays the same no matter your POV. (Size, shape, color, angle, distance, light.)

Direct Perception (Stimulus Theory)

Our brains are hardwired to pick up on our environment.

Constructivist Theory

How individuals actively construct their understanding of the world based on their experiences, prior knowledge, and mental representations. Perception uses prior knowledge from the world/environment. Sensory information is often ambiguous without prior knowledge. Both TD and BU.

Bottom-Up V Top-Down

Processing driven my external stimuli V processing driven by knowledge.

Depth Perception

Distal = 3D, proximal = 2D, percept = 3D.

Depth Cues (Monocular V Binocular)

Monocular: linear perspective, shape (+texture), relative size, interposition (depth), shadows, accommodation (like a lens of camera focusing). Binocular: retinal disparity (your two eyes see slightly different pictures), and convergence (the closer an object, the more your eyes converge.)

Agnosia

A condition where it is difficult to recognize sensory information.

Retina

The light-sensitive layer at the back of your eye. Contains photoreceptor cells which convert light into neural signals for vision.

Rods & Cones

The photoreceptor cells in the back of the retina. __ are sensitive to low light, and enable black and white vision. __ function in bright light, the reason we see color.

Ganglion Cells

Nerve cells in the retina which receive visual info from photoreceptors and send it to the brain through your optic nerve.

Neuron, Dendrites, Soma, Axon

Ns are the basic building blocks of the nervous system. (All inside of neuron): Ds receive signals, the S (cell body) integrates them, and the A transmits signals to other neurons or muscles.

Resting Potential

The electric charge of a neuron when it is not transmitting signals. On a graph, it would be a straight line. Neurons have a RP of -70.

Action Potential

A rapid change that travels down the axon; how the neurons travel with

Threshold

The minimum stimulus it takes to trigger an AP.

All-or-None

No half AP. Full AP or no AP.

Propagation

The transmission of an AP.

Refractory Period

The time before you can fire another AP.

Neurotransmitters

The chemicals that transmit signals between neurons at synapses.

Synapse

The small gap at the end of a neuron that allows a signal to pass from one neuron to the next.

Electrochemical Transmission

The release/reception of neurotransmitters.

Summanation

Integrated info from all your inputs to see whether you will have an AP or not.

Receptive Field

The area of the external world that causes a neuron to fire AP.

Firing Rate

Frequency of APs.

Excitation V Inhibition

E increases firing rate (IIIIIIIII), I decreases (__I___I__I).

Center-Surround

Ganglion cells, on-center/off-sound (point and edge detection) V off-center/on-sound (light on dark, dark on light).

Magnocellular and Parvocellular Cells (in the LGN)

M cells (large receptive field) process movement and location. P cells (small receptive field) process patterns, color, and form. Are part of the thalamus.

Cerebral Cortex

Outer layer of the brain; responsible for the higher-level processes of the human brain, including language, memory, reasoning, thought, learning, decision-making, emotion, intelligence and personality.

Primary Visual Cortex

The primary cortical region of the brain that receives, integrates, and processes visual information relayed from the retinas; in the occipital lobe.

Simple V Complex V Hypercomplex Cells

Simple cells respond to specific orientations, complex cells respond to patterns, and hypercomplex cells respond to complex shapes.

Ventral V Dorsal

V is the “what” pathway, D is the “where“ pathway.

Population Coding

Instead of a single neuron representing a complex piece of information, you need a population of neurons to encode anything. Each neuron in the population might contribute a small piece of the overall picture.

Spatial and Temporal Tradeoff with Cognitive Neuroscience Methods (fMRI, PET, EEG/ERP, Neuronal Recordings, TMS, Brain Lesions)

fMRI:

Spatial: High, Temporal: Low

Use: Detailed brain region info without precise timing.

PET:

Spatial: Moderate, Temporal: Low

Use: Detailed spatial brain activity over time.

EEG/ERP:

Spatial: Low, Temporal: High

Use: Rapid timing of neural events, less spatial detail.

Neuronal Recordings:

Spatial: High, Temporal: Very High

Use: Invasive, detailed spatial and temporal info.

TMS:

Spatial: Variable, Temporal: Immediate

Use: Temporarily disrupt/enhance, causal relationships.

Brain Lesions:

Spatial: Variable, Temporal: N/A

Use: Investigate damage consequences on cognitive functions.

Modality-Specific Localization Impairment

A difficulty in precisely determining the location of sensory stimuli in specific modalities, such as vision or hearing, while other sensory modalities may remain unaffected.

Identification V Localization

Recognizing what a stimulus is V determining the spatial location of the stimulus. Some cognitive impairments may selectively affect both abilities.

Visual Experience is Indirect (Perception is Constructive)

The idea that visual experience is indirect suggests that our perception is not a direct representation of the external world but is constructed by the brain based on sensory input. Our brains actively interpret and construct the visual world, filling in gaps and making inferences based on limited sensory information. (Think distal v percept.)

Bottom-Up Processing

Building understanding from individual details to form a complete picture (think lego; putting together smaller pieces to make a larger whole.)

Pattern Recognition

Making sense of familiar sequences of stimuli.

Shape Constancy

Recognizing an object at different angles.

Template Theory

What you have in your memory is an exact match (template) of an object. When they match up, you recognize. This is pretty unlikely when you consider object variation (sizes, shapes, rotations, obstructed objects, etc.)

Feature Theory

Recognizing an object based on the collection of it’s specific features. (Caricatures.)

Pandemonium Model

It's like a noisy committee in your brain deciding what you recognize. More specifically, a pattern recognition where a hierarchy of demons (processors) with increasing complexity work together to recognize patterns. The demons shout their preferences, and the loudest one determines the recognized pattern.

Recognition-by-Components Theory

Says we are able to recognize objects by separating them into geons.

Geons

The building blocks; simple, 3D geometric forms that can be combined to create more complex objects.

Evidence/Problems for RBC

Evidence: non-accidental properties (we focus on stable features (like angles) to recognize objects), occluded objects, object complexity, unusual orientations. Problems: similar objects (Riri v Bey), no concrete brain evidence.

Signal Detection Theory

Theory of searching for a signal (whatever you’re trying to detect) in between noise (everything that isn’t the signal.) Think WHERE’s WALDO.

Sensitivity

How hard/easy it is for you to find the signal (high=easy, low=hard).

Bias

Your tendency to say yes or no; determined by expectations and/or payoffs.

Hits, Misses, Correct Rejections, and False Alarms

H: there is a signal you correctly detect M: you miss a signal CR: there is no signal and you agree FA: no signal but you say there is

Context Effects

When your perception of an object is affected by the context (color contrast, word recognition, size contrast, brightness contrast, facial expressions, illusions.)

Subjective Contours

Your brain can assume something that isn’t really present (pacman-triangle example)

Word Superiority Effect

You are better at identifying letters in the context of a word versus alone.

Pseudoword (made up words) Superiority Effect

It is easier to recognize and process made-up words when they are presented within a larger context, like being part of a longer word, compared to when presented in isolation. We benefit from linguistic context when figuring out unfamiliar letter combos.

Interactive Activation Model

How we recognize words by considering both the individual letters and the words they form.

Latent Learning

Occurs without any obvious reinforcement of the behavior or associations that are learned.

Pattern Classification

Imagery and perception tasks are similar, as seen in similar patterns between results.

Stroop Task

Participants are asked to name the ink color of words while ignoring the written word itself, leading to slower responses when the word's meaning conflicts with the ink color.

Focused V Divided Attention

F: concentration on a single task, D: concentration on multiple things

Selective listening (Auditory Attention)

Hearing someone right next to you while in a loud, crowded room (not cocktail-party-problem.)

Dichotic Listening

When different auditory stimuli is played in each ear, and your mind focuses on one of them.

Shadowing

Repeating aloud the information presented to the attended ear while ignoring the information presented to the unattended ear (in dichotic listening tasks).

Basis for Selection

The criteria used to choose which information is attended to: location and physical characteristics (not word meaning.)

Unattended-To Info

When information is _, you have little memory, no understanding of meaning, no comprehension if in another language. You will pick up on your own name, though.

Early Filter Theory

Your attention filter blocks out the non attended words. Input → detection → filter → recognition

Attenuater

A weakener, dampener. The input that is detected is fully recognized, while the other stuff is weakened and dulled but can still be recognized. (Input → detection → attenuator → recognition)

Late Filtering Theory

Everything is recognized, but only the important stuff is memorized after it passes through filter. Input → detection → recognition → filter →

Overt V Covert Attention

Physically directing one's sensory organs toward a stimulus V mentally focusing on a stimulus without physically moving.

Posner’s Spatial Cueing Task

Showed that cuing participants to the location of an upcoming target decreased their reaction time to detect it because attention enhanced perceptual processing for the target

Spotlight / Zoom-Lens Model

Describes how attention can be conceptualized as a spotlight that highlights a specific area or a zoom lens that can be focused or broadened.

Feature Integration Theory

Explains how features of objects are initially processed separately and then integrated. Focuses on attention being “glue.” (Red + circle + food + stem = apple)

Feature V Conjunction Search

_ search involves looking for an item that differs from the rest based on a single, distinct feature, while _ search involves looking for an item based on a combination of multiple features.

Attention Modulates Sensory Neural Responses

Attention can enhance or suppress the processing of sensory information in the brain, influencing neural responses to stimuli.

Visuospatial Neglect

A condition where individuals have difficulty attending to stimuli in one side of their visual field. Effects memory. Injuries on left/right side of brain will correspond to left/right sides of your vision.

(Visuospatial Neglect Explained as) Disengage Deficit

Difficulty to disengage attention from a specific side of the brian.

(Visuospatial Neglect Explained as) Unbalanced Competition Between Hemispheres

Damage to one brain hemisphere causes the other side to dominate.

Cocktail Party Problem

Focusing on one conversation amid many. Highlights selective attention.

Selective Shadowing

When patients repeat what they hear in one ear in an auditory task (often while ignoring the other ear.) Typically, people can report details from the attended message but miss information from the unattended one.