PSYC 426 Study guide final draft

Question 1

What is cognitive science? What does it involve, entail, and aim to explore?

Answer 1

Cognitive science is the scientific study of cognitive systems, biological organisms and or machines that act and interact within a dynamic environment.

Question 2

Cognitive science is an interdisciplinary field—what are some of the disciplines
involved?

Answer 2

1.) Philosophy
2.) Psychology
3.) Computer Science
4.) Neuroscience
5.) Anthropology
6.) Linguistics

Question 3

What are some of the methods used to explore research questions in
cognitive science?

Answer 3

1.) Neuroimaging
2.) Psychometrics
3.) eye tracking
4.) general behavior experiments

Question 4

What is mental representation? Why is it important?

Answer 4

Mental representation is something that stands for something else, meaning it is symbolic. Representations are important since they used a symbol to represent a mental process.

Question 5

What are some different ways to categorize/conceptualize mental
representation? Give examples.

Answer 5

Digital( such as language) Analog (visual images), Propositional ( Jane push sally, logical relationships between elements)

Question 6

Are both representation and computation necessary for cognition? Why?

Answer 6

Yes, because it’s not only important to understand having the concept of something such as money which is representation, but how or why these mental mechanisms operate such as calculation of a tip, to make sense of the world.

Question 7

True or False: One of foundations of cognition is the linear process linking attention, perception,
decision-making, and action.

Answer 7

False

Question 8

True or False: Cognitive science is an interdisciplinary field, where the collaboration between subfields is
more important than any individual subfield by itself.

Answer 8

True

Question 9

Consider the following: When the clock says 8:35 am, log into Zoom for class. And say what part is concepts, propositions, rules, and Analogous situations?

Answer 9

Concepts: clock, 8:35 am, log in, Zoom, class, etc.

Propositions: clock/8:35, log in/Zoom, Zoom/class

Rules: 8:35 means class, which you enter via Zoom.

Analogous situations: other classes in your schedule, virtual classes probably use Zoom, etc.

Question 10

Describe the emergence of cognitive science as a field in the 1950’s. What
precipitated it? Who were some of the key players involved?

Answer 10

Began in 1950’s, with CS emerging over the following two decades. Experimental psychology → behaviorism Theory of learning that postulates that all behavior is the product of interactions with the environment, via conditioning mechanisms. Has its merits, but fails to incorporate “mentalistic concepts,” i.e. cognition. Chomsky: “…like defining physics as the science of meter reading” (Miller, 2003). Thus, stringent behaviorism came to experience pushback. Behaviorism prevailed primarily in the US → cognitive revolution reopened collaborations with Europe.

Question 11

Name and describe Marr’s (1987) levels of analysis.

Answer 11

1.) Computational: identifying the function of the computation. Noting what input/output. What is the goal? What’s the theory?

2.) Algorithm: how the computation can be solved; determining the algorithmic solution. What’s the solution

3.) Implementation: Determine how the cognitive system could implement this solution. How can the solution be implemented physically in the system.

Example:
Students waiting in line outside of a professor’s office.
 Computational
 What, why, theory?
 Problem: FIFO; First-in, first-out. Meeting students based on order of
arrival.

 Algorithmic
 What’s the solution? How to solve/represent the what and why?
 Solution: Linked data list structure; each person keeps track of who’s in
front of them.

 Implementational
 How is the solution physically realized?
 Nuts and bolts: Each students stands behind the person in front of them
in the queue.

Question 12

What are the 3 main schools of thought that emerged within cognitive
science? Name and describe each. Compare and contrast their tenets.

Answer 12

Classical Cognition: Information processing occurs through rules, which govern how different symbols are manipulated. A problem is posed, rules and representations allow a solution to be searched for, and a solution is subsequently found/implemented. Works great for well-posed problems → added to understanding of language and basic problem-solving.

Connectionist Cognition: Classical models for information processing fail to account for the properties of the brain → this structure and associated phenomena underlie cognition. The brain isn’t just a computer. No distinction between structure and process → the structure is the process! Model cognition using artificial neural networks. These networks are both structure and process; they store information and modify it at the same time. Information processing isn’t just about doing logic and recognizing symbols somehow, within a “black box.” No centralized controller that accesses information from a separate memory. The architecture of the brain (i.e. system) enables it to be a dynamic recognizer of statistical patterns, which constitute cognition.

Embodied Cogntion: Classic and connectionist models both fail to account for the rest of the body and the outside environment. Cognitive systems are linked to their environments. Mind doesn’t beget action from perception; the mind coordinates ongoing relations between perception and action. Agent cannot be separated from its environment in terms of information processing. Evidence supporting relevance of surrounding environment: Mirror neurons Off-loading memory storage (e.g., using a planner) Gesturing to facilitate language processing. Joint-action research

Question 13

There are three major schools of thought about what cognition is: classical, connectionist,
and

Answer 13

embodied cognition

Question 14

“The brain isn’t just a machine that takes problems and spits out solutions! Its neuronal
pathways are constantly changing and are how we think/feel/do things!” This statement
best exemplifies the __________________ school of thought.

Answer 14

connectionist

Question 15

Apply Marr’s levels of analysis to: a bicycle

Answer 15

 Computational: movement/transport; law of motion, friction, aerodynamics etc.
 Algorithmic: force exerted downward can propel one forward, inertia keeps you moving, etc.
 Implementational: pedals are connected to wheels, a chain allows for pressure on the pedals to
spark turning of the wheels, etc.

Question 16

What is the brain? What are the primary anatomical structures involved?

Answer 16

An organ comprised of neurons that have higher-order functions/controlled everything else.

The cerebrum, cerebellum, and brainstem.

Question 17

Describe the relation between brain weight/blood supply/energy consumption vs. body
weight/blood supply/energy consumption.

Answer 17

The human brain makes up 2% of total body weight, uses 10% of the blood circulation, and accounts for 20% of all energy consumption. Thus, a piece of brain tissue requires 12.25x more energy than the (averaged) rest of the body. Other non-primate vertebrates: 2% to 8% of all energy consumption goes to the brain. The human brain consumes a lot of energy!

Question 18

Explain scaling laws as they apply to the human brain. Why isn’t an elephant “smarter”
than a human if its brain is bigger? What makes humans “smarter” than other primates?

Answer 18

Primate brains have more efficient neuron scaling. However, our brain is the largest out of all the primates since we have more neurons we are more intelligent out of all the primates being that our brain is larger

Question 19

Name and describe 4 different ways to define cortical areas.

Answer 19

There are four lobes in the cortex, the

frontal lobe: higher-order thoughts, emotions, decision making, take information from other lobes and turn it into meaningful things,

The parietal lobe: governs attention and spatial processing

temporal lobe: auditory processing, pattern recognition, and language comprehension,

occipital lobe: vision information more processing.

Question 20

Although the human brain only makes up 2% of the body’s mass, it consumes ___% of the
body’s energy.

Answer 20

20%

Question 21

True or False:

Within primates, there seems to be a mostly linear correlation between brain size and
intelligence; i.e. larger brains have more advanced cognitive ability.

Answer 21

True, depending on the specie of animals is not a 1:1 scaling.

Question 22

Brodmann’s areas are differentiated according to

Answer 22

cytoarchitectonics/histology.

Question 23

True or False: Compared to other animals, human brains direct less energy toward the brain

Answer 23

False

Question 24

The Fusiform Face Area (FFA) is an example of brain area differentiation by
_______________.

Answer 24

regional
response properties.

Question 25

Define attention in the context of cognition. What is it and what does it involve?

Answer 25

Selectively enhancing focus on specific information in the environment, at the expense of everything else.

Question 26

What is overt attention? What is covert attention?

Answer 26

Overt attention is Directing sensory organs (e.g., eyes) toward a specific stimulus. I.e. directly attending to something using our body machinery.
While covert attention is Directing the “mind’s eye“ toward a stimulus. Not observable. The fixation point of the eye stays constant.

Question 27

Describe setups that can be used to elicit overt and covert attention experimentally.
How/why do these methods work?

Answer 27

To measure overt attention it needs to be observable and measurable. Thus, eye tracking can be used. Having like a virtual reality headset. Works because has fixation points in which the eye pauses to gather information, (saccades: eye movements)

Then, to measure covert attention, the person fixes on a point dot in computer. Next, cue card appears on left or right side and he covertly looks at the cue, and he has to press the button to locate the position

Question 28

What is Broadbent’s early selection theory of attention? What are effects that support it?
What are effects that do not?

Answer 28

Physical characteristics of sensory inputs are used to select one input for further processing; all others are lost. Pop-out and conjunction feature search support it. But no cocktail party effect.

Question 29

Describe the pop-out effect. Give an example of a stimulus set in which pop-out occurs
and an example in which it doesn’t occur.

Answer 29

Occurs when a stimulus immediately and effortlessly attracts your attention. Target differs in one feature from a group of surrounding distractors (A, B).

Parallel processing: number of distractors does
(almost) not affect detection speed. only if there is a prominent difference

Question 30

Describe the major division of the visual system into 2 pathways. What are they, and what
brain regions do they involve? Compare and contrast their characteristics.

Answer 30

The ventral pathway is the “what” pathway; it is involved in object
and color perception. This pathway is assumed to be mainly
driven by the parvocellular system.

The dorsal pathway is the
“where/how” pathway; it is involved in motor perception. This
pathway is assumed to be mainly driven by the magnocellular
system. NEED table for characteristics

Question 31

True or False: Overall, attention can be defined as the enhancement of processing of some information,
at the expense of other information.

Answer 31

True

Question 32

True or False: In early selection theory, selected inputs are processed in parallel

Answer 32

False

Question 33

True or False:
Evidence for the early selection theory includes the pop-out and conjunction feature search effects.

Answer 33

True

Question 34

Describe the general layout of the visual system. What happens when different parts are
lesioned (e.g., optic nerve, optic tract, optic chiasm, etc.)?

Answer 34

Left visual field is mapped onto right side of the brain;
right visual field is mapped onto left side of the brain.
retina sends info to by nasal and temporal fibers, then info crosses the optic chiasm.

Lesion at A (optic nerve): right eye is cut off but everything else is preserve. only when optic nerve do u loss vision in that eye.

Lesion at B (optic chiasm): loss of vision at left part of left eye, and right part of the right eye. since opposite from bottom brain.

Lesion at c (optic tract): loss of vision at left part of left eye, and left of right eye.

Question 35

What is a saccade? What is a microsaccade? What function do they serve?

Answer 35

Saccade: rapid movement of the eye between two fixation points.
* Microsaccade: miniature version of saccade; involuntary, microscopic eye
movements that occur while maintaining visual fixation.

Why?
* Keeps stimulus from fading during continuous fixation.
* Enhance processing of spatial detail → improve discrimination of high
spatial frequency stimuli (C), but not low spatial frequency stimuli (B)
* Thus, fixational eye movements enhance high spatial frequency
processing

Question 36

What is a saliency map? Describe its basic mechanisms and properties. How is it
computed?

Answer 36

Model that predicts the locus of visual attention based on
low-level features. Here, our attention is driven in a bottom-up manner.

Certain physical properties of a visual scene attract
our attention.
* Thus, certain low-level features of a visual scene
determine our focus of attention. like predator imaging.

Based on feature maps
* Represents the amount of a given visual feature at
any location in the visual field.
* Highlights areas that are different from the
surrounding.

How to Compute a
Saliency Map

1. Image is split into different feature maps
   based on low-level features.
2. Weigh feature maps based on importance.
3. Final map is a smoothed greyscale picture,
   where bright areas depict salient regions.

Question 37

The ______ stream is comprised of the slow and detailed parvocellular
pathway, while the ______ stream is comprised of the quick, less precise
magnocellular pathway.

Answer 37

ventral, dorsal

Question 38

True or False:
A lesion at C results in loss of vision in the right visual field.

Answer 38

false, left visual field trace fibers, and lead to other side flips.

Question 39

True or False: Lesions in the parietal cortex resulted in monkeys being able to complete the shape discrimination task, but not the landmark task. This provided evidence for the dorsal stream.

Answer 39

True, seminal experiments figuring out the where and what tasks.

Question 40

True or False:
A saliency map predicts the locus of our attention by weighing high-level
features (e.g., object identification, perceived threat).

Answer 40

False, by low-level features.

Question 41

_______________ are involuntary, fixational eye movements that enhance
high spatial frequency processing.

Answer 41

Microsaccades

Question 42

What is perception? What are its main components?

Answer 42

Identifying, organizing, and interpreting sensory information. Our sensory-based experience of the world.

Bottom-up: building of perceptions from sensory input.

Top-down: creation of perceptions from our preexisting knowledge, experience, thoughts, etc.

Question 43

Explain the main principle of Gestalt psychology

Answer 43

 Early 20th century; Max Wertheimer, Wolfgang Köhler, Kurt Koffka
 How do we perceive? → in patterns and various configurations based on these patterns,
not by adding up individual objects in a logical manner.
 “Whole is greater than the sum of its parts”

Question 44

Is perception an innate process, or is it learned? What evidence supports both viewpoints?

Answer 44

 Learned: based on experience, arbitrary associations between various objects are
learned and applied across settings.
 Innate: perceptual organization is inborn; an inherent process independent of learning.

Both; some basic perceptual abilities are present very early on. However, early perceptual
experiences “set the stage” for later perceptual development.

Evidence:

Experimental evidence: cataract surgery, animal experiments, visual cliff experiment.

Cataract experiments: after surgery, people gained the ability to see for the first time. Although able
to sense low-level features (e.g., illumination, color), they were unable to discriminate objects from
their background for several months.

Human babies would not cross cliff, indicating some level of innate depth perception.

However, environmental cues (e.g., maternal signaling) played
a role.
 So is this actually innate?

Question 45

Explain the role that context and constancy have in perception.

Answer 45

Context: Way in which a stimulus is perceived doesn’t only depend on its own physical
characteristics, but also on that of surrounding stimuli and stimuli previously encountered
by the perceiver.
 Person of average height standing next to NBA players.

Perceptual Constancy:
 Stability in perceiving stimuli even as they move, become more/less illuminated, etc.
 I.e. a match between an object as it is perceived and the object as it is thought to
actually exist.

recognizing a friend even if they are far away, you can only see their side profile, etc.

Question 46

Describe the main Gestalt psychology laws

Answer 46

(1) Law of Proximity: Close stimuli will be grouped together

(2) Law of Similarity: Similar stimuli will be grouped together

(3) Law of Common Fate: What moves together is grouped together

(4) Law of Good Continuation: Figure with the fewest number of changes is favored

(5) Law of Closure: Elements not present are “added” to
complete a figure

6) Law of Symmetry and Parallelism: Symmetrical and/or parallel objects are
perceived continuously, independent of
distance

(7) Figure-background segregation:
Distinguishing an object from its surrounding

(8) Synchrony: black, white, black, white

(9) Common Region:
circle two black circles grouped together

(10) Element Connectedness: two black circles connected by a line

Question 47

True or False:
The visual cliff experiment suggested that depth perception is a learned ability, particularly in humans.

Answer 47

False

Question 48

True or False:
Perceptual constancy highlights the importance of an
object’s context in how it is perceived.

Answer 48

False

Question 49

What explains why we see 2 separate swarms of birds?

Answer 49

Law of Common Fate, cause they go together

Question 50

True or False:
Gestalt psychologists believe that perception occurs by taking each element of an object and “adding it up” in a logical way.

Answer 50

False

Question 51

What explains the differences in how we perceive a vs. b?

Answer 51

→ Law of Proximity circles of dots some look closer and some did not.

Question 52

When searching for your car in a parking lot, you catch a glimpse of it from the side. You immediately know that it’s
your car despite seeing only a fraction of it from an angle. This can be explained by the principle of….?

Answer 52

Perceptual constancy

Question 53

What is illusory perception? Why is it important/useful for studying how perception works?

Answer 53

Perceptual illusions are defined as consistent and persistent discrepancies between a physial state of affairs and its representation in consciousness.

Function to explain different ways in which perception can be manipulated based on various features of stimuli being perceived.

Question 54

What some categories of visual illusions? Give an example.

Answer 54

(1) Lateral Inhibition/ Color & Brightness
the checkerboard illusion

(2) After-Effects
when looking at the sun or wall

(3) Illusory Contours
when circles form a square, law of closure

(4) Multistability
can switch between shapes, see faces and base

(5) Viewpoint

misleading room have people’s different heights of a room but are same height

(6) Size

ties back to context, objects organized one another circle larger to smaller, in a regular size circle.

(7) Depth and Motion

railroad track where one line appears farther than another one and when circles are turning.

Question 55

Eye-tracking was designed to measure _________ attention.

Answer 55

Overt

Question 56

In the _______________, increasing the number of distractors has almost no effect on the
search time.

Answer 56

pop-out search

Question 57

Describe the major division of the visual system into 2 pathways. What are they, and what
do they involve? What is the experimental evidence supporting this division?

Answer 57

 2 streams: ventral pathway and dorsal pathway (Milner & Goodale, 1992).
 Ventral: “what” → shape, color, physical characteristics
 Dorsal: “where” → orientation, movement

2 streams: ventral pathway and dorsal pathway
 Regions involved in the ventral pathway: V1, V2, V3, V4 and IT
 Regions involved in the dorsal pathway: V1, V2, V3, MT and parietal cortex.

Evidence:

Lesions in IT cortex (A) produced deficits in shape discrimination task, but not landmark
task. → ventral pathway is affected.
* Lesions in parietal cortex produced deficits in landmark task, but not shape discrimination
task. → dorsal pathway is affected.