Chapter 1 Flashcards
(22 cards)
Cognition
A variety of higher mental processes such as thinking, perceiving, imagining, speaking, acting, and planning.
Cognitive Neuroscience
Aims to explore cognitive processes in terms of brain-based mechanisms.
Mind-Body Problem
The problem of how a physical substance (the brain), can give rise to our sensations, emotions and thought (our mind).
Dualism
The belief that the brain and the mind are made of different substances.
Dual-Aspect Theory
The belief that mind and brain are two levels of descriptions of the same thing
Reductionism
The belief that mind-based concepts will eventually be replaced by neuroscientific concepts.
Phrenology
The failed idea that individual differences in cognition, can be mapped onto differences in skull shape.
Functional Specializations
The theory that different regions of the brain are specialized for different functions.
Cognitive Neuropsychology
The study of brain-damaged patients to inform theories of normal cognition.
Information Processing
An approach in which behavior is described in terms of a sequence of cognitive stages
Interactivity
Later stages of processing can begin before earlier stages are complete
Top-down processing
The influence of later stages on the processing of earlier ones (e.g. memory influences on perception)
Bottom-up processing
The passage of information from simpler (e.g. edges) to more complex (e.g. objects)
Parallel Processing
Different information is processed at the same time
Modularity
The notion that certain cognitive processes (or regions of the brain) are restricted in the type of information they process.
Domain Specificity
The idea that a cognitive process (or brain region) is dedicated solely to one particular type of information (e.g. color, faces, words).
Neural Network Models
Computational models in which information processing occurs using many interconnected nodes.
Nodes
The basic units of neural network models that are activated in response to activity in other parts of the network
Temporal Resolution
The accuracy with which one can measure when an event (e.g. a physiological change) occurs
Spatial Resolution
The accuracy with which one can measure where an event is occurring
Connectome
A comprehensive map of neural connections in the brain that may be thought of as its wiring diagram
Graph Theory
A mathematical technique for computing the pattern of connectivity (or “wiring diagram”) from a set of correlations
