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Cognitive Psychology > Exam 1 > Flashcards

Exam 1 Flashcards

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1
Q

What characterizes cognitive psychology?

A

Mental processes underlying basic behavior; Data-driven, empirical approach; Called “information-processing” psychology

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2
Q

Basic Assumptions of Cognitive Psychology?

A

Mental structures and processes support the way we think; Measurable time course of processing; Errors are not random

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3
Q

Donders-Decision Processes

A

One of the first cognitive psychology experiments; simple vs. choice reaction time=decision time

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4
Q

Ebbinghaus’ memory research

A

Recall of words lists

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5
Q

First psych lab was found by

A

Wilhelm Wundt

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6
Q

John Watson

A

Found behaviorism and classical conditioning

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7
Q

B. F. Skinner

A

Followed behaviorism and discovered operant conditioning

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8
Q

Noam Chomsky

A

Criticized behaviorism because children who say sentences like “I hate you” or use incorrect grammar do not get rewarded for saying such things, therefore, children do not always learn language through operant conditioning.

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9
Q

Cognitive Revolution

A

Late 50s; emergence of AI and the computer metaphor of the mind

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10
Q

Research Areas of Cognitive Psychology

A
  • Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Perception
  • Memory
  • Human Intelligence
  • Imagery
  • Cognitive Development
  • Thinking and Concept Formation
  • Language
  • Attention
  • Pattern Recognition
  • Artificial Intelligence
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11
Q

Cognitive Neuroscience

A

The physiological basis for cognition

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12
Q

Brain + Spinal Cord =

A

Central Nervous System (CNS)

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13
Q

Sensory and motor neurons that connect the CNS to the rest of the body

A

Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)

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14
Q

Nervous System 3 Main Functions

A

Sensing specific information about external and internal conditions; Integrating information; Issuing commands for a response from the body’s muscles or glands

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15
Q

Ramon y Cajal

A

Found neuron doctrine which states that individual cells called neurons transmit signals in the nervous system; killed off “neural net theory”

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16
Q

Neuron (3 parts)

A

Cell body: cell’s life support center; Dendrites: receive messages from the brain; Axon: sends messages away from the cell body to other neurons

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17
Q

Action Potential

A

Stimulation of the cell raising energy beyond a threshold leading to a reversal in electrical charge across the cell

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18
Q

The Story of Charles Whitman

A

A normal guy who grew up as an altar boy and an eagle scout as a kid. Went to University of Texas. He assaulted his wife and got in several fights. He started having violent fantasies, so he went to the psychiatrist, who did not help. Charles went home, killed his wife and killed his mom. Then he went up a bell tower with a high-powered rifle and killed 14 people and wounded >20 more. Police killed him. Autopsy revealed that he had a walnut-sized tumor in his brain.

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19
Q

Proprioception

A

Sense of relative position of body parts and movement; body’s ability to know where it is in space

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20
Q

Phrenology

A

Franz Joseph Gall; mind composed of multiple distinct innate faculties; size of each structure is a measure of its “power”

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21
Q

Applying Phrenology (5 parts)

A

-Character reference for jobs
-Education
-Criminal reform
-Career advisement
-Match-making
1830-1967

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22
Q

Localization of function is supported by

A
  • Brain damage

- Phinneas Gage worked on the railroad, got a pole through his brain, and started acting aggressive and different

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23
Q

Problems in these areas result in speech disorders…

A
  • Wernicke’s area: inability to process/comprehend language

- Broca’s area: Inability to form words

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24
Q

Prosopagnosia

A

Can’t recognize familiar faces

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25
Motion agnosia
Can't perceive movement; ex: pouring coffee seems frozen
26
Hubel and Weisel (1957)
Visual experience of what you had in life affects the way we perceive objects;
27
Population coding
Representation of a particular object by the pattern of firing a LARGE number of neurons
28
Sparse coding
Particular object is represented by a pattern of finding on only a SMALL group of neurons
29
How can we tell friend from foe or my house from your house?
Different patterns of firing are associated with different people and different brain activity
30
Neural circuit
A group of interconnected neurons that respond best to a specific stimuli-circuits include synapses that are excitatory and/or inhibitory
31
Perception
The experiences resulting from stimulation of the senses
32
How well would cognition work without senses?
Acquiring knowledge; problem solving; remembering
33
Principles of Perception (4)
- Changed based on added info - Involve process like reasoning/problem solving - Happens rapidly, but not automatically - Occurs with action
34
Computer vision can distinguish between two faces, but not a camera lens and tennis ball...why?
Can't recognize hidden/blurred objects and can't understand different viewpoints
35
Viewpoint Invariance
Ability to recognize an object seen from different view points
36
Bottom-Up Processing
Perception directs cognition or behavior; Stimulus-driven; lowest to highest level; Sensation to Perception; Example: Seeing the mosquito and hearing the buzzing sends information to the brain to then voluntarily hit the mosquito
37
Top-Down Processing
Perception is constructed by cognition; Goal/knowledge-driven; originates at the highest level; Example: Wandering around apartment in the dark, and you make your way through well because you've conceptualized what your apartment looks like
38
Feature-detector
1) Objects are initially seen as sets of basic features (lines, colors, etc...) 2) Perception works by combining features into coherent objects
39
Selfridge's (1959) PANDEMONIUM
1) Image Demons: records perception and sends info off to... 2) Feature Demons: becomes excited about specific features and screams for attention 3) Cognitive Demons: hears Feature Demons and are looking for a match 4) Decision Demon: listens for whichever demon yells the loudest
40
Pandemonium led to...
Modern neural networks
41
What evidence supports feature-detectors?
Classic data from Hubel & Wiesel (1957)
42
Sensory Restriction: Blakemore & Cooper (1970)
Kittens raised without exposure to horizontal lines were later blind to them
43
We use _________ ___________ to optimize perceptual processing.
Background knowledge
44
Cockroach and top-down processing
Amanda sees cockroach, kills it, and is suddenly mistaking certain things to be said cockroach
45
Perceptual system uses multiple sources of info...(4)
- Context - Knowledge/experience - Expectation - Attention
46
Helmholtz's Theory of Unconscious Inference
-Image on retina is ambiguous, so how does perceptual system decide on specific object?
47
Likelihood principle
Perceive the object that is most likely to have caused the pattern of stimuli we've received - Solve by applying knowledge (like prob solving) - Unconscious
48
Gestalt Perceptual Organization
Perception is determined by specific organizing principles: good continuation, simplicity, similarity
49
Gestalt: Good Continuation
Overlapped objects are perceived as continuing behind the overlapping object; shoelaces
50
Gestalt: Simplicity
Every pattern is seen in such a way that the resulting structure is as simple as possible; Olympic symbol is seen as 5 overlapping circles, not 9 different shapes
51
Gestalt: Similarity
Similar things appear to be grouped together by size, shape, orientation, color
52
Environmental regularities
People make use of regularities in environment to help them perceive: physical regularities and semantic regularities
53
Physical: Oblique effect
Perceive horizontals and verticals more easily than other orientations
54
Physical: Light-from-Above assumption
Assume light comes from above (sun)
55
Semantic regularities
Characteristics associated with the function carried out in different types of scenes; meaning
56
Semantic: Scene schema
KNOWLEDGE of what a given scene contains; visualize a coffee shop
57
Bayesian Inference
Probability of an outcome is determined by prior probability and likelihood
58
Bayesian: Prior probability
Our initial belief about the probability of an outcoms
59
Bayesian: Likelihood
Extebt to which available evidence is consistent with the prior
60
Theory of Natural Selection
Characteristics that enhance animal's ability to survive and reproduce will. E passed on
61
Experience-Dependent Plasiticity
B is changed by exposure to the environment so it can perceive more efficiently
62
______________ makes perception more complex, but also helps us perceive objects more _____________
Movement; accurately
63
Perception pathway
V1 to temporal lobe; the "what" pathway
64
Action pathway
V1 to parietal love; the "where" pathway
65
What is cognitive psychology?
The branch of psychology concerned with the scientific study of the mind

Cognitive Psychology (4 decks)

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