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PSYCHOLOGY BSC > PSYC202 EXAM PREP: reading, concepts, inner speech, attention, consciousness > Flashcards

PSYC202 EXAM PREP: reading, concepts, inner speech, attention, consciousness Flashcards

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1
Q

Word Superiority Effect

A

We process words as a whole over the individual letters grouped together. This also means that length is irrelevant to how long it takes to read a word and there are top-down influences when understanding words.

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2
Q

Where is the visual word form area?

A

left ventral occipito-temporal cortex (vOTC)

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3
Q

What is pure alexia?

A

A reading disorder, often caused by damage to vOTC, resulting in a disrupted word superiority effect. It is a peripheral type of dyslexia.

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4
Q

Cohen et al (2002) hemifield activation study

A

Stimuli were shown to each hemisphere and only the left vOTC was specialised for word processing

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5
Q

Split brain patient studies for hemisphere specialisation of language

A

Split-brain patients could not recognise words presented in the left hemifield.

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6
Q

What else can the VWFA process? (other than words)

A

Language related stimuli e.g. braille, manipulation of objects

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7
Q

How long are the fixations / saccades we use for reading?

A

200 ms

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8
Q

Who first suggested that strokes to the vOTC caused word blindness?

A

Dejerine (1892)

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9
Q

Describe a basic model for reading

A

visual word form -> access pronunciation -> read aloud

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10
Q

2 types of acquired dyslexia:

A
  1. peripheral dyslexia: damage to additional processes which support reading e.g. pure alexia, attentional dyslexia
  2. central dyslexia: a core deficit which damages the fundamental parts of reading e.g. VWFA, e.g. surface dyslexia, phonological dyslexia
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11
Q

Attentional dyslexia (peripheral)

A

Reflects problems in attentional filtering e.g. letter migration or the intrusion of distractors from other words (Warrington et al, 1993)

PARIETAL LOBE BASED

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12
Q

Neglect dyslexia (peripheral)

A

Deficits in VS attentional allocation e.g. letter substitutions on one side (Caramazza and Hillis 1990)
PARIETAL LOBE BASED

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13
Q

Surface dyslexia (central)

A

Struggles to pronounce words which do not follow normal phonological patterns e.g. pint or dove - they pronounce words according to spelling rules (Shallice et al 1983)

SUPERIOR-TEMPORAL LOBE

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14
Q

Phonological dyslexia (central)

A

Difficulties in pronouncing or recognising non-real words (Beauvois & Derouesne 1979)

TEMPERO-PARIETAL LOBE

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15
Q

Deep dyslexia (central)

A

Semantic impairment leads to error prone real word reading e.g. mistaking cats for dogs (Shallice & Coughlan 1980)
TEMPORAL LOBE BASED

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16
Q

Dual-route model of reading aloud

A

Visuo-spatial attention is directed towards visual features and letters and grapheme-to-phoneme conversion in the peripheral visual processes. In the Lexico-Semantic route of central reading processes, visual word form moves to semantic memory, and phonological lexicon where it is read aloud. Whereas in the phonological route, grapheme-to-phoneme processing is simply read aloud.

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17
Q

What is a concept?

A

“Mental representations of categories of objects in the world—make up much of the contents of our thoughts”
Oxford Handbook

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18
Q

2 uses of concepts

A

Make predictions, reinforce and understand language and thought

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19
Q

What is the difference between a category and a concept?

A

A category is a real world grouping whereas a concept is a mental representation of these categories.

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20
Q

Amodal theories of concepts

A

Concepts are abstract and outside of sensorimotor/affective modalities

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21
Q

Strong embodiment/grounded theory of concepts

A

You don’t need abstract representations of concepts - you can draw on concrete facts

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22
Q

Hauk et al, 2004 - grounded theories

A

Reading action-related words (e.g. lick, pick or kick) and sentences produces increase activation in cortical regions associated with performing the relevant movements. (links to sensorimotor humunculus)

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23
Q

Willems et al. 2009 - action words

A

Comparison of brain activity using manual/nonmanual action words e.g. squeeze vs breathe. Activation related to handedness

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24
Q

Gonzalez et al., 2006

A

Odour-related words elicit activity in olfactory regions of the brain

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25
Goldinger et al (2016) criticism of emodiement approach
Concepts are far more abstract and rich
26
Hybrid accounts of conceptual representations
A combination of embodied and amodal theories of concepts.
27
Hub and Spoke Model
Semantic Hub - A proposed brain area within the anterior temporal lobe Spokes - connections to areas e.g. visual system in occipital lobe
28
Semantic dementia
Atrophy of ATL in dementia patients supports ideas of a Hub. Patterson et al. (2007) saw deficits in naming, categorisation etc, but not memory or VS function. As dementia progresses, concepts e.g. birds degrade providing evidence for a hub.
29
Inability to name objects
Anomia
30
Simmons and Martin (2009) Concept Hub
Raises doubts about the Hub and Spoke model: patients with semantic dementia often have wider-ranging damage, specific ATL damage e.g. epilepsy resection doesn't always cause problems Also visualisation of ATL in MRI is susceptible to artefacts due to location.
31
Functions of the Semantic Hub (ATL)
Organisation of atypical category members, linking abstract concepts to behaviours and sounds etc
32
What proportion of waking life is occupied by inner speech?
25%
33
Vygotsky (1934) on inner speech
Inner speech is an internalised version of child-directed speech from caregivers. Emphasis on inner-speech for emotional regulation and language development. (difficult to provide evidence here)
34
Corollary discharge for inner speech
A system to make sure we know when we hear our own voices: involving articulatory planning systems e.g. inferior frontal gyrus, somatosensory estimations and auditory representations.
35
N100 ERP studies for corollary discharge
Participants were asked to produce inner speech exactly simultaneously, before or after identical and predicted auditory stimuli. In the precise condition there was a smaller N1 because it was as if the participant said it, supporting ideas of corollary discharge (Jack et al, 2019)
36
Differential activations in inner speech meta-analysis (Pratts et al 2023)
Deliberate inner speech: supplementary motor area and precentral gyrus Spontaneous inner speech: middle temporal gyrus
37
Inner speech and theta oscillations
Neurally, inner speech has an implicit envelope, presenting like inner hearing arising from theta oscillations (Giraud & Poeppel 2012)
38
James (1890) definition of attention
Taking possession by the mind, of one out of several trains of thought ... withdrawal from somethings to deal with others
39
Who suggested no-one really knows what attention is?
Hommel 2019
40
Methods of investigating attention (5)
Dichotic listening tasks Cocktail party phenomenon tasks Visual search paradigms EEG testing Behavioural measures e.g. reaction times
41
Gazzaniga (2014) how does attention impact brain response:
Attention enchances brain response: - auditory cortex (Hillyard et al) - visual cortex (Van Voorhis & Hillyard, 1977)
42
Hopfinger et al (2000): attention modulates activity
When directed in one way for a specific stimulus, there was increased activity in the contralateral hemisphere
43
Role of superior colliculus in attention
Spatial attention and gaze-direction. It receives information from many modalities and can integrate this to orient responses.
44
How does selective attention occur in the brain?
1. stimuli enter the brain in the thalamus 2. PFC codes salience and directs to visual or auditory processing
45
Role of thalamic reticular nucleus in selective attention
The TRN (thalamic reticular nucleus) is a thin layer of inhibitory neurons surrounding the thalamus, when it is activated, activity in that region is limited. The PFC activates / disactivates the TRN to control attention.
46
Two systems for attentional control of visual systems
1. selective visual attention - towards goal or task, primarily in the dorsal frontoparietal network 2. reflexive attention - focus on novelty or salience, primarily in the right ventral network
47
Selective attention control in the auditory system (Hill & Miller, 2010)
Left fronto-parietal network controls attention during cocktail party situations.
48
How does attention lead to neuroplastic changes?
The Nucleus Basalis releases acetylcholine in response to stimuli in attentional focus, which strengthens the connections of neurons associated with that stimulus.
49
When there is competition for attention by stimuli, there is inhibition of activity at many locations. What can override cortical instructions and shift attention on its own?
Superior colliculus
50
What do panpsychist theorists suggest about consciousness?
Everything has it. Some suggest consciousness is an inherent property of EM fields (McFadden, 2000)
51
Easy problem of consciousness
Investigating what goes on in the brain when we are conscious of something e.g. brain scanning.
52
Hard problem of consciousness
How experience could possible arise from physiological structures or groups of cells.
53
Three aspects of consciousness, Pinker, 1997
Self-knowledge, access to information (e.g. knowing what's happening by feeling it), sentience (qualia)
54
What are qualia?
Subjective experiences of the world e.g. colours or the feelings of pain.
55
Scaffolding-to-storage framework for consciousness (Raichle et al, 1998)
Consciousness is an extension of attention used to develop conscious skills. Evidence is seen during higher levels of activity in the frontal lobe when the task is new.
56
Homeostatic and Predictive Processing theories of consciousness
Consciousness developed (evolutionarily) as an adaptation to predict events of the world in order to protect ourselves. Solms (2021) suggests that consciousness is a form of affect which can influence our interpretation of events.
57
Libet et al (1983) free will experiment
Readiness potential began 350ms before the participant became consciously aware of the intention to press a button. However this may be an oversimplification of consciousness.
58
Blindsight (Weiskrantz, 1986)
Participants with lesions in the visual cortex who are not conscious of stimuli in their blind spots, can still respond to them.
59
Subliminal perception
Visual information is presented so fast participants claim to be unaware of it, but it will influence their future responses e.g. through priming.
60
Bistable stimuli
Optical illusions which can be interpreted in two different ways
61
Masking of stimuli
A different stimulus presented before and after a target stimulus e.g. a word. It causes a participant to be unaware they ever witnessed the target stimulus. Even during masked conditions where participants reported they saw nothing, they performed above chance during forced choice tasks.
62
P300
ERP wave associated with decision-making, initially suggested to be a neural correlate of consciousness (Pitts et al, 2014) but can be supressed.
63
Posterior "Hot Zone" for consciousness
When task effects were controlled for, the posterior cortex is seen as the centre for consciousness.
64
Pebble in puddle analogy for consciousness
Massimini and Huber (2009) found that a spread of cortical activity correlates with consciousness, like the ripples on water. A TMS pulse can be used to decrease/induce consciousness.
65
Massimini and Huber (2009) thalamocortical circuits and sleep
During slow wave sleep, there is no consciousness. The TMS signal does not spread across the cortex, but stays local and dies away quickly
66
Pertubational Complexity Index (PCI)
An improvement of the Glasgow Coma Scale using EEGs to measure levels of consciousness. It correlates with sleep stages and anaesthesia (Casali et al, 2013)
67
The Global Neuronal Workspace Model of Consciousness (Dehaene et al, 1998)
Consciousness stems from integrative systems relating to information processing such as long-term memory, motor and perceptual systems etc. This model also explains NCCs such as sensory areas, wide fronto-parietal activity and synchronisation of brain oscillations in the gamma range (40Hz). However, this may focus too strongly on cortical regions
68
Penfield and Jasper (1954) findings following surgery on epilepsy patients
Consciousness never faltered despite removal of large amounts of cortical tissue. Concluded that consciousness likely originates in the upper brain stem and spreads out.
69
Merker (2007) on Superior Colliculus for consciousness
SC might be a consciousness hub: it controls the directing of attention while distributing information across the brain.
70
Role of Periaqueductal Gray in consciousness
Converges stimuli from superficial, intermediate and deep layers of the superior colliculus to transform them into actions.
71
Merker's (2007) Selection Triangle for Consciousness
Demonstrated the role of the SC and PAG in consciousness through three processes: 1. target selection: SC creates an analogue simulation of the world. Integrates sensory information from the senses & cortex into a space map. This also functions as a salience map that controls selective attention. 2. motivation: PAG final integration of emotion/motivation signals from hypothalamus. PAG interconnected with deep layers of SC. Hypothalamus connects directly with SC intermediate layers (homeostatic). 3. action selection: SC drives orienting responses (eye & body movements). Gaze leads manual reaching and manipulation. PAG codes high-level goals and strategies & drives motor action accordingly.
72
Reticular Activating System (RAS)
Core of the brain stem which controls cortical states through neuromodulators. Lesions here can cause a coma and stimulation can induce significant emotional states.
73
Conscious Electromagnetic Information Field Theory (McFadden, 2000; Pockett, 2000)
The current of neurons generates consciousness, not the axons it flows through.

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