Test 1

Question 1

Describe the Harris et. al study. What does this tell us about brain/behavior relationships/ how do these types of studies advance our knowledge of the brain?

Answer 1

This study was about mental rotation & the attempts to specify brain areas involved. They found parietal lobes do play an important role as well as blood flow with helps the R posterior parietal lobe carry visual/ spatial transformations. Doing these types of studies help us know how the brain can process visual/spatial stimuli and how ppl perceive and mentally process info.

Question 2

Pattern recognition is typically quick/easy. Describe some factors that have been hypothesized to contribute to the ease with which we can identify objects.

Answer 2

Prototype- typical model
Template approach- pattern stored in memory and then compared to incoming stimuli to recognize patterns
Feature detection-stimuli are identified by breaking them into their constituent features

Question 3

Distinguish between automatic vs controlled processing. What does this tell us about cognition/attention?

Answer 3

Automatic- not consciously aware, very fast, external, effortless
ex:When someone in class drops a book, everyone turns to look.
Controlled- consciously aware, slow, internal, effortful
ex: Driving in an unfamiliar area, we concentrate more

Attention is limited but we can focus on tasks, with practice things can become automatic.

Question 4

List & briefly describe 3 neuroscience methods for studying cog processes. What does neuroscience add to cog psych?

Answer 4

EEG- this measures spontaneous electrical activity over a short period of time
MRI-this measures the gray/white matter of the brain and focuses on the anatomy of the brain
PET- ink is injected into bloodstream & focuses on the brain fxn
Knowing this info is good for investigating the structure and fxn of the brain

Question 5

Why do you think executive fxn is such a current focus of the cog, clinical & developmental lit?

Answer 5

Cognitive- memory, language, perception
Clinical- using behavior for diagnosing & decision making
Dev- brain behavior as we age

Question 6

Describe some of the features of sensory memory. How has this been studied?

Answer 6

Features: Short term memory,visual( iconic), audition (echoic) V:250-300ms A:2000-4000ms
These have been studied by Span of apprehension and auditory persistance

Question 7

Describe/ draw some of the brain regions.

Answer 7

Parietal- touch/taste
occipital- visual info
temporal- auditory/memory
frontal-executive fxn
corpus callosum- bundle of nerve fibers that connect brain

Question 8

Describe some of the experimental evidence that suggests that selective attention isn’t early

Answer 8

Treisman’s shadow task. This had people use headphones and listen to what was being said and repeat that outloud. Also trying to ignore what was being said in the other ear.
This tells us that ignored stimuli still gets processed to some degree, and with dual task, one can’t pay attention to everything.