The Cognitive Revolution

Question 1

Behavioral measures

Answer 1

1. accuracy
2. reaction time

Question 2

Physiological measures

Answer 2

1. invasive (single-cell, lesions)
2. non- invasive (imaging, eg; MRI, fMRI)
3. post-mortem
4. clinical (brain injury/trauma)

Question 3

Experiments measuring accuracy

Answer 3

• Ebbinhaus’s Savings experiment
• Roediger and Karicke
• letter span task

Question 4

Experiments measuring reaction time

Answer 4

• stroop test

Question 5

Action potentials

Answer 5

• they are nerve impulses
• all or nothing
• frequency = strength

Question 6

Human brain anatomy

Answer 6

• frontal lobe
• temporal lobe
• parietal lobe
• occipital lobe

Question 7

Temporal lobe

Answer 7

receives signals from sound

Question 8

Occipital lobe

Answer 8

receiving area for vision

Question 9

Parietal lobe

Answer 9

receiving area for the skin sense; touch, temperature and pain

Question 10

Frontal lobe

Answer 10

coordination of information

Question 11

magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)

Answer 11

machine that allows you to take pictures of the different anatomy of your body: bones, muscles, organs, etc

Question 12

Limitation of MRIs for cognitive psychology

Answer 12

takes pictures of the anatomy but it doesn’t shows how the anatomy is working

Question 13

Functional magnetic resonance iamging (fMRI)

Answer 13

measures small changes in blood flow associated with the brain activity - detects changes in the brain’s blood oxygenation levels that occur in response to neural activity

Question 14

Feature of fMRI

Answer 14

high spatial resolution, poorer temporal resolution

Question 15

EEG

Answer 15

measures electrical activity in the brain

Question 16

ERP

Answer 16

measures changes in the ongoing EEG activity due to an output

Question 17

Feature of EEGs and ERPs

Answer 17

high temporal resolution, poorer spatial resolution

Question 18

Broca’s aphasia

Answer 18

left frontal lobe
loss of connectors, limited fluency, reduced output overall

Question 19

Wernicke’s Aphasia

Answer 19

left temporal lobe
fluent but meaningless, made-up or misused words

Question 20

2 methodological approaches to figure out mental processes

Answer 20

1. ruling out alternatives
2. the subtraction method

Question 21

Ruling out alternative experiment

Answer 21

Korsokof’s patients experiment

Question 22

Donders

Answer 22

study of the time course of mental processes through subtractive method

Question 23

Subtractive method

Answer 23

each stage receives information from the previous stage, transforms the information, sends the information to the next stage
calculate the cost of the inhibition on processing
allows to draw inferences about the mental processes given 3 assumptions

Question 24

Subtractive method example

Answer 24

Stroop test

Question 25

Donder's method key contributions

Answer 25

identify & measure mental processes indirectly reaction time procedure

Question 26

Donder's method criticism

Answer 26

assumption of stages assumption of additivity assumption of pure insertion

Question 27

Assumption of stages

Answer 27

assumes you already know what the stages are underestimate decision time overestimate decision time

Question 28

Assumption of additivity

Answer 28

the duration of all stages add together to yield the reaction time underestimates decision time stages might operate in parallel therefore only take into account part of the decision/detection time

Question 29

Assumption of pure insertion

Answer 29

all stages remain the same when the new one is added overestimate decision time

Question 30

What method does PET use

Answer 30

the subtraction technique

Question 31

What method does MRI & fMRI use

Answer 31

subtraction technique

Question 32

3 types of pseudo-science

Answer 32

mesmerism, physiognomy, phrenology

Question 33

mesmerism

Answer 33

humors were key to health & carried magnetic charge - earth - fire - air - water

Question 34

physiognomists

Answer 34

contours of the face revealed his or her intellectual and emotional characteristics

Question 35

phrenology

Answer 35

the shape of a persons skull revealed his or her intellectual and emotional characteristics

Question 36

Mesmerism legacy

Answer 36

MRI machine magnets to move humor

Question 37

Physiognomy legacy

Answer 37

Ekman

Question 38

Phrenology legacy

Answer 38

Broadman's area