W1 - Intro Concepts Flashcards
(112 cards)
1
Q
What is experimental cognitive psychology?
A
A branch of study that experiments with cognitive structures and processes, ie., sensation and perception, memory, thought and language, attention, consciousness
2
Q
What is the aim of experimental cognitive psychology?
A
to learn about how the mind/higher mental processes work, eg., speaking, planning, memorising, recalling items, imagining, thinking, perceiving
3
Q
What is the main method in experimental cognitive psychology?
A
observing behaviour of people performing experimental tasks
4
Q
What is the foundational approach in experimental cognitive psychology?
A
- The information-processing approach
- showcase mental functions (box and arrow diagrams)
- computer metaphor of the brain
- hierarchical (occur one after another) and heterarchical functions (later stages occur before early stages are complete)
5
Q
What is top down processing and bottom up processing?
A
- A type of processing whereby the later stages of processing influence the outcome of early stages, eg., memory (late) influences perception (early), processing is influenced by individuals expectations and past experiences and knowledge rather than the stimulus itself
- Bottom-up processing = when a stimulus input (task/issue) is shown, causing various internal processes to occur, leads to a behavioural response output, serial processing
6
Q
What is a activity can be done with serial and/or parallel processing?
A
Driving - Parallel processing occurs in many everyday tasks, eg., first learning, eg., driving does serial processing, experienced drivers develop parallel processing
7
Q
Where does neuropsych stem from and who pioneered it?
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The origins go back to neurology in the 19th century, eg., Penfield embarked on pioneering neurosurgery, could stimulate memory and make someone recall a memory when stimulating the temporal lobe
8
Q
What are the 6 different types of brain damage that can result in changes to cognition?
A
- Neurosurgery, eg., H.M, split brain phneonemon after CC is removed
- TBI - sheers white matter tracks
- Neurodegenerative disorders - Parkinson’s, dementia
- Brain tumours - meninges, glial/glioma cells put pressure on neurons from extracellular matter
- Viral infections
- Stroke
9
Q
Is TBI good for making conclusions about brain/behaviour?
A
No - as damage can be either localised/open or
closed/widespread -contrecoup frontal impact spread to back) - harder to localise damage
10
Q
What is a stroke and what are the 2 types of strokes?
A
A stroke is a cerebrovascular accident and disrupts blood supply to the brain, causes neuron death
- Hemorrhagic - brain bleed (widespread damage) -
- Ischemic - a brain block (localised damage) - good for making conclusions about the relationship between brain/behaviour
11
Q
Which type of stroke is better for making conclusions on brain/behaviour?
A
Ischemic - a brain block (as localised damage is easier for making conclusions about the relationship between brain/behaviour
12
Q
What are 3 examples of viral infections that affect cognition in the brain?
A
- Herpes (simplex encephalitis)
- HIV (human immunodeficiency virus
- Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease
13
Q
What is Cognitive Neuropsychology?
A
A branch of psych investigating people with IMPAIRED cognition / BD patients to understand NORMAL cognitive processes, - a branch of cog. psych
14
Q
What are the 2 inverse aims of Cognitive Neuropsychology?
A
- To use neuropsychological data from people with brain disorders to test and develop ideas about normal function
- To use cog. theories from normal people to better understand cog. disorders
15
Q
What are the 3 main methods of Cognitive Neuropsychology?
A
- Behavioral evidence of double dissociations of impairment
* when one patient has normal performance on Task X but is impaired on Task Y, and another patient shows the opposite pattern
Eg., HM in impaired ability to commit new info to LTM but intact STM memory, while KF had impaired STM but intact LTM
showing that short-term memory (STM) and long-term memory (LTM) are distinct and partially independent systems in the brain
- Information processing cogntiive theories
- Neuroimaging
16
Q
What is Cognitive Neuroscience and what methods does it use?
A
- It uses brain and behavioural evidence to study human cognition, through following functional neuroimaging methods
fMRI (functional imaging)
Electrophysiological techniques
Brain damage case studies
17
Q
What is Computational cognitive science and what methods does it use?
A
- The aim is designed to simulate or imitate human processing on a given task uses computational models, algorithms
18
Q
- uses behavioural data?
- uses brain damage case studies?
- uses brain and behavioural evidence?
- uses computational models, algorithms?
A
- Cognitive (experimental) psych
- Cognitive neuropsych
- Cognitive neuroscience
- Computational neuroscience
19
Q
What type of processing influences the other more?
A
Top-down processing can dominate information available from the stimulus (bottom up processing), eg., reading “Paris in the Springtime” - whereby prior expectations influence direct perception
20
Q
What is parallel processing?
What is the subtype of parallel processing?
A
- Occurs when one cognitive process is occurring at same time
- More likely to use parallel processing with highly familiar tasks, eg., an experienced driving
- Cascade processing is a type of parallel processing involving an overlap of different processing stages later stages are initiated before earlier stages are finished
21
Q
What is an example of cascade processing?
A
Reading = many people form hypotheses about the word presented before identifying all the letters in the word (McClelland, 1979)
22
Q
What is the task impurity problem and how do we solve it?
A
- The TIP is that most cognitive tasks involve several brain processes occurring at the same time, making it hard to interpret the findings
Solution = consider various tasks that all utilise the same cognitive process and compare the results, to measure the neural commonality of the tasks, which act as “pure measure[s] of inhibitory processes”
23
Q
What are some tasks to solve the task-impurity problem?
A
- Stroop task (colour of word is incongruent with its semantic meaning)
- Anti-cascade task = inhibiting the tendency to look at something and instead look in the opposite direction, takes longer than looking at the cue
- Stop-signal task = respond quickly to indicate which words is animal/non-animal, response was instructed to be inhibited on the sound of a key tone
24
Q
What are the strengths and limitations of cognitive psychology?
A
Strengths
* Big influence on the 4 approaches to human cognition
* Good influence on development of cognitive tasks and task analysis
Limitations
* Low ecological validity
* Vague = Theories are mainly expressed verbally, hard to predict outcomes or falsify, aided by comp. cognitive science
* Too many theories = due to issues of falsifying cog. psych. theories
* Paradigm specificity =often too specific to one thing, cannot be generalised to other cognitions
* Indirect evidence for cog. processes, most tests use speed and accuracy to thus “impure” - hard to isolate processes
25
What are the 3 assumptions of cognitive neuropsychology?
1. Modularity = the cognitive system has modules independent of each other - domain specificity, eg, FFA for facial recognition, serial processing, no interaction
2. Anatomical modularity = assumption that each module is found in a specific brain area, which is easier to studying brain patients with brain damage in a single module
3. Universality = the assumption that people have a same/similar organisation of cog. functions, and thus similar brain anatomy, thus allowing us to make conclusions on the organisation of cog. systems
26
In cog neuropsych, what is the evidence for/against modularity?
1. For - Bigger brains have more specialisations, eg., evidence for modularity
2. Against - Neuroscientific evidence shows more neuroconnections, and lots of cog parallel processing
27
In cog neuropsych, what is the evidence for/against anatomical modularity?
1. For - Localised damage - if all modules were evenly distributed across the brain, brain-damaged patients would suffer damage to multiple cog. processes, but this is often not the case, most have intact LTM but not STM, etc.
2. Against - Some anatomical modularity in tasks but not others, eg., DLPFC and ACC were often activated in many different tasks
28
In cog neuropsych, what is the evidence for/against universality?
1. For = People have the same impaired performance on cognitive tasks from direct electrical stimulation to the same specific brain regions
2. Against = big differences between patients in locus of speech, language brain networks and functional connectivity
29
What is Duffau's two level model (2017) for assumptions of universal brains?
1. At cortical level = high variability across individuals in brain structure/function, at cortical inconsistent with the universality assumption
2. At subcortical level/older = , more universal at subcortical level, eg., premotor cortex, amygdala, very little variability
30
What is the assumption that brain damage impaired one or more processing regions but does not change or add anything
Subtractivity
31
What is the assumption that cognitive performance of BD patients reflects how a theory of would work in an ideal brain, with the only difference being the effects of their brain damage (lesion)?
The lesion is seen as something that subtracts or alters parts of the normal functioning.
Transparency
32
Why are the subtractivity and transparency assumptions important?
1. If brain-damaged patients developed new cog. modules to compensate for their damage, this would make studying the intact cog. system much harder
Example: pure alexia - condition where brain damaged patients have severe reading issues but intact language, where there is generally a direct relationship between word length and reading speed due to letter-by-letter processing, indicating use of compensatory strategies to normal reading processes
33
Why should we avoid making sweeping conclusions about dissociations, eg., the LTM module has been damaged?
1. Because worse performance might the difficulty of the task, so dissociation task performance differences may reflect the difficulty of the task rather than modules being damaged
34
How do we determine whether perfromance is worse from task difficulty or actual brain damage?
1. find double dissociations
when two performances are obtained when one patient does well on task 1 but impaired on task 2, while another patient shows the opposite pattern,
you can no longer make the claim task 2 is just harder for everyone
35
What are the 3 limitations of double dissociations?
1. Makes an assumption separate modules exist in the brain
2. Only provide indirect evidence for separate modules from task performance
3. Hard to decide which of the many double dissociations are theoretically important
36
What is an association?
Associations
An association occurs when a patient is impaired on both tasks 1 and 2, can be used as evidence for a syndrome
37
What is a critique of associations as evidence for syndromes?
the association as evidence for a syndrome could simply occur because they are adjacent anatomically in the brain, rather than because they stem from the same underlying mechanism
38
What are the 2 types of case studies, which is better?
1. Single case studies = provides unique pattern of cognition, hard to generalise to others
2. Case-series study = using several patients with similar cognitive impairments, data and variation across patients is compared
Provides richer data
Shows the extent of variation between patients on a cognitive issue
Can more easily identify patients who are ‘outliers’ and de-emphasis/not generalise them to others
39
What are the 3 strengths of cognitive neuropsychology?
1. Draw causal inferences between brain areas, cognition and behaviour
2. Produces large-magnitude phenomena - can challenge previous cognitive theories on memory and reading, eg., amnesic patients with bad LTM still can learn new motor skills
3. Combined fruitfully with cognitive neuroscience, eg., diaschisis shows a brain injury/lesion can cause widespread cog. Effects
40
What are the 5 limitations of cognitive neuropsychology?
1. Assumption of cognitive modularity, which is probably not 100% correct in higher cognitive processes, eg., attention
2. Assumes anatomical modularity and universality, not really true
3. Task performance is NOT direct evidence for the impact of brain damage on cognition, as many brain-damaged patients can develop compensatory strategies to reduce effects of brain damage, attention, cognitive control, can compensate for BD disruption of specific processes, but specific processes cannot be used to compensate for BD disruption to general processes
4. Lesions can alter brain organisation and modules in many unpredictable ways, eg., patients with left hemispherectomy can develop language skills even though language is typically in the left hemisphere
5. Brain lesions can also lead to changes in functional connectivity between the lesion and distant other areas, making it hard to interpret neuropsychological task performance
41
What is a cog example of BD patients using compensatory strategies?
Patients with pure alexia can read words with letter-by-letter strategies)
42
What is the difference between dorsal and ventral?
1. Dorsal / superior = towards the top
2. Ventral / inferior = towards the bottom
43
What is the difference between anterior/rostral and posterior/caudal?
1. Anterior / rostral = towards the front
2. Posterior / caudal = towards the back
44
What is the difference between lateral and medial?
1. Lateral = situated at the side
2. Medial = situated in the middle
45
What are Brodmann areas?
brain map on differences in cell types across cortical layers, 52 areas of different cell types, referred to as BA17, eg,. Brodmann Areas 17
46
What is the Connectome?
1. a comprehensive wiring diagram of neural connections within the brain
to better understand brain organisation, structure & function
2. Understand individual differences in the connectome, 100 billion neurons
47
What are the conflicting principles of cost control and efficiency in the brain?
1. Principle of cost control = use of energy/space would be minimised if the brain has limited short distance connections
2. Principle of efficiency = ability to integrate information across the brain (achieved long distance neural connections)
48
What is the solution to conflicting between cost control and efficiency?
1. Complex topology OVER random or lattice topology - The human brain is a near-optimal trade-off between cost and efficiency
2. How? Most neurons connect with neighbouring neurons and neuron is connected to more than 10000 neurons
49
What is the metaphor between brain modules and hubs?
1. Modules = small areas of tightly clustered connections
2. Hubs = regions having large numbers of connections to other regions
The brain is like an airport - passengers are aided by having lots of local airports (modules) and a few major airports (hubs)
50
What brain structures are considered hubs or “rich clubs”?
1. precuneus, superior frontal cortex, insular cortex and superior parietal cortex
2. connections are wired in rich club hubs, in non-rich club hubs (local connections) and between rich and non-rich club nodes (feeder connections)
51
Hilger (2017): What is global and nodal efficiency? And how is it connected to intelligence?
1. Global efficiency = overall brain network efficiency
2. Nodal efficiency = specific hubs/nodes efficiency
Intelligence is RELATED nodal efficiency (in the anterior insula and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex) but NOT to global efficiency
52
What is single-unit recording, and what are the pros/cons?
1. A micro-electrode into the brain to study single-neuron activity
Cons = Highly invasive, rarely used in humans (eg., epileptic patients)
Cons = Tiny fraction of neurons can be studied
53
What is ERP and what are the pros/cons?
1. The same/similar cognitive stimulus is repeated and pattern of electrical brain activity is recorded from electrodes, then averaged into a single waveform (average pattern of EEG activity
Pros = Several locations on the scalp, very small changes in electrical activity are detected
Cons = do not show which brain regions are most involved in processing, as skull/brain tissue distort electrical fields
Cons = ERPs mainly useful for simple stimuli/tasks involving basic processes, like detection, not complex tasks, as the ERPs would change with practice over time
53
What is PET and what are the pros/cons?
1. A scanner that detects the localtion positrons from injected radioactive tracer water (atomic particles from radioactive substances), which moves rapidly to active areas of the cortex to indicate brain activity - structural imaging
Pros = good spatial resolution
Cons = poor temporal resolution
Cons = invasive, radioactively labelled water/tracer is injected into the body and goes into the brain’s blood, largely replaced with fMRI
54
What is MRI and fMRI?
1. MRI - A strong magnetic field aligns protons in the brain, a radio pulse is applied, causes protons to spin and regain original orientations, protons emits energy rightest regions of an MRI emit the greatest energy, MRI shows brain structure
2. Functional MRIs show look at distortions in the local magnetic field when neurons consume oxygen
* measures the blood-oxygen-level-dependent contrast (BOLD)
* changes in BOLD signals show increased neural activity
Cons = fMRI has only indirect measure of neural activity
Pros = better spatial/temporal resolution to PET (2-3 seconds), submillimetre spatial resolution
55
What is Event-related fMRI?
1. imaging blood oxygenation with an MRI machine, separating elements of an experiment discreetly, so each cog. process and brain response can be analysed independently
56
How would we study why people remember some things but not others?
1. Use an event-related fMRI (efMRI) - to measure each participants brain activation patterns for words they can remember/can’t remember
2. efMRI shows more brain activity in remembered words, less processing with forgotten words
57
What are the 5 cons of fMRI?
1. poor spatial resolution, hard to tell which brain regions are involved during a cognitive task - can combine with other neuroimaging
2. Indirect measure of underlying neural activity, not output signal transmissions
3. Processing = Have to change raw fMRU data to be more generalised to others,
4. Limited visual constraints available for participants lying in the fMRI scanner
5. Noise = distraction, scanner is noisy
58
What is MEG and what are pros/cons?
1. Magneto-encephalography (MEG)
measures magnetic fields produced by electrical brain activity, using about 200 devices on the scalp
PRO- very good temporal, fairly good spatial
Cons: Super expensive and limited in use
59
What is TMS and rTMS?
1. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) = coil is placed near a head with a brief pulse of current run through it, producing a brief magnetic field that often inhibits brain processing in that area, causing a ‘lesion’ / interferes with task performance
2. rTMS is repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation, current pulse several times, often used in research
60
What is the main con in both TMS and rTMS?
TMS has a loud noise and muscle twitching (could impair performance)
61
What is an appropriate control condition against which to compare the effects of TMS or rTMS?
1. Bad control = compare TMS vs. no TMS, but TMS noise/twitches could impair performance and make it harder to determine whether performance in TMS participants is due to disruptions or current pulse
2. Good control = applying TMS to a non-critical brain area would serve as a good control group, as both groups now have the TMS disruptions, and researchers can better determine whether any changes in task performance may be due to the influence of the temporary TMS ‘lesion’, controlling for TMS noise/twitches
62
What is transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS)?
What is the difference between anodal and cathodal tDCS?
What is unique about anodal tDCS?
1. A weak electric current is passed through a given brain area, flowing from a positive anode to negative cathode site
Cons = Less good spatial/temporal resolution to TMS
1. Anodal tDCS increases cortical excitability, enhances performance, and can be used to reduce brain damage on cognition, long-lasting, little discomfort
2. Cathodal tDCS decreases cortical excitability, impairs performance
63
What are the 5 strengths of cognitive neuroscience?
1. Helped resolve cognitive theories that behavioural studies couldn’t solve (tell differences between visual imagery and imagination)
2. Can make accurate theoretical models from rich neuroimaging data
3. Demonstrating highly robust estimates of neural correlates to specific cognitive tasks
4. Data can be re-analysed and self-corrected after theoretical developments
5. Compares assumptions of specialisation (localisation) and integration (brain networks)
64
Cons of cog neuroscience: what is blobology?
When findings are over-interpreted from assumptions between cog. processes and brain regions, eg., allocating blobs of brain to behaviour that might not be 100% accurate
example: allocating the FFA to facial processing
65
Cons of cog neuroscience: what is reverse inference?
When you infer a cognitive process from activation of a brain region and argue backwards from brain activation to the presence of a given cog. process
Example = FFA is assumed to only be activated with face processing, but is also involved in processing other objects as well as other regions)
66
What are 5 other more general common limitations in cognitive neuroscience?
1. Rarely used to test cognitive theories, only 11% of theories tested a cog. theory
2. Hard to fully determine which brain patterns correspond closely to psychological processes, eg., where is planning/attention done?
3. Hard to replicate findings -
4. False positive findings are common, eg., lots of ways to analyse fMRI data, lots of data to interpret
5. Most only reveal links between brain/behaviour, CANNOT claim a brain region was NECESSARY for task performance
6. Low ecological validity and paradigm specificity - such that cognitive tasks may be harder to perform normally in a noisy machine where you can’t move, can lead to worse performance due to anxiety/distractions
67
Cons of cog neuroscience: what is the default mode network?
The default mode network is an interconnected set of brain regions that are more ACTIVITY by default at rest - eg., daydreaming, mind wandering.
Thus, cognitive tasks then show REDUCED ACTIVITY in this network, making it harder to interpret data.
Even then, the environment/tasks usually adds only <5% activity compared to resting, or can even be decreased.
68
What is the problem of neuroenchantment?
when people exaggerate the importance of neuroimaging on cognition
69
What are the 2 main methods in Computational Neuroscience?
1. Computer modelling = programing computers to mimic/model cognition
2. Artificial intelligence = involves creating computer systems to “produce intelligence” in different methods to humans, eg., IBM chess computer and Watson IBM computer
70
What is the main pro and con for computational neuroscience?
1, Pro = While cog. psych is full of vague predictions of human behaviour, computational models have to be more precise
2. Cons = computer models are influenced by human/psych-irrelevant features, ie., computer power, limits generalisability to humans
71
What are the 5 strengths of TMS?
1. Allows for causal inferences of brain areas to task performance
(due to experimental condition)
2. More flexible - doesn't have to rely on brain-damaged patients
3. Research can control which brain areas to be temporarily affected
4. Precision - Can create smaller/narrower temporary lesions compared to natural lesions
5. Can determine when a brain area is most activated (eg., visual processing)
72
What are the limitations of TMS?
1. Safety issues - Not fully understood - effects of TMS is new, complex, can cause seizures
2. Can disrupt or enhance speed/accuracy (by increasing neural activity and processing efficiency, or compensatory flexibility where TMS disruptions in one area is compensated for with other brain areas)
3. Precision - Hard to figure out precisely what brain areas are affected by TMS (use in combination with other neuroimaging techniques)
4. Limits - TMS can only be applied to cortical areas with underlying muscle
73
What is Cognitive architecture in comp neuroscience?
a comprehensive framework for understanding a cognition, “fixed structure of the mind”
74
What are the 2 main models used in comp neuroscience?
1. Connectionist models
2. Production 'if-then' systems
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What are connectionist models and how do they work?
Neural network models = involve interconnected network of simple units/nodes that learn over time
They use elementary nodes connected in layers
1. A layer of nodes codes the input
2. then input activation spreads to a layer of hidden nodes
3. which then spreads to a layer of output nodes
76
What are the 2 main things that CONNECTIONIST models can learn?
1. Simple additions:
= if inputs 1 and 2 are active, output node 3 will become active, then engages in back-propagation
2. Back-propagation: the process of comparing actual output against correct/expected output, to find any discrepancies in the model,
* then adjusts the weight of node connections to match the correct output
* allows model to learn without being explicitly programmed how to learn
77
What type of distribution do CONNECTIONIST MODELS use?
1. Distributed representations = where each node responds to multiple stimuli and thus a word/object is represented by activation patterns across many nodes
Connectionist models with many hidden layers are called deep neural networks
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What type of distrubition in a comp neuroscience model cannot learn?
1. LOCALIST representations
as each node responds most actively to a single meaningful stimulus,
it does not show learning because representations already have all required information
79
Are LOCALIST models biologically implausible?
1. It is unclear
2. Localist biological models would imply that one neuron responses to a specific stimulus from a given category
While many neurons DO show selectivity and only respond to a very small selection of stimuli, it is unclear whether all neurons do or could be accurately represented via a localist model
- Responsive neurons responded to 3% of images of famous people
80
What are the 3 pros of CONNECTIONIST models?
1. Show robust flexibility in challenges of the real world,
2. can perform many different cognitive problems, makes associations and patterns
3. Important similarities between neurons/brain and neural nodes and connections
81
What are the 4 cons of CONNECTIONIST models?
1. Superposition catastrophe = Assuming that the connectionist models are distributed, if 2 words are presented, it leads to superimposing two patterns over the same nodes - impossible to decide which activated nodes belong to which word
2.. Hard to develop/make neural networks that can learn general rules
3. Brain is way more complex than any neural network model - limited analogy
4. Little evidence for back- propagation implies learning is slow, whereas the brain can humans can learn very quickly upon first try
82
What is the production system model in comp neuroscience and how does it work?
1. Consists of “IF … THEN” rules and a working memory that can hold information
2. Working memory will hear the ‘if’ statement and trigger the ‘then’ statement of the rule
example, - “if light is red, then stop the car”
3. A conflict resolution strategy to select one of 2 rules if the IF part matches to more than one THEN rule
83
Which computation PRODUCTION SYSTEM modelassumes that cognitive systems have many different independent modules linked with brain regions?
The Adaptive Control of Thought-Rational (ACT-R)
84
Main Production system model: What are the 4 main modules proposed in the ACT-R model?
1. Retrieval module = maintains memory cues for retrieval to access information / inferior ventrolateral PFC
2. Imaginal module = transforms problems for problem solving, posterior parietal cortex
3. Goal module = intentions and information processing, anterior cingulate
4. Procedural module = uses the IF … THEN production to determine what to do / basal ganglia
85
What are 3 main points in the Adaptive Control of Thought-Rational (ACT-R)
1. Each module has a buffer containing a limit of important information
2. A central production system is proposed to detect buffer patterns and integrate information from buffers
3. If several productions are triggered from information in the buffers, one is selected based on:
* the value/gain linked with the outcome AND
* the amount of time/cost incurred from achieving that outcome
86
What are the 3 strengths of the PRODUCTION system in comp neuroscience of the mind?
1. Good framework for information processing and cognition
2. Good integration of computational cognitive science and neuroscience
3. Can simulate “lesions” and mimic the estimated cognitive. performance of BD patients in comparison to the actual performance of BD patients
87
What are the 3 limitations of the PRODUCTION system in comp neuroscience of the mind?
1. Applicability = Hard to test a massive theory, ACT-R model is substantially smaller in size compared to the brain
2. PFC = Areas of the PFC are de-emphasized despite playing major role in cognition
3. Connectivity over localisation = Increasingly research is supporting the idea of brain networks over specific modules
88
What is the aim of the Standard Model of the Mind in comp neuroscience?
This standard model highlights the commonalities between major cognitive architectures such as the ACT-R, as it is difficult to compare different cognitive architectures- using several key assumptions:
89
What are the 3 assumptions of the Standard Model of the Mind?
1. Procedural memory has access to ALL working memory, while others only access some parts of WM
2. Serial = A cognitive cycle with serial processing lasts 50 ms per cycle: involves PM modifying WM, retrieving LTM info, initiating motor actions, influencing top-down perception
3. Parallel = In and between each module, parallel processing can occur
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What are the 2 main limitations of the Standard Model of the Mind?
1. Detail = Cannot distinguish different types of declarative memory
2. Emotion = Does not incorporate the role of emotion in cognition
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What are the 3 strengths of comp neuroscience as an approach to cognitive psych?
1. Good framework for the cog. system / combats problem of paradigm specificity, eg., standard model of the mind
2. Can apply to behavioural studies, functional neuroimaging, EEGs,
3. Super clear, detailed &
accumulative progress with incremental modelling from previous models
92
What are the 5 limitations of comp neuroscience as an approach to cognitive psych?
1. Bonini’s paradox = when models become more accurate, they can become as hard to understand as the complex network they were trying to explain
2. Hard to falsify = need comp. models to explain neuroimaging as well as behavioural findings
3. Unsuccessful / overfitting = when a model accounts for data noise with the significant effects, can explain one data set but not good a new one
4. Ignores motivational/emotional factors
5. Hard to understand = source code is rarely accessible, made without programming guidelines, making it hard to double check/reuse
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What is the Optimal solution for solving limitations of the 4 approaches to cognitive psych?
1. to use converging operations = where several methods are used at once to explain a problem
Most research involves 2+ main approaches to cognition
94
What are the main issues in the replication crisis in psych?
1. Only 36% of studies were replicated in 100 studies, only 50% in cog psych were replicable. Individual studies are only an estimate of the “truth” of cog. phenomena - limited by:
* complex nature of cognition
*not controlling for extraneous variables or effect sizes
*Exaggerating statistical significance of data, eg., p-hacking (selective reporting) - only reporting on stat. significant findings
* Proposing hypothesis after research results are known
95
What is the pro of meta-analyses?
What are 3 cons of meta-analyses?
1. PRO - Can detect problems with replicability, combine findings from different studies and integrate via stat methods
2. CON - Apples and oranges studies = often include very dissimilar studies
3. CON - File drawer problem = often ignore non-significant/unpublished findings
4. CON - Garbage in / out problem: poor/good quality studies are often compared together
96
What are the solutions to improving the quality of meta-analyses?
1. Precise criteria is needed to rule out bad/dissimilar studies
2. Ask researchers to provide unpublished data
3. Avoid subjective criteria for meta-analyses (eg., including studies that support your hypothesis, excluding others)
4. Practice disclosure and pre-registration
97
What is the difference between disclosure and pre-registration?
1. Disclosure = “disclose all measures, manipulations, and exclusions”
2. Pre-registration = make public all decisions on hypotheses, effect sizes, sample sizes and statistical uses before publishing
98
What experiments pioneered cognitive neuroscience?
1. Penfield & Rasmussen (1928-1947)
stimulated cortical regions to identify areas involved in movement and sensation, to ultimately remove areas for epileptics
* saw stars when stimulated the occipital lobe
* heard radio music when temporal lobe was stimulated
* fingers moved when central sulcus was stimulated
99
Why is cog neuroscience considered to be more flexible / subsume cog neuropsychology?
Cognitive neuroscience is argued to have subsumed cognitive neuropsychology, as the former is less restricted in its methods, ie., not having to rely only on BD patients.
100
Briefly outline the 3 historical solutions to the mind-body problem:
1. Dualism / Descartes = mind and brain are made from different substances that interact. Mind is non-physical and the brain/body is physical/mortal, interact via pineal gland (endocrine system).
2. Dual-aspect theory / Spinoza = brain and mind are two different explanations for the same thing, but not made from different substances. Like wave-particle duality, where things can be described as both waves and particles.
3. Reductionism = cognitive, mind-based concepts are important, but one day will eventually be represented and replaced at a biological level, eg., neural networks.
Example = fire, once thought to contain phlogiston, now is known to be made up of chemicals / oxygen / heat / fuel.
* Opponents of dual-aspect theory argue that cognitive phenomena will never be replaced as they are important for descriptive purposes, “an emotion will always feel like an emotion”.
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Outline connectivist/neural network approach? (McClelland et al., 1986)
1. Utilised computers to generate more precise models of the brain/cognition
* Nodes = information carrying units that respond to inputs (sounds/colours/letters) and produce a limited amount of outputs (responses)
* Responsiveness of nodes depends on its connection weight - the level of CONNECTIVITY and how ACTIVE they are
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How can we calculate outputs in the connectivist/neural network approach? (McClelland et al., 1986)
How does this model learn?
1. Calculations of outputs can be made by knowing the connection WEIGHT and input ACTIVATIONS
2. The model can learn over time by adjusting the weights of the nodes from previous experience
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What does the connectivist/neural network approach? (McClelland et al., 1986) assume and what is the strengths / limitation of this?
1. It is analogous to the brain (neural plausibility) -
that nodes are like neurons,
weights are like neural connectivity, activation is like neuron firing rates
2. Provide an idea of how the brain might “implement cognitive functions”
3. CON = these models are more powerful and can learn things that brains cannot
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What are the main differences between different neuroimaging techniques?
1. Transcranial stimulation - across the skull = TMS and tDCS
2. Electrical/ magnetic properties of neurons = EEG, ERPs, single-cell recordings and MEG, TMS, tDCs
3. Hemodynamic properties of neurons = PET and fMRI
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What are the 3 main dimensions of neuroimaging techniques?
1. Temporal resolution = measure WHEN an event is occurring
* Brain damage has no temporal resolution / is unchanging
* Millisecond temporal resolution = EEG, MEG, TMS and SSR, fMRI takes a few seconds
2. Spatial resolution refers to the accuracy of WHERE an event is occurring
* Lesion/functional imaging at millimeter level, single-cell recordings at the level of the neuron
3. Invasiveness = refers to whether the equipment is located internally/externally
* Eg., PET, injection of a radio-labelled isotope, single cell recording
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DOES COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY NEED THE BRAIN?
Some claim that cognitive psychological theories can inform theories and experiments in neuroscience and vice versa
Some argue it is not possible, as many cog. information processing theories do not reference the brain
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Has cog. neuroscience ever successfully used data from neuroimaging to influence theories at the cognitive level?
Henson (2005) argues that brain blood flow (hemodynamic) can be used as a dependent variable in a cognitive study, just like other physiological changes, skin conductance, muscle contraction, reaction time.
Such that blood levels in the brain could affect cog. performance and thus affect a cognitive theory
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How would you design whether recognising words/letters visually involve computing them independent of upper/lower case?
Are E and e treated as the same letter in early processing or treated differently until later processing?
1. Reaction time measure = present and record RTs “radio-RADIO” and “RADIO-RADIO” and compare with different word combinations “RADIO-MOUSE”, “RADIO-mouse”
2. Findings: faster RTs in stimuli that have been recently previously presented in another trial
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What was the method and findings of Dehaene et al. (2001) who used RTs and neuroimaging data as DVs
to test whether recognising words/letters visually involve computing them independent of upper/lower case?
1. Method: The first word was presented super briefly with a noise, such that it was not consciously perceived. The second word was consciously seen and required a cognitive response/reaction.
2. Findings:
- RTs = Reaction times were quicker on the 2nd word when it was the same as the first briefly presented word, irrespective of whether it was in lower or upper case.
- fMRI = showed activation in the fusiform cortex (involved in visual recognition) when the 2nd word presented was the same as the first word
Conclusion = RT and fMRI show the same findings in different ways
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What are the 4 issues with the computer analogy to the mind?
(Cognitive psych can be viewed as software, while cog. neuroscience can be seen as hardware)
1. Computer software is written by ‘hardware’ brains
2. The brain makes causal constraints on information processing (it is not invented third-person)
3. Human brain predominantly uses parallel processing in cognition, as serial processing would be too slow for neural processing, while computers can engage in both serial/parallel tasks due to the nature of their power/efficiency
4. The extent to which different regions of the brain are domain specific or are domain general is still debated (Fedorenko et al., 2013).
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DOES NEUROSCIENCE NEED COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY?
1. The interpretation of grey and white matter, blood vessels, electrical activity into memories, attention, and perception requires the mind-body problem to be dealt with explicitly
2. The empirical, rigorous nature of cog. neuroscience does not put it at risk of being naive or unscientific, but it still requires the input of cog. psychology (mind-based concepts) to frame research questions in line with studied scientific cognitions
