Sensation &
Perception
Perception
Rods is for lights, cones is for colours
Difference between automatic & controlled processes
Auto is quick & thoughtless, controlled requires more mental effort & takes more time
What is the duration & capacity of: short-term & long-term memory?
LTM: Perhaps forever, perhaps unlimited
What did Ebbinghaus say?
That overtime we forget things, thus, his forgetting curve
What is the smallest unit of sound in a language that can change the meaning of a word?
Phoneme
Describe the trichromatic theory
the combination of red, blue and green that makes up the colour we see
What evidence do we have that attention is limited? Provide two
When is retrieval most effective?
When the retrieval context matches the encoding context
Different types of long-term memory
Explicit: Semantic & episodic
Implicit: Procedural
What is categorical speech perception?
The ability to perceive speech sounds as distinct categories
The Weber fraction for telling that two sounds have a different amplitude is .04 (or 4%). If the first tone is 20 dB, how many dB will a louder tone need to be to tell they're different?
22dB
Distinguish between top-down and bottom-up processes
Top-down is goal-driven, bottom-up is stimulus-driven
Difference between 'availability' and 'accessibility'
Availability - Item in memory
Accessibility - Item can be retrieved from memory
Effective encoding strategies
Elaboration, organising, regeneration and imagery
What is the Vocabulary Burst, and why does it occur after learning the first 50 words?
A rapid increase in productive vocabulary that occurs after an infant learns around 50 words. Happens due to the symbolic nature of language becoming clearer, improved control over articulation, and easier retrieval of words as their linguistic system develops.
Have you ever had a false sensation that your phone has vibrated to indicate you have a message, but when you check, there's nothing there. In signal detection terms, this is an example of: a) hit b) miss c) false alarm d) a correct rejection
false alarm
Difference between binocular cues & monocular cues
Tell us about the Baddeley & Hitch memory model
Includes 4 components: Central executive, phonological loop, visuo-spatial sketchpad, episodic buffer
Explain interference and how it might affect memory retrieval
Interference is the act of other memories getting in the way of retrieval, either recent affecting older memories or vice versa
Explain the 'sensitive period' and provide an example
The 'sensitive period' refers to a critical time window in early development during which the human brain is particularly receptive to acquiring language. Example: Genie
My grandmother has a very hard time hearing my older brother when he talks, but she hears me just fine. We think we speak at the same volume. What might you conclude about grandmother's hearing?
Her absolute threshold for high frequencies has increased
It explains how we perceive objects by combining different features like colour, shape, and location. It suggests that perception occurs in two stages; from an automatic to a controlled process
Tell us about the 'Tulving & Watkins' study
They compared free recall, cued recall and recognition cues
Tell us about 'schemas'
People use mental frameworks or structures to organize and interpret information. Built from past experiences and help us process new information by providing a structure to understand it.
When we encounter new experiences or information, we tend to interpret them based on these existing schemas, which can influence both encoding and retrieval in memory.
While schemas aid in organizing memories, they can also lead to distortions, as new information might be altered to fit into existing frameworks.
Describe the difference between bound & function morpheme
Bound morphemes are units of meaning that cannot stand alone as independent words; to convey meaning. e.g. UNhappy
Function morphemes are a subset of bound morphemes. They are used primarily to express grammatical relationships