Chapter 1
What is cognitive psychology?
The branch of psychology that explores the operation of mental processes related to perceiving, attending, thinking, language, and memory, mainly through inferences from behavior
Tell me where the four individual lobes of the brain are located and what their individual functions are. I will give bonus points if you can tell me something strange about a lobe the class may not know
The occipital lobe is located at the very back of the brain, and contains the primary visual cortex, which is responsible for interpreting incoming visual information. The frontal lobe is located in the forward part of the brain. The frontal lobe is involved in reasoning, motor control, emotion, and language. The brain’s parietal lobe is located immediately behind the frontal lobe, and is involved in processing information from the body’s senses.The temporal lobe is located on the side of the head (temporal means “near the temples”), and is associated with hearing, memory, emotion, and some aspects of language
Rods vs Cones. Function? Location?
Rods are responsible for vision at low light levels. They do not mediate color vision, and have a low spatial acuity- located in the periphery. Cones are active at higher light levels. are capable of color vision and are responsible for high spatial acuity- located in the fovea.
Differences between bottom-up and top-down processing, examples?
Bottom-up: the stimulus itself shapes our perception, without any preconceived ideas. Top-down: our background knowledge and expectations to interpret what we see.
Prosopagnosia? What is it? Where's the damage?
A neurological disorder characterized by the inability to recognize faces. Results from damage to the occipital and/or ventral temporal lobe, often including the fusiform face area or occipital face area
Why is reaction time RT important for measuring cognitive processes?
Because reaction time depends on the central nervous system's processing speed. Thus, visual reaction time is a critical factor in higher cognitive functions. The healthier the brain, the faster its processing speed, memory, and thinking skills
Functions of midbrain, hindbrain, and forebrain
The forebrain is home to sensory processing, endocrine structures, and higher reasoning. The midbrain plays a role in motor movement and audio/visual processing. The hindbrain is involved with autonomic functions such as respiratory rhythms and sleep
Receptive fields? Center-surround receptive fields? Tell me about them
The receptive field is the region within the visual field in which stimulation can affect the neuron's response- the part of the visual field that either excites or inhibits a cell in the visual system. For Center-surrounded, a stimulus in the center of the receptive field leads to faster firing rates, hence the antagonistic interaction
Object constancy? Why is it important for object recognition?
Ability to recognize an object across varying viewing conditions
Binocular vs monocular cues?
binocular cues which require comparisons of information across the two eyes, and monocular cues which include information available to a single eye
What is introspection? How is it used? Faults?
Introspection is the examination of one's own conscious thoughts and feelings. Self-introspection or looking inward is an important part of self-awareness and can help people gain insight into their own feelings and behavior. Introspection might also lull us into a false sense of certainty that we've identified the real issue
Presynaptic vs Postsynaptic neurons? What is a synapse?
The presynaptic neuron is the cell that sends information (i.e., transmits chemical messages). The postsynaptic neuron is the cell that receives information (i.e., receives chemical messages). A synapse is a small pocket of space between two cells, where they can pass messages to communicate
Lateral inhibition, how does it work? Give an example
Proportional inhibition of a cell’s neighboring cells based on its level of stimulation. Remember examples in class of the cells inhibiting each other- lateral inhibition can increase the contrast and sharpness of visual responses
Recognition-by-components? Explain this process and what a GEON is
According to RBC theory, we are able to recognize objects by separating them into geons
What is a greeble and how is it used? What area of the brain is associated with greebles? What does this tell us?
greeble learning can occur without normal functioning of the right fusiform face area
What is Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)?
Transcranial magnetic stimulation is a noninvasive form of brain stimulation in which a changing magnetic field is used to induce an electric current at a specific area of the brain through electromagnetic induction
What is contralateral organization? Give an example
The hemispheres of the brain control the contralateral sides of the body. So the left side of the brain controls the right side of the body and the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body. A stroke that causes damage to the left side of the brain can cause paralysis on the right side of the body.
Difference between the “what” and “where” visual systems? What happens when either are damaged?
What- Identification of visual objects, damage can lead to visual agnosia Where- Location of visual objects and guiding of actions, damage can lead to problems in grabbing seen objects
What are feature nets?
Feature nets are a theory of recognition and image constancy in Human perception. Feature nets propose that recognition depends on a network of “detectors”
Give an example of interposition
Think back about the apples in the fruit bowl!
Difference between EEG and fMRI?
Electroencephalography is a method to record an electrogram of the spontaneous electrical activity of the brain. Associated with temporal resolution. Functional magnetic resonance imaging or functional MRI measures brain activity by detecting changes associated with blood flow. An fMRI scan is a special type of MRI that shows how different parts of your brain are working. Associated with spatial resolution.
Tell me about the all-or-none law
A physiological principle that functions in response to electrical stimulation, the premise of this law is that no matter the magnitude, intensity or duration, of the impulse- the activation will remain the same consistently
What is Gestalt psychology? What are the terms associated with our perception of objects? KNOW EXAMPLES
"The whole is other than the sum of the parts" Proximity, Similarity, Closure, Good continuation
McClelland and Rumelhart model
A model of context effects in perception is applied to the perception of letters in various contexts. In the model, perception results from excitatory and inhibitory interactions of detectors for visual features, letters, and words.
Bigram detectors?
Connect the letters we previously recognized based on the frequency of firing and threshold levels. Account for well-formedness because these pairs are are influenced by the frequency with which the detector has fired in the past and by the recency with which it has fired, making it easier to recognise