Flashcards
Cognitive psychology semester 1
Cards in this deck (151)
- 1What is cognitive psych?-our PERCEPTION of world around us and how we INTERPRET THE SENSES
-the ATTENTIONAL PROCESSES that allow us to focus on stimuli
-how our MEMORY operates and how we retrieve information
-our LANGUAGE PROCESSES that help us communicate
-the processes that contribute to DECISION MAKING - 2IntrospectionWe can monitor our own thought processes to understand how they world
Anecdotes, stream of consciousness, self-tests.
Developed by Wilhelm Wundt. Also known as experimental self-observation. - 3Problems with introspectioninconsistent results,
introspection may be inaccurate,
some mental processes might not be amenable to introspection
Low generalisability, testability and reliability
not possible on children/animals/very ill people - 4Information processingOur minds work like a computer.
it is possible and desirable to study the internal mental processes that lie between the stimuli (in our environment) and the response we make. - 5Decompositioncognition composed of multiple processes e.g multi store model
- 6Representationscognition acting on and transforming information
- 7embodied cognitionour body shapes how we sense and act on the world; cognition has to be understood in this context.
our visual sense provides information about the world that allows us to do things in it, such as walk through doors or catch balls. - 8Behaviourismwe cannot measure what is going on inside the mind, but we can measure behaviour responses to stimuli
careful control of stimuli and measurement of behaviour, usually empirical experiment techniques.
problems; doesn't explain everything, e.g. how we can form sentences we haven't heard before. - 9How to measure magnitudePresent stimulus(standard) assign perceptual value e.g 10
Present another stimulus, ask participant to rate magnitude with respect to standard - 10The psycho-physical function
- 11Steven's power lawP= KS^(n)
P= perceived magnitude
S= stimulus intensity
K, n= constants (specific to stimulus)
empirical law- fitted to data but not absolute - 12response compressione.g brightness, loudness, vibration on skin
- 13response expansione.g electric shock, taste of salt, muscle force
- 14Perceptual thresholdthe level of stimulus it takes to go from not experiencing/feeling/seeing to experiencing/seeing/feeling the stimulus
- 15Threshold finding methodsMethod of limits
Method of adjustment
Method of constant stimuli - 16Method of limits1) start with the lowest intensity, feel yes/no? increase again and again till yes. create 1st threshold.
2) start with highest intensity, feel yes/mo? reduce again and again till no. create 2nd threshold.
repeat till consistent, find average to determine final threshold
-fast but may suffer order effects - 17Method of adjustmentparticipants adjust stimulus intensity themselves using e.g. turning nob.
aiming for perceptual threshold.
can be repeated with different starting intensities.
-quickest, but more dependent on participant cooperation - 18Method of constant stimulistimuli are pre-selected by experimenter and run in random order
psychometric curve is fit to results
every participant gets same experience
-stimuli can be presented multiple times, then mean score found
very precise but also slow.
- 19Just noticeable difference (JND)What is the smallest difference between two stimuli we can detect?
present two stimuli on each trial & ask whether they are the same or different. - 20Relative threshold (for JND)
- 21Weber's LawJND is a constant proportion of the stimulus intensity
+/-20%
- 22The muller-lyer illusionLines with outward pointing arrow shafts tend to appear longer than inward ones.
- 23Signal detection theoryPerceiver's sensitivity can be distinguished from their bias. All perceivers have bias, and it will be influenced buy the costs and benefits of the response outcomes.
need to also ask when stimulus is NOT present.
- 24Perceptual responses to a stimulus-describing (indicating characteristics)
-recognising (putting in specific category)
-detecting (aware of barely detectable aspects of stimulus e.g slight movements)
-perceiving magnitude- aware of size/intensity
-searching- looking for specific stimulus amongst others - 25OlfactionSense of smell
- 26Gustationsense of taste
- 27somatosensationsense of touch
- 28TactitionClassic sense of skin touch
- 29Equilibrioceptionsense of balance and acceleration
- 30Thermoceptionsense of temperature
- 31Proprioceptionsense of body position and movement
- 32Nociceptionsense of pain
- 33Interoceptionsense of hunger, bladder, thirst etc.
- 34SensationThe passive process of bringing information form the outside world into the body and to the brain
- 35Perceptionthe active process of selecting, organising and interpreting the information brought to the brain by senses.
- 36Transductionthe conversion of physical stimulus/energy into electrical signal (neural activity)
- 37Chemoreceptiontaste/smell chemicals in food/air
- 38MechanoreceptionPhysical touch pressure on cells or sound vibration in the air
- 39Photoreceptionlight picked up by slight
- 40HearingSound waves are funnelled along the ear canal to the ear drum and on to the cochlea. Hair cells along the Basilar membrane pick up the vibrations. Different frequencies cause the Basilar membrane to vibrate at different points. The human ear can perceive frequencies between
- 41visionLight enters the eye through the pupil. Focussed (inverted) onto the retina. Retina is covered with photoreceptor cells. Rods (125 million for dim light) & cones (6 million for bright light). The area of highest density of cones is called the Fovea
- 42TouchReceptors within the skin respond to pressure. vibration and movement. Different types of receptor cells respond to different types of stimulation. Sensitivity varies across body part with density of mechanoreceptors. Can be measured using two-point discrimination technique.
- 43SmellEven more poorly understood than taste. Cells in the nasal cavity respond directly to chemical compounds. Approx 1000 types of receptor molecules located in olfactory receptor cells. Olfactory
- 44TasteNot well understood. About 10,000 taste-buds on tongue- not distributed by class of flavour. Taste buds are continually destroyed and replaced.
- 45Somatosensory cortexFound in parietal lobe. each area of the body maps to a particular part of somatosensory cortex. different body parts are not represented evenly
- 46Gestalt LawsGerman for 'form' or 'shape'. Laws/principles: explain how parts are arranged into forms/objects perceived as a whole.
Similarity, proximity, continuation, closure, simplicity(pragnanz). - 47SimilarityElements that look similar will be perceived as being part of the same form
- 48ProximityElements that are close together will be perceived as belonging together
- 49Good continuationWe perceive lines as following a smooth course
- 50Closureboundary isn't necessary for us to perceive form. When small elements are arranged in groups we tend to perceive them as larger figures. This can lead to us seeing illusory lines that do not exist.
- 51Common fateelements that move together tend to be grouped together
- 52Symmetryelements that are symmetrical tend to be grouped together.
- 53Parallelismelements that are parallel tend to be grouped together
- 54Simplicity (pragnanz)We organise a scene according to its simplest form
- 55Investigating feature representationIdea: record from a single neuron, present different visual stimuli, check which ones elicit a response.
- 56Optic nerve and thalamusResponsive to dot-like circular visual stimuli: centre-surround organisation. Light centre and dark surround or vise versa.
- 57Hubel and WieselMeasure response to lines in different places, at different orientations in cortex. Neural encoding is firing rate. For a single cell, highest firing rate is to a specific orientation in a specific position. Interpretation is that highest firing rate= greatest sensitivity
- 58Edge detectionthe visual system can extract lines/edges from things that we see to process it.
- 59Feature representation in visual cortexreceptive fields are built up by combining receptive fields of neurons in the thalamus. Hierarchical processing. Receptive fields get larger as one ascends the hierarchy. Receptive fields get more complex.
- 60Top-down cuesThe context we perceive a stimulus in can change our perception of it. Our environment gives us clues when the stimulus is ambiguous
- 61Top down vs bottom-upBottom up- processing the stimuli influences what is perceived (data driven). Top down- background knowledge and expectations influence what is perceived (knowledge driven)
- 62Perceptual contancyColour is processed in context. What is surrounding an object effects the perceived colour. Effects are strong
- 63How do we resolve ambiguities?We need to decide which visual scene caused the image on the retina. -Assumptions and cues are combined to make a best guess at what it is we're seeing. -Cues: features of the image that give us clues as to nature of stimulus. -Assumptions: expectations about what we will see or what different cues mean.
- 643D shape cuesWe have learnt the physics of how light works in terms of shadows/high points. This allows us to interpret 3D in images
- 65Two streams of visual perceptionThe 'what' pathway: shapes, objects. Ventral, to inferior temporal lobe. The 'where' pathway: Motion. Dorsal, to superior parietal lobe.
- 66Challenges for cognitive neuroscience-Complex systems (around 1 million neurons in 1 cubic mm of brain.
-Signal to noise ratio (needle in haystack)
-Between-individual differences
-Within-individual differences - 67Cognitive neuroscience techniquesBrain structure:
Anatomical dissection
MRI
Brain function:
Single electrode stimulation
EEG, ERP
fMRI
MEG
PET
TMS
Neuropsychology:
Data from individuals with brain damage - 68fMRIwhen neurons are active, they burn energy. This is automatically replenished via the blood. Blood contains haemoglobin so its possible to detect blood flow. It is possible to distinguish between oxygen-rich vs oxygen-depleted blood. We can work out which parts of the brain are being used
- 69Advantages and disadvantages of fMRI+Tells us which parts of the brain are used in tasks
+Reasonable temporal resolution
+Get structural data within same session.
-Claustrophobic, very noisy, movement artefacts
-Can't have any metal
-isn't a direct measure of activity. - 70MEG: Magneto-encephalographyPyramidal cells of the cortex, when active, generate a significant magnetic field. MEG records theses fields. For both MEG and EEG the synchronous firing of 10,000s of neurons is required to produce a field which is large enough to measure. Magnetic fields are less distorted by scalp than electrical
- 71Advantages and disadvantages of MEG+excellent temporal resolution
+good spatial resolution
-Expensive
-The inverse problem for finding what causes what. - 72EEGEEG measures electrical signals generated by the brain through electrodes placed at the scalp. Signals are produced by partial synchronisation of cortical field activity and are measured in changes of voltage. Electrodes are placed on scalp, connected with conductive gel. An amplifier measured the difference in voltage between the active electrode and reference electrode.
- 73Advantages and disadvantages of EEG+very good temporal resolution
+Less subject to motion artefacts & not claustrophobic.
-Weak spatial resolution
-Inverse problem- given a pattern of activity, how do you determine which brain regions caused it? - 74What method is best for spatial resolution?1St- fMRI
2nd- MEG
3rd- EEG - 75EpochEEG epoching is a procedure in which specific time-windows are extracted from the continuous EEG signal. These time windows are called “epochs”, and usually are time-locked with respect an event e.g. a visual stimulus
- 76What is best method for temporal resolution1st- EEG & MEG
3rd- fMRi - 77PET =: position emission tomographyinject a tracer element into blood stream.
Give some task that requires brain.
Measure how much of tracer goes where in the brain. Stats are done on how this compares with the resting state. - 78Advantages and disadvantages of PET+reasonable structural accuracy
+direct reflection of activity
+no motion artefacts
+relatively pleasant
-injection of very weak radioactive substance
-no temporal resolution
-expensive
-may need to do MRI or CT as well. - 79TMS: Transcranial magnetic stimulationnon-invasive method causing depolarisation or hyperpolarisation of neurons in the brain (i.e increase or decrease activity)
-uses electromagnetic induction to induce weak electrical currents in cortex.
Can cause motor evoked potential (twitches)
can stimulate temporary lesion of brain by preventing normal function. - 80Meta analysis of the efficacy of rTMS in psychiatric disorders40 studies on depression: 751 patients treated with rTMS. Applied to dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Results indicate that rTMS to either left or right, has a medium-sized positive effect on depression. (with some minor side effects).
- 81Advantages and disadvantages of TMS+near portable
+can stimulate or lesion
-difficult to specify precise regions
-only surface regions - 82Where was phineas gage's damage?orbitofrontal and anterior medial areas of frontal lobes.
- 83inattentional blindnessthe failure to see visible and otherwise salient events when paying attention to something else
- 84Attention as an information filterOur attention acts as a filter, there are an infinite amount of things that we could be attending to in the environment at any time.. We filter out irrelevant information to our task goals and focus on what is most relevant.
- 85Broadbent (1958)
- 86Treisman's development of broadbent's model
- 87Cocktail party effectAttention focuses on meaning from environment. E.g hearing our name in someone else's conversation.
Creation of meaning
Evidence that information is not entirely ignored. - 88Spatial attentionOur attention focuses like a spotlight. Can be narrow or broad. Move around rather than focusing on everything at once
- 89Target detection study Laberge5 items in different locations, participants looking for the specific item (stimulus), reaction times recorded on how fast it took participants to see stimulus. Reaction times were quicker when stimulus was in the more central location, slower in periphery
- 90Exogenous cueMost likely to appear in the periphery. Visual appearance of something, e.g. object, flash of light.
Valid or invalid depending on if the cue appears in the same place as target stimulus or not
- 91Endogenous cueSymbolic cue, usually appears in the centre of our vision. Our brain processes the symbol and will shift our vision accordingly. Valid or invalid depending on if the symbolic cue directs our vision in the correct manner or not.
- 92Stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA)time between onset of first stimulus and onset of second stimulus
- 93Inter-stimulus interval (ISI)Time between offset of first stimulus and onset of second stimulus
- 94inhibition of returnexogenous cue followed by a delay suppresses attention. Inhibition of return helps to facilitate attention switching
- 95Navon taskchanging our spotlight of attention to narrow (local) vs broad (global) depending on task
- 96Stroop taskIntegrating different stimulus features. Difficult to suppress our automatic tendency to read
- 97Adleman et alpositive correlation between age and stroop-related activation in:
left parietal and parieto-occiptal corticies
left lateral prefrontal cortex
left anterior cignulate - 98Attention captureour attention can easily be captured by something that is different
- 99Stare in the crowd effectWe can easily find faces that are looking directly at us compared to finding faces looking in other directions
- 100Global and local attentionwe cannot see global and local motion at the same time.
The right posterior parietal cortex plays an important role in directing attention between local and global information.
Spatial and feature-based attention are closely related and this is processed in the anterior intraparietal sulcus - 101The simon effectif info is presented to left ear, were are more likely to react if we are using our left hand.
consistent representations are easier to compute.
incompatibilities tax attention - 102Covert attentionattention in a separate location to our eye movements
- 103Overt attentionattention to the location we are focused on
- 104How do our eyes work?
- 105Saccadesfixation for 100-350 m/s then shifting fixation to something else. Most common type of eye movement. 3-5 every second
- 106Microsaccadelarge eye movements, aiming fo a particular location, however we may slightly over or under shoot, therefore we will need to make a minor adjustment (microsaccade) to get to the right location.
- 107Smooth pursuitmovement of the eyes very steadily, e.g. when tracking something movement
- 108Glissadessimilar to a microsaccade, slight curve in the end of the eye movement to land in the right location.
- 109Optokinetic nystagmusrare. tracking when flicking back to the centre, e.g. when looking our of window in a vehicle.
- 110Vestibular ocular reflexkeeps our eyes fixated on a location whilst out head is moving.
- 111What can eye tracking tell us?distribution of attention
-what was noticed
-indicates what is deemed important
-order of importance - 112culture shapes how we look at faces
- 113task goal alters scan pathswhat we see is linked to our cognitive goals
- 114Heat mapsgive clear visual representation of vision paths. darker areas identify the main attention points.
- 115eye tracking and readingeye tracking can show us how we read.
-word processing
-sentence processing
-comprehension
we mostly fixate on the beginnings of words and sometimes miss smaller/joining words. - 116Eye trackers as research toolsThe earliest eye trackers were built in late 1800's
Older eye trackers used a bite bar as standard
modern eye trackers use desktops or mobile glasses-like trackers - 117How do eye trackers work?eyes are recorded with mini cameras. beams of infra-red light are reflected in the eye to see a clear image of pupil.
3-5 fixations per second
measures saccades, blink rate and pupil dilation. - 118eye movements in sportcricket:
batsman is fixated ahead of the ball, where it will bounce, rather than following the ball itself. Their eye movements are ahead of the tracking of the ball. - 119Theory of mind 'mentalising'being aware that other people have their own thoughts, feelings and decisions.
autism diagnosis often associated with difficulties in unconscious theory of mind. - 120lab vs real settingsdifferent patterns of attention depending on whether or not real people are present, or if you are in a 'real world' or lab based setting.
- 121Profound skill is commone.g. walking, talking, writing, reading, driving cars
- 122Stroop task- what is automatic?word-reading is automatic because of extensive practice doing this in life.
Colour naming is a controlled process, we have to think about our answers.
You only see that word-reading interferes with colour-naming if you run the right control conditions that make them conflict. - 123Serial searchaka feature search
controlled, effortful, slow, adaptive - 124Parallel searchaka conjunctive search
automatic, easy, quick, learn over extensive practice or innate - 125Skill is...the development of habits through practice
- 126Action slipWhen habitual action intrudes when performing another task.
e.g. putting milk in cupboard and cereal in fridge. - 127When automatic processing hinders performanceNovel task demands
Mismatch between practised skill and environment
Attentional lapse (or overload) - 128Cost-benefit analysisWeighing up +'s and -'s
All decisions are infinitely complex
It is impossible to be 100% certain
It is impossible to know all relevant information - 129Perfect decisions are impossibleInformation is limited
Information is ambiguous
Time for decisions is limited
Cognitive resources are limited - 130HeuristicA heuristic is a rule-of-thumb
-"principle with broad application that is not intended to be strictly accurate or reliable for every situation"
Heuristics produce systematic errors ("biases")
Heuristic- method of deciding - 131three heuristics which are responsible for a range of biases and errors:-Representativeness
-Availability- to judge the probability or frequency of an item by easy of which they come to mind
-Adjustment and anchoring- people will make an estimate and then adjust. Irrelevant information can bias the initial estimate. Adjustments can be insufficient. - 132Insufficient adjustmentpeople estimated:
1x2x3x4x5x6x7x8x9 = 512. But estimated:
9x8x7x6x5x4x3x2x1 = 2250
People anchor their guesses to the first couple digits of sum- they incorrectly anchor leading to insufficient adjustment - 133Irrelevant anchorse.g. take last three digits of your phone number, add 400, call this X. Which year was Attila the Hun defeated?
Peoples guesses are strongly effected by the irrelevant information - 134FramingHow the costs and benefits of a situation are described. Same things can be framed differently.
framing affects which decisions seem reasonable.
Peoples 'mental accounting' differs for gains vs losses, & risks vs sure things. - 135what makes a good heuristicapplicable in many circumstances
doesn't require lots of information or effort
on average works - 136optimal vs adaptive decisionoptimal-takes in all information, 100% correct answer, takes very long time
adaptive- on average serves well, gives quick answer - 137Recognition heuristicrelying on recognition can help us- we are more likely to have heard of larger cities as they will be more popular destinations. Therefore we are more likely to guess their population as bigger compared to an unknown city.
- 138BIases are not mere errorsmistakes are one-off, systematic errors are consistent. biases are making the wrong choice but for a reason.
visual illusions reveal normal mechanisms of perception- heuristic errors reveal normal mechanisms of reasoning - 139Reasons we might make systematic errorsusing a strategy optimised for a different environment
considering a (different) bundle of choices
Using a different cost/benefit analysis - 140where will you see biaseswill see them wherever there are heuristics, they are a normal part of cognitive processes.
found in any decision that is made frequently - 141Meta-cognitionmeta means 'after' or 'beyond' in greek.
refers to dealing with an abstraction of an original concept.
Thinking about thinking. - 142Confirmation biasa preference for seeking information that can only confirm your existing beliefs, rather than contradict it.
About active search for information, not just whether you believe information when you encounter it - 143Ways of making wason task easierdiscussing in small groups
making question less abstract - 144factors that affect ease of fluency (processing)prior presentation
stimulus properties
individual differences - 145Mental contaminationPeople's opinions are distorted by their experience of the environment, and they mis-attribute these feelings to the stimulus not the actual cause.
- 146Illusion of explanatory depth (IoED)If you asked people on the street if they know how a refrigerator works, most would respond, yes. But ask them to then produce a detailed, step-by-step explanation of how it works and you would likely hear silence or stammering. Most people feel they understand the world with far greater detail, coherence, and depth than they really do
- 147Dunning kruger effectcognitive bias in which people of low ability have illusory superiority and mistakenly assess their cognitive ability as greater than it is. The cognitive bias of illusory superiority comes from the inability of low-ability people to recognize their lack of ability
- 148Well defined problemsclear goal-state & constraints
(jigsaw, win a football match) - 149Ill defined problemsno clear goal-state & constraints
(how to live a good life, to succeed at uni) - 150functional fixednessa side effect of which representations are primed
- 151analogical transferlearn about something, inspires you to think about other problems in a different way
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- AS - Level Psychology Flashcards on Cognitive psychology semester 1, created by Laura Louise on 19/01/2019.
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- Laura Louise
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