Shared Flashcard Set

Details

Cognitive Psychology
Fasig
53
Psychology
Undergraduate 2
02/02/2009

Additional Psychology Flashcards

 


 

Cards

Term
The definition(s) of cognitive psychology
Definition
Definition: The study of how people acquire, store, transform, and use information.

Theoretical orientation: Focuses on mental structures and their underlying processes

By topic: Perception, attention, memory, language, problem solving, reasoning, decision making
Term
Scientific historical roots
Definition
Gustav Fechner (1801-1878) mapped relationships between the physical and the psychological. His contribution: quantified relationships between incoming stimuli and corresponding perceptions.

Hermann von Helmholtz (1821-1894) studied visual perception and unconscious interference.
Term
Gustav Fechner (1801-1878)
Definition
mapped relationships between the physical and the psychological. His contribution: quantified relationships between incoming stimuli and corresponding perceptions.
Term
Hermann von Helmholtz (1821-1894)
Definition
studied visual perception and unconscious interference.
Term
Unconscious Inferences
Definition
* An implicit assumption made by our perceptual systems about some characteristic of an incoming stimulus.

1. Perceiver plays an interpretive role in what is perceived (perception is not a passive process)

2. Perceptual abd cognitive processes are influenced by previous experience.

3. Perceptual and cognitive processes often occur outside of conscious awareness.
Term
Structuralism
Definition
* An early approach to the study of consciousness that emphasizes breaking it down in terms of its most elemental components. These components can be broken down into 3 categories; sensations (the basic sensory dimensions that we encode from stimulus), feelings (emotions aroused by stimulus)and images (mental impressions that seem sensory in nature)

ex: A sunrise is a complex experience made up of simpler ones --> Sensations (warmth on skin), Images (the colors in the sky), Feelings (contentment)

Modeled Psychology after Chemistry, a science in which simple chemical elements combine to form complex chemical elements. They used this approach to explain the conscious experience--believing that the complexities of life could be broken down into distinct and basic elements of consciousness.
Term
Functionalism
Definition
* An early approach to the study of consciousness that emphasized the discovery of the basic uses of consciousness and how it helps us adapt in daily life. (What are the FUNCTIONS of the mind? - A functionalist would study the emotion of anger by trying to determine the purpose or function of being angry)
Term
Behaviorism (S-R Psychology)
Definition
* An early approach that eschewed (avoids) the study of consciousness in favor of a scientific analysis of overt behavior.

John B. Watson's notion was to banish consciousness from scientific study, since the hallmarks of scientific study are observation, measurement and repeatability, and the study of consciousness allowed for none of those.

Behavior can be observed, measured and repeated and therefore Watson felt that BEHAVIOR should be the focus of scientific psychology.

John B. Watson's approach to psychology was to study observation RESPONSES and their relation to observable STIMULI.
Term
Ebbinghaus's Memory Research
Definition
Ebbinhaus tested and retested his memory under rigorously controlled conditions of presentation and testing. He memorized list after list of nonsense syllables (strings of letters that do not form words) and recorded the number of study trials that it took to learn the list to perfection. After varying periods of time he would attempt to relearn the list to perfection again. It took him fewer and fewer trials to relearn previously memorized lists to perfection.

Ebbinhaus coined the term SAVINGS to refer to this reduction in the number of trials it took to relearn a list. (His previously experience in perfectly learning the material SAVED him some trials the second time he tried to learn it)
Term
Ebbinhaus's Forgetting Curve
Definition
* A function relating memory to time passage. A good deal of forgetting occurs soon after study, then slows down over time.

Forgetting occurs rapidly early in the retention interval, then slows down considerably.
Term
Rise of cognitive psychology in the 1950s
Definition
George Miller fixed the birthdate of cognitive psychology as September 11, 1956. This is the date that psychologists interested in the study of the mind gathered at MIT for the Symposium on Information Theory. This conference featured a number of papers that employed the new approach to mind including Chomsky's theory of language, Allen Newell and Herbert Simon's "Logic Theory Machine" and George Miller's presentation of his view of short-term memory as a limited information processing mechanism that could hold approximately 7 +/- 2 items.
Term
The information-processing approach
Definition
* A descriptive approach that likens the functioning of the mind to the operation of a computer.

Lachman, Lachman and Butterfield (1979) identified some major assuptions of this approach.
1. Humans are "symbol manipulators" who encode, store, retrieve, and manipulate symbolic data stored in memory.
2. Representation: the data of the human information-processing system consist of representations that correspond to information from the environment (objects/events) and processes (remembering/problem solving)
3. Human thought is best characterized as a system of interrelated capacities and processes that all affect each other. The components cannot fully be understood in isolation from one another.
Term
Connectionism (Parallel Distributed Processing)
Definition
A model that uses a brain-based metaphor to describe cognitive processes in terms of complex and interconnected networks of individual processing units that operate in parallel.

Connectionist models describe cognitive processing in terms of connections between simple units, which correspond to the basic unit of the brain, the neuron. The billions of neurons in the brain form complex neural networks, which serve as the basis for knowledge representation and cognitive processing.
Term
Ecological Validity
Definition
The degree to which results from a research experiment can be generalized to everyday situations.
Term
Internal Validity
Definition
The degree to which extraneous variables are controlled.

A well-designed experiment offers a great deal of control and precision, enhancing their internal validity, but fall short in terms of naturalness (how they represent everyday life)
Term
Research Methods
Definition
Descriptive Methods: Naturalistic observation, case studies, self-reports

Experimental Methods: systematic manipulation and measurement of variables and observations of their effects on one another in a controlled setting. Can also determine causality.
Term
Goals of Research
Definition
describe, predict, explain and modifie unobservable processes/representations.
Term
Characteristics of an Experiment
Definition
Control, Randomization (sampling/assignment), Dependent Variable, Independent Variable, Operational Definition.
Term
Independent Variables
Definition
Hypothesized cause of effect.

Manipulated by the INVestigator
Term
Dependent Variables
Definition
Variable that is measured.

The outcome DEPends on the IV
Term
Disadvantages of Experiments
Definition
Lack ecological validity

Expentancy effects
Term
Within- subject designs
Definition
Same participants in every condition

(the same subjects receive each level of IV)
Term
Factorial Designs
Definition
two of more IV's

study independent and interactive effects of IVs
Term
Inferential Statistics
Definition
assess how likely difference is due to chance
Term
Cognitive Neuroscience
Definition
an interdisciplinary field of study, combining neuroscience and cognitive psychology, that attempt to relate cognitive processing to its neural substrates.
Term
Cognitive Neuroscience Research Methods Disadvantages
Definition
Term
Cognitive Neuroscience Research Methods Advantages
Definition
Term
Advantages of Experiments
Definition
Explanatory Power

Internal Validity
Term
Diffusion-tensor imaging
Definition
Term
Brain as an integrated System
Definition
Term
Neuron
Definition
A nerve cell, the basic building block of the nervous system
Term
Global Neuronal Work Space
Definition
Term
Action Potentials
Definition
an all-or-none reaction of a neuron that occurs when stimulation reaches some critical threshold.
Term
Neuronal Communication
Definition
Term
Sensation
Definition
Sensory Register - Perception
Term
Perception
Definition
Term
Perceptual Grouping
Definition
(Perceptual set) a tendency to visually analyze scenes in a particular way
Term
Figure-ground
Definition
A tendency to segregate visual scenes into a background and a figure that seems to be superimposed against it.
Term
Global Precedence
Definition
a tendency to encode the overall features of a scene before apprehending scene details. (see the forest before a tree)
Term
Top-Down Processing
Definition
(conceptually driven) the identification of a stimulus with the help of context, previous knowledge, and/or expectations
Term
Bottom-up Processing
Definition
(Data driven) the identification of a stimulus through the assembly of its component features.
Term
Subliminal Processing
Definition
the purported tendency to be influenced by stimuli presented below the level of awareness
Term
Signal Detection Theory
Definition
an approach to psycho-physics that characterizes perceptual experiences as the joint product of sensitivity and response bias.

perception = sensitivity + response bias.

Sensitivity (absolute threshold - the lowest intensity at which stimulus can be detected 50% of the time)

Response Bias (Decision Criterion - how certain in order to report)
Term
Absolute Threshold
Definition
the lowest intensity at which stimulus can be detected 50% of the time
Term
Illusions
Definition
Misperceptions. Awareness doesn't eliminate effect.
Term
Ambiguous Figures
Definition
- more than one true/precise perception is possible
-difficult to see both perceptions at the same time.
-certain regions and contours favor one perception.

perception can be influenced by expectation
Term
Negative Afterimages
Definition
images that are the opposite or complement of actual images
-caused by fatigued cells in retina responding to light. fades quickly
Term
Reversible Figures
Definition
perception "flips" back and forth between two interpretations.

-contradictory cues for depth perception
-difficult to determine what part of the figure is closest to you.
Term
Agnosias
Definition
condition in which a person fails to recognize objects due to a functional impairment of the occipito-temporal vision areas of the brain. Other elementary visual functions such as acuity, colour vision, and brightness discrimination are still intact.
Term
Synesthesia
Definition
Perceiving the stimulus in 2 or more modalities at once
The experience of sensations in a sensory modality different from the sense that has been physically stimulated
Term
Transduction
Definition
Transduction – the conversion of one kind of energy into another kind of energy
Term
Visual Cliff
Definition
Term
Between subjects Design
Definition
Each Participant in only one condition.

(different subjects receive different each level of the IV)
Supporting users have an ad free experience!