the mind is an unobservable black box, stimulus goes in, response comes out.

all we can observe are reflections (output) of the mind: behavior, physiology 

-one solution the problem 

-just look inside and see the contents of the mind

-emphasis on analysis of consciousness into its constituent parts

-inspired by chemistry (periodic table)

-total of 42,000 sensations

-detected mostly by the eyes and ears

-the rest of the organs only detect 1 or 2 each

1. observations are difficult to verify

-private events, not public

-objective science requires that observations can be confirmed independently 

2. you are observing the end products of processing, but not the processing itself

-many processes are not accessible to conscious awareness 

-solution to the unobservable mind

-psychology is the "science of behavior"

-emphasized what can be DIRECTLY observed

-stimuli

-responses

-reinforcements/rewards

-rats in mazes 

-ignores the mind because it is unobservable

-explains complex behavior with conditioning

-behavior is follwed by a consequence

-the consequence modifies the tendency to repeat the behavior in the future 

-verbal behavior 

1. Cant account for the creativity and diversity of human behavior (ex: language)

2. Limiting science to obervable things is a bad idea

-has anyone ever seen a black hole?

-solution to the unobservable mind

-INFER whats going on inside using experimental method

-underlying assumption: the mind is somehow like a computer

-get information from

1.sensory data,

2. mental representations 

a. procedural: knowing how

b. declarative: knowing that

-semantic: general knowledge

-episodic: personal experience

-processes: operators that transform info from one state to another (ex: word to image)

stimulus-->info processing-->more process

-->response

-Each stage RECEIVES info, TRANSFORMS the info, and SENDS info to next stage 

-The study of the time course of mental processes

-method: reaction time studies

-what are the stages?

-how long does each stage take?

-Detection task: tap right finger when you see a red or green light 

-proposed stages: S-->detection-->response

-Choice task: tap L finger for red, tap R finger for green

-proposed stages: S-->detection->decision-->R

-all stages remain the same when the new one is added

-Problem: adding the decision stage may influence another stage (like detection)

-leads to overestimate time 

-The durations of all stages add together to yield the reaction time (stages are serial)

-Problem: stages might operate in parallel

-leads to underestimate time 

-Question: what brain region comprehends

-experimental condition: read real words aloud

-control condition: read pseudo-words aloud (requires all processes, except comprehension)

-subtract brain activation due to control from brain activation due to experimental

-left with brain areas involved in comprehension 

-select phenomenon of interest

-generate possible explanations (theories) for it

-rule out alternative theories using observations 

Huppert & Piercy: Experiment 1

amnesics and controls 

-Task: study pics for 1 sec each, recognition task 20 minutes later

-results: controls 93% accurate, amnesics 75% accurate

-Possible impaired processes

1. encoding (dont learn the info)

2. storage (dont retain the info)

3. retrieval (dont access the info)

-test if there is a difference in storage

-same task, except allowed to study the pictures until 80% correct

-equates the encoding phase for both groups 

-tested immediate, 1 day, 7 days later

-results: both groups the same

-tells you there is NO problem with storage or retrieval 

-what you measure and analyze (the data)

-reaction time

-accuracy

-brain activation

-what the experimenter manipulates

-# of items to be memorized

-amount of alcohol ingested

-has LEVELS

-an effect of an independent variable on the dependent variable

-an effect of whats being manipulated on whats being measured 

-ex: there was a main effect of time for the Huppert & Piercy experiment 2 because both groups declined as time went on 

-The effect of one independent variable DEPENDS on the level of a second independent variable

-requires at least two ind. variables

the PROCESSES by which INFORMATION is TRANSFORMED into EXPERIENCES

distal stimulus-->poximal stimulus (in mind)--> representation (percept)--> response

-perceptual experience does not correspond to the distal stimulus 

-perceptual illusions

-failure to perceive the accurate 

-when proximal stimulus DOES NOT correspond to the distal stimulus

-Buuuut (paradoxically) the perceptual experience does

-ex: there is a box (distal stimulus), in your mind it is a rectangle (proximal stimulus), but your percept is also a box (representation)

-example of paradoxical correspondence

-is our tendency to see objects as having constant shape, size, or color regardless of changes in the angle of perspective, distance, or lighting

-so the image of the distal stimulus on retina changes, but perception remains stable 

-our perception of size stays constant regardless of the fact that size of objects on the retinal vary greatly with DISTANCE 

-example: seeing one person up close and another far away 

-our perception of an objects color remains constant under different conditions of illumination 

-ex: shade from a tree on the sidewalk

-sidewalk (distal stimulus) is differring by color (proximal stimulus) but perceived as the same

-environment provides all the necessary cues

-our brains are pre-wired to pick up the cues

-stimulus info is unambiguous 

-problem: cannot explain that what we see does not always correspond with reality (lack of correspondence)

-perception uses sensory data from the world and prior knowledge and expectations

-prior knowledge can influence perception 

-sensory info is often ambiguous so must rely on prior knowledge 

-information processing driven by STIMULUS ONLY

-direct perception view: perception is purely bottom-up

-information processing driven by prior knowledge and expectations 

-constructivist view: perception combines BOTH bottom-up and top-down

-monocular cues: cues to distance that you only need ONE eye to take advantage of

-static depth cues do not require you or the stimulus to be moving 

ex: linear perspective, texture gradient, relative size, shadows, motion parallax 

-requires both eyes

-retinal disparity: the amount of difference between the two retinal images (object falls on different parts of the retina) can be used as distance cue 

-rely on feedback from the muscles of the eye

-binocular (convergence)

-monocular (accomodation) 

-light is emitted from source

-some frequencies absorbed by object

-some reflected

-some reflected light reaches the eye 

-light enters and passes the layers to the back of the eye

-photoreceptor layer (rods/cones)

-bipolar cell layer 

-ganglion cell layer

-to brain 

-photoreceptors

-photochemical reaction takes place inside the cell when exposed to light

-rods detect BRIGHTNESS

-cones are concentrated at the fovea

-blue, red, green cones 

-M and P cells pass to the lateral geniculate

-Magnocellular and parvocellular 

-Magno: transient response, large receptive field, movement/location

-Parvo: sustained response, small rec. field, patterns/color/form

-send info to occipital visual cortex

which sends info to dorsal (parietal) or ventral (temporal) stream 

-dorsal=where (parietal)

-ventral=what (temporal)

-spatial task (where) should activate occipital and PARIETAL 

-object task (what) should activate occipital and TEMPORAL region 

-Spatial task: location, same or different?

-activates parietal/dorsal

-object task: object, same or different?

-activates temporal/ventral

for recognition to occur, perception must have access to LTM

-cannot have recognition without perception

-problem: we must recognize objects from many viewpoints

-must explain how we recognize objects from many diff. viewpoints

-Bottom-up theories: Template theory and feature theory

-do NOT incorporate the influence of biases or expectations

-template=stored patern

-our LTM has many stored patterns

-when we perceive a pattern we try to find a match to one of the patterns in memory

-object recognition when we locate the template in memory that matches the perceived object

1. Transformations 

2. Obstructed objects

3. not biologically plausible

-the visual system decomposes the visual world into features

-objects are rep. in LTM as lists of "features"

-perceive object, visual system analyzes features

-recognition occurs when we locate the list of features in LTM that best matches the features of perceived object

1. the visual system uses features

2. stabilized retinal image (evidence for feature detectors)

-feature detectors get fatigued if they stare at a feature for too long

3. Visual search experiments consistent with prediction of feature theory 

4. caricatures 

-Objects that share a lot of features should be harder to tell apart than objects that done

-the decision demon will have a harder time deciding who is shouting loudest 

-cant explain context effects

-

1. The influence of environmental context

-interactive activation theory

2. The influence of motivation/bias

-signal detection theory

-environmental context effects

-ambiguous letter

-ambiguous figure: Jastrow's duck-rabbit, Arizona whale-kangaroo

-phoneme restoration effect ("eel")

-word superiority effect

-fewer errors in word than in single letter

-fewer errors in non word (pronounceable) than in single letter 

-fewer errors in word than in non-word

-same number of errors in single letter and unpronounceable words

-3 levels  of detectors: feature, letter, word

-feature detectors activate letters they are in, and inhibit letters they are not in

-letter detectors activate words they are in, and inhibit words they are not in (bottom-up connection)

-word detectors activate their component letters (top-down connection)

-this type of connection is KEY to explaining the Word Superiority Effect

1. Vigilance and Signal Detection

2. Selective attention

3. Search

4. Divided attention

-alertness for the purpose of detection of stimuli in the environment

-signal detection theory

-ex: waiting for the phone to ring

-processing relevant inputs, thoughts, or actions while ignoring irrelevant or distracting ones 

-focusing on one thing and ignoring others

-ex: trying to study while tv is on

-actively looking for a specific stimulus

-very related to selective attention

-ex: finding a friend in a crowded movie theatre

-required for distributing cognitive resources during multi-tasking

-ex: listening to lecture and taking notes

-Hit: respond Yes when stimulus present

-Miss: respond NO when stimulus present

-False alarm: respond Yes when no stimulus

-correct rejection: respond NO when no stimulus

-how easy it is to tell the signal apart from the noise

-determine sensitivity by adding up Hits and correct rejections and divide by total responses 

-how likely you are to say yes or no

-add amount of Yes's or No's

-payoffs create biases

-they manipulate subjects motivation to make one response or the other 

-can also manipulate expectations to create a response bias

1. Filter models

-early selection

-late selection

2. Attentional Spotlight Model 

-two messages played simultaneously

-both messages presented to both ears simultaneously

-listener must attend to one message and ignore the other

-this can be done in either binaural or dichotic listening situation

-what difference needed to make people good at shadowing?

-what do people know about the unattended message?

-Two factors that help people shadow

1. Distinctive sensory characteristics (one high pitch, one low pitch)

2. Distinctive sound sources (coming from diff. locations)

-One factor did not help shadow

1. Meaning (bad performance using binaural presentation if same voice is reading both messages)

-do NOT process meaning of unattended message

(dont notice language, or repeats)

-DO notice physical changes (voice male->female, message ends)

-detection->filtering->recognition

-unattended channel not processed after filter

-attended channel proceeds to recognition phase

-experiments suggest we DO process the meaning of some unattended info

-things we can notice: our name, emotionally charged words, "salient" stimuli

-revisions to this model: Attenuator Model, Late filtering

-unattended gets attenuated (turned down) but strong stuff gets through to recognition

-attention filters info prior to recognition (like early filtration model)

-fixed Broadbent's problem cause some unattended info gets through to recognition stage

-ALL info gets thru to recognition stage

-information filtered is later on in the information processing stream (AFTER recognition)

detection->recognition->filter

-focusing attention is like shining spotlight on it

-assumes that the basis for selection of visual attention is SPATIAL LOCATION

-stages: disengage spotlight, move spotlight, engage spotlight

-valid cue is a benefit (short RT)

-invalid cue is a cost (long RT)

-feature search (does NOT depend on # of distractors)

-conjunction search (DOES depend on # of distractors)

-conjunctive: requires attention, slow, effortful, serial

-feature: pre-attentive, fast, parallel, non-effortful

stimulus pattern->feature maps->master map

->attentional spotlight (glue)->obj perception

-when two tasks come from the same pool of attentional resources, hard to perform simultaneously

-when two tasks come from diff. pools, easier

-limit of attention

-transient events attract attention automatically

-flicker causes lots of transients, attention to those prevents attention to the changed item (flicker task video)

-attention to one task reduces attention available for detecting changes (basketball/gorilla)

-limit of attention

-without attention, we may not perceive objects all together

-Peripheral interference hypothesis (outside the brain): interference from using hands to hold or dial phone; moving eyes off the road

-Attentional hypothesis: diverting attention from driving to the conversation itself 

-conclusion from the driving simulator study: attentional hypothesis is correct

-controlled: conscious, intentional/effortful, serial, slow, requires attention (like teen driving)

-automatic: can be unconscious, unintentional, parallel, fast, require little attention (like adult driving) 

with practice, controlled-->automatic

-four trial types: 

1. hold visual attention

2. hold auditory attention

3. switch from visual to auditory

4. switch from auditory to visual

-measured brain activity during each trial 

-visual cortex activity inhibited when hold auditory attention (vice versa)

1. signal detection theory

-examples: radiologist

2. selective attention

-sample task: stroop

-Models: early/late filter, attentional spotlight

3. Search

-sample task: feature/conjunction search

-Models: feature integration model

4. divided attention

-sample task: walls n balls

-Model: resource model

Depth information: occulomotor or visual

-occulomotor: accomodation or convergence

-visual: binocular or monocular

binocular static cues: retinal disparity

monocular static cues: everything else

monocular non-static cues: motion parallax