Unit 3 - Sensation and Perception

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Questions and Answers

What is the 'cocktail party effect' an example of?

Sustained attention

Search Image

Selective attention (correct)

Divided attention

Which of these is NOT a characteristic of selective attention?

Focuses on one aspect of the environment for an extended period (correct)

Allows quick recognition of emotions through eye contact

Helps animals focus on specific prey

Can be enhanced by a mental representation of the target

What is a search image?

A physical image of a target used by animals to guide their searches

A mental representation of a specific target formed by animals during foraging (correct)

A visual cue used by animals to locate prey

A type of sustained attention used while foraging

How do eye tracking experiments demonstrate the importance of selective attention?

They demonstrate that animals can quickly identify emotions through eye contact (C) Signup and view all the answers

What is a vigilance task used to measure?

Sustained attention (D) Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following scenarios demonstrates divided attention?

A student listening to a lecture while taking notes (C) Signup and view all the answers

According to the research by Dukas & Kamil (2000), what happens to blue jays' ability to locate prey when dividing their attention?

They become less efficient at finding prey (C) Signup and view all the answers

How does sustained attention benefit animals in the wild?

It increases their ability to react quickly to threats like predators. (D) Signup and view all the answers

What type of memory is being tested in the Turati, Bulf & Simon (2008) study on newborn infants, where they familiarized infants with full-faced photos of people?

Non-Declarative Memory - Perceptual Priming (C) Signup and view all the answers

Which scenario is the best example of procedural memory being tested in animals?

A rat learning to press a lever to receive food (A) Signup and view all the answers

In the context of memory, what does 'prospection' refer to?

The ability to imagine future events (C) Signup and view all the answers

How does non-declarative memory differ from declarative memory?

Non-declarative memory is primarily learned through association, while declarative memory is based on explicit learning. (A) Signup and view all the answers

Which BEST describes the difference between Semantic Memory and Episodic Memory?

Episodic memory is about personal experiences while semantic memory is about general knowledge. (C) Signup and view all the answers

What is the relationship between 'classical conditioning' and 'non-declarative memory'?

Classical conditioning is a specific type of non-declarative memory. (B) Signup and view all the answers

What makes studying episodic memory in animals particularly challenging?

It's difficult to design experiments that can reliably measure episodic memory in animals. (D) Signup and view all the answers

What common characteristic unites all the examples of Non-Declarative memory mentioned in the content?

They operate primarily at an unconscious level, without conscious awareness of the learning process (A) Signup and view all the answers

What is the first phase of memory processing?

Encoding (B) Signup and view all the answers

What technique is suggested by Miller (1956) to increase memory capacity?

Chunking (B) Signup and view all the answers

Which cognitive process is essential for enhancing memory encoding?

Attention (B) Signup and view all the answers

In the context of memory, what does elaboration involve?

Adding meaning and complexity to input (B) Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following describes retrospective coding?

Recalling information from earlier experiences (B) Signup and view all the answers

Why is attention crucial in the encoding process?

It filters out sensory overload during experiential events (D) Signup and view all the answers

What is the main criticism of conventional encoding methods?

They are passive transfers of information (C) Signup and view all the answers

What role does chunking play in memory processing?

It simplifies large amounts of information into manageable units (A) Signup and view all the answers

What are the three phases of memory processing?

Encoding, consolidation, retrieval (C) Signup and view all the answers

What component distinguishes episodic memory from other types of memory?

The presence of conscious awareness of the past (D) Signup and view all the answers

In the study by Clayton & Dickenson, why were the Western Scrub Jays tested with different retention intervals?

To determine how long they remember the food types (C) Signup and view all the answers

What is known as 'episodic-like' memory in animals?

Memory without the conscious component but with the what, when, and where details (C) Signup and view all the answers

What is the main cognitive process that involves imagining future events?

Prospection (C) Signup and view all the answers

Which term describes the ability to think about past experiences?

Retrospection (B) Signup and view all the answers

Why were fresh worms provided to the replenish group in the study?

To serve as a control for comparing retrieval success (C) Signup and view all the answers

In the context of memory, what does consolidation primarily focus on?

Modifying encoded representations (B) Signup and view all the answers

What type of memory is responsible for maintaining and updating information in the short term?

Working memory (B) Signup and view all the answers

In the food caching experiment, what happened to the meal worms after a 124-hour retention interval?

They decayed and were no longer edible (C) Signup and view all the answers

What is one component of consolidation that involves actively keeping information available?

Rehearsal (D) Signup and view all the answers

What did the study primarily aim to investigate regarding the Western Scrub Jays?

Their retrieval skills based on food type and timing (D) Signup and view all the answers

What phenomenon occurs when cues indicate that a stimulus should not be remembered?

Directed Forgetting (C) Signup and view all the answers

What was the outcome for pigeons during F-cue trials in Milmine et al. (2008)?

They performed poorly in the memory task. (A) Signup and view all the answers

In the study involving chickadees, what was given to the experimental group after a delay?

Mealworms (D) Signup and view all the answers

What cognitive process involves mentally moving back and forth in time?

Mental Time Travel (B) Signup and view all the answers

What is essential to ensure that animals are not simply making associative responses in experiments?

Testing with new stimuli (B) Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following best describes non-declarative memory?

It is an umbrella term for memory types that do not require explicit knowledge. (C) Signup and view all the answers

What are the three stages of memory as mentioned in the content?

Encoding, Consolidation, Retrieval (A) Signup and view all the answers

Habituation is characterized as a process that involves:

A decrease in response to a stimulus after repeated presentations. (B) Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following statements about memory is inaccurate?

Memory stages are only important for human cognition. (D) Signup and view all the answers

Sensitization is most accurately described as a process that occurs in response to:

Motivationally significant events. (C) Signup and view all the answers

The ability to filter out irrelevant information based on repeated exposure is known as:

Habituation (C) Signup and view all the answers

Which type of memory would include recalling personal experiences?

Episodic memory (C) Signup and view all the answers

Study Notes

Sensation/Perception Part 2

The five senses are vision, hearing, touch, taste, and smell
The brain cannot process information without these senses
Sensation is the process where senses pick up information (visual, auditory, etc.) and send it to the brain. This information has not been interpreted.
Perception is the process that actively organizes and interprets sensory information received by the brain.
Stimulus filtering is the process of extracting meaningful information from sensory cues.
Humans have sensory sensitivity to sounds used in speech.
Sign stimuli are essential features of a stimulus necessary to elicit a specific behavioral response.
Sign stimuli are often species-specific behaviours and promote survival. Examples are the red dot on a herring gull's bill, the red belly of a stickleback male, or egg-rolling in geese.

Attention

Attention is a mental process that allows us to select relevant information from the environment.
Attention is difficult to quantify.
Early behaviourists tended to ignore attention, but cognitive psychologists showed its importance.
Selective attention is the ability to focus on a limited range of sensory inputs while ignoring other inputs.
The "cocktail party effect" is an example of this, where someone can focus on a conversation in a noisy room despite other conversations surrounding them.
Eye-tracking experiments show this ability to focus on the relevant components of a person's face is important.
Search image: A mental representation of a target used by foraging animals to locate it more efficiently.
Sustained attention is the ability to focus on a single task in a sustained manner over time.
Divided attention is the ability to process multiple sources of sensory information at once.

Memory

Memory is the stored representation of past experiences used for later retrieval.
Memory is a complex process that is central to many cognitive tasks.
Encoding converts sensory input into neural signals for storage.
Consolidation modifies encoded representations to stabilize them.
Retrieval is the act of retrieving stored information when needed.
Different types of memory include declarative memory (facts and events) and non-declarative memory (implicit and unconscious).
Retrospection is the process of thinking/ recalling the past.
Prospection is the process of thinking/imagining the future.
Memory errors include proactive and retroactive interference.
Retroactive interference occurs when new information interferes with the recall of old information.
Proactive interference is when past information interferes with the recall of new information.
Chunking reduces the amount of information to be processed in memory.

###Memory Processes

Encoding is the conversion of incoming information into neural signals.
Consolidation involves modifying encoded representations for longer-term storage.
Retrieval is the process of retrieving stored information.
Elaboration enhances encoding by adding meaning and context.
Chunking groups information together to increase memory capacity.

Memory vs. Other Cognitive Processes

Memory is necessary for cognitive processes such as categorization, because it's necessary to remember instances of a category or concept.
Spatial memory, the ability to remember locations, is often studied through radial mazes and can be influenced by landmarks and cues.
Memory evolves to accommodate changes in the environment. Without flexible memory, adapting to a constantly changing world would be impossible.

Attention and Memory

Attention plays a crucial role in encoding.
Information must be attended to for effective encoding.

Memory and Other Cognitive processes

The types of memory and the different types of cognitive processes are all related. In fact, most cognitive and mental processes depend on memory.
The study of memory in animals is often compared with the study of memory in humans.

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Description

Explore the complex processes of sensation and perception in this quiz. Learn about how our senses pick up information and how our brains interpret these signals. Additionally, delve into the significance of attention in selecting relevant information from our environment.