Summary

This document provides an introduction to cognitive psychology. It covers key topics such as cognitive psychology, mental representations, history and approaches, associationism, and more. It also includes information on introspectionism, Wilhelm Wundt, empiricism, behaviorism and mental maps.

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION Cognitive Psychology the study of how humans and other animals acquire, store, retrieve, and work with information to reach goals. Mental Representations History and Approaches Greek Philosophers Plato — Compared memory for information to a wax t...

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION Cognitive Psychology the study of how humans and other animals acquire, store, retrieve, and work with information to reach goals. Mental Representations History and Approaches Greek Philosophers Plato — Compared memory for information to a wax tablet. Forgetting was the equivalent of the wax tablet being illegible Aristotle — Hippocrates — stated that our joys, sorrows, pleasure laughters and tears arises from our brain Associationism All knowledge comes from experience and ideas are linked by Associations 2 unrelated ideas could become associated if they were often actively considered close together in time. ○ coffee and milk Introspectionism breaks down complex experiences into elementary sensations breaking down a big picture into tiny pieces to see how each piece contributes to the whole. Wilhelm Wundt 1st psychology laboratory in Leizpig, Germany Analyze normal perceptions into simpler sensations, which combined to give the perception. ○ Table - Brownness, straight lines, textures Empiricism — all knowledge comes from experience Behaviorism Abandoned the attempt to look inside the mind only observed behavior and stimuli as its data James Watson (1913) , Edward Thorndike (1898) — developed the behaviorist approach Mental Maps — are mental representations of a spatial layout Information Processing a metaphor for understanding mental activity, based on computing Mental Operations — inner actions manipulating mental representations Working Memory — short-term limited memory store for holding and manipulating information Long-term memory — virtually unlimited store of information Strategies — are systematic (techniques) ways to carry out a cognitive task such as solving a problem Computer Simulation General problem solver. Simulation — program which expresses a model of human thinking Artificial intelligence — the attempt to program computers to carry out complex tasks such as medical diagnosis, planning, using natural language. Internal Representations — mental representations of external objects and events ACT-R — built up from simple IF-THEN rules that check a working memory to see if their condition is met, in which case they fire and replace the contents of working memory. E.g: IF goal is to solve anagram, THEN pick two letters from anagram and place in working memory’; ‘IF goal is to solve anagram AND 2 letters in working memory, THEN retrieve word from long-term memory that starts with the 2 letters Backward Propagation- is a way of modifying weights on the links between units in a connectionist network, in response to errors, to obtain the desired output. Connectionism simulate basic learning and perceptual phenomena by means of a large network of simple units organized into input, output and internal. E.g: Commercial E.g: Driving Cognitive Neuroscience Cognitive Neuropsychology Broca’s area — vital for speech production; it is located in the left temporal lobe and damage to which is associated with aphasia (speech deficits) Localization — specific mental functions are tied to specific brain areas; also appears as the modularity hypothesis and may be contrasted with the distributed view, that functions are realized by joint action of many areas. Neuropsychology — study of psychological effects of brain damage and disease Phrenology — was an early form of localization that attempted unsuccessfully to link psychological functions to bumps in the skull taken to reflect growth of brain in specific areas. Double dissociation— arises when, following brain injury, some people do well on one task and poorly on a second task, while others with different brain injuries show the opposite pattern then the two tasks are said to be doubly dissociated Brain Imaging Structural Imaging — show brain anatomy Functional Imaging — detect brain activity Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) — a high-definition method for structural imaging using strong magnetic fields Electroencephalography (EEG) — a functional brain imaging method showing waves of electrical activity from scalp recorders. Event-related potentials (ERPs) — a functional brain imaging method recording electrical activity during repeated stimulus presentations. Positron Emission tomography (PET) — a functional imaging method which uses positron emissions from radioactive glucose to indicate areas of increased blood flow in the brain Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) — method of imaging brain activity that uses oxygenation levels of blood flow and has good temporal and spatial resolution CHAPTER 2: PERCEPTION Sensation and Perception Sensation (5 senses) — entrails the processes by which physical properties are converted to neural signals Perception (how we see the world) — our sensory experience of the world around us Somatic Perception— refers to the perception of body through touch and sensing the orientation of limbs in space Sensors— specific neurons that capture a physical property Transduction— translation of physical stimulation into signals that are interpretable by brain Illusion Misinterpretation/Misperception of perception. Perceptual Representation how people transform sensed stimuli to more abstract perceptual experience. The flow of information: bottom-up and top-down processing Bottom-up processing (Stimulus driven) — (specific to general) from sensory information up to conceptual information Top- down processing (Concept driven) — (general to specific) high- level cognition controls and regulates events affecting lower levels off cognition; May use context, expectation and knowledge to structure information Perceptual Organization gather information and utilizing the information to be able to solve problems. Likelihood principle — we perceive ideas based on our experience about the results of a specific action. Invariance — if you view an object in any perspective, it would still look the same Direct Perception — everything you sense, you create a perception of it, no need for any logical explanations Marr’s levels of analysis Computational level - What is the problem that needs solving? Representational level - How do we present the input and output? - How does our algorithm work? Implementation level - How is our solution implemented? The Body and Perception Embodied view of cognition — holds that cognition is about the experience arising from a perceptual system tightly linked to an action system rather than the manipulations of abstract representations. Embodied View Cognition is situated- it takes place in the real world and inherently involves perception and action Cognition is time-pressured— we need to evaluate our situation in the environment as quickly as it changes We off-load cognitive work onto the environment— whether counting on our fingers or organizing a hand of cards in per, we actively change our environment to reduce cognitive workload The environment is part of the cognitive system— given the continuous dense flow of perception and action it is not meaningful to study the mind alone Cognition is for action— perception and memory must be considered in terms of how they contribute to action Off-line cognition is body based— even when the mind can be separated from the environment, it is grounded in mechanisms involving perception and action such as using metaphor based on physical relations Human Perceptual Systems composed of the 5 senses, which works all together for us to be able to perceive things Synaesthesia — is an uncommon condition where stimulation of once perceptual modality results in experiencing a percept in a typically unrelated modality Proprioception- sense of how our limbs are positioned in space Vestibular sensation— sense of balance and orientation in space Visual System begins in the retinas of both eyes, transmitted to the primary visual cortex. fovea contains a high concentration of cones. cones are the receptors that encodes color and high resolution spatial abilities. rods encodes motion and low resolution information. Ventral Stream — what objects are in the visual world Dorsal Stream — where the objects are in the visual world Auditory System The encoding of auditory information begins within a special structure in the ear known as the cochlea and is transmitted from there to a part of the brain known as primary auditory cortex Basilar Membrane— hair cells move in response to sound pressure to transduce vibration into nervous signal to be sent along the auditory nerve Tonotopic map— where the auditory processing of different tones is arranged in an orderly layout in the cortex. Firing Rates— term from neurophysiology where the activity of a single cell or group of cells is recorded. A high firing rate indicates great activity of the cell due to sensitivity to the incoming information. Somatoperception Sytem combination of several subsystem. Provides us with a sense of the position of our limbs relative to our body and the orientation of our body in space central sulcus marks the boundary between the primary motor cortex and the primary somatosensory cortex. Central Sulcus- is a major anatomical landmark on the brain that forms the boundary between parietal cortex and frontal cortex. Broadmann Areas (Korbinian Brodmann) — specific regions of the cerebral cortex that are distinguished based on the organization, arrangement, and connectivity of neurons. Characteristic known as Cytoarchitecture Cytoarchitecture — used for structural differences to divide the brain into distint regions. Multisensory Integration McGurk effect (McGurk and MacDonald, 1976) — a combination of sensory information can lead to a perception that is different from that produced by the independent sources Ventriloquist effect — how combining sight and sound can enhanced speech intelligibility Modality appropriate hypothesis— holds that for each physical property of the environment there is a particular sensory modality that has a higher acuity for estimating this property than the other senses Maximum-likelihood model of cue integration— explains that the cues will be combined in accordance with their reliability, and that this weighting can dynamically respond to environmental conditions Object Recognition Pandemonium Model (Selfridge, 1958)- In this model, so-called demons are arranged in a hierarchy, with lower demons assigned to evaluate the utility of individual features and higher-level demons assigned with evaluating the success of these sub-demons. Prototype Theory (Rosch, 1973)- Focuses on finding the most typical example of a category. This prototype represents the average of central features of that category Visual Object Recognition— is the brain’s process of identifying and categorizing objects by analyzing features luke shape, color, and texture, and matching them to stored memory templates. Somatoperceptive Object Recognition— Haptic Perception is the process by which the somatosensory system recognizes objects through active exploration, primarily using the hands. Viewpoint invariant relationship— is any aspect of an object that is preserved no matter the direction from which we view the object. Haptic perception—is the combination of abilities that allow us to represent the material characteristics of objects and surfaces for recognition RBC Approach viewpoint-invariance features for recognition by introducing “geons”. basic volumetric shapes Geons are elements of a set of volumetric primitives or shapes that can be organized from any direction or viewpoint Visual Agnosia the inability to recognize objects, resulting in a person being able to perceive what they see but unable to assign meaning to it. Prosopagnosia inability to recognize faces. May still identify people through other cues such at voice, hairstyles, or glasses. CHAPTER 3: MOTOR COGNITION Motor Control the study of how the body movements are planned by the brain and performed by the body Woodworth (1899) — proposed different stages for the planning and control of movement Motor system — includes the components of the central and peripheral nervous systems along with the muscles, joints and bones that enable movement. Degrees of freedom — number of ways a joint can move Inverse problem — in vision is where there are more than one interpretation of the 3D world given the 2D image information. The impulse phase — initiated the movement and was planned in advance of the start of the movement. when you decide to do something before you actually do it. Control phase — part of a movement where vision (or sometimes other senses) is used to make sure that the action is as accurate as possible. Theories of Movement Planning Equilibrium point hypothesis — is a theory of motor control that emphasizes how the problem of control can be simplified by taking into account muscle properties. Dynamical systems — approach to motor control emphasizes interaction between the body and the environment and uses special mathematics that describe how a system’s behaviour changes over time. Optimal control theory — of motor control provides a framework for implementing principles that produce movements that optimally satisfy some criterion. Torque is a measure from physics that measures rotational force such as when muscles apply a force for a limb to rotate about a joint centre. Forward models — are used to predict the relationship between actions and their consequences. Given a motor command the forward model predicts the resulting behaviour of the body and the world. Producing Complex Actions switching focus from achieving individual movements to achieving goals through sequences of movements we are moving into an area that is more tightly interwoven with other cognitive processes Tele-operation — link between man and machine Action Sequences Lashley (1951) — observed in his seminal work that humans are continually active and this activity has a complex temporal structure that appears only in animals with a highly developed brain. Associative chain theory — is a behaviourist theory that explains how sequences of action arise from linking together associations between individual action components. Hierarchical Models of Action Production Test Operate Test Exit (George Miller, Eugene Galanter, Karl Pribram) — continuously tests whether a condition is met and then exits one the condition is satisfied; allows TOTE units to call other TOTE units permitting a hierarchical structure Parallel processing — is the ability to divide the process of solving a problem into multiple parts and to work simultaneously on each part. Hierarchies of Control Elements (W.K. Estes) — activated other control elements at the levels below. Top Level — in charge of setting broad goals and making strategic decisions Middle Level — breaks down broad goals into individual tasks and develops detailed plans to fulfill them Bottom Level — the focus is on executing the specific actions required to complete tasks Interactive Activation (McClelland and Rumelhart, 1981)- increasing anxiety leads to a disruption of automatic processing resulting in the degrading of performance; is a term used to describe the pattern of network activity generated by excitatory and inhibitory interactions of feature detectors and object representations Recurrent networks — are a type of artificial neural network with connections between units arranged so as to obtain a cycle of activation. This design allows a temporal context to be designed into the computation. Brain Damage and Action Production suggested that the coordination of action is set in a hierarchical, organized manner across the anatomy of the frontal cortex Damage to the frontal/parietal cortex, basal ganglia or nerve fibres connecting these area may lead to apraxia (inability to perform skilled motor acts) Prefrontal cortex — responsible for action planning Damage to the prefrontal cortex may lead to dysexexecutive syndrome inability to produce action sequences without errors Action presentation and Perception Cognitive sandwich — cognition is like the filling of a sandwich. surrounded by a slice of perception and action Historical Perspective Ideomotor theory— relates how thinking about the results of an action can give rise to producing the action. Proposed answer: human actions can arise from ideas of the sensory consequences they produce Common Coding brains way of combining of what you see and what you do how sensory codes can be internally related to motor codes a theory of perception and action production which holds that both production and perception share certain representations of actions in the world Mirror Neurons are neurons with the special property that they represent both the sensory aspects of perceiving actions as well as motor aspects of how to produce the action. Cells in our brains that helps us understand what other people are doing and feeling Homologous — means to have corresponding position, structure and possibly function Motor primitives — are the basis set of elemental movements that serve as a building blocks for an animal’s repertoire of movements Embodied Cognition Radical Views — no need for complicated representations. they base on experience. Less radical views simple actions, motor cognition is directly incorporated into representations. e.g walking. complex actions, both perceptual and motor information are combined in a flexible manner. e.g tying shoelaces. Gesture a broad topic that crosses the boundaries of perception, action and cognition Theories of gesture typically incorporate description of how gesture relates to the linguistic component of speech Deictic gestures — are pointing movements done in order to draw attention to a location or thing in the world. Beat gestures — baton-like movements that do not appear to have a direct meaning, but instead are used in tight synchrony with speech to accent Metaphoric gestures — exploit the structure of a metaphor to understand one thing in terms of another by using the spatial structure and timing of a movement to relate to concepts of being communicated Iconic gestures — depict physical properties of the object for reference Agency sense that we are in control of our action and that we are the ones causing them Body ownership — the feeling that certain body parts belong to us. e.g rubber hand Alien Hand Syndrome — a rare neurological condition where a person’s hand seems to act on its own, without the person’s control. Angular gyrus — planning and control of movements by using visual and spatial information to guide accurate actions. Insula — processing internal body sensations (interoception) and integrating these with motor actions. CHAPTER 4: ATTENTION Attention To focus on a particular stimulus while at the same time disregarding other stimuli External attention — refers to selecting and controlling incoming sensory information; Deals primarily with sensory events external to the body Internal attention — Refers to selecting control strategies and maintaining internally generated information; Deals primarily with our internally generated thoughts, desires, and motivations Attention system of the Human Brain A framework of the human brain, containing 3 different systems. Alerting — maintaining the state of alertness Orienting — orienting our sensory processing to incoming information Executive — control of starting tasks and sustained maintenance Brain Stem — serves to connect the cortex to the spinal cord. Top Down — thoughts, beliefs and expectations Frontal Eye Fields — generation and control of eye movements Default Mode Network (DMN) — active when a person is not focused on the external environment. Bottom up — processing of incoming sensory information that produces meaningful representations of the input. Theories of attention Cocktail party problem — describes how we successfully focus one speaker in a background of noise and other conversations Dichotic listening paradigm (Cherry, 1953) — a different message is played to each ear; When voices had the same physical properties, participants could not separate the messages using meaning only Shadowing Task — participants have to read aloud the to-be-attended message Filter Theory (Broadbent, 1958) — established the idea that a filter is used to block irrelevant information so that only the important message would reach a central channel for further processing Early and Late selection Models Early Selection filter for attention occurs early. Late Selection filter for attention occurs late, eliminates some information that has already been processed. all information are processed completely and analyzed. Treisman’s (1964) Attenuator Model a model of selective attention proposed by Anne Treisman. how we process information when there are multiple stimuli competing for our focus. suggests that we don’t completely ignore unattended stimuli; we just process them at a weaker level unless something important triggers a stronger response. Lavie’s Experiment (1995) Theory of Perceptual load — the amount of processing an unattended stimulus will receive depends upon how difficult it is to process the attended target; Participants have to find a target letter in one of six positions High Load — There should be no reduction in reaction time in both conditions; all resources have already been utilized by searching for the target letter among distractor letters Low Load — The incompatible condition should capture the remaining resources; Only people in the low load conditions were affected by the incompatible distractors Resource Theory people's ability to perform 2 or more tasks at the same time Spotlight — refers to the metaphor of attention where we can think of attention as a spotlight that illuminates locations of interest. Zoom lens model — just as a zoom lens on a camera will change how much of the scene is contained in the image, we could effectively have a zoom function for attention that zooms in and out to cover different amounts of the scene Dual Task Paradigm ability to do multiple task will depend on how far apart they are from each other. Visual Attention Visual Search how we use attention to search for a target, involves using your perception and attention to locate something. Preattentive Visual Processes simultaneously analyze the entire scene this fast professing helps us notice things like colors, shape etc., Binding Problem describes the issue that although perception works via analysis of separate perceptual features our subjective experience has all these features bound together. Distributed Attention reminiscent of preattentive vision and allows rapid statistical analysis of the entire scene extracting statistical properties of the objects and features present in an image Inhibition Return promotes searching novel locations rather than returning to one that has already been examined. it has been proposed that inhibition of return is used in foraging behaviour to help the searcher from not returning to locations that have already been explored. Attentional Blink attention temporarily decreases immediately after being used at a location Attentional Mechanism Feedforward — how incoming sensory information travels across the brain Recurrent Processing — involves computations that occur in a cyclic fashion Receptive Field — indicates the physical space that stimulates the neuron. Normalization Model of Attention how attention enhances what’s important while balancing the processing of other stimuli in the background. explain how we can focus on specific stimuli in complex environments, like picking out a voice in a crowded room or focusing on one player in a sports game. Stimulus Drive — The sensory input that generates neural activity. Attention Drive — amplifies the neural response to the attended stimulus. Suppresive Drive — balances the overall activity by dampening the neural response to competing, unattended stimuli. Attention and Working Memory Attentions selects and directs information into working memory, while working memory uses this information to perform tasks and supports attention by holding and updating relevant details. Both processes are essential for effective cognitive functioning and managing information Failures of attention Change Blindness — the phenomenon where substantial differences between two nearly identical scenes are not noticed when presented sequentially Inattentional Blindness — the failure to notice a clearly visible target due to attention being diverted from the target Afterimage — occurs when vision of an object remains after presentation has ceased Continuity Editing — describes a filmmaking technique to produce a smooth continuous experience across changes in camera shot. CHAPTER 5: CONSCIOUSNESS Consciousness Study of complex processes, such as thinking and attention Subliminal Perception — the case where a stimulus is below threshold Zombies — are a complete replica of humans, with all the accompanying processes but without consciousness Automatic Processing — mental operations that occur without intention or awareness Declarative Memory — storage of facts and events that can be consciously retrieved Automatization — a skill or behavior becomes automatic through repeated practice. Implicit Memory — storage of information skills that can be retrieved unconsciously. Procedural Memory — type of implicit memory that involves learning and remembering physical skills Wakefulness — state of being awake and can be measured through brain activity as reflected in EEG measures Awareness — refers more specifically to the content of consciousness such as perceptions, thoughts, memories, and emotions “Easy Problem” of consciousness — understanding HOW the brain creates awareness “Hard Problem” of consciousness — understanding WHY the brain’s activity gives rise to conscious experiences Functions of Consciousness Epiphenomenalism — holds that consciousness has no function Inessentialism — idea that consciousness is not necessary for certain cognitive processes and that we could still have the same mental functions without experiencing consciousness Volition — defined as our ability to make conscious choices and if we can demonstrate volition then this demonstrates free will Global Workspace Theory Proposes that consciousness requires interactions across a broad range of brain areas Subsequently broadcasts information about the processes to other sub-systems Each sub- system is responsible for different cognitive processes Attention and Consciousness Phenomenal consciousness —includes the experiential properties of sensations, feelings and perceptions Access consciousness — includes representations that are broadcast for use in reasoning and control of action and can be reported Neural Correlates of consciousness The essence of the approach is to examine how brain activity changes when, everything else being as equal as possible, a stimulus is experienced consciously or not. The goal of the NCC approach is to find the minimal neuronal mechanisms that are jointly sufficient for a conscious percept to be obtained. The Brain composed of 2 hemispheres connected by the corpus callosum Right hemisphere — creativity, spatial activity, artistic and musical skills Left hemisphere — speech, comprehension, arithmetic and writing Split-Brain — result of severed corpus callosum to control epilepsy Metacognition Refers to higher order thinking that involves control over the cognitive process involved in learning and storing information It was divided by Nelson and Narens into two (Monitoring and Control) Monitoring — self-reflection and feeling-of-knowing Control — how people put their metaknowledge to use Blindsight damage to primary visual cortex where people report that they do not see visual targets. Type 1 — denial of any awareness of the affected portion of the visual field Type 2 — able to report attributes or feelings of knowing for stimuli Neural Correlates of Consciousness used to examine how brain activity changes when, everything else being as equal and stable as possible, a stimulus is or not experienced consciously Binocular rivalry technique — arises when different images are presented simultaneously to the two eyes and results in experiencing seeing one of the images first and the the other alternately

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