Cognition Exam 1 PDF
Document Details
Tags
Summary
This document provides an overview of cognition, including nativism, empiricism, assumptions when studying cognition, challenges of studying cognition, and an introduction to the cognitive revolution. The document also includes examples such as Clever Hans, which illustrates significant points in cognitive psychology.
Full Transcript
Cognition: the scientific study of mental processes (thoughts) > What is meant by mental processes? - Remembering, attention, language, problem solving, perception, sensation, decision making > What is the mind? - Complex of cognitive faculties that enables mental functions (consciousne...
Cognition: the scientific study of mental processes (thoughts) > What is meant by mental processes? - Remembering, attention, language, problem solving, perception, sensation, decision making > What is the mind? - Complex of cognitive faculties that enables mental functions (consciousness, thinking, reasoning, perception, judgment) > Why is cognition important? - Humans overestimate our intuition and make errors Nativism: knowledge and abilities are natural to one, they are innate, one already has knowledge, “learning” is actually retrieval of concepts the soul already knows > Plato and Socrates - Science is perception: no such thing as an objective or absolute truth, everything is defined by how we experience it (perception) which is not objective but subjective Empiricism: knowledge and abilities are acquired, blank slate approach, one learns through new experiences > Aristotle - We learn through doing things and experiencing things Challenges of studying cognition: we can’t see mental processes, very complex processes Assumptions when studying cognition: 1) Mental processes exist - EX. we have to undergo a process to make a decision 2) Humans are active information processors - Humans have intent and are involved in processing information, it requires effort and the brain does not simply react to stimuli: the brain builds upon and pulls from preexisting knowledge, beliefs, and cognitive strategies to integrate information and use it - EX. we don’t simply hear words, we hear sentences and interpret meaning and emotions, etc 3) Mental processes can be identified though behavioral measures - EX. Looking at how long it takes for someone to respond to a stimuli and make a decision can tell us about decision making Timeline and Methods of Cognitive Psychology 1) Donders - reaction time experiment - Measured time between stimulus presentation and persons response to stimulus (light and buttons) - How did he find out how long it takes for someone to make a decision? - The time it took to make a choice AND react to a stimulus minus the time it took to just react to a stimulus - We can’t measure mental responses directly, but we can infer from the participant behavior 2) Wundt - father of psych, credited with first psych lab - Observed and measured stimuli, energy affecting a person - Structuralism: experience is determined by structuring basic sensations and experiences together upon each other - Looks at fundamental components of human consciousness - Introspection: observation of the self and one’s thoughts and experiences, records them - Issues: can’t really confirm validity, lots of variability, reliant on consciousness > cognition also involves the unconscious mind 3) Ebbinghaus - forgetting curve 4) James - principles of psychology (subjective based on his experience, not experiments) 5) Watson - Behaviorism: focus on observable data (behaviors) using reinforcement and rewards as well to predict behavior, mind is a “black box” that can’t be observed. Looks at relationship between stimulus and response without looking at cognitive process in between - Limits to observable data 6) Skinner - operant conditioning Cognitive revolution: how can we study the mind? - Measure observable behavior - Make inferences about underlying cognitive ability - What does this behavior say about how the mind works? - Use measurement and observation to test hypotheses about how the brain works Information processing approach: the mind is like a computer - The operation of the mind occurs in stages: input stage > processing stage > organization stage > decision making stage > etc EX. Clever Hans - Math teacher Mr. von Osten - Intellectual ability of his horse, hans - My horse can add fractions and give values of german coins! - Horse would lift foot once or twice and answer with 90m- 95 % accuracy - Hans failed to answer correctly when he was blindfolded: observed the people around him, how they'd lean howard to see his feet, and change their body language EX. Horse Race Question - All four of a horse’s hooves are off the ground at the same time during a gallop - Paintings vs. photographs Scientific attitude - Empirical approach: data - Curious skepticism: how and why - Humility: aware of error-proneness Scientific theory: makes precise and consistent predictions while relying on a small number of underlying assumptions - A good scientific theory has 2 components - Falsifiability: precise predictions are made, and evidence can be given thereafter to confirm or contradict the theory - Law of Parsimony: with all else being equal, the simplest theory is the best (rely on the fewest and simplest possible assumptions) Claims can be supported scientifically through evidence that supports a hypothesis (any falsifiable prediction about new facts from a theory) - EX. horoscopes vs. People with high-stress levels will be more likely to contract a common cold after being exposed to the virus than people who have low-stress levels. Measurement problem in research - To measure phenomena accurately, we must develop observable definitions - Operational definitions: describes behavior so that it is observable and measurable - EX. attentional behavior of eye gaze shift, posture change - Specifications about the procedures, giving a numerical value Experiments must be replicable Research designs: - Correlation: finding relationships and connections between two measures or variables - Experimentation: controlled testing of one or more variables - Random assignment: ensures each subject has equal chance of being assigned to each group - Experimental group, Control group - Holding constant: ensures two groups are treated identically except for manipulation - Descriptive: systematic, objective observation of people to provide a clear accurate picture of people's behavior , thoughts and attributes - Case study: thorough observation and description of an individual in an unusual condition or circumstance - EX. Phineas Gage: rod in his front brain, personality change, prefrontal cortex - Survey: study of the prevalence of certain beliefs, attitudes, or behaviors based on people’s responses to questions - Naturalistic observation: careful monitoring and examination under natural circumstances - Limitations: may not predict future behavior, does not allow understanding of inner mechanisms of behavior, unable to control behavior to test specific questions How the brain relates to the mind - The mind arises from the brain - Localisation in the brain: certain brain areas specialize more in certain functions than others - Important in understanding how to study the brain - Does not mean that other areas of the brain are not being used when we say a certain area specializes in a function Human Nervous System - Materialism: mind and consciousness are caused by physical processes, such as the neurochemistry of the human brain and nervous system, without which they cannot exist - Physiological: mechanisms that produce behaviors Human experience is the product of the activity of the cells of the nervous system - Central Nervous System: made up of the brain and spinal cord - These neurons process and interpret information to send commands to the muscles, glands, and organs - Spinal cord: reflexes (rapid, automatic response to stimulus) - Voluntary responses: originate in brain and travel via spinal cord to muscles - Peripheral Nervous System: all the nerves that exit the brain and spinal cord - Carry sensory and motor messages throughout - How the brain responds: - There is a stimulus, to which the brain activates and gives a physiological response. Then, the brain perceives the stimulus, and decides how to respond, and sends out signals on how to respond. This induces a behavioral response. - EX. there is a light turned on, the brain registers the light, the brain decides it is too bright and thereby harmful, the brain sends a signal to close the eyes - Neurons: the cells that make up the nervous system - Sensory: neuron that detects changes in the external or internal environment - 5 senses, detects information and sends information to the CNS - Afferent Arrives to the neuron - Inter: neurons that are only in the CNS, connect motor to sensory - Motor: neuron located in CNS, controls contraction of muscle or gland secretion - Efferent Exits the neuron - Neuron structure - Dendrite: branchy, extensions of neuron off cell body that receives messages and conducts impulses - Cell Body/Soma: cell body, contains nucleus, mitochondria, ribosomes - Axon: thin fiber of neuron, output structure responsible for transmitting nerve impulses - Tube like myelin sheath: white fatty casing that acts as electrical insulator, it catalyzes speed of neural signals down the axon - Branches at end that connect to other neurons’ dendrites - Terminal buttons: the buds at the end of the branch that connect to the membrane of another neuron - Connection is called a synapse, sends information Information is transmitted and received electrochemically - Action potential: combination of electrical and chemical processes used to convey information in axons - Signal travels along axon at constant strength regardless of distance traveled - All-or-none process: nerve cells either fire at full strength or do not fire at all - Process: Action potential travels down the axon > causes neurotransmitter to release from axon terminal > neurotransmitter travels across synapse > binds with receptor on receiving neuron Chemicals released at the synapse excite (more likely action potential) or inhibit (less likely action potential) neighboring cells - Neurotransmitter: a chemical released by the terminal button that allows another neuron to be excited or inhibited - Acetylcholine: enables muscle action, learning, & memory - Dopamine: influences movement, learning, attention and emotion (excess linked with Schizophrenia) - Serotonin: affects mood, hunger, sleep & arousal (too little: depression) - Norepinephrine: controls alertness & arousal, too little affects mood negatively Neurons constantly grow: new experiences and learning - Brain plasticity: brain can rewire itself by relocating information processing functions to different brain areas and or neural networks Phrenology (Gall): bumps on skill reveal out mental abilities and character traits - Was wrong about the bumps and traits > racism - Right about localisation of functions - Oversimplification, but very useful - Most processing really does occur locally in specified areas, but not all of it - Brain is always active, but region with peak activity Embryological development: vertebrate nervous system - Midbrain and Hindbrain: brain stem - Forebrain: cerebral cortex and other higher structure Brain organization: high priority to lower priority > Basic life functions: Brain stem - Breathing, heartbeat > Basic motor programs: Cerebellum - Integrates visual auditory, somatosensory information - Smooths movement and coordinates: damaged leads to jerky movement or can't stand > Sensory information : Thalamus - Receives info from cerebral cortex and projects information to specific regions of cerebral cortex > Emotion, motivation, simple judgment: Limbic system - Hypothalamus: regulates emotional and motivated behavior - Amygdala: emotion processing - Hippocampus: memory processing > Voluntary action, complex judgment, symbolic thought Cerebral cortex: outer covering of forebrain, composed of gray matter - interior is white matter - Frontal lobe (forefront): reasoning, language, executive control - Parietal lobe (next to frontal, above temporal): attention, objects in space, counting - Temporal lobe (beneath frontal and parietal): audition, language, object recognition - Occipital lobe (far back corner): vision Contralateral organization of the brain: - Right hemisphere controls left side of body - Left visual field - Communicates with left hemisphere to name objects in visual field - Left hemisphere controls right side of body - Right visual field - Communicates with right to synthesize details into whole picture Corpus callosum: large bundle of neural fibers connecting two brain hemispheres - Communication essential - Split-brain patients: unable to synthesize left and right hemispheres because corpus callosum was severed to control seizures Neuropsychology: branch of psychological science examining how brain injury affects the mind - Brain damage: if an injury to a specific brain region reliably causes a specific dysfunction, this region is crucial for correct functioning - Broca’s area: speech - Wernicke’s area: word comprehension - Aphasia: impairment of language - Agnosia: inability to recognize objects, shapes, sounds, smells, people - How do we study the brain? - Ex vivo: after death - Ex vitro: cultures and slices - In vivo: living, invasive and non invasive Methods of recording brain activity: electrical and magnetic output - EEG - Electrodes placed on scalp - Activities of cortex zones recorded - Good temporal resolution, bad spatial resolution - PET - High resolution of brain, good spatial and bad temporal - Radioactive chemicals injected into blood, sees density signal of marker and blood flow in area of brain - Color > level of activity - Lie still on table - fMRI - magnetic detectors amounts of hemoglobin and oxygen in different areas of the brain: highly active areas use more oxygen - Good spatial resolution, bad temporal Sensation: process by which changes in the state of the world create changes in the brain Perception: process by which changes in the state of the brain give rise to our conscious experience of the world, experience resulting from stimulation of senses - Sensation + theory = perception - Uses prior knowledge and experience to interpret and make sense of sensations - Can change based on added info - Involves a process, occurs in conjunction with actions What pathway: occipital lobe primary visual area > temporal lobe (object recognition) - Damage: visual form agnosia, cannot recognize or depict objects - Damage: visual object agnosia, can’t categorize / name objects, give description instead Where pathway: occipital lobe primary visual area > parietal lobe (objects in space) - Damage: hemispatial neglect, lack of awareness or attention to one side of space Human perceptual system: environmental energy stimulating receptors + knowledge and expectations the observer brings to the situation - Why can’t machines perceive like humans? - Inverse projection problem: lets say a machine is tasked with determining the object responsible for a particular image on the retina. It starts with a retinal image, and then extends outward to the source of that image. - People can identify incomplete/obscured/blurry objects - Viewpoint invariance: objects look different from different viewpoints Approaches to perception - Direct perception theories: Bottom-up processing - Perception comes from environmental stimuli: starts with the senses - We identify parts and put them together until we recognize - Template matching: problem of imperfect matches, flexibility not accounted for - Feature analysis: recognition based on characteristics, assemble each feature into complex form - Recognition by components: geon breakdown and identification of relationship between geons - Constructive perception theories: Top-down processing - People actively construct perceptions using information based on expectations: starts with the brain - Helmholtz unconscious inference: perception depends on knowledge - Likelihood principle, squares example - Our perceptions are the result of unconscious assumptions - Gestalt laws of perceptual organization - The mind groups patterns according to intrinsic laws of perceptual organization - Principle of good continuation: lines following smoothest path, little change in direction, hidden also part of whole - Closure: resulting structure is seen as simple as possible, close lines where they are not present - Law of Pragnanz: principle of simplicity or good figure - We actively construct patterns and configurations - Bayesian inference: sensory input (data) is combined with prior knowledge or expectations (priors) to form perception = likelihood - Regularities of the Environment: common physical properties of the environment - Verticals and horizontals more easily perceived than other orientation - Light from above assumption: shadows give us info about depth and distance - Semantic regularities: Tiffany’s likely to have jewels than chips Depth Perception Cues - Relative size: inferred same size looks bigger > closer - Linear perspective: convergence of parallel lines - Texture gradients - Relative height Fusiform Face Area: high neuronal activity during facial recognition - Damage: prosopagnosia (only inability to recognize faces) - Associative agnosia: can't recognise objects but can faces - Also active if you have high expertise in any item to recognize (Gonchan clothes) Attention: concentrating on specific features of the environment or on certain thoughts or activities (can be overt or covert), the means by which we actively process a limited amount of information - Main Functions of Attention: signal detection and vigilance - Signal Detection Theory: can be incorrect and correct in two different ways - A hit: correct detection of an actual stimulus - A correct rejection: no stimulus is present and no detection is claimed - A miss: An incorrect rejection when a stimulus is present - A false alarm: An incorrect detection when no stimulus is present - Vigilance: attending to a set of stimuli over a length of time to detect a target - You have finite attention - Vigilance decreases rapidly over time, fatigue accumulates - Search: actively searching for a target - Number of targets and distractors influence accuracy - Feature search (find green among blue) vs. conjunctive search (find green or blue) - Attention filtering: filtering out some info and promoting other info for further processing - Selective attention: ability to focus on one message and ignore all the others - Dichotic Listening: trying to listen to different things on different ears - One message shadowed - Cherry: unattended ear filtered out vs attended ear registered - To some degree, unattended ear is being processed: cocktail party effect - Early in processing: Broadbent’s filter - Filtered before incoming information is analyzed for meaning - Can't explain cocktail party effect - Can be trained to detect unattended message - Intermediate processing: Treismen’s attenuation theory - Attended message separated from unattended in processing, just weakened unattended stimuli instead of blocking out - Late in processing: McKay - selection occurs later after analysis is done - Bank river money: participant choice affected by shadowed message - Divided attention: we have finite attention - Cognitive load: amount of a person’s cognitive resources needed to carry out particular cognitive task - Load theory of attention - Processing capacity: how much information someone can handle at once - Perceptual load: difficulty of given task - Inattentive blindness: happens from high cognitive load - Change blindness: failure to detect unexpected stimulus - Controlled processing: conscious control required - Automatic processing: no conscious control needed - Stroop effect: meaning of word interferes with ability to name ink color, we can’t avoid paying attention to word meaning - Emotional Stroop effect: emotional content takes longer to process, words relevant to concern more slow (clinical diagnosis) - Attention can be affected by anxiety, arousal, task difficulty, skills