Brain and Cognition Summary (2021) for the first subexam
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Course
Cognitie En Gedrag (201500052)
Institution
Universiteit Utrecht (UU)
This summary explains everything as concisely but clearly as possible. Terms are in bold and easy to read, because they do not contain long pieces of text, but bullet points with important information. The following chapters for subexam 1 are included:
Kalat: 5,6
Goldstein: 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
,Inhoudsopgave
Chapter 1: Introduction to Cognitive Psychology...................................................................................2
Chapter 6: Other Sensory Systems.........................................................................................................4
Module 6.1: Audition..........................................................................................................................4
Module 6.2: The Mechanical Senses..................................................................................................5
Module 6.3: The Chemical Senses......................................................................................................6
Chapter 5: Vision....................................................................................................................................7
Module 5.1: Visual Coding..................................................................................................................7
Module 5.2: How the Brain Processes Visual Information..................................................................8
Module 5.3: Parallel Processing in the Visual Cortex..........................................................................9
Chapter 3: Perception...........................................................................................................................10
Chapter 5: Short-Term and Working Memory......................................................................................12
Chapter 6: Long-term Memory Structure.............................................................................................14
Chapter 7: Long-term Memory: Encoding, Retrieval and Consolidation...............................................16
Chapter 4: Attention.............................................................................................................................18
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,Chapter 1: Introduction to Cognitive Psychology
Cognitive psychology: the branch of psychology concerned with the scientific study of the mind. The
observation of mental processes we cannot observe directly.
Mind:
- Cognition: the mental processes created by the mind (perception, attention, memory,
emotions, language, deciding, thinking, reasoning);
- How the mind operates and its function: it creates representations of the world so that we
can act within it to achieve our goals.
Donders (1868): how long does it take for a person to make a decision?
Measuring reaction time: how long it takes to respond to a stimulus;
o Simple reaction time: push the button when the light turns on;
o Choice reaction time: push the left or right button when the left/right light turns on;
SRT stimulus mental response (perceive light) behavioural response
(push button);
CRT stimulus (left) mental response (perceive left light) and decide which
button behavioural response (press left button).
Wundt and structuralism: our overall experience is determined by combining basic elements of
experience (sensations).
Analytic introspection: trained participants described their sensations, feelings and thought
processes in response to stimuli;
Shift mind study rationalist to empiricist approach: emphasizes central role of experiments in
gaining knowledge about the mind.
Ebbinghaus memory (and forgetting):
- Learn delay recall;
- Savings = (original time to learn the list) – (time to re-learn the list after delay);
o = how much info is retained after a particular delay;
- Savings curve: memory drops rapidly for the first two days after the initial learning and then
levels off.
William James (1890): observations based on the operation of his own mind.
Disadvantages introspection:
- It produces different results from person to person;
- These results are difficult to verify.
Behaviourism (Watson): restricts psychology to observable behavioural data.
How pairing one stimulus with another one affects behaviour, what happens in the head is
irrelevant (classical conditioning).
Operant conditioning (Skinner): how behaviour is strengthened by the presentation of positive
reinforcers.
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,Tolman (1948): rat experiment with a cognitive map, a map in the rat’s mind of the layout of the
maze.
Skinner: learning language is operant conditioning.
Chomsky (1959): language is an inborn biological programme.
Cognitive revolution: a shift from behaviourist’s stimulus-response relationships to an approach
whose main thrust was to understand the operation of the mind.
Information-processing approach: traces sequences of mental operations involved in cognition
(computer).
Dichotic listening experiment (Cherry): “input” are the sounds of two messages, the “filter” only lets
through the attended message and filters out the other one, the “detector” records the information
that gets through the filter.
Artificial intelligence: making a machine behave in ways called intelligent if a human were so
behaving.
Logic theorist: create proofs of mathematical theorems that involved principles of logic.
Miller: there are a few spaces for “immediate memory”, it must be recoded in smaller units to enable
further processing.
Two aspects of research that apply to cognitive psychology:
1. The roles of models;
a. Structural models: representations of a physical structure (locations). Goal:
simplification;
b. Process models: illustrate how a process operates;
c. Resource models: focus on mental effort/resources that processes require;
i. Multiple resource model: predicts performance differences in multitask
settings. Dimensions:
1. Processing: perception + cognition processes vs. responding to the
other;
2. Codes of processing: some activities require different resources than
others;
3. Modalities: auditory perception uses different resources than visual;
2. Benefits for science and society.
Spacing: learning distributed over time.
Interleaving: intermixing different topics within a particular domain.
This improves performance.
Spacing + interleaving = lasting learning.
Retrieval-based learning: is beneficial in the long run, but fast learning = fast forgetting.
The subtraction method (in PET scans) can be used to isolate specific cognitive processes.
Example: look at a ‘+’, look at ‘hammer’, read ‘hammer’, say a verb related to ‘hammer’ (hit).
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, Chapter 6: Other Sensory Systems
Module 6.1: Audition
We attend to hearing in order to extract useful information.
Sound waves are periodic compressions of air, water, etc.
Amplitude: a sound wave’s intensity;
Frequency: the number of compressions per second (in Hz);
Pitch: related aspect of perception (toonhoogte);
Timbre: tone quality/complexity;
o Prosody: conveying emotional info by hearing a tone or voice.
Ear anatomy:
- Pinna: structure of flesh and cartilage, helps locate the source of a sound;
- Middle and inner ear: amplify sound vibrations;
- Tympanic membrane/eardrum: connects to the three tiny bones that transmit vibrations to
the oval window;
o Three tiny bones: hammer, anvil, stirrup;
- Cochlea: fluid becomes in motion;
o Hair cells (auditory receptors) are displaces opens ion channels in its membrane.
Place theory: each frequency activates the hair cells at only one place along the basilar membrane
and the nervous system decides which neurons respond.
Frequency theory: the entire basilar membrane vibrates in synchrony with a sound auditory nerve
axons produce action potentials at the same frequency.
But: the maximum fire rate would then be much lower (1000 Hz) than frequencies we can
hear).
Current theory: at low frequencies, the frequency of impulses identifies the pitch, and the number of
firing cells identifies loudness.
Volley principle of pitch discrimination: auditory nerve produces volleys of impulses for sounds up to
4000 per second, even though no individual axon approaches that frequency.
Sounds with higher frequencies excite hair cells near the base, lower frequencies excite hair cells
near the apex (binnenkant).
Information ultimately reaches the primary auditory cortex.
The development of the auditory system depends on experience.
The primary auditory cortex (area A1) is not necessary for hearing, but for processing the
information.
Tonotopic map: cells in each area respond mainly to tones of a particular frequency.
“If you cannot imagine a sound, then a word relatively to sound seems meaningless”.
The auditory cortex is also important for thinking about concepts related to hearing.
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