Cognition Cheat Sheet (DRAFT) by Ieva Dambrauskaite

Sensory receptors are specia­lized neurons that respond to specific types of stimuli. When sensory inform­ation is detected by a sensory receptor, sensation has occurred. For example, light that enters the eye causes chemical changes in cells that line the back of the eye. These cells relay messages, in the form of action potentials (as you learned when studying biopsy­cho­logy), to the central nervous system. The conversion from sensory stimulus energy to action potential is known as transd­uction (Spielman 2017)

Subliminal Messages

A message below that threshold is said to be sublim­inal: We receive it, but we are not consci­ously aware of it. Over the years there has been a great deal of specul­ation about the use of subliminal messages in advert­ising, rock music, and self-help audio programs. Research evidence shows that in laboratory settings, people can process and respond to inform­ation outside of awareness. But this does not mean that we obey these messages like zombies; in fact, hidden messages have little effect on behavior outside the laboratory

One way to think of this concept is that sensation is a physical process, whereas perception is psycho­log­ical. For example, upon walking into a kitchen and smelling the scent of baking cinnamon rolls, the sensation is the scent receptors detecting the odor of cinnamon, but the perception may be “Mmm, this smells like the bread Grandma used to bake when the family gathered for holidays.

Synest­hesia

Hearing Colours/ Tasting shapes

A letter evoke colour/ Sound can trigger feelings and shapes

Stable and durable percept's e.g. Wednesdays will always be yellow

Rarest: taste or smell related

The visual system constructs a mental repres­ent­ation of the world around us (Figure 5.9). This contri­butes to our ability to succes­sfully navigate through physical space and interact with important indivi­duals and objects in our enviro­nments

Stereo blindness

Bruce Bridgeman was born with an extreme case of lazy eye that resulted in him being stereo­blind, or unable to respond to binocular cues of depth. He relied heavily on monocular depth cues, but he never had a true apprec­iation of the 3-D nature of the world around him. This all changed one night in 2012 while Bruce was seeing a movie with his wife. The movie the couple was going to see was shot in 3-D, and even though he thought it was a waste of money, Bruce paid for the 3-D glasses when he purchased his ticket. As soon as the film began, Bruce put on the glasses and experi­enced something completely new. For the first time in his life he apprec­iated the true depth of the world around him. Remark­ably, his ability to perceive depth persisted outside of the movie theater. There are cells in the nervous system that respond to binocular depth cues. Normally, these cells require activation during early develo­pment in order to persist, so experts familiar with Bruce’s case (and others like his) assume that at some point in his develo­pment, Bruce must have experi­enced at least a fleeting moment of binocular vision. It was enough to ensure the survival of the cells in the visual system tuned to binocular cues. The mystery now is why it took Bruce nearly 70 years to have these cells activated (Peck, 2012).

The ear can be separated into multiple sections. The outer ear includes the pinna, which is the visible part of the ear that protrudes from our heads, the auditory canal, and the tympanic membrane, or eardrum. The middle ear contains three tiny bones known as the ossicles, which are named the malleus (or hammer), incus (or anvil), and the stapes (or stirrup). The inner ear contains the semi-c­ircular canals, which are involved in balance and movement (the vestibular sense), and the cochlea. The cochlea is a fluid­filled, snail-­shaped structure that contains the sensory receptor cells (hair cells) of the auditory

As hair cells become activated, they generate neural impulses that travel along the auditory nerve to the brain. Auditory inform­ation is shuttled to the inferior collic­ulus, the medial geniculate nucleus of the thalamus, and finally to the auditory cortex in the temporal lobe of the brain for processing

Retrieval

Available: all info is stored in memory

Encoding specific principle: the effect­iveness of retrieval cues

Recogn­ition tests: selection of studied info from aggregate info=m­ultiple choice

Depth of Proces­sing: the more effort or processing you carry out on info, the better it will be remembered

Repetition

Decay Theory of Forget­ting: passage of time leads to loss of info from STM

MLT structure; part of limbic system that receives massive imput from sensory and associ­ation cortices and frontal lobe

Removed his hippoc­ampus and amygdala

Loftus 1974

"­wit­nes­s" watched video of a car crash

Half were asked "was there much glass when car collid­ed?­"

Those who heard word "­sma­she­d" reported seeing broken glass when there was none

Memory is a 'modal' model that consists of a flow of info that passes through three stages

Atkinson and Shiffrin 1968

With age, comes a natural decrease in brain tissue

There also appear to be specific neurot­ran­smi­tters involved with the process of memory, such as epinep­hrine, dopamine, serotonin, glutamate, and acetyl­cho­line.

It is also believed that strong emotions trigger the formation of strong memories, and weaker emotional experi­ences form weaker memories; this is called arousal theory (Chris­tia­nson, 1992)

Strong emotional experi­ences can trigger the release of neurot­ran­smi­tters, as well as hormones, which strengthen memory; therefore, our memory for an emotional event is usually better than our memory for a nonemo­tional event.

loss of long-term memory that occurs as the result of disease, physical trauma, or psycho­logical trauma.

Wunt (Leipz­eig), James (Harvard)

Taking possession by mind, in clear, vivid form of one out of what seems several simult­ane­ously possible objects or train of thoughts.

Early Filter Model

Selective attention model that proposes that info is discarded early in the stream of proces­sing.

Response Selection Model

selective attention model that proposes that selection occurs late in the stream of processing before a response has been made.

Helmho­ltz's Attention Experiment

Partic­ipants performed a simple reaction time task where they had to press a button whenever a light appeared at any one of several locations on a computer screen. Prior to the onset of the light, a cue was presented that provided inform­ation about the likely location of the target (see figure 8.9). When the cue was valid, there was a benefit of faster response times compared to either a no cue condition or an invalid cue trial where the partic­ipant was directed to the wrong location. Like James’s school­tea­chers who could keep their eyes on the blackboard and pay attention to the children, even though partic­ipants in the experi­ments did not move their eyes, their attention was automa­tically being drawn to events around them.

Another remarkable feature of unilateral visual neglect is that it also affects mental imagery. As we saw in Chapter 5, we can form visual mental images to help us create memories. For example, if you are asked to visualize your bedroom, you can form a mental picture of it. You can report various objects in the layout on both sides of the room. However, neglect patients fail to report objects on the contra­les­ionally side of their mental image. For example, when Italian neglect patients were asked to visualize a famous square in Milan and report what they saw standing from the steps of the cathedral, they reported all the shops lining the right side of the square. They were then asked to imagine walking to the opposite side of the square to turn round and face the cathedral. This time they reported all the remaining shops that had previously been on the left side but were now on the right.