PSYC 204 Cognition Review from First Class 1 Three Eras in the History of Psychology o Introspection and Structuralism o Behaviorism 1900 1950s o Cognitive Revolution Noam Chomsky Language 02 10 2014 2 Major Criticism of Cognitive Psychology poor ecological validity 3 Cognitive Science vs Cognitive Neuroscience o CS focuses on many aspects of the field of knowledge and o CNS focuses on the workings of the brain as it relates to knowing cognition 4 Foer claims that we are fairly good at remembering Theme 2 Cognitive processes are remarkably efficient and accurate Perceptual Processes I Visual and Auditory Processing Pattern Recognition o Illustration Old world city street seaside to left buildings lining the road people and carts in the street possibly leading to a larger city area o The moment the image flashed before us information processing was already taking place and connections were being made even though the picture was only present for a half second Theories of Visual Object Pattern Recognition o Template Matching In the developmental process we notice patterns in the world those that we experience frequently we begin to associate with all other objects of similar form Clarification Templates are exact matches of things we experience in the real world whereas schemas are more categorical We fashion a 1 1 correspondence in our memory of everything we experience in the real world Example Bar codes and QR codes This is related to bottom up processing we are looking for an exact representation or match o Prototype Matching Improvement upon Template Model Suggests that we know in general the essential elements of the things we encounter in reality rather than a specific and exact image of what we encounter Example Rather than having an exact representation of the letter A in our mind we recognize the essence of the letter This is related to top down processing we are taking the general idea the essence of the things we encounter o Feature Analysis Distinctive Feature Approach Born of reductionism Suggests that we break down visual stimuli into component features each stimulus that we encounter is comprised of a specific set of features Example Instead of capturing the exact form or essence of the letter A we look at the individual features of the letter A the horizontal and diagonal lines arranged in a specific way Our visual cortex has feature detectors that are specific to specific orientations and positions of stimuli Similar system Pandemonium Model Hubel Wisel were the first to discover feature detection cells in cats specifically attuned to fire for different contours This is related to bottom up processing we are looking for specific features o Recognition by Components Expansion of Feature Analysis to include 3 D objects These 3 D elements are called geons Viewer Centered Approach we recognize that a particular object remains the same even if the stimulus on the retina changes dramatically as in a rotation of the object or some other manipulation This is related to bottom up processing we are looking for specific geons Principles of Pattern Recognition o Top Down Bottom Up Processing Word Superiority Effect when a letter is embedded in a meaningful word we are able to locate the letter than if it was embedded in a list of random letters Context makes a difference o Overactive Top Down Processing by priming the system to be attuned to a specific stimulus we sometimes make errors Example Top Hop Cop Shop What do you do when you see a green light Stop I mean GO Speech Perception o Speech Sounds Phoneme smallest unit of speech that we use to communicate language More phonemes than letters in the English Bechtold 35 40 in the English language Matlin 40 45 in the English language 50 60 phonemes make up all the languages of the world 12 distinctive features make up all phonemes Phoneme Characteristics in Speech Production Vary in pitch and tone Language is not always produced in a precise fashion Coarticulation Parallel Transmission we perceive silence between words where there is none it is an auditory illusion Morpheme smallest unit of speech that carries meaning Example trees 3 phonemes tr ee s 2 morphemes tree s o tree object in nature o s plural o Speech Recognition Parsing breaking down a continuous auditory feed Phonemic Restoration filling in missing phonemes into individual words based on context McGurk Effect Multimodal Perception the ability to understand speech usually more than simply auditory processing such as visually like watching the news with the sound off and still knowing what is being said Perceptual Processes II Ch 3 02 10 2014 Perceptual Processes II Attention Types of Attention o Divided Attention o Selective Attention Theories of Attention o Parallel Distributing Processing PDP Model There is interference in pathway activation that causes a delay Multiple networks are activated simultaneously o Bottleneck Filter Theories We get a vast amount of sensory stimuli Before information is registered cognitively there is a filter or bottleneck that only allows some information in to be cognitively processed Stronger stimuli block other stimuli i e whatever reaches you first or is more dominant gets through Information reaches short term memory o Treisman s Feature Integration Theory 2 stage model Pre Attentive Process Distributed attention Parallel processing everything taken in all at The article of interest just seems to leap out Focused Attention Selective Attention Serial processing scanning one object after once another You go from item to item scanning for the particular item of interest There is a competition for selective attention and where we direct our attention o Shiffren Schnieder s Automatic vs Controlled Processing Automatic Processing Parallel many things are done simultaneously Effortless Not easy doesn t require intense thought Pre attentive you re still attending to the whole environment not any particular thing No need for working memory short term memory Controlled Processing Serial one thing done at a time Effortful requires intense cognitive load Focused concentration of mental activity on one thing Relies on working memory short term memory Thought typically begins at the controlled level once this process becomes automatic cognitive load is released for some other task Cognitive load doesn t change you just become more efficient Automatic processes are hard to inhibit processes that are not automatic i e controlled will be subdued