Meg Smith- Cognitive

• - brain tissue staining (Golgi staining)
• - 1 of 4 fathers of psych
• -Used silver nitrate to stimulate (potassium chloride mix)

• - Used Golgi stain on newborn brains
• -Neuron Doctrine: signal transmits from the first neuron, continually down each neuron

• - A neuron not firing is at a constant rate of -70 mV
• - Threshold is at -55mV
• - Reaches action potential once it depolarizes beyond threshold
• - Action potential maxes out at 40mV
• - Re polarizes to refractory period (below -70mV), then back to resting state

• - Transduction
• -Sensory receptors (afferent)
• 1. Sensory receptors
• 2. Signal transduction
• 3. Physiological response

• Environmental energy in retina and electrical energy when entering optic chiasm
• -Signals meet, converge, and are directed
• -Brain works contralaterally

• Connects the left and right hemispheres, communication
• - seizure occur when there is too much activity between the left and right hemispheres

• - Screen and imaging
• - Visual cue: reach with left and reach with right

• 2 types of info:
• 1. Linguistic: language based info
• 2. Visuo-spatial: mental imagery

Goal: good mapping of the world

Mnemonic Device: using visual objects to represent parts of a story

• Verbalizing a mental image
• -how many windows do you have in your house?

Mental images are unproven and mythological - Watson

• -Performance scores: mentally rotating objects
• - Mental rotation test
• -Problems: visual imagery cannot be directly observed

• Mental imagery = elaboration
• -Shepard: memory for pictures is high with 87% accuracy after 1 week

Visual imagery = perception without originality stimulus

• 2 independent codes to help elaboration
• 1. Verbal: make verbal associations
• 2. Visual: form mental images
• Concrete v. Abstract words: abstract words are difficult to represent visually
• *Association is a better predictor of learning

Studied word pairs with high or low imagery potential, not told to use imagery

Results: imagery used most for 2 high high words and least for low low pairs

Implications: imagery potential = strong predictor of learning

• - "F" task
• - quickly view block letter on screen
• - participants mentally trace outline of letter
• - extreme top or bottom = "yes"
• - not extreme top or bottom = "no"

• 3 methods of responding:
• 1. say yes or no
• 2. tap left or right finger
• 3. point to irregularly placed Ys and Ns on a page
• Results: verbal responses greater than pointing to responses
• Implications:
• - Using 2 different systems = no selective interference
• - Using the same system = selective interference

Propositional Theory: all knowledge based on description, not sensory characteristics. No "pictures" in memory

• Analog: processing visual images is analogous to perceptual processing
• -Had 5 types of evidence

• -Participants study map, focus on one landmark and quickly switch focus to another
• -Hypothesis: mental scanning time = time to visually scan picture
• -Results: RT = linear function of distance between landmarks; same RTs for visual scans

• -Phase 1: participants view pictures of faces or descriptions of faces
• -Phase 2: participants view face; decide "same" or "different"
• Hypothesis: fast match RT (parallel processing) for pictures of faces
• Results: RT: Pictures of faces is less that description of faces

• -Participants view pairs of 3D objects and decide "same" or "different"
• -Hypothesis: degree of orientation should affect RT to decide same or different
• -Results: RT increased linearly with increases in degree of rotation

Participants view image of pulley system

Hypothesis: if mental imagery is like visual perception, RT should increase as number of pulleys increases

Results: RT increases linearly with number of pulleys

• "F" Task
• Hypothesis: imagery and perception simultaneously = selective interference

Results: poor performance for visually based responses

• Normal subjects in fMRI
• - Shown patterns on a screen: occipital lobe activation

• Imagine same pattern
• - almost as much visual cortex activation

• Right parietal damage
• - contralateral effect
• - Not aware of anything in left visual field
• - Attention problem that results in visual deficits
• -Perception is in retina, mental image is in LTM

Imagine animal, then view animal part, decide if part belongs to animal

• Results: faster RT for larger animals
• -easy to isolate features

Imagine 2 animals at the same time

• Results: faster RT for elephant parts
• - elephant is bigger in 'visual' field (easier to imagine features)

Imagine giant fly and tiny elephant

• Results: reverse effect
• RT: fly less than the elephant
• - relative and imagined size matter

• Imagine animals with high and low association values and big and small features
• Imagine group = form images
• control group = not told to form mental image

Results: faster RT for image group

• 1. Mental image details are selective
• 2. Reality monitoring
• 3. Breakdown of Reality Monitoring

Reinterpreting perceived figure better than reinterpreting imagined figure

• Cues help us make the distinction
• -Perceptual Info:
• Spacial details
• Uses context
• Processed automatically

• False/Illusory Memory
• -Causes:
• long delays
• repeated suggestions
• mental rehearsal
• guided imagery
• -Example:
• eye witness testimony
• 9/11 flashbulb memory

• Hallucinations
• Causes:
• -Impaired discrimination btwn reality and imagination
• -hallucination content relates to personality and present stressors
• Example: Sz patients have enhanced imagery vividness

• -Organization = efficiency
• -Meaning based
• -Ex: Listing US states and how we do it (alphabetize, location)

• 1. Organization
• 2. Activation
• 3. Priming

• Linking semantically related concepts
• -Concepts = NODES (provide complexity)
• -Types of relationships = LINKS (provide info)
• *types, characteristics, leads to etc.

how concepts are assessed

Decreased RT and increased accuracy based on prior exposure to related information

• Categorization
• -Superordinate (vehicles)
• -Basic (SUV, truck, motorcycle)
• -Subordinate (envoy, trailblazer, CRV)
• Categorical info stored through associations

• Categorization = matching features
• -Defining features are required
• -Characteristic features are common
• Stage 1: feature comparison
• Stage 2: focus on defining features

• Ease of activation = degree of relatedness
• - length of links: shorter lengths = stronger relationships
• Priming : "giving" activation to related items
• - activation lessens with distance

• Some with semantic training, some with no training
• Did better trained
• Implications: Semantic networks organize knowledge efficiently

Extracting meaning: semantic organization is helpful

Cant remember verbatim because it's rarely important to do so

• We false alarm to the fact that info is consistent with expectations
• We fill gaps with plausible information

• General knowledge structure/framework for organizing clusters of info
• Ex: worldviews, occupations, social roles, scripts

• When recalling ghost story, participants:
• Omitted irrelevant info
• Rationalized unacceptable issues
• Changed details, content, and style to fit own culture/expectations

• 1. Knowledge - our model of the world
• 2. General - not specific to 1 situation
• 3. Structured - include relationships about facts
• 4. Comprehension - fill in incomplete info

• Results:
• No context - 3.6 out of 14 ideas
• Context before - 8 out of 14
• Context after - 3.6
• Implications:
• Context improves comprehension
• Schemata/context needed before new info is given

• Generate expectations
• Make inferences
• Comprehend written/spoken material

• Schema = skeletal structure
• Default knowledge

• Sequences of events for routine activities
• Components:
• Standard roles
• Props/objects
• Conditions
• Results
• Script organization possibilities:
• Temporal ordering
• Centrality/importance of events

• Retrieval results: temporal order >order of importance
• Implications: temporal order accesses all events

• Barsalou:
• General semantic representations are amodal (without sensory input)

• Incorporate perceptual information:
• audition
• gustation
• vision
• olfaction
• mechanoreception

• Special case of perceptual symbols model (Rubin)
• Representations of personal experiences:
• Perceptual experiences
• Language
• Emotion
• Implications: autobiographical memories are constructed

• Retrieve personal memories for target word
• >press button when memory is retrieved
• >rate emotional intensity

• Importance:
• Decreased complexity
• Increased object identification
• Decreased need for constant learning
• Increased good decisions on how to act

• Hierarchies = levels of abstraction
• Superordinate: members share few attributes
• Basic: Most informative, many shared attributes, good differentiation between categories
• Subordinate: poor differentiation from other categories

• 1. Classification in the basic categories
• Fastest verification RTs
• Exception - experts
• 2. Prototype Theories
• "Average" category shape acts as representative
• 3. Superordinate v. Basic-Level
• Fast verification RT for basic and subordinate forms