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Reading Notes 2135

Part 1| The Foundations of Cognitive Psychology
Chapter 1: The science of the mind (p.g. 28)
The scope of cognitive psychology
 First focused on the scientific study of knowledge

The broad role for memory

 Many – if not all – of our experiences rely on supplementary knowledge that we bring to the situation
 mem is crucial for this  we rmbr our past and bring it back up when relevant to current situation

amnesia and memory loss

 amnesia: bc of brain damage, one has lost ability to remember certain materials
 e.g. H.M.
o had brain surgery to control epilepsy
o cut out MTL and HC bilaterally
o resulted in anterograde amnesia (cant remember anything after surgery)
o often times he commented on the fact that he “didn’t know who he was” bc he could not recall his
accomplishments, actions, or if he kept his promises, etc.
 cognitive psychology: scientific study of the acquisition, retention and use of knowledge
o helps us understand capacities relevant to every moment of our lives (e.g. emotional adjustments
to the world which rely on memories, our ability to understand a convo, etc.)

The cognitive revolution

 cog psych = 50 yrs old; dramatic emergence of this field lol
 cognitive revolution brought about a shift in style of research used by psychologists
o new style = more empirical based, how to study things in a calculated manner

The limits of introspection

 cog revolution centered on small # of key ideas:
o 1) science of psychology cannot study the mental world directly
o 2) the science of psychology MUST study the mental world if we are going to understand
behaviour
 Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) + Edward Bradford Titchener
o New research enterprise to study mental world directly; lead to modern field of psychology
o Their view: psych needed to focus on the study of conscious mental events – feelings, thoughts,
perceptions and recollections
o Studied it using introspection (look within) to observe and record content of our own mental lives
 Stated introspection could not be casual; introspectors had to be meticulously trained
 Had to report on their experiences, with minimum interpretation
 Limitations
 some thoughts are UNconscious  introspection = limited research tool
 It is not falsifiable; no way to test its claims (e.g. my headache worse than urs)

The years of behaviourism

 Next came behaviourism: observes how behaviours change in response to various stimuli (including
rewards vs punishments)
 NOTE: the way we act/feel is often guided by how we understand and interpret the situation, and not by
the objective situation itself; behaviourists only considered w objective situation (behaviour) meaning we
will regularly misunderstand why people are doing what they are doing and make the wrong predictions
about how they will behaviour in the future
o Behaviourists themselves quickly realized this point; modern behaviourism has abandoned the
radical rejection of mentalistic terms
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The roots of the cognitive revolution

 SUMMARY: we need to talk about the mental world if we want to explain behaviour. How ppl act is
shaped by how they PERCEIVE the situation, how they UNDERSTAND the stimuli, etc. can only do this
through introspection… but introspection is scientifically unworkable
 Solution: Kant’s transcendental method
o Begin w observable facts, then work backwards from these observations
o Method also sometimes called “inference to best explanation”
 What gives science power  ability to reproduce experiments and vary the experiments to test hypotheses
o Using Kant’s method, we can study mental processes INDIRECTLY, relying on the fact that these
processes (invisible) have visible consequences that can be measurable
 E.g. delays in response, performance accuracy, errors etc.

Research in cognitive psychology: the diversity of methods

 We begin w a particular performance (e.g. memory task) and then hypothesize a series of unseen mental
events that make the performance possible
 Then hypothesis is tested by collecting more data
 We use DIVERSE methods and collect many types of data

Working memory: some initial observations

 Reading is an example of WM: the memory you use for info that you are actively working on
 WM holds info in easily accessible form so that the info is “at your fingertips”
 WM has a small capacity, so can only hold a few items in store
 Span test: have person read a list of 4 items (A D G W) and report back, immediately in seq
o Then increase to 5 letters, then 6, etc… until the person can no longer accurately report back
o Our WM capacity is around 7/8 things
o Measures the combined capacities of the central executive and the loop

Working memory: a proposal

 When we measure WM, we see that ppl often make errors, but these errors follow a simple pattern
o Mistakes sound similar in sound (e.g. heard “S”, report back “F”)
o Same mistake if letters are presented visually  see “S”, likely to report back “F” and not “E”
 Alan Baddeley and Graham Hitch model of WM
o Central executive: part that “does the real work”; changes
attention from phonological loop and visuospatial sketchpad;
analyses and interprets some info
o Articulatory rehearsal loop: uses repetition to keep things in
conscious awareness
 Uses subvocalization (silent speech) to launch the
rehearsal loop  this *inner voice* produces
representation in the phonological buffer
o TLDR THIS IS AN OLD MODEL??? LOL ANYWAYS
LEARN THIS FOR EXAM BUT WTF
 WM’s central executive is supported by # of low-
level assistants. One assistant, the articulatory
rehearsal loop, involves 2 components: subvocal
speech (inner voice) and phonological buffer (inner
ear). Items are rehearsed by using subvocalization to
“load” the buffer. While this is going on, the
executive is free to work on other matters
o *doesn’t mention visuospatial or phonological loop*

Evidence for working memory system

 Why do ppl make “sound-alike” errors in span task? Bc they are relying on rehearsal loop, which involves
the “inner ear” that store the memory items as internal representations of sounds
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 NOTE: the mechanisms needed to control subvocal speech (inner voice) overlap significantly w those
needed for the control and production of overt speech
o As a result, many experiments block rehearsal by requiring pts to say “Tah-Tah-Tah” out loud
 Aka use concurrent articulation task
 Using this task, since the loop is no longer working at its best, WM using the digit span
test drops by 1/3 (4-5 items)
 This is also the case with concurrent articulation and visually presented items
 We can also test ppls memory spans by using complex visual shapes
o Ppl are shown these shapes, and must echo the seq back by drawing what they saw
o If shapes are more complex, they cannot be easily named and the shapes cannot be rehearsed via
inner-voice/inner-ear combination and so concurrent articulation has no effect
 NOTE: since the loop is incapable of any more sophisticated operations, these operations are not
compromised if the loops unavailable
o Aka concurrent articulation blocks the use of the loop, but has no effect on someone’s ability to
read brief sentences, do simple logic probs, etc.
 Does have an effect on more complex sentences and harder problems, but that’s bc these
tasks are harder and require analysis AND the storage of interim steps, so need all WM

The nature of working memory evidence

 Claims of inner-voice and inner-ear have never been seen directly, but we have proven they exist bc our
claims have lead to new predictions that were confirmed by further testing
 These claims are useful (leading to new observations) and accurate (leading to correct predictions)
 Many forms of data:
o How manipulation changes performance
o Manipulation of stimuli
o Look in detail at the nature of performance
o Measure the speed of performance
 Can also get data from cognitive neuroscience: the study of the biological basis for cognitive functioning
o Some ppl have neurological damage that causes anarthria: inability to produce overt speech
 Aka paralysis of muscles needed to analyze diff btw subvocalization and actual speech
 Data has shown that these ppl show sound alike confusion in their span data (word-length
effect) which suggest that actual muscle movements are NOT needed for subvocalization,
Bc the results are the same WITHOUT THESE MOVEMENTS
 Seems more likely that inner speech relies on brain areas responsible for
planning and controlling the muscle mov’ts of speech but not mov’ts themselves
 Can also get data from neuropsychology: how brain dysfunction influence observable performance
o Brain imaging shows us which areas are active during WM tasks
 Inner voice  uses brain mechanisms used for overt speech
 Inner ear  uses mechanisms for actual hearing
o Can also compare vast types of ppl
 E.g. deaf ppl rely on a different assistant for WM: the “inner hand” instead of inner voice
 TLDR are disrupted if they are asked to wiggle their fingers during mem task &
make same “hand-shape” errors in WM (like sound-alike errors in hearing ppl)

Working memory in a broader context

 Why should we care about structure of WM? Bc we rely on WM for a vast # of circumstances
 Therefore we can use WM to move toward an understanding of more broader set of probs and issues (e.g.
reading, must teach young kids of articulatory rehearsal [bc they do not know it naturally])
 Understanding WM can give us insight into broad range of tasks 😊

Applying cognitive psychology

 Some applications:
o Can help students who are trying to learn new materials in the classroom, implications in criminal
justice system (eyewitness report), the practice of medicine, training of business ppl
Chapter summary (51)
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Chapter 2: The neural basis for cognition

 Capgras syndrome: rare condition where ppl are able to recognize the ppl in their world, but are
convinced that these ppl are intruders
 Why does this happen? Probs bc facial recognition involves 2 separate systems in the brain + emotional
appraisal  in Capgras syndrome, emotional processing is disrupted and leads to an intellectual
identification without a familiarity response

Explaining Capgras Syndrome

 We know this bc of neuroimaging techniques

The Neural basis for Capgras Syndrome

 Older studies used PET scans; now we use MRI scans, which suggest link btw Capgras syndrome and
abnormalities in:
o R Temporal lobe  disrupts circuits involving the amygdala (emotional evaluator)
o R prefrontal cortex  necessary for planning and careful analysis; less active when dreaming
 Side note: ppl w schizophrenia have decreased frontal lobe activity during hallucinations

What do we learn from Capgras Syndrome?

 The idea that recognition of all stimuli involves 2 separate mechanisms:
o 1) factual knowledge of recognition
o 2) “emotional” knowledge of familiarity
 We can use Capgras syndrome to illuminate broader issues about the nature of the brain and mind
o E.g. Capgras suggests the amygdala is necessary for feelings of familiarity + emotion
o E.g. we use lots of diff brain areas to allow for recognition

The study of the brain

 3-4 pounds, contains a trillion nerve cells, each of which is connected to 10,000 other nerve cells
 Large # of glial cells (10 trillion)
 Phineas Gage suffered damage to frontal cortex  severe personality and emotional problems
 Paul Broca  Brocas area, needed for smooth production of speech
 Edouard Claparede  temporal lesion = profound memory loss

Hindbrain, Midbrain, Forebrain

 Hindbrain  sits on top of the spinal cord, includes structures crucial for controlling key life functions
o E.g. rhythm of heart beats and breathing
o Helps maintain body’s posture and balance and helps control brains level of alertness
o Largest part of hindbrain is the cerebellum  coordination of bodily movements and balance, as
well as (new info suggesting its involvement in) spatial reasoning, discriminating sounds,
integrating input from various sensory systems
 Midbrain  several f’ns; coordinates movements (e.g. precise mov’ts of your eyes when you explore),
circuits that relay auditory info from the ears to areas in forebrain to be processed + interpreted, help to
regulate experience of pain
 Forebrain  most interesting, what makes you, you
 Cerebral cortex  outer part of brain, constitutes 80% of human brain
o Has many convolutions to decrease SA
o Longitudinal fissure: deepest groove, separates the two hemispheres
o Central fissure: divide frontal lobes on each side of the brain from parietal lobes (top)
o Lateral fissure: divide the frontal + parietal lobes from temporal lobes

Subcortical structures (hidden inside)

 Thalamus  relay station for all sensory info going to the cortex
 Hypothalamus  role in controlling motivated behaviours such as eating, drinking, sexual activity
 Limbic system  hypothalamus, amygdala (emotions), HC (memory)
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Lateralization
 Brain divided into two hemispheres, diffs in function btw the two (but still work closely together)
o Connected via commissures which carry information back and forth btw the two hemi’s
o Corpus callosum  largest commissure; can be cut for extreme cases of epilepsy; this has shown
us that language is lateralized to the L hemi and spatial judgement to the R hemi

Data from neuropsychology

 Can study ppl who have suffered brain damage (neuropsychology)
o Clinical neuropsychology seeks to understand the functioning of intact, undamaged brain by
analyzing cases involving brain damage
o Lesion  area of damage;eg. lesion in HC produces memory problems but not language disorders

Data from neuroimaging

 CT scans: study brains structure via X-ray imaging
 PET scans: study brains activity via radioactive tracer
 MRI scans: relies on the magnetic properties of atoms that make up brain tissue
 fMRI scnas: measures O2 in the blood flowing through each region of brain to show lvl of neural activity

Data from electrical recording

 TB: neurons communicate via chemical signals called neurotransmitters; when activated, a neuron
releases a NT that can activate or de-activate another neuron, which then sends its own signal, etc.
 There also exists communication WITHIN neurons btw input and output end; to communicate within a
neuron, it sends electrical pulse via flow of charged atoms (ions) in and out of the neuron
o This is the basis for EEG: recording of the changes at the scalp that reflect activity in the brain
o EEGs are often used to study broad rhythms of the brain’s activities
 Alpha rhythm: awake and calm and relaxed
 Delta rhythm: deep sleep
 Event-related potential: measures changes in activity for brief period before, during and after event
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The power of combining techniques

 CT & MRI tell us about the shape and size of brain structures, but do not tell us anything about activity lvls
 PET & fMRI do tell us about brain activity lvls,+ can locate it precisely, but have poor temporal acuity
 EEG gives us more precise info about timing but are weaker in telling us where the activity took place
 Science overcomes this by using data from multiple sources
 NOTE: using these tools give us only correlational data
 Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)  creates strong magnetic pulses at specific locations in the scalp
which causes temporary disruption of brain region; this compromises a part of the brain and allows us to see
what that brain region is responsible for

Localization of function
 Localization data reveals large overlap btw brain structures needed for (for eg.) visualizing and actual vision
 Nothing else important here omg

The cerebral cortex

 Largest portion of human brain; where
large portion of information processing
takes place
 Divided into 3 categories:
o 1) motor areas  organizes
and controls bodily movements
o 2) sensory areas  contains
tissue essential for organizing
and analyzing info we receive
from senses
o 3) association areas  support
many f’ns, like thinking

Motor areas
 Primary motor projection areas
(departure points) and primary sensory
projection areas (arrival points)
 Evidence shows contralateral control,
where stimulation on the L hemi leads to
mov’ts on the R side of body
o Called projection areas bc we
basically have “maps” of our
body projected onto our brain
o Pic  some areas of the body
we can move w great precision
bc ↑ sensitivity due to large
cortical area (lips, fingers)

Sensory areas
 Info from skin senses is projected to
parietal lobe (somatosensory area)
 If we stimulate a specific part of this
area, pts report feeling tingling spot
somewhere specific on body
 Sensory projection areas differ in
important ways (e.g. types of incoming stimuli) but also share features:
o 1) these areas provide a “map” of the sensory environment
o 2) in each of these sensory maps the assignment of cortical space is governed by function
o 3) contralateral connections
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Associate areas
 Association cortex  contains many subregions, each of which are specialized to their own function and cause
diff defects when lesioned
 Apraxia: disturbance in the initiation or organization of voluntary mov’t
 Agnosia: inability to identify familiar objects; typically only affect one modality
 Neglect syndrome: parietal lobe lesion, person ignores L side of the world
 Aphasia: disruption to language capacities
 Prefrontal lobe damage: problems with planning and implementing strategies, inhibiting behaviours, lead to
confusions (e.g. Capgras syndrome), etc.

Brain cells
Neurons and glia
 Glia: guide the development of the nervous system in the fetus and young infant; support repairs if NS is
damaged, control the flow of nutrients to the neurons
o Some specialized glia also provide a layer of electrical insulation surrounding parts of some neurons,
increasing the speed with which neurons can send their signals
 Neurons: allow for signals to be sent in the brain
o Made up of 3 parts:
 1) cell body: contains the neurons nucleus and all the elements needed for the normal
metabolic activities of the cell
 2) dendrites: input side of the neuron, receive signals from many other neurons
 3) axon: output side of the neuron, sends neural impulses to other neurons + vary in length

The synapse
 When neuron has been sufficiently stimulated, it releases NT which go into the synapse
 Synaptic gap: space btw neurons
 Presynaptic membrane: releases the NT
 Postsynaptic membrane: neuron that is affected by the NT
o When NT arrives at postsynaptic membrane, they cause changes that enable certain ions to flow into
and out of the postsynaptic cell
o If this change is large enough (signal reaches the postsynaptic cells threshold) the cell will fire, and
produces an action potential that moves down its axon
o This, in turn, causes the release of NT at the next synapse, and can potentially cause next cell to fire
 NOTE: communication btw neurons: chemical signal | communication within neurons:
electrical signal
 Postsynaptic neurons initial response can vary in size!!! This then may allow it to reach
threshold or not: all-or-none law
 There also exist lots of diff types of NT; inhibitory or excitatory

Moving on
 Not important, just says we are studying visual system next bc of its link to the brain

Cognitive psychology and education: food supplements and cognition

 Most memory supplements have not been tested in a systematic way
 Ginkgo biloba: has been tested; it improves blood circulation and reduce bodily inflammation and therefore
improves probs w circulation AND even potentially may help ppl w AD
o NOTE: ginko does NOT make ppl “smarter” just improves their blood circulation for more effective
brain use; only thing that can rlly help is make sure you eat and sleep enough

Chapter summary (p.g. 84)

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Part 2| Learning about the world around us (p.g. 86)

Chapter 3: Visual Perception (p.g. 86)

 Akinetopsia: learned much of what we know from patient L.M.
o Inability to perceive motion
o Trouble in every day life (e.g. crossing street)

The visual system

Photoreceptors
 Vision begins with light  hits eyeball  passes through the cornea and the lens  cornea + lens focus the
incoming light onto the retina  light hits the retina (light sensitive tissue at the back of the eyeball) 
photoreceptors (rods and cones) absorb light
Rods Cones
- Sensitive to low lvls of light (active in dark) - Less sensitive to light (active in light)
- Colour blind - Color diffs: R, G, B
- Distinguish btw perception of brightness - Can see fine detail: acuity (bc in fovea)
- Greater proportion in the periphery

Lateral inhibition
 From photoreceptors (rods and cones)  bipolar cells  ganglion cells  exit out the optic nerve  LGN 
V1 in the occipital lobe
 Lateral inhibition: pattern where cells (when stimulated) inhibit the activity of neighboring cells
o Highlights EDGES bc edge response is stronger than anything else: edge enhancement
 Mach Bands: produces illusion of edge detection
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Single neurons and single-cell recording

 Single cell recording: procedure which can record, moment by moment, the pattern of electrical changes
within a single neuron
o Neurons can’t fire at diff amounts (all or none rule) but CAN vary how often they fire
 SCR used to study vision  animal being studied is first immobilized, then electrodes are placed just outside a
neuron on the animal’s optic nerve or brain. Then, computer screen is placed in front of the animal’s eyes, and
various patterns are flashed on the screen; try to see which pattern (e.g. circles or lines) cause neuron to fire
o SCR allows us to define the cell’s receptive field

Multiple types of receptive fields

 Hubel and Wiesel documented the existence of specialized neurons within the brain: center-surround cells
o When light is presented to the central region causes it to fire, light presented to surrounding region
causes it to inhibit firing; if both center and surround are stimulated, then nothing changes
 Other cells maximally fire when a stimulus containing an edge of just the right orientation appears
o These are called “edge detectors”
o NOTE: these cells are not oblivious to edges of other orientations. Simply have a preference for when
it will fire the strongest, but will still respond to other orientations (just less strongly) if it is further
away from cell’s preferred orientation

Parallel processing the visual system

 Visual system relies on a “divide and conquer” strategy w diff types of cells, located in diff areas o fthe cortex,
each specializing in a particular kind of analysis; e.g. V1  full ensemble of cells provides a detector for every
possible stimulus, making certain that no matter what he input is or where its located, some cell will respond
 Vision involves these ares:
o V1, V2, V3, V4, PO, MT (in occipital cortex, parietal cortex, temporal cortex)
o Each area has own f’n  e.g. MT = sensitive to direction and speed of movement, akinetopsia
 E.g. V4  fire most strongly when the input is of a certain colour/shape
o NOTE: all these areas are active at the same time, which is called parallel processing
 Advantage
o 1) SPEED. All analyses go at the same time, no waiting
o 2) MUTUAL INFLUENCE AMONG MULTUPLE SYSTEMS. E.g. your interpretation of an object’s
motion depends on your understanding of the object’s 3D shape
 NOTE: since all analysis happens at the same time, each type of analysis can be informed by
the other
 Parallel processing in vision
o Retina  2 types of receptors (rods and cones) both happen at the same time
o In optic nerve  P cells and M cells
 P cells provide input for LGN’S parvocellular cells; specialized for spatial analysis and
detailed analysis of form
 M cells provide the input for LGN’s magnocellular cells,; specialized for the detection of
motion and perception of depth
o After occipital lobe  what and where pathway
 What pathway  identification of visual objects
 Lesion: agnosia: inability to recognize visually presented objects
 Where pathway  guides your actions based on your perception of where object is located
 Lesion: cannot recognize visual orientation and cannot reach object

Putting the pieces back together

 Many of our brain systems work together… how?
 Binding problem: the task of reuniting the various elements of a scene, elements that are initially addressed by
different systems in different parts of the brain

Visual maps and firing synchrony

 Answer to binding problem:
o 1) spatial position. Each part of brain gets diff information, but puts it together w reference to position
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o 2) special rhythm to identify which sensory elements belong with which. Aka does this through
NEURAL SYNCRHONY: if the neurons detecting a vertical line are firing in synchrony w those
signaling movement, then these attributes are registered as belonging to the same object
 Neural synchrony arises due to ATTENTION, which is a key role that binds separate features
of a stimulus
 We know this bc of conjunction errors: when we overload someone’s attention, they are
likely to correctly detect the features present in visual display, but make mistakes about how
the features are bound together/conjoined
 E.g. see red T and blue H, report red H blue T
Form perception
 Gestalt psychologists argued that the organization of the visual world must be contributed by the perceiver,
which is why the perceptual whole is different than the sum of its parts
 E.g. Necker cube
o Reversible figure; lines on the page are neutral w regard to the shape’s configuration in depth BUT
your perception of the cube is not neutral
 E.g. image w the vase/ 2 ppl

The Gestalt Principles

 Any change in perception is caused by YOU and not by change in stimulus
 Gestalt says that your perception is guided by principles of PROXIMITY and SIMILARITY
o The closer stimuli are and the more they resemble each other, the more likely you perceive it as one
o Also you avoid interpretations that involve coincidences
 Since everyone’s perceptions are guided by the same principles, we generally perceive the world the same way

Organization and “features”

 Perception is divided into “information gathering” step followed by an “interpretation” step … WRONG
o Sometimes interpretation happens b4 you start inputting the basic features
 But… PARALLEL PROCESSING, w areas of the brain influencing each other, allow for interpretation and
information gathering to occur together

Constancy
 Perceptual constancy: we perceive the constant properties of objects in the world even though sensory
information we receive about these attributes changes whenever our viewing circumstances change
o e.g. size. If object is far, image cast on retina is small BUT if we move closer, it will be bigger on
retina and yet we are not fooled by this variation
 we have shape constancy, brightness constancy, etc.
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Unconscious inference
 how do we achieve constancy?
 Hypothesis 1: relationships within the retinal image.
o E.g. a dog next to a chair is ½ its height… move back 10 meters and it’s the same relationship
o While this hypothesis is good for size constancy, we can see constancy even when there is only one
object in view… provided we have cues on the distance of the target object
 Hermann von Helmholtz:
o Inverse relationship btw distance and retinal image size
o While we don’t calculate this consciously, Helmholtz said we do this as unconscious inference
 Study: use lenses to change the “distance” of the object but not the size
 Means that we are “doubling” more and the object SHOULD appear to be bigger
 This is what they saw
Illusions
 Our interpretation is an essential part of our perception and generally helps us perceive the world correctly
 We can misperceive shape and depth and brightness

The perception of depth

 Perceivers take distance, slant and illumination into account during constancy
 ***distance perception is CRUCIAL for constancy

Binocular cues
 Perception of distance depends on various distance cues
o One important one: binocular disparity  the fact that each eye has a slightly diff view. The visual
system is able to use this difference in views as a cue to distance.

Monocular cues
 Monocular distance cues: perceivers are sensitive to the amount of adjustment in each eye, and use it to
indicate how far the object is
o E.g. almost no adjustment for objects a few meters away
 Pictorial cues: monocular cues exploited when artists create depth in art
 Interposition: the blocking of your view of one object by some other object
 Linear perspective: pattern where parallel lines converge as they get farther and farther from the viewer

The perception of depth through motion

 Motion parallax: the pattern of motion in the retinal images which gives you distance cue; diff motion cue is
produces when you move toward or away from objects
 Optic flow: the pattern of stimulation across entire visual field

The role of redundancy

 Diff cues become important in diff circumstances
o E.g. binocular disparity used in close up objects; motion parallax is informative for when you are
moving; texture gradients are informative when there’s suitable uniform texture in view
 Therefore may SEEM redundant, but actually each type of cue provides info when others cannot
o Guarantees flexibility and versatility

Cognitive psychology and the law: viewing opportunity

 Basically eye witness testimonies are NOT accurate; experiment showed that 80% of the celebrities at viewing
distance (approx. 30 ft) were able to be recognized by participants
 The greater the distances, the recognition accuracy fell off (e.g. 40 meters) where 80% of the identifications
were mistaken
 When looking at these sorts of studies, we have to consider how the justice system finds out about a witness’s
view (e.g. persons own testimony, studies show that viewers often underestimate near distances and
overestimate longer… accuracy is even lower if we rely on a witness’s MEMORY for viewing distance
Chapter summary 125
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Chapter 4: Recognizing objects (p.g. 127)

 Certain types of brain damage produces disorder called agnosia…
o Apperceptive agnosia: patients see an objects shape and colour and position, but cannot put these
elements together to perceive the intact object
 Occurs from damage to lateral occipital complex
o Associative agnosia: they see but cannot link what they see to their basic visual knowledge

Recognition: some early considerations

 We can recognize many features, and many variations of these features and even when info is partial
o These variations in stimulus input shows that object recognition is complex
o Diff contexts allow influence object recognition  “The Cat”
 Bottom-up processes: processes that are directly shaped by the stimulus; also called data driven
 Top-down processes: processes shaped by knowledge; also called concept driven

The importance of features

 How do we recognize parts of an object? We look at THEIR PARTS (e.g. arc = circle, etc.)
 Recognition therefore might begin w the identification of visual features in the input pattern
o E.g. vertical lines, curves, diagonals, etc.
o When these features are catalogued, then we assemble the larger units
 Ppl are also v fast and efficient when searching for a target defined by a simple feature (e.g. finding a vertical
segment in a field of horizontals or a green shape in a field of red shapes)
o Ppl slower when searching for a target made of a combination of features

Word recognition
 Evidence indicates that object recognition begins w detection of simple features, after which diff mechanisms
are needed to put the features together into complete objects

Factors influencing recognition

 Past studies
o Pts shown stimuli for 20-30ms (below conscious recognition)
o Older method: tachistoscope
o Modern method: computers that use tachistoscope presentations
o Then post-stimulus mask (often random jumble of letters like XJDKEL which interrupts any continued
processing of stimulus)
o Can participants recognize these brief stimuli?
 If words are frequent, they were recognized 2x more than infreq words
 If pts viewed a word then did the task a little bit later w the same word, then they were more
likely to recognize it
 repetitive priming: the first exposure of word primes the 2nd exposure
o for words that are low freq + primed, 73% recognized; if not primed + low
freq, 37% were recognized

The word superiority effect

 Words viewer more freq = easier to perceive
 Word superiority effect: words themselves are easier to perceive than isolated letters
o Shown using “2 alternative, forced choice” procedure
o Show letter (e.g. K) then post stimulus mask, then ask which was in display: F or K?
o In other trials show letter (e.g. DARK) then post stimulus ask, then ask which was displayed” E or K?
 Results  accuracy rate higher in word condition

Degree of well-formedness
 Easier to recognize letter in context (e.g. in word) than on its own)
 SBNE or HZKE does not help
 FIKE or LAFE (letter strings are not English words nor are they familiar) but are easily pronounceable and DO
PRODUCE A CONTEXT EFFECT
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Making errors
 TLDR
o 1. Letter is easier to recognize if it appears in well-formed sequence, but not random sequence
o 2. Well-formed strings are easier to perceive than ill-formed strings (even if made up word)
 NOTE: misspelled, partial or non words are read in a way that brings them into line w normal spelling

Feature nets and word recognition

The design of a feature net

 Feature net: we move “upward” in the network, and each subsequent layer is concerned w larger scale objects
o Flow of information is “bottom up”
o At any point in time, each detector has in the network has a particular activation level, which reflects
the status of the detector at just that moment
o When detector receives some input, its activation lvl increases, and if it reaches the response threshold,
that detector will FIRE
o Within the net, some detectors are easier to activate than others
 E.g. if a detector is not at all activated at the start, then a strong input is needed to bring the
detector to threshold so harder to make the detector fire
 What determines a detectors starting activation level?
o 1. Recency  recent words activate the detectors such that less input is needed to activate it again
o 2. Frequency  freq words appear more often, therefore detectors needed for recognizing these words
have been freq used, so have relatively high levels of activation SO word will be recognized even w
degraded input

The feature net and well-formedness

 Well-formedness: the idea that ppl are able to read letter strings like PIRT or HICE
o This occurs bc of an added layer of bigram detectors: detectors of letter pairs
 These detectors are triggered by lower-lvl detectors & send their output to higher-lvl detectors
 Each bigram detector starts out w a certain activation lvl, influenced by frequency & recency
o E.g. weve never seen the seq HICE before but we have seen “HI-” and like in HIT, HIGH; AND –CE
in FACE, JUICE.
 Therefore these have high lvls of activation at the start; other sequences like IJPV or RSFK do
not have high freq letter pairs, so these strings are
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Recovery from confusion

 When partial information at the feature level is detected (e.g. only bottom half of the letter “O” in word CORN)
this leads to confusion  too many letter detectors are firing (a lot of letters have bottom half of “O” in them)
and these letter detectors are firing in a way that signals uncertainty, bc each are receiving input from only ONE
of their usual feature detectors
o This confusion is sent upward from the letter level to the bigram level
o BUT THIS CONFUSION IS SORTED OUT IN THE BIGRAM LEVEL
o This means the network was “under stimulated” at the feature level (only subset of inputs features
detected) and confused at the letter level (too many detectors firing) BUT at the bigram level, the CO-
fired bc, at this lvl (due to priming) this detector is most likely to respond to the weak input
 TLDR network recovers from own confusion, and avoids an error

Ambiguous inputs
 Basically everything we already learned about w detectors lol

Recognition errors
 Say we present pts w string CQRN… if brief enough, pts will read as CORN
 Same pattern of activation for CQRN as CORN
 Helps us understand how recognition errors
come about + why those errors make input look
more regular than it is
o Network is BIASED, inevitably
favouring freq letter combinations
over infrequent ones
o BUT bias helps perception more often
than it hurts

Distributed knowledge
 TLDR: letter strings are easier to recognize if
they conform to normal spelling; letter strings
provide context benefit only if they conform to
normal spelling; errors ‘shift’ the perception
toward the patterns of normal spelling
 Explanation
o Network knows that CO is a common
bigram while CF is not; it seems to
rely on this knowledge in choosing its
interpretation of unclear or ambiguous
inputs. As well, network expects
certain patterns and not others, and is
more efficient when the input lines up
w those expectation
 Knowledge is not locally represented
anywhere… we must look at the relationship
btw the levels of detectors
 Distributed knowledge: knowledge about
bigram frequencies

Efficiency versus accuracy

 The network does make mistakes, misreads some inputs and misinterprets some patterns
 To maximize accuracy, we can scrutinize everything… but the cost is insufferable: very slow
 However, its possible to make inferences about a page with gr8 speed

Descendants of the feature net

 3 extensions of feature-net model
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1. The McClelland and Rumelhart Model

o Includes both excitatory connections and inhibitory
connections. Connections within a specific level are
also possible –for eg., activation of TRIP detector will
inhibit detectors for TRAP, TAKE, TIME
 Considers possible inhibition of one detector
by another
 Better able to identify well-formed strings than
irregular strings
 Also 2 way connection (not just from lower
detectors to higher detectors)
 Aka letters can activate words and
words can ac
o More efficient in identifying characters in context as
opposed to characters in isolation

2. Recognition by components
o Includes innovates to allow for recognizing objects other than print
o Has intermediate lvl of detectors: geons aka ‘geometric ions’
 Geons = simple shapes (cylinders, cones); we need at most 3 dozen diff geons to describe
every object in the world
o RBC model uses hierarchy of detectors
 Lvl 1: feature detectors: respond to edges, curves, vertices
 Lvl 2: feature detectors activate geon detectors
 Lvl 3: higher lvl detectors sensitive to combo of geon detectors (called geon assemblies)
 Lvl 4: assemblies activate the object model
o Advantages
 VIEW-POINT INDEPENDENT
 Most objects can be recognized from just a few geons… means even if many of an objects
geons are hidden out of view, we can still recognize the object

3. Recognition via multiple views

o Theory that ppl store in memory objects in a # of diff views
o However, the # of views in memory is limited (6 or so) so in many cases the current view of object
wont line up w any available images… we must then ‘rotate’ the current view to bring it into alignment
w one of the remembered views, causing slight delay in recognition
o Speed of recognition is VIEW-POINT DEPENDENT (studies show recognition is faster for some
angles than others)
o Similar hierarchy system
 Each w successive layer within the network concerned w more complex aspects of the whole
 at the top of the hierarchy are detectors that respond to the sight of whole objects (in tons of
diff vantage points)  thought that these representations are supported by tissue in the IT
cortex, of the what pathway bc cells in this area are object specific

Different objects, different recognition

 faces demand a diff approach than other 3D objects

Faces are special

 (TB) damage to visual system  agnosia, on of which is propopagnosia, cannot recognize faces
 Faces are view-point dependent (as can be seen by studies)
o Some authors state face recognition is a category by itself, distinct from all other forms of recognition
o Others say that face recognition IS special, but certain other types are also special
 E.g, bird watcher w lesion lost ability to tell diff btw birds
 E.g. FFA (for faces)  fMRI studies showed that tasks requiring subtle distinctions among
birds, cars, etc.
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 Basically some ppl think the FFA is just for faces, other ppl think its for face-like stimuli, and even others think
this system needs to be defined more broadly
 JUST KNOW: FACE RECOGNITION IS SPECIAL

Holistic recognition
 Object recognition  begin w analysis of pattern’s parts, then network assembles those parts into larger whole
 Face recognition  depends on holistic perception of the face (e.g. spacing of eyes relative to he nose, height
of forehead relative to width of face, etc.)
o Features are NOT considered apart from the context of the face, but matter by virtue of the
relationships and configurations they create
 Composite effect studies
o Combined the top half of one face w bottom half of another
o Participants were asked to identify just the top half… this is hard if the who halves are properly aligned
bc the top half of the face is seen as part of the whole
 There may be diffs in how we recognize familiar faces vs new faces

Top down influences on object recognition

The benefits of larger contexts

 TB: letter recognition is improved by context… top-down effects
o Priming (recency & frequency) guarantees that detectors that have often been used = easier to activate
 When priming a word w a sentence (e.g. “I am about to show you a word of something you can eat) one must:
o 1) understand the words used and 2) understand the syntax 3) know facts about the world
 ^^without these, priming does not work
 NOTE: RECOGNITION OF THINGS IS IMPACTED BY OUR OUTSIDE KNOWLEDGE OF THE WORLD

Cognitive psychology and education: speed reading

 Do not read every word, therefore sometimes a good idea, sometimes bad
 Speed reading = reading less, inferring more
Chapter summary

Chapter 5: Paying Attention (p.g. 165)

 Patient with neglect can only see things from one side of the world
 Typically results from damage to R parietal lobe (neglect is in L side of space)

Selective attention
 William James = important in cog psych, specifically in attention

Dichotic listening
 Dichotic listening: pts wear headphones and hear one input in L ear and diff in put in R ear
o Pts told to pay attention to one input (attended channel) and ignore other (unattended channel)
o Often given task called shadowing: repeated back whatever attended channel was saying
o This allows attention only on attended channel; pts hear almost nothing from unattended channel
 Visual input gives similar pattern; pts are asked to watch video of ppl in white + black shirts throwing around a
ball, and follow the ball  miss man in gorilla suit walk by
 BUT ppl are not always oblivious to unattended channel  ppl can recall physical attributes but not semantic
content of unattended channel

Some unattended inputs are detected

 Sometimes things from unattended channel are noticed
 Generally, wordswith some personal importance (fave food, your name, etc.) are often – but not always –
noticed in unattended channel
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Perceiving and the limits on cognitive capacity

 Proposal: you block processing of the inputs you’re not interested in (to shield you from potential distractors)
 Now we know that filtering is specific and occurs on distractor-by-distractor basis
 We block the processing of distractors AND promote the processing of desired stimuli

Inattentional blindness
 experiment w the x and you have to click one button if horizontal was longer, other button if vertical was longer
 when they changed the dot in the centre screen to another shape – pts did not detect this change (if they were
not warned it would happen)- if they were warned, then virtually all pts detected the change
 inattentional blindness: you miss what is right in front of you
o some think its bc they saw it and then immediately forgot what they saw
o Mack & Roch thought they just failed to see the input

Change blindness
 Change blindness: observer’s inability to detect changes in scenes they’re looking directly at
o Pts need as many as 12 alterations btw pics b4 noticing a change central to scene; 25 if peripheral

Early vs late selection

 TLDR: obliviousness to stimuli can be either due to:
o 1) limits on PERCEPTION
 Early selection hypothesis: unattended input receives little analysis from the start
o 2) limits on MEMORY
 Late selection hypothesis: all input receive complete analysis, and the selection occurs after
the analysis is finished
 Turns out there is evidence for both… att’n changes what we remember/are aware of AND what we perceive

Selective priming
 Why don’t ppl perceive the stimuli directly in front of them?
o When you prepare yourself for perceiving by priming the relevant detectors, you can then have these
detectors be in “high alert” and ready to fire
o As well, we need to spend effort and allocate some resources to do the priming (these resources ar ein
limited supply) which means there is a limit on how much priming we can do

Two types of priming

 A) perception is vastly facilitated by the PRIMING of relevant detectors
 B) priming is sometimes stimulus driven – which takes no effort on your part
 C) another type of priming is possible: expectation driven, is under your control, it DOES take effort; cant do
this type of priming for inputs you are not interested in, or cannot anticipate
 Posner & Snyder (1975)
o Gave ppl pair of letters on computer screen
o Pts decided whether the letters were same or diff (AA vs AB)
o Before each pair, warning signal  could be neutral (+), could be a letter that matched (A), could be a
latter that was misleading (H)
o Sometimes warning signal was excellent predictor (80%) and sometimes it wasn’t (20%)
o Results
 Reliably faster in PRIMED condition than in neutral condition… stimulus based priming
 Misleading condition
 Small benefit (from repetition priming)
 Zero cost from being mislead
o low validity = no effect
 high validity condition
 larger benefit (warm up effect)
 larger cost (expectation effect)
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Explaining costs and benefits

 1) stimulus-based priming: produced by presentation of the priming stimulus, w no role for expectation
o Appears to be free, so we can prime oe detector without takng away form other detectors
 2) expectation-based priming: created only when pt believes the prime allows a prediction of what is to come
o Has a cost: w high validity primes, responses in the MISLEAD condition were slower than responses
in the neutral condition; priming ‘wrong’ detector takes away from other detectors
o This reflects the presences of a limited capacity system

Chronometric studies and spatial attention

 Spatial attention: our ability to focus on a particular position in space
 Posner et al. (1980)
o Pts had to press a button as soon as they saw the target
o If pts knew where the target would appear, they were slightly faster
o If pts were mislead about targets position, their responses were slower than if they had no expectations
o Again, proof of limited-capacity system

Attention as a spotlight
 Attention = beam that shines anywhere in VF
 Evidence shows that the control of attention = in frontal cortex and parietal cortex
 One proposal:
o The orienting system needs to disengage attention from one target, shift attention to new target, and
then engage attention on the new target
o The alerting system is responsible for achieving and maintaining an alert state in the brain
o The executive system controls voluntary actions
 These are not working properly in ADHD

Attending to objects or attending to positions

 Do we pay attention to objects or positions?
 Unilateral neglect syndrome
o Support space-based account of attention
o Another line of evidence:
 Pts w unilateral neglect were sensitive to targets in the red circle
(R) and missed targets in blue circle (L)
 Then, as pts watched, the barbell frame rotated so the R circle
was on the L and blue circle was on the R… ps were still more
sensitive to target in red circle even though it was now on L
 Explanation:
o Symptoms of neglect reveal a spatially defined bias
o BUT once attention is directed toward target, the target itself is now the
focus of attention
o Even healthy ppl show mix of space-based and object-based attention

Feature binding
 Expectation-based priming has limited-capacity system  this is a GOOD thing,
bc it allows you only a manageable flow of stimulation
 As well, limited-capacity system allows you to overcome the binding problem that occurs bc of parallel analysis
o Focusing your attention broadly, you can take in many inputs at once, which is faster BUT since youre
taking in multiple inputs simultaneously, you may not know which feature belongs to which
o On the other hand, focusing your attention narrowly, you will be slower in your search but w info
coming from just one input, you know how the features are combined

Perceiving and the limits on cognitive capacity: an interim summary

 2 types of mechanisms in selective attention:
o 1) serves to INHIBIT the processing of unwanted inputs
o 2) serves to FACILITATE the processing of desired inputs
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Divided attention

 Divided attention: multi-tasking effort to divide focus btw multiple tasks or multiple inputs
 You can only perform concurrent tasks if you have the resources needed for both

The specificity of resources

 If the 2 tasks you are doing are v similar – then they’re likely to compete for resources and multitasking = hard
 Divided attention will be easier if the simultaneous tasks are v diff from each other, bc diff tasks have distinct
resource requirements
 Allport, Antonis and Reynolds (1972)
o Participants heard a list of words presented through headphones in one ear, and their task was to
shadow these words
o At the same time they were presented w a second list, nothing was asked to be done BUT memory was
tested on these items later
 Condition 1: 2nd list (mem items) consisted of
words presented into the other ear, so pts were
hearing and shadowing a list of words in one ear
while simultaneously hearing the memory list in
the other
 VERY SIMILAR TASKS
 Condition 2: mem items were presented visually
 LESS SIMILAR TASKS
 Condition 3: memory items were pictures, also
presented on screen
 EVEN LESS SIMILAR TASKS
o Results
 Most interference in first condition, least in third

The generality of resources

 Task similarity is not the only factor; if it were, then we would be able to find tasks that were SO V DIFF we
would so no interference, but this is not the case (e.g. driving and talking on phone)
o See higher accident rate, more likely to overlook traffic signals, slower to hit the brakes
o Data pattern is different if the driver is talking to PASSENGER THO (little interference)
 This is probs bc the passenger can see when traffic or driving becomes difficult and changes
pace of convo accordingly… therefore takes load off the driver

Identifying general resources

 Even v diff tasks compete for some mental resources… these resources have been described differently by diff
researchers:
o 1) resources that server (roughly) as an energy supply, drawn on by all tasks
o 2) resources best thought of as ‘mental tools’ rather than some sort of mental ‘energy supply’
 E.g. response selector: plays a key role in coordinating timing of your various activities and
thus serves as a mental traffic cop, controlling which processes go forward at any moment in
time (aka responsible for SELECTING and INITIATING responses)

Executive control
 Executive control: sets goals and priorities, chooses strategies, and controls the sequence of cognitive
processes
o Many diff proposals as to how it works; several key points across all of them include:
 Day-to-day functioning is guided by habit and prior associations
 Sometimes, you run into diff situations where you want to behave differently
 PROPOSAL: executive control is needed when you want to avoid interference either from
habits supplied by memory or from habits triggered by situational cues
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 1) This maintains the desired goal in mind, so that this goal (and not the habit) will
guide your actions
 2) the executive ensures that your mental steps are organized into the right sequence
to move you to your goal; this monitoring allows the executive to shift plans or
change strategy if your current operations aren’t moving you toward your goal
 3) executive control allows you to inhibit automatic responses, helping to ensure that
these responses won’t occur
 Damage to PFC  leads to diminished executive control
o E.g. pts w PFC damage are asked to sort a deck of cards into two piles. At the start, they have to sort
the cards according to colour, then later, they need to switch strategies to sort according to shapes
shown on the cards. Pts have super large difficulty w this, even if experimenter tells them repeatedly
 This is called perseveration error: tendency to produce the same response over and over
even if its plan that the task requires a change in the response
o These pts also show pattern of goal neglect: failure to organize their behaviour in a way that moves
them towards their goals

Divided attention: an interim summary

 Selective attention: one mechanism blocks out unwanted distractors, and an number of other mechanisms serve
to promote the processing of interesting stimuli
 Divided attention: interference btw tasks is increased if the tasks are similar to each other bc they are competing
for demands on mental resources that are specialized for that sort of task
o But, interference can also be demonstrated w tasks that are different from each other (driving and
talking on cell phone). Therefore the resources that are being split amongst tasks include:
 Energy supply needed for mental tasks
 Response selector needed when a task involves the launching of successive steps
 Executive control when a task requires ‘rising above’ prior habits/tendencies
o NO MATTER WHAT THE RESOURCE, tasks will interfere with each other if their combined
demand for a resource is greater than the amount available (if demand exceeds the supply)

Practice
 Talking on cell phone and driving becomes super difficult when you are a NOVICE DRIVER

Practice diminishes resource demand

 Mental tasks require resources AND
 Amount of resources require is dependent on the nature of the task AND
 As a task becomes more practiced, it requires fewer resources & perhaps less frequent use of those resources
 Interference is less likely if the ‘cognitive cost’ of task is low (resource’s demand [cost] is lower after practice)

Automaticity
 W practice  develop habits and routes  less need for executive control
 This makes it easier for us to multi-task but the PRICE: once a task is well practiced, you can lose the option of
controlling your own mental operations
 Controlled tasks: typically novel (not yet practiced) or are tasks that continually vary in their demands
 Automatic tasks: typically highly familiar and do not require great flexibility
o Means you can tackle these tasks through a well-rehearsed procedure
o Once a routine is acquired, the automatic task doesn’t need to be supervised or controlled, so requires
few resources
 Automatic tasks = beneficial bc they decrease the needed resources for the task, and increase available
resources for other tasks
 Automatic tasks = detrimental bc they are basically ‘mental reflexes’
o E.g. Stroop interference
 Have to name colour of word not acc colour
 This task is super difficult, bc we have a strong tendency to read the word
 Reflects fact that word recognition = super well practiced in adults
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Where are the limits

 Summary:
o 1) tasks require resources
o 2) you cannot ‘spend’ more resources than you have
 NOTE: there seem to be diff types of resources, and the exact resource demand of the task
depends on several factors (nature of the task, novelty of the task, amount of flexibility the
task requires and PRACTICE matters)
 Limits on divided attention
o This varies case by case 😊
 If two tasks make competing demands on task specific resources, the result is interference
 If two tasks make competing demands on task-general resources (response selector or
executive control), the result is interference
 If two tasks have v similar stimuli, the result is interference (e.g. both involve speech)
 How rigid are these limits?
o Some evidence shows that we can gain new mental resources or find new ways to accomplish a task to
avoid the bottleneck created by some limited resources
o E.g. buddhist meditation traditions?

Cognitive psychology and the law: what do witnesses pay attention to?
 Tb was cut off for first part
 Important part: if there is a weapon present at time of crime, this is called weapon focus
o Weapon focus is more likely if violence is overtly threatened during crime
o Weapon focus is less likely if perpetrator is distinctive in his or her appearance
o ALSO duration of crime is important (initial focus shows weapon focus, but if crime lasts long enough
then the witness has time to observe other aspects of the scene as well)

Chapter summary (pg 207)