Cognition Exam 1 Rutgers
Cognition - ANSWER: the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and
understanding through thought, experience, and the senses
Attention - ANSWER: "Filters out irrelevant info, frees our resources for the task at
hand". Consists of a family of mechanisms to restrict processing in various ways. It
functions as a survival skill.
Attenuation - ANSWER: The attenuator (no definition for attenuation) analyzes the
incoming message in terms of its physical characteristics (high or low pitched, fast or
slow), language (how the message groups into syllables or words), and it's meaning
(how sequences or words create meaningful phrases).
"Attenuation" also means that the unattended message still gets through, although at a
weaker level (Treisman's model of attention)- that's why it's called the intermediate
selection
Axon - ANSWER: Also called nerve fibers; the long threadlike part of a nerve cell along
which impulses are conducted from the cell body to other cells
Binding - ANSWER: Process by which features such as color, form, motion, and
location are combined to create perception of a coherent object.
Cocktail party effect (phenomenon) - ANSWER: The ability to focus on one stimulus
while filtering out other stimuli, especially at a party where there are a lot of
simultaneous conversations.
The specific phenomemom is that if someone was to call your name in a room full of
people you would still hear it, which goes against Broadbent's model who said that the
conversation you're having would be the only thing you're attending to.
Contiguity - ANSWER: (theory) only condition necessary for the association of stimuli
and responses is that there be a close temporal relationship between them.
Physically close
Divided attention - ANSWER: The distribution of attention between 2 or more tasks.
Filtering - ANSWER: Identifies the attended message/ what is most interesting before
passing it to the next stage.
, (Broadbent's Filter Model/ Early Selection Model)
High cognitive load - ANSWER: tasks that are difficult and not as practiced, they require
more of your processing capacity....so the advantage of high working memory subjects
vanished under high load conditions.
Inattentional blindness - ANSWER: Not noticing something even though it is in clear
view, usually caused by failure to pay attention to the object or the place where the
object is located.
Integration - ANSWER: the summing up of the input at the dendrites.
(specifically neuronal integration)
Interpersonal models - ANSWER: Online: a model having to deal with several people
Intrapersonal models - ANSWER: a model having to deal with oneself
Invalid cue - ANSWER: cue that is not indicative of an incoming stimulus
Late-selection model of attention - ANSWER: selection of stimuli for processing does
not occur until the information has been processed for meaning
MacKay's experiment with "river bank"
Low cognitive load - ANSWER: a task that is easy, well practiced, and requires a low
amount of processing capacity
Myelin sheaths - ANSWER: Greatly extended and modified plasma membrane wrapped
around the nerve axon
Neural circuits - ANSWER: Groups of interconnected neurons; each has a different
function
Neurotransmitter - ANSWER: Chemical that is released at the synapse in response to
incoming action potentials
Number of neurons: - ANSWER: 85-100 billion and 10 trillion connections
Object-based attentional failure - ANSWER: from online: a problem in which the task is
to remember an object based on shape and choose it when presented with another
object after a delay.
Peripheral cue - ANSWER: a cue that grabs your attention without you wanting it to (ex:
red box in the example in class)
Cognition - ANSWER: the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and
understanding through thought, experience, and the senses
Attention - ANSWER: "Filters out irrelevant info, frees our resources for the task at
hand". Consists of a family of mechanisms to restrict processing in various ways. It
functions as a survival skill.
Attenuation - ANSWER: The attenuator (no definition for attenuation) analyzes the
incoming message in terms of its physical characteristics (high or low pitched, fast or
slow), language (how the message groups into syllables or words), and it's meaning
(how sequences or words create meaningful phrases).
"Attenuation" also means that the unattended message still gets through, although at a
weaker level (Treisman's model of attention)- that's why it's called the intermediate
selection
Axon - ANSWER: Also called nerve fibers; the long threadlike part of a nerve cell along
which impulses are conducted from the cell body to other cells
Binding - ANSWER: Process by which features such as color, form, motion, and
location are combined to create perception of a coherent object.
Cocktail party effect (phenomenon) - ANSWER: The ability to focus on one stimulus
while filtering out other stimuli, especially at a party where there are a lot of
simultaneous conversations.
The specific phenomemom is that if someone was to call your name in a room full of
people you would still hear it, which goes against Broadbent's model who said that the
conversation you're having would be the only thing you're attending to.
Contiguity - ANSWER: (theory) only condition necessary for the association of stimuli
and responses is that there be a close temporal relationship between them.
Physically close
Divided attention - ANSWER: The distribution of attention between 2 or more tasks.
Filtering - ANSWER: Identifies the attended message/ what is most interesting before
passing it to the next stage.
, (Broadbent's Filter Model/ Early Selection Model)
High cognitive load - ANSWER: tasks that are difficult and not as practiced, they require
more of your processing capacity....so the advantage of high working memory subjects
vanished under high load conditions.
Inattentional blindness - ANSWER: Not noticing something even though it is in clear
view, usually caused by failure to pay attention to the object or the place where the
object is located.
Integration - ANSWER: the summing up of the input at the dendrites.
(specifically neuronal integration)
Interpersonal models - ANSWER: Online: a model having to deal with several people
Intrapersonal models - ANSWER: a model having to deal with oneself
Invalid cue - ANSWER: cue that is not indicative of an incoming stimulus
Late-selection model of attention - ANSWER: selection of stimuli for processing does
not occur until the information has been processed for meaning
MacKay's experiment with "river bank"
Low cognitive load - ANSWER: a task that is easy, well practiced, and requires a low
amount of processing capacity
Myelin sheaths - ANSWER: Greatly extended and modified plasma membrane wrapped
around the nerve axon
Neural circuits - ANSWER: Groups of interconnected neurons; each has a different
function
Neurotransmitter - ANSWER: Chemical that is released at the synapse in response to
incoming action potentials
Number of neurons: - ANSWER: 85-100 billion and 10 trillion connections
Object-based attentional failure - ANSWER: from online: a problem in which the task is
to remember an object based on shape and choose it when presented with another
object after a delay.
Peripheral cue - ANSWER: a cue that grabs your attention without you wanting it to (ex:
red box in the example in class)
