COG SCI C100 FINAL EVALUATION QUESTIONS WITH
ANSWERS GRADED A+ 2025/2026
Introspection - Technique used in the first psychology laboratory in 1879 (Wundt) to
study mental processes
Sensation - process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive
stimulus energies from the environment and transduce them into neural impulses
Lillard (Cog3_Attention) - The Immediate Impact of Different Types of Television on
Young Children's Executive Function
Abstract:
OBJECTIVE:The goal of this research was to study whether a fast-paced television
show immediately influences preschool-aged children's executive function (eg, self-
regulation, working memory)
METHODS:Sixty 4-year-olds were randomly assigned to watch a fast-paced television
cartoon or an educational cartoon or draw for 9 minutes. They were then given 4 tasks
tapping executive function, including the classic delay-of-gratification and Tower of
Hanoi tasks. Parents completed surveys regarding television viewing and child's
attention.
RESULTS:Children who watched the fast-paced television cartoon performed
significantly worse on the executive function tasks than children in the other 2 groups
when controlling for child attention, age, and television exposure.
CONCLUSIONS:Just 9 minutes of viewing a fast-paced television cartoon had
immediate negative effects on 4-year-olds' executive function. Parents should be aware
that fast-paced television shows could at least temporarily impair young children's
executive function
Rubia (Cog3_Attention) - Functional connectivity changes associated with fMRI
neurofeedback of right inferior frontal cortex in adolescents with ADHD
Abstract:
OBJECTIVE: they used functional connectivity analyses to investigate whether fMRI-
Neurofeedback of rIFC (right inferior frontal cortex) resulted in dynamic functional
connectivity changes in underlying neural networks
METHODS:
whole brain seed-based functional connectivity analyses were conducted using the 2
clusters showing progressively increased activation in rIFC as seed regions to test for
changes in functional connectivity before and after 11 fMRI-neurofeedback runs. they
,tested whether the resulting functinal connectivity changes were associated with clinical
symptom improvements and whether they were specific to fMRI-neurofeedback of rIFC
when compared to a control group who had to self regulate another region
RESULTS:
rIFC showed increased positive functional connectivity after relative to before fMRI-
neurof. with dorsal caudate and anterior ciingulate and increased negative functional
connectivity with regions of the default mode network such as posterior cingulate and
precuneus. functional connectivity changes were associated with clinical improvements
and the functional connectivity and correlation findings were specific to the rIFC neurof.
group
CONCLUSIONS: for the 1st time fMRI-neurof. of a typically dysfunctional frontal region
in ADHD adolescents leads to strengthening within fronto-cingulo-striatal networks and
to weakening of functional connectivity with posterior DMN regions and that this may be
underlying clinical improvement
Perception - process of interpreting and organizing sensory information through use of
previous knowledge
Behaviorism - A view that virtually denied the existence of the mind.
-Psychology should study the relation between observable stimuli and observable
behavioral responses
- "Mind" was banished from respectable discussion
movement stopped in 1950s and was replaced with cognitive psychology
Models of Object Perception - Template Matching Model
Feature-Analysis Model
Recognition by components Model
Prototype Model
Pilcher (Cog4_Sleep) - How Sleep deprivation affects psychological variables related to
college students' cognitive performance
participants completed the watson-glaser critical thinking appraisal after either 24 hours
of sleep deprivation
,after completing task, participants completed 2 questionnaires, one about self reported
effort, concentration, and estimated performance, the other assessing off task
cognitions
as expected, sleep deprived participants rated their concentration and effort higher than
the non-deprived participants did
sleep deprived participants rated their estimated performance significantly higher than
the non-deprived participants did
findings indicate that college students aren't aware of the extent to which sleep
deprivation negatively effects their ability to complete cognitive tasks
Cognitive Psychology - View that mental processes can best be understood by
comparison with a computer
- A particular cognitive process can be represented by information flowing through a
series of of stages
-this came as a result of interest in memory and developmental psychology, linguistics,
and computer science
parallel distributed processing (PDP) / connectionist models - Contrast with serial
processing approach
-Hold that cognitive processes operate in a parallel fashion
Example: face recognition
Cognitive processes can be completed even when supplied with incomplete or faulty
information.
Template Matching Model - Object perception involves a comparison of the stimulus
with a set of templates or specific patterns stored in memory.
Problem w/ this model:
cannot account for complexity and flexibility of object recognition (e.g individual
differences in handwriting)
Killgore (Cog4_Sleep) - Effects of sleep deprivation on cognition
While there is broad consensus that insufficient sleep leads to a general slowing of
response speed and increased variability in performance, particularly for simple
measures of alertness, attention and vigilance, there is much less agreement about the
, effects of sleep deprivation on many higher level cognitive capacities, including
perception, memory and executive functions.
Central to this debate has been the question of whether sleep deprivation affects nearly
all cognitive capacities in a global manner through degraded alertness and attention, or
whether sleep loss specifically impairs some aspects of cognition more than others.
Neuroimaging evidence has implicated the prefrontal cortex as a brain region that may
be particularly susceptible to the effects of sleep loss, but perplexingly, executive
function tasks that putatively measure prefrontal functioning have yielded inconsistent
findings within the context of sleep deprivation.
Whereas many convergent and rule-based reasoning, decision making and planning
tasks are relatively unaffected by sleep loss, more creative, divergent and innovative
aspects of cognition do appear to be degraded by lack of sleep.
Emerging evidence suggests that some aspects of higher level cognitive capacities
remain degraded by sleep deprivation despite restoration of alertness and vigilance with
stimulant countermeasures, suggest-ing that sleep loss may affect specific cognitive
systems above and beyond the effects produced by global cognitive declines or
impaired attentional processes.
Finally, the role of emotion as a critical facet of cognition has received increasing
attention in recent years and mounting evidence suggests that sleep deprivation may
particularly affect cognitive systems that rely on emotional data.
Thus, the ex
Artificial Intelligence - tries to design computer models that accomplish the same
cognitive tasks that humans do
Feature-analysis model - Discrimination of objects is based on a small number of
characteristics of stimuli
e.g People are faster at deciding whether the letters "G" and "M" are different than
letters "P" and "R"
Supported by neurological evidence - some neurons respond only to horizontal lines,
others to diagonals, etc.
Problem w/ this model:
Cannot explain recognition of complex objects with features that move/distort (e.g
horse/kangaroo)
Bulkeley (Cog4_Sleep) - The future of dream science
ANSWERS GRADED A+ 2025/2026
Introspection - Technique used in the first psychology laboratory in 1879 (Wundt) to
study mental processes
Sensation - process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive
stimulus energies from the environment and transduce them into neural impulses
Lillard (Cog3_Attention) - The Immediate Impact of Different Types of Television on
Young Children's Executive Function
Abstract:
OBJECTIVE:The goal of this research was to study whether a fast-paced television
show immediately influences preschool-aged children's executive function (eg, self-
regulation, working memory)
METHODS:Sixty 4-year-olds were randomly assigned to watch a fast-paced television
cartoon or an educational cartoon or draw for 9 minutes. They were then given 4 tasks
tapping executive function, including the classic delay-of-gratification and Tower of
Hanoi tasks. Parents completed surveys regarding television viewing and child's
attention.
RESULTS:Children who watched the fast-paced television cartoon performed
significantly worse on the executive function tasks than children in the other 2 groups
when controlling for child attention, age, and television exposure.
CONCLUSIONS:Just 9 minutes of viewing a fast-paced television cartoon had
immediate negative effects on 4-year-olds' executive function. Parents should be aware
that fast-paced television shows could at least temporarily impair young children's
executive function
Rubia (Cog3_Attention) - Functional connectivity changes associated with fMRI
neurofeedback of right inferior frontal cortex in adolescents with ADHD
Abstract:
OBJECTIVE: they used functional connectivity analyses to investigate whether fMRI-
Neurofeedback of rIFC (right inferior frontal cortex) resulted in dynamic functional
connectivity changes in underlying neural networks
METHODS:
whole brain seed-based functional connectivity analyses were conducted using the 2
clusters showing progressively increased activation in rIFC as seed regions to test for
changes in functional connectivity before and after 11 fMRI-neurofeedback runs. they
,tested whether the resulting functinal connectivity changes were associated with clinical
symptom improvements and whether they were specific to fMRI-neurofeedback of rIFC
when compared to a control group who had to self regulate another region
RESULTS:
rIFC showed increased positive functional connectivity after relative to before fMRI-
neurof. with dorsal caudate and anterior ciingulate and increased negative functional
connectivity with regions of the default mode network such as posterior cingulate and
precuneus. functional connectivity changes were associated with clinical improvements
and the functional connectivity and correlation findings were specific to the rIFC neurof.
group
CONCLUSIONS: for the 1st time fMRI-neurof. of a typically dysfunctional frontal region
in ADHD adolescents leads to strengthening within fronto-cingulo-striatal networks and
to weakening of functional connectivity with posterior DMN regions and that this may be
underlying clinical improvement
Perception - process of interpreting and organizing sensory information through use of
previous knowledge
Behaviorism - A view that virtually denied the existence of the mind.
-Psychology should study the relation between observable stimuli and observable
behavioral responses
- "Mind" was banished from respectable discussion
movement stopped in 1950s and was replaced with cognitive psychology
Models of Object Perception - Template Matching Model
Feature-Analysis Model
Recognition by components Model
Prototype Model
Pilcher (Cog4_Sleep) - How Sleep deprivation affects psychological variables related to
college students' cognitive performance
participants completed the watson-glaser critical thinking appraisal after either 24 hours
of sleep deprivation
,after completing task, participants completed 2 questionnaires, one about self reported
effort, concentration, and estimated performance, the other assessing off task
cognitions
as expected, sleep deprived participants rated their concentration and effort higher than
the non-deprived participants did
sleep deprived participants rated their estimated performance significantly higher than
the non-deprived participants did
findings indicate that college students aren't aware of the extent to which sleep
deprivation negatively effects their ability to complete cognitive tasks
Cognitive Psychology - View that mental processes can best be understood by
comparison with a computer
- A particular cognitive process can be represented by information flowing through a
series of of stages
-this came as a result of interest in memory and developmental psychology, linguistics,
and computer science
parallel distributed processing (PDP) / connectionist models - Contrast with serial
processing approach
-Hold that cognitive processes operate in a parallel fashion
Example: face recognition
Cognitive processes can be completed even when supplied with incomplete or faulty
information.
Template Matching Model - Object perception involves a comparison of the stimulus
with a set of templates or specific patterns stored in memory.
Problem w/ this model:
cannot account for complexity and flexibility of object recognition (e.g individual
differences in handwriting)
Killgore (Cog4_Sleep) - Effects of sleep deprivation on cognition
While there is broad consensus that insufficient sleep leads to a general slowing of
response speed and increased variability in performance, particularly for simple
measures of alertness, attention and vigilance, there is much less agreement about the
, effects of sleep deprivation on many higher level cognitive capacities, including
perception, memory and executive functions.
Central to this debate has been the question of whether sleep deprivation affects nearly
all cognitive capacities in a global manner through degraded alertness and attention, or
whether sleep loss specifically impairs some aspects of cognition more than others.
Neuroimaging evidence has implicated the prefrontal cortex as a brain region that may
be particularly susceptible to the effects of sleep loss, but perplexingly, executive
function tasks that putatively measure prefrontal functioning have yielded inconsistent
findings within the context of sleep deprivation.
Whereas many convergent and rule-based reasoning, decision making and planning
tasks are relatively unaffected by sleep loss, more creative, divergent and innovative
aspects of cognition do appear to be degraded by lack of sleep.
Emerging evidence suggests that some aspects of higher level cognitive capacities
remain degraded by sleep deprivation despite restoration of alertness and vigilance with
stimulant countermeasures, suggest-ing that sleep loss may affect specific cognitive
systems above and beyond the effects produced by global cognitive declines or
impaired attentional processes.
Finally, the role of emotion as a critical facet of cognition has received increasing
attention in recent years and mounting evidence suggests that sleep deprivation may
particularly affect cognitive systems that rely on emotional data.
Thus, the ex
Artificial Intelligence - tries to design computer models that accomplish the same
cognitive tasks that humans do
Feature-analysis model - Discrimination of objects is based on a small number of
characteristics of stimuli
e.g People are faster at deciding whether the letters "G" and "M" are different than
letters "P" and "R"
Supported by neurological evidence - some neurons respond only to horizontal lines,
others to diagonals, etc.
Problem w/ this model:
Cannot explain recognition of complex objects with features that move/distort (e.g
horse/kangaroo)
Bulkeley (Cog4_Sleep) - The future of dream science
