Cognition

refers to thinking broadly, memory, decision making, perception, etc.

Unconcious cognition

• overwhelming majority of cognitive activity
• fast, accurate, efficient and parallel in nature

• most pattern recognition experiments are done in the domain of vision
• other domains include hearing, smelling, touch, and taste

the more difficult it is to study.

(to make easier to study: psychologists expose subject to stimuli for less time)

tachistoscope

each class of objects has an image or template that corresponds to it

1. point-by-point match
2. pick the highest matching score
3. consider no other info

Problems w/ template theories

1. too sensitive to transformations
2. small details can have large effects
3. Does, not accept alternative interpretations
4. no role of context

Possible Solution to Template theory probs

1. preprocessing (standardization)
2. multiple templates
3. allow for context

Do template theories do a good job of explaining human perception?

1. physiological-cells in cats eye fire in response to perception not reflection of light
2. Nature of errors -pple make mistakes systematically not randomly
3. Stabilized images- a stimulus disappears from vision if stabilized perfectly
4. Effects of similarity of non-targets-angular vs circular letter searching

Unconditional stimulus

a stimulus that naturally and automatically triggers a response

2 things that contribute Long-term memory to the role of features

1. Tip of the tongue phenomenon
2. feeling of knowing experience

• perception
• short-term memory
• long-term memory
• higher-order judgements

1. language (humans understand syntax)
2. developmental period (extremely long for humans)
3. Human behavior is much more a function of learning than of instincts

all bout how things in the wold go together systematically (i.e. blue sky=no rain; dark, cloudy sky=rain)

• won Nobel prize on the physiology of digestive system
• one of the most famous "psychologists"
• discovered classical conditioning

conditioning subject after extinction has occurred:

reconditioning is much more quicker than conditioning

CS-UCS contiguity

neither a necessary or sufficient condition

1. Phobias
2. Anxiety
3. Fetishes
4. Hypertension
5. Systematic desensitization

a fear to something where the fear may not be unjustified but seems disproportionate to the real risk

diffuse fear-not exactly sure where the fear is coming from

           stimulus generalization

           response conflict

situations which create intense sexual arousal or sometimes people need something to become aroused

one cause of hypertension may be entering an environment that has continuously caused high levels of stress

therapeutic technique based on classical conditioning principles, 

works by conditioning relaxation which is incompatible with the fear

any response that is followed by a reward or reinforcement becomes stronger and stronger over time and any response that is not followed by a reward or reinforcement becomes weaker and weaker overtime and will eventually die out

Characteristics of the individual that best fit the environment survive and those that don't die out (Darwin) Thorndike realizes his findings are analogous to Darwin's

every time the subject does a critical response, it gets rewarded

the subject is only rewarded some of the time it does a critical response

REASONS INTERMITTENT SCHEDULES OF REINFORCEMENT ARE IMPORTANT

• All intermittent schedules of reinforcement will be more resistant to extinction!
• Intermittent and continuous schedules produce very different patterns of responding

1. never changes

a. Example: rewarded every 10 times it pecks the disc

b. Steep, smooth line: fast, consistent rate of critical responses

1. always changing

a. Animal is rewarded for every nth response on average, bt varies (on avg the animal must peck 10 times bt sometimes maybe just 5 or 2 or 24….)

b.  Steep, smooth line: fast, consistent rate of critical responses

1. Reward comes on a timed interval 

Not too steep, not smooth: as time approaches end of interval, number of critical response increases

Variable Interval

 reward comes on a time interval that varies

Not very steep, bt smooth: not very many responses bt they come at a consistent rate

1. Positive Reinforcement
2. Negative Reinforcement
3. Punishment

rewarded when you do something, when a behavior is rewarded, the probability that the organism will do that behavior again goes up

 taking away something the organism does not want, (i.e. taking aspirin to GET RID OF a headache)

the immediately preceding behavior will occur less often in the future (probability it will occur goes down

Sensation: process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment

Perception: process by which we organize and interpret this information