C120 Psych / CogSci C100
Review Sheet for Exam 1
DISCLAIMERS:
This is a study aid only that is being provided as a courtesy. It is not a precise listing of what will and won't be on the
exam.
In addition to knowing the information listed under each lecture, you should feel comfortable answering the specic
questions posted at the beginning of each unit, even if doing so goes beyond what's listed on the study guide.
Though I don't believe that there are things on the exam that are not on this study guide, I cannot guarantee that.
If, after taking the exam, you feel that the exam tested things beyond what is listed here, then that is unfortunate,
but it is not grounds for discarding a question.
As I have said before, you can gauge what parts of the reading to focus on by looking at what I cover in lecture.
These are cues to help you think about what information to study. As always, you should feel free to ask questions
about material that you nd confusing. However, if you don't know what one of the entries on this list means, or
can't think of any examples, then please do a very thorough review of the book and your notes before asking me
that's part of the studying process!
Note that your test will have the following format:
About 50 multiple choice questions
One essay question where you will choose one prompt from among a few possible choices.
Many of these prompts will be based on the motivating questions that accompanied lectures 1.2 through 1.5, or
the overarching course questions.
The essay questions will ask you to evaluate evidence or integrate ideas across units.
Lecture 1.1 Introduction (Chapter 1)
Limitations of introspection, and problems with introspectionism/structuralism
Aims of scientic inquiry, and basics of experiments
The metaphor of the mind as information processing in context, including:
Representation and algorithm
Studying reaction time and mistakes
Computational complexity
Heuristics
Correspondence, coherence, and pragmatic criteria
Levels of analysis, including:
Reductionism vs. emergence, downward causation
Marr's levels
Lecture 1.2 Learning (Chapter 2)
Questions to Consider
Why is an understanding of basic learning still relevant, given all we know about more complex cognitive
processes?
What ndings challenged behaviorism's core assumptions, and why?
How has the study of behaviorist ideas evolved since behaviorism's decline?
Why do we have biases toward learning certain kinds of associations? Is this good or bad? When and why?
Tenets of behaviorism
Tenets of behaviorism
Classical and operant conditioning, and the compensatory response model
Evidence that presented particular problems for behaviorism, including specic studies, xed action patterns,
learning biases, etc.
More recent understanding of behaviorist ideas
Biases in learning, including examples the and advantages and disadvantages of high and low learning bias
The legacy of behaviorism on modern psychology
Lecture 1.3 Language (Chapter 9, CogLab: Categorical perception)
Questions to Consider
What role does linguistics play in the psychology of language?
Is language processing bottom-up, or interactive?
Is language special, or just due to general cognition?
Basic understanding of the critiques of Skinner's Verbal Behavior, and its role in the history of cognitive psychology
Generative grammar
The different levels of language (phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics), including examples of
phenomena at each level
Note: you won't be expected to generate or read a syntax diagram, but you should understand the idea of a
phrase boundary, as well as the idea that some sentences can be parsed in different ways
Basics of how we comprehend the meaning of sentences
NOTE: You only need a basic understanding of minimal attachment, but should be familiar with its possible
problems
Categorical perception and how it relates to the motor theory of speech perception
Lecture 1.4 Perception (Chapter 3, CogLab: Word superiority effect)
Questions to Consider
What makes perception hard?
How do we make perception easier?
How do we recognize what we see?
How do context and conceptual knowledge inuence perception?
The use of high vs. low spatial frequency information
Familiarity with the different cues for depth perception
Theories of object recognition (feature, structural, and template matching)
Basic building blocks of each theory
Strengths and weaknesses of each
Evidence associated with feature and structural theories
Uses of the fusiform face area beyond face recognition
The role of context in perception
The word superiority effect and the interactive activation model
NOTE: Make sure you understand how the model is built and why excitation or inhibition spreads from one node
to another
Lecture 1.5 Attention (Chapter 4, CogLab: Partial report technique)
Questions to Consider
What are the different kinds of attention? What do they have in common?
Lecture 1.5 Attention (Chapter 4, CogLab: Partial report technique)
Questions to Consider
What are the different kinds of attention? What do they have in common?
Where do limitations in attention occur? How do we know?
Are limitations in attention good, bad, or neutral? Why?
Internal vs. external attention, goal-directed vs. stimulus-driven attention, and the relation between them
The Stroop effect and its implications
Feature integration theory and its implications for searching visual elds
Partial report technique and the implications of Sperling (1960)
Difference between early vs. late selection, and between bottleneck and resource theories
The dichotic listening task and evidence related to Broadbent's bottleneck theory