Download Psychology 228: Introduction to Cognitive Psychology

Psychology 205: Introduction to Cognitive Psychology
Assignment 1 - Due MONDAY 8/3/2010 @ the beginning of lecture
Answer each part of the questions below, using the readings and lecture as the basis for your
answers. You should be able to give good, concise answers to all the questions in no more than
400 words (i.e. you should be able to answer each question in approximately 100 words).
Please use your own words: do not quote directly from the readings. Each question is worth
10 points (5 points per section). An additional 10 points goes to style. Your answers must be in
FULL sentences; typed, checked for spelling and grammar mistakes. Work independently!
Penalty for late assignments!
1. When a surgeon is removing an appendix, he or she will need each of the two systems of
visual processing (dorsal and ventral) during the operation.
(a) Describe the general function of each system.
(b) Describe a specific role each system could perform during surgery.
(There are many ways each system might be used during surgery, you need to describe
only one for each system).
2.
(a) Describe two pictorial cues for 3-d depth perception (i.e. name it and using your own
words describe it to someone who does not know anything about depth cues)
(b) for each describe how that cue could give depth information to a soccer player in
judging the distance between him- or herself and the opposing player. (Hint: Refer to the
things in the environment that would form the basis of the depth cue in that specific
case).
3. An individual exhibits the following symptoms: she can identify a carton of milk correctly
and begin pouring the milk into the glass, but she often pours too much into the glass, thus
spilling the milk. She reports that she cannot perceive the movement of the milk as it rises in the
glass. She also cannot drive, because she cannot perceive the movement of other cars.
(a) Based on the assigned readings and lecture, what region of the cerebral cortex is likely
to have been damaged in this individual?
(b) What is another deficit (not related to movement) that this individual would be likely
to exhibit?
4. Imagine that Dr. P. (see Sacks reading) is a subject in the study described in the Köhler et al.
reading. Answer the following, describing your reasoning:
(a) Which one of the two matching tasks (i.e. object matching or spatial matching) would
pose the greatest difficulty for Dr. P.? Why?
(b) What would the PET scan results be for each task if Dr. P. were scanned when he was
performing each one of the above mentioned matching tasks? (For each task, describe the
amount of activity in each of the two relevant brain areas.)