Basic psychology Flashcards
What is sensory memory?
A super acute memory store of a particular modality processed by sense organs - commonest iconic (visual) and echoic (auditory).
Information that is attended to is transferred to the short-term memory store and that that is not attended to is quickly lost
A patient who keeps going to slot machine with the hope of winning big - when he wins what is the operant conditioning mechanism?
Variable ratio - he is rewarded after a random number of responses then again after a further random number of responses
How does reciprocal inhibition try to lead to improved emotional/behavioural response?
By the principle of trying to ameliorate a feeling with the presence of the opposite
i.e provide ice cream if a fear response is there
Happiness and fear cannot co-exist
What is habit-reversal training?
Useful in tics or trichotillomania - here the patient learns awareness of the urge to the behaviour then a competing behaviour
What is operant conditioning?
Designed to increase a positive behaviour being performed by giving a stimulus immediately after
Positive reinforcement - pleasant stimulus immediately after added
Negative reinforcement - aversive or bad stimulus removed
Can be reinforced continuously or intermittently like a slot machine (intermittent reinforcement develops behaviour resistant to extinction) or Partial reinforcement behaviours are acquired more slowly and extinguish slower.
What are Piagets basic building blocks of learning?
Schema (use of past experience to understand future experiences) - can be physical like riding a bike or mental like addition, multiplication etc
How do compulsions exhibit their effects?
Through negative reinforcement - a stimulus is presented to remove anxiety. Ritualistic avoidance
The behaviour is repeated more because of this
How do elaborative and maintenance rehearsal differ?
Elaborative rehearsal refers to deep processing to allow information to be stored in long term memory it includes forming associations or groupings
Maintenance rehearsal describes the processing that prevents information from leaving short term memory i.e. repeating a phone number again and again while finding a pen
Which emotions are characterised by high and low temperatures?
High:
- Anger
Low:
- Fear and disgust
What is the name given to bringing a complete memory into conscious awareness from a partial cue e.g. remembering the memory of hearing a song from the first sounds?
Reintegration
Outline Plutchik’s eight basic emotions and if you can give examples of the secondary emotions that come from combinations of them?
Anticipation - Surprise
Joy - Sadness
Acceptance - Disgust
Anger - Fear
Secondary emotions arise from a mix of primary emotions
Joy + Acceptance = Love
Joy + Anticipation = Optimisim
Sadness + Suprise = Disappointment
Outline the steps of cognitive processing in the social learning of behaviour
- Attention to observed behaviour
- Visual and semantic encoding of observed behaviour
- Memory permanence via retention and rehearsal
- Motor imitation and practice
- Motivation to act
Who proposed the filter theory of attention and what does it describe?
David Broadbent proposed the filter theory for attention
He felt a central processor is responsible for selecting which sensory input is attended to. This central processor can switch channel but not more than twice a second. He also felt that information in the unattended channel can only remain there for a few seconds.
This filtering act of the central processor describes the buffer/barrier that exists between sensory and short term/working memory
In phobic desensitisation, what is imaginary flooding termed?
Implosion
Name the mechanisms of forgetting and which are most common?
Failure of encoding at the time of input
Failure of transfer from short to long term memory
Failure of retrieval - most common!
What is failure of prospective memory?
A failure of intention - when an individual fails to remember that something needs to be carried out in the future (a predefined time) and what it is
i.e. absent mindedness - when someone forgets to remember appointments/medication etc
What is the optimum time interval in operant conditioning?
< 0.5 seconds - immediacy
> 5 seconds - experiments by Skinner failure to show any learning
What symptoms are present in Korsakoff’s?
Confabulation
Anterograde amnesia
Retrograde amnesia
Some psychotic features
Differs from Wernicke’s in timing but also Wernicke’s describes ataxia, opthalmoplegia and altered mental state
Who proposed 6 basic emotions of anger, disgust, fear, joy, suprise, sadness?
Paul Ekman
Name Gestalts principle of perception?
Proximity
Closure
Similarity
Symmetry
Continuity
Gestalt principles describes the process that our brains do to perceive whole unified objects rather than unconnected images
- the whole is perceived first (good ecological validity for 2D images less for 3D)
What is the Ebbinghaus curve?
Showed the rate of forgetting of non-sense syllables over a period of time - after 9 hours there is a sharp rate of forgetting with reductions in recall declining after this.
His other experiments showed that forgetting is never complete and some is remembered, that recall during a test period increases chance of remembering and that continuous motor skills i.e. swimming/cycling show no forgetting compared to intermittent motor skills i.e. typing
Eyesneck’s personality traits were?
He proposed a three factor theory
Psychoticism-impulse control
Extraversion-introversion
Neuroticism-stability
These dimensions are very heritable
For Rorschach inkblot test is it structured or unstructured?
Unstructured as there is almost an infinite variety of responses an individual can give
What is the Brown-Peterson task?
Listen to three items - then a distractor task i.e. count backwards from 10, then recall three items again
You can only play tunes if you revise first - what is the principle behind this guidance?
Premack principle - the idea that a preferred task will motivate/reinforce an unfavoured task from taking place
With regards to short term memory what is chunking?
Chunking is the act of grouping or combining units of information to make it easier to remember and recall - it allows the individual to bypass the limited capacity of working memory
Miller proposed it
What is the least developed sensory system at birth?
Vision!
Group theories of motivation into:
a) Socio-psychological
b) Humanistic
c) Physiological
a) Needs theory (intrinsic theory) - includes McCelland’s needs theory (need for achievement, affiliation and power) and Deci and Maclaren’s needs theory (need for competition, relatedness and autonomy)
b) Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
c) Homeostatic theory (Cannon), Drive reduction (Hull), Arousal reduction (Hebb)
What area of the brain is largely responsible for short term memory?
Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex
Describe the capacity of sensory memory?
Large capacity but includes unprocessed memories of short duration < 0.5 seconds
What is a flash-bulb memory?
The vivid recall of autobiographical memories associated with emotional arousal - however they’re accuracy cannot be assumed
Does situation specific amnesia occur in adjustment disorder?
No
What are the three abilities that make up Sternberg’s triadic theory of intelligence?
Creative
Physical
Analytical
CPA
Outline three types of non-associative learning?
Habituation - repeated exposure to a stimulus leads to decreased response
Sensitisation - repeated exposure to a stimulus results in increased response
Pseudoconditioning - emergence of a learned response to a previous neutral stimulus due to exposure of a powerful different stimulus
Outline the three types of associative learning?
Classical conditioning
- Occurs through the temporal pairing of stimuli
- The learning individual is passive and respondent i.e. the learning is an innate reflex
Operant conditioning
- Learning through learning the consequences of a response - an operation
- Here the individual is instrumental as they actively operate in the environment
Social learning theory:
- Combines both operant and classical conditioning and includes cognitive processes and a social interaction
In classical conditioning with Pavlov’s dogs what is
a) Conditioned stimulus
b) Unconditioned stimulus
c) Unconditioned response
d) Conditioned response
a) Bell - it is conditioned as normally a bell does not illicit salivation
b) Food - food does not require conditioning to illicit salivation
c) UCR - salivation - occurs naturally
d) CR - refers to when salivation occurs following only the conditioned stimulus (bell)
The process of developing an association between conditioned stimulus and unconditioned response - acquisition
Differentiate
a) Forward or delayed conditioning
b) Backward conditioning
c) Simultaneous
d) Trace conditioning
a) CS (bell) appears first, then UCS (food) - both continue until salivation
b) UCS (food) appears first then the bell - doesn’t work with animals, used in advertising
c) Both CS and UCS come together - most common in real life
d) CS then removed and a pause before UCS presented - depends on a trace of the memory
What did Rescoria show with regards to conditioning?
That predictiveness (i.e could you predict the nature of the UCS stimulus from the CS) is more important than temporal contiguity (< 0.5 ms)
For animals only awareness is needed for facilitation
What is higher-order conditioning?
Using the conditioned stimulus (CS1) as the unconditioned stimulus for a second conditioned stimulus (CS2) - animals don’t respond higher than 4th order
What does discrimination refer to with regards to conditioning?
Its the opposite of stimulus generalisation i.e. a child may only be afraid of dogs rather than all four legged or furry animals
What is extinction?
Not loss of learning but loss of the behavioural response - occurs when the conditioned stimulus and unconditioned stimulus no longer pair of the reinforcer is no longer present
Spontaneous recovery is regaining a once lost response after some time
How come latent inhibition prevent learning?
In classical conditioning if the conditioned stimulus has been previously exposed in an independent/isolated time then it may affect the pairing to the UCR
What type of conditioning is used in systematic desensitisation and aversion therapy?
Counter conditioning - replacing a previously learned response with a desirable one
Learning a behaviour because the right behaviour leads to desirable consequences refers to what type of learning?
Operant conditioning
Who used trial and error learning experiments?
Thorndike - helped show operant conditioning
How do reinforcement and punishment differ?
Reinforcement is aimed at trying to increase the frequency of a behaviour
Punishment tries to decrease the frequency of a behaviour
Outline
a) positive reinforcement
b) negative reinforcement
c) positive punishment
d) negative punishment
a) Giving money for doing your chores
b) Not having to do the washing up if you tidy your room - remove an aversive stimulus
c) Hitting someone or points on license
d) Take away someones playstation - remove a positive item. Monetary fines included here as money is taken away
Contrast and differentiate reinforcement schedules?
Continuous or contingency reinforcement - occurs after every positive response
Partial - only some of the positive responses result in positive reinforcement - depends on number of responses (ratio) or time (interval)
Fixed interval - any number of responses but reinforcement occurs after a defined interval
Variable interval - varying unit of time before reinforcement occurs - fishing
Fixed ratio - after twenty press ups I’ll sip on my drink/rest
Variable ratio - random number of responses before reinforcement - i.e, gambling
In agoraphobia an individual avoiding places is known as?
Escape conditioning - a type of avoidance learning
How do covert sensitisation and covert reinforcement differ?
Covert - imagined
Covert reinforcement - imagining the positive reinforcer i.e graduation to get one to study
Covert sensitisation - imagining punishment that may occur if bad behaviour is done - i.e. if keep drinking wife may leave be without a job
What is successive approximation?
Also known as shaping occurs when a desirable behaviour is progressed to through successive reinforcement of behaviours that get closer to the target
i.e dog runs towards a wheel but doesn’t jump - gets a bone
dog runs and jumps towards but not through the wheel - gets a bone
dog jumps through the wheel - gets a bone
NOTE SHAPING IS USED WHEN THE BEHAVIOUR IS NOT YET PRESENT
What is chaining?
Reinforcing a series of related behaviours which provide the cue for the next to obtain a reinforcer.
OCCURS WHEN THE BEHAVIOUR IS PRESENT BUT NOT IN THE CORRECT ORDER
i.e. linking letters wrote correctly in the right order - forward
or making a cake - starting with icing, then icing and baking - backward
What is incubation?
Increase in strength if brief and repeated exposure of the stimulus - ie. rumination about anxiety-provoking stimuli
Maintains phobias and PTSD
What is the process of unlearning a cue?
Fading
Bandura came up with…
Social learning theory
Here social learning theorists felt individuals could learn a potential behaviour before doing it - behaviourists disagreed
What is reciprocal causation?
An aspect of social learning theory that proposes the individual, the behaviour and the environment all influence each other
Tolman’s cognitive learning refers to?
The fact that learning can take place without the learned response - i.e rats can make cognitive maps of mazes (place expectation) which encompass what they expect to arise before they actually are in them
Learning without performance - latent learning
What is Gagne’s learning hierarchy?
Proposes that simple learning takes place earlier in development and other learning then follows
- Classical conditioning
- Operant conditioning
- Chaining
- Verbal association
- Discrimination learning
- Concept learning
- Rule learning
- Problem solving
What is insight learning?
From Koher - very much opposed to associative learning and felt a learning is purely cognitive
What is the cocktail party effect?
Being able to filter background/ground noise and perceive a stimulus i.e. our friends voice
Depth perception depends on….
Non–pictorial (binocular) and pictorial cues
Non-pictorial - retinal image disparity, stereopsis, accommodation, convergence
Pictorial - size, brightness, superimposition, texture, linear perspective, aerial perspective, motion parallax
When in a dark room and after a while a small, dim light appears as it is moving what can explain this?
Autokinesis - visual illusion
What is phi-phenomenon
Perceptual illusion of perceiving moving images if still images are flicked together
Name some theories of perception
Bottom up theory - e.g Gestalt we percieve a set of subsystems (emergent system) as a whole
Top down theory - Gregory - use prior information already known to form a hypothesis that allows sketchy retinal images to be formed
Perceptual set - The readiness to percieve selected features of an object depends on one’s motivation (hunger, beliefs, mood, context and expectations)
Differentiate the terms selective/focussed attention and capacity or divided attention
Selective/focussed attention - mechanism by which certain information is registered whereas other irrelevant info is rejected - tested with dichotic listening task -> repeating messages said into one ear is shadowing
Divided/capacity attention is the maximum processing limit that can be performed on incoming information at one time –> dual-task technique (and individual has to attend and respond to all incoming messages)
What is triesman’s attenuation theory?
That based on the semantic or physical characteristics messages are chosen to be processed fully or partially (the central executive weakens processing)
How else is the pertinence model of attention known?
Deutch-Norman late selection filter model:
- Here all inputs are analysed at a high level
- Filtering only happens later
How does pigeon holing expand Broadbent’s early model?
This refers to categorisation and that an individual may not filter on the basis of physical characteristics but semantic categories above other stimuli
When we first learn piano this is under BLANK control however when we are more skilled automatic motor processes and attention can be directed to singing this is BLANK control.
Closed loop control - is the conscious attentional system
Open loop control - occurs when automatic processes take over. This is faster and means attention can be divided elsewhere
Who proposed a hierarchical model of attention?
Sohlberg and Mateer. The hierarchical model of attention was based on how patients with brain damage sequentially recover.
Name the 3 processes that occur with the formation and accessing of memories?
Encoding - formation of an initial memory trace and receives information from the outside
Storage - holding and maintaining information
Retrieval - access and recover information from stores
What is the duration of short term memory storage?
15 to 30 seconds
or
7 +/- 2 items
Maintenance rehearsal and chunking can increase the capacity of STM
Who divided LTM into declarative and non-declarative?
Tulving
What is priming?
Information that is learnt without requiring conscious recall - form of implicit/non-declarative learning as it cannot be consciously inspected
State the component’s of Baddley & Hitch’s model of working memory?
Phonological loop:
- Auditory rehearsal loops
- Dyslexia may be related to erratic phonological loop
Visuospatial sketchpad:
- Pattern recognition and movement perception components
Central executive:
- Capacity limited but modality free
Episodic buffer (added later):
- Multimodal store integrates information onto the LTM
Name the two types of serial position effect?
Primacy - words first in a list remembered better. Thought to be due to consolidation to LTM occurs during the list
Recency - words at the end are remembered better. Last heard words are freshly retained.
Recency is better intact in those with anterograde amnesia - can’t form the transfer info from STM to LTM and/or retrieve from LTM.
Retrograde amnesia physically consolidated memories fail
Name the three types of memory retrieval
Recognition
Recall - active and involves reproducing
Reintegration/reconstruction - recall based on partial cue. Not as accurate i.e. in eyewitnesses the account is influenced by the type of questioning
Encoding specificity principle refers to?
The more similar the retrieval situation is to the encoding situation the better the retrieval
Sudden onset anterograde amnesia with a retrograde amnesia for preceding days or week may make you think of?
Transient global amnesia - caused by temporary lack of blood flow to regions of brain concerned with memory function
Where are the neural correlates of the phonological STM system in the brain?
L Broca’s areas and PFC
- visuospatial STM is mediated by parietal and R prefrontal areas
What is interference with regards to retrieval?
Piecing together easily accessible information - this is biased
What is retroactive interference (in interference theory)?
When newly learnt information interferes with old material
- Proactive interference refers to when new information being prevented from old material
How do inductive and deductive reasoning differ?
Deductive - theory driven and top down:
- Theory - hypothesis - observation - confirmation
Inductive reasoning - bottom up and broader
- Observations = pattern - tentative hypothesis and theory
What are the two broad types of problem solving?
Algorithmic:
- Time consuming done step by step to ensure a solution
Heuristics:
- Rule of thumb (Tversky and Kahenman)
Outline what is meant by the following heuristic decision making processses
a) Representativeness bias
b) Availability heuristics
c) Base rate fallacy
d) Gambler’s fallacy
e) Sunk cost bias or entrapment
f) Anchoring-adjustment
g) Conjunction rule
h) Confirmation bias
i) Diagnostic momentum
a) Use stereotypical features to fit the problem into a well known category
b) Recent information available to the individual forms their decision
c) Assume a false positive than true positive in unlikely/rare events given their rarity
d) As an outcome has not happened in a while it should occur
e) Continuing with an action and feeling cannot withdraw as the cost that has happened is too great
f) Lock onto early features of a patient’s initial impression and use this to anchor later action plan/outcome ignoring later salient points
g) False belief that multiple reasons occuring together explain a presentation rather than one simple belief i.e. ocums razor
h) Using information that arises in a way to fit preconceived belief
i) Carrying on with a diagnostic label from a different clinician despite the belief that it could be incorrect
Name the two dimensions of personality theories?
Situationalism (situation influenced) vs dispositional (personality is enduring and consistent)
Nomothetic (shared traits) vs. idiographic (unique traits)
What are allport’s different traits?
Cardinal traits - influential, core traits that provide the ruling for individual’s behaviour and actions. Not everyone has them
Central traits: 5-10 which can be detected by others
Secondary traits: less influential only those close to the individual will be able to detect them - only arise in certain situations
How does Cattell’s approach differ to Allports?
Cattell proposed there are surface traits that relate to each other but not fundamental to explaining personality but then there are source traits which are.
He came up with this through selecting 4,500 of Cattell’s words and reducing them to 171 elements to do factor analysis on - source traits formed 16 PF questionnaire.
3 types of data can reveal the categorical differences between normal and abnormal personality:
Q-data - questionnaires
L-data - life-time data
T-data - test date thematic apprerception test
How did Eyesneck’s approach differ to Cattell’s
He had a dimensional view of personality and used second order analysis (orthogonal factor analysis) - Cattell used first order analysis
Both Eyesneck and Cattell believed in shared features (nomothetic) that were influenced by disposition
What is Cloniger’s psychobiological model of personality?
Prpopesed four dimensions of temperament that manifest early in life (heritable) and 3 components of character (shaped by envinroment)
Temperaments:
- Novelty seeking
- Harm-avoidance
- Reward-dependence
- Persistance
Character dimensions:
- Self-directedness
- Cooperativeness
- Self-transcendence
Name some projective tests of personality
- Rorschach inkblot test - free association and inquiry phase - both analysed later and there is Exner’s system for scoring
- Thematic apperception test (Murray - make a picture from the blank card)
- Sentence completion test
- Word-association test (Jung -time pressured)
- Draw a person test
Name some structured ways of assessing personality?
Q-sort technique - subject picks cards with labels that they feel describes them
International personality disorders examination
- Has self-report and screening quesitons
- Compatible with DSM and ICD
- Includes late onset or past personality disorder labels
Minnesota multi-phasic personality inventor:
- Self-report
- HAs ten scales with clinical labels
- 567 statements
Outline Maslow’s 5 level and 7 level hierarchy needs
D needs - motives
B needs - growth/being needs
5: Self actualisation
4: Self-esteem
3: Belonging
2: Safety
1: Shelter
8: Transcendance
7: Self-actualisation
6: Aesthetic
5: Cognitive
4: Esteem
3: Belonging
2: Safety
1: Physiological
- Note in this model levels 1-4 are D needs and levels 5-8 are B needs
What is drive reduction theory?
Created by hull - if there is an imbalance in homeostasis this creates a psychological drive (arousal) to reduce the biological need
Primary drives are biological - hunger etc
Secondary drives are learned from primary - i.e power/self-esteem
What us optimal discrepancy?
The strongest form of curiosity when information is different from what we know but not so dissimilar that it is strange or irrelevant
What is cognitive consistence theory?
That dissonance created from cognitive inconsistencies drives us to correct the imbalance and make things consistent
Compare and contrast the following theories of emotion
a) James-Lange
b) Cannon-Bird
c) Schacter-Singer labelling theory
d) Lazarus
a) Emotional perception depends on bodily (skeletal and visceral) changes. There is a feedback loop where the thalamus interpets the bodily signal and on the basis of this the emotion is labelled. A modification is the facial feedback where the thalamus interpret facial signals and perceives emotions accordingly. Cons are that there is enough variety in bodily responses to explain the range of emotions
b) Emotional perception and bodily changes happen simultaneously - the thalamus mediates both the cognitive interpretation but also sends signals to the hypothalamus to drive bodily changes
c) Two factor or labelling theory whereby perception of emotion depends on the bodily changes but the context too. When a stimulus comes up physiological changes and conscious experience happens the same time - arousal is interpreted as positive or negative and labelled using situational cues.
d) Lazarus proposes that cognitive appraisal occurs before the affective reaction. That immediate, intuitive and personal attributions made by the individual dictates their subjective experience of emotion.
