Book Info Flashcards
Amygdala
determines if significant emotional content is detected
Hippcampus
crucial for establishing long term memories
Fear conditioning
an organism is given a warning stimulus and then a few seconds later, is presented with a fear-inducing stimulus
organism learns warning
What unites psychology?
shared set of thematic concerns
multiple perspectives
Limited value of dichotomies in psychology
nature vs nurture
biology vs environment
Active perceivers
humans interpret, select, and organize our experiences
by interpreting our activities we both help and hurt ourselves
Operational definition
a definition that translates a variable we want to assess into a specific procedure/measurement
Sample
can’t often study the whole population
subset of the population investigator studies
Random sampling
make sure sample represents the broader group
every member of the population has an equal chance of being selected
External validity
the degree to which a study adequately reflects the world as it actually is
Demand characteristics
cues that might tell research participants what behaviors are expected/desirable in that setting
Descriptive statistics
characterize a data pattern
Inferential stats
allow researchers to draw claims between samples
Internal validity
experiment has properties that allow us to conclude that the change observed in the dependent variable was caused by the independent variable
Empirical claims
claims that can be true or false depending on the facts
what psychologists study
Naturalistic fallacy
idea anything natural must be good
sometimes traits can become harmful that were once beneficial
What type of behavior does evolution normally favor?
favors traits that produce flexibility in an organism’s behavior and ability to adapt
Intelligence
capacity that allows people to acquire new knowledge and use it to draw conclusions, solve problems, and adapt to circumstances
What did descarte believe?
that all human action is a response to something we experience
Neurons
specialized cell in nervous system that recieves and sends information
Efferent signals
Messages carries outward from central nervous system
Afferent neurons
nerves that carry messages inward towards the central nervous system
Glia
another type of cell in the nervous system that support neurons
increase the speed of neuronal communication
Excitation threshold
a signal has to surpass this threshold in order for the action potential to fire
Lock and key model
only certain neurotransmitters go with receptors
What nervous system are efferent and afferent nerves a part of?
perphereal nervous system
Cerebral cortex
outer surface of the forebrain
large, thin tissue that is folded
deep groves called convolutions divide the brain into different lobes of the brain
Projection areas
1st receiving areas for information going into and out of the brain
Contralateral organization
the idea that the right side of the body is controlled by the left hemisphere of the brain and vice versa
Plasticity of the brain
nervous system is plastic
subject to alteration in function
ex: overall changes to architecture after damage or neurons changing sensitivity to receptors
Active perceiver versus the passive perceiver
Active minds categorizes events and experiences
Passive perceiver is guided by proximal and distal stimulus
Absolute threshold
the smallest quantity of the stimulus that an individual can detect
Difference threshold
smallest amount the stimulus must be increased/decreased to be detected
Just noticeable difference
smallest difference an organism can reliably detect between 2 stimuli
Weber’s law
size of the difference threshold is proportional to the intensity of the standard stimulus
Fechner’s law
strength of sensation is proportional to the logarithm of physical stimulus intensity
Decision critera
an organism’s rule for how much evidence is needed before making a decision
Signal detection theory
theory that perceiving/not perceiving is actually a judgment about whether a momentary sensual experience is due to background noise alone or background and a signal
Demand characteristics
cues that might tell the research participant what behaviors are expected/desirable in that setting
can reduce through conducting a double blind experiment
Correlational studies
investigator analyzes relationships among variables that are already present (do not impose treatments)
Perceptual sensitivity
an organism’s ability to detect a signal
Sensory codes
the rules by which the nervous system translates the properties of a proximal stimulus to neural impulses
How is psycological intensity coded?
By rates of firing neurons and how many neurons are triggered
Specificity theory of sensation
different sensory qualities (ex: red vs green) are signaled by different neurons
Pattern theory of sensation
certain sensory qualities arise because of different patterns of activation across a whole set of neurons
What is a commonality among all sensory systems?
adaptation- the tendency to respond less to a stimuli that has been around and unchanging for some time
Vestibular sense
signals movements of head, sense of up/down
ex: semicircular canals in the inner ear
Where is the taste sense found?
Papillae found on the tongue
What does hearing depend on?
Place theory: experience of pitch is based on the membrane that is most stimulated
Frequency theory: experience of pitch depends on the firing frequency of the auditory nerve
Both of these theories play a role in hearing sense
What controls the amount of light entering the eye?
Iris and lens
form the retinal image
What is the distal stimuli for vision?
light that varies in intensity and wavelength
Proximal stimuli for vision?
the retinal image
What is the retina’s proximal stimulus translated by?
rods and cones
Rods
operate at low light intensities and are indifferent to different hues
Cones
operate at higher illumination and produce color
Contrast effects
accentuate edges in vision??
Opponent process theory
proposes that the output of the cones serves as input for a further layer of mechanisms that recode the signal into 3 opponent process pairs (R/G, B/Y, Black/White)
Form perception
seeks what something is
begins with the detection of simple features
What must the perceiver due besides simply recognizing features?
organize the info
must parse the visual scene and segragate figure from ground
parvo cells
on the retina, are sensitive to color differences and are crucial for the perception of pattern+form
all different types of cells on the retina function at the same time
Magno cells
color blind cells on the retina and play an essential role in motion detection and depth perception
all different types of cells on the retina function at the same time
What happens to information from the visual cortex
It is translated to the temporal cortex (what system)
and parietal cortex (where system)
Binding problem
the problem confronted by the brain of recombining elements of a stimulus, given that these elements are initially analyzed separately by different neural systems
ex: neurons detecting a vertical line and neurons detecting movement might assume it is the same object
Perceptual consistency
people percieve a stable world even though there are changes in our circumstances that alter the stimuli
Unconscious inference
taking the viewing circumstances (distance, angle) into account by performing simple calculations
Distance perception
senses where something is
depends on various depth cues (binocular disparity and monocular cues) and motion helps us perceive depth
Binocular disparity
a depth cue based on the differences between what the two eyes see
this difference becomes less pronounced with distance
Monocular cues
features of the stimulus that indicate distance even if only viewed with one eye
ex: linear perspective
Apparent movement
an abrupt change in location produces a perception of movement even though there has been no actual motion (in the world or in retinal)
What happens when there is motion on the retina?
need to determine whether the motion was produced by movement in the environment or merely a change in viewing position
Primed stimuli versus unprimed
Perception is more efficient if we are primed for the stimuli
Senses can prepare and prime the relevant detectors and processing pathways
What is the benefit of the cognitive unconscious?
it allows us processes that are effortless and automatic
Neural correlates of consciousness
activity of certain brain sites depends on what stimulus the person is aware of
Global workspace hypothesis
consciousness is made possible by a pattern of integrated neural activity
made possible by the connections provided by the work-space neurons and controlled by the process of attention
Sleep amounts
need equal amounts of slow wave and REM sleep
shown in EEG data
Examples of depressants and stimulus
Depressants: alcohol, sleep medication, anxiety meds
Antidepressants: cocaine, caffeine, amphetamine, MDMA
Extinction
non-reinforced response to conditioned stimulus started to decline
spontaneous recovery shows us that the conditioned response is masked, not abolished during extinciton
Blocking effect
a result showing that an animal learns nothing about a stimulus if the stimulus does not present new information
Is the conditioned response indentical to the unconditioned response?
Rarely
Most of the times the CR is a means of preparing for the US
Thorndike’s Law of Effect
the tendency to perform a response is strengthened if it’s followed by a reward and weakened if it’s not
Instrumental conditioned
the trainer delivers a reward of reinforcement only after the animal gives the appropriated response
another term for operant conditioning
Are operants voluntary responses?
yes
voluntary responses just strengthened by conditioning
acquiring them may call for some initial shaping though
partial reinforcement
the response is reinforced only some of the time
researcher implements reinforcement according to a schedule based on number of responses or intervals
What is the neural basis for learning?
presynaptic facilitation and postsynaptic facilitation such as long-term potentation
also the creation of new synapses which is made possible by the growth of new dendritic spines
long-term potentiation
A long-lasting increase in a neuron’s
response to specific inputs, caused by
repeated stimulation.
a neural basis for learning
What are the three steps of memory
1) Acquisition - process of gathering info and placing into memory
2) Storage - holding information in some enduring form in the mind for latter use
3) Retrieval - draw info from storage to use
What does memory acquisition include?
intentional learning and incidental learning
How are long term memories stored?
memory consolidation process during which new connections form between neurons
need for consolidation is showcased in brain damage that disrupts this process and results in retrograde amnesia
Encoding specifity
what’s stored in memory reflects how the person thought about or reacted to the object/event being remembered
What are many cases of forgetting a result of?
inadequate encoding
Schema
An individual’s mental
representation that summarizes her
knowledge about a certain type of event
or situation.
Misinformation effect
people have a tendency to include misinformation as part of their recall of the original event
a type of intrusion error
Intrusion errors
mixing of memories / having misinformation
intrusion errors are often produced when you learn about an event after the event was over
2 separate systems for familarity and recollection
sometimes someone correctly realizes than an idea is familiar, but an error is made about why the idea is familar
ex: knowing that you have seen someone before but unsure where
Semantic memories
concerns broader knowledge
2 types of episodic memory
autobiographical (memory that defines each of us/who we are)
flashbulb memory
Analogical versus symbolic representations
analogical representations capture some of the actual characteristics of what they represent (picture)
symbolic representations bear no such relationship to what they represent
Judgment
drawing conclusions from experience
seek to reach beyond the evidence we’ve encountered to draw new claims based on this evidence
What does judgment often rely on?
shortcuts called heuristics
Dual process theory of thinking
System 1: thinking quickly in certain situations
System 2: thinking for slower, effortful, and more accurate thoughts
Reasoning
drawing implications from our beliefs
crucial for using knowledge to test our beliefs
What is a risk of reasoning?
Confirmation bias
What type of reasoning do syllogisms show? What can syllogisms show?
Deductive reasoning
Can show confirmation bias
Decision making
choices among options
people are sensitive to potential outcomes and risks associated with decisions
Affective forecasting
predicting their own future emotions
people overestimate how strongly they will feel if an outcome is good or bad
Is decision making better or worse with more options?
decision making is worse with more options
people like to be able to explain their process/ why they chose something over another thing
Problem solving
a process that moves us from an initial state to a goal state and depends on how heavily we understand the problem
Primary somatosensory projection area
adjacent areas in the motor projection area represent adjacent parts of the body; adjacent areas in visual projection area represent adjacent regions of space
areas of the body that receive the most touch receive most cortical space
How to label left and right hemispheres?
If brain is pointed in same direction as yours, then left and right is same as your left and right
If brain is pointed towards you, then left and right are reversed
Third variable problem
confounding found in correlationial studies
this problem can be removed through random assignment
Within subject comparisons versus between-subject comparison
two different types of comparisons done in experiments
within-subject comparisons focus on the same group in 2 dif. environments
between-subject comparisons focus on 2 dif. groups
Species general
all members of a species do it
ex: smiling
Motor neurons
have long axons to carry efferent signals from the brain to the muscles
Myelin
increased the speed of neuronal transmission
through glia cells often
Antagonists versus agonists
Antagonists enhance cleanup enzymes to destroy neurotransmitter
agonists block cleanup enzymes
