Chapter 4, 5, 7, 8 Flashcards
1. Sensation and perception, C5 2. Attention and awareness, C4 3. Sleep, C4 4. Altered states of consciousness, C4 5. Thinking and intelligence, C8 6. Short-term memory, C7 7. Longterm memory, C7 8. Decision-making, C8
What are the two types of receptor cells in the eye
photoreceptors; rods and cones
characteristics and roles of the Rod
Sensitivity; respond to extremely low levels of light and are responsible primarily for night vision.
Do not support color vision and are poor at fine detail
Objects appear in shades of grey
characteristics and roles of cones
Acuity; responsible primarily for vision under brighter conditions and for seeing both color and detail
Cones are densely packed in a small region called the … Conversely, rods are concentrated at the …
fovea; retina’s edges
Trichromatic theory
color vision results from activity in three types of cones that are sensitive to different wavelengths.
Describe how the brain makes assumptions about the world
based on experience
The brain makes four main assumptions
*Light and shadows;
*cues to size and depth
* Object structure
*certainty over ambiguity– faces
Scenario of Gestalt Principle: 16 squares “appear” to be grouped as three objects
Proximity: The closer two figures are to each other, the more likely we are to
group them and see them as part of the same object
Scenario of Gestalt Principle:: rectangle appears to consist of two locked pieces
similarity
Illusions prove that…
the brain makes assumptions about the world without conscious input; the brain has built-in assumptions that influence perceptions; sensory input differs from experience.
How do the Gestalt principles of proximity and similarity help explain our visual perceptions of crowds
When we see people (similar objects) gathered closely together (organized proximally) we perceive them as a “crowd” rather than individuals
Describe the impact of ames boxes and ponzo illusion
powerful depth illusions that played with depth cues to create size illusions
Describe change blindness
When we often miss things because we are often focusing on something else; beacause we cannot attend to everything in the vast array of visual information available, we become blind to large changes in our environments
conciousness
a person’s moment-to-moment subjective experience of the world
Inattentional blindness
is the failure to notice a fully-visible, but unexpected object because attention was engaged on another task, event, or object.
Divided attention
whether observers notice a fully-visible object now that it is expected (they know it can appear); because they were primed
What is the role of attention in awareness?
Attention involves being able to focus selectively on some things and not others. Attention and consciousness go hand and hand because since conscious is limited, attention chooses what goes in and what does not.
change blindness vs inattentional blindness
Change blindness refers to the failure to notice something different about a display whereas inattentional blindness refers to a failure to see something present in a display.
People tend to sleep …. as they age
less
According to our circadian rhythm, bright light …. the production of… whereas … triggers its …
suppresses; melatonin; darkness; release
How does conscious experience change when you are asleep?
One’s conscious experience of the outside world is largely turned off, however, to an extent you remain aware of surroundings such as potential dangers, shifting body to be comfortable, and the edges of the bed.
beta waves
short, frequent, irregular brain signals that happen in alert wakefulness
alpha waves
brain signals that are regular which happens when people are relaxed and focused on something/ meditation– just before sleep
Describe REM sleep
Rapid eye movement, stage of sleep when eyes dart back and forth. Has a strong relation to dreaming; when people are awakened during REM sleep they are more likely to report dreaming than when awakened during non-rem sleep
Circadian rhythms
biological sleep patterns that occur at regular intervals as a function of time of day
activation-synthesis hypothesis
A hypothesis of dreaming proposing that the brain tries to make sense of random
brain activity that occurs during sleep by synthesizing the activity with stored
memories
Non-rem dream characteristics
dreams are dull
rem sleep dream qualities
dreams are bizarre
Why do we need sleep?
research suggests that sleep is adaptive for three functions: restoration, avoiding danger at certain times of the day (circadian rhythm), facilitation of learning
restorative theory of sleep
sleep allows the body, including the brain, to rest and repair itself; sleep replenishes energy, strengthens immune system, and
Effects of sleep deprivation
- difficult to perform quiet, mundane tasks
- attention lapses
-reduced short term memory
-depressed people are alleviated from their depression, because deprivation increases activation of seretonin receptors
how does circadian rhythm explain how we use sleep to avoid danger
We are adapted to sleeping at night because our early ancestors were
more at risk in the dark. That is, early were the ones who survived long enough to reproduce and thus
became our ancestors.
Obstructive sleep apnea
a disorder where people stop breathing for short periods of times because their throat closes
narcolepsy
excessive sleepiness that lasts from several seconds to minutes and occurs during normal waking hours
the difference between insomnia and a common inability to go to sleep
Insomnia affects mental health and causes functional impairments in a person’s daily life.
Beta waves are associated with REM-Sleep or Non-Rem Sleep?
Rem Sleep
What are the two types of mental representation’s theorized in cognitive psychology
Analogical: mental representations that have some of the physical characteristics of waht they represent
Symbolic: abstract representations that are usually words, numbers, or ideas. No relationships to physical objects in the world
When an architect produces a blueprint for a new house, is this
representation analogical or symbolic?
symboli; abstract representation: 2D image physically and spatially corresponding to a 3D house
Your brain forms a mental image
(…representation) of a lemon and provides you with the word lemon
(….representation). So far, so good.
analogical; symbolic
Gropung something based on shared properties is called…
categorization
What is a concept
category or class of related items consisting of mental representations of those items
What are the two leading models explaining the ways that people form concepts?
- Prototype model: when we think of a category, we look for abest exemplar of that category, and then assign similar objecting to that model depending on how much it resonates with the best exemplar.
- Exemplar model: through experience, people form a fuzzy representation of a concept using various exemplars because there is no single representation of any concept.
Heuristics
quick, dirty, often unconscious shortcuts in thinking
consequences of heuristics
biases that lead to errors, faulty decisions, false predictions, and erroneous beliefs
anchoring
when people rely on the first pieces of evidence they encounter to make a judgement
Framing
emphasis on the potential losses or potential gains from at least one alternative to influence decision making
availability heuristic
to make a decision based on the answer that readily comes to mind
representativeness heuristic
Placing a person or an object in a category if that person or object is similar to one’s prototype for that category
Why might someone be more inclined to buy an item with an expensive
regular price that is on sale than a similar item at a reasonable and
equivalent regular price?
expensive price serves as an anchor for what a price should be for an item, so the sale price seems more attractive.
subgoals
steps towards solving particular problems and acheiving a larger goal
- example: The tower of Hanoi: moving one disk at a time…
mental sets
solving problems persistently using past strategies of how we solved similar problems
Functional fixedness
fixed ideas about the functions of objects
Example: Duncker’s Candle Problem in which participants had to overcome their fixed ideas of objects provided to them in order to attach a candle to a buletin board.
insight
the metaphorical mental lightbulb that goes off when you suddenly realize the solution to a problem
Your aunt is outside in the wind and wants to fix her hair, but she does not have a
mirror to help her see what she is doing. You suggest using her phone’s camera.
Why did she fail to think of this?
because of functional fixedness, she only thinks of using her phone for texts, calls, and taking pictures
two approaches to decision making
maximizing: identify the perfect choice among a set of options.
satisficing: find a choice that is “good enough” and meets minimum personal requirements (satisfactory).
When chef Gordon Ramsay tries to save a failing restaurant, he often reduces the
number of items on the menu. Why might fewer options be better for maximizing
customers?
With too many options, maximizers find it difficult to choose, causing stress
and dissatisfaction. Limiting the menu can reduce negative feelings and thoughts
during and after the decision-making process.
Identify common measures of intelligence and discuss their validity
Intelligence Quotient (IQ): while a way to quantify intelligence, providing a
single IQ score reflects the idea that one general factor underlies intelligence.
General Intelligence: is the underlying factor of IQ that identifies clusters of related items on a test (factors) [a person good at writing might be good at something else]
Describe general intelligence
single general factor proposed to underlie IQ
