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PSYC121 & 122 > Definitions > Flashcards

Definitions Flashcards

1
Q

Aphasia

A

Language disorder, as. result of a stroke or brain injury, that affects a persons ability to communicate

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2
Q

fMRI

A

A safe and non invasive technique that detects changes in blood flow which correlates with neuronal activity

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3
Q

TMS

A

A non-invasive technique that disrupts specific brain activity for a fraction of a second

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4
Q

Action Potential

A

the change in the voltage inside a cell (relative to outside the cell) taking place at one section of the neuron at a time

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5
Q

Agonists

A

Drugs that occupy receptors and activate them

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6
Q

Antagonists

A

Drugs that occupy receptors but block receptor activation

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7
Q

Place cells

A

When our brain enters a space, it assigns certain positions to different cells and therefore these neurons respond at different spaces

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8
Q

Grid cells

A

Our brain assigns certain cells to certain positions in a grid like structure of spatially even triangles.

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9
Q

Psychophysics

A

the relationship between the physical world and the psychological world (via the neural world)

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10
Q

Signal Detection Theory

A

Allows us to separate sensitivity from response bias

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11
Q

Sensitivity

A

How well can you distinguish between when the stimulus is present or absent. Sensitivity means you have a high hit rate AND a low false alarm rate

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12
Q

Weber law

A

Discrimination threshold increases proportionally to baseline/reference stimulus increases - must be 8%

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13
Q

Trichromatic Theory

A

Colour perception is mediated by cones. There are 3 cone types: S-cones are most sensitive at short wavelengths (blue), M-cones at medium wavelengths (green) and L-cones at long wavelengths (red). Your brain perceives colour based on the combination of photoreceptors that are activated at a specific location.

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14
Q

Dark Adaptation

A

The transition of the retina from the light adapted to dark adapted state

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15
Q

Colour Opponency

A

Colour perception involves opponent processing of two pathways: Red/green and yellow/blue. When you stare deeply at something that is blue/yellow - all the blue/yellow cells are saturated, they adapt to the stimulus and stop responding. When you move your eyes to something that is right, the blue/yellow cells are tired so the red/green cell system dominates your field of vision.

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16
Q

Perceptual Constancy

A

Objects maintain their properties even when the context changes their physical characteristics

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17
Q

uncrossed disparity

A

object that are further away from the fixation point will fall on corresponding points in the retinas of the two eyes - making them single and in depth

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18
Q

retinal disparity

A

The difference in the images seen by the two eyes due to their slightly different positions. This difference helps the brain to perceive depth and distance.

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19
Q

crossed disparity

A

Objects closer to the fixation point will fall on non-corresponding points in the retinas of the two eyes. For examples, if you hold your finger close to your face and look at it with both eyes, you’ll notice that your finger appears to be double. This is because the image of your finger falls on different points in your left and right eyes.

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20
Q

Vergence

A

When we look at things that are very close, our eyes stop moving in parallel and move inward. The brain can interpret eye muscle movement to decide how much vergance and guess how far away things are

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21
Q

Texture gradient

A

things that are closeup (high resolution, good detail) things that are further away (low resolution, less detail)

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21
Q

Linear perspective

A

parallel lines come closer together off into the distance

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22
Q

Ariel perspective

A

There are water molecules in the air, and with things that are further away wehave to look through more water molecules, makes them hazy and slightly grey/blue

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23
Q

Interposition/occlusion

A

things closer to me will block things further away from me

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24
Bottom up processing
Data driven processing that uses incoming information to drive perception
25
Top down processing
conceptually driven processing whereby experience and knowledge drive perception
26
Change blindness
A psychological phenomenon where people fail to notice changes in their environment when their attention is focused elsewhere.
27
Feature integration theory
Searching for one feature (colour, shape) can be done automatically. It “pops out”. It takes the same amount of time, no many how many items you have to search. Searching for a combination of features requires controlled attention. You need to apply attention to each item, one at a time. More items requires more time.
28
Selective attention
The ability to prioritise some information while ignoring other information
29
Broadbent's Filter Theory
Attention narrows the flow of information into awareness - only what we attend to will get meaning analysis
30
Treisman's Attenuation Model
Attended messages pass through clearly. Unattended messages are weakened. Sometimes they break through
31
Deutsch & Deutsch late selection model:
We process everything for meaning, but only selected information makes it into our awareness.
32
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The Biased Competition Model of Attention
attention is a competition between bottom-up and top-down factors, with the most salient or relevant stimuli being selected for further processing.
34
The Switch Cost
the cognitive effort required to shift attention between different tasks or stimuli. It can lead to reduced performance and increased errors when multitasking.
35
Cue dependency principle
The strength of a memory depends on the number and informativeness of its cues
36
Encoding specificity principle
Cues are most effected if they are encoded along with the to-be-remembered information.
37
SAVINGS
the reduction in time required to learn a second time
38
Retroactive interference
Recent memories interfere with the ability to retrieve older memories
39
Proactive interference
Old memories interfere with the ability to retrieve newer memories
40
Anterograde Amnesia
Amnesia for events that happen after the trauma
41
Retrograde Amnesia
Amnesia for any events that happened prior to the trauma
42
VOT
time interval between release of consonant and onset of voicing
43
Cooing
Tryin to produce sounds through exploration of vocal cords
44
Reduplicated babbling
Repeating same syllable over and over to train articulators
45
Variegated babbling
Syllables with different consonants and vowels
46
The vocabulary burst
Major increase in productive vocabulary acquisition rate after first 50 words are learned
47
Language Acquisition Device (LAD
Brain mechanism devoted to language that unfolds through through the process of maturation.
48
Child-centred talk
Caregivers adapt talk to child's level and centre the child
49
Situation-centred talk
Child learns to adapt to situation and through this, learns status and heirachy
50
Heuristics
rules of thumb about the world
51
Schemas
mental knowledge structures based on experience
52
Scripts
common action routines
53
Salience bias
Assessing something as more prevalent if it comes to mind readily
54
Confirmation bias
seeking information the will confirm our preconceptions and ignoring information that will challenge it
55
The representativeness heuristic
- The tendency to classify something by how closely it matches our 'prototype' for that group
56
The Availability Heuristic
The tendency to assess outcomes as more probable if they come to mind readily
57
Fast Thinking process
Draws on concepts, routines, and rules of thumb acquired through extensive practice
58
Slow thinking process
Effortful and needed in unfamiliar situations, or for creativity & precision
59
thinking
The conscious experience of generating mental representations and operating on them in some way
60
Hot Cognition
The mental processes involved in making judgements and decisions in situations involving strong emotion
61
Damasio's Somatic Marker Hypothesis
emotions play a crucial role in decision-making by guiding our choices based on past experiences and their associated emotional consequences.
62
learning
An experiential process resulting in a relatively permanent behavioural change that cannot be explained by temporary states, maturation, or innate tendency's.
63
Classical Conditioning
A learning process in which a neutral stimulus becomes associated with a reflex eliciting stimulus such that it can elicit a conditioned response when presented alone
64
Generalisation
allows learning to carry over to new situations/stimuli without requiring further learning
65
Discrimination
restricts new learning from being inappropriately applied to ALL situations.
66
Operant conditiong
Learning based on the tendency to repeat behaviours that lead to desirable outcomes and we tend to stop performing behaviours that lead to undesirable outcome
67
Thorndike's Law of Effect
if a response in the presence of a stimulus leads to satisfying effects, the association between that stimulus and response is strengthened
68
EXTINCTION
non delivery of reinforcers maintaining undesirable behaviour
69
Insight
sudden appearance of an appropriate behaviour without any obvious shaping
70
instinctive drift
instinctive behaviours interfering with conditioned responses
71
1. James-Lange Theory
Emotions are the result of physiological changes in the body, which are then interpreted by the brain as emotions.
72
Schachter-Singer Theory
Emotions are a combination of physiological arousal and cognitive appraisal of the situation
73
Cannon-Bard Theory
stimulating events trigger feelings and physical reactions that occur at the same time
74
Magda Arnold's Appraisal Theory
emotions are triggered by our cognitive evaluation of a situation, and these appraisals influence our emotional responses
75
The "thinking highroad"
Information goes to prefrontal cortex BEFORE amygdala
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77
The "speedy low road"
The information goes directly from the thalamus to the amygdala, where it can stimulate fear response
78
Flashbulb Memories
Highly emotionally charged events have extremely vivid details
79
Mood congruent memory
When we are sad, sad memories are more accessible than happy memories
80
Traumatic memory:
Traumatic events are likely to be vividly remembered and difficult to forget. Persistent intrusive memory can contribute to post-traumatic stress disorder
81
Dissociation
Fragmentation of functions that are usually integrated (consciousness, memory, identity, body awareness and perception of the self and the environment)
82
Assimilation
Process by which new experiences are labelled/recognised/understood by applying an existing scheme
83
Accommodation
process by which an existing scheme is modified because a new experience does not fit into the current scheme
84
Sensorimotor (0-2 years)
Infants awareness only expressed through their sensory and motor abilities
85
Preoperational (2-6 years)
Use symbols to represent objects but do not yet reason logically
86
Concrete Operational Stage (7-12 years)
Can think logically about real objects and situations
87
Formal operational stage (12 years and >)
Can think and reason abstractly in hypothetical terms
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88
discontinuous
New ways of understanding appears at different stages of life
89
Continuous
Fundamental skills already present early in life and development involves gradual changes throughout the lifespan
90
Preferential Looking Technique
Show two patterns simultaneously side-by-side. If infants consistently look longer at one pattern over another, it means that the infant visually prefers that pattern.
91
Emergence
If children express an incorrect response, then we can conclude that the knowledge has yet to emerge
92
Expression
Expression itself is challenging, the knowledge may have emerged but they are struggling to express it
93
Theory of Mind
other people have a mind, and things that have minds will behave differently to things without a mind.

PSYC121 & 122 (13 decks)

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