Exam 1 Flashcards
Pseudoscience
Seems scientific but isn’t.
Lacks safeguards against confirmation bias and belief perseverance.
Basal Ganglia
2 structures in the forebrain that control movement.
Helps obtain rewards and anticipate rewards.
Thalamus
“Bedroom/chamber”
Gateway to sensory areas
Majority of sensory info passes through it
Behaviorism
General laws to learning by looking at observable behavior
“Black box psychology”
John Watson
BF Skinner
Critical Thinking Skills
Set of skills for evaluating claims in an open minded and careful fashion
Limbic System
Processes info about internal states, motivation, smell and the emotional center.
Thalamus
Hypothalamus
Amygdala
Hippocampus
Amygdala
“Almond”
Excitement, arousal, fear and fear conditioning
Hypothalamus
Regulates internal states, emotion, motivation, hunger, thirst, temperature and sexual motivation.
Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)
Connects central nervous system to the rest of the body
Somatic
Autonomic
Parietal Lobes
Somatosensory Cortex- touch, pressure, temperature, pain, tracks objects, location, shape, orientation, processes others actions, represents numbers, communicates visual and touch information to the motor cortex.
Frontal Lobes
Executive function. Motor cortex. Prefrontal cortex- thinking planning. Boca’s Area- language. Mood, personality, self awareness and abstract thinking.
Phineas Gage
Cerebral Cortex
Most mental processes- think, talk, reason.
Forebrain
12-20 billion neurons
Autonomic System
Controls involuntary actions of internal organs, and participates in emotional regulation with the Limbic System
Sympathetic
Parasympathetic
ONLY ONE AT A TIME!
Hippocampus
Memory, spatial memory (mental maps)
Damage = no new memories
Somatic
(Skeletal)
Carries messages from CNS to muscles. Controls movement and coordinates voluntary movement.
Temporal Lobes
Hearing, understanding, storing memories.
Auditory cortex- hearing
Wernike’s Area- language
Functionalism
Charles Darwin
Adaptive purposes of psychological characteristics
Asks “why”
William James
Dendrites
Projection that picks up impulses from other neurons
Pseudoscience warning signs
Exaggerated claims Over reliance on anecdotes No self correction No connection to research No peer review "Proof" or "evidence" Psychobabble
Structuralism
Identify basic elements of psychological experience
Create “map” of consciousness
Why can we be fooled?
Most mistaken thinking is cut from the same cloth as our most useful thoughts
Cognitivism
Thinking affects behavior
Thinking is central to psychology
Opens “black box”
Hindsight Bias
“I knew it all along affect”
Overestimate how well we could have successfully forecasted known outcomes.
Neurons
Nerve cells specialized for communication
Wilhelm Wundt
1879
First psychology lab in Germany
Student founded structuralism
Texture gradient
Texture is less apparent the further away it is
Neuroplasticity
Ability of the nervous system to change
Random assignment
Randomly sorting into two groups
Linear perspective
Lines tend to converge into a point with distance
Monocular cues
Our perceived 3D and distance perception in one eye
Convergence
The closer things are the eyes start to turn into each other
Retinal disparity
Difference in where we see things with different eyes
Binocular cues
Brain compares visual cues from both eyes to determine depth and 3D
Control group
Group not receiving manipulation
Experimental group
Group that receives manipulation
Over reliance on anecdotes
“Woman practiced yoga daily for three weeks, and hasn’t been depressed a day since”
Pupil
Opening in the iris that let’s light enter the eye
Occam’s Razor
If two explanations fit, go with the simple one
KISS = keep it simple stupid
Evidence
Provides support for a claim or theory
Make sure evidence isn’t an extraordinary claim
Replicability
When findings can be replicated
Falsifiability
Capable of being disproven
Correlation isn’t causation
Error in thinking that if one thing is related to another than one causes another
Iris
Cored area of the eye that is a muscle with controls the size of the pupil
Independent variable
Variable being manipulated by the experimenter
Central Nervous System (CNS)
Brain
Spinal cord
Controls the mind and behavior
Depth perception
Ability to judge distance and 3D cues
Parasympathetic
Active during digestion and rest
Scientific thinking, why we need it
To eliminate biases
Sympathetic
Active during crisis, flight or fight or emotional arousal
Node
Gap in myelin sheath that helps conduct impluses
Synapse
Point of axon branch that releases neurotransmitters
Closure
The mind fills in what it thinks is missing
Similarity
Group items based on their similar appearance
Transduction
The process of transforming external energy into neural energy
Scientific skepticism
Approach to evaluating all claims with an open mind but insisting on persuasive evidence before accepting them
Belief perseverance
Tendency to stick to our beliefs, even when evidence contradicts them
Proximity
Things that are close together are thought to be a whole
Figure ground
Decision to focus on what we think is the central figure and ignore the background
Gestalt Laws
Laws that explain how we organize our perceptual information
Whole = more that the sum of the parts
Cones
Receptor cells in the retina that allow us to see colors
Psychoanalysis
Sigmund Freud
Internal psychology we are unaware of, especially sex and aggression.
“Unconscious”
Rods
Receptor cells that allow us to see in low light and to see black and white
Fovea
Spot on the retina where light is lost sharply focused.
Cones are here
Retina
Membrane in the back of the eye responsible for converting light into neural energy
Perception
The brains interpretation of raw sensory inputs
Interpretation
Experimental Designs
Random assignment
Control group
Independent variable
Myelin sheath
Fatty coating that insulates axons an speeds up transmission of impulses
Axon
Nerve fiber projecting from the cell body of a neuron that carries impluses
Correlation
0 = none \+1 = positive A⬆️B⬆️ or A⬇️B⬇️ -1 = negative A⬆️B⬇️ or A⬇️B⬆️
Naturalistic observation
Watching behavior in natural “real world” setting
Overconfidence
Tendency to overestimate our ability to make correct predictions
Sensation
The detection of physical energy by sense organs that is sent to the brain
Detection
Cerebral Hemispheres
Alike but with different functions
Occipital Lobes
Visual cortex
Lack of peer review
“50 studies by a company show amazing success!”
Exaggerated claims
“3 simple steps to change your life forever!”
Cell Body
Makes materials needed by the neuron
Nervous system
Made up of two divisions
Dependent variable
Variable measured to see if independent variable had an effect
Effect
Heuristics
Rules of thumb or mental shortcuts
Naive realism
Belief we see the world exactly as it is
Corpus callosum
Band of nerve fibers that connect the two hemispheres of the cerebral cortex
William James
First American psychology lab
“Stream of consciousness”
Case studies
One person or a small group of people that are studied in depth, usually for a long period of time
Confirmation Bias
Tendency to seek out evidence that supports our hypothesis, and neglect or distort contradictory evidence
