EXAM 1 Flashcards
What was the goal of behaviorists
the prediction and control of behavior
Placebo Effect
thinking you are getting a treatment can relieve symptoms
whats the difference between a theory and a hypothesis?
Theory- an explanation using an integrated set of principles that organizes observations and predicts behavior or events
Hypothesis- a testable prediction, often implied by a theory
Parietal cortex (lobe)
Perceives space and direction/ sensory information
Motor cortex (left side of central fissure)
Planning, control, and execution of movements
What was the first revolution of behaviorism against?
revolution against introspection
Correlational research
to detect naturally occurring relationships; to asses how well one variable predicts another.
done by collecting data on two or more variable with no manipulation
Prediction
way of exploring the world and testing a theory
Explicit memory
- *Facts and experiences we can know and declare
* A and S focused on this
Independent Variable
can be varied independently of other factors
Epistemology
study of knowledge
Endocrine system
the body’s “slow” chemical communication system; a set of glands that secrete hormones into the bloodstream
3 steps or stages of Memory
- Encoding- Getting info into brain
- Storing-Retaining the info
- Retrieving- getting info back out
Serial position effect
Our tendency to remember the first and last things on a list
Relearning
Learning something more quickly the second time
Brains Plasticity
the brains ability to change, especially during childhood, by reorganizing after damage or by building new pathways based on experience
Retrograde amnesia
Cannot recall old memories
Why is a theory a good thing?
- Brings a lot of previously unrelated things together under one covering explanation.
- Makes Predictions
- helps us discover entirely new things
- can be proved wrong - Helps us understand why
What are two neurotransmitters?
**Dopamine: influences movement, learning, attention, and emotion
**Serotonin: influences mood, hunger, sleep, and arousal
Context dependent memory
**We remember things based on the context of the memory
Learning a word underwater would best be remembered underwater
Forgot to sharpen pencil when leaving room because no que like desk or book
Primary effect
We repeat the first thing the most times so we remember it
What did Empiricism argue about scholasticism?
-argued that scholasticism was wrong because there was no collection of data
Behaviorism
BEHAVIORISM Involved the study of observable behavior Goals: Predict and Control S-R psychology Vary stimuli and watch what happens Example: ** Pavlov -studied dogs -conditioned response where he would observe how learning happened. (Bell and Food/ while measuring saliva)
- *BF Skinner
- studied pigeons
Recency effect
Most recent thing said so it is still in our STM
NOt the Stimulus that matters that causes the response…its the interpretation that matters
“not the lettuce”
Always the encoding that matters
Mnemonics
Memory aids
*Peg system
visualizing things with the number
1 gun, 2 shoe, 3 tree
Introspection failed as a science, why??
science is based on empirical data collection
-data must be replicable, it wasn’t
Structuralism=introspectionalist
- structure of consciousness
- understanding how things are structured and related to each other
how are correlational and experimental
research are complementary? The strengths of one are the weaknesses of the other.
- Association does not prove causation
- Correlation indicates possibility of cause-effect but does not prove
- Experiments isolate cause-effect
neuron
a nerve cell; the basic building block of the nervous system
Sympathetic nervous system vs Parasympathetic nerv
sympathetic-arouses and expands energy
Parasympathetic-conserves energy and calms
Neurotransmitter
“chemical messengers” transmit signal across synapse
The first revolution: Behaviorist
John Watson writes a paper
-the cause->introspection is a fail and waste of time
Memory construction errors
Use of words like smash, demolish, shatter, etc… make us think something was worse than it was
Recognition
Identifying items previously learned
Asymptote
The stuff we skip past because it is recalled the least
Hippocampus
- *processes conscious memories
- *Laying down and retrieving memories
- *Weaves things together (associations)
what is the last part of frontal lobe to develop?
myelination
fMRI (functional MRI)
a technique for revealing bloodflow and therefore brain activity by comparing successive MRI scans. (these show brain function)
Double-Blind
neither participants nor the researchers know which subjects are being experimented on (drug use )
Amygdala
**linked to agression and fear, conveys emotion
**latin for almond
**rates what is important
**Interprets situation
When amygdala is activated it activates the hippocampus
EEG (electroencephalogram)
an amplified recording of the waves of electrical activity that sweep across the brain’s surface. These waves are measured by electrodes placed on the scalp.
Dependent Variable
varies depending on what takes place during the experiment
Lesion
Tissue destruction. A naturally or experimentally caused destruction of brain tissue
Retroactive interference
Going back to old list
Representative Sample
an accurate representation of the larger population (more samples the more representative it is)
What are a few things that lead us to overestimate our intuition?
Hindsight bias, overconfidence and our tendency to perceive patterns in random events often lead us to overestimate our intuition
Scholasticism
-aimed to derive new knowledge through clever argumentation based on well trusted original sources( the Bible)
-deductive reasoning
“If A and B are true, then C must also be true”
(All Men are Mortal, Socrates is a man, therefore Socrates is mortal)
Random Sample
each subject chosen had an equal amount of probability to be chosen in the population
Cerebral cortex
like bark on a tree
**intricate fabric of inerconnected neural cells covering the cerebral hemispheres; the body’s ultimate control and information processing center.
Theory
- explanation (with principles) that organize and predict behaviors or events
- Not observable
- Can be disproven
- Cannot be proved true
Synapse
a meeting point between two neurons
EMPIRICISM -> “empirical” based on data collection
Argued that scholasticism was wrong because there was no collection of data
Included inductive reasoning - obtaining evidence and taking best guess for what happened
NO conclusions that are not based on facts
Facts must come from observations
BRAINSTEM: Pons vs Medulla
**Pons; helps coordinates movement
**Medulla: controls breathing and heartbeat
Central nervous system (CNS)
- *brain and spinal chord
* *body’s decision maker
WILLIAM JAMES (“The greatest psychologist” -Dr. Bill)
Harvard, late 1800s
Invented a world of psychology
His observations live on today
Distinction between primary & secondary memory
Pointed out that recall involves both storage and retrieval (both necessary)
Retrieval is the spread of excitation along association paths in the brain
Hypothesis
- a testable prediction of that theory (what should be observed)
* Cannot be proven, but rather accepted as true or false
Priming
The activation of particular associations in memory
pronounce s-h-o-p …..what do you do at a green light
Distributed practice (vs. what?)
Massed practice, which is not helpful
We encode things better when spaced over time
What is the mind killer? How do we defeat it?
Fear is the mind killer. We defeat it through preparation and practice
Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)
**the sensory and motor neurons that connect the central nervous system to the rest of the body
**is responsible for gathering information and for transmitting CNS decisions.
Empiricism
-based on inductive reasoning-> obtaining data and taking best guess for what happened.
- NO conclusions that aren’t based on facts
- All facts must come from observations
- “empirical”->collection of data
Led to the scientific method
Recall
Retrieving info that is not currently in conscious
hindsight bias
the tendency to believe after learning an outcome that one would have foreseen it
example: romance and seperation
psychologist told one half a group one thing and the other half another….
- separation weakens romantic attraction (true)
- separation strengthens romantic attraction (true)
most people found both results unsurprising, as if they would have expected those results and that was something that they already knew
the research comes from UofO
Proactive Interference
Earlier lists make future lists more difficult
Brocas and Wernickes
located on left side of brain
Broca's = speaking language Wernickes= receiving language
Misinformation effect
Exposed to misleading info causes us to misremember
Implicit memory
Retention independent of consciousness recollection (riding a bike, song)
FRANCIS BACON
1st Scientist
Proposed the idea to exam/collect data to come to conclusions rather than make assumptions based on no data
Induction rather than deduction
Ex. (“why not examine the mouth of yon horse?”)
Laws vs. Theories
Laws are observable
Theories are not observable
Sensory cortex
Receiving and interpreting sensory information
Capacity of STM (or WM)
18 seconds
*Can hold +/- 7 “chunks” of information
Stephen Samuels and George McCabe (1989)
Evelyn Marie Adams won the New Jersey lottery twice (odds are 1 in 17 trillion).
Predicted that it was a sure thing that someone would hit the jackpot twice
The Scientific Method
Hypothesis Theory Data Deduction->based on theory Induction->prediction
Experimental research
to explore cause and effect
done by manipulating one or more factors; use random assignment
Working Memory
The working memory can be equated to the Atkinson and Schiffrin “STM”, however, as working memory, it is also dependent on the depth of processing to be transferred into secondary
Chunks of +/- 7
Another revolution was that of ???
Cognitive Psych
1932, story of tinkelpaughs monkey
Aristotle vs Plato on the Mind
PLATO
- knowledge is innate
- everything we know, we’re in fact remembering
- (example: socrates gets slave boy to confirm the pythagorean theorem)
ARISTOTLE
- “empiricism”-> knowledge is acquired from outside sources/ from experiences
- mind is like wax, on which concepts are imprinted
- the mind is all concepts and associations
BOTH AGREED ON
-knowledge is a matter of concepts in the mind
State dependent memory
Things learned in one state (angry, happy, drunk, etc….) are more easily remembered when in that state again
Wilhelm Wundt
First psychologist
- started the first psych lab in leipzig germany
- measure the atoms of the mind-speed of mental processes
Edward Titchener
Wundts grad student
founded first psych lab: cornell
interested in sensation and perception
this started introspection
Axon and neuron firing ? process of depolarization
Axon is made of Na and is depolarized when a neuron is excited and a K is sent through to allow correct neurotransmitter release
Can be myelinated to allow faster K travel down axon
SCHOLASTICISM
Aim was to derive knowledge based on clever argumentation and well trusted sources. (sources like the Bible)
(ex. Can a lion breath water?)
Included deductive reasoning- if A and B are true, C also has to be true
(ex. “All men are mortal, Socrates is a man, so that means socrates is also mortal.”)
Overconfidence
We tend to think we know more than we do.
Richard Goranson (1978)
_asked people to unscramble anagrams.
_we knew the answers so we can come up with the answer in ten seconds, but it really takes 3 mins
Philip Telock (1998, 2005) collected 27,000 expert predictions of world events 80 percent confidence caused them to get less than 40% right. and when they got it wrong, they maintained their confidence by saying they were almost right
Anterograde amnesia
Cannot lay down new memories
William James
Greatest Psychologist
-made the distinction between primary and secondary memory
-pointed out that recall involves storage and retrieaval
Francis Bacon
-1st Scientist
-proposed the idea to collect and analyze data rather than just make assumptions
(“why not examine the mouth of yon horse?”)
What does it consist of : Limbic System?
hypothalamus
hippocampus
amygdala
axon
the neuron extension that passes messages through its branches to other neurons, muscles or glands.
What helps the process of myelination?
It takes effort..
sleep and nutrition
dendrites
a neuron’s bushy, branching extensions that receive messages and conduct impulses toward the cell body
myelin sheath
a fatty tissue layer segmentally encasing the axons of some neurons; and enables vastly greater transmission speed as neural impulses hop from one node to the next
Levels of processing
The deeper/ more meaningful the processing, the better our retention
Operative
subject has to do some kind of operation
