Exam 1 Chapters 1-4 Flashcards
Early roots of psychology planted in:
philosophy
The notion that the mind at birth is a tabula rasa is consistent with which philosopher?
Aristotle. He argued that the child’s mind is a tabula rasa (blank slate) and that all knowledge is acquired through experience.
The first laboratory devoted exclusively to psychology as an independent field of study opened in:
Leipzig, 1879
Know the definition of hysteria.
a temporary loss of cognitive or motor functions, usually as a result of emotionally upsetting experiences
Freud’s view of human nature was largely _______ whereas the view of humanistic psychologists was largely _______.
negative, positive
Who wrote Beyond Freedom and Dignity?
B.F. Skinner- In this book Skinner puts forth the claim that our subjective sense of free will is an illusion and that when we think we are exercising free will, we are ACTUALLY responding to present and past patterns of reinforcement
Gestalt psychologists used ___________ to show how perception of a whole object or scene can influence judgments about its individual elements.
Mueller-Lyer Line Illusion (arrows and lines, short and long)
The advent of _______-in the 1950s had an enormous conceptual impact on the development of cognitive psychology.
computers
Kerrie wants to understand how perceptions, beliefs, and memories activate different regions in the brain. Which field of psychology would you suggest Kerrie explore?
Cognitive psychology
The American Psychological Association was originally made up of academic psychologists, whereas today nearly 70% of its members work in clinical and health-related settings.
70%
________ involves making direct observations of the world, whereas __________ involves relying on assumptions and beliefs about the world.
empiricism, dogmatism
According to your textbook, what three things make people especially difficult to study?
- complexity
- variability
- reactivity
Know what an operational definition is.
A description of a property in concrete, measurable terms
Know what demand characteristics are.
Those aspects of an observational setting that cause people to behave as they think they should.
An experiment in which the true purpose is hidden from the researcher as well as from the participant is called a:
double blind experiment
Know what the third-variable problem is
The fact that a causal relationship between two variables cannot be inferred from the naturally occurring correlation between them because the ever-present possibility of third variable correlation.
What are the two key features to an experiment?
manipulation/randomization
The closer an experiment is to the real world, the more psychologists can claim it has what type of validity?
External Validity
When every member of a population has an equal chance of being included in a sample, what sampling process is being used?
Random Sampling
What are the two specialized extensions of the neuron that allow it to communicate?
Dendrites and Axons
The neurons that receive information from the external world and convey information through the spinal cord are called?
Sensory Neurons
At rest, there is a higher concentration of ____ inside the cell membrane of the neuron and a higher concentration of ___outside.
K+, Na+
The electrical charge inside of the neuron relative to the outside reaches______ during an action potential.
+40 milivolts
The brain and spinal cord make up the ______nervous system.
Central
Which brain structure functions as a bridge between the cerebellum and other brain structures?
The Pons
What is the amygdala responsible for?
The amygdala places emotional emphasis on memories, especially fear, also plays in emotional processing
Paul Broca and Carl Wernicke provided some of the earliest evidence that:
the brain locations for speech production and speech comprehension are separate and that for most people, the left hemisphere is critical to producing and understanding language
Simple awareness due to the stimulation of a sense organ is called
sensation
Know the definition for a just noticeable difference (JND)
the minimal change in a stimulus that can just barely be detected
If you forget to take out the trash for two weeks, it will probably stink. After a few minutes of being around it, you don’t notice the smell. This is an example of:
Sensory adaptation
The length of a light wave determines its:
hue or color
The outermost layer of the retina consists primarily of ?
Retinal Ganglion Cells
Players on a soccer team are clearly distinguished from their opponents by their uniforms, which, according to Gestalt principle, are grouped by:
Similarity
Kevin correctly judged that his car was parked farther from his classroom than his friend’s car, because he perceived his car as smaller than his friend’s. His brain was making use of a monocular cue called:
Familiar size
The timbre of a sound is determined by its
simplicity/complexity.
The specialized receptors in the skin that sense cold and warmth are called:
thermoreceptors
Odorant molecules bind to
ORNS. (olfactory receptor neurons)-receptor cells that initiate the sense of smell
