Final Exam

Question 1

Amygdala

Answer 1

The amygdala is involved in memory and emotion, especially fear and anger.

Question 2

Broca’s area

Answer 2

A region of the brain located on the frontal lobe of the dominant hemisphere, usually with functions linked to speech production.

Question 3

What is the capacity of short term memory?

Answer 3

Seven items (plus or minus two)

Question 4

Cerebellum

Answer 4

Coordinates movement, balance, and posture

Question 5

Constructive Nature of Memory

Answer 5

We piece together memories by fitting them to a meaningful plan or organization.

Question 6

Context Effects

Answer 6

The influence of environmental factors on one’s perception of a stimulus.

Question 7

Corpus Callosum

Answer 7

A large tract of nerve fibers running along the longitudinal fissure of the brain and connecting the cerebral hemispheres.

Question 8

Correlation Coefficient

Answer 8

A statistical measure of the extent to which two factors vary together, and thus of how well either factor predicts the others.

Question 9

Donder’s Task

Answer 9

A method of separating out hypothetical stages of mental processing by requiring participants to perform a set of reaction time tasks in which each successive task differs from its predecessor by the addition of a single mental stage.

Question 10

Duration of Sensory Memory

Answer 10

Very short.

Question 11

Duration of Short Term Memory

Answer 11

18 - 30 seconds

Question 12

Echoic

Answer 12

The Auditory Sensory Register maintains the sounds we have heard for about 3 or 4 seconds after the stimulus. Basically, it is the memory of sounds we have heard.

Question 13

Encoding

Answer 13

Coding by forming associations between new information and information already stored.

Question 14

Encoding failure

Answer 14

Sometimes we “forget” because the information is never encoded into long-term memory.

Question 15

Evolutionary Psychology Criticism

Answer 15

• Confirmation bias is possible where the research see what they expect to see. This is true because some theories are difficult to test empirically.
• We don’t really know what the behavior of early Homo sapiens was.
• The evidence often underestimates the role of cultural influences.

Question 16

Explicit Memory

Answer 16

Information that you have to consciously work to remember.

Question 17

Goals of Psychology

Answer 17

1. Describe
2. Explain
3. Predict
4. Control

Question 18

Iconic

Answer 18

Maintains an image of what we have seen for a few tenths of a second after the stimulus has appeared.

Question 19

Illusory Correlation

Answer 19

Claiming that there is a relationship between two variables when no such thing (the correlational relationship) exists.

Question 20

Implicit Memory

Answer 20

(Non-declarative memories) Memories of which one is not conscious (they do not have to consciously work to remember certain information, it’s practically habit).

Question 21

Left and Right Brain Specialization

Answer 21

Most people are left-hemisphere dominant for speech and right-hemisphere dominant for visual-spatial tasks. Although the hemispheres display some specialized abilities, many functions are symmetrical and performed the same way in both hemispheres.

Question 22

Left Hemisphere

Answer 22

Controls the right side of the body. Logic, language, science, math. reasoning, analytic thought.

Question 23

Medulla

Answer 23

A lower part of the brain that plays a major role in cardio-respiratory mechanisms, such as breathing and heartrate.

Question 24

Mood Congruent memory

Answer 24

Happy people will better remember happy materials than sad ones and sad people better remember sad materials than happy ones.

Question 25

Neurotransmitter

Answer 25

a chemical substance that is released at the end of a nerve fiber by the arrival of a nerve impulse and by diffusing across the synapse causes the transfer of the impulse to another nerve fiber, muscle fiber, or other structure. Neurotransmitters allow nerve impulses to travel across synaptic gaps

Question 26

Operational Definition

Answer 26

defining the variable as it exists in the present study

Question 27

Retrieval failure

Answer 27

When information is in long memory but it can’t be accessed (forgetting)

Question 28

Right Hemisphere

Answer 28

controls left side of the body. greater role in emotion, perceptual, literal, concrete, wholistic, and synthetic thinking and the processes or visual imagery

Question 29

Schema

Answer 29

describes a pattern of thought or behavior that organizes categories of information and the relationships among them…a set of types, each associated with a set of properties

Question 30

Sperry’s split brain research

Answer 30

Sperry severed the corpus callosum in cats and monkeys to study the function of each side of the brain. He found that when the hemispheres are not connected they functioned independently of one another which he called a split-brain. The split-brain enabled animals to memorize double the information

Question 31

State dependent Memory

Answer 31

refers to improved recall of specific episodes or information when cues relating to emotional and physical state are the same during encoding and retrieval: Example: a person may be alert, tired, happy, sad, drunk, or sober when the information was encoded.

Question 32

Synaptic gap

Answer 32

a microscopic gap between the neurons that deal with memory and is a facilitator of memory

Question 33

Thalamus

Answer 33

small structure within the brain located just above the brain stem between the cerebral cortex and the midbrain. The primary function of the thalamus is to relay motor and sensory signals to the cerebral cortex

Question 34

Wernicke’s Area

Answer 34

region of the brain that contains motor neurons involved in the comprehension of speech. Left hemisphere. posterior third, upper temporal