Final Exam Flashcards
What is psychology?
the science of mental processes and behavior
What are some examples of mood disorders?
Major depressive disorder (mdd) Suicide
What is major depressive disorder?
Affect (mood) Behavior (actions) Cognitive (thoughts) More common in women Most common psychological disorder in U.S. -Affects 20% people in the U.S. -2-3 time as many women as men in the U.S. Genetics - runs in families (twin studies show twin is 4x more likely to develop MDD is twin has is) Malfunctioning neurotransmitters - serotonin, norepinephrine, dopamine Left frontal lobe activity (center for sympathy and empathy impulse control and sexual behavior) - less activity in people with mdd
Describe Structuralism
William Wundt was one of the fathers of structuralism. Structuralists examined sensory and perception by manipulating stimuli and asking subjects to report what they experienced. It attempted to understand what the mind was doing. Major tool of structuralism was introspection. Looked at structures of the brain and created theories about their functions Problems occurred with structuralism because researchers could agree upon what the data meant.
Describe Functionalism
Study of consciousness Functionalist wanted to now the why behind certain behaviors Focused on level of person and group Strongly influenced by Charles Darwin; used theories of Darwin and natural selection William James spokesperson for functionalism
Who was William James?
First American Psychologist Together with William Wundt they are considered the Fathers of Psychology Wrote the first general text book on psychology Early spokes person of functionalist and argued against structuralism Proposed that mental life is a unity that flows and changes In his book, Principals of Psychology he presents ideas about consciousness, attention, memory, habits and emotions
What is learning?
A relatively permanent change in behavior or behavioral repertoire that results from experience
What are the three types of learning?
Classical conditioning Operant conditioning Cognitive and social learning
What is classical conditioning?
Discovered by Ivan Pavlov (physiologist), while studying the digestive system of dogs Type of learning that occurs when a neautral stimulus becomes associated with a stimulus that causes a reflexive behavior and in time this neutral stimulus is sufficient to elicit, draw out from the animal, that behavior
what are the 4 components of classical conditioning?
Broken into 4 components: -unconditioned stimulus -unconditioned response -conditioned stimulus -conditioned response
In Pavlovs dog study what were the 4 components of classical conditioning?
Unconditioned stimuli = food Unconditioned response = salivation Conditioned stimulus = door opening/bell Conditioned response = salivation
What are effective US stimuli?
any stimulus that affectively elicits a desired response. (electric shock, food and water)
What are effective CS stimuli?
A neutral stimulus that does not eleicit a desired response prior to conditioning (light, or tone)
What is Avoidance learning?
classical conditioning with a CS and unpleasnnt US that leads the animal to try and avoid the CS
What is memory?
A general ability or faculty that allows us to interpret the perceptual workd to help us organize responses to changes that take place in the world
What are the different types of memory stores?
Sensory memory, short term memory, long term memory
What are the different types of sensory memory?
Visual, olfactory, gustatory - taste, auditory, tactile - touch, nocioceptive - pain, thermal - temp, vestigular - balanace, procioceptive - body position
What are the most common types of sensory memory studied in Psychology?
Iconis and Echoic
What are characteristics of sensory memory?
Short Duration (less than 50MS) Large Capacity (11-12 items) Modality Specific (Visual, hearing) Not under conscious control
Describe short term memory
memory that is limited in both capacity and duration can typicaly hold between 5 and 9 time can last from several seconds to less than 1 minute without rehearsal also called short term store or working memory first researched by william james and ebbinghaus very susceptible to disruptions
How is short term memory defined?
The temporary memory store accessed after recent exposure to a stimulus to be recalled.
Where does Short Term memory reside in the brain?
Hippocampus (interior to temporaral lobe)
How can we increase our short term memory?
chunking - recode the data into larger chunks, then we can remember more information
where do we retain most of our short term memory?
in the auditory domain. Process information as sounds or words and how they are pronounces. VS long terms seems t the coded by meaning rathet than sound
What are characteristics of LTM?
has an unlimited capacity, extremely long duration, can decay over time
Allan Urho Paivio theory?
dual coding theory suggests that visual and verbal information act as two distinctive systems
what are the goals of psychology?
The four main goals of psychology are to describe, explain, predict and control the behavior and mental processes of others.
what are the different types of neurons?
Sensory neuron -Responds to input from sense organs Motor neuron -Sends signals to muscles to control movement Interneuron -Connects to other neurons
what is a glial cell?
Fills the gaps between neuronal cells Influences communication among them neurons Helps in the care and feeding of neurons
what is a brain circuit?
Set of neurons that affect one another
What are the major parts of a neuron? insert pic
what is action potential?
Moves down the axon
what is the All-or-none law?
Either action potential occurs or it doesn’t
what is Myelin
Fatty protein substance surrounding the axon
what are the basic properties of action potentials?
show a propagated (a response that is reproduced) remain the same size regardless of stimulus intensity. increase in firing rate to increase in stimulus intensity. have a refractory (resting) period of 1 ms - upper firing rate is 500 to 800 impulses per second. show spontaneous activity that occurs without stimulation.
what is the resting period for action potential?
period of 1 ms
what is the chemical make up of solutions inside and outside and axon?
Axon has a soluble solution of positively charged ions inside (potassium–K+) and outside (sodium–Na+) the axon
what are some key traits about axon electrical charges?
Without stimulation the axon has a charge within that is -70mV compared to outside—the resting potential When stimulated, the axon will allow sodium channels open, increasing the positive charge, and starting an action potential Na+ molecules flow in, and K+ molecules flow out at the beginning of action potential At the end of the action potential flow is reversed
What is Just Noticeable Difference?
The size of the of the difference in a stimulus characteristics needed for a person to detect a difference between two stimuli or a change in a single stimulus.
What is Difference Threshold?
is the minimum difference in stimulation that a person can detect 50 percent of the time
What is Weber’s Law?
A constant percentage of magnitude change is necessary to detect a difference - calculated to be about 5%
What is Absolute Threshold?
The magnitude of the stimulus needed, on average, for an observer to detect it half the time it is present.
What is top down processing?
strategy of information processing and knowledge ordering, starting first with the high-level aspects and then working your way down to the fine details. An example of this would be recognizing someone you know.
What is bottom up processing?
strategy of information processing and knowledge ordering, known as “small chunk” processing and suggests that we attend to or perceive elements by starting with the smaller, more fine details of that element and then building upward until we have a solid representation of it in our minds. An example of this would be trying to figure out something diferent about someone you know.
What are rods?
very sensative to light, allow us to see shades of grey, white and black each eye contains 100-120 million rods gross detail, night/low light vision
What are cones?
not as sensative to light, but allow us to see color each eye contains 5-6 million cones fine details and daytime light
What is transduction?
When the eye converts electromagnetic energy that is light into neural impulses/signals.
What is accomodation?
Adomatic adjustment the eye makes to see at particular distances
What is dark adaption?
Process that leads to increased sensativity to light after being in the dark
what does the pupil do?
regulates light
what does the iris do?
contains the muscles that contract the eye
what does the cornea do?
protects the eye from injury
what is the retina?
sheet of tissue at the back of the eye, containing receptor cells that convert light to neural signnals
what is the fovea?
area of retina with the highest density of cones and highest resolution
what is the optic nerve?
axons of ganglion cells are gathered into a single large cord
what are ganglion cells?
collect signal from retina and pass to optic nerve
What is the mean IQ?
100
What is the standard diviation IQ?
15
What perentage of people fall into the average mean IQ?
68
What makes language?
language production: generated through learning, imitation and reinforcement (ie a child get reinforced for saying specific words (operant conditioning) language comprehension phonology (phonemes - basic building blocks of language)
What are phonemes?
Basic unit of speech, single speech sounds, created by the coordination of lungs, vocal cavities, larynx, lips tongue and teeth english uses about 45 phonemes, although 9 make up more than half the words Holt reports 869 phonemes in all of human language
What are morphemes?
smallest unit with meaning in language can be roots or affixes depending on whether they are the main part of dependent part of a work a few morphemes are also phonemes examples are A and Up
What is grammar?
The set of rules such as syntax and semantics that allow communication with one another.
What are semantics?
rules to derive meaning from mrphemes, words and sentences (adding -ed to a regular verb to transform a word into past tense
What is syntax?
rules to order words into sentences
What are the 4 components to the psychological state emotion?
- A positive or negative subject experience 2. The activation of specific mental processes and stored information 3. Bodily arousal 4. Characteristic overt behavior
Explain the James/Lange Theory
You feel emotions after your body reacts (ie in a car, you slam on the brakes, you get a rush of adrenaline, interpret, then emotion
Explain the Schacter-Singer Experiment
Participants were given epinephrine(told it was vitamin B) and then watched a person being sad or happy, the person would then act sad or happy matching the person they were with
What are the two routes to emotion?
Events and Appraisal
What the are different theories of emotion?
James-Lange Theory, Cannon-Bard Theory, Cognitive Theory, Emerging Synthesis
Are emotions universal across cultures?
Yes, based on facial expressions emotions appear to be similar across cultures
What are Freud’s structures of the mind?
Ego, Superego, and ID
Describe the Ego
Mostly located in the conscious min, but also present in the preconscious and unconscious levels Develops in childhood (before superego) Acts as referee between ID and Superego
Describe the Superego
At the preconscious and unconscious levels Develops in childhood Home to morality and conscience governed by the ego ideal
Describe the ID
At the unconscious level present at birth Home to sexual and aggressive drives Governed by the pleasure principle