Final review Flashcards
biological
-physiological explanations (genetics, hormones, and neurotransmitters) are main causes of thoughts and behaviors
behavioral
-environment (tabula rasa)
punishment/reinforcement, conditioning
-observable behavior and stimuli (not internal processes)
humanistic
- free will & individual choice
- focuses on hierarchy of needs to reach self actualization
cognitive
- thoughts, memories, and mental processes
- behavior is a result of how people perceive and interpret experiences
psychoanalytic
-unconscious mind, early childhood experiences
Experiments: definition
Manipulates one or more independent variables to determine the effects of said IV on DV.
Experiments: +
(1) can determine cause and effect (2) can be retested and proven
Experiments: -
(1) potential ethical issues (2) artificial environment creates low realism (people know they are being researched, which could impact what they say and do) - Hawthorne Effect
Correlational studies: definition
Involves looking at the relationships between two or more variables, used when performing an experiment is not possible.
Correlational studies: +
(1) easier to conduct than an experiment (2) can be used when an experiment is impossible.
Correlational studies: -
cannot determine cause and effect
Survey: definition
The collection of information reported by people about a particular topic.
Survey: +
(1) cost effective (2) mostly reliable (3) easy to make, distribute, analyze
Survey: -
(1) low response rates (2) can’t verify the accuracy of an individual’s response (misinterpretation of questions, framing bias) (3) no causality (4) shallow info (breadth not depth)
Case study: definition
in-depth study of an individual or a small group. Usually, case studies are done on people with rare circumstances.
Case study: +
provides detailed information
Case study: -
(1) cannot generalize results to a wider population - depth, not breadth (2) difficult to replicate, no causality (3) time-consuming
Correlation
-correlation coefficient ranges from -1 to +1. The closer to -1 or +1, the stronger the correlation.
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Bell curve: standard deviation
- 68% of the data falls within one standard deviation about the mean
- 95% of the data falls within 2 σ of mean
Clinical psychologists
assess, diagnose, and treat mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders
Organizational psychologists
help businesses select and train employees , boost morale and productivity
dopamine
pain control and pleasure
- when you’re “doped up,” you’re happier & have less pain
low: Parkinson’s disease (small dopey parks the car)
high: Schizophrenia (tall dopey is skiing)
norepinephrine
alertness and arousal (epipen)
low: depression
serotonin
- mood, hunger, sleep
low: depression (sir rotten is in a rotten mood
GABA
-major inhibitory neurotransmitter, reduces neural activity
acetylcholine
muscle action, learning, memory
an Ace of cards flexing their muscles
low: Alzheimer’s
somatic nervous system
part of PNS that controls voluntary movements of skeletal muscles
autonomic nervous system
part of PNS that controls involuntary functions of internal organs and glands
-i.e. breathing, heart rate, digestion
sympathetic nervous system
fight or flight
- sympathetic to the fact that you’re about to die
- pupils dilating, inhibits digestion, increases breathing and heart rate
parasympathetic nervous system
rest and digest
- parachute that calms you down
- lowers heart rate and breathing
medulla
- hindbrain
- “medulla does the dull stuff”: breathing, heart rate, reflexes
pons
-hindbrain
“sleeping on a pond”
sleep & wakefulness
cerebellum
-hindbrain
“Sara running around ringing a bell”
-muscle coordination
reticular formation
- midbrain
- oversees arousal and attentional processes
thalamus
-forebrain
“relay partner named Thal”
-primary relay station for sensory info (except smell)
hypothalamus
controls pituitary gland and 4 F’s (feeding, fornication, fight, flight)
-forebrain
amygdala
“emotional amy”
- emotions, mainly fear
- forebrain
hippocampus
“hippo on campus bragging about their memory”
- forebrain
- memory
cerebral cortex
-lobes of brain (wrinkly parts)
“man named Tex taking off their hat”
limbic system
hypothalamus, hippocampus, amygdala
memory and emotion
corpus callosum
nerve fiber that connects the two hemispheres of the brain
pituitary gland
-controls growth and releases hormones to regulate bodily functions and maintain homeostasis
occipital lobe
vision
temporal lobe
right by the temple (ears)
- hearing and balance
- memory
parietal lobe
- sensory input
- somatosensory cortex registers touch and movement
frontal lobe
- speaking, planning, judgment, problem-solving
- motor cortex controls voluntary movements
lobe positioning
flower POT
ways to study brain
- EEG: measures brain waves through electrical activity
- lesioning: destroy/stimulate certain parts of the brain to change behavior
brain imaging techniques
- PET scan: maps brain activity using dye with radioactive tracers that is injected into the patient’s body
- CT scan: use -ray photographs to map brain structure
- MRI: uses magnetic fields and radio waves
plasticity
-ability of the brain to reorganize itself, change neural connections, and compensate for lost functionality (i.e. deaf people have superior visual perception)
neurogenesis
growth and formation of new neurons
sleep waves
BATSD
- beta waves: awake
- alpha waves: drowsy
- theta waves: stage 1 of sleep
- sleep spindles - stage 2 of sleep with K complexes
- delta waves - stage 3 of sleep
sleep disorders
- sleep apnea: stop breathing when sleeping
- narcolepsy - inability to stay awake, drowsiness (dog)
- insomnia - inability to fall/stay asleep
- sleep paralysis: inability to move
- night terrors - during non-REM sleep (nightmares during REM sleep)
dream theories
- WISH FULFULLIMENT: (Freud) dreams have manifest (remembered storyline) and latent contents (underlying meaning)
- i.e. being chased by an animal🐆 in a dream may actually mean we are worried about a deadline creeping up on us
- dreams satisfy our wishes and deal with unconscious drives
- INFORMATION PROCESSING: dreams allow us to process the day’s activities
- ACTIVATION SYNTHESIS HYPOTHESIS: dreams are just ways to make sense of random neural activity from the brainstem as memories are synthesized
sleep cycles
- repeat every 90 minutes, increase as the night moves on (1-2-3-2-1-REM)
- 25% is REM sleep
biological rhythms
- yearly, 28-day (menstrual), 90-day
- 24-hour circadian rhythm controls temperature and wakefulness
stimulants
drugs that excite CNS activity and speed up drug functions (i.e. meth, caffeine, nicotine, cocaine)
- cause rush of energy and mood followed by crash
- amphetamines speed up nervous system
opiates
painkillers (i.e. heroin, oxycontin, morphine) that depress neural activity and stop production of endorphins
depressants
drugs that decrease CNS activity and body functions (i.e. alcohol, valium, xanax)
hallucinogens
drugs that change perception and self-awareness (LSD, PCP, marijuana)
inhalants
drugs that restrict blood to the brain
semantic memory
explicit LTM of facts, ideas, and concepts
i.e. who won the 2004 Olympics in figure skating
procedural memory
implicit LTM of motor and cognitive skills
i.e. muscle memory, how to pick up a fork
implicit memory
non-declarative LTM that is remembered unconsciously
explicit memory
declarative LTM that requires conscious recall of facts or personal experiences
iconic memory
sensory memory of visual stimuli (half a second)
echoic memory
sensory memory of sound (4 seconds)
sensory memory
holds sensory information from the five senses just long enough to recognize relevant bits of info and transfer to STM
-large capacity, few seconds duration
STM
temporarily holds info for analysis until it is sent to LTM or lost
- retained through maintenance rehearsal (duration) and chunking (capacity)
- capacity: 5-9 items, 30 seconds duration
flashbulb memory
clear memory of an emotionally significant event (i.e. 9/11)
LTM
stores info for large periods of time
- explicit and implicit
- virtually limitless capacity w/ relatively permanent duration
- maintained through
encoding
processing info into the memory system
durability: visual
maintenance rehearsal
- process of repeatedly thinking about or verbalizing a certain piece of information
- increases duration of STM
- i.e. repeating a phone number in your head
elaborative rehearsal
linking new info to previously stored material
-helps maintain info in LTM
storage
retaining info over time in STM, LTM, or sensory memory
retrieval
recovering info from memory
recall
retrieval process of bringing info from stored memories w/ general, nonspecific cues (i.e. FRQ)
recognition
retrieval process of identifying previously learned info (i.e. MCQ)
proactive interference
old information interferes with recall of the new
-ie. can’t remember new password
serial position effect
people tend to remember info in a list that is mentioned first or last, not in the middle
recency effect
remembering the last thing said
primacy effect
remembering the first thing that was said
retroactive interference
new information interferes with recall of the old
i.e. not being able to remember old classmate’s names
syntax
ordering of words to create sentences
semantics
understanding the meaning of words
phonemes
basic unit of sound in a language (i.e. English has 40 phonemes)
morpheme
basic unit of sound with meaning (i.e. pro)
overgeneralization
applying grammar rules when they aren’t appropriate (i.e. I goed to the park)
overextension
using a term to reference more things that it actually does (i.e. calling all animals doggie)
algorithms
step-by-step procedure that guarantees a solution
-looking for siracha by systematically checking every aisle
heuristic
rule of thumb mental shortcut to solve problems
- more error-prone than algorithm, but potentially faster
i. e. looking for siracha by first going to the asian condiments section
insight
light bulb moment
-sudden understanding of a problem that implies solution (i.e. monkeys stacking boxes to get banana)
functional fixedness
tendency to only think of objects working in a particular way
-i.e. a water bottle can only be filled with water to drink, not used as a dumbell
mental set
tendency to only see solutions/follow strategies that have worked in the past
-keep on restarting computer to try to fix internet connection
availability heuristic
judging the likelihood/probability of an event based on how easily you can recall immediate examples from the mind about something
-i.e. parents may not let their children walk to school 🏫 because the only thing they could think of is that one kid going missing, casinos with ringing bells and flashing lights when you win
representative heuristic
estimate probability of an event based on how well the circumstances match our previous prototype
-thinking a well-dressed preppy student goes to Harvard rather than a truck driver
reliability
the measure of the consistency and reproducability of a test (i.e. if darts are all clustered together)
validity
extent to which tests measure what they’re designed to measure (i.e. if darts are centered around the bullseye)
criterion validity
- how well the test correlates with the outcome
i. e. if a student scored high on a running test but can’t run a mile without passing out, the test has low criterion validity
predictive validity
accuracy with which test scores measure future performance
i.e. MCAT»_space; Step 1
content validity
when the test has relevant and pertinent elements that are representative of the construct
i.e. if the ap psych test only asked about world history, it would have low content validity
construct validity
the degree to which the test accurately measures what it was designed to measure
-accuracy with which test scores correlate with scores on other tests (i.e. ACT and SAT)
test-retest method
way to measure reliability in which participants’ scores on two separate administrations of the same test are compared
split-half method
splitting a test into two equivalent parts (i.e. odd and even) and determining the degree of similarity in scores between the two halves
Gardner: multiple intelligences
theory of multiple intelligences (Logical/Mathematical, Linguistic, Musical, Spatial, Bodily-Kinesthetic, Naturalistic, Interpersonal, and Intrapersonal)
Sternberg theory on intelligence
Triarchic theory breaks intelligence into three categories: creative (solve problems with novel solutions), practical (“common sense”), analytical (analyze a problem into its integral components)
Binet intelligence testing
Binet Simon Test
- coined “mental age”
- mental age/chronological age *100=IQ (ratio-based)
- ratio-based
Terman
- created Stanford-Binet Test
- compared a child’s score against sample distribution of IQ scores in the same age range
- deviation based
Wechsler
developed Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) and Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC)
- 15 subtests
- general score w/ verbal and performance subtest scores
operant conditioning
learning through consequences of voluntary behavior
classical conditioning
learning through pairing previously neutral stimuli with UCS to elicit a CR
observational learning
- learning new behaviors or info by watching/imitating others
- requires attention, retention, reproduction, and reinforcement
UCS
unconditioned stimulus that elicits the UCR (innate) w/o conditioning
- i.e. meat
UCR
unconditioned response that results from UCS without conditioning (innate)
- i.e. salivating at meat
CS
conditioned stimulus - previously neutral stimulus that after repeatedly pairing with UCS to elicit UCR, now elicits the CR
- i.e. bell
CR
conditioned response - learned reaction to CS due to repeated pairings between CS and UCS
- ie. salivating at the bell
generalization
when stimuli similar to the CS elicits the CR
-i.e. Little Albert is scared of santa claus
discrimination
when only the specific CS elicits the CR
-i.e. little albert is only scared of white mice
extinction
occurs when CS is repeatedly given without UCS, which gradually weakens the CR
acquisition
initial stage of classical conditioning when NS is paired with UCS to elicit UCR so that the NS eventually elicits CR
spontaneous recovery
sudden reappearance of extinguished CR after extinction
shaping
reinforcement delivered for successive approximations of the desired response
-i.e. if I want Peanut to spin, first give carrots when she turns 90 degrees, then 180 degrees and so on until she can do a full turn
latent learning
hidden learning that exists w/o behavioral signs (i.e. rats in Tolman’s maze experiment)
reinforcement
strengthens a response and increases behavior
- positive: desirable reward (i.e. candy for A+)
- negative: taking away averse stimuli (seatbelt noise)
punishment
weakens a response and makes it less likely to occur
- positive: averse consequence (i.e. getting spanked for cursing)
- negative: take away desirable stimuli (i.e. no phone if you get a B)
schedules of reinforcement: VR
reinforcement occurs after varied number of responses
i.e. slot machine
schedules of reinforcement: VI
reinforcement occurs after varied amount of time
i.e. pop quiz
schedules of reinforcement: FR
reinforcement occurs after predetermined number of responses
i.e. you get a prize for every 10 books you read
schedules of reinforcement: FI
reinforcement occurs after a predetermined amount of time
i.e. you get a paycheck every month
absolute threshold
minimum level at which a stimulus is detectable 50% of the time
difference threshold
minimum difference needed to note a stimulus difference (JND)
Weber’s law
difference threshold is proportional to the strength of stimuli
weight: 5%
pathway of light to the brain
- First, light passes through the cornea, a thin tissue that protects the eye and bends light to provide focus.
- Next, light passes through the pupil, a small opening controlled by the iris. The iris is a colored muscle that constricts or dilates based on light intensity.
- Behind the pupil is the lens. It focuses incoming light onto the retina as an upside-down image and changes the shape of light. This is called accommodation.
- Once the image is received on the retina, visual information begins to be processed. At the retina’s receptor, cells convert light into neural impulses that travel to the brain via the optic nerve.
- Rods are photoreceptors that detect black, white, and gray. Cones are photoreceptors that detect color - The fovea is responsible for the sharpest vision (dense with cones).
- Note: Where the optic nerve leaves the eye is a blind spot, as a result of the absence of receptor cells there. After exiting the eye, neural messages travel along the optic nerve to the brain for further processing.
Gustation
five main taste receptors: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, umami
- essential to ancestor’s survival
receptors: taste buds - influenced by texture, temperature, health, smell, sight
Olfaction
receptors: olfactory cilia on roof of nasal passage
- only sense that isn’t processed by thalamus; strongly connected to memories
pathway of sound to brain
- The outer ear, which is often called the pinna, is the first part of the ear that the sound waves reach.
- Then, a mechanical chain reaction sends the sound waves down through the outer ear to the eardrum. The eardrum is a tight membrane, and when sound waves hit it, it vibrates.
- Right after hitting the eardrum, three bones in the middle ear (hammer, anvil, stirrup) pick up the vibrations.
- Vibrations from the middle ear cause the oval window (cochlea’s membrane) to vibrate, pushing the fluid inside the cochlea.
- In the cochlea is the basilar membrane lined with hair cells that are bent by vibrations.
- The hair movement triggers impulses in nearby nerve cells that form the auditory nerve.
Gestalt principles: proximity
nearby objects are grouped together
i.e. uniever logo
Gestalt principles: similarity
objects that are similar are grouped together (i.e. peacock feathers in NBC logo)
Gestalt principles: closure
the tendency to fill in gaps to form a whole object (triangle in three circles)
Gestalt principles: continuity
we perceive continuous patterns rather than discontinuous ones
Gestalt principles: figure and ground
figure is the subject, ground is the background
i.e. vase and two faces; figure and ground are interchangeable
Monocular Cues: motion parallax
when we are moving, closer objects appear to whiz past quickly but farther objects seem to travel slowly
Monocular Cues: linear perspective
parallel lines seem to converge as they recede into the distance
Monocular Cues: interposition
when objects overlap each other, the object at the very top is perceived to be closer
Monocular Cues: relative size
close objects are larger than farther objects
Monocular Cues: texture gradient
nearby objects have a more distinct texture than farther objects (i.e. Bob ross painting)
Monocular Cues: relative height
objects positioned higher in our field of vision are perceived as farther away (i.e. taj mahal picture)
Binocular Cues: convergence
degree to which the two eyes must converge to focus on the object
-closer objects» more convergence
Monocular Cues: retinal disparity
separation of the eyes cause different images to fall on each retina
Monocular Cues: light and shadow
brighter objects are perceived to be closer than darker objects
