Mid Sem

Question 1

Psychology is the what?

Answer 1

Scientific investigation of mental processes and behaviour

Question 2

Scientific inquiry involves

Answer 2

Testing Hypotheses

Question 3

The 3 factors to understand a person’s thoughts, feelings and actions

Answer 3

Biology, Psychological Experience and Cultural Context

Question 4

Biology determines:

Answer 4

Capacity and limits of experience

Question 5

Culture refers to:

Answer 5

Group values, beliefs and norms that give MEANING to a person’s behaviour

Question 6

Psychological experience is:

Answer 6

How a person interprets their experience. Is influenced by biology and culture but not reducible to them

Question 7

Micro/Macro

Answer 7

iology represents the micro-level, and culture represents the macro-level, of factors that influence psychological experience

Question 8

Info:

Answer 8

• Psychobiologists focus their study on the biological factors that influence psychological experience; cross-cultural psychologists focus their study on the cultural factors that influence psychological experience (and thus whether psychological phenomena and processes are specific to particular cultures or whether they occur universally in all cultural groups); and cognitive psychologists focus their study on how people give meaning to (or interpret) their thoughts and feelings

Question 9

Job Variances

Answer 9

• Counselling psychologists provide therapy to help people deal with issues that naturally arise during the course of life; clinical psychologists provide therapy to people with mental illnesses or disorders; both counseling and clinical psychologists administer and interpret psychological tests; and diagnose disorders and both clinical and counseling psychologists need at least six years of tertiary education and must meet the requirements of their state’s registration board; registered psychologists usually have a specific specialisation in a sub-discipline
• Academic psychologists need a PhD and usually do research and teaching
• Applied psychologists need at least three years of tertiary education and typically improve products or procedures
• Psychologists are not the same as psychiatrists, social workers, psychiatric nurses, or counselors; psychiatrists are medical doctors that can prescribe medication; psychologists, social workers, psychiatric nurses and counselors cannot prescribe medication, and all have different accreditation and registration boards

Question 10

The historical roots of psychology stem from?

Answer 10

Philosophy

both psychology and philosophy address similar questions but differ in their method for answering them – philosophers use logic, reasoning and argument, whereas psychologists use scientific inquiry (or systemic experimentation)

Question 11

Questions psychologists address: (answer with ___ vs ___)

a) to what extent do psychological processes reflect biological or environmental influences?
b) to what extent does knowledge about the world come from logic and reasoning or from observation and experience?
c) to what extent are people guided by their knowledge or by their feelings (and to what extent should they be)?
d) to what extent is human psychology similar to the psychology of other animals?
e) to what extent are humans fundamentally self-interested or oriented towards relating to and helping other people?
f) to what extent are people conscious of the contents of their mind and the causes of their behaviour?
g) to what extent can we understand psychological events without understanding biological functioning?

Answer 11

a) nature vs nurture
b) rationalism vs empiricism
c) reason vs emotion
d) continuity vs discontinuity with other animals
e) individualism vs collectivism
f) conscious vs unconscious
g) mind-body problem

Question 12

Who is considered to be the ‘father of psychology’ and why?

Answer 12

Wilhelm Wundt because he designed the first psychology lab

Question 13

What methods did Wilhelm Wundt use?

Answer 13

Controlled introspection

Question 14

Who is Edward Titchener?

Answer 14

Wilhelm Wundt’s student and founder of Structuralism

he placed emphasis on experimentation to uncover the basic elements of consciousness; rigorous experimentation allows researchers to verify the output of introspection

Question 15

Structuralism is:

Answer 15

a school of thought that argues that human consciousness can be reduced to smaller parts or elements, and that there are identifiable structures in the brain responsible for those elements or units of consciousness

Question 16

Functionalism is:

Answer 16

a school of thought that emerged as a reaction to structuralism, and argues that consciousness cannot be reduced to smaller parts because the parts themselves have not function on their own

Question 17

Although structuralism and functionalism are opposing schools of thought they are both useful because:

Answer 17

structuralism helps identify what structures in the brain are responsible for different parts of the human experience, and functionalism helps identify the purpose of different parts of the human experience

Question 18

What are the 5 theoretical perspectives commonly used in psychology?

Answer 18

(i) psychodynamics, (ii) behaviourism, (iii) humanism, (iv) cognitive psychology, and (v) evolutionary psychology; each has strengths and weaknesses and so are best used in conjunction with one another

Question 19

Key figures in psychodynamic theory

Answer 19

Freud and Jung

Question 20

Psychodynamic perspective argues that:

Answer 20

people’s actions are influenced by their thoughts, feelings and wishes, but that because these may conflict with one another, they are often outside our conscious awareness of them

Question 21

Psychodynamic theory asserts that unconscious thoughts, feelings and wishes can be uncovered using :

Answer 21

psychoanalysis because they are inferable from verbalised thoughts and feelings, and observable behaviours

Question 22

main weakness of psychoanalysis

Answer 22

it is subjective – there is no way to verify if the inferences a psychoanalyst has made about a person’s unconscious thoughts, feelings and wishes are accurate

Question 23

Key Figures in behaviourism:

Answer 23

Watson, Pavlov and Skinner

Question 24

Behaviourism is

Answer 24

a school of thought in psychology which advocates for the sole study of observable behaviours rather than unobservable mental processes because mental processes cannot be verified by another person; as such, mental processes are said to live in a ‘black box’ that cannot be observed and should not be tested

Question 25

Behaviourism argues that:

Answer 25

how people think, feel and act is determined by what they learn from their external environment; behaviour that is followed by a pleasant consequence increases in likelihood of occurring again and behaviour that is followed by an unpleasant consequence decreases in likelihood of occurring again

Question 26

Behaviourism is significant because:

Answer 26

it draws attention to the fact that behaviour is (in part) shaped by learning experiences and because it is committed to scientific experimentation (thereby reducing subjectivity)

Question 27

The main weakness of behaviourism

Answer 27

it overlooks the role of mental process in explaining human behaviour

Question 28

Key Figures in Humanism:

Answer 28

Rogers and Maslow

Question 29

Humanism developed as a reaction to:

Answer 29

psychoanalysis and behaviourism;

psychoanalysis is subjective – thus the analysts’ interpretation may be less accurate (or valid) and/or useful than the subjects’ interpretation of their own behaviour, and behaviourism ignores mental phenomena as if thoughts and feelings are not important for explaining human behaviour

Question 30

Humanism emphasises the importance of treating each person:

Answer 30

s a unique individual (‘person-centred’ approach), who needs empathy, warmth and respect to fulfil their innate tendency to fulfil their potential (self-actualisation)

Question 31

The main goal of humanism is:

Answer 31

self-actualisation

Question 32

Humanism is criticised for:

Answer 32

being overly optimistic because it assumes that all people are innately good and strive to be their best self, however not all people act in ways that are ‘good’
• Humanism is also criticised for failing to take into account structural inequalities and disadvantages beyond the control of a person that affect their capacity to self-actualise

Question 33

Key figures in cognitive psychology:

Answer 33

Descartes, Bandura, Chomsky and Tversky

Question 34

Cognitive psychology explores mental phenomena (or the contents of the mind) such as:

Answer 34

thoughts, feelings, memories, perceptions, sensations, interpretations, language use and development, reasoning and logic, decision making etc.

Question 35

Cognitive psychology treats the mind as if it were:

Answer 35

a computer or information processor; it receives input from the external environment, processes that information, and the output of that information processing is observable behaviour

Question 36

Cognitive psychology is significant because:

Answer 36

unlike behaviourism that rejected the study of internal mental processes in favour of external environmental factors, it acknowledges the importance of thought in affecting our behaviour (not just experience)

Question 37

Key Figures in evolutionary psychology:

Answer 37

Darwin

Question 38

Evolutionary psychology argues that

Answer 38

human behaviour has evolved through the process of natural selection (where traits that are adaptive to the environment are passed on) to ensure the species survives and reproduces. Thus, much of our behaviour is innate (or instinctual/biologically prewired/part of our nature)

Question 39

Evolutionary psychology is criticised most for:

Answer 39

use of deductive reasoning – using a specific event to make a generalisation; designing experiments that predict behaviour provide stronger evidence for a theory than post-hoc explanations

Question 40

basic unit of the nervous system

Answer 40

Neurons

Question 41

function of neurons

Answer 41

transmit information (i.e. electrical impulses) around the brain and body

Question 42

Neuronal activity allows us to:

Answer 42

experience psychological phenomena

Question 43

Estimated number of neurons in the brain

Answer 43

from 10 to 100 billion

Question 44

Name the 3 types of neurons

Answer 44

(i) sensory, (ii) motor and (iii) inter

Question 45

Sensory neurons job is to:

Answer 45

transmits information (i.e. electrical impulses) from the sensory receptors on the body to the brain for sensory processing

they may transmit information either directly to the brain or via the spinal cord

Question 46

A sensory neuron is also called

Answer 46

an ‘afferent’ neuron because the ‘a’ indicates that it is going ‘toward’ something (here, the brain

Question 47

After sensory information has been processed in the brain, what happens?

Answer 47

a motor neuron transmits information (i.e. electrical impulses) from the brain to the body or internal organs

Question 48

Motor neurons carry

Answer 48

‘command’ from the brain to the body part or organ about what it should do

Question 49

A motor neuron is also called

Answer 49

an ‘efferent’ neuron because the ‘e’ indicates that it is going ‘away’ from something (here, the brain)

Question 50

A motor neuron transmits information to the body or organ via

Answer 50

the spinal cord

Question 51

An interneuron:

Answer 51

connects neurons in the brain and spinal cord with each other

receives information from sensory neurons and passes information to motor neurons

Question 52

A neuron has many parts including:

Answer 52

dendrite, cell body, nucleus, axon, axon hillock, collateral branches, myelin sheath, nodes of Ranvier and terminal buttons

Question 53

The space between two neurons is called:

Answer 53

a synapse (or synaptic cleft)

Question 54

Dendrites

Answer 54

look like branches at the top of the neuron; they receive information (i.e. electrical impulses) from nearby (or adjacent) neurons and pass it down to the cell body

Question 55

The cell body

Answer 55

is a fluid sac in which the nucleus is seated

Question 56

The nucleus

Answer 56

holds the chromosomes of the neuron (chromosomes are pairs of DNA that carry genetic information about the cell)

is like the ‘brain’ of the neuron and decides whether the electrical impulse it has received is strong enough to continue passing down to the axon

Question 57

If a nucleus decides to pass the electrical impulse down, the neuron is said to have:

Answer 57

‘fired’; this is because once the impulse is passed down the axon, it will cause the terminal button to release neurotransmitters into the synapse – that is, the process cannot be stopped, the electrical impulse will not die down as it moves to the bottom of the neuron where the terminal buttons are

Question 58

The longest part of the neuron is

Answer 58

the axon

Question 59

The axon may have

Answer 59

‘collateral branches’

Question 60

Info about axons

Answer 60

• The axon is simply an extension of the cell body; it starts at the axon hillock (where the cell body and axon join) and ends where the terminal buttons start

Question 61

The axon is usually wrapped in:

Answer 61

a sheath of myelin

Question 62

Myelin is material mostly made up of:

Answer 62

fatty cells (called ‘lipids’)

Question 63

The function of the myelin sheath is:

Answer 63

to help pass the electrical impulse down to the terminal button as quickly as possible

Question 64

The myelin sheath has spaces in it, called:

Answer 64

nodes of Ranvier; they also help transmit the electrical impulse as quickly as possible

Question 65

The myelin sheath is also called:

Answer 65

‘white matter’ because lipids appear white in colour; thus, any axons that are unmyelinated are called ‘grey matter’

Question 66

The more ‘white matter’ a person (i.e. more myelinated axons):

Answer 66

the quicker and smoother they tend to think and move (i.e. information to and from the brain is moving very quickly)

Question 67

Damage to the myelin sheath leads to:

Answer 67

lower, jerky or uncoordinated movements (e.g. multiple sclerosis)

Question 68

The terminal buttons

Answer 68

are at the bottom of the neuron

• Once terminal buttons are triggered by the electrical impulse it has received, it releases neurotransmitters into the synapse

Question 69

Neurotransmitters (NTs) are:

Answer 69

chemicals stored in presynaptic vesicles

Question 70

After NTs they are released into the synapse:

Answer 70

they bind to a receptor on the dendrite of the postsynaptic cell that is sensitive to that specific NT (i.e. not every NT can bind to every receptor; only particular NTs can ‘open’ particular receptors)

If a NT binds to a receptor, then the dendrite has just received an electrical impulse, and the process begins again

Question 71

There are many different types of NTs, and depending on where they are released in the brain they have different effects

Some of the most common NTs, and their main functions, include:

(Question: what are they involved in?)

a) glutamate
b) GABA
c) dopamine
d) serotonin
e) acetylcholine
f) endorphins and enkaphalins

Answer 71

a) involved in excitation of neurons throughout the NS
b) involved in the inhibition of neurons in the brain
c) involved in emotional arousal, pleasure and reward, voluntary movement and attention
d) involved in sleep and emotional arousal, aggression, pain regulation and mood regulation
e) involved in learning and memory
f) involved in pain relief and elevation of mood

Question 72

The nervous system (NS) is the biological basis (or ‘substrate’) for:

Answer 72

psychological experience; without a NS, we would not be able to think, feel, produce words or concepts, plan etc.

Question 73

There are many nervous systems in our body

At the broadest level, there is the:

Answer 73

central nervous system (CNS) and the peripheral nervous system (PNS)

Question 74

The CNS is made up of two parts:

Answer 74

the spinal cord and the brain

Question 75

The spinal cord

Answer 75

receives information from sensory neurons to the brain, and transmits commands from the brain to parts of the body or organs via motor neurons

Question 76

The brain

Answer 76

processes information received from the body or through the spinal cord to maintain basic life supports and processes as well as psychological activity; in doing these, it is able to responds to stimuli from the environment

Question 77

The main function of the PNS is

Answer 77

to transmit information between the CNS and the rest of the body

Question 78

The PNS can be broken down into other types of nervous systems;

Answer 78

specifically, the somatic (‘body’, voluntary) and autonomic (‘internal’, involuntary),

and within the autonomic,

the sympathetic (‘troubleshooter’, emergency or stress response) and the parasympathetic (‘housekeeping’, maintenance)

Question 79

The somatic NS

Answer 79

conveys sensory messages from the body to the CNS and sends motor messages to muscles and organs

is responsible for voluntary (or intentional) movements, but it is involved in some unconscious activities (note: somatic means ‘bodily’)

Question 80

The autonomic NS

Answer 80

is completely involuntary and is responsible for basic life functions (e.g. heartbeat, respiration); for example, we do not think about or choose whether we will breathe – we just do

Question 81

The sympathetic NS is responsible for

Answer 81

getting the body ready to deal with stress or threat; it ‘activates’ us

Question 82

The parasympathetic NS is responsible for

Answer 82

maintaining basic life functioning (e.g. heartbeat, respiration, digestion), and for bringing the body back down to normal functioning after it has been activated by the sympathetic NS; it ‘calms’ us

Question 83

There are three parts to the brain:

Answer 83

the hindbrain, midbrain and forebrain

Question 84

The forebrain is comprised of the: which whats?

Answer 84

(i) hypothalamus
(involved in maintain homeostasis of basic life functions such as eating, sleeping, sexual activity and emotional experiences, and it works closely with the endocrine (hormonal) system to maintain stability);

(ii) thalamus
(involved in ‘sensory regulation’; it receives sensory information from sensory neurons in the eyes, skin, nose, tongue etc, decides which part of the brain needs to receive that information to process it); and

(iii) cerebrum (involved in complex mental processing and is comprised of two parts: subcortical structures and the cortex)

Question 85

The subcortical structures are comprised of two parts:

Answer 85

i) the basal ganglia (mostly involved in the control of movement); and
(ii) the limbic system (involved in emotionally-significant learning such as repeating pleasurable behaviours and reducing behaviours that have unpleasant consequences),

and (iii) septal area (involved in emotionally-significant learning and remembering such as remembering fear in other people (amygdala) and memory encoding and retrieval (hippocampus))

Question 86

The cerebral cortex can be divided up in a number of ways, including:

Answer 86

areas (primary and association), lobes (occipital, parietal, temporal and frontal) and hemispheres (right and left)

Question 87

primary areas

Answer 87

receive ‘raw’ sensory information from the eyes, skin, nose, etc. and conducts initial processing of this information

Question 88

Association areas

Answer 88

form associations between different parts of the ‘raw’ material; thus, they are involved in more complex information processing, such as forming perceptions, having creative ideas, and making plans for the future

Question 89

The occipital lobe

Answer 89

is at the back of the brain and is mainly involved with processing visual information

Question 90

The parietal lobe

Answer 90

is above the occipital lobe and is mainly involved in processing information related to touch and spatial orientation (e.g. movement and relationship between objects in space)

Question 91

The temporal lobe

Answer 91

is on each side of the head and is mainly involved in processing auditory information and language; these functions have evolved near each other because language was spoken before it was written and so communication required hearing

Question 92

The frontal lobe

Answer 92

is at the front of the brain and is mainly involved in processing complex mental information such as complex sequences of movement, attention, planning, social skills, abstract thinking, memory and personality

Question 93

The right hemisphere is mostly involved in

Answer 93

processing non-linguistic information (e.g. sounds) and is responsible for creativity and abstraction

Question 94

The left hemisphere is mostly involved in

Answer 94

processing linguistic information (i.e. words) and is responsible for logic, reasoning and analysis

Question 95

The hemispheres are joined by

Answer 95

the corpus callosum

Question 96

The corpus callosum is involved in

Answer 96

the degree of cerebral lateralisation

Question 97

The specialised functioning of the right and left hemispheres are more lateralised in:

Answer 97

males than females

Question 98

If the corpus callosum is severed (cut):

Answer 98

the person appears as though they have ‘two minds’ because information in one hemisphere is not being shared with the other to produce an ‘integrated’ mind

Question 99

The incident of Phineas Gage (a metal rod through his frontal lobe) is important in psychology because:

Answer 99

(i) it demonstrates that different parts of the brain are involved in different aspects of functioning (i.e. parts are specialised);
thus, frontal lobe damage affected his personality and not, for example, his ability to move;

and (ii) that we may be in less control of our personality (and other such complex psychological constructs) than we think

Question 100

Phenotypic similiarity

Answer 100

• In adoption studies, researchers compare the phenotypic similarity between children and their birth families and the phenotypic similarity of the same children with their adoptive families

• If there is more phenotypic similarity between children and their birth families, then the role of genetic influence is highlighted (because the degree of relatedness = 0.5)
• If there is more phenotypic similarity between children and their adoptive families, then the role of environmental influence is highlighted (because the degree of relatedness = 0)

• The most effective way for exploring the extent to which human psychology is the result of genetic or environmental factors is to compare MZ twins that have been adopted out to separate homes; if they are phenotypically similar to each other, the role of genetic influence is highlighted, and if they are phenotypically dissimilar to each other, the role of environmental influence is highlighted

Question 101

he extent to which genetic influence affects our psychology is quantified by

Answer 101

the heritability coefficient;

a number that varies between 0 and 1, where numbers close to 1 suggest that any variation in a characteristic is strongly due to genetic influence and scores near 0 suggest that any variation in a characteristic is strongly due to environmental influence

Question 102

in the heritability coefficient;

numbers close to 1 suggest

Answer 102

that any variation in a characteristic is strongly due to genetic influence

Question 103

in the heritability coefficient;

numbers close to 0 suggest

Answer 103

that any variation in a characteristic is strongly due to environmental influence

Question 104

The incident of Phineas Gage provides support for

Answer 104

‘structuralism’ – a school of thought that sees psychological experience to be completely reducible to its components parts. However, this incident should be used to remember that the parts do not serve the same purpose as the ‘whole’. Thus, functionalism is also important. For example, ‘personality’ in the frontal lobe does not appear the same as ‘personality’ of the person Jane; Jane has some control over her personality and therefore the activity that occurs in her frontal lobe

Question 105

Behavioural genetics is the study of

Answer 105

the extent to which human psychology is the result of genetic or environmental factors; twin and adoption studies may be used to help answer this (the nature-nurture debate)

Question 106

• In twin studies,

Answer 106

researchers compare the phenotypic similarity between monozygotic (MZ; identical) twins and the phenotypic similarity between dizygotic (DZ; fraternal)

Question 107

MZ

Answer 107

Identical

Question 108

DZ

Answer 108

Fraternal

Question 109

Phenotypic similarity refers to

Answer 109

how similar two people appear; in the context of psychology, we are interested in how similar they appear to each other on psychological constructs such as personality and mood

Question 110

If MZ twins are more phenotypically similar to each other than DZ twins, then

Answer 110

the role of genetic influence is highlighted (because the degree of relatedness of MZ twins [or the chance of sharing the same gene with a relative] = 1.0)

Question 111

If DZ twins are more phenotypically similar to each other than MZ twins, then

Answer 111

the role of environmental influence is highlighted (because the degree of relatedness of DZ twins is only 0.5)

Question 112

Sensation is the process by which

Answer 112

sense organs gather information about the environment and transmit it to the brain for initial processing

Question 113

perception is the process by which

Answer 113

the brain selects, organises and interprets the sensations

Question 114

The difference between sensation and perception is

Answer 114

artificial because both work together to produce an integrated translation of physical reality into a psychological one

Question 115

three principles underlying sensation and perception

Answer 115

(i) there is no one-to-one correspondence between physical and psychological reality,
(ii) they are active processes (i.e. information in the physical world is translated into psychological information) and
(iii) they are adaptive processes (i.e. they have evolved to enhance survival and reproduction)

Question 116

Although we have different (or specialised) sensory systems, they have in common five features:

Answer 116

i) they transduce physical energy from the environment into neural impulses,
(ii) they are associated with estimates on the minimum amount of physical energy required for stimulus detection
(iii) psychological judgments are required in addition to minimum energy levels for stimulus detection,
(iv) psychological judgements are required about changes in levels of the stimulus and
(v) they are able to adapt or ‘tune out’ redundant information (i.e. physical stimulation where there is no change in the level)

Question 117

During transduction

Answer 117

physical energy is received by sensory receptors in our sense organs and are converted into electrical (neural) impulses for the brain; the brain receives a ‘neural code’ – a pattern of firing based on the number, frequency and type of neurons firing – from which it interprets the quality (or nature) and intensity (or strength) of the sensation

Question 118

We only notice or detect stimulation from our environment if it crosses

Answer 118

the absolute threshold

Question 119

The absolute threshold refers to

Answer 119

the minimum amount of physical energy required to register or notice the stimulus; it is experimentally determined by measuring the amount of stimulation a person needs to detect the stimulus about 50% of the time

Question 120

info

Answer 120

• Since there are individual differences in absolute thresholds and since they are sensitive to context (or situation), they are not really ‘absolute’ (or critical); they are only estimates

Question 121

‘Signal detection theory’

Answer 121

was developed to address the limitations of the theory of absolute thresholds; it states that people make judgments about whether they have detected a stimulus. As such, it moves away from the external criterion of minimum levels of physical energy and move towards an internal/psychological decision

Question 122

Judgements are influenced by

Answer 122

(i) stimulus sensitivity (i.e. how well a person sees, hears, feels etc.) and
(ii) response bias (i.e. a person’s readiness to report detecting a stimulus when uncertain)

Question 123

Response bias is influenced by

Answer 123

expectations and motivation, and can affect four types of responses that integrate physical and psychological realities: (i) hits (reporting a present stimulus), (ii) misses (not reporting a present stimulus), (iii) false alarms (reporting an absent stimulus) and (iv) correct negatives (not reporting an absent stimulus)

Question 124

A difference threshold refers to

Answer 124

he amount of physical energy required to notice a change in the level of a sensation; the amount required depends on the current intensity of the sensation – if it is high, more is required to notice a change

Question 125

The psychological equivalent of the difference threshold is

Answer 125

the Just Noticeable Difference (JND)

Question 126

Info

Answer 126

We can only see white light (400 – 700 nm), which is comprised of seven colours: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet (ROY G BIV)

Question 127

Light particles travel in waves of different lengths;

they are seen as what?

Answer 127

long 700 are seen as red

short 400 wavelengths are seen as violet

Question 128

What is the route that light takes through the eye?

Answer 128

light enters the eye through the cornea, passes through the aqueous humour (which supplies the eyes with nutrients), the pupil (a hole in the iris controlling the amount of light entering the eye), the lens (which focuses the eye based on the distance of objects), the vitreous humour and lands on the retina

Question 129

Light is transduced into neural impulses in the retina and relayed to the brain via

Answer 129

the optic nerve

Question 130

The central part of the retina is called

Answer 130

he fovea, which is sensitive to small detail; thus, we have sharpest vision for things in our line of sight (directly in front of the fovea)

Question 131

The retina is

Answer 131

a thin multilayered tissue at the back of the eye; the inner layer contains two photoreceptors sensitive to light, rods and cones

Question 132

We have many more

Answer 132

rods (120 million) than cones (8 million) which allow us to see in dim light

Question 133

Rods v cones

Answer 133

• Rods produce the visual sensations of black, white and grey; cones produce the visual sensations of black, white and grey as well as colour
• Rods are mostly concentrated on the periphery of the retina, whereas cones are concentrated in the centre of the retina in the fovea
• Rods are more sensitive to light waves than cones – we need a lot more light to see colour

Question 134

‘blind spot’

Answer 134

Where the optic nerve leaves the eye to go to the brain because there are no photoreceptors there

Question 135

hearing

Answer 135

• The ability to hear is adaptively useful because then we can hear danger coming and we can communicate with one another

Question 136

Sound

Answer 136

the physical energy transduced to produce the sensation of hearing

refers to rhythmic pulsations of acoustic energy, or air particles emitted outwards from the vibrating object

Question 137

Sound is comprised of three properties:

Answer 137

(i) frequency, (ii) complexity and (iii) amplitude

Question 138

Frequency refers to:

Answer 138

number of cycles per second; it is measured in hertz [Hz]; it produces the psychological sensation of pitch (i.e. the quality of a tone) – the higher the frequency, the higher the pitch; and the range of frequencies we can hear reduces with age

Question 139

Complexity refers to

Answer 139

the extent to which a sound is composed of multiple frequencies; it produces the psychological sensation of timbre (i.e. the characteristic complexity of a sound)

Question 140

Amplitude refers to

Answer 140

the height and depth of one oscillation; it is measured in decibels (dB); it produces the psychological sensation of loudness – the larger the amplitude, the louder the sound

Question 141

The sense organ for hearing is the ear, comprised of three parts:

Answer 141

(i) outer ear, (ii) middle ear and (iii) inner ear

Question 142

The outer ear is comprised of the:

Answer 142

pinna (collect and funnels sound waves into the ear) and (ii) auditory canal (amplifies and carries the sound waves to the middle ear)

Question 143

The middle ear is comprised of:

Answer 143

(i) the eardrum (or ‘tympanic membrane’; which reproduces the sound waves on a microcosmic scale, causing movement in the ossicles) and
(ii) the ossicles (three tiny bones – hammer, anvil and stirrup) whose vibrations further amplify the sound waves)

Question 144

The inner ear contains:

Answer 144

(i) the cochlea (which transduces the waves of its fluid into neural impulses),
(ii) hair cells (which carries the neural impulse to the auditory nerve) and
(iii) auditory nerve (which carries the neural impulse to the brain)

Question 145

smell

Answer 145

Smell (or olfaction) is adaptively useful because it allows us to survive and reproduce: we can detect danger, discriminate between spoilt and unspoilt foods, recognise familiar others and choose mates based on pheromones

Question 146

The physical energy transduced in smell are

Answer 146

molecules of gas emitted by various substances are inhaled from the air through the nose; they are transduced into neural impulses in olfactory receptors in the olfactory epithelium; the neural impulses travel to the brain via the olfactory nerve

Question 147

Taste (or gustation)

Answer 147

is adaptively useful because we are protected from eating spoilt food and we are able to regulate the ingestion of nutrients (e.g. salt and sugar)

Question 148

The physical energy transduced in taste are

Answer 148

the molecules soluble in saliva; they are transduced by receptors in our tastebuds on our tongues (which are sensitised to specific tastes – mainly sweet, sour, salty, and bitter); unlike receptors in our eyes and ears, the receptors in our mouth are replaced every 10 – 11 days – regeneration is important to avoid permanent loss of taste

Question 149

Touch is adaptively useful because

Answer 149

it allows us to: protect the body from injury, identify objects, maintain body temperature and facilitate social interaction
• Skin is the sense organ that allows us to have the sensation of touch, and it is our largest organ

Question 150

Phantom limbs

Answer 150

where people with missing limbs (e.g. amputees or those born without a limb) report sensations of touch even though there is no skin to receive the sensory stimulation – teach us about how the brain processes sensory information and how we experience the sensation of touc

Most importantly, they show that sensations are not wholly dependent on physical stimulation (or energy) from the environment; sensations are in part influenced by the function the neurons were ‘pre-wired’ to do (e.g. carry ‘touch’ information) and where they re-wire in the brain after the limb is missing

Question 151

How many receptors on skin?

Answer 151

approx. 5 million

Question 152

Receptors are sensitive to one of three types of properties of touch

Answer 152

i) pressure, (ii) temperature and (iii) pain

Question 153

Pressure receptors transduce

Answer 153

mechanical energy by an external object that causes skin to displace; their activity gives us the psychological sensation or perception of texture; pressure receptors on the skin have different sensitivities so receptors on our hands and face are more sensitive than those on our legs or back

Question 154

There are two types of temperature receptors

Answer 154

‘cold and warm’; they are activated by differences in temperature between the body and the environment

Question 155

Pain receptors

Answer 155

do not transduce any physical energy; they are activated by extreme levels in the other senses

Question 156

Pain

Answer 156

is an important source of information for us because it motivates us to behave in ways that will terminate the source of the pain and thus prevent damage to skin tissue

• Pain is strongly influenced by beliefs, expectations, emotional states and personality; thus, sensations of pain are linked with our perceptions (or interpretation) of pain

Question 157

Proprioreceptive senses are responsible for:

and are made up of two parts:

Answer 157

giving us our sensation of body position and movement in space

(i) vestibular sense (provides information about body position in space by responding to gravity and movement) and
(ii) kinaesthesia (provides information about the movement and position of our limbs in relation to the other parts of the body)

Question 158

Receptors for vestibular sense are

Answer 158

in the inner ear and transduce gravity (physical energy) into neural impulses; specifically, the semicircular canals sense acceleration/deceleration as the head moves and the vestibular sacs sense gravity and the position of the head in space

Question 159

Receptors for kinesthesia are

Answer 159

in the joints and muscles

Question 160

‘Gestaltism’

Answer 160

the whole (perception) is greater than the sum of its (sensory) parts

As perception is interpretative, it is not an accurate reflection of the physical world. Instead, what we ‘see’ depends on what we consider meaningful.

As perception is interpretative and can be inaccurate, it is subject to illusion