MIDTERM Flashcards
memorize content
1
Q
what is psychological research?
A
We collect information (data) on a behaviour by observing that behaviour under different conditions
Data will lead to the development of theories that help us understand, predict and change behaviour
2
Q
what is stimuli?
A
Some stimuli are meaningful (they may cause/change in behaviour) but many are not
Meaning varies between people (due to individual differences)
Meaning varies with environments (or contexts)
“Smoke in a kitchen” vs “smoke in the classroom”
We do not know the importance of stimulus until we test it
3
Q
What are the two branches of psychology?
A
Pure Psychology : tends to…
- Involve exploring mechanism, often through experiments
- Deal with abstract concepts and minutiae
- Take place in laboratory settings
I.e.: Abnormal Psychology
Applied Psychology : tends to…
- Be concerned with what predicts, changes or manages behaviour (often in a therapeutic context)
- Deal with more concrete outcomes (often therapeutic outcomes) that impact our day-to-day lives
- Takes place in a real world settings
- Have more direct implications for the real world
I.e.: Political Psychology
4
Q
What are some biological factors for behaviour?
A
Hunger is linked to physiological changes
Blood sugar levels, leptin levels, and insulin levels matter
The levels of these signalling compounds change with eating or adipose (fat) storage
The sight, smell or thought of food can trigger a biological cascade which prepares us for eating (cephalic phase) and increases hunger
Specific brain areas (e.g. hypothalamus) are involved in eating and energy metabolism
Obese rat has a ventromedial hypothalamic lesion (damage)
Genes are also involved
Eating disorders (obesity) are heritable + run in families
5
Q
what are some approaches to psychology as a discipline?
A
- Requires the scientific approach
- Approach is not intuitive and takes training
- Being an effective scientist may sometimes require acting against human nature
- We are all subject to biases (preferences in judgement) and fallacies (errors in logical reasoning)
- ^ Unconscious (automatically applied without awareness)
6
Q
What is confirmation bias?
A
- Overvaluing information that agrees with our beliefs and undervaluing information that does not
- Common and very difficult to avoid
- Affects public attitudes and social policies on issues such as climate change, vaccination and drug use
- To think scientifically, you must acknowledge all facts– even those NOT in your favour
7
Q
What is meta-analysis?
A
we can weight the average effect of all studies (on your claim– supporting and not)
8
Q
What is apophenia?
A
We have a clear, unidirectional bias to detect faces in our environment. We see faces in clouds, but never clouds in faces
9
Q
What is terror management theory?
A
Terror management theory proposes that we manage the fear of death by looking for system with meaning
10
Q
What are the 8 perspectives in psychology?
A
Philosophy
Psychophysics (predates psychology)
Structuralism (regarded as the first field)
Functionalism
Psychoanalysis
Behaviourism
Cognitivism
Social Psychology
11
Q
What is structuralism?
A
Study the elements of psychological experiences such as colour, smell + reading
If you studied the experience, you could identify its many parts
Used analytic introspection to identify the elements
Verbal report on the same experience by many subjects
Consistent themes in verbal reports might reflect elements
12
Q
Who were the key contributors of structuralism?
A
Wundt and Titchener
13
Q
What are the BENEFITS of Structuralism?
A
- Gave credibility to psychology as a science
- Identified key differences between sensation + perception
- Suggested unconscious processes underlying behaviour
14
Q
What are the DOWNSIDES to Structuralism?
A
- Introspection highly variable, hard to interpret
- Examined memory of experiences rather than the experiences themselves
- Behaviours governed by unconscious processes could not be examined (eg: arithmetic)
15
Q
What is Functionalism?
A
Explain how behaviours served adaptive functions that increased fitness (focus on the purpose of mental processes, rather than their contents)
16
Q
Who is the key contributor of Functionalism?
A
William James
17
Q
What are the BENEFITS of Functionalism?
A
- Led to the development of many new theories
- Basis for evolutionary psychology
- Transformed public perspective on behaviours; ‘good’ and ‘bad’ are a matter of context
18
Q
What are the DOWNSIDES to Functionalism?
A
- Theoretical and not experimental
- Difficult to test empirically, hard to falsify
- Mostly descriptive and not predictive (true of most field, especially true here)
19
Q
What is Gestalt Psychology?
A
- Emphasised that ‘the whole is greater than the sum of the parts’ (contrasts with structuralism)
- Primarily focused on visual perception
20
Q
Who is the key contributor of Gestalt Psychology?
A
Wertheimer
21
Q
What are the BENEFITS of Gestalt Psychology?
A
- Led us to reconsider the reductionist approach (the ‘whole’ always matters)
- Identified key perceptual principles
- Identified several key perceptual phenomena
22
Q
What are the DOWNSIDES of Gestalt Psychology?
A
- Did not address mechanism in any way
- Focused exhaustively on visual perception only
- Descriptive rather than predictive
23
Q
What is Psychoanalysis?
A
- Study unconscious thoughts, feelings, and memories
- Emphasis on the importance of childhood experiences
- Utilised talk therapy and dream analysis many subject were psychiatric patients
24
Q
Who were the key contributors of Psychoanalysis?
A
Freud & Jung
25
What are the BENEFITS of Psychoanalysis?
1. Popularised psychology
2. Revolutionised mental health care (psychotherapy, particularly insight therapies)
3. Highlighted the importance of unconscious processing
26
What are the DOWNSIDES of Psychoanalysis?
1. Fixation on case studies (generalisation concerns)
2. Many theories unfalsifiable, many theories ultimately not supported by data
3. Overvalued environmental influences in certain cases
27
What is Behaviourism?
Focused on behaviour as it was believed that the mind could not be easily examined (it was a ‘black box’)
28
Who were the key contributors of Behaviourism?
Watson and Skinner
29
What are the BENEFITS of Behaviourism?
1. High level of experimental rigour
2. Identified key learning principles still in use today
3. Strong predictive power in certain contexts
30
What are the downsides of Behaviourism?
1. Overvalued environmental influences
2. Undervalued the importance of interpretation and mental processes
3. Could not explain certain behaviours adequately (eg language)
31
What is Cognitivism?
- Study mental processes (such as perception, thinking, memory, and judgement)
-Innovative experimental designs and approaches (such as neuroimaging)
32
Who were the key contributors of Cognitivism?
Piaget and Neisser
33
What are the BENEFITS of Cognitivism?
1. Deconstructed thought processes for the first time
2. When paired with neuroscience, identified key neural networks underlying behaviour
34
What are the DOWN SIDES of Cognitivism?
1. Field cohesion sometimes lacking; researches can disagree
2. Neuroimaging data and its interpretation increasingly scrutinised
35
What is Social/Cultural Psychology?
Study how social situations and culture influence decision making
Individualism vs Collectivism index
36
Who were the key contributors of social/cultural psychology?
Heider, Schachter, Festinger
37
What are the BENEFITS of social/cultural psychology?
1. Characterised influences of social context on behaviour
2. Helped us break down barriers between groups
38
What are the DOWNSIDES of social/cultural psychology?
1. Low effect sizes are common, poor predictive power
2. Some effect difficult to replicate
39
What is a variable?
An attribute that assumes different values across people, places, and timepoints.
- thoughts, feelings, and behaviours are the variables of interest
40
Can behavioural traits be objectively measured?
No
41
How do you measure conceptual behaviours?
- Our main strategy is to look for behaviours *associated* with conceptual variables and measure them instead
- eg: we can approximate intelligence by measuring behaviours we think are associated with it. Cognitive abilities.
42
What are conceptual variables?
employee satisfaction, aggression, attraction, depression, decision-making
43
What is operational variables?
Number of days per month that the employee show up to work on time; rating of job satisfaction from 1-9
44
What is positive impression management?
exaggerating positive traits
45
What is malingering?
Exaggerating/manufacturing problems
46
What is framing?
Wording f the question matters
47
For a test to be useful, we need: Every time we do the test, we get a similar result
test-retest reliability
48
No matter who is scoring the test, we get a similar result
inter-rater reliability
49
The degree to which a construct (our test) measures what it claims to be measuring. It doesn’t matter if it’s repeatable, if it’s not valid, it’s garbage. Part of the reason they don’t let go, is because they devoted their career to it.
Construct validity
50
What is Operational Definition?
what specific test you are applying to measure the conceptual variable
51
What is construct validity?
does your test result actual predict the real-world behaviours linked to the conceptual variable (not a given)
52
What is Statistical Analysis of Variables?
How to process and analyse
53
What are measures of central tendency?
mean, median, and mode
54
What are measures of variability?
Range and standard deviation (SD)
55
What is the mean?
The average score of the variable within a population
Computed by dividing the sum by the number of cases
56
What is Standard Deviation? (SD)
- A measure of how much a score in the population typically deviates (+-) from the mean
- High SD means a lot of spread around the mean
- Low SD means little spread around the mean
57
When is the mean the MOST sensitive?
- extreme scores (outliers) particularly is the sample is small
58
What are OUTLIERS?
Definition varies; generally a score must be at least 2 absolute SD units away from the mean
Lead to non-representative means and limit the usefulness of means
59
What is the median?
The value separating the higher half of a population from the lower half
1,3,3,6,7,8,9
Median = 6
60
Medians and outliers
The median is not influenced by extreme scores/outliers (unlike the mean)
61
What is mode?
The most frequently occurring value in a population (popular)
Though it is informative to look at modes, we often do not use them in formal analysis
62
What is range?
- The distance between highest and lowest score.
- Large ranges theoretically possible, but rare
- Large ranges misleading, often because of outliers
- For this reason, SD> range
63
What is Normal Distribution?
- Symmetrical, bell-shaped (also called Bell Curve)
- 68% of cases between +- 1SD, 95% between +- 2SD
- No skewness
- Limited kurtosis
- Mean = Median = Mode
64
In a Negatively Skewed Graph..
the mean is a smaller number that the median and mode
65
in a normal distribution graph...
the mean is the same number as the median and mode
66
in a positively skewed graph...
the mean is a larger number than the median and mode
67
What is a hypothesis?
- A proposed explanation of a phenomenon made on a basis of evidence that serves as a starting point for an investigation
- A good hypothesis must be SIMPLE, CLEAR, and TESTABLE with experimental studies
68
What is the scientific method?
- Question
- Background Research
- Construct Hypothesis
- Experiment
- Analyze Results
- Hypothesis is supported / not support (revise approach)
69
3 research approaches;
1. descriptive research
2. correlational analysis
3. experimental research
70
What is DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH?
- General assessment of variables through systemic observation
- It is not possible to infer causation in descriptive research, as the researcher is not doing a manipulation
71
What are the three main subtypes of descriptive research?
Case studies
Surveys
Naturalistic Observation
72
what is case study?
- An intensive examination of one individual
- Can give valuable insight into rare phenomena, providing proof of existence (that something can happen even if improbable)
- Common in medicine; basis of Freud’s theories
- Though useful, difficult to generalise to large populations
73
Major case studies in psychology (4)
- Phineas Gage: role of frontal lobe in behaviour
- H.M.: Role of hippocampus in memory
- Genie; role of early experience in development
- David Reimer; Gender identity
74
What is naturalistic observation?
- Observation of an animal in its natural setting without direct intervention
- Highly generalizable (external validity); avoids concerns about the observer effect
- Several flaws (most f which relate to the fact you are not intervening directly)
- Poorly controlled
- Limited range of variables can be assessed
- Difficult to study infrequent behaviours and thoughts
75
example of naturalistic observation:
Goodall’s work with chimps
Darwin and the Origin of Species
Numerous studies in children and adolescents
76
What is correlational analysis?
A correlation is a measure of the strength of relationship between two variables (X,Y)
Technically an analytics technique, not a research design
77
what is the statistical measure of correlation called?
CORRELATION COEFFICIENT
- Person r is the coefficient for continuous variables
78
what is the r value range?
0-1
the higher the absolute are r value (positive or negative), the stronger the relationship
79
When is correlational analysis preferred?
Suitable for linear relationships.
- You can do correlation between any two variables in one population (e.g. alcohol and grades)
80
Correlations variations:
Perfect Positive Correlation (1)
High Positive Correlation (0.9)
Low Positive Correlation (0.5)
No Correlation (0)
Low Negative Correlation (-0.5)
High Negative Correlation (-0.9)
Perfect Negative Correlation (-1)
81
when can strong correlations be misleading?
1. Non-linerarity (correlation equation won’t work)
2. Third factor effects (variable C causes A+B)
3. Spurious associations
82
What is NON-LINEARITY?
- Curvilinear relationships cannot be accurately described by the correlation equation (r=0)
- The hypothesised relationship between arousal and performance is an example
Yerkes-Dodson Law adaptation
83
What is Third Factor?
- Ice cream consumption and criminal activity are correlated
- Ice cream consumption → Criminal activity → Temperature
84
What is Spurious Associations?
Correlations can emerge by chance, and may not represent real relationships in nature
85
What is independent variable/ IV?
Manipulated at least one variable
86
What is dependent variable/DV?
Measure at least one variable
87
what are some concerns with experimental designs?
Sampling, confounding variables, demand characteristics and the observer effect, the placebo effect, the experimenter effect
88
What are confounding variables?
- Variables that a researcher fails to control can limit the usefulness of a study
- An uncontrolled variable that is related to the DV and/or is called a confounding variable
89
what is the act of observation?
- Demand Characteristics Observer/Hawthorne effect
- Can be limited by opacity and/or deception by the researcher (L03)
- Difficult to prevent in most cases, though less of an issue for Naturalistic Observation studies
90
placebo comparison groups is also coined:
single-blinding or participant blinding
- if a treatment truly works, it will affect behaviour more than either a placebo or no treatment
91
Possibilities: Pure Treatment effect
1. Drug > Control
2. Drug> Placebo
3. Placebo = Control
92
Possibilities: Pure Placebo effect
1. Placebo > Control
2. Drug > Control
3. Placebo = Drug
93
What is experimenter effect?
If a researcher wants a certain result, they might unconsciously behave in a way that gets that result
94
What is double-blinding?
For this reason, it is preferred that researchers and participants are blinded
95
Ethical guidelines: 5
1. Informed consent
2. Freedom to leave at any point: attrition (subject loss) is high in human studies
3. Protection of participants
4. Confidentiality
5. Debriefing: any deception is revealed
96
what does treatment effect mean?
If we reject the null hypothesis and accept the alternative hypothesis, we say that there is a treatment effect (or simply an effect)
97
What kind of tests do we use in psychology?
Statistical tests-- quantifying uncertainty
(i.e. how likely it is our result is due to chance)
98
what is the p threshold?
p threshold = 0.05 is common
If p value < threshold, we say that the difference between the groups is statistically significant
99
What is effect size and how to do we get it?
- The magnitude of the treatment effect is expressed in the form of effect size
- We get this measure by doing statistical operations on our dataset (like we did for p)
- Many measures (e.g. Cohen’s d)
100
Sample size
The larger that sample size (n), the more likely we are to reliably detect differences
101
what are strong effects?
Strong effects can be found with small n
(e.g. n~10)
- Opiate drugs and pain
102
What are weak effects?
Weak effects generally require very large n (e.g. n~ 50,100,500) to be considered reliable
- Aspirin and pain
103
The nervous is divided into:
central CNS
peripheral PNS
104
What is CNS?
brain + spinal cord, encased in bone (skull and vertebrae, respectively)
105
What is PNS?
everything else outside the CNS
106
How many cells in the brain?
90 billion
107
What are the two main cell types?
neurons and glia
107
what are the special properties of neurons?
They can generate and conduct electrochemical signals (i.e. they are excitable cells).
108
What happens in neurotransmission?
1. Neuron receives a chemical signal (transmitter) from another cell
2. This transmitter might trigger an electrochemical impulse (action potential) in the neuron
3. That action potential causes the neuron to release a transmitter of its own
4. Transmitter released by Neuron A travels across the synapse to affect receptors on Neuron B. There are some 125 trillion synapses in the brain.
109
Small molecule neurotransmitters: 4
1. amino acids
2. monoamines
3. acetylcholine
4. unconventional neurotransmitters
110
Large neurotransmitters:
neuropeptides
- Pituitary peptides
- Hypothalamic peptides
- Brain-gut peptides
- Opioid peptides
- Miscellaneous peptides
111
what is an agonist?
a compound that bands to a receptor and produces a response (e.g. glutamate is an agonist of glutamate receptors)
112
what is an antagonist
a compound that binds to a receptor but does not produce a response
113
what is naloxone
can be used to block the effects of opioids and thereby stop overdoses
114
external features of the brain: 4
1. Frontal lobe
2. Parietal lobe
3. Occipital lobe
4. Temporal lobe
115
what are bumps on the brain called?
Gyri (s. gyrus)
116
what are folds on the brain called?
sulci (s. sulcus) or fissures
117
what is longitudinal fissure?
divides the hemispheres
118
what is Central fissure?
frontal and parietal lobes
- Precentral cyprus before the fissure (frontal)
- Postcentral gyrus after the fissure (parietal)
119
what it lateral fissure?
top half (frontal + parietal) from bottom half (temporal)
120
what does the left + right hemispheres control?
the opposite (contralateral) sides of the body
- language often lateralized left (70-90%)
121
Case study: opioid drugs
- (e.g. ꞵ-endorphin) which acts as ‘natural painkillers’
- Endorphins mediate pain responses by acting on targets in the nervous system, including μ-opioid receptors
- μ-opioid receptors are also highly responsive to opioid drugs (e.g. morphine)
122
Divisions of the CNS (4)
- frontal lobe
- parietal lobe
- temporal lobe
- occipital lobe
123
what is frontal lobe?
Performs executive functions that coordinate other brain areas, motor planning,
language, and memory
124
Parietal lobe?
Processes touch information, integrates vision and touch
125
Temporal lobe?
Processes auditory information, language, and autobiographical memory
126
Occipital lobe?
Processes visual information
127
what is basal ganglia?
Control movement and motor planning
128
limbic system?
- Thalamus: Conveys sensory information to cortex
- Hypothalamus: Oversees endocrine and autonomic nervous system
- Amygdala: Regulates arousal and fear
- Hippocampus: Processes memory for spatial locations
129
what is cerebellum?
Controls balance and coordinated movement
130
What is brain stem?
1. Midbrain: tracks visual stimuli and reflexes triggered by sound
2. Pons: Conveys information between the cortex and cerebellum
3. Medulla: Regulates breathing and heartbeats
131
Spinal Cord
Conveys information between the brain and the rest of the body
132
The Cortex
The term cortex refers to the outer layer of the brain (2-4mm thick)
Frontal cortex= outer layer of the frontal lobe
133
What is frontal lobe?
1. The ‘seat of executive function’ in the brain
2. Involved in the planning, organisation, initiation and inhibition of behaviour
3. Central to initiating voluntary muscle movement (as it contains the primary motor cortex)
4. Regulates social behaviour, stress, memory and even decision-making
134
What is frontal cortex lesion-- Gage
- The injury was associated with pronounced behavioural changes, such as increased impulsivity and inappropriate social behaviour (“no longer Gage”)
135
The Orbitofrontal Cortex
- Positioned near the orbital bone, around the eyes
- Commonly injured
- Damage is associated with deficits in social behaviour, impulse control, taste and smell
136
what is the parietal lobe?
- Involved in language, spatial relationships and tactile perception (including touch, pain,
and proprioception)
Sensation will be discussed in L06
- Contains the somatosensory cortex, where various regions of the body are represented
- Lesion might impair ability to feel/recognize tactile stimuli (tactile agnosia) do maths (dyscalculia) and read (dyslexia)
137
What is the Temporal Lobe
- Associated with many key functions, including hearing, language, multimodal integration
and memory
- May be associated with much more complex functions such as creativity, and religiosity
138
The limbic system? (4)
1. Amygdala
2. Hypothalamus
3. Hippocampus
4. Cingulate gyrus
139
What is amygdala?
Involved in emotional processing (fear, anxiety and anger but also positive emotions) = social behaviour
140
what is hypothalamus?
- Small and complex structure with many subregions, each of which may serve a different (and vital function)
141
what does hypothalamus DO?
- Important drive centre for regulatory behaviour
- Governs the drive for aggressive, feeding, fearful and sexual behaviours
- Also a ‘homeostatic regulator’ that controls fluid balance, thermoregulation and circadian rhythm
- Participates in the regulation of stress responses via the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis
142
What is hypothalamus and feeding?
- Damage to the hypothalamus (lateral + ventromedial subregions) disrupts appetite regulation and energy metabolism, resulting in weight changes
- Rats
143
what is the hippocampus' function?
- Centrally involved in memory consolidation, spatially guided behaviour and emotion (particularly anxiety)
- Termed ‘the gateway to declarative memory’
144
what is H.M. and the Hippocampus?
- Hippocampus surgically removed to treat epilepsy
- Had anterograde amnesia from the point of injury
145
types of memory (2)
Long-term memory
Declarative memory / Nondeclarative memory
146
what is cingulate gyrus?
- Plays a role in many behaviours, including social interaction, pain, emotion, and learning/memory
- Cingulate lesions can have profound effects on social behaviour in human and animals
147
Basal ganglia (impulse control)
- Caudate + Putamen (together = dorsal striatum) as well as Globus Pallidus. Important for movement
- Nucleus Accumbens and other structures (=ventral striatum). Role in reinforcement learning + habit formation (relevant to addiction)
148
what does the spinal cord do?
- Tracts for sending motor instructions out
- Tracts food delivering sensory information in
Insert image (i have not yet taken the picture)
149
what are the techniques?
Spatial resolution
Temporal resolution
150
what is spatial resolution?
- Referring to ability to measure space between brain regions– small structures)
- How effectively can we distinguish between brain regions
- Low → High
- As spatial resolution increases, it's easier to identify brain areas
151
What is temporal resolution?
- How effectively can we measure changes in brain activity over time
- Low → High
- As temporal resolution increases, it is easier to tell how neural activity changes over time (even if it is changing very fast)
152
What is EEG? (stands for)
Electroencephalography
153
What does EEG do/when is it useful?
- Measures electrical activity in specific brain regions
- Useful in studies of arousal, consciousness + epilepsy
154
What is EEG record?
- Potential difference (volts or V, y axis) over time (seconds or sec, x axis)
- Notice how the voltage varies in a ‘wave-like’ manner over time, with peaks and valleys
- The variation in voltage over time gives us frequency
155
what is the biggest advantage of EEG?
Great temporal resolution
- Millisecond scale
- Great for measuring rapid changes in arousal/consciousness (regular EEG) and rapid cognitive processes (ERP)
156
what is the biggest disadvantage of EEG
Poor spatial resolution
- Difficult to determine which specific areas are active
- Deeper brain areas cannot be measured
157
what does PET stand for?
Positron Emission Tomography
158
What is PET?
- A synthetic radiotracer is injected into the subject
- This radiotracer reacts with tissue in the brain; this reaction produces a signal that can be measured with specialised equipment
- Wherever the radiotracer goes in the brain, there will be a signal generated
159
what is the purpose of PET?
- Measuring metabolic activity
- Characterising distribution of specific substances
160
PET advantages?
- Decent spatial resolution
- Better than EEG (measuring an inch of neurons on the top) but worse than MRI
161
PET disadtavantage?
- Poor temporal resolution
- Difficult to resolve rapid changes in neural activity
- If you were measuring someone’s brain during a maths test, but you may be measuring activity from twenty minutes ago which will confound what you are trying to measure. For that reason, it is no longer being used.
162
what is MDD
Major depressive disorder
163
When is MRI useful?
Very useful for the study of grey matter and assessing structure.
164
what if fMRI?
can be used for assessing function
165
what is the basis of the fMRI signal?
Oxygenated blood and deoxygenated blood send different signals to the brain.
Active neurons use glucose + oxygen
After blood delivers oxygen, it becomes deoxygenated
166
what is the fMRI signal?
- Oxygenated and deoxygenated blood have different magnetic properties which can be measured
- If you measure blood oxy/deoxy ratio in a given area, you’ll have a correlated of neuronal activity in that area
167
fMRI advantages?
- Great spatial resolution (great for studying brain structure)
- Best out of techniques we have covered
- Can be ‘paired’ with other techniques (e.g. PET)
168
fMRI and temporal resolution?
- Decent temporal resolution
Better than PET (arguably), not as good as EEG or MEG
- Lag of seconds between activity and signal is still evident
169
why should fMRI be interpreted with care? 2
- Graph doesn’t work. Suggests simple models of brain activity.
- One should not interpret cognitive activity.
170
What is Lesion Studies?
If a brain lesion is associated with behavioural deficits, it is possible that the brain region damaged is involved in the behaviour damaged
171
case studies in lesion studies (2)
- Patient HM– removal of Hippocampus + adjoining areas; impaired memory
- Phineas Gage– Lesion of Frontal Lobe; Impulsivity + Impaired Social Behaviour
172
what is sensation?
Sensation = receiving, collecting and amplifying information from the environment (initial phase; involves sensory organs); early in the process
173
what is perception?
Perception = interpreting/organising this information so that we may understand + react to it (later phase); rich experience that guides your feelings
174
what do sensory organs contain?
Contain specialised receptors attached too neurons, these neurons send signals into the brain
175
what is vision? (2)
- Processing the stimulus of light
- Light is an electromagnetic wave. Different types of light have different wavelengths.
176
what are rods? (3)
1. Dense in periphery
2. Useful in dim light/darkness
3. Less involved in colour
177
what are cones? (3)
1. Dense in the fovea (centre of retina)
2. Operate in bright light
3. Role in colour perception
178
what it trichromatic colour theory?
- Also called Young-Helmholtz Theory– not a perfect explanation
- Every colour is a combination of three independent colour signals (and perhaps the activity of three cones
- Analogy: Colour Slider in Imagining Software
179
what is opponent Process Colour Theory?
Processing of signals in pairs, contrasting colour signals interact (Blue v Yellow, Red v Green, Black v White)
180
what is hearing?
- Pressure vibrations in the air; wave form, peaks and valleys
- The magnitude of air pressure (in molecule density) is amplitude
- Related to loudness
- Changes in air pressure (from high to low) are cyclic (they repeat over time)
- The amount of cycles per second is frequency (Hz)
- Related to perceived pitch
181
what is the vestibular system?
- Involved in our perception of balance
- Referring to the fact that the process of hearing is closely associated with balance
182
what is somatosensory cortex? (2)
1. Frontal lobe; motor map in precentral gyrus
2. Parietal lobe; sensory map in postcentral gyrus
183
what is proprioception?
- Sense of the relative position of one’s body and the strength of effort employed in movement
- Achieved through input from specialised neurons in the skin, joints, bones, ears and tendons
- Neurons communicate compression + contraction of muscles
184
what is the taste hypothesis?
- Taste Map Theory:
Definitely disproven (you can disprove this yourself, RIGHT NOW)
- Supertaster Bud Theory:
Currently debated (Jury is still out)
185
what is olfactory pathway?
Begins with olfactory receptors in the olfactory bulb responding to odorant molecules in the air
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what are the 5 sensory intersections?
1. The taste experience
2. Speechreading and the McGurk effect
3. Synesthesia
4. Sensory mismatch
5. Sensory competition
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what is 'absolute threshold'?
Absolute threshold refers to the lowest stimulus intensity (in units) at which we can correctly detect the stimulus > 50% of the time (i.e. above chance)
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what is blindsight?
Responses without awareness might be possible
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what does JND stand for?
just noticeable difference
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what does jnd do?
- Also termed the difference threshold
- The point (in stimulus units) at which you can just barely discriminate a change in a stimulus
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what is consciousness (2)
- Our subjective awareness of ourselves and our environment
- We have automatic (unconscious) and controlled (conscious) behaviours as well as both implicit (unconscious) and explicit (conscious) memory
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what is neurocognitive theory?
increase in complexity with age
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why do we dream? (3)
Dream Protection Theory
Evolutionary Theory
Activation-Synthesis Theory
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what is Activation-Synthesis Theory
Dreams are an attempt by the brain to interpret random activity
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what is evolutionary theory?
Dreams about threats to reproductive success, plan solutions
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what is dream protection theory
Sexual + aggressive instincts are transformed into symbols that represent wish fulfilment; interpretation required
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what are two theories of hypnosis?
Dissociative theories and socio-cognitive theories (better-supported) have been proposed
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