Midterm Flashcards
What is backward masking?
Masking is a technique that is used to present stimuli on a subconscious level. Similar to the concept of an attentional blink, two stimuli are presented within close succession of one another (less than 500 milliseconds), identification of the first stimulus is impaired
stimulus is followed by an interval of time and then a subsequent stimulus is presented
In schizophrenia, won’t report (or MASK) the initial stimulus; if increase amount of time between stimuli presentation, normalized responses (no masking)
What is the hypothesis of the Whalen Study?
amygdala activity would be modulated by the area of sclera shown in the eyes
What is the method of the Whalen Study?
backward masking was used to present stimulus subliminally; eye black were shown to determine if shape had an effect
What is the role of the amygdala in the Whalen Study?
Depending on the emotion, certain parts of the amygdala is activated; ventral amygdala lights up more for fearful eye whites
The responsivity to eye whites but not to eye blacks indicates that it is not the shape of the scleral field that activates the amygdala but the area of eye white shown
Define Epistemology
- study of how we know what we know
- metaphilosophy
- how is knowledge acquired
- analyzing the nature of knowledge and how it relates to notions such as truth, belief and justification
** study of how we know what we know. Takes the stance of questioning what you’re learning**
Define Hermaneutics
- study of theory and practice of interpretation
- texts (exegesis) in the areas of literature, religion, and law
- modern hermaneutics involves every aspect of the interpretive processes including affective communication, presuppositions and meaning of language
- a hermaneutic: one particular method of interpretation
- dogma: you come to believe the world is organized in a particular way, strong held belief
Define Reliability
you get the same consistent results every time
- ways to increase reliability: test/retest, inter-rater, split-half
Define Validity
is it measuring what it’s supposed to be measuring?
- BECK: Measures depression, not anxiety
Define Independent Variable
are aspects of an investigation that are individually manipulated or carefully regulated by the experimenter
Define Dependent Variable
are outcome responses, the values of which depend on how one or more
Define Ecological Validity
the degree to which particular finding in one environmental context may be considered relevant outside of that context. Case studies and naturalistic methods offer high ecological validity.
According to Libet, what is free will and determinism?
First, there should be no external control or cues to affect the occurrence or emergence of the voluntary act under study; i.e. it should be endogenous. Secondly, the subject should feel that he/she wanted to do it, on his/her own initiative, and feel she/he could control what is being done, when to do it or not to do it - p. 47
What is structuralism?
- WHAT IS IT MADE OF?
- Deconstruct cognition into its component parts
- Describes the mind in most basic and primitive elements of mental experience
Individual elements of consciousnesshow organized into more complex experiences how mental phenomena correlate with physical events - The mental elements (like physical elements of periodic table) structure themselves in such a way to allow conscious experience
broke cognition into separate components of analysis such as attention, memory, sensation, affect…primary method used was introspection
What is Voluntarism?
- connected with the notion of will and how it shapes and influences perception (unknowingly)
- apperception: our schemas organize what we see
- pre-packaged ideas
- happens before perception
things are built from small–> bigger pieces BUT not only way to construct perception
dont accept any dogmas, be a heuristic
What is Functionalism?
- HOW DOES IT WORK?
- Study the processes of what people do, why they do it, and what they do with it
- Mental life and behavior in terms of adaptation to the person’s environment (alternative to structuralism)
- Basis for developing theories not readily testable by controlled experiments
- Support research with ecological validity
- Functionalism arose in the 19th century as an alternative to structuralism and later led to behaviorism
we should focus on process of thoughts, not content; why people do things
What is Pragmatism?
- HOW DOES IT WORK?
- Study the processes of what people do, why they do it, and what they do with it
- Linking practice and theory: theory is extracted from practice and applied back to practice to form what is called intelligent practice
- Pragmatism and functionalism are theoretically and historically linked
knowledge is validated by usefulness and what we do with it
philosophical tradition centered on “linking practice and theory”
What is Associationism?
- how are things connected?
- Studying how what is known and thought about become associated
- The mind is composed of sensations and ideas that are organized by means of various associations
what is known and how they become associated with each other. Ebbinghaus law of forgetting/rehearsal. Thorndike had the law of effect
What are the 4 laws of association?
- Law of contiguity = events that occur close to each other in space or time are linked in the mind
- Law of frequency = the more often two things or events are linked the more powerful will be that association
- Law of similarity = if two things are similar, the thought of one will tend to trigger the thought of the other
- The law of contrast = seeing or recalling something can also trigger the recollection of something completely opposite
What is Gestalt Psychology?
(Wolfgang Kohler & Max Wertheimer)
- Cognition is organized into patterns and needs to be studied as a whole
- Brain as holistic
- Opposed to structuralism
- “The whole is greater than the sum of the parts”
- Brain actively participating in the organization of stimuli
cognition is organized into patterns and is more than the sum of its parts. A nice description of the RIGHT hemisphere
What is the Gestalt Effect?
visual recognition as figures and whole forms instead of collection of simple lines and curves
- all are scientific approaches on how to get to the truth
What is Behaviorism?
(Ivan Pavlov, John Watson, & B.F. Skinner)
what can we see?
- Only study observable behaviors –avoid inferences
- In order for psychology to be a science must focus on what is observable, the environment and behavior and not what is only available in the individual
- Everything is the result of trial and error learning
- Reaction against subjectivity, Freud, etc
- Thoughts, feelings, emotions as immune to measurement and therefore cannot lead to objective science
Avoid inferences and function on observables
What is implicit memory?
non-declarative memory (remains active throughout the life span): is present before explicit memory and involves: behavioral, emotional and perceptual memory
What is explicit memory?
declarative memory: form of memory most commonly thought of as a memory
Explicit memory system requires the involvement of focal attention and the activation of the hippocampus for encoding and retrieval
Discuss mirror neurons.
- “Simulation theory” = mirror neurons are hypothesized to be involved in an intricate process creating resonance, sympathy, and “mirrored” states in the perceiver; what we experience as self states are highly influenced by the experiences of those around us
- Mirror neurons activated during the perception of another’s intentional acts stimulate neural networks that organize the same motor actions
- mirror neurons start firing right after a visual stimulus- so before we even have time to make sense of whats going on we may already be able to understand the expressions, emotions, and movements of the person we’re observing
