PSYC1002

Question 1

What was behaviourism and who were the two major players?

Answer 1

• Behaviourism (1914) rejected internal mental structures, describing all behaviours as complex stimulus-response associations (Watson and Skinner)-it is a learning psychology focuses on learning behaviour, stimuli and processes. No point studying internal processes: consciousness-forbidden
.• Skinner thought freedom was bad-should have more reward/punishment system
• Thought learning was not able to occur without a rewards/punishment system. Humans had no internal drive to learn.

Question 2

Why did behaviourism have to be abandoned

Answer 2

• Language- Skinner attempted to explain language in “verbal behaviour” – but proposal was not parsimonious. We likely have pre-existing structures to help us form language-language acquisition device of small children who learn language without punishment/reward
• Attention overload/limit- realised that couldn’t process everything at the same time all the time-important for the birth of cognitive psychology as behaviourism couldn’t explain this
-Tolman’s experiment

Question 3

What is the difference between AI and cognitive psychology?

Answer 3

• Artificial intelligence- how humans could improve, cognitive psychology- what humans can do. Brought on by impractical serial exhaustive search from memory scanning example

Question 4

What did Tolman argue in 1948?

Answer 4

• Disagreed with behaviourism- end of behaviourism
• Proposed that rats formed maps of the maze they were in, even without reward- said that rats had consciousness and that it wasn’t just simply a stimulus response reaction

Question 5

Who’s data did Tolman use and what did this data describe?

Answer 5

• Experiment using Blodgett’s data
o Group I: control-run in maze once per day and found food in the goal box. Group I data resulted in shape of learning curve.
o Group II: experimental- not fed at all while in the maze for 7 days, then rewarded in maze from then on. Results didn’t show a learning curve and showed an extreme error curve drop once they did know where to find the food- suggested that rats had learned to build maps of the environment, and henceforth knew exactly where to go for the food- disproved behaviourism
o Group III: experimental- not fed at all while in the maze for 3 days, then rewarded in maze from then on

Question 6

What was the impact of technology post WWII?

Answer 6

• Attentional overload:
o Discovering human limitations in mental processing
o The need for better training
o The need for better design
 Ergonomics- an object’s efficiency in its purpose and comfort
• Computers take in and manipulate information
o Investigate mental processes scientifically
o Can use computers as a model for human information processing systems
o We can construct a model of cognitive processes and test the model by measuring human behaviour

Question 7

What is the main cognitive model involving sensory memory, working short-term memory and long term memory?

Answer 7

• Sensory input is absorbed by the sensory memory: unattended information is quickly lost
• When paid attention to, information will transfer from the sensory memory to the short term memory: where unrehearsed information is quickly lost
• When properly encoded, this information goes into the long-term memory –> where some information may be lost over time

Question 8

Who proposed mental chronometry?

Answer 8

Snodgrass

Question 9

What is mental chronometry?

Answer 9

• Mental chronometry is the measurement of mental processes by the use of reaction time (the time thoughts take)
• Compare behaviour in two tasks that differ in only one mental process
• Choice RT – Simple RT=Estimate of stimulus evaluation time
• Can be used to infer the nature of the process

Question 10

Describe Donder’s substraction method:

• Who and what it was influenced by
• How it worked

Answer 10

• Influenced by Helmholtz attempt to measure the speed of nerve transmission in the frog by measuring the time between the stimulation of a part of the frog’s body and the resulting muscular contraction. Since knew the approximate length of nerve fibres used the difference in reaction time as a measure of nerve transmission time.
• Donders reasoned that:
o A reaction: simple reaction time
o B reaction: choice reaction time
o C reaction: choice reaction time but with a response to only one response omitting all others (go/no-go response), theoretically discounting motor-choice time
o C-A= discrimination time
o B-C= motor-choice time

Question 11

Why was Donder’s substraction method discounted?

Answer 11

o C had a motor choice time: the choice whether or not to have a response (Wundt)
 Wundt proposed d reaction (several stimuli but only one response is made to all the stimuli-subject instructed to recognise/identify stimulus before responding)
o Experimenters were the test subjects themselves
 Destroyed the assumption that stimulus input and motor-response time are equal.

Question 12

What is simple reaction time?

Answer 12

the time elapsing between stimulus presentation and completion of the motor response

Question 13

What is choice reaction time? And what does it include?

Answer 13

• Choice reaction time- two or more stimuli are presented, and the subject has to indicate which stimulus has been presented by producing one of two (or more responses), a different response for each stimulus. Includes:
o Discrimination time- the time to discriminate one stimulus from another
o Motor choice time- time to select one of the several motor responses

Question 14

What is sternberg’s additive factors method and what does it involve?

Answer 14

• Involves manipulating the variables so that differences in RT between different levels of the same independent variable are used as measures of the duration of substages of the major stages.
• Involves binary reaction time paradigm- the subject chooses one of two responses in response to the presentation of a stimulus.

Question 15

What does binary classification experiment mean?

Answer 15

more stimuli than responses: subject separates set of stimuli into two categories by responding to one set with one response and to the second set with the second response

Question 16

How did Sternberg’s memory scanning experiment work?

Answer 16

• Subjects given short list of items to memorise
• Memory set size- length of the memory list
• Varied set procedure- memory set is either varied from trial to trial
• Fixed set procedure- remains constant across a blocked series of trials
• After the memory set has been presented to the subject, a trial begins with the presentation of the test item (probe): selected from the positive set or the negative set.
o Due to simplistic nature of task and a set size considerate of short term memory, few errors occur in this task and the major variable of interest is response time

Question 17

What are the three different types of searches?

Answer 17

o Parallel self-terminating search- all objects considered at the same time
 Predicts that negative responses will increase with set size, but at a negatively accelerated rate.
o Serial self-terminating search- search ends when object is found
 On average, subjects need to search through (n+1)/2 items to find the matching item on positive trials (where n is the number in the memory set) but will need to search through all n for positive trials
o Serial exhaustive search- search ends when all items from list are exhausted. This is what humans do.
 Number of comparisons that can be made in a second is equal to 25
 Search is exhaustive because the comparison process itself is so fast that it is more efficient to complete the search through all the items than to stop after each comparison to make a decision
 However, other researchers found evidence for parallel search through visual displays, and evidence for serial self-terminating search through long term memory

Question 18

What are the 4 stages proposed by Sternberg for the memory scanning task?

Answer 18

1. Stimulus quality:
   a. Stimulus probe degradation- mean some manipulation that makes the probe more difficult to see
   i. Sternberg found that degradation only affects stage 1 but not stage 2
2. Size of positive set
3. Response type (positive or negative)- Takes longer to decide in favour of a negative to a positive
4. Relative frequency of response time- more probable response is executed faster

Question 19

What is Posner’s same/different classification task principle?

Answer 19

• Subjects are asked to classify pairs of stimuli as SAME or DIFFERENT on the basis of some criterion.
• As the abstractness increases, so do the number of stimuli that are considered identical

Question 20

Describe the letter matching task

Answer 20

• Subject presented with letters of the alphabet and required to judge as quickly as possible whether pair is the same or different (uppercase and lowercase same letters (Aa) are considered to be SAME)
• Results evidence that subjects match physically identical stimuli on the basis of visual rather than name characteristics during simultaneous matching
• However, during successive matching, suggests that letters are being matched on the basis of name as matches like AA are not made faster than matches like Aa.
o This suggests that the duration of an efficient visual code for matching is short (2 seconds or longer and it is inefficient)
Posner experiment of matching pairs to vowel or consonant category concludes that subjects must have gone through these nodes (consonants were matched slower than vowels because there are more of them). So physical matching faster than name matching, which is faster than rule-based matching (vowels and consonants). These extractions occur in a serial fashion.

Question 21

What are some methodological issues with mental chronometry?

Answer 21

• Irreducible minimum reaction time- minimum time for stimulus input, decision and motor response time. Reaction times shorter than that are called anticipations.
• Warning signal- indicates to subject that second stimulus (reaction signal) will occur after some time interval (foreperiod)
o Reaction times shorter than irreducible minimum are discarded. Less of a problem in choice reaction time.
• Long RTs are outliers that can be caused by lack of attention
• Speed-Accuracy Trade-Off function:
o The faster, the less accurate the response to a stimulus will be (stimulus A might receive a stimulus response meant for stimulus B)
 As ling as error rates are positively correlated with RT, low chance that data can be explained by speed-accuracy trade-off function
• RT can be affected by a subject’s familiarity with the test matter (such as alphabets of different languages)

Question 22

Why do we have to investigate cognitive processes so indirectly?

Answer 22

• Introspective data do not provide valid insight into the determinants of cognition
• Some cognitive processes occur without any conscious awareness or control and therefore are not available for introspection
• Even our consciously controlled cognitive processes are subject to a variety of “cognitive biases” and reasoning errors that influence our interpretation of events without our awareness
-We are influenced by framing
-Hindsight bias
-Adjustment and anchoring
-Misconceptions of regression
-Anchoring in the assessment of subjective probability distributions
-Conformation biases
-Biases due to the retrievability of instances
-Biases due to the effectiveness of a search set
-Biases of imaginability
-Illusory correlation
-We seek order in randomness and ignore chance
-Insensitivity to prior probability of outcomes
-We ignore base rates/sample size
-Insensitivity to predictability
-Many errors actually make us more efficient at processing information but means we cannot accurately report our own cognitive processes
-Certainty effect
-Pseudocertainty effect

Question 23

What are the three key processes involved in memory?

Answer 23

• Three key processes involved in memory;
o Encoding
 Forming a memory code
 Requires attention
o Storage
 Maintaining encoded information in memory over time
o Retrieval
 Recovering information from memory stores

Question 24

What is attention?

Answer 24

focusing awareness on a narrowed range of stimuli or events

Question 25

What is inattentional blindness?

Answer 25

when we are so focused on one thing that we are blind to everything else
-e.g. phones and roads

Question 26

Attention is limited due to the fact that we have limited “attentional resources”. So what can we do?

Answer 26

 Either focus these on one task and not process anything else OR
 Spread our attentional resources across many tasks but perform each less well
 The extent to which we can control our attention allows us to choose

Question 27

What is diffused attention?

Answer 27

relaxed thinking state, once the brain settles into resting

Question 28

What is focused attention?

Answer 28

a concentrated, focused form of thinking

Question 29

What are the two locuses of selection and what is the evidence for each?

Answer 29

o Early locus of selection- information is selected or rejected on the basis of its physical characteristics (e.g. Broadbent’s filter model)
o Late locus of selection- information is selected or rejected on the basis of more complex characteristics like its meaning (e.g. Treisman’s attenuation model)
-Cocktail party. While having a conversation 35% of participants recognised their name in another conversation going on

Question 30

Is the location of attention filter flexible or fixed? Why?

Answer 30

o Henceforth, concluded that the location of the attention filter is flexible rather than fixed
o Location would depend on cognitive load of current information processing.
 When one is attending to complicated, high load tasks that consume much of one’s attentional capacity, selection tends to occur early.
 However, when one is involved in simpler, low-load tasks, more attentional capacity is left over to process the meaning of distractions, allowing for later selection.

Question 31

What is exogenous attention?

Answer 31

Involuntary, stimulus-driven

• When an object or feature pops out or captures our attention
• An easy parallel search

Question 32

What is endogenous attention?

Answer 32

Voluntary, goal-directed

• When we try to find an object or feature
• An effortful and serial search

Question 33

What is the 1986 Treisman’s feature integration theory?

Answer 33

 Proposes that we process features independently in a preattentive manner (quickly and in parallel) and the role of attention is to bind these features together into objects (slow and serial)

Question 34

What is feature search?

Answer 34

A single feature distinguishes a target from its neighbors (distractors). More efficient as target pops out quickly- doesn’t matter how many distractors there are

Question 35

What is conjuction search?

Answer 35

Target has similarity with distractors, so as distractors increase, target becomes harder to find

Question 36

What is change blindness?

Answer 36

o When we make a saccade (jumping eye movement) the input washes out motion sensors.
o This can be simulated by inserting blanks or flashes between pictures

Question 37

What does change blindness imply?

Answer 37

o Implies that:
 Our sense of experiencing a whole scene in one go is an illusion
 We do not encode much information at all about what we are seeing
 We must slowly pay attention to each individual part of the scene before the information is actually processed and we notice a difference

Question 38

What is the impact of divided attention and why do we think we can multitask?

Answer 38

o We give ourselves the illusion that we can do highly practised tasks together with a few errors because:
 The processes become automatic
 The way the processes are performed is more efficient
 Errors are less likely to be noticed because we are not paying attention
o But we actually can’t- e.g. texting while driving
o Divided attention actually leads to less productivity and less efficiency

Question 39

What are the three different types of memory and their function?

Answer 39

• Sensory memory- Iconic and echoic: literal copies of sensory events
• Short-term memory: “buffer” for the temporary maintenance of information
• Long-term memory: facts, episodes and procedures

Question 40

What can sensory memory do?

Answer 40

• When things first come in the system
• Sensory memory preserves information in its original sensory form for a brief time, usually only a fraction of a second
• Literal copies of visual and auditory events
• Has unlimited capacity
o Sperling (1960) found subjects could report 3-4 items if asked to recall all of them (whole report) but any 3-4 if only asked to report a single row (partial report)
• Allows the sensation of a visual pattern, sound or touch to linger for a brief moment after the sensory stimulation is over
• People perceive an afterimage rather than the actual stimulus
• Brief preservation of sensations in sensory memory is adaptive in that it gives additional time to try to recognise stimuli
=-Passive and effortless

Question 41

What is iconic memory?

Answer 41

o Iconic
 Visual memory
 Information lasts 50-500 ms
 Sperling evidence

Question 42

What is echoic memory?

Answer 42

o	Echoic
	Auditory memory
	Information lasts 8-10 s
	Auditory info isn’t useful unless we have a longer buffer as it is given sequentially, while visual information can be given in a parallel fashion 
	Auditory not as big

Question 43

What is short term memory

Answer 43

• Limited capacity store that can maintain unrehearsed information for about 10-20 seconds

Question 44

What is rehearsal and what will it enable you to do?

Answer 44

Rehearsal- the process of repetitively verbalizing or thinking about the information

Rehearsal enables for information to be kept in the short term store indefinitely

Question 45

Why is short-term memory thought to depend primarily on phonemic encoding?

Answer 45

Due to its reliance on recitation

Question 46

What is George Miller’s thesis?

Answer 46

The magical number seven, plus or minus two
 We possess a finite and small capacity for making unidimensional judgements and this capacity doesn’t vary a great deal from one simple sensory attribute to another
 Number seven only applies to one-dimensional judgements
 The addition of independently variable attributes to the stimulus increases channel capacity but at a decreasing rate (with decreased accuracy)
 Kaufman experiment with subjects counting number of dots- below seven, subitised, above seven, subjects estimated the count and made more errors
 Span of absolute judgement- limit to the accuracy with which we can identify absolutely the magnitude of a unidimensional stimulus variable
 Absolute judgement is limited by amount of information, while immediate memory is limited by number of items
 Bits of information are recoded into chunks- for example, letters into words, words into phrases- recoding increases amount of info we can deal with
o When short term memory is filled to capacity, the insertion of new information “bumps out” some of the information currently in short term memory
o This can be detrimental for people that have to perform tasks in which they need to mentally juggle various pieces of information

Question 47

What is a chunk and how does it help?

Answer 47

• A group of familiar stimuli stored as a single unit
• People can increase the capacity of their short-term memory by combining stimuli into chunks
• People routinely draw information out of their long-term memory banks to help them evaluate and understand information they’re working with in short term memory

Question 48

Who made the working memory model and what does it include?

Answer 48

Baddeley

• Phonological loop
• Visuospatial sketchpad
• Central executive system
• Episodic buffer

Question 49

What is the phonological loop and how does it work?

Answer 49

o Phonological loop- component at work when you use recitation to temporarily hold onto a piece of information
 Memory span depends on how long it takes to repeat information e.g. word length and speech rate
 Language differences in ‘digit span task’
 Have to physically count words in sentence because phonological loop is busy saying sentence back to yourself
 Repeat information verbally to memorise it
 Encode things phonologically

Question 50

What is the visuospatial sketchpad?

Answer 50

permits people to temporarily hold and manipulate visual images

Question 51

What is the central executive system and how does it work?

Answer 51

o Central executive system- controls the deployment of attention, switching the focus of attention and dividing attention as needed
 Manipulation of information, elaborative processing required for long-term retention, reasoning, planning
 Attentional resources required to manipulate information in working memory
 Coordinates the actions of other modules

Question 52

What is the episodic buffer and how does it work?

Answer 52

o Episodic buffer- temporary, limited-capacity store that allows the various components of working memory to integrate information
 Interface between working memory and long-term memory

Question 53

What is working memory capacity and what can it influence?

Answer 53

Refers to one’s ability to hold and manipulate information in conscious attention
o Thought to be influenced by genetics
o Can be temporarily reduced by situational factors such as pressure to perform or excessive worry
o WMC can influence
 Cognitive abilities
 Reading comprehension
 Musical ability

Question 54

In terms of capacity, rate of forgetting and type of code, what is the difference between short term memory and long term memory?

Answer 54

Short-term memory:
Capacity: limited to 7+=2 items
Rate of forgetting: Decays within 20 seconds if not rehearsed
Type of code: Phonological

Long term memory-
Capacity: unlimited
Rate of forgetting: Forgetting due to interference rather than decay
Type of code: semantic

Question 55

What are the serial position effects in short term recall?

Answer 55

o Primacy  information transferred to long term memory
 Because by end of trial/ sentence/list, the first information received has been dumped into the long term memory
o Recency information “dumped” from short term buffer
 When there is no interval between the stimulus presented and the time for response

Question 56

Who was Henry Molaison?

Answer 56

• HM- Henry Molaison: surgery on hippocampus to treat epilepsy
o No further acquisition of new information but existing memory retained
o Could not consolidate information into his long term memory

Question 57

Who was Clive Wearing?

Answer 57

• Clive Wearing:
o Cannot consolidate short-term memory, also missing long-term memory
o Memory span is approx. 20-30 seconds
o No conscious long term memory

Question 58

What is long term memory?

Answer 58

an unlimited capacity store that can hold information over lengthy period of time

Question 59

What is the non-declarative memory system?

Answer 59

actions and motor skills

Question 60

What is declarative memory system and what two other memory systems does it include?

Answer 60

factual information
Includes:
-Semantic memory system
-Episodic memory system

Question 61

What is the semantic memory system?

Answer 61

 Semantic memory system- general knowledge, stored undated
• Explicit knowledge of the meanings of words, facts, ideas
• A sense of ‘knowing’ rather than remembering

Question 62

What is the episodic memory system?

Answer 62

 Episodic memory system- dated recollections of personal experiences
• Explicit memory
• Your memory of your life history
o Important occasions such as birthdays
o Specific memories of learning new things
• Most people have an intact memory for the explicit meaning of concepts, but amnesia for the source of the meaning

Question 63

What is conceptual hierarchy and what did Bousfield do?

Answer 63

• Conceptual hierarchy- a multilevel classification system based on common properties among items
o Bousfield- asked subjects to memorize a list of 60 words which belong to four categories- showed subjects recalling this list engage in clustering: participants tended to remember them in bunches that belonged to same category
o Linking things together is good to increase memory
o Way we store our memories is unique to us

Question 64

What is schema and how does it work?

Answer 64

• Schema- an organised cluster of knowledge about a particular object or event abstracted from previous experience with the object or event
o Generalised mental representations, or concepts, describing a class of objects, people, scenes or events
o Schemas make memory encoding more efficient
 But they also distort experiences and perceptions as all kinds of information is forced into an existing schema
 Even information which does not fit into the schema is affected by it, as it then becomes an exception to the schema

Question 65

What did Brewer and Treyens do in their work for schema?

Answer 65

o Brewer and Treyens- showed photo of office and took it away  asked subjects to describe them  subjects described things normally found in office setting but forgot what wasn’t some thought things normally in office setting that weren’t there actually were there
o People are more likely to remember things that are consistent with their schemas than things that are not
o People sometimes exhibit better recall of things that violate their schema-based expectations

Question 66

What was the Barlett “War of Ghosts” experiment?

Answer 66

o Bartlett “War of Ghosts experiment”
 Picked a story culturally unfamiliar to people so that people would try to impose their schemas
 People stopped being accurate and associated words to culture
• E.g. something black came from his mouth  he vomited
 Hard to interpret items were omitted

Question 67

What are some examples of schema?

Answer 67

 Stereotypes:
• “person schemas” are used for ease of understanding
• Counter-stereotypes actually reinforce the stereotype, making the counter-stereotype as an exception in people’s minds
o Gender counterstereotypes in video games, the noble savage…
• Gender schemas in movies
o The Bechdel test:
 The movie has to have at least two women who talk to each other about something besides a man
• Childhood formation of schemas
o Colour-schemed toys and television
• Prejudice vs discrimination:
o Prejudice- when you think a certain thing but don’t act upon it
o Discrimination- when you stop people doing things for a certain characteristic

Question 68

What are scripts?

Answer 68

 Scripts- Generalised mental representations of events in time
 Sequence of events that you do at a particular place
• At lectures, sit, take notes, leave.
• Morning- eat breakfast, get dressed, leave

Question 69

What does the structure of schemas in long term memory govern?

Answer 69

• How you perceive events happening in front of you
• How you encode and remember what you have experienced
• The expectations you have of everything: people, events, the world…
• How well you cope

Question 70

What do semantic networks consists of?

Answer 70

• Consists of nodes representing concepts, joined together by pathways that link related concepts
• Length of each pathway represents the degree of association between two concepts
• Models built as webs to simulate neuron structure

Question 71

Who were supporters of the semantic networks?

Answer 71

Collins and Quillian (1969) and Collins and Loftus (1972)

Question 72

What is spreading activation?

Answer 72

When people think about a word, their thoughts naturally go to related words  called spreading activation
 Strength of this activation decreases as it travels outwards

Question 73

What is cognitive economy?

Answer 73

each concept/property only stored once  no redundancy

 This is honestly not viable there is always redundancy in the human mind

Question 74

What is a superset relationship?

Answer 74

Superset relationships-broad categories and their relationship to each other
-Properties are stored at highest level of network

Question 75

What does spreading activation do?

Answer 75

o Spreading activation retrieves meaning
 Presenting a concept leads to “activation” of the appropriate node and to a spread of activation to related nodes
 If two concepts are related, spreading activation from two concepts will “intersect”
 Time to verify sentence depends on distance between concepts (plus time to evaluate intersection)
 Sentence verification time a function of distance between concepts in hierarchical network

Question 76

Which is slower: retrieving properties or retrieving supersets?

Answer 76

Retrieving properties

Question 77

What is time to verify affected by in hierarchical networks?

Answer 77

Time to verify is affected by:

• Semantic distance between nodes
• The strength of the initial activation
• The amount of time since the initial activation

Question 78

What are the flaws in the hierarchical model?

Answer 78

Typicality effects
-People take longer to make decisions about less typical examples
Category size effects:
Individual knowledge: -People with different specialised knowledge will take shorter times making connections people specialised in other things would and vice versa
-Depends a lot on individual knowledge

Question 79

What is the connectionist models and what does it consist of?

Answer 79

o Connectionist or parallel distributed processing models assume that cognitive processes depend on patterns of activation in highly interconnected computational networks that resemble neural networks- memories are meant to be stored by particular patterns of activation
o Consists of:
 A large network of interconnected computing units (nodes) that operate much like neurons
• Nodes may be inactive or may send either excitatory or inhibitory signals to other units
o PDP models assert that specific memories correspond to particular patterns of activation
 Every new event changes the strength of connections among relevant units by altering the connection weights
 Consequently, you are likely to respond differently the next time you experience a similar event

Question 80

What is parallel distributed processing?

Answer 80

• Human brain appears to depend extensively on parallel distributed processing
• Parallel distributed processing is the simultaneous processing of the same information that is spread across networks of neurons

Question 81

Why do we forget, and who proposed this?

Answer 81

• Schacter-you need to forget information that is no longer relevant
o Forgetting can reduce competition among memories that would otherwise cause confusion
o Scientists used brain-imaging technology to track neural markers of cognitive effort in a series of tasks in which participants memorized pairs of words
o Found that the forgetting of words pairs deemed irrelevant made it easier to remember the relevant word pairs and reduced the demands placed on crucial neural circuits

Question 82

What did Ebbinghau do?

Answer 82

Ebbinghau’s forgetting curve-
• Invented nonsense syllables (meaningless words)
• Memorised the syllables and tested his memory of these lists after various time intervals
• Found a forgetting curve- graphs retention and forgetting over time
• He concluded that most forgetting occurs very rapidly after learning something
o However, recent studies have found that the curve isn’t that deep- because we are learning something meaningful

Question 83

How do we measure forgetting?

Answer 83

Three principle methods used to measure forgetting-

• Recall
• Recognition
• Relearning

Question 84

What is retention?

Answer 84

The proportion of material remembered

Question 85

What is the retention interval?

Answer 85

The length of time between the presentation of materials to be remembered and the measurement of forgetting

Question 86

What is recall measure of retention?

Answer 86

Requires subjects to reproduce information on their own without any cues

Question 87

What is recognition measure of retention?

Answer 87

• Recognition measure of retention- Requires subjects to select previously learned information from an array of options
o Evidence shows that recognition measures tend to yield higher scores than recall measures of memory for the same information
o Luh- measured subject’s retention of nonsense syllables with both a recognition test and a recall test. Proved this.
o However, difficulty of recognition tests can vary greatly depending on the number, similarity and plausibility of the options provided as possible answers.

Question 88

What is relearning measure of retention?

Answer 88

Requires a subject to memorize information a second time to determine how much time or how many practice trials are saved by having learned it before

Question 89

Why do we forget?

Answer 89

• Ineffective encoding
• Decay
• Interference theory
• Retrieval failure
• Motivated forgetting

Question 90

Describe ineffective encoding

Answer 90

• Ineffective encoding
o Pseudoforgetting- when forgetting may only appear to be forgetting as the information never went into the mind in the first place
 Usually attributable to lack of attention
o Forgetting may be the result of ineffective or inappropriate encoding
 Some approaches to encoding lead to more forgetting than others
• Phonemic encoding- when you’re only saying the words to yourself
• For example being distracted while reading the textbook
• Inferior to semantic encoding
o Stimuli processed in a “shallow” manner is better remembered than more “deeply” processed stimuli

Question 91

What involves memory decay?

Answer 91

o Decay theory attributes forgetting to the impermanence of memory storage
o Proposes that forgetting occurs because memory traces fade with time
o Assumes that decay occurs in the physiological mechanisms responsible for memories
o According to decay theory, the mere passage of time produces forgetting
 However, researches have repeatedly found that time passage is not as influential as what happens during the time interval
 Research has shown that forgetting depends not on the amount of time that has passed since learning but on the amount, complexity and type of information that subjects have had to assimilate during the retention interval.
 Interference- the negative impact of competing information on retention

Question 92

What is the interference theory and the experiments involved? (McGeoch and McDonald)

Answer 92

• Interference theory-
o People forget information because of competition from other material
o Interference is assumed to be greatest when intervening material is most similar to test material
o Many studies changed the degree of similarity between the original material given to the subjects and the material studied in the intervening period
 McGeoch and McDonald-
• Subjects memorize test material that consisted of a list of two syllable adjectives
• Varied the similarity of intervening learning by having subjects then memorize one of 5 lists that had increasing similarity to test material
• Found that as similarity of intervening material decreased, amount of forgetting also decreased due to the reduced interference
o Two kinds of interference-
 Retroactive interference- occurs when a new information impairs the retention of previously learned information
• Occurs between the original learning and the retest on that learning, during the retention interval
• McGeoch and McDonald- retroactive interference
 Proactive interference- occurs when previously learned information interferes with the retention of new information
• Rooted in learning that comes before exposure to the test material

Question 93

What is retrieval failure and the experiments involved?

Answer 93

• Retrieval Failure-
o Retrieval failures may be more likely when a mismatch occurs between retrieval cues and the encoding of the information you’re searching for
 Encoding specificity principle- the value of a retrieval cue depends on how well it corresponds to the memory code
o Another line of research- indicates that memory is influenced by the “fit” between the processing during encoding and retrieval
 Transfer-appropriate processing- occurs when the initial processing of information is similar to the type of processing required by the subsequent measure of retention
 Morris, Bransford, Franks-
• Gave subjects a list of words and a task that required either semantic or phonemic processing
• Retention was measured with recognition tests that emphasised either the meaning or the sound of the words
• Semantic processing yielded higher retention when the testing stressed semantic factors, while phonemic processing yielded high retention when the testing stressed phonemic factors

Question 94

What is motivated forgetting and who is responsible for that theory?

Answer 94

• Motivated forgetting-
o Freud’s theory
o Repression- refers to keeping distressing thoughts and feelings buried in the unconscious
o A number of experiments suggest that people don’t remember anxiety-laden material as quickly as emotionally neutral material

Question 95

What is the recovered memories controversy?

Answer 95

o People accuse other people of abuse (such as parents, teachers… ) based on “repressed” memories, unearthed through the strong suggestions of psychologists who seek to explain their emotional problems
o Complicated issue because in the absence of corroborative evidence, there is no way to reliably distinguished genuinely recovered memories from false ones
o E.g. with the help of a church counsellor, one woman recovered memories of how her minister father had repeatedly raped her, got her pregnant and then aborted the pregnancy with a coat hanger, even though the woman was revealed to still be a virgin and that her father had had a vasectomy years before
o Also extremely easy to plant new memories in people

Question 96

What is the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm?

Answer 96

o Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm-
o Series of lists of 15 words are presented to participants
o They are asked to recall the words immediately after each list is presented and are given a recognition measure of their retention at the end of the session
o The trick is that each list consists of a set of words (frigid, ice, artic) that are strongly associated with another target words not on the list (cold)
o When subjects recall the words on each list, they remember the nonpresented target word over 50% of the time, and when they are given the final recognition test, they typically indicate that about 80% of the nonstudied target words were presented in the list
o This doesn’t work on savants (such as Kim Peek) as their lack of conceptual encoding improves their memory
o Henceforth, using the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm, false memories can be created reliably in normal, healthy participants in a matter of minutes, with no pressure or misleading information
o Memory errors can be made to items activated through “spreading activation” in semantic memory

Question 97

Why do we have false memory?

Answer 97

o Leading questions and wording of questions
o Misleading information integrated with original memory and permanently overwrites it
o Source confusion
o Social pressure
o Fitting memory to schemas and scripts
o Hypnosis improves confidence but not memory
o Misinformation paradigm Loftus (1974)- shopping mall experiment
o Loftus told parents to tell children that they had been lost in shopping mall
o Reconstructed a story around it
o Subjects remembered false memories of them being lost in a shopping mall

Question 98

What are flashbulb memories, and how confident are people about them?

Answer 98

-Unusually vivid and detailed recollections of the circumstances in which people learned about momentous, newsworthy events
o Where they were
o What they were doing
-People are very confident about their memories
-May be more remembered as they are rehearsed more

Question 99

What is confabulation and why do we do it?

Answer 99

• Personal memories also decay
o Confabulate so that we have a coherent sense of self
 Unaware that you have provided incorrect information
 A ‘filling in’ of the blanks
 To preserve self-image, image of control, completeness, coherence
 Errors in retrieval accompanied by errors in monitoring (frontal lobe issues)
o Cannot tell whether a memory is true or false if there are no witnesses
o Just because you remember the senses when you had the memory doesn’t mean it’s true.

Question 100

What did Bohannon (1988) test?

Answer 100

• Bohannon (1988) tested people’s memory for the Challenger disaster and found 77% recall after two weeks, 58% recall after 8 months

Question 101

Who is Neisser (1982) and what did he recall?

Answer 101

• Neisser (1982) recalled vividly hearing the baseball on the radio being interrupted by the news of the bombing of Pearl Harbor but it wasn’t even baseball season

Question 102

Describe the study in 2009 by Conway, Skitka, Hemmerich and Kewshaw

Answer 102

-Study in 2009 by Conway, Skitka, Hemmerich and Kershaw found that memories decay by giving test about 9/11 in 2001, 2002 and 2003.
o Events, such as giving blood, were remembered more than things like the time they heard about it or who first called them about it-unusual over inane.

Question 103

What does declarative (explicit memory) do?

Answer 103

Declarative memory-

-Handles factual information

Question 104

What are examples of declarative memory vs procedural memory

Answer 104

Declarative memory-
words, definitions
Procedural memory-
-riding a bike, typing
-person’s tensing up in response to sound of dental drill
-learn by doing it-not verbalizable
-hard to verbalize 3D space and exactly how you feel

Question 105

What is the effort required to encode for declarative memory

Answer 105

Declarative memory-

-Recall of factual information generally depends on conscious, effortful processes

Question 106

What is the difference in forgetfulness between declarative memory vs procedural memory

Answer 106

Declarative memory-
-More vulnerable to forgetting
Procedural memory-
-Doesn’t decline much over long retention intervals

Question 107

What part handles declerative memory?

Answer 107

-Appears to be handled by the medial temporal lobe memory system and the far-flung areas of the cortex with which it communicates

Question 108

What does procedural memory do?

Answer 108

• Houses memory for actions, skills, conditioned responses and emotional responses
• Unconscious associations between stimuli
• Gradually built over time

Question 109

What is the difference in effort required to encode procedural memory

Answer 109

Procedural memory-

• Memory for conditioned reflexes is largely automatic and memories for skills often require little effort and attention
• May be disrupted by attention

Question 110

What parts handle procedural memory?

Answer 110

Difficult to determine, but cerebellum and amygdala appear to contribute

Question 111

What is procedural/implicit memory vulnerable to?

Answer 111

Is vulnerable to priming-
Display or mention of one concept leads to ‘spreading activation’ to other related concepts
Can prime people to slightly change their way of thinking
e.g. mentioning robbery before saying the sentence “He walked towards the bank”

Question 112

What is an explicit memory task?

Answer 112

• Know your memory is being tested
• e.g. free recall and recognition
• subjects explicitly told to remember items from previous list  engage in intentional retrieval

Question 113

What is an implicit memory task?

Answer 113

Don’t know memory is being tested

• Not told to try to remember, just to perform a task
• e.g. fragment completion, stem completion, perceptual identification
  
  • priming

Question 114

Is explicit memory better for more deeply processed items?

Answer 114

Yes

Question 115

Is implicit memory better for more deeply processed items?

Answer 115

No-
Implicit memory not better for more deeply processed items- can be better following perceptual than semantic coding
-Strong focus on physical characteristics: if changed font or capitals, wouldn’t be as strong

Question 116

Does stimulus modality/format at encoding and retrieval (such as font and capitals) matter in implicit or explicit memory?

Answer 116

In implicit memory

Question 117

Over delay, is explicit memory or implicit memory preserved more

Answer 117

Implicit memory

Question 118

Is implicit or explicit memory better preserved in patients?

Answer 118

Implicit memory

Question 119

What is the difference between declarative or procedural memory in terms of encoding and retrieval-

Answer 119

Declarative memory-
Conceptual
Encoding: Elaboration (create linkages, chunks...)
Retrieval: Recollection (grasp around for retrieval cues)
Procedural memory-
Perceptual
Encoding: Activation
Retrieval: Familiarity

Question 120

What are the similarities and differences of the different types of declarative memory- semantic vs episodic

Answer 120

Semantic memory-
-General knowledge that is not tied to the time when the information was learned
Episodic memory-
-Made up of chronological recollections of personal experiences
Similarities-
-Have distinct seperate neural bases
-Suggest retrieval of episodic and semantic memories provide different- but overlapping patterns of activation

Question 121

What is infantile amnesia and why does it occur?

Answer 121

• Almost no memories from the first three years of life
• Could be because of:
o Trauma theory (Freud)
o Underdeveloped emotional encoding
 Episodic memory may not have developed
o Neurological causes
o Underdeveloped or incomplete schema or events or self-schema

Question 122

What is the reminiscence bump and why does it occur?

Answer 122

• Reminiscence bump
• A surprisingly large number of memories coming from the years 10 and 30 (or 15-25) see Rubin, Rahhal and Poon
• Not just personal memories either
• This could be because it is the time you engage in society and the first time you do a lot of stuff

Question 123

Does motivation to remember help at encoding or retrieval?

Answer 123

Encoding

Question 124

How can we remember better?

Answer 124

• Attitudes to study/Effort
• Use context
• Avoid interference
• Study at the best time of the day for you
• Deep encoding
• Avoid distractions
• Prepare before lectures and tutorials
• Evaluate your study technique

Question 125

What influences effort?

Answer 125

-Self-schema: strengths, weaknesses, age

Question 126

Why is context useful and what is included in context? What did Godden and Baddeley do in 1975?

Answer 126

 Retrieval is best when encoding and retrieval MATCH
• Mood
o Bad mood- only remember bad things
• Time and place
• Thoughts and feelings
• Smells
• Images
• Nature of task
 Godden and Baddeley (1975)
• Asked participants to learn words either on land or 20 feet underwater
• Were asked to later recall the words on land or underwater
o Recall was best when the contexts matched
o Recognition was unaffected by context

Question 127

What is interference, and is similarity important in interference?

Answer 127

• Interference is competition from other material

- Similarity is important

Question 128

What is retroactive interference?

Answer 128

-New material affects old material

Question 129

What is proactive interference?

Answer 129

-Old material affects new material

Question 130

What is deep encoding and what happens?What did Brandsford and Johnson find (1972)?

Answer 130

 Don’t just hoard materials
 Don’t offload  get comfortable by putting your memory on external storage because it actually reduces organic memory (Storm and Stone and Benjamin study)
• Offload on phone instead of experiencing the event
• Comfort= reduced memory
 Ask questions/ elaboration of material
 Structure material semantically
 Self-referent encoding
 Reading the same information from different sources and authors
 Semantic structuring of information allows for more effective chunking, and allows you to relate the information you are trying to learn to what you know
 Elaboration creates more retrieval cues
 Brandsford and Johnson (1972)-
• Balloon text vs picture
o People who were shown the picture before the text remembered more than just those with the text
o Memory and understanding is doubled if you understand the context beforehand
o Repetition without understanding doesn very little

Question 131

What conditions, in terms of distractions, are best for study?

Answer 131

 Silence is best
• Music interferes as much as speech (Perham and Vizard 2011)
 Seek serenity before or after study periods
• Sleep
• Walk/jog with phone switched off

Question 132

Why is our processing speed affected when we age?

Answer 132

• Neurons die across our lifespan and myelination is reduced, affecting processing speed

Question 133

Why does it seem that we forget more as we grow older? What study showed this?

Answer 133

• Encoding and retrieving memories (particularly in new areas) requires effort across the entire lifespan
• Attributions change across the lifespan
• However, you forget things at the same rate as 20 year old than as a 60 year old
• Recall requires effort- as you get older, stop trying as hard as you think it’s fruitless and that you’re extremely old
• Aging and attitudes, and memory-
o American schema of “old people”
 Slow, forgetful, frail
o Chinese schema of “old people”
 Friendly, kind, wise
 Langer and Levy (1994)
o Rahal, Hasher and Colcombe (2001)
 Memory task where half the subjects were told it was testing memory ability and the other half were told it was assessing their ability to learn trivia
 Did worse in the memory task than the trivia task, even though they were exactly the same

Question 134

What is a free recall task?

Answer 134

report items from earlier study episode

Question 135

What is a recognition task and what makes them easy/hard

Answer 135

• Recognition task- select previously studied items from mixture of old and new items
o Recognition task provides a cue that can activate the memory network
o However, cues may prime the wrong information
o MC questions can be harder because you have to discriminate between exactly right and nearly right answers  wrong answer might activate an incorrect memory
o Need to have processed elaborately to retrieve related information and choose correct answer

Question 136

What are ways to improve everyday memory?

Answer 136

• Engage in adequate rehearsal
• Test yourself
• Overlearn material
• Schedule distributed practice and minimize interference
• Engage in deep processing and organise information
• Mnemonic devices

Question 137

Why does rehearsal help, and what forms of rehearsal are useless?

Answer 137

o Practice leads to improved retention
o Rehearsal helps transfer information into long term memory
o Rereading- good for recall but unclear if it helps with comprehension
 Low utility as inefficient compared to other techniques
o Summarisation-low utility
o Highlighting- low utility

Question 138

What does testing yourself do, and what studies were done on this?

Answer 138

o Testing effect- testing actually enhances retention
 Studies have shown that taking a test on material increases performance on a subsequent test even more than studying for an equal amount of time
 The testing effect was observed in both closed book and open book exams
• Roediger and Karpicke (2006)
• Experiment 1:
o Considered prose passages (~260 words)
o Participants:
 Studied for 7 minutes; then studied for 7 minutes OR
 Studied for 7 minutes; then ‘tested’ for 7 minutes
• Recall test was just a blank sheet with the title of the passage
• Recall test 5 minutes, 2 days and 7 days after:
o 5 minutes after, study study technique worked
o 2 days and 7 days, it worked a lot less than study test technique
• Experiment 2-
o Four study/test periods instead of two
o SSSS, SSST or STTT
 After 5 minutes, those who studied loads did better, but after 1 week, those who tested loads did better
 If participants are provided feedback on test performance, favourable effects of testing are enhanced
 Forces students to engage in effortful retrieval of information which promotes future retention
• Even unsuccessful retrieval efforts can enhance retention

Question 139

What is overlearning and what study was done on it?

Answer 139

o Overlearning- continued rehearsal of material after you first appear to have mastered it
 Krueger- after subjects had mastered a list of nouns, Krueger required them to continue rehearsing for 50% or 100% more trials
• Measuring retention at intervals up to 28 days,Krueger found that greater overlearning was related to better recall of the list
 Although extremely good as a weekly thing, evidence on its long term benefits (months later) is inconsistent
o

Question 140

What is the serial position effect?

Answer 140

occurs when subjects show better recall for items at the beginning and end of a list than for items in the middle

Question 141

Is retention better after distributed practice or massed practice?

Answer 141

Distributed practice

Question 142

If the retention material is longer, should there be a longer or shorter break between practice trials?

Answer 142

Longer

Question 143

How can you minimise interference?

Answer 143

Study the thing you need to remember before the test

Question 144

Does placing meaning to what you’re learning increase retention?

Answer 144

Yes

Question 145

What is less critical to retention: How often you go over material or the depth of processing you engage in?

Answer 145

How often you go over material

Question 146

What does outlining force you to do?

Answer 146

Organize material hierarchically

Question 147

What are different types of mnemonic devices and what are they?

Answer 147

o Acrostics- phrases (or poems) in which the first letter of each word (or line) functions as a cue to help you recall information to be remembered
o Acronym- a word formed out of the first letters of a series of words. Takes advantage of chunking
o Rhymes
o Link method- involves forming a mental image of items to be remembered in a way that links them together
o Method of loci- involves taking an imaginary walk along a familiar path where images of items to be remembered are associated with certain locations
 Ensures that items are remembered in their correct order because the order is determined by the sequence of locations along the pathway
 Pathway from home to work more effective than pathway through one’s home

Question 148

What is in the central nervous system?

Answer 148

• Brain

- Spinal cord

Question 149

What is the structure and function of the spinal cord?

Answer 149

o Spinal cord
 Long thin structure attached to the base of the brain and running the length of the spinal column
• Bundle of axons travelling up to the brain
 Cable of neural fibres with spinal roots branching off
 Sensory nerves coming in, motor nerves going out
• Transmits sensory information to the brain or uses motor nerve to travel out to the body
 An interface between the brain and peripheral nervous system
• Directly connected to sensory, motor and autonomic nerves

Question 150

What is grey matter?

Answer 150

portions of the central nervous system that are abundant in cell bodies of neurons rather than axons. The colour appears grey relative to white matter

Question 151

What is white matter?

Answer 151

portions of the central nervous system that are abundant in axons rather than cell bodies of neurons. The color derives from the presence of the axons’ myelin sheaths

Question 152

How many neurons is the CNS estimated to contain?

Answer 152

100 billion neurons

Question 153

Do neurons regenerate? Why/Why not?

Answer 153

o Neurons DO NOT regenerate
 If we turned over neurons all the time, it would have a negative impact on our learning skills as we’d lose the information we’d learnt after the lifespan of that neuron

Question 154

What is in the peripheral nervous system?

Answer 154

• Cranial and spinal nerves
• Sensory nerves
• Motor nerves
• Autonomic nervous system
• Enteric nervous system

Question 155

What is the cranial nerve?

Answer 155

a bundle of nerve fibres attached to the base of the brain; conveys sensory information from the face and head and carries messages to muscles and glands

Question 156

What is the spinal nerve?

Answer 156

a bundle of nerve fibres attached to the spinal cord; conveys sensory information from the body and carries messages to muscles and glands

Question 157

What is a nerve?

Answer 157

a bundle of nerve fibres that transmit information between the central nervous system and the body’s sense organs, muscles and glands

Question 158

What is a sensory nerve?

Answer 158

Input to CNS from sensory organs

Question 159

What is a motor nerve?

Answer 159

Output from CNS to muscles

Question 160

How is the autonomic nervous system organised and what does it do?

Answer 160

 Controls many non-voluntary bodily functions
• 2 branches:
o Sympathetic- prepares for action
o Parasympathetic- involved in rest and recuperation
 Uses same neurotransmitters as brain (Ach and NA)  some drugs used to treat psychological/neurological conditions in brain can affect function of ANS
 Controls the 4 F’s of life
• Feeding, fight or flight syndrome and fucking

Question 161

What is enteric nervous system?

Answer 161

 Half a billion neurons located in the walls of gastrointestinal tract from oesophagus to anus
 Interaction with the brain via sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system, but can also function independently: sometimes referred to as 2nd brain

Question 162

What is the function of the enteric nervous system?

Answer 162

 Controls digestive activity (peristalsis and secretion of enzymes) and sense physical and chemical conditions of the gut
 Uses same neurotransmitters as in brain, including dopamine and serotonin (95% of all serotonin in body comes from the gut)

Question 163

Why is the content of our gut important?

Answer 163

 Content of our gut is important for psychological processes
• Gut is full of microorganisms
• More microorganisms in gut than cells in the human body
• Organisms interact with our gut  symbiotic relationship
• Bacteria can release chemicals in blood which can influence behaviour
• Type of bacteria in our gut linked to disorders such as anxiety, depression, insomnia …
• Organisms in gut have a beneficial relationship to immune system
• Antibiotics can wipe up the good bacteria in our gut

Question 164

How does the nervous system work as a cohesive unit?

Answer 164

• Central nervous system communicates with the rest of the body through the peripheral nervous system
• Sensory information is conveyed from sensory organs to the brain and spinal cord.
o Information from the head and neck region reaches the brain through the cranial nerves
o Sensory information from the rest of the body reaches the spinal cord (and ultimately the brain) through the spinal nerves
• The cranial and spinal nerves also carry information away from the central nervous system

Question 165

What are the two major divisions of the PNS?

Answer 165

Somatic nervous system:
-Sensory nerves
-Motor nerves
Autonomic nervous system:
-Sympathetic branch
-Parasympethetic branch

Question 166

What is the formal definition of the somatic nervous system?

Answer 166

The portion of the peripheral nervous system that transmits information from sense organs to the central nervous system and from the central nervous system to muscles

Question 167

What is the formal definition of the autonomic nervous system

Answer 167

The portion of the peripheral nervous system that controls the functions of the glands and internal organs

Question 168

What does the sympathetic branch do?

Answer 168

Support of activities that require the expenditure of energy (increased blood flow to muscles, increased supply of nutrients of muscles)

• The portion of the autonomic nervous system that activates functions that accompany arousal and expenditure of energy
• Prepares you for action
• Responds to stressful situations

Question 169

What does the parasympathetic branch of the nervous system do?s

Answer 169

Support of quiet activities that help restore energy supplies (increased blood flow to digested system, secretion of digestive enzymes)
-The portion of the autonomic system that activates functions that occur during a relaxed state

Question 170

What is the effect of the sympathetic nervous system on the lachrymal gland/Eye?

Answer 170

Lachrymal glands- secretion of tears

Pupil- dilation

Question 171

What is the effect of the parasympathetic nervous system on the lachrymal gland/Eye?

Answer 171

Pupil-constriction

Question 172

What is the effect of the sympathetic nervous system on the blood vessels?

Answer 172

Abdomen-constriction
Muscles- dilation
Skin-constriction

Question 173

What is the effect of the parasympathetic nervous system on the blood vessels?

Answer 173

Abdomen-dilation
Muscles-constriction
Skin-dilation

Question 174

What is the effect of the sympathetic nervous system on the stomach?

Answer 174

Inhibition of contractions and secretion of stomach acid

Question 175

What is the effect of the parasympathetic nervous system on the stomach?

Answer 175

Contractions, secretion of stomach acid

Question 176

What is the effect of the sympathetic nervous system on the intestines?

Answer 176

Decreased activity

Question 177

What is the effect of the parasympathetic nervous system on the intestines

Answer 177

Increased activity

Question 178

What is the effect of the sympathetic nervous system on the bladder?

Answer 178

Inhibition of contraction

Question 179

What is the effect of the parasympathetic nervous system on the bladder?

Answer 179

Contraction

Question 180

What is the effect of the sympathetic nervous system on the salivary gland?

Answer 180

Secretion of thick saliva

Question 181

What is the effect of the parasympathetic nervous system on the salivary gland?

Answer 181

Secretion of thin saliva

Question 182

What is the effect of the sympathetic nervous system on the skin?

Answer 182

Sweating, piloerection

Question 183

What is the effect of the sympathetic nervous system on the heart?

Answer 183

Faster rate of contraction

Question 184

What is the effect of the parasympathetic nervous system on the heart?

Answer 184

Slower rate of contraction

Question 185

What is the effect of the sympathetic nervous system on the adrenal gland?

Answer 185

Secretion of adrenalin

Question 186

What is the effect of the sympathetic nervous system on the external genitalia?

Answer 186

Ejaculation/orgasm

Question 187

What is the effect of the parasympathetic nervous system on the external genitalia?

Answer 187

Erection/vaginal lubrication

Question 188

What type and how many cells does the brain have?

Answer 188

• Contains approximately 100 billion neural cells and as many helper cells (which take care of important support and housekeeping functions)
• These cells differ in shape, size, and the kinds of chemicals they produce, and they perform different functions

Question 189

What are the 3 major functions of the brain?

Answer 189

• Contains approximately 100 billion neural cells and as many helper cells (which take care of important support and housekeeping functions)
• These cells differ in shape, size, and the kinds of chemicals they produce, and they perform different functions

Question 190

What is the relationship between the brain and energy?

Answer 190

• Contains approximately 100 billion neural cells and as many helper cells (which take care of important support and housekeeping functions)
• These cells differ in shape, size, and the kinds of chemicals they produce, and they perform different functions

Question 191

What is the relationship between the brain and oxygen?

Answer 191

• Loss of oxygen to brain leads to loss of consciousness in 10 seconds, and irreversible brain damage in minutes

Question 192

What is adjustment and anchoring?

Answer 192

 People make estimates by starting from an initial value that is adjusted to yield the final answer- different starting points yield different estimates, which are biased toward the initial values
 Estimates may also be made on incomplete computations- the order of the computations (e.g. descending sequence of numbers vs ascending) may lead to higher or lower estimates
 People tend to overestimate the probability of conjunctive events and to underestimate the probability of disjunctive events

Question 193

What are misconceptions of regression?

Answer 193

 Data regresses towards the mean (if a student did well in first test, more likely on average to do worse on second and vice-versa)

Question 194

What is anchoring in the assessment of subjective probability distributions

Answer 194

 People will state overly narrow confidence intervals which reflect more certainty than is justified by their knowledge

Question 195

What is conformation biases?

Answer 195

seek information that confirms our beliefs and ignore information that does not
 Illusion of validity- search for an outcome that is the most representative of the input

Question 196

Explain how we seek order in randomness and ignore change

Answer 196

 People expect that a sequence of events generated by a random process will represent the essential characteristics of that process even when the sequence is short.
• For example, people regard the sequence H-T-H-T-T-H when tossing a coin to be more likely than H-H-H-T-T-T which looks less random than the first one, even if the odds are the same
 Chance is commonly viewed as a self-correcting process in which a deviation in one direction induces a deviation in the opposite direction to restore the equilibrium

Question 197

Why are we insensitive to prior probability of outcomes?

Answer 197

 One of the factors that have no effect on representativeness but should have a major effect on probability is the prior probability of the outcomes
 If people evaluate probability by presentiveness (stereotypes), therefore, prior probabilities will be neglected
 Will make judgements based on biases and stereotypes regardless of prior probability outcomes: for example, if given the stereotype of an engineer and the sample size is 10 engineers and 90 lawyers, more likely to link that person to the engineer profession regardless of the low probability that this is actually true

Question 198

Explain how we ignore base rates/ sample size

Answer 198

 To evaluate the probability of obtaining a particular result in a sample drawn from a specified population, people typically apply the representativeness heuristic.
• They assess the likelihood of a sample result by the similarity of this result to the corresponding parameter (for example, saying that most men in sample will be of mean height of men, ignoring sample size).
 Intuitive judgments are dominated by the sample proportion and are essentially unaffected by the size of the sample
• Ignore central limit theory for example equal number of students thought that equally likely that small hospital and large hospital would deviate the most days from their normal 50% boy statistic

Question 199

How can our insensitivity to predictability be described?

Answer 199

 People predict solely in terms of representiveness, making their predictions insensitive to the reliability of the evidence and to the expected accuracy of the prediction

Question 200

What is the certainty effect?

Answer 200

the psychological effect resulting from the reduction of probability from certainty to probable

Question 201

What is the pseudocertainty effect?

Answer 201

the tendency for people to perceive an outcome as certain while it is usually uncertain

Question 202

Where is the brain stem?

Answer 202

-At the base of the brain

Question 203

What does the brainstem do?

Answer 203

• Controls physiological functions and automatic behaviors

- Life supporting functions

Question 204

What parts does the brain stem include?

Answer 204

Medulla, pons and midbrain

Question 205

How is damage to the brainstem achieved?

Answer 205

• Damage to brainstem following head injury leads to coma and death (increase in intracranial pressure squashes brainstem)
• Increase in intracranial pressure may be achieved by internal bleeding/rupturing a blood vessel in the meninges- this causes pressure to go towards the centre of the brain

Question 206

Where is the cerebellum?

Answer 206

Back of the brain stem

Question 207

What does the cerebellum do?

Answer 207

• Control and coordinate movements, especially rapid, skilled movements (including learned ones)
• Receives information from the cortex of the frontal loves so it knows what movements the frontal lobes intend to accomplish AND receives sensory information about the position of body parts
• Calculates the location of body parts with the intended movements and assists the frontal lobes in executing these movements

Question 208

What is the cerebellum and what happens if it is damaged?

Answer 208

A pair of hemispheres resembling the central hemispheres but much smaller and lying beneath and in the back of them

• If cerebellum is damaged, there is difficulty moving and only jerky, uncoordinated movements can be made
• Has most neurons in the brain
• Most movements require several muscles

Question 209

Where are the cerebral hemispheres?

Answer 209

-Under the cortex

Question 210

What is the function of the cerebral hemispheres?

Answer 210

-Perceptions, memories and behaviour

Question 211

What is the cerebral hemisphere?

Answer 211

• The largest part of the brain: covered by the cerebral cortex and containing parts of the brain that evolved most recently
• Two halves of the cerebrum

Question 212

Where is the cerebral cortex/Neocortex?

Answer 212

Convoluted sheet on top of the brain

Question 213

What function does the neocortex do?

Answer 213

-Perceptions, memories and formulation and execution of plants

Question 214

What is the neocortex and how is it structured?

Answer 214

• Thin layer of tissue approximately 3 mm thick and is made up of 6 layers- thickness of the cortex is fixed
• Contains billions of neural cells which are connected to other parts of the brain by bundles of nerve fibres (white matter)
• Very wrinkled and is full of bulges (gyri) separated by grooves (fissures)
• Fissures and gyri expand the amount of surface area of the cortex and greatly increase the number of neural cells it can contain
• Humans and larger primates have the largest cerebral cortex
• Pattern of folds determined genetically
• Info passed from one layer to another in a particular fashion

Question 215

Where is the medulla?

Answer 215

Part of the brain stem adjacent to the spinal cord

Question 216

What does the medulla do?

Answer 216

Controls heart rate, blood pressure, rate of respiration, crawling or swimming motions

Question 217

Where is the pons?

Answer 217

Part of the brain stem just above the medulla

Question 218

What does the pons do?

Answer 218

Controls sleep and wakefulness

Question 219

Where is the midbrain?

Answer 219

Part of the brain stem above the pons

Question 220

What does the midbrain do?

Answer 220

-Controls movements used in fighting and sexual behaviour and decreases sensitivity to pain while a person is engaged in these activities

Question 221

Where is the hypothalamus?

Answer 221

Below the thalamus, at the base of the brain

Question 222

What does the hypothalamus do?

Answer 222

• Homeostasis and species-typical behaviours
• Receives sensory information from in and out of the body
• Involved in hormonal regulation and motivational control (feeding and sex)
• Controls pituitary gland, endocrine gland attached by a stalk to the base of the hypothalamus
• Controls activity of the autonomic nervous system

Question 223

Where is the thalamus?

Answer 223

Located in the heart of the cerebral hemispheres

-Divided into 2 parts, one in each cerebral hemisphere

Question 224

What does the thalamus do?

Answer 224

• Receives sensory information, integrates this information and assists other brain regions in the control of movements
• Significant for behavioural functions
• All sensory information except for olfaction is sent to the thalamus before it reaches the cerebral cortex
• Sensory relay to cortex
• Allows for control of what sensory information gets filtered out and what doesn’t

Question 225

Where is the basal ganglia?

Answer 225

Located next to the thalamus, wrapping around it

Question 226

What is the function of the basal ganglia?

Answer 226

• Involved in the control of slow movements and movements that involve large muscles of the body
• Plays an important part in learning
• Necessary to learn skilled behaviours
• Involved in action and thought
• Involved in process of selecting what actions are appropriate in a certain situation
• Filters out what actions you don’t want to perform

Question 227

What is the basal ganglia and what disease affects it?

Answer 227

• A group of neurons in the brain interconnected with the cerebral cortex, thalamus and brain stem
• Parkinson’s disease caused by degeneration of dopamine-secreting neurons in the midbrain whose axons travel parts of the basal ganglia
• Release of dopamine in basal ganglia helps facilitate movements

Question 228

Where is the limbic system?

Answer 228

Located in the cerebral hemispheres, wrapping around the thalamus

Question 229

What does the limbic system do?

Answer 229

• Important role in learning, memory and expression of emotion
• Involved in control of emotion and memory

Question 230

What is the limbic system?

Answer 230

A set of interconnected structures of the brain that includes the amygdala, hippocampus and limbic cortex

Question 231

Where is the hippocampus?

Answer 231

Limbic system

Question 232

What does the hippocampus do?

Answer 232

• Involved in learning things we can talk about such as episodes in our lives and in learning to get from place to place in our environment
• Episodic memory

Question 233

What happens if the hippocampus is damaged?

Answer 233

People lose the ability to learn anything new

Question 234

Where is the amygdala?

Answer 234

Lymbic system- temporal lobe just in front of the hippocampus

Question 235

What does the amygdala do?

Answer 235

Affects emotional behaviour especially negative emotions

-Controls physiological reactions that help provide energy for short-term activity such as fighting or fleeing

Question 236

What happens if the amygdala is destroyed?

Answer 236

• If amygdala is destroyed, no longer reacts and prevent events that normally produce stress and anxiety
• People with damage there are not aware of their own behaviours.

Question 237

Where is the corpus callosum?

Answer 237

Located in between the two hemispheres

Question 238

What is the function of the corpus callosum?

Answer 238

Connects corresponding parts of the left and right hemispheres
-Unifies our perception of the world and our memories

Question 239

What is the corpus callosum?

Answer 239

• A large band of axons that connects cerebral hemispheres

Question 240

What is an endocrine gland

Answer 240

A gland that secretes a hormone

Question 241

What is a hormone

Answer 241

A chemical substance that has psychological effects on target cells in other organs

Question 242

What does the hypothalamus gland do?

Answer 242

Controls the pituitary gland

Question 243

What does the pituitary gland do?

Answer 243

Control of kidneys, adrenal cortex and ovaries of testes

Question 244

What does the thyroid gland do

Answer 244

Controls metabolism

Question 245

What does the parathyroid gland do?

Answer 245

Control of mineral balance

Question 246

What does the pancreas do?

Answer 246

Controls carbohydrate metabolism

Question 247

What does the adrenal medulla do?

Answer 247

Breakdowns energy stores and increases blood pressure

Question 248

What does the adrenal cortex do?

Answer 248

Stress hormones

Question 249

What do the ovaries do?

Answer 249

Estrogen-female development, control of menstrual cycles and progesterone-maintenance of pregnancy

Question 250

What do the testes do?

Answer 250

Male development, control of production of sperms

Question 251

What protects the nervous system/brain

Answer 251

• Skull
• Meninges
• Cerebrospinal fluid (CFS)
• Cerebral ventricles
• Blood-brain barrier

Question 252

What is the skull made of?

Answer 252

Bone

Question 253

What does the skull do?

Answer 253

Encases and protects the brain

Question 254

What is the meninges made of

Answer 254

Three layered set of membranes between bone and nervous system

• Dura mater
  1. Tough outer membrane
• Arachnoid membrane
  2. Web like appearance of spongy substance that allows the blood vessels to pass through. Provides cushioning
• Pia matter
  3. Very thing membrane stuck against the brain

Question 255

What does the meninges do?

Answer 255

Encloses both the brain and spinal cord

Question 256

What is the cerebrospinal fluid?

Answer 256

A clear liquid in which the brain and spinal cord float

Question 257

What does the cerebrospinal fluid do?

Answer 257

Fills the space between two of the meninges layers and provides a cushion surrounding the brain and the spinal cord, protecting them from being bruised by the bones that encase them

• Shock absorption cushion
• Provides nutrients to the brain

Question 258

What is the cerebral ventricle made of?

Answer 258

Hollow, fluid-filled chambers located within the brain

Question 259

What does the cerebral ventricle do?

Answer 259

Produces the CSF.

• Sewerage system of CNS
• Brain waste doesn’t go back in the blood it goes there
• 4 ventricles all connected to each other
• From the 4th ventricle it passes through subarachnoid space surrounding the brain and spinal cord: CSF is absorbed through blood vessels over the surface of the brain back into the bloodstream
• Blockage causes hydrocephalus (inflates ventricles and squashes the brain)

Question 260

What is the blood-brain barrier?

Answer 260

Blood vessels supplying blood to CNS have special walls that have smaller openings than body capillaries, restricting the entry of many chemicals into CNS

Question 261

What does the blood-brain barrier do?

Answer 261

Makes it less likely that toxic chemicals found in what we eat or drink can find their way into the brain, where they might do damage to neurons
-Heroin more potent opiate than morphine because heroin more readily crosses blood barrier- once inside the brain, heroin is converted into morphine

Question 262

What is the cerebral cortex’s central fissure?

Answer 262

Provides important dividing line between the front part of the cerebral cortex and the back regions

Question 263

How is the cerebral cortex organised?

Answer 263

• Central fissure
• Frontal lobe
• Parietal lobe
• Temporal lobe
• Occipital lobe

Question 264

Where is the frontal lobe located?

Answer 264

Front of the brain

Question 265

Where is the parietal lobe located?

Answer 265

Against the wall of the brain

Question 266

Where is the temporal lobe located?

Answer 266

At the temple

Question 267

Where is the occipital lobe located?

Answer 267

Against the head

Question 268

What does the frontal lobe do?

Answer 268

Involved in movement, planning and flexibility in behavioural strategies (executive functions)

• Contain a region involved in the control of speech
• Emotions

Question 269

What does the parietal lobe do?

Answer 269

Involved in spatial perception and memory and perception of stimuli

• Left parietal lobe- plays an important role in our ability to keep track of the location of the moving parts of our own body
• Right parietal lobe- helps us keep track of the space around us

Question 270

What does the temporal lobe do?

Answer 270

Involved in memory and language and contains auditory cortex

Question 271

What does the occipital lobe do?

Answer 271

Contains primary visual cortex and devoted to vision

Question 272

What are the dangers to frontal lobe damage?

Answer 272

• Difficulties adopting new strategies and difficulty making plans
• Most often damaged areas of the brain as they are adjacent to large portions of the skull and can collide with it
• Hard to rehabilitate

Question 273

What are the dangers to parietal lobe damage?

Answer 273

Disrupts people’s ability to perceive and remember the locations of items in their environments

• Damage to left parietal lobe can disrupt the ability to read and write
• Damage to right parietal lobe can interfere with people’s ability to perceive designs and 3D shapes and pay attention to stimuli located toward the left side of the body

Question 274

What are the dangers of occipital lobe damage?

Answer 274

Induces blindness

Question 275

What does contralateral mean?

Answer 275

Residing in the side of the body opposite to the reference point

Question 276

What does ipsilateral mean?

Answer 276

Ipsilateral means residing in the same side of the body at the reference point

Question 277

What are the different cortex regions?

Answer 277

• Primary sensory cortex
• Primary visual cortex
• Primary auditory cortex
• Primary somatosensory cortex
• Primary motor cortex
• Association cortex
• Sensory association cortex
• Motor association cortex

Question 278

What does the primary sensory cortex do and what is it made of?

Answer 278

• Has three regions of primary sensory cortex in each hemisphere
• Primary visual cortex
• Primary auditory cortex
• Primary somatosensory cortex
• Each region receives sensory information in a contralateral manner, except for smell and taste, which is received in an ipsilateral manner

Question 279

What does the primary visual cortex do, where is it and what happens when it is damaged ?

Answer 279

Region of cerebral cortex that receives information directly from the visual system; located in the occipital lobes
-A small lesion in the primary visual cortex produces a hole in a specific part of the field of vision

Question 280

What does the primary auditory cortex do, where is it located and what happens when it is damaged?

Answer 280

Region of cerebral cortex that receives information directly from the auditory systems; located in the upper temporal lobes
-Leads to hearing losses

Question 281

What does the primary somatosensory cortex do, where is it located

Answer 281

Region of the cerebral cortex that receives information directly from the somatosensory system (touch, pressure, vibration, pain and temperature) ; located in the front part of the parietal lobes

Question 282

What does the primary motor cortex do, where is it located and what happens to it when it is damaged?

Answer 282

Region of the cerebral cortex that directly controls the movements of the body

• Located in the posterior part of the frontal lobe
• Contralateral
• If damaged, side of the body opposite to the brain damage will be paralysed

Question 283

What does the association cortex do?

Answer 283

In charge of perceiving, learning, remembering, planning and moving

Question 284

What does the sensory association cortex do, where is it located and what happens when it is damaged?

Answer 284

Analyse information received from the primary sensory cortex

• Perceptions takes place there, and memories are stored there
• Most regions of the sensory association cortex receive information from more than one sensory system, which makes it possible to integrate information from more than one sensory system
• Damage to the visual association cortex (located in lower portion of temporal lobe) will not cause blindness but they will not be able to recognise objects by sight
• Damage to the left association cortex causes language deficits- lose the ability to produce meaningful speech
• Damage to the right auditory association cortex affects people’s ability to recognise nonspeech sounds, including patterns of tones and rhythms and can impair their ability to perceive the location of sounds in the environment

Question 285

What does the motor association cortex do and where is it located?

Answer 285

• Controls the primary motor cortex
• Directly controls behaviour
• In prefrontal cortex
• Sensory association cortex sends information about the environment (and information about what we have learned from past experience) to the motor association cortex which translates the information into plans and actions

Question 286

What does the left hemisphere do?

Answer 286

Analysis of information – extraction of elements that make up the whole of an experience
Good at recognising serial events
Controls serial behaviours
For example talking, reading and writing

Question 287

What does the right hemisphere do?

Answer 287

Specialised for synthesis- particularly good at putting isolated elements together to perceive things as a whole
Good for constructing complex objects out of smaller elements
Very important in the perception of space
Metaphorical and synthesis processes
e.g. drawing sketches, reading maps, understanding metaphorical statements

Question 288

Differences in nervous system between species

Answer 288

• Nervous system almost a defining feature of animals:
o Sea sponge is only member of animal kingdom without a nervous system
o Roundworm has 302 neurons
o Simple “nerve nets” in jellyfish (5,000- 10,000 neurons)
o Nervous system has more complex organization in insects
 Clusters of neurons (“ganglia”) forming cord or “brain”
 Some specialisation of neurons (e.g. motor vs sensory)
• Vertebrates have separation between PNS and CNS (cord and brain)
• Among vertebrates, large differences in relative size of different regions of brain, reflecting complexity of behaviour
o Large increase in size of forebrain across vertebrates; appearance (and enlargement) of neocortex in mammals

Question 289

What are neurons and what can they do?

Answer 289

• Elements of the nervous system that brings sensory information to the brain, store memories, reach decisions and control the activity of the muscles
• Neurons can receive information from other neurons, process this information and communicate the processed information to other neurons
• Neurons send binary (on/off) signals to each other
• Neurons contain structures specialised for receiving, processing and transmitting information

Question 290

What are glia?

Answer 290

Hold neurons in place

Question 291

What are the different types of glia?

Answer 291

o Guide developing neurons from their place of origin to their final resting place
o Manufacture chemicals that neurons need to perform and absorb chemicals that might impair neurons’ functioning
o Form protective insulating sheaths around nerve fibres
o Serve as the brain’s immune system, protecting it from invading microorganisms

Question 292

What is the structure of the nerve

Answer 292

• Dendrites
• Soma
• Axon
• Terminal buttons
• Myelin
• Neuron membrane

Question 293

What are dendrites?

Answer 293

-Treelike growths attached to the body of a neural cell on which other neurons form synapses

Question 294

What do dendrites do?

Answer 294

Receives messages from other neurons

Question 295

What are soma?

Answer 295

-Cell body

Question 296

What does the soma do?

Answer 296

Contains the mechanisms that control the metabolism and the maintenance of the cell
-Soma also receives messages from other neurons

Question 297

What is the axon?

Answer 297

Long thin part of a neuron attached to the soma, divides into a few or many branches, ending in terminal buttons

Question 298

What does the axon do?

Answer 298

Carries messages away from the soma towards the cells with which the neuron communicates

Question 299

What is the terminal button?

Answer 299

Round swelling at the end of the axon

Question 300

What does the terminal button do?

Answer 300

Secrete a chemical called a neurotransmitter whenever an action potential is sent down the axon

• The neurotransmitter affects the activity of the other cells with which the neuron communicates
• The message is chemically conveyed from one neuron to another

Question 301

What is the myelin?

Answer 301

• Substance that is part protein part fat
• Is produced by glial cells that wrap parts of themselves around segments of the axon, leaving small bare patches of the axon between them
• Multiple Sclerosis disorder- Person’s immune system begins to attack a protein in the myelin sheath of axons in the central nervous system, stripping it away: causes a variety of neurological symptoms

Question 302

What does myelin do?

Answer 302

• Insulates many axons, especially long ones, from one another and preventing the scrambling of messages
• Increases the speed of the action potential

Question 303

What is a neuron membrane?

Answer 303

Lipid membrane

Question 304

What does the neuron membrane do?

Answer 304

-Membrane is semipermeable, allowing the neuron to control the concentration of positively and negatively charged ions inside it

Question 305

What is an action potential?

Answer 305

A brief electrochemical reversal event that is carried by an axon from the soma of the neuron to its terminal buttons; causes the release of a neurotransmitter
-Neuron can remain on for a small fraction of a second, but can switch on and off many times a second

Question 306

What is the voltage of a resting axon?

Answer 306

Near 70 millivolts

Question 307

What is resting potential?

Answer 307

The membrane potential of a neuron when it is not producing an action potential. It occurs because of an uneqal distribution of positively and negatively charged particles inside the axon and in the fluid that surrounds it

Question 308

What two states can a neuron be in?

Answer 308

-Off when polarised (at rest)-On when it flips to a depolarised state

Question 309

What channels does the membrane of the axon have?

Answer 309

Sodium and potassium

Question 310

How does the action potential work?

Answer 310

1. Action potential is caused when the end of the axon attached to the soma becomes excited, which opens sodium ion channels located there
2. The opening of these ion channels permits positively charged sodium ions to enter which reverses the membrane potential at that location
3. This reversal causes nearby ion channels to open, which produces another reversal at that point
   a. AP is localised to small segment of membrane and spreads along the membrane
4. The process continues all the way to the terminal buttons at the ends of the branches at the other end of the axon
5. As soon as the charge reverses, the sodium ion channels close, and potassium ion channels open for a short time, letting positively charged potassium ions flow out of the axon
6. This outflow of positive ions restores the normal electric charge
7. After an action potential has moved along the axon, the ion transporters pump sodium back out of the axon and pump potassium ions back in, restoring the normal balance
8. Hyperpolarisation after AP prevents it from moving back onto itself
   a. Hyperpolarisation is the name given to the period of overshoot of the interior cell potential to values more negative than the normal rest state.
   b. One influence in this phase is the fact that the sodium gates remain closed and lack of sodium mobility across the membrane causes the potassium process to proceed toward the value of -80mV which would occur if potassium alone were present
   c. Hyperpolarisation prevents the neuron from receiving another stimulus during this time, or at least raises the threshold for any new stimulus
   d. Ensures that the signal is proceeding in one direction

Question 311

What is the all or none law?

Answer 311

The principle that once an action potential is triggered in an axon, it is propagated, without becoming smaller, to the end of the axon

Question 312

What triggers a high rate of firing in axons?

Answer 312

Strong stimuli

Question 313

How does myelin prevent depolarisoation

Answer 313

o Depolarisation can only occur at gaps between myelin sheath
o Result is that myelin speeds up propagation of action potential (action potential jumps from gap to gap
o Some neurons in nervous system have myelin and some don’t- those with myelin are faster (e.g. 2 types of pain fibres)

Question 314

Why are neurons digital, and not AC?

Answer 314

• Neurons are digital and can convey only one bit of information at a time (on vs off)
o Digital coding has much higher fidelity  eliminates interference
o Analogue coding would be AP is graded in size- this could result in interfering “noise” and signals would become unclear

Question 315

How are neurons related to sophistication of brain function?

Answer 315

• Sophistication of brain function due to:
o High speed of information transmission
o Enormous number of neurons
o Complexity of connections between neurons (circuitry)

Question 316

What does different spacing of action potentials do?

Answer 316

• Different spacing of AP might convey information to the nervous system
o Action potentials of different nerves can form unique patterns when they all work together

Question 317

What is the synapse?

Answer 317

the junction between the terminal button of one neuron and the membrane of a muscle fibre, a gland or another neuron

Question 318

What is synaptic transmission?

Answer 318

The process through which neurons communicate with other cells. The vast majority of neurons communicate via chemical transmission across synapse

Question 319

What is the presynaptic neuron?

Answer 319

A neurons whose terminal buttons form synapses with and excite or inhibit another neuron. Sends the neurotransmitter

Question 320

What is the postsynaptic neuron?

Answer 320

• A neuron with which the terminal buttons of another neuron form synpases and that is excited or inhibited by that neuron. Receives the neurotransmitter

Question 321

What is the synaptic vesicle?

Answer 321

A small, hollow, beadlike structure found in terminal buttons; contains molecules of a neurotransmitter

Question 322

What is the synaptic cleft?

Answer 322

A fluid-filled gap between the presynaptic and postsynaptic membranes; the terminal button releases a neurotransmitter into this space. Synaptic cleft is 10-20 nm wide. Therefore, transmission is very fast

Question 323

What is the neurotransmitter receptor?

Answer 323

A special protein molecules located in the membrane of the postsynaptic neuron that responds to molecules of the neurotransmitter

Question 324

What are the two types of synapses?

Answer 324

o Excitatory synapses
 When the axon fires, the terminal buttons release a neurotransmitter that excites the postsynaptic neurons with which they form synapses
 The effect of this excitation is to increase the rate of firing of the axons of the postsynaptic neurons
o Inhibitory synapses
 When they are activated, they lower the rate at which these axons fire

Question 325

What happens at the level of terminal buttons and receptors, and how are neurotransmitter effects regulated?

Answer 325

1. When an action potential reaches a terminal button, it causes several of the vesicles to fuse with the inside of the presynaptic membrane, burst open, and spill their contents into the synaptic cleft
2. The molecules of the neurotransmitter then cause reactions in the postsynaptic neuron that either excite or inhibit it
3. These reactions are triggered by neurotransmitter receptors
   a. A molecule of a neurotransmitter binds with its receptor specifically- binding between neurotransmitter and receptor is very specific
   b. After their release from a terminal button, molecules of a neurotransmitter diffuse across the synaptic cleft, bind with the receptors and activate them
   c. Once they are activated, the receptors produce excitatory or inhibitory effects on the post-synaptic neuron by opening ion channels  can transmit or inhibit AP from one neuron to another
   i. Most ion channels found at excitatory synapses permit sodium ions to enter the postsynaptic membrane
   ii. Most ion channels found at inhibitory synapses permit potassium ions to leave
   iii. If the receptor open a Cl- channel, it allows negatively charged Cl- to go inside the neuron which inhibits the action potential
   d. The excitation or inhibition produced by a synapse is short-lived
   e. At most synapses, the effects are terminated by a process called reuptake
   i. Molecules of the neurotransmitter that have been released into the synaptic cleft are quickly taken up again by special transporter molecules located in the terminal button, so the neurotransmitter has only a short time to stimulate the postsynaptic receptors
   ii. The rate at which the terminal button takes back the neurotransmitter determines how prolonged the effects of the chemical on the postsynaptic neuron will be:
4. The faster the neurotransmitter is taken back, the shorter its effects will be on the postsynaptic neuron
   f. The effects can also be ended by enzymes in synapse that destroy the neurotrasmitter

Question 326

How do anaesthetics work?

Answer 326

anaesthetics penetrate neuronal membrane and block opening of ion channels

Question 327

How do cocaine, amphetamines and ecstacy work?

Answer 327

promote transmission of noradrenaline

Question 328

How does caffeine work?

Answer 328

Blocks adenosine receptors

Question 329

How do antidepressant drugs work?

Answer 329

Antidepressant drugs enhance serotonin and noradreline transmission (by blocking re-uptake)

Question 330

How can drugs affect synaptic transmission?

Answer 330

-Stimulating or inhibiting the release of neurotransmitters
 Some drugs stimulate certain terminal buttons to release their neurotransmitter continuously, even when the axon is not firing
 Other drugs prevent certain terminal buttons from releasing their neurotransmitter when the axon fires
-Mimicking the effects of neurotransmitters of postsynaptic receptors
-Block these effects
 Some drugs mimic the effects of particular neurotransmitters by directly stimulating particular kinds of receptors
 Some drugs bind with receptors and do not stimulate them; this action blocks receptors, making them inaccessible to the neurotransmitter and thus inhibiting synaptic transmission
-Interfere with the reuptake of a neurotransmitter once it is released
 Some drugs inhibit the process of reuptake so that molecules of the neurotransmitter continue to stimulate the postsynaptic receptors for a long time
-Interfere with enzymatic destruction of the neurotransmitters

Question 331

What does the neurotransmitter Glutamate do, what drugs does it interact with and what is the effect of these drugs?

Answer 331

Primary excitatory neurotransmitter in brain Alcohol

Desensitization of NMDA receptor

Question 332

What does the neurotransmitter GABA do, what drugs does it interact with and what is the effect of these drugs?

Answer 332

Primary inhibitory neurotransmitter in brain -Barbiturates
-Benzodiazepines
-Alcohol
Desensitization of GABAA receptor – enhances inhibitory effects of GABAA

Question 333

What does the neurotransmitter Acetylcholine do, what drugs does it interact with and what is the effect of these drugs?

Answer 333

Excites muscular contraction, activates cerebral cortex, controls REM sleep, controls hippocampus

• Botulinum toxin
• Black widow spider venom
• Neostigmine
• Nicotine -Blocks release of ACh
• Stimulates release of ACh
• Blocks AChE, enhances effects of ACh
• Stimulates Ach receptors

Question 334

What does the monoamine dopamine do, what drugs does it interact with and what is the effect of these drugs?

Answer 334

Facilitates movement, attention, learning, reinforcement

• L-DOPA
• Amphetamine, cocaine
• Antipsychotic drugs
• Increase synthesis of dopamine
• Inhibit reuptake of dopamine and promotes transmission
• Block dopamine receptors

Question 335

What does monoamine norepinephrine do

Answer 335

Increases vigilance, controls REM sleep

Question 336

What does the monoamine serotonin do, what drugs does it interact with and what is the effect of these drugs?

Answer 336

Regulates mood, controls eating, sleep, arousal, regulation of pain, suppresses risky behaviours

• Fluoxetine (Prozac)
• LSD
• Cocaine, emphetamines and ecstasy
• Inhibits reuptake of serotonin
• Stimulates certain serotonin receptors
• Promotes transmission of serotonin

Question 337

What does the monoamide endogenous opioids do, what drugs does it interact with and what is the effect of these drugs?

Answer 337

Reduces pain, reinforce ongoing behaviour

• Opiates (heroin, morphine)
• Naloxone
• Stimulate opioid receptors –mimic brain’s opioid NTs and have an inhibitory effect on neuron
• Block opioid receptors

Question 338

What does the monoamide anandamide do, what drugs does it interact with and what is the effect of these drugs?

Answer 338

Analgesia, nausea reduction, decreased pressure in eyes, interference with short-term memory
THC
-Stimulates cannabinoid receptors

Question 339

What is an electrolytic lesion?

Answer 339

Lesion created by passing an electrical current through the electrode, which produces heat that destroys a small portion of the brain around the tip of the electrode

Question 340

What is an excitotoxic lesion?

Answer 340

Lesion created by injecting a chemical through the cannula that overestimates neurons in the region around the tip of the cannula, which kills neurons

Question 341

What is experimental ablation?

Answer 341

• Developed by Flourens with lab animals
• Studies the effect of experimental brain lesions in animals and accidental brain lesions in humans
  1. Animal is anaesthetized
  2. A hole is drilled in its skull
  3. Stereotaxic apparatus is used to insert an electrode or cannula into particular location in the brain
  4. Alter the desired region by producing electrolytic lesions or excitotoxic lesions
  5. Animal recovers from operation and its behavior is observed
  6. Investigator later removes the animal’s brain from the skull, slices it and examines it under a microscope to determine the true extent of the lesion

Question 342

What are the advantages of experimental ablation?

Answer 342

-Study the behavior of people whose brains have been damaged by a stroke, disease or head injury and link disrupted behaviors to the damaged part

Question 343

What are the weaknesses of experimental ablation?

Answer 343

• Deeply invasive surgery

- Must only be done on animals using a strict code of ethic

Question 344

What is the CT scanner?

Answer 344

1. Scanner sends a narrow beam of x-rays through a person’s head
2. Beam is moved around the head, and a computer calculates the amount of radiation that passes through it at various points along each angle
3. Result is a two dimensional image of a “slice” of the person’s head, parallel to the top of the skull

Question 345

What are the advantages of the CT scanner

Answer 345

Not really invasive
Less expensive than MRI
Does not contain magnets- will not interact with pacemakers
-Allows for the visualization of the structure of the brain

Question 346

What are the disadvantages of the CT scanner

Answer 346

Lower resolution than MRI

Question 347

What is magnetic resonance imaging?

Answer 347

-Measures water in tissue and makes it a 3D image
1.Person’s head is placed within a strong magnetic field
2.Field causes the molecules (H+) within its influence to become oriented with the lines of magnetic force
3. High frequency radio signal is generated around the person, which has the effect of tilting these aligned atoms
4. Scanner measures the time it takes the molecules to stop wobbling and recover to their aligned state
5. Due to the fact that different molecules take different times to recover, an image can be constructed that distinguishes between different materials within the head
More water  black

Question 348

What are the advantages of magnetic resonance imaging?

Answer 348

• Higher resolution than CT scan

- Allows for the visualization of the structure of the brain

Question 349

What are the disadvantages of magnetic resonance imaging?

Answer 349

More expensive than CT

-Contain magnets: will interact with pacemakers

Question 350

What are microelectrodes?

Answer 350

Extremely thin wires able to detect electrical currents of individual neurons
-Can be used to measure the minute electrical changes of individual action potential

Question 351

What are the advantages of microelectrodes?

Answer 351

• Arrays of dozens of ultrathin wires can even enable a researcher to record simultaneously the activity of dozens of neurons
• Measures the brain’s activity

Question 352

What are the disadvantages of microelectrodes?

Answer 352

Invasive

Question 353

What is electrical brain stimulation?

Answer 353

Form of electrotherapy in which an electric current is passed through an electrode stimulating specific neurons, neural networks and brain regions

• Microinjection into specific region of brain
• Woman learned to create pattern of activity in her brain to move the robotic arm using the electrode implanted in her brain

Question 354

What are the advantages of electrical brain stimulation

Answer 354

• Used as a therapy

- Thought to increase creativity

Question 355

What is the disadvantage of electrical brain stimulation?

Answer 355

Invasive

Question 356

What is electroencephalogram?

Answer 356

Electrode plates made of flat steel discs against skull can record electrical fields generated by combined action potentials of many neurons, and trace these records on a long sheet of paper or stored in a computer

Question 357

What is an advantage of electroencephalogram?

Answer 357

• Can be used to diagnose seizure disorders and to monitor the various stages of sleep
• Measures the brain’s activity
• EEG has very good temporal resolution: can show when activity changes on very fine time scales (~20ms)
• One of the cheapest methods
• Noninvasive

Question 358

What is a disadvantage of electroencephalogram?

Answer 358

Has poor spatial resolution (not good for seeing exactly where activity occurred)

• This is because electrical current strength is reduced across the skull so harder to measure
• Currents spatially blurred by skull  don’t know where they came from

Question 359

What is magnetoencephalography?

Answer 359

• Recording device detects minute magnetic fields that are produced by the electrical activity of neurons in the cerebral cortex
• 3D reconstruction of where the electrical activity was arising from, to create functional map of brain response

Question 360

What are the advantages of magnetoencephalography

Answer 360

• Can be used clinically to find brain abnormalities that produce seizures so that they can be removed surgically
• Can be used in experiments to measure regional brain activity that accompanies the performance of various behaviors or cognitive tasks
• Measures the brain’s activity
• Excellent temporal resolution (Magnetic field instantaneous)
• Good spatial resolution (magnetic field not impeded by skull)
• Completely non-invasive
• Preferred method

Question 361

What are the disadvantages of magnetoencephalography?

Answer 361

• Equipment is hugely expensive

- Equipment is extremely sensitive to any source of electromagnetic interference

Question 362

What is positron emission tomography?

Answer 362

• Measures activity in brain by measuring changes in blood flow
  1. Give a person an injection of a radioactive chemical (such as oxygen or glucose) that accumulates in the brain
  2. Place the person’s head in the PET scanner that detects the positrons
  3. Computer determines which regions of the brain have taken up the radioactive chemical and produces a picture of a slice of the brain
  4. This shows which regions contain the highest concentration of the chemical
• Any area that is active will be highlighted because it draws more blood and receives more oxygen  Areas that are working harder use more oxygen

Question 363

What are the advantages of positron emission tomography?

Answer 363

• Measures the brain’s activity

- Good spatial resolution

Question 364

What are the disadvantages of positron emission tomography?

Answer 364

• Less good temporal resolution as blood flow has a lag to it  increased blood flow lasts longer than activity does
• Extremely expensive and rate

Question 365

What is the functional MRI?

Answer 365

• MRI scanner that measures the rate of metabolism in regions of the brain by detecting levels of oxygen in the brain’s blood vessels
• fMRI measures changes in O2 in blood (differences in the magnetic properties of O2 rich and O2 depleted blood (comes from active region))
• Blood Oxygen Level Dependent response
• Spatial resolution depends on strength of magnetic field  higher the magnetic field, the better the resolution

Question 366

What are advantages of the functional MRI?

Answer 366

• Higher spatial resolution than PET scans, especially when combined with high-quality anatomical MRI
• Can be acquired a lot faster than PET scans
• Don’t require the production of radioactive chemicals with very short half-lives, which is expensive

Question 367

What are the disadvantages of functional MRI?

Answer 367

-Temporal resolution is not very high as BOLD response lags behind actual brain activity

Question 368

What is transcranial magnetic simulation?

Answer 368

• Uses a coil of wires, arranged in an 8 shape, to stimulate neurons in the human cerebral cortex
• Simulating coil is placed on top of the skull so that the crossing point in 8 is above the region to be stimulated
• Uses a brief magnetic pulse next to the skull to induce a small electric current in the underlying brain, which depolarizes neurons and can provoke action potentials
• The stimulation disrupts normal activity in that region of the brain
• Only disrupted for a small amount of time

Question 369

What are the advantages of transcranial magnetic stimulation?

Answer 369

-Been used to treat symptoms of mental disorders such as depression

Question 370

What is the lateral hypothalamus responsible for, and what does destruction of it induce?

Answer 370

• Lateral Hypothalamus:
o Destruction of lateral hypothalamus causes rats to reduce eating dramatically
 Weight drops until rat begins eating, but only a fraction of what it previously ate, and weight becomes stable but much lower than before
o LH regulates feeding by:
 Controlling release of insulin
• Rats with LH lesions have low insulin levels and high blood-glucose (reduce appetite)
 Regulating attention
• Rats without LH ignore food
 Influencing taste
• Rats without LH dislike food

Question 371

What is the ventromedial hypothalamus responsible for, and what does its destruction lead to?

Answer 371

o Destruction of ventromedial hypothalamus causes rats to become overeaters, making them gain quickly
o But rats with damage to VHM do not lack satiety:
 Each meal is of normal size
 Rather, these rats eat more often
o VHM lesions cause rats to overeat for 2 reasons:
 Increase gut motility (stomach empties sooner= a cue to eat)
 Makes rats release excessive amounts of insulin
• Rats gain weight because food is quickly turned into fat.
• Also, high insulin means they have low blood glucose, thereby increasing appetite

Question 372

What is the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus important for and what does damage to it do?

Answer 372

• Paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus:
o The paraventricular nucleus is important in satiety
 Rats with damage to PVN eat bigger meals
o Satiety due to cholecystokinin (CCK) in PVN
 CCK is a hormone released from gut when food passes from stomach into the small intestine
 Therefore, at end of meal, CCK levels in blood rise and eating stops

Question 373

Do all species sleep the same amount? Give an example

Answer 373

No- giraffes sleep 4 hours whilst bats sleep up to 19 hours a day

Question 374

Why do species sleep different amounts?

Answer 374

• Diet
• Habitat
• Prey/predator status
• Social network
• Metabolic rate
• Brain complexity
• NOT size

Question 375

What are the problems of sleeping?

Answer 375

• Sleeping is a burden
o For prey- they are vulnerable to predators when sleeping
o For predators- sleep is a lost hunting opportunity
• Sleep when it’s dark
o Prey- less likely to be spotted
o Predators- darkness makes it harder to spot predators
• Birds and aquatic mammals (such as dolphins) sleep with half their brain at a time
o Dolphins can’t sleep underwater as they need to resurface to breathe- can’t switch all their brain off
o This problem is solved as dolphins sleep with only half their brain at a time, then switching hemispheres after a whole, so that they can still perform life essential functions while sleeping

Question 376

What can lack of sleeping lead to

Answer 376

o Impaired cognitive function
 Such as impaired attention, speed and mood
• E.g. In terms of memory: sleep the night before improves subsequent learning, and sleep after learning improves retention- important for consolidating memory
o Overeating and obesity:
 Lack of sleep increases appetite and causes weight gain (linked to changes in appetite hormones)
 Reduces responsiveness to insulin and increases incidence of diabetes
o Increased activity in sympathetic nervous system
 Can have negative impacts on the body
 Can lead to decreased heart health (e.g. 24% increase in heart attacks on days after daylight savings starts and you need to skip an hour)
 Increase chance of cancer
 Leads to problems in immune system

Question 377

What are the 3 structures of the brain responsible for wakefulness? What is the effect of drugs on them

Answer 377

• Locus Coerolus
• Raphe nuclei
• Pons
• Parts are inactive while sleeping
• Effects of stimulant drugs (amphetamines and ecstacy) can affect release of noradrenaline and serotonin

Question 378

What does locus coeruleus release?

Answer 378

noradrenaline neurotransmitter

Question 379

What does Raphe nuclei release?

Answer 379

Serotonin neurotransmitters

Question 380

What does the pons release?

Answer 380

Acetylcholine neurotransmitters

Question 381

What does decerebration (disconnecting forebrain from brainstem) do?

Answer 381

Causes profound and almost continuous sleep