Psych 10 (Batch 2) Flashcards
Lectures 4, 5, 6
What are some differences between correlational and experimental designs?
Correlational:
- Measures the strength of the relationship between two things (-1 to 1)
- Observed
- Cannot infer causation
Experimental:
- Experimentally manipulating an IV to see its impact on a DV
- Is controlled
- Can infer causation
What are some characteristics of quasi-experimental designs?
-Similar to experimental research but there is no random assignment to conditions
-Relies on existing group membership (gender, married vs. single, age groups)
-Can’t infer causality
What’s converging operations?
A research strategy where a variety of research techniques are used to investigate or converge upon a particular experimental or research result.
What are the 3 major regions in the brain?
Forebrain, midbrain, hindbraid
What’s the function of the cerebellum?
Motor coordination/control
What’s the function of the medulla?
Coordinates heart rate, circulation, respiration
What’s the function of the reticular formation?
Regulates sleep, wakefulness, & arousal
What’s the pons?
Relays information from cerebellum to the rest of the brain
'’visualize a bridge over a pond → bridge to cerebellum’’
What’s the function of the tegmentum & tectum?
Orienting in response to stimuli
tectum = audio/visual
tegmentum = movement/arousal
What’s the function of the thalamus?
Filters and transmit info from senses to cortex (train stage for sensory info)
What’s the function of the hypothalamus?
Regulates the 4 F’s…
- Fighting
- Feeding
- Fleeting
- Mating (fucking)
What’s the function of the amygdala?
Role in emotional processes
“Amy is so emotional”
What’s the function of the hippocampus?
Critical for creating and integrating new memories
Who is Patient H.M.?
- He got hippocampus removed to try and reduce seizures
- Could not form any new memories
- He could remember things from his past for the most part but couldn’t make new memories
Do different people have different learning styles?
No, this is a myth. People only have different learning preferences.
What’s the function of the basal ganglia?
Intentional movement (tip to remember: “turn up the bass” & people start dancing)
What is the function of the occipital lobe?
- Primary visual cortex
- Involved in initial processing of visual information
What is the function of the temporal lobe?
- Processing of auditory information
- Auditory cortex
What is the function of the parietal lobe?
Registers the sense of touch
What is the function of the somatosensory cortex?
Cortical representations of information are
weighted by “importance” (ex: paper clip test)
What is the function of the motor cortex?
Involved in initiation of movement
What happens in Broca’s aphasia?
- Difficulty in producing speech
- often have an extremely limited number of words that they can say
What is the function of the wernicke’s area?
Speech comprehension
What is aphasia?
The loss of ability to use or understand speech/language
What does split brain mean?
The corpus callosum is cut in surgery
Who is Santiago Ramón y Cajal?
Father of modern neuroscience
What is a neuron?
a cell that specializes in receiving and transmitting information
What is the function of the cell body? (in a neuron)
coordinates information-processing tasks and keeps cell alive
What is the function of the dendrites?
Receive information from other neurons and relays it to the cell body
What is the axon?
long slender projection that conducts electrical impulses away from the cell body
What is the synapse?
the region between the axon of one neuron and the dendrite (or cell body) of another
What is the myelin sheath?
Fatty sheath that insulates axons resulting in increased speed of and efficiency of neural communication
What are the 2 parts of the process for when neurons “send” and “receive” messages?
- Action potential (within one neuron
- Transmission across the synapse (from 1 neuron to the next)
What did they study in Hodgin & Huxley (1952)?
Studied neural impulses using squid axons
(Did it on squid bc their axons are way bigger than humans)
What is action potential?
An electrical signal that is conducted along the length of a neuron’s axon to a synapse (all-or-none phenomena)
When a neuron is at rest…
- outside is ___ charged
- inside is ____ charged
- Resting potential = ____mV
- outside is + charged
- inside is - charged
- Resting potential = -70 mV
What is depolarization?
- When stimulated, sodium channels open and ions rush in
- Makes cell more positive (bc sodium has rushed in)
What is repolarization?
- After the sodium gates close, potassium [K+] moves out
- Makes cell more negative than it was
What happens when the action potential reaches the synaptic terminal?
It causes the release of neurotransmitters into the synaptic cleft
Neurotransmitters can be _______ or
_______
Excitatory or inhibitory
What does it mean if a neurotransmitter is excitatory?
increases the likelihood of an action potential (by causing the membrane potential to be less negative)
What does it mean if a neurotransmitter is inhibitory?
decreases the likelihood of an action potential (by causing the membrane potential to be more negative)
How is the strength of sensations determined?
- Rate of firing
- Number of neurons stimulated
What are some examples of neurotransmitters?
- Acetylcholine
- Dopamine
- Serotonin
What is acetylcholine (Ach)?
Important transmitter between motor neurons and voluntary muscles
What is dopamine?
Neurotransmitter that regulates motor behavior, motivation, pleasure and emotional arousal (degeneration of these neurons in a particular part of brain linked to Parkinson’s)
What is serotonin?
Neurotransmitter that plays a primary role in regulating, sleep, wakefulness, and eating behavior
Compare agonist and antagonist neurotransmitters.
- Agonist: chemical that enhances or mimics the action of a neurotransmitter
- Antagonist: chemical that blocks the action of a neurotransmitter (ex: botox or botulinum toxin)
What does MRI (Magnetic resonance imaging) mean?
uses a powerful magnetic field to produce high-quality
images of the brain and its structure
What does fMRI (Functional magnetic resonance imaging) mean?
- Used to examine changes in ongoing brain activity by measuring changes in the blood’s oxygen levels
- Great for determining location (i.e., good spatial resolution); not so great at determining timing (i.e., bad temporal)
What does electroencephalography (EEG) mean?
- EEG can record electrical activity from large populations
of simultaneously active neurons at the scalp with millisecond resolution. - EEG is a direct measure of neural activity.
- EEG has good temporal resolution but poor spatial resolution
Define sensation.
physical processing of environmental stimuli by the sense organs
Define perception.
the psychological process of interpreting sensory information
Define psychophysics.
methods that measure the strength of a stimulus and the observer’s sensitivity to that stimulus
Define absolute threshold.
Smallest amount of stimulation needed for detection by a sense (50% of the time)
What is just noticeable difference (difference threshold?
The minimum difference between 2 stimuli needed to detect a difference between them 50% of the time
(ex: easier to tell difference between 10 and 11 lb dumbbells than 100 and 101 lb)
Compare top-down processing and bottom-up processing.
Top-down processing:
- When our perceptions are influenced by our expectations or by our prior knowledge
- ex: green needle vs brainstorm
Bottom-up processing:
- Occurs when we perceive individual bits of sensory info (e.g. sounds) and use them to construct a more complex message
- ex: “a” or “e” –> “sweats or sweets” –> sweats
What is the signal-detection theory?
Response to a stimulus depends on person’s sensitivity and on a person’s decision criteria…
- Person’s experience
- Expectations
- Motivation
- Level of fatigue
- Consequences of missing
ex: radiologist
What is sensory adaptation?
Diminished sensitivity as a result of constant or recurring stimuli
Ex: you can’t smell your own perfume after a few hours but other ppl still smell it
What is selective attention?
Focusing on one particular task or event
(ex: half of ppl miss gorilla suit in video bc they are focused on ball)
What is inattentional blindness?
A failure to perceive objects that are not the focus of attention
What is change blindness?
The failure to detect changes to the visual details of a scene
ex: in a movie where a shirt is buttoned then unbuttoned and you don’t notice or people switching behind the painting
When light passes through the cornea and lens, it is bent so that the light waves cross and project an upside down and backwards image on the retina… Top becomes _____, and left becomes ________.
bottom, right
