psych 111 exam 1 Flashcards
define reinforcement
the consequences of a behavior that determine whether it will be more likely that the behavior will occur again.
descartes philosophies
body and mind (soul) are fundamentally different things, body made of material substance, mind/soul made of immaterial or spiritual substance. mind influences body through pineal gland
early roots of psychology
history of psychology is rooted in philosophy, biology, and physiology.
Ivan Pavlov-what did he do?
carried out pioneering research on the physiology of digestion. dogs salivate at the sight of food and at the sight of the person who fed them. every time he sounded a tone the dogs would salivate. created a response: action or physiological change elicited by a stimulus
John Watson-what did he do?
psychologists focus entirely on study of behavior. It can be measured objectively. The goal of scientific psychology should be to predict and control behavior in ways that benefit society. The only way to understand how animals learn and adapt is to focus solely on their behavior-same for humans. Human behavior is powerfully influenced by environment. nature v nurture
psychoanalytic:
sigmund Freud’s approach to understanding human behavior that emphasizes the importance of unconscious mental processes in shaping feelings, thoughts, and behaviors. Important to uncover a person’s early experiences and to illuminate person’s unconscious anxieties, conflicts, and desires.
humanism:
approach to understanding human nature that emphasizes the positive potential of human beings.
behaviorism:
an approach that advocates that psychologists restrict themselves to the scientific study of objectively observable behavior.
Gestalt:
a psychological approach that emphasizes that we often perceive the whole rather than the sum of the parts.
cognitive:
study of mental processes, including perception, thought, memory, and reasoning.
evolutionary
psychological approach that explains mind and behavior in terms of adaptive value of abilities that are preserved over time by natural selection.
Charles Darwin-natural selection.
Nativism and its contribution to modern psychology
the philosophical view that certain kinds of knowledge are innate or inborn.
nature v. nurture
phrenology
a now defunct theory that specific mental abilities and characteristics, ranging from memory to the capacity for happiness, are localized in specific regions of the brain.
Plato and Aristotle’s philosophies
plato argued nativism. aristotle believed that the child’s mind was a blank slate on which experiences were written, argued for empiricism: knowledge acquired through experience.
psychology
the scientific study of mind and behavior
the brain and its involvement with speech
different parts of the brain are used for specific functions. particular part on left side damaged results in inability to produce words. findings concluded that although both spoken and signed language usually rely on left hemisphere, the right hemisphere can become involved but only for a limited time.
dogmatism:
doctors who thought that the best way to understand illness was to develop theories about the body’s functions. today we use this term to describe the tendency for people to cling to their assumptions.
empiricism:
belief that accurate knowledge can be acquired through observation.
informed consent
written agreement to participate in a study made by an adult who has been informed of all the risks that participation may entail.
operational definition:
a description of a property in concrete, measurable terms.
Pragmatism:
a reasonable and logical way of doing things based on dealing with specific situations instead of on ideas and theories.
psychological code of ethics
respect for persons and their right to influence or coercion, research should be beneficent, and research should be just. rules: informed consent, freedom from coercion, protection from harm, risk-benefit analysis, deception, debriefing, and confidentiality.
reliability
the tendency for a measure to produce the same measurement whenever it is used to measure the same thing
things that make people difficult to study:
complexity: human brain is complicated
variability: no 2 individuals are the same
reactivity: people often think, feel, and act differently when they are being observed
validity
refers to the extent to which a measurement and a property are conceptually related
what is “n” in a research study?
size of sample, population
who regulates ethical analysis and reporting of scientific results?
IRB ensures that data is collected ethically, after that it’s on the honor system as to whether it is ethically analyzed and reported.
CT scan
computerized axial tomography, scanner rotates device around person’s head and takes a series of x-rays from different angles. shows densities of brain tissue, high density = white. used to locate lesions or tumors which appear darker because they are less dense
fMRI scan:
functional magnetic resonance imaging, detects the twisting of hemoglobin and molecules in the blood when they are exposed to magnetic pulses. when active neurons demand more energy and blood flow, oxygenated hemoglobin concentrates to active areas. most widely used functional-brain-imaging technique. live.
heritability index
measure of the variability of behavioral traits among individuals that can be accounted for by genetic factors. 0-1.0. 0 meaning that genes do NOT contribute, 1.0 being genes are the ONLY reason for the individual difference. almost all range between 0.3 and 0.6
motor neurons
efferent, carry signals from the spinal cord to the muscles to produce movement. these neurons often have long axons that can stretch to muscles at our extremities.
MRI scan
computerized axial tomography, scanner rotates a device around a person’s head and takes a series of x-ray photographs from different angles. computer programs combine images to provide views from any angle. show density of brain tissue.
nerve cell parts and what they do:
cell body: largest component, coordinates the information, processing tasks and keeps cell alive.
dendrites: receive information from other neurons and relay it to the cell body
axon: transmits information to other neurons, muscles, or glands.
parasympathetic nervous system
helps body return to normal resting state, slows heart rate and respiration, diverts blood flow to digestive system, decreases activity in sweat glands. part of autonomic nervous system.
PET scan
1st test to see live over time. view brain structure and brain in action, harmless radioactive substance injected in bloodstream. positron emission tomography.
Phineas gages injury to which part of his brain
rod through frontal lobe. affected personality. before he was mild mannered, quiet, conscientious, and a hard worker. After he was irritable, irresponsible, indecisive, and profane.Vital in discovery that frontal lobe is responsible for emotion regulation, planning, and decision making.
sensory neurons
receives info from external world and conveys information to brain via spinal cord.
split-brain examples from book
severing of the corpus callosum. info entering one hemisphere stays there. chimeric face: patient sees 2 full faces from 2 half faces.
sympathetic nervous system
part of autonomic nervous system.set of nerves that prepares the body for action in threatening situations.dilates pupils, increases heart rate, diverts blood flow to brain and muscles, activates sweat glands.
spinal reflex (reflex arc)
simple pathways that rapidly generate muscle contractions. sensory receptors - sensory neuron - interneuron in spinal cord - motor neuron - muscles. never reaches brain.
what connects the 2 hemisphere’s of the brain?
corpus callosum
why is it good to have a wrinkled brain?
like a crumpled piece of paper. You can fit more surface area into a small space.
blind spot of the eye
no rods or cones. your brain fills it in so there appears to be no blind spot.optic nerve makes up blind spot.
5 types of taste receptor cells
sweet, sour, salty, bitter, umami
absolute threshold
the absolute minimum intensity needed to just barely detect a stimulus
binocular disparity
the difference in the retinal images of the two eyes that provides information about depth.
change blindness
when people fail to detect changes to the visual details of a scene (who dunnit?)
color afterimage (afterimage effect)
when you stare at a color for too long, you will see the opposite color (color opposite system). the cones that respond most strongly to that color fatigue.
genetic aversion to certain taste
there is evidence that genetic factors contribute to individual differences in taste perception, but much remains to be learned about specific genes involved.
Gestalt principles: closure
we fill in the missing elements of a scene, completing the dotted circle
continuity
edges or contours that have the same orientation have what the Gestaltists called “good continuation” and we tend to group them together perceptually.
simplicity
the simplest explanation is usually the best
similarity
regions that are similar in color, light, shape, or texture are perceived as belonging to the same object.
proximity
objects that are close to each other tend to be grouped together
common fate
elements of a visual image that move together are perceived as parts of a moving object.
olfaction
every smell has a code and sends a signal to your brain. (tons of different codes)
gustation
each taste bud contains the 5 receptor cells that respond to the 5 flavors. each taste bud connects to a branch of a cranial nerve at it’s base.
how old age affects hearing
tiny hair cells in your ear get damaged and don’t regrow. tympanic membrane wears down, eardrum gets worn out, it’s hard to get the signal to the ear.
how the eyeball affects light coming into the retina
passes through clear cornea, which bends the light wave and sends it through the pupil, a tiny hole within the iris. the iris controls the size of the pupil and hence the amount of light that can enter. muscles inside the eye control the shape of the lens to bend the light again and focus it on the retina. (the lens adjusts to focus light on the retina, where the image appears upside down and backwards.
just noticable difference
the minimal change in a stimulus that can just barely be detected
left and right visual fields and their relationship to the brain
So information from the right visual field ends up in the left hemisphere of the brain, and information from the left visual field ends up in the right hemisphere.
monocular cues
yield information about depth when viewed with only one eye. our brains routinely use these differences in retinal image size to perceive distance.
linear perspective
parallel lines seem to converge as they recede into the distance.
interposition
one object partly blocks another. the blocking object is closer than the blocked object. cannot provide information about how far apart objects are.
motion parallax:
things close to you seem faster than things far away.
parts of human ear and sequence sound waves that travel through them.
outer ear collects sound waves and funnels them toward middle ear, which transmits the vibrations to inner ear, embedded in the skull, where they are transduced into neural impulses.
outer ear: pinna, auditory canal, eardrum
middle ear: air filled chamber behind eardrum containing ossicles hammer, anvil, and stirrup.
inner ear: cochlea, auditory transduction, stimulate hair cells that release neurotransmitters to auditory nerve.
parts-based theory of object recognition
brain deconstructs viewed objects as a collection of parts. objects are stored in memory as structural descriptions: letters combine to form words.
perception
the organization, identification, and interpretation of a sensation in order to form a mental representation.
perceptual constancy
a perceptual principle stating that even as aspects of sensory signals change, perception remains consistent.
phi phenomenon
the apparent motion of lights, las vegas
3 properties of light
length of light wave determines its hue, color
intensity or amplitude of a light wave determines brightness
purity: number of distinct wavelengths that make up the light. corresponds to the richness of the color.
3 properties of sound waves
frequency: wavelength of a sound wave, determines pitch
amplitude: height, loudness
complexity: our perception of timbre, sound quality.
selective attention
perceiving only what’s currently relative to you.
sensation
simple stimulation of a sense organ
sensory adaptation
sensitivity to prolonged stimulation tends to decline over time as an organism adapts to current conditions. i can’t feel my pants
gate control theory for pain
signals arriving from pain receptors in the body can be stopped, or gated, by interneurons in the spinal cord.
the homunculus
the lips have the most area of somatosensory cortex, then fingertips, tongue, and ears.
transduction
what takes place when many sensors in the body convert physical signals from the environment to encoded neural signals sent to the CNS
Weber’s Law
the just noticable difference of a stimulus is a constant proportion despite variations in intensity
why does spinning make you dizzy?
vestibular system: 3 fluid filled semicircular canals and adjacent organs located next to the cochlea detect movement of the fluid and helps us maintain our balance. when we spin, that liquid moves around and we lose our sense of balance, when we stop the fluid is still swishing in ear. what you’re seeing is stationary but your body is still moving.
figure v. ground
figure: subject of focus
ground: everything else around figure.
