Psych Exam 2 (5,7,8) Flashcards
Memorization
What is sensation?
Sensation is the process of detecting environmental stimuli using sensory systems.
How does perception differ from sensation?
Perception is the brain’s ability to interpret and make sense of sensory input, allowing us to recognize and identify stimuli.
What are the main sensory systems and their stimuli?
Olfactory (smell): airborne chemicals
Gustatory (taste): chemicals in food
Somatosensory (touch): pressure, heat, pain
Auditory (hearing): sound waves
Visual (sight): light
What is sensory transduction?
Sensory transduction is the process of converting environmental stimuli into neural activity.
What are sensory receptor cells?
Sensory receptor cells detect specific forms of stimuli and convert them into neural signals that the brain can process.
What are absolute thresholds?
The minimum stimulus intensity required for detection.
What are difference thresholds?
The smallest detectable difference between two stimuli.
What is signal detection theory?
Signal detection theory examines how we discern signals amidst noise, accounting for both the intensity of the stimulus and the individual’s response criteria.
What is bottom-up processing?
Builds perception from sensory input.
What is sensory adaptation?
Sensory adaptation occurs when sensitivity to a constant stimulus decreases over time, such as adapting to the feel of clothing.
What is top-down processing?
Uses prior knowledge to interpret sensory information.
What is a perceptual set?
Perceptual set is a predisposition to perceive stimuli in a particular way, influenced by experience or expectations.
How does the tactile (or somatosensory) system work?
The tactile system involves skin receptors detecting pressure, temperature, and pain. Specific receptors include Meissner’s corpuscles (sensitive touch), Merkel’s discs (light pressure), Ruffini’s end-organs (heavy pressure), and Pacinian corpuscles (vibrations).
What are Taste buds?
They are clusters of sensory receptor cells that convert
chemical signals from food into neural impulses that travel to
the brain
What are odourants?
They are airborne chemicals that are detected as odours
What are Olfactory receptor neurons?
They are sensory receptor cells that convert chemical signals from odourants into neural impulses that travel to the brain
What is Papillae?
They are bumps on the tongue that contain clumps of taste
buds
What are the 5 taste receptors on the tongue?
- Sweet
- Sour
- Bitter
- Salt
- Umami – the taste of monosodium
glutamate (MSG)
What is Anosmia
The inability to detect odours
What is Ageusia?
The inability to taste, a rare disorder
What is Hyposmia?
The reduced ability to smell
What is Reflex epilepsy?
A seizure occurs only after exposure to a specific odour
Where are free nerve endings located and their function?
They are located near the surface of the skin, and they detect touch, pressure, pain, and temperature
What are Migraine headaches
They are specific odours that can trigger migraines
Where are Merkel’s discs located and their function?
They are located near the surface of the skin, and they transduce information about light to moderate pressure against the skin
Where are Meissner’s corpuscles located and their function?
They are located in fingertips, lips, and palms (hairless skin areas), and they transduce information about sensitive touch
Where are Ruffini’s end-organs located and their function?
They are located deep in the skin, and they register heavy pressure and movement of the joints
What is the fast pathway of pain
It is sharp, localized pain that travels along myelinated neurons to the brain that is felt quicker.
Where are Pacinian corpuscles located and their function?
They are located deep in the skin, and they respond to vibrations and heavy pressure.
What is the slow pathway of pain?
It is inputs that communicate with brain regions involved in processing emotions; pain we perceive via the slow pathway is more often burning pain than sharp pain
What is the gate control theory of pain?
Patterns of neural activity that prevents messages from reaching parts of the brain where they are perceived as pain.
What is familial dysautonomia?
It is a rare genetic condition associated with an inability to detect pain or temperature and produce tears.
What are Phantom limb sensations?
They are tactile hallucinations of touch, pressure, vibration, and pain in the body part that no longer exists.
What are sound waves?
They are vibrations of the air in the frequency of hearing.
What is Amplitude?
The magnitude (height of a wave)
What is Frequency?
the number of cycles per second in a wave
What is the Frequency Theory?
Different sound frequencies are converted into
different rates of action potentials, and high-frequency sounds produce a more rapid firing than low-frequency sounds
What is the Place Theory?
Differences in sound frequency activate different
regions of the basilar membrane, and the brain equates the place activity occurred on the basilar membrane with a particular frequency
What is the cocktail party effect?
The brain picks up on relevant sounds, even in a noisy environment
What are the ways that someone can become deaf?
Can be genetic, caused by infection, physical trauma
(headphone use), exposure to toxins, high doses of common
medications such as Aspirin
What is tinnitus and how does it occur?
It is ringing in the ear and it occurs due to abnormalities in the ear.
What does the iris do?
It adjusts pupil size to control the amount of light allowed in
What are Photoreceptors?
sensory receptor cells for vision called rods and cones that are located in the retina
What is the function of Rods?
They are used to detect light and often used for periphery and night vision
What is the function of Cones?
They are used for central and colour vision.
What is a Hue?
The experience of colour based on the wavelength of light; green, blue, red, and other colours
What is Saturation?
The purity of color; how bright or vivid it is
What is brightness?
How much light is reflected from the object
What is Trichromatic Theory?
There are three different sensors for colour and each type responds to a different range of wavelengths of light
What is Opponent process theory?
Colour pairs work to inhibit one another in the perception of colour
What is Visual agnosia?
Damage to the “what” pathway; cannot visually recognize
objects
What is Prosopagnosia?
A form of visual agnosia in which people cannot recognize faces
What is Hemi-neglect?
Damage to the “where” pathway; people ignore one side of their
visual field
What are binocular cues?
Cues from both eyes
What is Retinal disparity?
Different images of objects are cast on the retinas of each eye
What is Convergence?
The tendency of the eyes to move toward each other as we focus on objects up close
What is perceptual constancy?
Our top-down tendency to view objects
as unchanging, despite shifts in the environmental stimuli we
receive
What is size constancy?
We perceive objects as the same size, regardless of the distance from which it is viewed
What is Shape constancy?
We see an object as the same shape, no matter from what angle it is viewed
What is Strabismus?
Lack of coordinated movement of both eyes; affects about 2%−4% of the population
What is Amblyopia?
A loss of visual abilities in a weaker eye; abnormal development of the brain’s visual cortex due to a failure to receive coordinated visual stimulation from both eyes by the age of six
What is Braille?
A form of reading skill used by individuals suffering
from visual impairments
What is Kinesthetic?
Receptor cells in your muscles tell the brain when we are moving and where our body parts are in space
What Is Vestibular?
Located in the semicircular canals of our
inner ears; the movement of fluid tells us if we are
standing up or swaying from side to side
What is learning?
It is lasting change caused by experience; it has to be inferred from behaviour and cannot be directly observed
What is associative learning?
It is a change as a result of experience where two or more stimuli become linked; accounts for most learning
What is Non-associative learning?
It is learning that does not involve forming associations between stimuli; learning occurs following repeated exposure to a single stimulus or event
What is Habituation
The weakening of response to a stimulus after repeated presentation
What is Dishabitution
Recovery of attention to a novel stimulus following habitutation
What is Sensitization?
A strong stimulus that results in an exaggerated response to the subsequent presentation of weaker stimuli
What is conditioning
The association of events in the environment
What is classical conditioning?
A form of associative learning between two previously unrelated stimuli that results in a learned response
What is Unconditioned stimulus?
A stimulus that on its own elicits a response (eg., food)
What is a Unconditioned response
A physical response elicited by an unconditioned stimulus; it does not need to be learned(eg., salivation)
What is Conditioned stimulus?
A neutral stimulus that eventually elicits the same response as an unconditioned stimulus with which it has been paired (i.e., bell)
What is a conditioned response?
A physical response elicited by a conditioned stimulus; it has acquired through experience ad is usually the same as the unconditioned response (i.e., salivation)
What is Acquisition?
The initial learning of the stimulus-response relationship
What does extinction mean?
The reduction of a conditioned response after repeated presentations of the conditioned stimulus alone
What is Spontaneous recovery?
The re-emergence of a conditioned response some time after extinction has occured
What is stimulus generalization?
What occurs when stimuli similar to the original conditioned stimulus trigger the same conditioned response
What is stimulus discrimination?
What occurs when an organism learns to emit a specific behaviour in the presence of a conditioned stimulus, but not in the presence of stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus
What is higher-order conditioning?
What occurs when a previously-conditioned stimulus functions as if it were an unconditioned stimulus for further conditioning
What is Phobia?
It is a persistent, irrational, or obsessive fear of a specific object or situation that may arise as a result of a fear conditioning.
What is Systematic desensitization?
A process used to condition the extinction of phobias through a gradual exposure to the feared object or situation
What is conditioned taste aversion?
A form of classical conditioned where a previously neutral stimulus (odour or taste) elicits an aversive reaction after it is paired with illness (e.g. first alcohol you ever got really drunk with)
What is operant conditioning
A form of associative learning where behaviour is modified depending on its consequence; also called instrumental conditioning
What is Law of effect
Behaviours leading to rewards are more likely to occur again, while behaviours producing unpleasantness are less likely to occur again.
What is Behaviourism?
The systematic study and manipulation of observable behaviour
What is reinforcement?
An experience that produces an increase in a certain behaviour
What is positive reinforcement
Presentation of a pleasant consequence following a behaviour to increase the probability that the behaviour will reoccur
What is negative reinforcement
The removal of an unpleasant stimulus after a response to increase the probability that the behaviour will reoccur
What is Punishment
An experience that produces a decrease in a certain behaviour
What is positive punishment
Presentation of an unpleasant consequence following a specific behaviour to decrease the probability of the behaviour being repeated
What is negative punishment?
removal of a pleasant stimulus as a consequence of a behaviour to decrease the probability of the behaviour being repeated
What are primary reinforcers?
A stimulus that has survival value and is therefore intrinsically rewarding; biological
What are secondary reinforcers?
A neutral stimulus that becomes rewarding when associated with a primary reinforcer; learned
What is a primary punisher?
A stimulus that is naturally aversive to an organism
What is a Secondary punisher?
A stimulus that becomes aversive when associated with a primary punisher?
What is continuous reinforcement?
Behaviour is reinforced every time it occurs
What is partial reinforcement?
Behaviour is only followed by reinforcement some of the time
What is shaping?
Introducing new behaviour by reinforcing successive approximations of the desired behaviour until the complete behavioural sequence emerges
What is Behaviour modification?
A systematic approach to change behaviour using principles of operant conditioning
What is Observational/social learning?
Occurs without overt training in response to watching the behaviour of others; called models
What is Modelling?
Occurs when an observer learns from the behaviour of another
What is Vicarious learning?
Occurs when an individual observes the consequences to another’s actions and then chooses to duplicate the behaviour or refrain from doing so
What are Mirror neurons?
Neurons fired when an animal or human performs an action or when they see another animal perform the same action
What is Implicit learning?
Refers to the acquisition of information without awareness
What is Spatial navigation learning?
Involves formal associations among stimuli relevant to navigating in space
What is Latent learning?
A form of learning that is not expressed until there is a reward or incentive
What is Insight learning?
A sudden realization of a solution to a problem or leap in understanding new concepts
What is Dyslexia?
Reading Disorder
What is Dyscalculia?
Mathematics disorder
What is Dysgraphia?
Disorder of written expression
What are the three core activities involved in the process of memory?
core activities involved in the process of memory are encoding, storage, and retrieval.
What is the purpose of encoding in memory?
encoding is the process of absorbing information into memory for future storage and retrieval.
difference between automatic processing and effortful processing in memory encoding.
automatic processing happens without conscious effort, while effortful processing involves active engagement to memorize information.
How does the Parallel Distributed-Processing Model describe memory function?
it involves a network of connections where information is represented as activation patterns across neural networks.
3 Types of Learning
- Classical (Pavlovian) Conditioning
- Operant (Instrumental) Conditioning
- Observational (Social) Leaning
Unconditioned Stimulus
Stimulus that elicits a particular response (reflexive, involuntary reactions) without the necessity of learning.
Unconditioned Response
Involuntary, automatic response that occurs to a stimulus without the necessity of learning
Conditioned Stimulus
Stimulus that does not elicit a particular response initially but comes to do so as a result of becoming associated with an unconditioned stimulus.
Conditioned Response
Response that comes to be made to the conditioned stimulus as a result of classical conditioning.
Aquisition
Conditioned Stimulus is paired with an unconditioned stimulus, Conditioned stimulus begins to elicit the Conditioned response
Extinction
Unconditioned stimulus no longer follows the conditioned stimulus, conditioned response eventually disappears.
B.F. Skinner
Studied operant conditioning with rats. Devised Skinner’s Box.
5 Major Conditioning Processes
1.Aquisition
2.Extinction
3.Spontaneous Recovery
4.Generalization
5.Discrimination
Spontaneous Recovery
If the conditioned stimulus is presented again to the subject after a period of rest, the conditioned response reappears.
Discrimination
Responding occurs in the presence of one stimulus, but not in the presence of another.
Operant Conditioning
The process whereby an organism learns to associate a response and its consequences and thus to repeat acts followed by rewards and avoid acts followed by punishment. occurs across species.
Generalization
The tendency to respond to stimuli resembling the conditioned stimulus.
Reinforcers
Stimuli that increase the probability of behavior.
Primary Reinforcers
Events that are innately reinforcing (food, water, things with biological significance)
Secondary Reinforcers
Require learning. (Money, Praise etc.)
Positive Reinforcement
Presentation of a desirable stimulus increases the probability of behavior.
Negative Reinforcement
Nothing to do with punishment. Removal of an aversive stimulus increases the probability of behaviour.
Punishers
Stimuli that decrease the probablility of behavior.
Positive Punishment
Presentation of an aversive stimulus decreases the probability of behaviour.
Negative Punishment
Removal of a desirable stimulus decreases the probabliltiy of behavior.
Social Learning Theory
Most human behavior is learned observationally through modeling.
Social Learning
Learning by observing others.
