Psych/Soc Class 7 Flashcards
Sensing of Visual Stimuli
- Stimuli from left visual field will be sent to right side of each retina
- Regardless of which eye, it will travel to the right hemisphere (if from left eye, it will cross over at the optic chiasm)
- Stimuli from right visual field will be sent to left side of each retina
- regardless of which eye, it will travel to the left hemisphere (if from right eye, it will cross over at the optic chiasm)
Amygdala
Deals with emotional responses like fear and anger
Superior colliculus
Known for eye movement
Sensing of Auditory Stimuli
When you hear a sound, the waves hit the auricle > travels through external auditory canal > hits tympanic membrane > hits the 3 bones > neutrotransmitters activate auditory neurons then goes through brain
Sound travelling through right ear/ left ear
Goes through cochlear nucleus then at brainstem, it crosses over to auditory cortex on left side hemisphere / right side hemisphere if travelling from left ear
Sensing of Gustatory Stimuli
Information about taste is transmitted via cranial nerves to an area in the brain in temporal lobe(not far from where brain receives olfactory information)
- Stimulus is processed in gustatory cortex in insula
- Processes emotions of disgust too
Taste receptors
= “taste buds”
Can recognize 5 stimuli: bitter, salt, sweet, sour, umami
Made of specialized epithelial cells which have pores with taste hairs that detect food chemicals
Sensation vs Perception
Sensation is the ENCODING of physical energy from environment
Perception is the DECODING of sensations through selection, organization & interpretation
Psychophysics
study of how physical stimuli are translated into a psychological experience
Different stimuli we can detect
taste, smell, touch, pain, sound, light
Sensing of olfactory stimuli
- Olfactory receptors found in roof of nasal pharynx
- Receptors detect airborne chemicals that dissolve in mucus covering nasal membrane
- Olfactory nerves project directly to olfactory bulb of brain which is located in temporal lobe near limbic system
Sensing of bodily stimuli
Body senses tactile information to somatosensory cortex through neural pathways to spinal cord, brain stem & thalamus
Somatosensory cortex
part of the nervous system that integrates touch, pressure, temperature & pain
Primary somatosensory area
The primary cortex for touch sensations and is located in lateral post-central gyrus which is prominent structure in parietal lobe
- detects touch
Premotor cortex
Responsible for some motor control
- located anterior to primary motor cortex
Primary motor cortex
Main contributor to generate neural impulses that pass down to spinal cord & control execution of movement
- located in anterior paracentral lobule on medial surface
Kinethesis
AKA proprioception
– allows us to sense position of limbs in space as well as detect bodily movements
Mechanoreceptors
Detect mechanical disturbances like pressure or distortion
Proprioceptors
Respond to physical disturbances in body
Wernicke’s Area
Comprehension of speech
- Also known as fluent aphasia, receptive aphasia, wernicke’s aphasia
- located in posterior superior temporal gyrus
- non coherent (not easy to understand)
Broca’s Area
Production of speech
- Also known as non-fluent aphasia, broca’s aphasia, expressive aphasia
- located in inferior frontal gyrus
- coherent (easy to understand)
Ventral stream vs dorsal stream
Ventral stream - processes what objects are in temporal lobe
Dorsal stream - processes where objects are located in parietal lobe
What system is located in the most forward & underpart of brain?
Olfactory system
Split Brain
Corpus callosum is severed
Blindsight
Ability to accurately guess what an object is without consciously seeing it
Usually happens in patients with primary visual cortex damage
Agnosia
Inability to process sensory information
- Caused by damage to occipitotemporal border
- NOT memory loss
Frontal Lobe
Personality Concentration, planning, problem solving Language production Emotional reaction Speech Smell Voluntary movement
Temporal Lobe
Language comprehension
LTM
Face recognition
Hearing
Parietal Lobe
Touch
Pressure
Taste
Body awareness
Occipital Lobe
Visual processing
Cerebellum
Balance
Procedural memory
Coordination of movement
Motor cortex
Found at back of frontal lobe
Receives info from various lobes & utilizes information to carry out body movements
Weber’s Law
“Just noticeable difference”
- two stimuli must differ by a constant proportion, which varies by type of stimulus but remains constant within a given stimulus
Signal Detection Theory
Method for quantifying a person’s ability to detect a given stimulus admist other non-important stimuli
Stimulus present + response present = HIT
Stimulus present + response absent = MISS (Type II error - False negative)
Stimulus absent + response present = False alarm (Type I error - False positive)
Stimulus absent + response absent = Correct rejection
Difference between SDT and weber’s law
SDT is more accurate and will changed based on experience, expectations, alertness & motivations
Detecting stimulus in SDT depends on…
Acquiring information
Applying criteria
Accuracy of stimulus depends on…
Internal noise
External noise
ROC Curve
Receiver operating characteristic curve
- graphical plot that tracks hit rate vs false alarm rate in order to represent receiver’s accuracy at given task
- want HIGH hit rate, LOW false alarm rate
4 stimulus properties
- Modality - type of stimulus detected; based on type of receptor firing
- Intensity - how strong stimulus is; encoded by rate of firing of action potentials
- Location - communicated by receptive field of stimulus
- Duration - how long stimulus is present
Types of receptors
Tonic receptors - generate action potentials as long as stimulus is present
Phasic receptors - fire only when stimulus begins; communicates changes in stimulus
Feature detection theory
explains that certain parts of brain are activated for specific visual stimuli
- Feature detector neurons respond only to specific features of visual stimulus such as shape, angle, etc
- Visual cortex passes sensory info to the part of brain responsible for perception of that object
- Visual perception results from interaction of numerous specialized neural systems, each of which performs a specific, simple task
Parallel propcessing
Occurs so that many aspects of visual stimulus are processed simultaneously rather than step-wise
- When you have a visual scene you have: retinal processing, recognition, abstraction & feature detection occurring simultaneously
Bottom up vs Top down processing
Bottom up (micro)
- starts with info sensory receptors have and build up to final product in brain
Top down (macro)
- starts with larger concept and works down to details
- influenced by knowledge, experiences & expectations
Perceptual organization
to be able to transform sensory information into useful perception, you need to organize it; keep it separate from environment; must be able to detect motion & perceive distance
Gestalt Psychology
organize sensory information into meaningful patterns that you perceive
Law of Similarity - similar objects grouped together
Law of proximity - objects near each other are grouped together
Law of continuity - smooth, good continuation
Law of closure - perceive objects as a complete full entity
Law of common fate - predicts objects moving in same direction are one object
Law of connectedness - objects that are joined are perceived as connected
Law of simplicity - patterns are seen in simplest way possible
Figure/ground - tendency for ambiguous images to pop back & forth playing tricks on our mind
Broadbent Filter model of Selective Attention
- proposed that brain has limited brain activity
Attended & unattended entry sensory sore > selective filter will decay unattended but pass attended to higher level processing through bottleneck > goes into working memory
Treisman Attenuation Model
Attended & unattended entry sensory sore > attenuated filter will turn “down” the volume of unattended but pass both messages into higher level processing through bottleneck > goes into working memory
Cocktail part effect
Occurs when you filter out other conversations until your name or something important is mentioned, at which point your attn shifts to this other channel
Multitasking
"Divided attention" Successful multitasking depends on: - task similarity - task difficulty - task practice
Schema
Mental framework that allows us to organize experiences/stimuli & respond to new experiences/stimuli
Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
Sensorimotor (0-2 yrs) - object permanence, stranger anxiety Preoperational (2-7 yrs) - pretend play, egocentrism Concrete Operational (7-11 yrs) - conservation Formal Operational (11+) - abstract logic, moral reasoning
Problem Solving tactics
Trial & error - try several potential solutions & rule out those that don’t work
Insight - try out a problem then all at once solution comes to you
Algorithm - step by step procedure that exhausts all possible options
Heuristic - mental rule of thumb, shortcut or guideline
Confirmation bias
Seek evidence to support our conclusions or ideas more than we seek evidence to refute them; also interpret neutral evidence as supporting our beliefs
Fixation
Structured a problem in your mind a certain way, even if that way is ineffective & are unable to restructure it and see it in a fresh perspective
Functional fixedness
Mental bias that limits view of how an object can be used based on how that object is traditionally used
Mental set
Tendency to approach situations in certain way because that method worked for us in past
Availability Heuristic
Occurs when you rely on examples that immediately come to mind when we are trying to make a decision or judgement
Representative Heuristic
Occurs when we estimate the likelihood of an event by comparing it to an existing prototype that exists in our mind
Intelligence
Ability to learn from experience & adapt to environment
Social intelligence
Ability to manage & understand people
Emotional Intelligence
ability to monitor & discriminate emotions in order to guide thinking and action
Theories of intelligence
- General intelligence “g”
- Social intelligence
- Emotional intelligence
Types of intelligence
- Fluid intelligence - reason abstractly, increased processing speed
- Crystallized intelligence - accumulated knowledge and verbal skills
Two mindsets regarding intelligence
- Fixed - belief that intelligence & abilities are static
2. Growth - belief that intelligence & abilities can be developed through effort
Language development stages
4-6 months: babies use sounds
6-9 months: babbling becomes more focused
10-12 months: first words develop
18-24 months: toddlers begin using 2 word phrases
2-3 yrs: 3 word phrases in correct order with inflection
4-5 yrs: speaking with accurate syntax
5-7 yrs: begin using & understanding more complex language
9+ yrs: children understand almost all forms of language
Theories of language development
BF Skinner’s behaviourist theory
- language development comes from classical & more imp. operant conditioning
Noam Chomsky’s nativist theory
- infants are born with innate ability to use language
- human brains evolve language acquisition device that is capable of understanding universal grammar common to all human languages
- all humans will learn language when exposed during critical period which ends before puberty
Lev Vygotsky’s Interactionist theory
- inbetween (some biological and some social interactions)
Sapir- Whorf Hypothesis
- Also known as Linguistic relativity hypothesis
- different structures & vocab of different languages strongly effect thinking of those who use these languages
- esp diff names for colours affects categorical perception
Linguistic Determinism
More intense form of s-w hypothesis
- language determines thought & emotions/feelings & linguistic categories limit and determine cognitive categories
Perceptual Set
Mental tendencies & assumptions that affect what one perceives
pons
Controls primitive functions like swallowing, respiration
