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Psychology Flashcards

1
Q

What is the definition of psychology?

A

Psychology is defined as the scientific study of human thoughts, feelings and behaviour.

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2
Q

What are behaviours?

A

Behaviours are directly observable actions like walking, talking, crying.

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3
Q

What are mental processes?

A

Mental processes are indirectly observable (thinking, feeling, remembering, learning, perceiving).

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4
Q

What is the importance of empirical evidence?

A

It’s data that can be measured and is grounded by quantifiable facts.

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5
Q

Name two areas of psychology.

A
  • Neuropsychology
  • Clinical psychology
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6
Q

What is neuropsychology?

A

The branch of science that studies how brain issues affect behaviour cognitive functions.

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7
Q

What does clinical psychology focus on?

A

Focus on more serious mental health conditions and assess, diagnose and treat individuals with mental/behaviour/emotional disorders.

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8
Q

What is the role of the cerebral cortex?

A

Processes complex sensory information, initiation of voluntary movements, language, symbolic thinking and regulation of emotion.

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9
Q

Name the lobes of the cerebral cortex.

A
  • Frontal lobe
  • Parietal lobe
  • Occipital lobe
  • Temporal lobe
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10
Q

What is the function of the frontal lobe?

A

Estimates, decisions, problem solving.

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11
Q

What is the function of the parietal lobe?

A

Body senses, attention, spatial reasoning.

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12
Q

What is the function of the occipital lobe?

A

Visual information.

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13
Q

What is the function of the temporal lobe?

A

Emotional memories, memories, facial recognition.

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14
Q

What are the cerebral hemispheres?

A

Two almost-symmetrical brain areas running from the front to back of the brain, named the left and right hemispheres.

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15
Q

What is hemispheric specialisation?

A

The idea that one hemisphere has specialised functions.

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16
Q

What are the specialisations of the left hemisphere?

A
  • Moving things on the right side of the body
  • Understanding speech
  • Analysing
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17
Q

What are the specialisations of the right hemisphere?

A
  • Moving things on the left side of the body
  • Visual and spatial activities
  • Perceiving arts
  • Daydreaming
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18
Q

What is sensation?

A

Our sense organs and receptors detecting and responding to sensory information that stimulates them.

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19
Q

What is perception?

A

The process of giving meaning to sensory information/how we interpret sensations.

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20
Q

What is the difference between sensation and perception?

A

Sensation is our sense organs and receptors responding to raw sensory information and processing them, while perception is how we interpret those sensations.

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21
Q

What is the process of the visual perception system?

A
  • Reception
  • Transduction
  • Transmission
  • Selection
  • Organisation
  • Interpretation
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22
Q

What is reception?

A

The sensory information being received.

23
Q

What is transduction?

A

The information being converted into a neural impulse.

24
Q

What is transmission?

A

The information being sent to the brain for perceptual processing.

25
What is selection?
Certain sensory stimuli or their features are attended and other features are ignored.
26
What is organisation?
The selected features of the sensory stimuli are regrouped.
27
What is interpretation?
The now organised sensory information is understood in a way that depends on the meaning assigned to it.
28
What is the path of light? What does CPILR stand for?
Cornea-Pupil-Iris-Lens-Retina.
29
What is the function of the cornea?
Bends light into the lens. It lies in front of the iris and it’s clear.
30
What is the function of the pupil?
Regulates the amount of light that enters the eye.
31
What is the function of the iris?
Controls the size of the pupil through muscles that contract/relax the pupil.
32
What is the function of the lens?
A flexible structure that enables light to be focused on the retina.
33
What is the function of the retina?
Cells on the retina (cones and rods) absorb light rays and turn them into signals.
34
What is the function of photo receptors?
They detect light and turn it into electrical signals.
35
What are rods?
Good at detecting motion, good for black and white vision.
36
What are cones?
Good for colour vision, fine details, wide spectrums of colour.
37
What is the function of the optic disc?
Transmission of visual information and the blind spot, where the retina and optic nerve connect.
38
How are images signalled to the brain?
The image is inverted and converted into electrical signals which travel along the optic nerve to the brain.
39
What are depth cues?
Visual cues that allow someone to judge the distance/depth of stimuli in their environment.
40
Name the two monocular depth cues.
* Accommodation * Pictoral depth cues (linear perspective, interposition, texture gradient, relative size, height in the visual field)
41
What is relative size?
When we perceive the object producing the larger retinal image as closest and the smallest object as more distant.
42
What is interposition?
When one object blocks/covers another, the object partially blocked is perceived as being further away.
43
What is texture gradient?
When the texture of a surface changes as it gets further away.
44
What is linear perspective?
The appearance of depth caused by the seeming convergence of parallel lines.
45
What is height in the visual field?
The perception of objects close to the horizon being more distant than the ones further away from it.
46
What are binocular depth cues?
Rely on the use of both eyes, dependent on the comparison/combination.
47
What is retinal disparity?
Each retina receives a slightly different angle of view; the closer an object, the greater the disparity.
48
What is convergence?
When the brain detects depth by tension in the eye muscles.
49
What are Gestalt Principles?
Help us make sense of visual stimuli by grouping together separate phenomena into meaningful wholes.
50
What is figure-ground organisation?
When we make an object the centre of focus whilst all other information becomes background.
51
What is closure?
The tendency to mentally ‘close up’, fill in or ignore gaps in images to perceive them as a whole.
52
What is similarity?
The tendency to perceive things that are of similar size as belonging together in a unit/group.
53
What is proximity?
The tendency to perceive parts of an image that are close together as belonging to a group.

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