Psychology Exam #2

Question 1

Who is Ivan Pavlov?

Answer 1

Russian physiologist who discovered classical conditioning through his work on digestion in dogs

Question 2

What is classical conditioning?

Answer 2

Learning by association.

Question 3

Define unconditioned stimulus.

Answer 3

Stimulus that leads to an automatic response.

Question 4

Define unconditioned response.

Answer 4

Automatic response to a stimulus.

Question 5

Define neutral stimulus.

Answer 5

Does not trigger any particular response at first.

Question 6

Define conditioned stimulus.

Answer 6

Stimulus that can eventually trigger a conditioned response.

Question 7

Define conditioned response.

Answer 7

Automatic response established by training to a conditioned stimulus.

Question 8

Who was John Watson?

Answer 8

One of the leaders of a movement to make psychology more scientific by studying behavior only. They contributed to behaviorism.

Question 9

Who Performed the Little Albert Study?

Answer 9

John Watson

Question 10

Who is B.F. Skinner?

Answer 10

Harvard psychologist, The Godfather of “radical Behaviorism”, believed that every behavior can be conditioned.

Question 11

What is operant conditioning?

Answer 11

The learning of voluntary behavior through the effects of pleasant and unpleasant consequences to responses.

Question 12

List the four schedules of reinforcement.

Answer 12

Fixed Ratio, Variable Ratio, Fixed Interval, Variable Interval.

Question 13

Describe Fixed Ratio.

Answer 13

Reinforces behavior after a specified number of correct responses.

Question 14

Describe Variable Ratio.

Answer 14

Reinforces after a random number of responses.

Question 15

Describe Fixed Interval.

Answer 15

Reinforcement provided for a behavior after a specified number of time has passed.

Question 16

Describe Variable interval.

Answer 16

Reinforced after seemingly random periods of times that average out to a specific time interval.

Question 17

How to sensation and perception differ?

Answer 17

Perception is experimental; sensation is biological.

Question 18

How do top down and bottom up processing differ?

Answer 18

Top down is our expectation and general knowledge affect our perceptions and bottom up is processing starts with our basic sensation and builds up.

Question 19

What is perceptual constancy?

Answer 19

How our brains can recognize the shape and color of objects despite changes in lighting and angle.

Question 20

What is a gestalt?

Answer 20

The “rules” our brain follows to cluster stimuli together into w whole or one.

Question 21

How do the absolute thresholds and difference thresholds differ?

Answer 21

Absolute is the amount of stimulation required to detect a stimulus 50% of the time and difference threshold is the amount of stimulation required to detect a difference between TWO stimuli 50% of the time.

Question 22

What is a photon?

Answer 22

Discrete units of electromagnetic energy that can behave like a wave or particle.

Question 23

Describe the visual system.

Answer 23

The system that senses light and perceives images.

Question 24

What are the two types of cells that process light?

Answer 24

Cones and rods

Question 25

What is a compression wave?

Answer 25

A wave that sounds travel in.

Question 26

Describe the auditory system.

Answer 26

The system that senses and detects vibrations.

Question 27

What are the three theories for how people hear different frequencies of sound?

Answer 27

Place Theory, Volley Theory, and Frequency Theory.

Question 28

What are the five types of taste receptors?

Answer 28

Salty, Sweet, Bitter, Sour, and Umami (Savory)

Question 29

Why is smell associated with strong memories?

Answer 29

The olfactory bulb is located right next to the limbic system, which is important for storing long-term memories and emotions.

Question 30

What is the cerebellum?

Answer 30

The part of the brain associated with voluntary responses.

Question 31

What are the semicurcular canals?

Answer 31

The structure that sends information to the cerebellum.

Question 32

What is the reflex arc?

Answer 32

The spinal column can process touch information before the brain.

Question 33

What is the opponent process theory of vision?

Answer 33

Three types of vision cell pairs; red vs. green cells, blue vs. yellow cells, and black vs. white cells.

Question 34

What is the trichromatic theory?

Answer 34

three types of cones; one most sensitive to red light, one most sensitive to blue light, and one most sensitive to green light.

Question 35

What is the different between monocular and binocular cuing?

Answer 35

Monocular is using each eye separately to look at far away objects and binocular is using both every to distance the nearby objects.

Question 36

Define sensory memory.

Answer 36

Briefly maintains our sensory perceptions so we can process what is important.

Question 37

Define Short Term/Working memory.

Answer 37

Has limited capacity for information. Can hold about 5 to 9 units of information at a time. Lasts about 20 seconds at most without rehearsal.

Question 38

Define long term memory.

Answer 38

information is stored.

Question 39

What is an echoic memory?

Answer 39

Very brief auditory sensory impression.

Question 40

What is an iconic memory?

Answer 40

Very brief visual sensory impression.

Question 41

Name the subsystems of working memory.

Answer 41

Central Executive, Phonological Loop, Visuospatial Sketchpad, and Episodic Buffer.

Question 42

Define Central Executive subsystem.

Answer 42

Coordinates and controls the other subsystems.

Question 43

Define Phonological Loop subsystem.

Answer 43

Short term memory for something heard and is maintained by rehearsal.

Question 44

Define Visuospatial Sketchpad.

Answer 44

Used to manipulate and rehearse visual information.

Question 45

Define Episodic Buffer.

Answer 45

Communicated information between working and long-term memory.

Question 46

What is the "cognitive miser" theory?

Answer 46

Think and solve problems in simpler and less effortful ways rather than in more sophisticated and effortful ways.

Question 47

Define procedural memory.

Answer 47

A form of implicit memory that is unconscious memory for motor skills.

Question 48

Define episodic memory.

Answer 48

Memory from events in someones life.

Question 49

Define semantic memory.

Answer 49

Memory for facts, words, meanings, and general knowledge.

Question 50

Is memory like a perfect tape recording of a past event? Why or Why Not?

Answer 50

No, we never remember exactly what happened, we mostly just remember the jest of what happened.

Question 51

What is the difference between explicit and implicit memory?

Answer 51

Explicit is conscious and implicit is unconscious.

Question 52

According to the book, what is a mnemonic?

Answer 52

Key to retrieval, developing effective cues that will lead the person back to the encoded information.

Question 53

Based on the book and lecture, list and briefly explain three reasons we forget.

Answer 53

Failure to store information in long-term memory, failure to retrieve information, no rehearsal.

Question 54

What is the difference between anterograde and retrograde amnesia?

Answer 54

Anterograde is the inability to form episodic memories and retrograde is the inability to remember past events.

Question 55

What is in misinformation event?

Answer 55

When providing misleading information contaminates memories.

Question 56

Who is Elizabeth Loftus?

Answer 56

Psychologist who did research on false memories.

Question 57

What is the difference between punishment and reinforcement?

Answer 57

Punishment is anything that decreases the frequency of a behavior and reinforcement increases the frequency of a behavior.