review 2

Question 1

the role of p-values and confidence intervals

Answer 1

p-value is probability of these results happening randomly

smaller p means less likely the data is by chance and the more significant the data finding is

P values help determine whether there is a correlation or effect or if the results are falsely showing a pattern based on chance

a confidence interval is the range of values you estimate to fall between if you redo your test, within a certain level of confidence

Question 2

role of random sampling in generalizing conclusions

Answer 2

a studys sample must represent its intended population in order for it to be relevant.

by using a probability-based method of selection, you get a representative population

the likelihood of having a skewed group is low therefore

Question 3

role of random assignment

Answer 3

random assignment tends to balance out any commonality in groups as to control variables and prevent false conclusions

Question 4

what is a good operational definition?

a) measurable and valid
b) quantifiable
c) unambiguous
d) replicable and reliable
e) verbal, physical

Answer 4

a)

Question 5

Does brief and sudden stress increase memory? Would skydiving increase memory?

Question 6

________ interference refers to new activities (i.e., the subsequent lunches) during the _____________ (i.e., the time between the lunch 17 days ago and now) that interfere with retrieving the specific, older memory (i.e., the lunch details from 17 days ago).

Answer 6

Retroactive interference refers to new activities (i.e., the subsequent lunches) during the retention interval (i.e., the time between the lunch 17 days ago and now) that interfere with retrieving the specific, older memory (i.e., the lunch details from 17 days ago).

Question 7

What makes a good theory

Answer 7

accurate, consistent, scope (can it apply to other literature), simplicity, fruitfulness (does it generate new, testable questions?), falsifiable/testable

Question 8

what does a study need to be an experiment?

cause and effect
manipulated variable
set conditions
control group
random assignment
set conditions

Answer 8

random assignment and manipulated variable

Question 9

consider what kinds of activities constitute learning

Answer 9

incidental learning - accidentally memorizing song lyrics

classic conditioning, operant conditioning

habit forming

memory creation

Question 10

describe the subcortical structures

Answer 10

(between brainstem and cerebral cortex)

• basal ganglia (control voluntary movement)
• amygdala and hippocampal formation (part of the limbic system, dealing with learning and emotion)

Question 11

List each lobe and their function briefly

Answer 11

Occipital lobe:
- furthest back
- vision

Temporal:
- above the ear
- auditory processing, memory, senses integration
- primary auditory cortex and primary olfactory cortex

Parietal:
- around crown of your head
- body sensations cortex, visual attention, sensory convergence zones

Frontal:
- at front
- motor planning, language, judgement and decision making

Question 12

Describe the broca’s area and wernicke’s area, and what damage to each of these would cause (and what each condition is called)

Answer 12

Broca’s area: language production
- Left frontal lobe
Damage = aphasia (inability to produce words due to damage), strokes

Wenicke’s area: language comprehension
- Temporal lobe
Damage = agnosia (inability to understand language)

agnosia also means loss of ability to perceive stimuli

Question 13

Describe the limbic system briefly, its parts and what they’re involved in

Answer 13

memory = hippocampus and fornix

attention and emotion = cingulate gyrus

Question 14

What is the similarity between CAT, MRI, PET and fMRI?

Answer 14

They’re all scans

Question 15

What is masking and what are the types of masking?

Answer 15

Masking: the process where the presence of one sound makes it harder to hear another

upward spread: low frequency sounds are more likely to mask high frequency ones

types of masking:
- swamping: activity in cochlea produced by sound ‘swamps’
- suppression: response to the masking sound reduces the neural response to the target sound
- informational masking: perceptual fusion of sounds

Question 16

Describe spatial hearing

Answer 16

1. Interaural time difference: a sound on the left will generate sound that reaches the left ear slightly before the right
   - more useful for low frequencies
2. interaural level differences: at higher frequencies (where head shadow is greatest), the head will cast a ‘shadow’ so sound present from the left is somewhat higher level in the left ear than the right

for everyday sounds with a broad frequency spectrum, ITD dominates the perception of spatial hearing

Question 17

What do each of these fibers do:

Aβ
Aδ
Aα

Answer 17

Aβ fibers conduct touch from mechanoreceptors

Aδ fibers conduct heat, noxious, and thermal signals

Aα fibers are the fastest, conducting proprioceptive info

Question 18

describe how perceiving colour works

Answer 18

• colour combos of red, green, and blue
• shades (hues) determined by wavelength of light
• brightness determined by intensity (height) of light

trichromatic color theory: colours we see depends on the mix of signal from three color cones

opponent-process theory: we process sensory info in sets of opponent colours (red-green, yellow-blue, white-black)
- neurons in retina are excited by one colour and inhibited by another

Question 19

Describe how we perceive form

Answer 19

depth perception is the ability to perceive 3D space
- partly innate, partly learned

Binocular depth cues: created by retinal image disparity (space between our eyes)
- convergence and accommodation

Monocular depth cues: cues using only one eye
- position, relative size, linear perspective, light and shadow, interposition and aerial perspective

Question 20

describe how we perceive motion

Answer 20

beta effect: perception of motion when diff images are presented next to each other in succession (stop motion)

phi phenomenon: when we perceive a sensation of motion caused by the appearance/disappearance of objects near each other

Question 21

what is the biological basis of multimodal perception?

Answer 21

multisensory convergence zones are regions in the brain that receive input from multiple modals
- temporal sulcus, superior colliculus
- allows us to do things like move to look at whoever’s speaking

Question 22

Conscious experience of visual perception

Answer 22

our awareness of a visual feature depends on a certain type of reciprocal exchange of info across multiple brain areas
- global neuronal workspace theory: sharing of info among prefrontal, parietal and occipital regions of cerebral cortex is important for generating awareness
- information integration theory: shared info itself constitutes consciousness. complex brain structure = complex experiences

Question 23

Short term memory

Answer 23

kept for few seconds-less than a minute

uses processes of working memo to process short-term info
- central executive: the part of the working memo that directs attention and processing for tasks

maintenance rehearsal: repeating info mentally and audibly to store it

Question 24

Improving retrieval and cue effectiveness

Answer 24

1. reconstruct meaningful cues that remind us of the original info
2. cues should be distinctive and not associated with other memos

mnemonic devices: a strat for remembering info, involving imaging events occurring on a journey, etc

Question 25

Describe how sensation and perception work together through sensory interaction, selective attention, sensory adaptation, and perceptual constancy.

Answer 25

Sensory interactions: the working together of different senses to create experiences.
- Involved when taste, smell, and texture combine to create the flavour we experience in food
- McGurk effect: an error in perception that occurs when we misperceive sounds because the audio and visual parts of the speech are mismatched
- Experience of nausea: sensory information being received from the eyes and body does not match information from the vestibular system.
- Synesthesia: an experience in which one sensation (sound) creates experience in another (vision)

Selective attention: the ability to focus on some sensory inputs while tuning out others
- Allows us to listen to one person speaking while ignoring other convos at a party
** ties into the cocktail party phenomenon

Sensory adaptation: a decreased sensitivity to a stimulus after prolonged and constant exposure.
- Involved when we step into a pool and the water initially feels cold, but doesnt after a while
Important because since we can adapt to things that don’t change around us (cold, noise, etc.), it leaves our sensory receptors free to detect important and informative changes in our environment and respond accordingly.

Saccades: quick, simultaneous movements of the eyes; guarantees that the image we are viewing always falls on fresh receptor cells

Perceptual constancy: the ability to perceive a stimulus as constant despite changes in sensation
- Allows us to continue to perceive the same colour (colour constancy) in different lighting
- Allows us to continue to perceive the same shape (a door is always rectangle even when its a line)

Question 26

What are 5 reasons we forget and give examples of each?

Answer 26

1. You didn’t learn the piece of info in the first place
   - Failure to encode information
   Encoding failures:
   - Due to distraction, not paying attention to specific details
   - Not being able to recognize an actual penny out of a set of drawings of similar pennies
2. Memory fade/decay over time
   If we do not rehearse a memory and the neural representation of that memory is not reactivated over a long period of time, the memory representation may disappear entirely or fade to a point of no access.
   - Memory traces need to be consolidated or transferred from the hippocampus to more durable representations in the cortex for them to last
   - If consolidation is interrupted by encoding of other experiences, the memory trace does not get fully developed and is forgotten
3. Lacking the appropriate retrieval cues
   Needing the right reminder to bring the memory to mind
   - Being told someones name (retrieval cue) and remembering their face
4. Interference- other memories being in the way
   - Passwords you’ve used for other websites come to mind and interfere with our ability to retrieve the desired password.
   - Proactive interference: old memories block the learning of new related memories
   - Retroactive interference: new memories block the retrial of old memories
5. Trying not to remember- deliberately attempt to keep things out of mind
   - Successfully forgetting by inhibiting the undesirable memory or generating diversionary thoughts
   - Slipped and fell at your cafeteria during lunch and everyone laughed at you; forget it by thinking of more positive events that are associated with the cafeteria

Question 27

hypnosis vs dissociation.

Answer 27

Hypnosis
“The mental state of consciousness characterized by peripheral awareness and increased focus on one stimulus, resulting in a greater susceptibility to suggestion”
* Dissociation: separation of one’s awareness from everything besides what one is centrally focused on
o Dissociation is most extreme during hypnosis
* One must want to be hypnotised, and under hypnosis you won’t do anything you
wouldn’t do while in a natural state of consciousness
* Hypnotherapy: combination of relaxation, suggestion, motivation and expectancies to create a desired mental or behavioural state
o Maybe can’t help with addiction but can treat acute and chronic pain
* Trance states: involve dissociation of the self but people have less voluntary control of behaviours; said to be used in religious ceremonies when person is “possessed”