AP Psych Mid-Term

What makes something memorable?

novelty, repetition, association, & emotional resonance

multi-store memory model

Describes memory as comprising 3 distinct storehouses: sensory, short-term, and long-term.

sensory storage

Fleeting memory activated by senses, such as iconic and echoic memory.

iconic memory

Visual momentary sensory memory (>1/2 second).

echoic memory

Auditory momentary sensory memory (3-4 seconds)

elaborative rehersal

Making associations; memory aids.

maintenance rehersal

Repeating information.

working memory model

Working memory is comprised of many components: episodic buffer, visuospatial sketchpad, phonological loop, central executive.

levels of processing model

Processing can be shallow or deep; memory retention depends on the depth or level to which information is processed. Scale for the level of processing: shallow to deep (structural —> phonemic —> semantic).

effortful processing

The active encoding of information that requires conscious attention and deliberate effort. Examples of these strategies include mnemonics, method of loci, acronyms, chunking, and hierarchies.

automatic processing

Encoding of information without conscious effort.

method of loci

Mnemonic technique in which items to be remembered are converted into mental images & associated with specific locations.

forms of long term memory

There is explicit and implicit long-term memory.

next-in-line effect

A person in a group has diminished recall for words of others who spoke immediately before or after the person.

hippocampus

Brain structure is important for learning & memories, especially for long-term memory storage (learned from HM, who had STM but no LTM after removal of hippocampus). Formation of new explicit memories happens here.

frontal lobes

Higher order thinking skills (explicit memories).

basal ganglia

Involved in coordinating sequences of motor activity (implicit memories).

amygdala

Emotion-related flashbulb memories.

cerebellum

Coordinates movement (implicit memory).

explicit memories

Requires effortful processing, includes semantic and episodic memory, as well as autobiographical, prospective, and flashbulb memories.

semantic memory

Facts (improves with age).

episodic memory

Personally experienced events (declines with age).

implicit memories

Does not require effort to remember, automatic processing. For instance, procedural memory, or something we “just know” immediately.

procedural memory

Acquisition of skills as a result of practice.

flashbulb memory

A type of autobiographical memory, records atypical events with strong emotional associations. This excites and/or stress triggers hormone production and provokes a part of the amygdala.

consolidation

Process by which memories become stable in the brain, most happens in the hippocampus after LTP.

reconsolidation

Memories can become vulnerable to disruption when recalled, requiring them to become consolidated again.

retrograde amnesia

Unable to recall events that occurred before the brain injury, but not new events, usually temporary.

anterograde amnesia

Unable to create memories after the brain injury, typically permanent.

alzheimer’s disease

Brain disease that gradually erodes an individual’s memory, intellectual abilities, and personality, associated with deficits in acetylcholine.

recall

Retrieving information that is not currently in your conscious awareness but that was learned at an earlier time.

recognition

Identifying items previously learned.

relearning

Learning something more quickly when you learn it a second or later time.

prospective memory

Remembering to perform an intended action.

encoding specificity principle

Cues and contexts specific to a particular memory will be most effective in helping recall.

ebbinghaus’ forgetting curve

Memories weaken over time (exponentially decrease). Biggest drop in retention happens right after learning, foundational knowledge is set. Use it or lose it.

absentmindness

Lapse in attention, such as prospective memory, encoding failure.

repression

Freudian defense mechanism that causes us to forget what is causing us distress.

inteference

The blocking of a memory by the learning or remembering of other conflicting material. Can be proactive or retroactive.

proactive interference

OLD BLOCKS NEW information.

retroactive interference

NEW BLOCKS OLD information.

imagination inflation

The finding that imagining an event which never happened can increase confidence it actually occurred.

Wilhelm Wundt

The Father of Psychology, defined it as a science of mental life, campaigned to make it a separate discipline, established first experimental psych lab.

structuralism

A movement considered to be the first school of psychology, usually attributed to Wilhelm Wundt, defining psychology as the study of mental experience. Sought to investigate the structure through a systematic program of experiment based on trained introspection.

functionalism

A general psychological approach that views mental life and behavior in terms of active adaptation to environmental challenges and opportunities. Inspired by Charles Darwin’s theories.

psychoanalysis

Freudian psychology; insists the mind doesn’t know itself. Led to psychodynamic. Emphasized ways unconscious thought processes and emotional responses to childhood experiences affect later behavior.

behaviorism

B.F. Skinner, the mind doesn’t matter. Psychology is the scientific study of observable behavior, without reference to mental processes.

cognitive psychology

Jean Piaget & Noam Chomsky scientifically explored ways in which information is perceived, processed, and remembered.

humanistic psychology

Abraham Maslow & Carl Rogers, 3rd force in psychology. Focused on ways current environments nurture or limit growth potential and the importance of having need for love and acceptance satisfied

emperical evidence

Fact, information relying on observation, experimentation, or measurement. There are limits to just observation, scientific techniniques can track measurement and description for evidence, which leads to prove or disprove a hypothesis.

the hawthorne effect

Phenomenon where individuals improve or modify an aspect of their behavior if they know they are being observed.

observer bias

Researchers’ expectations influence what they are observing.

self-report bias

People may not give answers that are fully correct.

directionality problem

In correlational studies, unclear which variable influences the other.

regression toward the mean

The tendency for extreme or unusual scores or events to fall back (regress) towards the average.

descriptive statistics

Summarzing and organizing the data. Brief summary states from a frequency distribution (graphic representation showing # of times the property takes on each of its possible values).

inferential statistics

Drawing conclusions about a sample population to make generalizations about a population.

experimental bias

Systematic errors in the research process or the interpretation of its results that are attriibutable to a researcher’s behavior, preconceived belieifs, expectancies, or desires about results.

institutional animal care and use committee (IACUC)

Reviews and approves research proposals in volving animals which minimize pain, provide appropriate care, and justify use of animals.

peripheral nervous system (PNS)

A network of nerves outside the brain and spinal cord that connects the CNS to limbs and organs. Carries messages to and from the CNS.

somatic nervous system

Controls voluntary muscles and transmits sensory information to the CNS.

automatic nervous system

Controls involuntary body functions (sympathetic & parasympathetic).

neuron body parts

dendrites - receive messages from other cells

cell body - soma

axon - passes messages away from the cell body to other neurons, etc…

myelin sheath - covers axon of some neurons & helps speed up neural impulses

nodes of ranvier - gaps between myelin action potential from node to ndoe

neural impulse - electrical signal traveling down the axon

terminal branches of axon - form junctions with other cells

resting potential

Neuron at rest, there are relatively more sodium ions outside the neuron and more potassium ions inside the neuron.

multiple sclerosis (MS)

From the damaged myelin sheath, which disrupts the flow of nerve impulses. Symptoms include stiffness, balance, and muscle weakness.

myasthenia gravis (MG)

Autoimmune disorder in which antibodies destroy the communication between nerves and muscle, resulting in weakness of the skeletal muscles.

excitatory neurotransmitters

Cause the postsynaptic cell to depolarize, increasing the likelihood of an action potential.

inhibitory neurotransmitters

Cause the postsynaptic cell to hyperpolarize, decreasing the likelihood of an action potential.

lock-and-key

Dendrites of receiving neuron contain receptors that bind like a lock & key to the neurotransmitters to its type of receptor.

dopamine

Neurotransmitter involved in movement, learning, attention, and reward. Part of the brain’s reward system. Too much can cause schizophrenia-like symptoms, too little can cause Parkinson’s diisease and low motivation.

serotonin

A neurotransmiitter that regulates mood, sleep, appetite, happiness, focusness, and arousal. Helps reggulate mood and emotional stability. Too much: agitation, confusion. Too little: depression, anxiety, etc…

norepinephrine (noradrenaline)

Neurotransmitter involved in alertness and arousal. Too much, anxiety, high bp, etc… Too little, depressed mood and low energy.

glutamate

The brain’s main excitatory neurotransmitter. Learning, memory, nerual communication. Too much, migranes, seiiures, overstimulation, Too little, learning and memory difficulties.

GABA

Brain’s main inhibitory neruotransmitter. Calms neural activity, helps regulate anxiety. Too much, sleepiness, slow. Too little, anxiety, seizures, tremors.

endorphins

Neurotransmitters that act as natural painkillers. Paincontrol and pleasure (in exercise). Too much, reduced pain sensitivity. Too little, increased pain, low pleasure.

substance p

A neruotransmitter involved in pain perception. Sends pain signals to the brain. Too much, heightened pain sensitivity. Too little, reduced pain perception.

acetlycholine

Neurotransmitter involved in muscle action and memory. Enables muscle contraction, important for learning and memory. Too much, muscle spasms. Too little, alzheimer’s disease or muscle weakness.

agonists - excitatory

Increasaes the production or release of a neurotransmitter by blocking reuptake in the synapse. For instance, morphine and heroin.

antagonists - inhibitory

Opposes the action of a neruotransmitter. Decreases a neruotransmitter’s action by blocking production or release. For instance, botox opposes acetylcholine.

hindbrain

Basic functions. Include medulla, reticular formation, cerebellum, pons.

medulla

Oblongata - heart rate, circulation

reticular formation

Region in pons, regulates levels of consciousness and arousal.

pons

Bridge between cerebellum & brain, unconcious processes, and sleep cycle. Coordinates movements between left & right side of the body.

midbrain

Coordinates movement, recieves stimulus from eyes, ears, skin, and moves you in a coordinated way to the stimulus.

forebrain

All complex functions. Cerebral cortex and subcortical structures.

subcortical structures

Under the cerebral cortex, includes thalamus, limbic system, and pituitary gland.

thalamus

Sensory switchboard for all senses but smell. Sends sensory information to other cortical areas for processing.

hypothalamus

Maintains homeostasis, directys pituitary gland to release hormones for fight or flight.

amygdala

Angger, aggression, afriad. Activated for strong emotiional responses (facial expressions, flashbulb memories).

hippocampus

Vital for formation of new memories. Helps to store declarative (explicit) memories, spatial memories.

pituitary gland

Master gland of the encocrine hormonal system, responsible for dirercting other glands.

cerebrum

Comprises gray matter of the cerebral cortex and subcortical structures.

cerebral cortex

Outermost lauer of the brain, visible. Includes all the lobes.

prefrontal cortex

In frontal lobe. Executiive function, emotional reguglation, and decision making.

lateralization

The inclanation for certain cognitive processes to be specialized to one hemisphere of the brain of the other. Such as language in the left hemisphere.

endocrine system

Sends chemical messengers form gland, to hormone in the bloodstream, and then longer-lasting effects. What triggers the sympathetic nervous system.

urbach-wiethe disease

Rare disorder that can cause inability to recoggnize fear or feel it (altered amygdala).

Phineas Gage

Accident that drove an iron bar through his skull. Affeted the frontal lobe, he became profane, unable to keep his job, and irreverent.

CT scan

Non-iinvasive scan with X-rays that show cross-sectional images of the anatmoy or structure of the brain. Fast, cheaper, but less precise.

MRI

Uses magnets and radiowaves to create a detaiiled 3D cross-sectional image of the structure of the brain. Detaiiled, no exposure to radioactiviity, but longer and more $$$.