Psych 10 UCLA final

Hindsight Bias

belief that an outcome was foreseeable

Barnum Effect

where vague personality descriptions feel highly accurate because they are general

Structuralism

goal: to discover the mind's structure by breaking down experiences into their underlying components

functionalism

goal: to study the purpose of behaviors and mental processes by examining them in terms of adaption to the environment

behaviorism

redefined psychology as the scientific study of observable behavior; predominant in 1920s-1960s

cognitive revolution

reaction against behaviorism in 1950s-1960s; brought back interest in mental processes; set stage for modern approach to psychology

dendrites

detect incoming signals from other neurons, transport to cell body

cell body (soma)

collects/sums input; contains nucleus and cell material

axon

transmits signal to axon terminal

myelin sheath

covers the axon of some neurons and helps speed up neural impulses

terminal buttons

small modules at the end of the axon that release chemical signals from the neuron into the synapse

synapse

space between axon of a sending neuron and dendrite of a receiving neuron

resting membrane potential

at rest electrical charge (-70mv)

action potential

caused by changes in the electrical and chemical gradients across the cell membrane (4o mv)

cerebellum

part of the brain responsible for fine motor skills; balance and coordinated movement

medulla

heart rate, circulation, breathing

reticular formation

hindbrain, regulates sleep/wakefulness, arousal

pons

connects to rest of brain

forebrain

subcritical structures and cortex

frontal lobe

part of the brain responsible for planning, decision making, speaking

parietal lobe

sensory input for touch and position

temporal lobe

auditory, processing language

occipital lobe

receive visual information

plasticity

property of the brain that allows it to change as a result of experience or injury

motor cortex

supports motor control

somatosensory cortex

supports touch and sensitivity

transduction

process of converting one form of input into neural signal

bottom up processing

perception based on the physical features of the stimulus - basic to more complex

top down processing

how knowledge, expectations, or past experiences shape the interpretation of sensory info

absolute threshold

minimum amount of stimulation needed to detect a stimulus 50% of the time

difference threshold

minimum difference between 2 stimuli needed to detect difference between them 50% of the time

Weber's Law

in order to be perceived as different, the intensity of two stimuli must vary by a constant proportion of the intensity of the original stimulus

signal detection theory

predicts how and when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus amid background noise; assumes that there is no single absolute threshold and detection depends on experience, expectations, motivations, fatigue, etc

sensory adaptation

diminished sensitivity as a result of a constant or recurring stimuli

retina

light sensitive inner surface of the eye

cones

respond to higher level of light; result in color perception

rods

respond to low levels of light; results in black and white perception

fovea

center of retina where cones are densely packed

Trichromatic Color Theory

three types of cones; respond to red, green or blue light

opponent process theory

three sets of retinal processes; red/green, yellow/blue, white/black

retinal disparity

different retinal images each eye receives based on its different perspectives

prosopagnosia

inability to recognize faces

agnosia

difficulty perceiving shapes and object form

McGurk Effect

multimodal perception, seeing lip movements affects what is heard ("va/ba”)

sound localization

brain integrates different sensory info coming from each ear; where is a sound coming from?

acquisition

initial stage of learning/conditioning

extinction

when the Unconditioned/natural stimulus and Conditioned stimulus stop occurring together and the Conditioned response is weakened

spontaneous recovery

following extinction, presenting the CS may lead to the CR again

generalization

once a response has been conditioned, similar stimuli can elicit the same response

discrimination

ability to distinguish between similar but distinct stimuli

operant conditioning

type of learning in which the consequences of an organism's behavior determine whether it will be repeated again

positive reinforcement

adding favorable consequence to increase behavior

negative reinforcement

removing unfavorable consequence to increase behavior

positive punishment

adding an unfavorable consequence to decrease behavior

negative punishment

removing a favorable consequence to decrease behavior

fixed schedule

reinforcement after a CERTAIN amount of time or responses

variable schedule

reinforcement after an AVERAGE amount of time or responses

interval

based on time intervals

ratio

based on number of behaviors

encoding

the information gets into our brains in a way that allows it to be stored

storage

the way information is held in a way that allows it to later be retrieved

retrieval

reactivating and recalling information

physical processing

properties/structure of stimulus; does TABLE have capital letters?

acoustic processing

hearing the stimulus; does CAT rhyme with MAT?

semantic processing

meaning of the stimulus, pulled from LTM; is a DAFFODIL a type of plant?

chunking

group items into more meaningful chunks

sensory memory

immediate, brief recoding of sensory info before it is processed into short term or long term memory

iconic memory

visual sensory register

echoic memory

auditory sensory register

short term memory

used to keep track of what is currently relevant, rehearsal can help retain STM

long term memory

memory that persists over time without conscious activation

explicit memory

knowing "what", expressed verbally, conscious awareness (declarative memory)

implicit memory

knowing "how", expressed behaviorally, awareness not necessary

episodic memory

discrete events, specific time/place, personally experienced

semantic memory

facts, general knowledge

retrograde amnesia

cannot remember events prior to brain damage (patient KC)

anterograde amnesia

cannot remember events post brain damage (patient HM and KC)

encoding specificity principle

memory is improved when information available at encoding is available during retrieval; learning on wet/dry land

proactive interference

OLD learning gets in the way of NEW

retroactive interference

NEW learning gets in the way of OLD

blocking

failing to recall something even when you know it

framing effects

changing how an issue is presented; 10% chance of mortality vs 90% chance of survival

anchoring

bias is affected by initial anchor; ex. discounts

availability bias

items more readily available in memory are judged as having occurred more frequently

informativeness

knowledge of category membership allows inferences to be made

stereotypes

cognitive schemas that allow for easy, fast processing of info about people based on their membership in certain groups

representative heuristic

people judge probabilities based on the degree that the situation is similar to, or representative of, their stereotypes or knowledge

loss aversion

people tend to want to avoid losses more than they want to achieve gains

sunk-cost fallacy

people make their decisions about a current situation based on prior investments

prospect theory

losses "matter" more than gains

language

a system for communicating with others using signals that are combined according to rules of grammar and convey meaning

phonemes

smallest unit of sound in language (not letters) “p” “b”

morphemes

smallest unit of meaning in a language

behaviorist perspective

skinner says we learn languages through reinforcement

nativist perspective

Chomsky argues that language learning capacities are built into the brain

interactionalist perspective

innate capacity for language interacts with experience

categorical speech perception

perceiving sounds as being in distinct categories, even though they’re on a continuum; r’s and l’s are blurry in japanese

phoneme perceptual narrowing

6-8m/o’s can still detect subtle differences in word sounds, but this is lost by 10-12mo

Linguistic relativity/Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

language affects how we think because it controls what we can think

strong-thoughts/behaviors affected by lang

weak- thoughts/behaviors influenced by language, and what we pay attention to

aphasia

inability to comprehend and produce language (left side)

Broca’s - broken speech, impaired production

Wernicke’s - “word salad,” impaired comprehension