Psych Laumikus 2 terms

What is Sensation?

the process by which sensory organs in the eyes, ears, nose, mouth, skin, and other tissues receive and detect stimuli

What is Perception?

the organization and interpretation of sensory stimuli by the brain

What is Psychophysics

the study of the relationships between the physical characteristics of stimuli, such as their intensity, and our psychological experience of them

What is Absolute threshold

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

What is Just noticeable difference

the minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50% of the time

What is Just noticeable difference also known as?

difference threshold

What is Weber’s law?

JNDs are proportional to the size of the original stimulus

What is Touch absolute threshold?

a bee wing falling on your cheek

What is Hearing absolute threshold?

ticking of clock 20 feet from you

What is Smell absolute threshold?

One drop of perfume throughout a 6 room apartment

What is Vision absolute threshold?

Candle flame seen from 30 miles away on a clear dark night

What is Taste absolute threshold?

1 teaspoon of sugar in 2 gallons of water

Specific _______for each sense stimulate neurons in the CNS

Receptor cells

What do receptor cells do?

transduce sensory input from the environment (sights, sounds, smells)

What does transduce mean?

to convert energy, a signal, or genetic material from one form into another

What do rods in vision do?

concentrated in the periphery of the retina, black and white vision, most active in dim illumination

What is Weber's law equation?

ΔI/I

What do cones in vision do?

concentrated in the center of the retina (fovea), color vision, most active in bright illumination

What does Ossicles do?

magnify sound from the tympanic membrane

What is the tympanic membrane?

a thin, cone-shaped layer of tissue that separates your outer ear from your middle ear

What do Hair cells in the cochlea do?

fire action potentials

What are your chemical sense?

Smell and taste

What is the cochlea?

a spiral cavity in the inner ear that changes sound vibrations into electrical signals the brain understands as sound

What does Inferior colliculus do?

localizes sound in space

What is the Inferior colliculus?

processing center for auditory information

What does the Thalamus do?

distributes frequency information

What does the Auditory cortex do?

interprets sound

What is the Thalamus?

egg-shaped structure in the middle of the brain that acts as the body's main information relay station.

What is the Auditory cortex?

the region of the brain's temporal lobe that processes sound

What are the somatosenses?

Touch, Vestibular sense, Kinesthesis

What is the Vestibular sense?

sense of balance

What sense is Kinesthesis?

the internal sense that detects bodily position, weight, muscle tension, and movement.

What are Circadian rhythms?

daily biological cycles that are about 24 hours long

How are Circadian rhythms regulated?

by the suprachiasmatic nuclei in the hypothalamus

What are the environmental factors that affect circadian rhythms?

day-night cycle and temp

What is Bottom-up processing?

analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain’s integration of sensory information

What is Top-down processing?

information processing guided by higher-level mental processes, as when we construct perceptions drawing on our experience and expectations

Conscious perception of sensory information involves_______

both types of processing

What is Priming?

that prior information will alter what we expect to perceive

What is context?

in which we receive information also changes what we perceive

What is the Law of Proximity?

The law of proximity states that human beings naturally perceive objects that are close to each other as a single, related group

What is Gestalt Principle

rules of visual perception that explain how the human brain organizes fragmented pieces of information into meaningful, unified wholes

What is the Law of Similarity?

a psychological principle stating that the human brain naturally groups elements that share visual or auditory traits into a unified whole

What is Gestalt principle of closure?

the mind's natural tendency to fill in gaps in an incomplete visual image to perceive it as a single, recognizable, whole object

What does rem stand for?

rapid eye movement

What is perceptual parsing?

Our visual system divides everything we see into components

When do you have most vivid dreams?

Rem Sleep?

What ar reversible figures?

Perceptual ambiguities demonstrate what happens when figure and ground are reversibl

Wha tncreases is

physiological arousal increases

Why does muscle paralysis do/

muscle paralis

What is Restorative Theory?

Sleep allows us to recharge our bodies and recover from fatigue

What is Evolutionary Theory?

Sleep’s main purpose is to increase a species’ chances of survival

What is Consolidation Theory?

Sleep helps strengthen the neuronal connections that serve as the basis for learning and memory

What is Insomnia?

chronic inability to sleep normally

What are the symptoms of Insomnia?

Falling asleep, Frequent waking, Returning to sleep, Early-morning awakening

What is Narcolepsy?

by an irresistible compulsion to sleep during the daytime

What is Sleep Apnea?

causes the person to stop breathing while asleep

What is Activation-Synthesis Theory?

Brainstem (pons) bombards higher brain centers with random neural activity and Cerebral cortex interprets activity and creates a dream

What is Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory?

Dreams symbolize wish fulfillment and Manifest content vs. latent content

Sofia dreams that she is standing onstage for a performance but suddenly realizes she has forgotten all her lines. According to Freud, which of the following would be an example of the dream’s latent content?

The dream symbolizes an unconscious desire or conflict related to being evaluated by others

Which of the following sleep disorders would be the most incapacitating for a commercial bus driver?

Narcolepsy

What is Psychoactive drugs?

chemicals that affect mental processes and behavior by temporarily changing conscious awareness

What is Tolerance?

individual requires greater dosages of the drug to achieve the same effect

What is Withdrawal?

after reducing or ceasing drug intake, physical or psychological symptoms occur

What is Physiological dependence

Tolerance + Withdrawal

What is learning?

A relatively enduring change in behavior or thinking that results from experience

What is Classical conditioning?

Learning via associations between two stimuli

What is Operant conditioning?

Learning via consequences

What is Observational learning

Learning via imitation

WHat is negitive renforcement?

eliminating something you don’t like

What is US?

Unconditioned Stimulus

What is UR?

Unconditioned Response

What is CS?

Conditioned Stimulus

What is CR?

Conditioned Response

What is Acquisition?

The initial learning of a conditioned response learning curve shows how quickly learning takes place

What is Extinction?

The diminishing of a conditioned response is repeatedly presented without the US

What is Spontaneous Recovery?

The reappearance, after a pause, of an extinguished conditioned response

What is Generalization?

The tendency for stimuli similar to the original CS to elicit a CR Organism learns to respond to more than one CS with a CR

What is Discrimination?

Organism learns to discriminate between a CS and stimuli that do not signal a US

What are Primary Reinforcers?

Reinforcers that are innately reinforcing, such as those that satisfy biological needs

What is Secondary Reinforcers?

Serve as reinforcers through their repeated pairings with primary reinforcers Also known as conditioned reinforcers

What is Continuous reinforcement?

Reinforces the behavior each and every time it occurs Partial reinforcement

What is Partial reinforcement?

Reinforces the behavior intermittently

What are Ratio schedules

Based on number of responses, Fixed ratio (FR), Variable ratio (VR)

What are Interval schedules?

Based on time since last reward Fixed interval (FI) Variable interval (VI)

What are the steps to Observational Learning?

Pay attention to the model’s behavior

Retain information in memory

Be physically capable of reproducing the behavior

Be motivated to display the behavior

What is Operant Conditioning?

Organisms act (operate) on the environment vs. passively responding to stimuli in classical conditioning

What do Rewarded acts do?

increase in frequency

What do Punished acts do?

decrease in frequency

What is Positive Reinforcement?

A response is strengthened by the subsequent presentation of a stimulus

What is Negative Reinforcement?

A response is strengthened by the subsequent removal (or avoidance) of an aversive stimulus

What is Positive Punishment?

A response is weakened by the subsequent presentation of a stimulus

What is Negative Punishment?

A response is weakened by the subsequent removal of a stimulus