PSYC 100 Exam 2

Sensation

Detection of physical energy by sense organs

Transduction

Conversion of stimulus to electrical signal

Perception

Brains interpretation of raw sensory input

Sensory adaptation

decrease in noticeability of a stimulus overtime

Absolute Threshold

The smallest amount of a stimulus that we can detect (50% of the time)

Signal to noise ratio

stimulus can be unclear so the brain makes the best guess

Perceptual Constancy

Process where we perceive stimuli consistently across varying conditions

Pupil

Allow light into eye

Iris

Open and closes the pupil

Cornea

outside covering that helps protect and focus light

Lens

disc that focuses light on the back of the eye

Retina

membrane on the back of the eye containing sensory receptors

Fovea

area on the retina where light is focused

Optic Nerve

transmits visual signals to the rest of the brain

Myopia

near sighted: light focuses to soon

Hyperopia

far sighted: light focuses to late

Photo receptors

visual sensory receptors (located in retina)

Rod Cell

senses dim light → becomes overstimulates in bright light

Cone Cell

senses bright light

Ganglion Cells

carry visual information from the eye to the brain

Additive color mixing

mixing colored lights to give off more light ( gets brighter)

Trichromatic Theory of color vision

Idea that color vision is based on three primary colors RBG

Color Blindness

occurs when one cone is missing

Opponent Process Theory

We perceive things in terms of opponent color pairs

Bottom up Processing

driven primary by sensory input

Top-down Processing

driven primarily by concepts, beliefs or expectations

Feature Integration Theory

Objects are make up of features our cells detect separately

Proximity

physically close things are grouped

Similarity

similar things are grouped

Good Continuation

continuous things are grouped

Closure

gaps in borders are ignored to form a whole

Symmetry

symmetrical things are grouped

Figure ground

foreground is grouped

Common motion

things that move together are grouped

Depth Perception

ability to see in 3D

Monocular Depth Cue

cues that require input from just one eye

Relative Size

distant objects look smaller

Texture gradient

texture of distance objects look less clear

Interposition

closer objects block further ones

Linear prospective

lines converge over distance

Height in plane

distant objects appear higher

Light & Shadow

Shadows cue 3D shapes

Motion parallax

further things pass by slower

Binocular Depth cues

cues that require input from both eyes

Binocular disparity

difference in retinal images

Binocular convergence

difference in visual angle

Memory model

Subdivides memory into sensory, short-term and long term memory. Diagram is drawn left to right and right to left in the case of information retrieves from long term memory and moved to short term

Sensory memory

Holds sensory information long enough for use to attend to it

Pre-attentive processing

filters incoming information

Sperling experiment

showed subjects 12 letters for 1 seconds and were asked to report as many as they remembered

Iconic memory

visual sensory memory

Echoic memory

auditory sensory memory

Short Term Memory

retaining information in out memories for brief periods of time

Attention

transfers information from sensory memory to short term memory

Rehearsal

Repeating the information mentally or out loud in order to maintain information in short term memory

Factors of short term memory loss

decay, interference, retroactive interference

Decay

Information fades away over time

Interference

loss of information due to competition with other information

Retroactive interference

New information inhibits old information

Proactive interference

old information inhibits new information

Chunking

rehearsal technique combing bits of information into meaningful groups

Maintenance rehearsal

repeating information to keep in short-term memory

Elaborate rehearsal

linking information in a meaningful way to short-term memory

Long-Term Memory

Our permanent store of information, including facts, skills and experience

Explicit memory

conscious infromation we intentionally recall

Implicit memory

recalling unconscious memories we don’t choose to

Semantic memory

Knowledge of facts

Episodic Memory

recollection of our lives

Procedural memory

memory for motor skills and habits ( riding a bike and walking)

Priming

Ability to identify a stimulus easily and quickly when previous encountered by a similar stimuli

Encoding

Getting information to short-term memory to long term memory

no encoding = no memory

Retrieval

collecting the information from long term memory and transferring into short- term memory

Encoding specificity

retrieval of information in similar conditions that the learning occurred

Context-Dependent Learning

Understanding and recalling the information better in the same place you learned it

State-Dependent Learning

Recalling information is more successful when in the same psychological state when learning

Flashbulb memories

extremally vivid & detailed emotional memories

→ usually tragic events

False Memories

memories of events that never happened

Elizabeth Loftus

Creator of the lost in the mall experiment that focused on false memories

Eyewitness Testimony

used in court cases of individuals who saw the event and can be some differences because of what the individual thought they saw

Retrograde Amnesia

Lose memories of the past

→ lost of episodic memory

Anterograde Amnesia

lose the capability to form new memories

→ inability to form explicit memories

HM and Clive Wearing

Both were patients who had served from seizures and had severe cases of amnesia

HM: removed temporal lobes and hippocampi and had fallen under anterograde amnesia mostly and some retrograde amnesia

Clive: hippocampi severed and has anterograde amnesia

Scheme

mental representation of a specific object

Assimilation

a new object is added to an existing scheme

Accommodation

schemes are changed, created or expanded in response of new object

Operation

a reversible action

Sensorimotor

roughly birth-2 years old

Child develop schemes for acting on objects and don’t know how to act when they are gone

graduate when they can gain object permeances

Object permanence

realizing an object continues to exist when out of site

Preoperational

roughly age 2-7

use symbols to represent absent objects

objects and events no longer have to be present to be thought about

Centration

Focusing on only the most obvious feature of an object or situation

→ have trouble representing others point of view, easily captured by surface features

child graduates when they overcome centration

Conservation Task

an operation is performed that only changes the appearance of the object

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Concrete- operational

Roughly 7-12

Understanding of objects based on principles not appearances

Reasoning is more rule based

Can reason hypothetical situations

Formal- operational stage

Roughly 12-up

no longer tied to experiences for understanding

can reason theoretically about the word

Piaget’s Theory

children’s intelligence undergoes changes as they grow

Vygotsky’s Theory

child’s intelligence is developed through learning and is guided by social interactions

Scaffolding

Initial help is given but gradually removed as children learn

Zone of proximal development

Children are receptive of learning a new skill but benefit from instruction

Attachment

strong emotional bonds shared with those we are close to (parents)

Imprinting

baby birds and other species will follow or ‘attach to’ the first large moving object they see

Harlow’s Monkey Experiment

Wanted to test the difference between nourishment and attachment this was used with baby monkeys and a wired mother that would give food to the monkeys and a cloth mother who was soft