PSYCH EXAM 3

What are the three types of memory in the Atkinson & Shiffrin modal model?

Sensory → Short-term memory → Long-term memory

What is sensory memory and what are its types and durations?

Temporary high-span storage of sensory info; Iconic: ~300–500 ms (visual), Echoic: a few ms to several seconds (auditory)

What is the capacity and duration of short-term memory?

Limited span (~7±2 items), duration less than 20 seconds

What is chunking in memory?

Combining small pieces of info into larger clusters for better STM retention

What is rehearsal in STM?

The process of keeping info in STM by mentally repeating it

What are the components of Baddeley's Working Memory model?

Central Executive, Phonological Loop (verbal/auditory), Visuospatial Sketchpad (visual/spatial), Episodic Buffer

What is long-term memory and what is its capacity?

Indefinite/lifetime storage with unlimited capacity

What is encoding acquisition?

Registering inputs in sensory buffers and analysis stages

What is consolidation in memory?

Process of strengthening memory over time through brain system changes

What is the difference between declarative and non-declarative memory?

Declarative = conscious (episodic, semantic); Non-declarative = unconscious (procedural, priming)

What is procedural memory?

A type of non-declarative memory for motor and cognitive skills like riding a bike

What is priming?

Recent stimulus exposure alters behavior/response; includes semantic, perceptual, and conceptual priming

What is classical conditioning?

Learning association between a CS and UCS to elicit a CR

What are habituation and sensitization?

Habituation: reduced response; Sensitization: increased response

What is contextual fear conditioning?

Associating a context with an aversive stimulus via hippocampus and amygdala

What is the subsequent memory paradigm?

• 2 colors: 2 tasks 

• Animacy or size 

• 2 tests: 

• Recognition confidence 

• Source memory 

• Hippocampus activated during encoding & is important for formation of new long-term memories 

• Hippocampal damage may cause inability to encode 

• Also: frontal lobe activations 

• Brain activity during encoding predicts later recall 

What is Hebbian learning?

Neurons that fire together, wire together; strengthening active synapses

What is the difference between familiarity and recollection?

Familiarity: feeling of recognition without context; Recollection: remembering contextual details

What characterizes Alzheimer’s disease?

Degeneration of memory-related areas, presence of amyloid plaques in MTL, progressive memory loss

What are the components of emotion?

Physiological response, behavioral response, and subjective experience

What is the James-Lange theory of emotion?

Stimulus → Arousal → Emotion; emotion results from interpreting bodily responses

What is the Cannon-Bard theory of emotion?

Emotion and bodily response occur simultaneously

What is the Schachter-Singer two-factor theory?

Emotion = arousal + cognitive label/attribution

What are the low road and high road pathways in the amygdala?

Low road: fast, unconscious (thalamus → amygdala); High road: slower, conscious (thalamus → cortex → amygdala)

What are symptoms of amygdala damage?

Flattened emotion, impaired fear recognition, inability to acquire conditioned fear responses

What is the role of the autonomic nervous system in emotion?

Indicates arousal via heart rate, sweating, pupil dilation

How are emotions learned in the brain?

Through classical conditioning involving amygdala, hippocampus, and PFC

What are the six universal facial expressions?

Happiness, sadness, surprise, fear, disgust, anger

What are valence and arousal in emotion?

Valence: pleasantness; Arousal: intensity

What is a Duchenne smile?

A genuine smile involving the eye muscles

What brain areas are associated with approach and withdrawal?

Approach: left frontal lobe; Withdrawal: right frontal lobe

What is fear conditioning and what brain region is required?

Learning that a neutral stimulus predicts an aversive one; requires the amygdala

What is the orbitofrontal cortex's role in emotion?

Evaluates rewards/punishments; OFC damage leads to poor adaptation to changing reward patterns

What is the mental lexicon?

Store of information about words and meanings

What is lexical access?

Perceptual inputs activate information in the mental lexicon

What is lexical selection?

Selecting an activated word from a group of candidates

What is lexical integration?

Integrating words into a full sentence or discourse

Define morpheme and phoneme.

Morpheme: smallest unit with meaning; Phoneme: smallest unit of sound

Define semantics, syntax, and prosody.

Semantics: word meaning; Syntax: sentence structure; Prosody: rhythm, pitch, and intonation

What is Wernicke’s area and its function?

Posterior superior temporal gyrus; language comprehension

What is Wernicke’s aphasia?

Fluent but nonsensical speech with poor comprehension ('word salad')

What is Broca’s area and its function?

Posterior inferior frontal gyrus; speech production

What is Broca’s aphasia?

Non-fluent, effortful speech with good comprehension

What is dysarthria?

Motor speech disorder affecting muscle control; slurred speech

What is apraxia of speech?

Disorder of motor planning for speech; affects coordination

What brain areas are involved in language?

Broca's area, Wernicke's area, A1, M1, angular gyrus, V1

What does distance from A1 indicate in speech perception?

Closer to A1 = simple sounds; farther = complex speech features

What is the N400 component?

ERP component linked to semantic violations

What is the P600 component?

ERP component linked to syntactic violations

What diagnostic tasks are used to classify aphasia?

Spontaneous speech, comprehension, repetition, naming, reading/writing

What is executive function?

Using perception, knowledge, and goals to bias selection of thoughts/actions

What brain areas are associated with cognitive control?

Prefrontal cortex (PFC), lateral PFC (LPFC), frontal polar region

What are components of goal-directed behavior?

Planning, selecting actions, anticipating consequences, self-monitoring

What is a habit and what brain region supports it?

Automatic behavior; supported by basal ganglia

What do PFC lesion studies in monkeys show?

Impairment on delayed-response tasks; PFC maintains info over delay

What does the delayed-response task test?

Working memory and PFC function; neuron firing during delay indicates active maintenance

What does the N-back test measure and what brain region is involved?

Working memory updating; LPFC activity increases with higher load

How is goal representation handled in the frontal lobe?

LPFC holds rules; ACC monitors conflict; frontal pole manages subgoals

What does the Wisconsin Card Sorting Task test?

Cognitive flexibility and rule switching; frontal damage causes perseveration

What is cognitive inhibition?

Suppressing automatic or irrelevant responses; linked to right inferior frontal gyrus

What is prediction error?

Difference between expected and actual outcomes

What are the two types of dopamine neuron responses?

Increased firing for better-than-expected outcomes, decreased for worse

What brain areas are involved in self-control and reward evaluation?

dlPFC = self-control; vmPFC = value computation

What is the dynamic filtering hypothesis?

PFC filters relevant from irrelevant info using top-down control