Psychology Pillar Test 1

plasticity

That ability of the nervous system to adapt and change throughout life

Central Nervous System

* Interprets and initiates behavior
* Brain + spinal cord

Peripheral Nervous System

contains __afferent__ nerves, __efferent__ nerves, __Autonomic, Somatic, Sympathetic, Parasympathetic__

afferent nerves

Carries out behaviors

__Autonomic__

involuntary function

somatic

voluntary motor action

__Sympathetic__

active during times of danger or stress

parasympathetic

active during normal functioning; calms stress response

Neural Networks

* Interconnected webs of neurons that integrate sensory input and motor output 

neurons

Cells specialized for information processing

Glial cells

Cells that support “life” functions of neurons; provide nutritional benefit to keep neurons alive

Dendrite

* Part of the neuron that receives information from other neurons or the sensory system

Axon

* Part of the neuron that sends electrical messages

Myelin Sheath

* Layer of fatty tissue surrounding the length of the axon
* Important in retaining the electrical signal within the axon

Synapse

Empty space between two neurons where they “connect”

Action Potential 

(Electric Signaling

* Signal caused by the movement of positive ions across the axon membrane through sodium-potassium channels (movement of Na+ from outside to inside the axon and then back out again)

__All-or-nothing principle__

once an electrical impulse is initiated (reaching a required charge threshold) it moves all the way down an axon at the same intensity

Neurotransmitters

Chemicals that must cross the synapse in order for a signal to be transmitted from one neuron to another

__Excitatory__

activates or speeds up signaling to a post-synaptic neuron; causes the signal to be transmitted from one neuron to the next

__Inhibitory__

deactivates or slows down signaling to a post-synaptic neuron; can stop a signal from being transmitted to the next neuron

**Hindbrain**

* The lowest (in position) and rear part of the brain and evolutionarily oldest
* Supports life functions; includes medulla, pons and cerebellum

Medulla

* Cardio and respiratory function
* Reflex responsiveness
* Automatic survival functions

Pons

Respiration, consciousness and sleep

Cerebellum

Balance and fine tuning of movement (motor coordination)

**Thalamus**

* Sensory relay
* “Intersection” and integration point for all sensory systems

**The Limbic System**

 “border” between brainstem and cortex

Hypothalamus

* Hormonal regulation (endocrine system)
* Important also in the reward circuit

Amygdala

* Emotional regulation
* Coupling emotion with information learned through experience

Hippocampus

 Spatial memory and more generally memory consolidation

**The Cerebral Cortex**

Processing areas

Occipital Lobe 

(Visual Cortex)

* Visual processing
* Interpretation of visual signals

Parietal Lobe 

(Somatosensory Cortex

* Touch
* Planning of movement; receives signals from PNS on current state of body
* *Disproportionate Mapping*= size of the area of the lobe dedicated to movement of a particular body part correlates with the relative importance of that body part

Temporal Lobe 

(Auditory Cortex)

hearing

Frontal Lobe 

* higher level thinking

__Motor Cortex:__

Execution of movement; sends signals to PNS

__Prefrontal Cortex:__ 

Self-control, inhibition, control of attention (both sensory and mental attention

Association Areas/Cortex

* Function in thinking and problem-solving
* Primarily located in the frontal lobe, but association areas exist for every sensory system in other lobes

Cross-Lateralization

* Left hemisphere is specific to processing signals from the right side of the body and the right visual field (and vice-versa)
* Left hemisphere is also more dominant in language processing centers

Corpus Callosum

  Structures that connect both hemispheres and allows communication between hemispheres

**PSYCHOLOGY**

* Scientific exploration of behavior (observable) and mental processes (unobservable; inferred) from biological and socio-cultural perspectives

Goals of psychology

description, prediction, explanation and controlling or changing behavior by examining patterns of behavior

Empirical Method

* Use of observational techniques and collection of data to inform knowledge of behavior and mental processes
* The scientific approach to forming theories in psychology

Structuralism

Focus on basic elements of the mind through introspection (personally describing what you are thinking and feeling)

Functionalism

 Focus on how behavior helps people adapt to their environment and how natural selection influenced behavior

Biological Approach

Any focus on physical causes of behavior including body, brain and nervous system

Neuroscience

 A biological approach to psychology that focuses on the brain and nervous system as a contributor to causes of behavior

Behavioral Approach

/ Behaviorism

* Emphasis on behavior and external causes of behavior
* All behavior is the result of \[caused by\] stimuli in the environment and there is no need to worry about intervening mental events

__Stimulus & Response__

stimuli are objects or events in the environment and responses are our reactions to those stimuli

Psychodynamic Approach

* Focus on unconscious mental processes and motivations for behavior
* Derived from Freud’s theory: note that a modern interpretation emphasizes that thoughts/desire we are unaware of are only ONE INFLUENCE of behavior and are not the sole cause

Humanistic Approach

* “Human” aspects and internal processes are more responsible for our actions
* Behavior is not just reactionary/reflexive
* Emphasis on personal growth and potential

Cognitive Approach

* Emphasis on unobservable mental processes
* Studying mental processes of “knowing” – attention, perception, remembering, thinking and problem-solving

Evolutionary Approach

Focus on adaptive influences of our behavior (similar to functionalism

Sociocultural Approach

Emphasis on societal (any other individuals or groups) and cultural factors that may influence behavior

Theory

* Explanations of behavior (or mental processes) based on multiple observations and converging evidence
* Laws (which are not common in Psychology due to exceptions in individual differences) are 100% PROVEN theories

Hypothesis

Theory-informed questions or predictions that must be able to be tested

Operational Definition

* An objective description of how something is measured, observed and defined
* A very specific definition of a psychological construct that can be agreed upon by most in the field

Population

Entire universe of people that could be studied

Sample

* Portion of the population that is actually studied
* Needs to be representative by random selection to reduce sampling bias

Random Sample

 Sample that gives every member of the population an equal chance of being selected for a study

Correlation  

≠ Causation

* A correlation exists when 2 things vary together; as one measure changes, so does the other
* Simply put, when two things are related
* Correlation does NOT imply that one causes the other… just that they seem to happen together

Case Studies

* in-depth study of just one person or one small group
* Usually used when investigating questions about atypical behavior

Naturalistic Observation

Intervention-free method of “watching” naturally-occurring behavior

Survey

* Self-report of attitudes and thoughts
* Questionnaires

**Experiments**

Controlled manipulation of conditions and measurement of variables

Independent Variable

* The condition/thing you manipulate
* can also be characteristics that you *control for* such as demographics (e.g. sex, gender, age)
* Usually the cause of what is measured

Dependent Variable

* The thing that you measure
* Outcome variable

Experimental Group

Set of participants that are exposed to a condition involving some type of change or manipulation

Control Group

* Set of participants that is NOT exposed to any type of special condition
* Used as a comparison to the effect of your manipulation

Placebo Effect

* (even though not exposed to an experimental condition or other manipulation) Participant expectations produce a measurable outcome
* Believing that a manipulation should work produces real effects

Double-Blind Experiment

 Neither the experimenter nor the participant are aware of which participants are in which condition (until after the experiment has taken place)

Random Assignment

* Randomly assigning participants to a condition or group within your experiment
* Helps to balance out groups so that they are equally representative of the population

Validity

Accuracy and soundness of conclusions

Internal Validity

Degree to which the dependent variable is caused by the independent variable and only the independent variable

External Validity

* Degree to which your findings can be generalized to the population
* If your sample is representative of the entire population, you have great external validity

**Sensation**

* Detection of energy from the environment
* Activation of sensory receptor cells

Bottom-Up Processing

Data-driven flow of information from sensory input to build a perceptual experience

Sensory Receptors

Specialized cells for detection of energy from environment an sending of that information to the brain

Sensory Adaptation

Decrease in sensitivity to a constant level of stimulation because sensory receptors become used to (habituate) to the stimulus

**Perception**

* Interpretation and organization of stimuli
* Making sense of sensory information

Top-Down Processing

* Influence of expectations and experience on perception
* Begins with cognitive processing

Absolute Threshold

Minimum amount of energy needed from the environment to detect a stimulus

Attention

* Taking conscious awareness of
* Allocation of cognitive resources to bring something into awareness
* A question of whether a thought is conscious or unconscious is one simply of whether or not you are perceptually aware of it at the current moment

Selective Attention

focusing on a specific aspect of your experience (stimuli in the environment) and ignoring others

Subliminal Perception

Not having a conscious awareness of a stimulus but potentially being behaviorally influenced by it later
Intensity of stimulus is below absolute threshold

Amplitude

Quality of light wave that determines brightness of color

Wavelength

 Quality of light wave that determines actual color perceived (hue)

Retina

 Layer of cells on the back of the eye that includes sensory receptors

Rods

 Sensory receptors specialized for shape/line and black/white detection

Cones

 Sensory receptors specialized for color detection

Trichromatic Theory of Color Vision

 3 different types of cones exist that are each specialized for a different category of wavelength: short = blues, medium = greens, long = reds

Opponent Process Theory

* Colors that share a retinal pathway (from the cones) are “opposite” colors because the pathway is switching between excitatory and inhibitory use of the same pathway
* Opposite colors: Blue/Yellow, Red/Green, Black/White

Feature Detectors

 Neurons in the visual cortex of the brain that respond to specific features of a stimulus

Binding

* Bringing together and integration of multiple types of information from different neural pathways
* Multiple pathways each containing information about a different stimulus feature converge

Figure-Ground Separation

Innate tendency to separate objects into foreground and background

Binocular Cues

* Use of 2 signals (one from each eye) to perceive
* Overlap in field of view allows for greater depth perception

Monocular Depth Cues

* Making perceptual inferences of depth using 2-dimensional information
* We tend to infer depth whenever possible because we live in a 3-dimensional world

Relative Size

* Larger objects are perceived to be closer

__Familiar Size:__

We use our knowledge of the size of one object to judge how large others might be

Overlap

One object that blocks another is perceived to be closer

Linear Perspective

 Parallel converging lines are perceived as eventually meeting in the distance (depth is perceived