PSYCH 10 Final

Describe structuralism.

attempts to analyze conscious experience by breaking it down into basic elements, and breaking down cognitive functions into component parts

Describe functionalism

the study of the purpose and function of behaviors and mental processes

Describe behaviorism

studies observable behavior (relationship between stimulus/i and behavior); less subjective, more scientific

Describe cognitive psychology

studies influences on observable behavior

Describe psychoanalytic theory

attempts to explain how behavior and personality are influenced by unconscious processes

What kinds of research does psychology encompass today?

Basic, applied, and translational

Describe basic research.

involves asking scientific questions in an information-gathering way (e.g. finding out that x factor affects kids’ reading proficiency)

Describe applied research.

takes findings learned from basic research and tries to apply them to real life (creating intervention to help them learn better)

Describe the steps of the scientific method.

theory → hypothesis → research → support or refute/fail to support the theory

Hypothesis

a specific and testable prediction generated from a theory

True or False: the predictor variable is equivalent to the dependent variable

False

True or False: the outcome/criterion variable is equivalent to the dependent variable

True

True or False: The strength of a correlation is determined by the absolute value of the correlational coefficient

True

Describe social learning theory.

people learn from one another via observation, imitation, and modeling

What happens in experimental design?

a researcher manipulates a variable under carefully controlled conditions and observers whether any changes occur in a second variable as a result

Independent variable

factor that is changed

Dependent variable

factor that is measured and expected to change

Random assignment

assigning participants randomly to experimental conditions once you already have a sample

Random sampling

sampling in a way that every person in the population has an equal chance of being selected

What school of thought did Wilhelm Wundt belong to?

Structuralism

Who is most closely associated with functionalism?

William James

Which school of psychological thought used introspection?

Structuralism

Tamar is testing whether women’s decrease in body satisfaction is larger after looking at cosmetics advertisements versus looking at neutral images. She randomly assigns a group of women to look at either advertisements for cosmetic products or pictures of trees, and then complete a survey about their body satisfaction. What type of design is Tamar using?

Experimental

Describe random sampling.

Every person in the population has an equal chance of being selected to participate in the study.

Caitlyn wants to examine how someone’s gender affects their response to clothing advertisements. She will likely use a _______ design because _________.

Quasi-experimental; she cannot randomly assign someone’s gender

Jose, Marianne, and Daria are interested in how mood affects the time it takes for a person to recognize emotional words. Jose conducts an experiment in his lab, Marianne uses a correlational design, and Daria uses a quasi-experimental design with those diagnosed with depression to study this research question. Which option best describes their research technique?

Converging operations

What is converging operations?

the use of multiple approaches and techniques

Describe quasi-experiments

similar to experimental research but there is no random assignment to conditions, so it relies on existing group membership in terms of gender, age, etc.

What was Descartes’s hypothesis about the pineal gland?

pineal gland is where mind and body connect bc it’s “unique to humans”

What is the real function of the pineal gland?

secretes melatonin

What is the function of the thalamus?

receives incoming sensory information and turns it into neural signal for transmission into cortex

True or False: the thalamus receives incoming information for all 5 senses.

False; receives information for all senses except smell

Describe the function of the hypothalamus

located below the thalamus, thought of as a thermostat for the body for all kinds of biological needs like blood pressure, body temperature, appetite, sexual motivation, and behavior (four f’s)

Describe the function of the amygdala

stimulates the hippocampus, plays a role in emotion

Describe the function of the hippocampus

creating and integrating new memories

What two structures does the midbrain contain?

the tectum and the tegmentum

Describe the function of the tectum

processing auditory and visual stimuli and orienting in response to it

Describe the function of the tegmentum

taking in and acting on sensory information

True or False: the hindbrain contains the structures that serve the most life-sustaining functions.

True

Describe the function of the cerebellum

important for motor coordination, remembering skills

Describe the function of the medulla.

coordinates life-giving functions like swallowing, heart rate, circulation, respiration

Describe the function of the reticular formation

regulates sleep, wakefulness, and arousal

Describe the function of the pons

relays information from cerebellum to the rest of the brain

What parts make up the brain stem?

The medulla, pons, and midbrain

What does the pons connect?

The brain and spinal cord

What is retrograde amnesia?

forgetting things that happened before a brain injury

What is anterograde amnesia?

forgetting things after a brain injury

Damage to what structure can cause anterograde amnesia?

The hippocampus

What is the function of the basal ganglia?

intentional movement

Describe the function of the occipital lobe

in the very back of the brain, contains the primary visual cortex (interprets incoming visual information)

Describe the function of the temporal lobe

down the side of the brain, primary function of auditory processing

Describe the function of the parietal lobe

processing of incoming touch information; contains somatosensory cortex

Describe the function of the somatosensory cortex

receives touch signals from receptors all over the body

What does the frontal lobe contain?

the motor cortex (responsible for finer-grade movements)

True or False: the frontal lobe implicates decision making

True

What is Broca’s Area responsible for?

Language production

What is Wernicke’s Area responsible for?

speech comprehension

At what age is the prefrontal cortex fully developed?

\~20-25yrs

What connects the two hemispheres of the brain?

the corpus callosum

Neuron

cell that specializes in receiving and transmitting information

cell body

nucleus of cell, coordinates information-processing (protein synthesis, metabolism) and keeps cell alive

Dendrites

branch-like structures that receive information from other neurons and relays it to the cell body

axon

long slender projection that conducts electrical impulses away from the cell body

synaptic terminals

located at the end of axons

synapse

the region between the axon of one neuron and dendrite or cell body of another (location of information transfer)

myelin sheath

fatty sheath that insulates axons resulting in increased speed of and efficiency of neural communication

What forms the myelin sheath?

glial cells, “helper” cells that help communicate and transport nutrients

What happens when a neuron’s sodium channels open? \n

sodium ions rush into the cell, and depolarization occurs

Antonia believes that the mind and body are separate types of substances. She thinks of the mind as the originator of thought and the body as a purely physical, non-thinking entity. Who would most agree with her views?

Descartes

Sum up the difference between the forebrain and the hindbrain.

The forebrain controls higher level processing while the hindbrain controls basic biological functions.

By examining the axons of giant squids, Andrew Huxley and Alan Hodgkin discovered that the voltage of a neuron’s _________ is typically around -70 millivolts.

resting membrane potential

Action potential

happens within one presynaptic neuron that allows message to be sent to post-synaptic neuron

Repolarization

after the sodium gates close, potassium (K+) moves out

What motivates depolarization when the axon is stimulated?

Needing to reach equilibrium

Describe the process of action potential.

resting potential → threshold of excitation (level that charge must reach to make the axon fire) → action potential → depolarization; charge becomes higher → repolarization; charge becomes lower

Action potential

electrical signal that is conducted along the length of a neuron’s axon to a synapse

True or False: action potential is an all-or-nothing phenomenon

True

What is the main difference between action potential and transmission across the synapse?

although action potential is an electrical event, transmission across synapse is a chemical phenomenon

What happens when action potential reaches the terminal buttons?

causes the release of neurotransmitters into synaptic cleft where they bind to receptors on the postsynaptic neuron

What is the firing threshold of a neuron?

\-55mV

What happens if a neuron is pushed past firing threshold?

the neuron will initial an action potential

What determines the strength of a sensation (e.g. how we perceive the brightness of light)?

rate of firing and number of neurons stimulated

agonists

chemicals that enhance or mimic the actions of a neurotransmitter

antagonists

chemicals that blocks the action of a neurotransmitter

Describe MRI scans.

use a magnetic field to produce images of the brain and its structure

Describe fMRI scans.

used to examine changes in ongoing brain activity by measuring changes in the blood’s oxygen levels; great for determining location but not good with timing

Sensation

the physical processing of environmental stimuli by the sense organs

Perception

the psychological process of interpreting sensory information

Describe the process of perception

stimulus → sensory receptors → transduction (when sensory information becomes a neural signal) → neural impulses are sent to the brain → perception

Absolute threshold

the smallest amount of stimulation needed for detection by a sense

Just-noticeable difference/difference threshold

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

True or False: for the just-noticeable difference threshold, size of the original stimulus matters because the more intense the original was, the more drastic the difference would have to be to be noticeable.

True

Top-down processing

when perceptions are influenced by expectations or prior knowledge

Bottom-up processing

when we perceive individual bits of sensory information and use them to construct a more complex message

Signal detection theory

response to a stimulus depends on person’s sensitivity and on a person’s decision criteria (experience, expectations, motivation, level of fatigue)

Sensory adaptation

idea that we have diminished sensitivity as a result of constant or recurring stimuli (desensitization/adaptation)

Inattentional blindness

failure to perceive objects that aren’t the focus of attention

Change-blindness

in which we’re selectively attending to something but we can’t see changes to the visual details of a scene

How do we take in visual information?

light waves go from the cornea (outermost part) through the pupil (middle black part), which contracts and expands in response to light. then the light gets projected onto the retina. photoreceptors (rods and cones) send information to the ganglion cells, and then the message is sent to the brain via optic nerve

Iris

colored part of the eye that helps the pupil expand and contract