PSYC 100

What does “cortex” meaning?

the outer layer of an organ

What is the “Cerebral Cortex”? What is it’s types of functions? What is it composed of? Why is it important?

The cerebral cortex is the outer layer of the brain (gray matter), which is involved in high-level functions.

• Reasoning

• Emotion

• Thought

• Memory

• Language

• Consciousness

It is also composed of 4 different lobes.

• Frontal Lobe

• Occipital Lobe

• Parietal Lobe

• Temporal Lobe

What is the “Frontal Lobe”? What is it’s types of functions? What is it composed of? Why is it important?

The frontal lobe is the front part of your brain behind the forehead.

It has a variety of functions. Distinguishing ones include:

• Planning

• Judgement

• Memory

• Reasoning

• Abstract Thinking

• Movement (motor cortex)

Notable regions of the frontal lobe are:

• Motor Cortex (movement)

• Broca’s area (speech/language)

What is the “Occipital Lobe”? What is it’s types of functions? What is it composed of? Why is it important?

The occipital lobe is the back part of your brain.

It’s main functions involve things to do with eyesight and visual information

• Visual processing and interpretation

• Visual data collection regarding color, motion, and orientation

• Visual world mapping

• Object and facial recognition

• Depth and distance perception

The most notable region of the occipital lobe is:

• Visual cortex (visual info)

What is the “Parietal Lobe”? What is it’s types of functions? What is it composed of? Why is it important?

The parietal lobe is located between the frontal and occipital lobe.

It is involved in information about body senses

• “5 senses”

The most notable region of the parietal lobe is:

• Sensory Cortex (sensory info)

What is the “Temporal Lobe”? What is it’s types of functions? What is it composed of? Why is it important?

The temporal lobe is located between your frontal and occipital lobes, but below the parietal lobe.

It is involved in sound processing.

• Hearing (Auditory cortex)

• Language (Wernicke’s area)

The most notable region of the temporal lobe is:

• Auditory Cortex

What is an "analogous" trait/structure in biology?"

Analogy means “similar”. Animals have analogous trait/structure when their trait/structure has similar functions to another trait/structure in another animal, but does not necessarily share/derive from the ancestor (ex: wings of birds vs. bats vs. insects)

What is a “homologous” trait/structure in biology?

“Homo-” means the “same”. Animals have a homologous trait/structure when their trait/structure is shared with another animal because they share/derive from a common ancestor (ex: vertebrate of frogs, birds, apes, humans)

What is a “Naturalistic Fallacy”?

A Naturalistic Fallacy is the mistaken belief that argues that since something occurs in nature naturally, that is it “good”. (ex: Male lions kill cubs of other males → Male humans killing offspring of other males is OK)

What does “Fallacy” mean?

Fallacy is a mistaken belief, especially one based on unsound argument.

What does “Helping” mean in psychology?

Helping is behaviour of one animal that increases the survival and reproductive chances of another.

What is “cooperation” in helping?

Both animals mutually benefit. It is advantageous for both animals at the moment.

What does “Altruism” mean?

Altruism is the belief in, or practice of, disinterested and selfless concern for the well-being of others. In animals, we consider altruism to be when one animal sacrifices/decreases it’s fitness in order to benefit/increase another animal’s own fitness. (ex: Vampire bats feed each other from their own stomachs… this lowers the feeder bat’s fitness as it has less food, and the receiving bat’s fitness has increased since it has more food than before)

What is the “Reciprocity Theory of Altruism”?

The Reciprocity Theory of Altruism is the theory that helping behaviour can form long-term cooperation in hopes of benefits later.

Practice Question:

Which of the following is true about “Polygyny“?

• One male father offpsprings from multiple females

• High female involvement

• In this system, non-dominant females may have a higher chance to breed with a dominant male

• All of the above

Answer: All of the above

What is the “Kin Selection Theory of Altruism”?

Kin Selection Theory of Altruism is altruism that is driven by the fact that animals are kin to one another. In animals, including humans, helping tends to happen between kin, rather than outside of kin.

What is “Social Darwinism”?

Social Darwinism is the misuse of natural selection by applying the laws of natural selection to society. (ex: strongest individuals of society rule over the weaker ones… can lead to dictatorship, misogyny, bad stuff.)

What is “Deterministic Fallacy”?

Deterministic Fallacy is the fallacy that believes all behaviour is predetermined by your genetics and cannot be changed. This is untrue because your genes interact and respond accordingly to the environment (ex: epigenetics)

What is the “Somatic Nervous System (SNS)”?

The somatic nervous system is part of the peripheral nervous system, and it controls the voluntary movement of skeletal muscle. (ex: moving your arm around… thought of pointing → moving arm to point)

What is the “Autonomic Nervous System (ANS)”?

The autonomic nervous system is part of the peripheral nervous system, and it controls the self-regulated processes of organs and glands. (ex: kidney and pancreas filters stuff)

What is the “Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)”?

The Peripheral Nervous System connects the central nervous system to the body’s organs and muscles.

What is the “Central Nervous System (CNS)”?

The Central Nervous System is composed of your brain and spinal cord.

What are “Interneurons”?

Interneurons are

What is the “Sympathetic Nervous System”?

The Sympathetic Nervous System is the “Flight or Fight response”… It prepares the body for stressful situations by increasing heart rate, sweating, dilating pupils, etc.

What is the “Parasympathetic Nervous System”?

The Parasympathetic Nervous System is the “resting and digest”… it reverses the affects of the Sympathetic Nervous System.

What are the EIGHT Schools of Thought?

• Functionalism

  • (Mental) How behavior functions allow people adapt to their environment (ex: feeling scared→ run away)

  • An explanation of behaviour in terms of what it accomplishes for the animal

• Behaviorism

  • (Physical) The behaviour/actions we can observe when we adapt to our environment (ex: seeing a snake → run away)

• Nativism

  • Certain kinds of knowledge are inborn/innate (ex: knowing when to go to the bathroom, avoid dangerous things, ability to learn a language)

• Empiricism

  • You learn/acquire knowledge through observation and experience (ex: burns self → learns to not touch fire)

• Dualism

  • “Soul” (mind) and body are separate entities. Mind uses the body to act, similar to a puppet.

• Cognitive Psychology

  • The scientific study of how perception, thought, and memory are processed

• Neuroscience

  • The study of the biological processes involving the nervous system

• Psychoanalysis

  • Mental processes shape feelings, thoughts, and behaviours (ex: childhood experiences shape us: kid gets bitten by dog → fears dogs)

What are the steps of the scientific method?

Theory → Hypothesis → Research → Observation

It’s good to follow the scientific method because it answers a question with real data/facts, not bias and “what you think”

What makes good science?

A theory is scientific only by virtue of being falsifiable, i.e. making risky predictions that could prove it wrong

Even good science is 
a product of Culture, and 
Culture = Bias

What is experimental design in research?

Experiment design is a scientific method that involves the manipulation of the independent variable to see changes in the dependent variable.

(ex:

Independent var: amount of light

Dependent var: how tall plants grow

You change the amount of light to see how tall the plants grow)

What is correlational design in research?

Correlational design is a scientific method does not involve variable manipulation, but instead the observation and comparison of already existing variables. It is less conclusive than experimental design.

Correlation ≠ Causation

What are the two research settings?

The two research settings are laboratory and field.

Laboratory offers more control, but offers a less natural setting.

Field offers less control, but offers a more natural setting.

Either setting can collect self-report data, or observational data.

What is descriptive statistics?

Descriptive statistics is

What is inferential statistics?

What are the 4 conditions for natural selection?

1. In a generation, there is variation within traits (ex: long tails vs. short tails)

2. Animals have useful traits that increases chances of survival and reproduction (ex: long tails → more balance. short tails → faster)

3. Traits are inheritable (ex: deformed tail X → tail length passed down √)

4. Overproduction of offspring (ex: lots of babies!)

Summary: You must have different traits to select upon, those traits must help survival and reproduction, the traits must be inheritable, and there must be a large population/a lot of offspring to choose among.

How do genes affect behaviour?

Genes do not directly control behaviour.

Instead, genes directly make proteins that make up processes in your brain.

Genes can change an animal’s function based on the environment so it can survive and reproduce better.

(ex: for songbirds, genes + spring-time/mating season = larger brain for memory of songs)

What is Darwinian evolution versus Lamarckian evolution?

Darwinian evolution is evolution over lifetimes through natural selections over generations.

Lamarckian evolution is evolution within a lifetime through epigenetics.

Both are true.

What are epigenetics?

Epigenetics is the inheritance of acquired traits.

Traits that are heritable but not necessarily caused by changes in the DNA sequence.

What are distal versus proximate explanations of behaviour?

Distal explanations are on an evolutionary level… the “why?”

Proximate explanations are on an immediate/right-now/hormonal level… the “how?”

These reasonings are not mutually exclusive,