PSY200 - Test 2

Psychophysics

The study of the relationship between physical stimuli & the sensations they evoke in human observers

Sensation

The process of detecting physical energies with our sensory systems

Perception

Assembling sensations into meaningful patterns

Vision

Seeing

Audition

Hearing

Olfaction

Smelling

Gustation

Taste

Kinesthesia

Feeling

Data Reduction Systems

All senses function as DRS in that they reduce the amount of info coming in, allowing us to function without being overwhelmed by data

Biological Transducers

A transducer is anything that converts one type of energy to another type.

• Our sensory issues function as BT too

• The energy coming in is either electro-magnetism, vibration, heat, pressure, or chemical energies

• The energy going out is the electro-chemical energy that powers the brain

Sensory Localization

Refers to the fact that sense are “localized” to only specific parts of the brain e.g. Hearing in the temporal lobe

Absolute threshold

Lowest amount of energy that can be sensed

Difference threshold

Least amount of change that can be detected

Know the functions of the major part of the eye

• Iris - controls the amount of light coming in

• Lens - focuses light on the retina

• Ciliary Muscles - help focus the lens

• Retina - transducer of visual system

• Fovea - area of highest visual acuity

• Cornea - holds the fluid in!

• Cones - high visual acuity, color vision, only work in brightly lighted conditions

• Rods - poor visual acuity, only see black & white images, but work well in low-light

Know the different types of deafness

• Sensorineural deafness - destruction of the auditory, caused by disease or genetic disorder

• Conductive deafness - stiffening of the ear’s moving parts, usually caused by aging

• Noise-induced deafness - same as conduction deafness, but caused by exposure to loud noises. Usually avoidable, and can even effect anyone at any age

Know the five (5) basic tastes

Sweet, sour, salt, bitter, umami

Understand the Gestalt concept of Figure/Ground organization

• Figure - whatever you’re looking at; learn a lot

• Ground - all the other stuff in the background, we extract minimal information

Understand and be able to recognize an example of a perceptual hypothesis

Tend to see what you want/need

• failure ex.) you lock your car but from far away you begin to doubt if you did, but from that distance you are unable to tell if it is actually locked

Know the short definition of
Know the short definition of conscious

Mental awareness of sensations & perceptions of external events as well as self-awareness of internal events, including thoughts, memories, & feelings

• conscious = aware

Which type of action could you learn to do in your sleep, without awakening?

In state of sleep, we are only able to low cognitive skills like pushing a button

Know the effects of sleep deprivation

Loss of attention, emotional irritability, difficulty focusing on simple tasks, memory problems, & general discomfort

Understand the concept of a “Microsleep”

Occurs when we move from waking consciousness to a sleeping state, typically for less than a second, without passing through any of the normal stages of sleep

Know the stages of sleep

• Awake - beta wave “waking consciousness”

• Relaxed - alpha wave, not asleep, but altered

  • Stage 1 - irregular alpha wave (don’t know you’re asleep)

  • Stage 2 - sleep spindles appear (know you’re asleep)

  • Stage 3 - delta waves appear

  • Stage 4 - mostly delta waves

  • Stage 5 - theta waves appear; but the stage is rare and not considered “normal”

Know the characteristics of REM sleep

Rapid Eye Movement

• Vivid, emotional dreams happen in REM

• REM occurs 2nd & later times in stage

• The body is physically paralyzed in REM

• Males & females display the symptoms, if not the reality, of sexual arousal in the REM

Know the chief characteristics of hypnosis

Narrowed attention and increased suggestibility

Psychoactive drugs are defined in text as

Any substance capable of altering, attention, memory, judgment, time-sense, self-control, mood or perception

Learning are defined in the text as

Any relatively permanent change in behavior that can be attributed to experience

• it’s not learning until behavior changes

In operant conditioning, the reinforcer occurs ____ the response, and in classical conditioning, it occurs ____.

After; before

Understand the difference between a Reward and a Reinforcer

• Reward - something being tested to see if it will have an effect on behavior

• Reinforcer - anything that follows a behavior and increases the likelihood of that behavior occurring again

  • always have an effect on behavior

Jimmy helps his father put away the dishes after dinner. Jimmy's father wants to increase the probability of this behavior. How soon should the father praise Jimmy?

Immediately

Your niece has temper tantrum in the store when she is shopping. You buy her a toy to keep her quiet. What is the most likely consequence?

Buying her a toy makes her immediately happy in the short-term. Next time you’re in Walmart though, you have taught the child laying on the floor screaming gets her a toy and ends up making the behavior worse and worse.

Understand the concepts of positive and negative reinforcement, positive and negative punishment, shaping and nonreinforcement

• Positive reinforcement - increasing the likelihood of a behavior occurring again by presentation of an appetitive stimulus

  • something the individual is willing to work to acquire

• Negative reinforcement - increasing the likelihood of a behavior occurring again by removal of an aversive stimulus

  • something the individual is willing to work to avoid

• Positive punishment - decreasing the likelihood of a behavior occurring again by presentation of an aversive stimulus

• Negative punishment - decreasing the likelihood of a behavior occurring again by removal of an appetitive stimulus

• Shaping - getting closer and closer to the target behavior

• Nonreinforcement - no longer providing reinforcement for a previously learned behavior