PSY 100 EXAM 2 Cara Worick

What is consciousness?

awareness of self and environment

What is cognitive neuroscience?

the interdisciplinary study of the brain activity linked with cognition (including perception, thinking, memory, and language)

What are some spontaneous states of conciousness?

daydreaming, drowsiness, dreaming

What are some physiologically induced states of conciousness?

hallucinations, orgasm, food or oxygen starvation

what are some psychologically induced states of conciousness?

sensory deprivation, hypnosis, meditation

1880s

Psychology defined as description and explanation of states of consciousness

1st half of the 20th century

direct observation of behavior

1960s

consciousness was almost forgotten

after 1960s

Study of consciousness altered by hypnosis, drugs, and meditation; importance of cognition

today

Under the influence of cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and cognitive neuroscience, our consciousness has reclaimed its place as an important area of research.

What do cognitive neuroscientists do?

Explore and map conscious cortex function and can sometimes "read" minds

Suggest consciousness arises from synchronized brain activity

What is selective attention?

how we focus our conscious awareness on a particular stimuli. ex. focusing on the basketball and not noticing the gorilla

What is the cocktail party effect?

allows people to only focus on one conversation while in a crowded room

Dichotic listening

a task in which people wearing headphones only hear the information presented to one ear. showed us that we are capable of blocking

What is inattentional blindness?

failure to notice something because we are not paying attention to it. ex. failing to notice the gorilla or the words in thee unattended ear

(purely as a result of lack of attention)

What is change blindness?

failing to notice changes in the environment, a form of inattentional blindness ex. failing to notice something is in your room that wasn't there before

What is dual processing?

simultaneously processing information on separate conscious and unconscious tracks

What is blindsight awareness?

a person can respond to a visual stimulus without consciously experiencing it ex. a person with blindsight can walk straight down a hallway, even if they cannot see what is in front of them

What is parallel processing?

the processing of many aspects of a problem simultaneously; the brain's natural mode of information processing for many functions ex.when you see a bus coming towards you you see the color shape etc all at once

What is sequential processing?

the focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus. best for solving new problems. ex. solving problems step by step

Why do we sleep?

protection, recuperation, memory, creative thinking, strengthen neural connections, growth hormone

Sleep deprivation

Causes fatigue and irritability

Impairs concentration, productivity, and memory consolidation

Can also lead to depression, obesity, joint pain, a suppressed immune system, and slowed performance with a greater vulnerability to accidents

What is insomnia?

recurring problems in falling or staying asleep

What is narcolepsy?

Sudden uncontrollable sleep attacks, sometimes lapsing directly into REM sleep

What is sleep apnea?

a stoppage of breathing while asleep; associated with obesity, especially in men

What are night terrors?

high arousal and appearance of being terrified

What are dreams?

a sequence of images, emotions, and thoughts passing through a sleeping person's mind

Why do we dream?

to satisfy our own wishes, to file away memories, to develop and preserve neural pathways, to make sense of neural static, to reflect cognitive development

Dream theories: Freud's wish-fulfillment

Dream's provide a "psychic safety valve" - expressing otherwise unacceptable feelings; contain manifest (remembered) content and a deeper layer of content - hidden meaning; Release valve for repressed feelings; Intrepret on unconscious desires of the ID typically sexual or aggressive (Critics: lacks scientific support, dreams may be interpreted in many ways_

Dream theories: information processing

dreams help us sort out the day's events and consolidate our memories

Dream Theories: Physiological Function

regular brain stimulation from REM sleep may help develop and preserve neural pathways

Dream theories: Activation synthesis

REM sleep triggers neural activity that evokes random visual memories, which our sleeping brain weaves into stories

Dream Theories: Cognitive Development

dream content reflects dreamers' cognitive development- their knowledge and understanding. Dreams stimulate our lives, including worst-case scenarios

What is learning?

how behavior changes across the lifespan of the individual. everything we come to know is not genetically given

Why do we learn?

to predict the future based on past experience. give the world meaning

Ivan Pavlov

discovered classical conditioning; trained dogs to salivate at the ringing of a bell

What is classical conditioning?

a type of learning in which one learns to link two or more stimuli and anticipate events. learning through association

Neutral stimulus becomes....

conditioned stimulus

John B. Watson

behaviorism; emphasis on external behaviors of people and their reactions on a given situation; famous for Little Albert study in which baby was taught to fear a white rat

What is acquisition?

intial stage, when one links a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus so that the neutral stimulus begins triggering the conditioned response. ex. learning that a white rat is associated with scary noises and then associating the rat with fear

What is extinction in classical conditioning?

CR decreases when CS is repeatedly presented alone. ex. tone sound appears but no food presented

What is spontaneous recovery?

the reappearance, after a pause, of an extinguished conditioned response. ex. albert remembers the fear the next time the rat appears

What is generalization?

stimulus similar to CS elicits the same response. ex. fear of any furry stimuli

What is discrimination?

the learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and other stimuli that do not signal an unconditioned stimulus. ex. her dog only liking the one soft blanket and not the other ones

examples of classical conditioning in life

emotion: ringtone being joyful bc it is for one of your friends

health: pairing exercise with something you love like watching sydney adams

What is operant conditioning?

a type of learning where behavior is controlled by consequences

Edward L. Thorndike

Law of effect: Principle that behaviors followed by favorable consequences become more likely, and that behaviors followed by unfavorable consequences become less likely.

B.F. Skinner

operant conditioning, skinner box

What is reinforcement?

any event that strengthens the behavior it follows

What is shaping?

reinforcers guide behavior toward closer and closer approximations of the desired behavior

Positive reinforcement

Increasing behaviors by presenting positive stimuli, such as food. A positive reinforcer is any stimulus that, when presented after a response, strengthens the response.

negative reinforcement

Increasing behaviors by stopping or reducing negative stimuli, such as shock. A negative reinforcer is any stimulus that, when removed after a response, strengthens the response. (Note: negative reinforcement is not punishment.)

positive punishment

adding an undesirable stimulus to stop or decrease a behavior

negative punishment

the removal of a stimulus to decrease the probability of a behavior's recurring

What is intrinsic reinforcer?

intrinsic is feelings of pleasure and satisfaction

what is an extrinsic reinforcer?

stimuli such as candy, praise, activity, token

What is primary reinforcement?

unlearned, innately reinforcing stimuli. ex. basic biological need like belonging

What is conditioned reinforcement?

gains power through association with a primary reinforcer. ex. if i get good grades my parents will love me

What is immediate reinforcement?

immediately follows a behavior ex. procrastinate so I don't have to feel negative emotions

What is delayed reinforcement?

involves a time delay between desired response and delivery of the reward

Schedules of reinforcement: fixed-ratio

every so many responses: reinforces a response only after a specified number of responses. ex. buy 10 coffees get one free

Schedules of reinforcement: variable-ratio

After an unpredictable number: reinforcement after a random number of behaviors, as when playing slot machines or fly fishing

schedules of reinforcement: fixed-interval

every so often in time: reinforces a response only after a specified time has elapsed ex. monday discount at dutch

schedules of reinforcement: variable-interval

Unpredictably often: reinforcement for behavior after a random amount of time, as when checking for a Facebook response, checking for text, random attendance

Martin Seligman's "learned helplessness"

2 phase experiment involving dogs in electrical cages

cognitive learning

the mental processes involved in learning

observational learning

learning by observing others ex. bobo doll experiements anger

Prosocial Effects of Observational Learning

-Behavior modeling enhances learning of communication, sales, and customer service skills in new employees

-Modeling nonviolent behavior prompts similar behavior in others

-Across seven countries, viewing prosocial media increased later helping behavior

-Socially responsive toddlers tend to have strong internalized conscience as preschoolers

antisocial effects of observational learning

-abusive parents may have aggressive children

-watching TV and videos may teach children

-violence-viewing effect

Yanjaa Wintersoul

first female to win the world memory championship

Henry Molaison

removal of hippocampus, could not commit anything to long term memory, could only be in the present moment

What is memory?

the persistence of learning over time through the storage and retrieval of information

What is recall?

retrieving information that is not currently in your conscious awareness but that was learned at an earlier time ex. essay or fill in the blank questions

What is recognition?

identifying items previously learned ex. multiple choice questions

What is relearning?

learning something more quickly when you learn it a second or later time ex. memory of algebra equations or picking up a language when you thought you forgotten it

Ebbinghaus

created the forgetting curve and serial position effect in memory. speed of relearning is a measure of memory retention

Information processing model

Compares human memory to computer operations

Involves three processes: encoding, storage, and retrieval

Connectionism information-processing model

Focuses on multitrack, parallel processing

Views memories as products of interconnected neural networks

Atkinson-Shiffrin Model

sensory memory, short-term memory, long-term memory

Sensory memory

triggered when information is perceived, large capacity but short duration, can happen automatically. what we attend to moves into the long term memory. echoic memory (audio), iconic memory (image)

Short-term memory

"working memory" stores attended inormation and retrieving relevant knowledge simultaneously, limited capacity +-7

explicit memory (declarative memory)

memory of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and "declare" Semantic is general knowledge about the world. episodic is recollection of life experiences

Implicit memories (nondeclarative memories)

form through automatic processes and bypass conscious encoding track ex. walking, riding a bike, muscle memory

long-term potentiation (LTP)

an increase in a synapse's firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation. Believed to be a neural basis for learning and memory.

Flashbulb memory

a clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event

Shallow processing

encodes information on a very basic level (a word's letters) or a more intermediate level (a word's sound).

deep processing

in the encoding of information, the processing of meaning rather than simply the physical or sensory features of a stimulus

chunking

organizing items into familiar, manageable units; often occurs automatically

mneumonics

connecting information to something we can remember ex.acronyms rhymes, songs, visual imagery

distributed learning

self testing. practicing retrieving information

priming

the activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations, thus predisposing one's perception, memory, or response

why do we forget?

encoding failure, storage decay, retrieval failure, brain damage

context dependent memory

recall of specific information is improved when the contexts present at encoding and at retrieval are the same

state-dependent memory

tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with one's mood at the time of the memory

serial-position effect

our tendency to recall best the last and first items in a list

spacing effect

encoding is more effective when it is spread over time

testing effect

Retrieval practice effect or test-enhanced effect

Cognition

all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating

metacognition

Knowledge and beliefs about one's own cognitive processes, as well as conscious attempts to engage in behaviors and thought processes that increase learning and memory.

concept

this is a mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, and people ex. blue jays, robins, cardinal all birds