Psychology 101 exam 2

Sensation

the process by which sensory organs in the eyes, ears, nose, mouth, skin and other tissues receive and detect stimuli. Earlier more biological

Perception

the organization and interpretation of sensory stimuli by the brain. Later more psychological. Including the processing organization and interpretation of sensory signals results in an internal representation of environmental stimuli.

Receptor cells

transduce sensory input from the environment (sights, sounds, smells)

Absolute threshold (JND from 0)

the minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50% of the time. From nothing to something

Just noticeable difference (JND) Difference threshold:

 the minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50% of the time. From something to more or less

Weber's law:

JNDs are proportional to the size of the original stimulus. Percent change

Rods

Concentrated in the periphery (edge) of the retina. Black and white vision. Most active dim illumination

Cones

 concentrated in the center of the retina (fovea). Color vision. Most active in bright illumination

Vision

energy

Cornea

transparent covering over the eye which focuses light on the backside of the eyeball

Retina

receptor cells for vision. Rods and cones

Fovea

location on the retina in the center that contains cones.

Optic disc

 location where there are no rods or cones. Blind spot

Optic nerve

 power cord that comes out of each eye. Sends material out of the back of the eye

Hearing (audition):

energy

Pinna

 functions as a funnel

Auditory canal

road to the middle ear

Ear drum

vibrate in response to the sound waves

Ossicles

 smallest bones in the body. Vibration causes bones to move. Magnify sound

Coclea

receptor cells. Hair cells. Convert vibrations into action potentials.

Auditory nerve

power cord coming out of the inner ear.

Inferior colliculus

localizes sound in space

Thalamus

distributes frequency information

Auditory cortex:

interprets sound

Bottom up process

analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain's integration of sensory information. EX: reading( letters to words)

Top down processing

(sorting) information processing guided by higher level mental processes as when we construct perceptions drawing on our experience and exceptional .

Top down processing examples:

priming

means that prior information will alter what we expect to perceive

The context in which we receive information also changes what we perceive.  

Conscious perception of information involves both types of processing

Perceptual parsing

Vision system divides everything we see into components

Perceptual ambiguities

demonstrate what happens when figure and ground are reversible.

The most important part of perceptual parsing is dividing what we see into the figure and ground

Gestalt principles Law of proximity

things that are closer together are perceived as belonging together

Gestalt principles Law of similarity:

things that are similar are perceived as belonging together

Gestalt principles Closure

fill in the banks of things that missing something

Depth cues:

 for the visual system can be divided into binocular depth cues and monocular depth cues.

Binocular depth cue (disparity)

caused by the distance between the eyes. Brain uses the disparity between the images of each eye to compute distances to nearby objects

Monocular depth cues Interposition:

Monocular depth cues Linear perspective

use of a vanishing point to give the sense of distance

Monocular depth cues Texture gradient

more texture means closer while less texture means farther away

Perceptual constancies

refers to the ability to retain an unchanging percept of an object despite variations in the retinal image.

Perceptual constancies size constancy

EX: as a person gets closer to you they grow and your brain expects that

Perceptual constancies Shape constancy

brain basically knows shapes

Perceptual constancies Lightness constancy

brain knows colors even with shadows

Relative motion parallax

distance of objects from view determines their relative motion

Nearby objects appear to pass quickly while distant objects appear to pass more slowly

(olfaction):

sense of smell

olfaction and taste are called

chemical senses because they involve sensing chemicals in the environment

When enough odor molecules attach to an olfactory receptor neuron

it fires causing an action potential. This is how transduction occurs in the chemical sense of olfaction.

When odor molecules attach to an olfactory receptor neuron it fires, sending a message to the

olfactory bulb.

Olfactory receptor neurons project into the brain called the

Olfactory bulb where they converge in clusters called glomeruli. Signals are passed to higher brain centers (hippocampus, amygdala and olfactory cortex)

Olfaction is on a fast track to structures in the limbic system

Receptors in the mouth are sensitive to 5 basic but important Tastes:

sweet, salty, sour, bitter and umami

Taste buds located in the papillae are made up of

receptor cells that communicate signals to the brain when stimulated by chemicals from food and other substances.

Chemicals are released into your saliva

where they dissolve and bathe the taste buds. 

for taste Signals are sent through the sensory neurons to the

 thalamus and then on to higher brain centers for processing.

Receptors for taste life span:

8-12 days

somatosensory cortex

sensory information goes from thalamus to somatosensory cortex for further processing.

kinesthesia provides feedback about

the body position and movement. 

Touch receptors are located in

the skin and throughout the body.

The knowledge of body location and orientation is made possible by specialized nerve endings called

proprioceptors which are located in the muscles and joints.

Vestibular sense:

helps the body maintain balance as it deals with the effects of gravity movement and position. Comprises fluid filled organs in the inner ear: the semicircular canals and the nearby vestibular sacs.

psychophysics

 the study of the relationship between the physical characteristics of stimuli such as their intensity and our psychological experience of them

Circadian rhythms:

daily biological cycles that are about 24 hours long.

Are regulated by the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) in the hypothalamus.

Environmental factors like the day-night cycle also affect circadian rhythms

do you cycle through your stages of sleep

yu

REM sleep

rapid eye movement, most vivid dreaming occurs during REM sleep, physiological arousal increases, muscle paralysis. More and longer REM later in the night

Stage N1

very light

Stage N2

transitional 40 percent of the time

Stage N3 and N4:

sleep talking sleep walking slow wave sleep. Deep sleep. More N3 earlier in the night

as you get older you get fewer hours of

rem sleep

Insomnia:

chronic inability to sleep normally.

Trouble falling asleep, frequent waking, difficulties returning to sleep, early-morning awakening. Common for people with anxiety and depression

Narcolepsy

characterized by an irresistible compulsion to sleep during the daytime

Sleep apnea

causes the person to stop breathing while asleep

Rem sleep behavior disorder

no muscle paralysis. Acting out dreams

Activation- synthesis theory( biological):

brainstem (pons) bombards higher brain centers with random neural activity.

Cerebral cortex interprets activity and create a dream

Freud's psychoanalytic theory (psychological)

dreams symbolize wish fulfillment

Manifest content vs latent content

Freud's psychoanalytic theory (psychological) manifest

Actual story

Freud's psychoanalytic theory (psychological) Latent content

what the story means (hidden meaning)

Psychoactive drugs

chemicals that affect mental processes and behavior by temporarily changing conscious awareness

Tolerance

individual requires greater dosages of the drug to achieve the same effect.

Withdrawal

 after reducing or ceasing drug intake physical (nausea, headaches, tremors) or psychological symptoms occur (irritable, emotional, cognitive)

physiological dependence

Tolerance + Withdrawal

depressants/ sedatives (decrease CNS activity):

Alcohol , barbiturates (seconal), benzodiazepines (valium)

Stimulants (increases CNS activity)

Amphetamines, caffeine, nicotine, cocaine/crack, ecstasy (MDMA)

Hallucinogens

see or hear things that are not there

Marijuana, LSD, PCP

Restorative theory (individual):

Sleep allows us to recharge our bodies and recover from fatigue

Evolutionary theory (species):

Sleep's main purpose is to increase a species' chances of survival. Evolutionary advantage for humans to sleep at night

Consolidation theory(biological):

Sleep helps strengthen neural connections (network) that serve as the basis for learning and memory.

Opiates (narcotics): painkillers

Morphine, heroin, codeine

Classical conditioning

 pavlov learning via association between two stimuli

Define learning

A relatively enduring change in behavior or thinking that results from experience.

Explain what Pavlov’s studies teach us about classical conditioning.

Pavlov's dogs salivated in anticipation of being fed. Events cued the dogs that feeding was about to happen 

Unconditioned stimulus

 stimulus that does not require any prior learning. leads to UR. Paired with CS.  EX: food

Unconditioned response:

 natural, unlearned automatic innate or reflective response.  EX:  dog salivated

Conditioned stimulus

stimulus that gets associated with the us. Gets repeatedly paired with the unconditioned stimulus EX: ring bell. 

Conditioned response

changed behavior.

 EX dog salivates in response to the bell

Acquisition

the initial learning of a conditioned response (CR)

Learning curve shows how quickly learning takes place

Extinction

the diminishing of a conditioned response (CR)

CS is repeatedly presented without the US

Spontaneous recovery

the reappearance after a pause of an extinguished conditioned response (CR) learned response after getting eliminated doesn't go away completely.

Generalization

the tendency for stimuli similar to the original CS to elicit a CR. organism learns to respond more than one CS and CR

Ex: get bit by a dog at the park then go back the next day and you're scared of all dogs.

Discrimination

organism learns to discriminate between a CS and stimuli that do not signal a US

EX: train dogs to be scared of snakes by shock but then dogs gets scared of hose so it has to discriminate those two things by training

Positive reinforcement:

a response is strengthened by the subsequent presentation of a stimulus. Addition of a pleasant stimulus following a target behavior.

EX: kid cleans room. Parents give candy for reward

Negative reinforcement

 a response is strengthened by the subsequent removal (or avoidance) of an aversive stimulus. Removal of an unpleasant stimulus following a target behavior.

EX: kid cleans room. Parent stops nagging kid

Positive punishment

a response is weakened by the subsequent presentation of a stimulus. Addition of something unpleasant following an unwanted behavior.

EX: kid kicks sibling. Parent scolds kid

Negative punishment

a respnose is weakened by the subsequent removal of a stimulus. Removal of something pleasant following an unwanted behavior.

EX: kid kicks siblilng. Parent takes kids favorite toy