Intro to Psych: Exam 1

Applied research

Tackles practical problems in industrial, institutional, or organizational settings.

Basic research

Builds knowledge base through training and research.

What is a theory?

A well-developed set of ideas that propose an explanation for observed phenomena.

A theory is:

Testable, falsifiable, valid, parsimonious, extensive, and fruitful.

What is a hypothesis?

A specific prediction based on a theory which can then be tested (Educated guess, usually "if, then"). Can be confirmed, but never proven.

Null hypothesis

Predicts that nothing will happen or that there will be o difference between the groups.

Research method

A way of testing a hypothesis of exploring a research question.

What is the IRB?

Institutional Review Board

What is informed consent?

A participant's agreement to take part in a study after being told what to expect. They have an overview of the procedure, if deception is used, and are debriefed after.

Describe the IRB's role in ethical research design and practice.

Protect human participants and researchers in any kind of research. They run a cost-benefit analysis of research.

Operational definition

Description of a property in concrete terms.

Why is an operational definition important?

It results in more accurate data and scoring of the behavior

Reliability

Consistency and reproducibility of a given result.

Validity

Accuracy of a given result in measuring what it is designed to measure

What's the difference between reliability and validity?

reliability is the consistency of the measure while validity is the truthfulness of the measure.

Random assignment

each participant has an equal chance of being placed into any experimental group

Demand characteristics

Cues that reveal an experimenter's expectations to a participant (Clever Hans).

Bias

Introduction of any element that would systematically affect participant performance.

How can demand characteristics and bias influence study results?

It may influence the participant's performance.

Experiment

A carefully regulated procedure in which one or more factors believed to influence the behavior being studied are manipulated and all other factors are held constant. (Random assignment, control group, manipulation of an independent variable)

Correlational research

A researcher studies the relationships between two variables without manipulating them.

Strong correlations are ______ to 1

Close

Weak correlations are ______ from 1

Far

Directionality problems

A problem encountered in correlational studies; the researchers find a relationship between two variables, but they cannot determine which variable may have caused changes in the other variable.

Psychology

The scientific study of behavior and mental processes

Who were the Clarks?

They created the doll study (gave dolls with light skin and dark skin to kids to see which doll the kids thought was "nicer").

Who was Lilian Gilbreth?

Founding mother of industrial organizational psychology, engineering psychology, and ergonomics. She conducted time and motion studies with her husband. Came up with pedal trash cans, fridge door shelves, butter compartments, and the L-shaped kitchen.

Independent variable

The variable the experimenter manipulates.

Independent variable

The variable the experimenter measures.

Between groups design

Different but equivalent participants randomly assigned to each level of the experiment.

Within groups design

All participants exposed to each of the experimental conditions just maybe in a different order.

Name all the different research designs

Experimental, quasi-experimental, correlational, self-report, observational, case study.

Experimental method

A carefully regulated procedure in which one more factors are believed to influence the behavior being studied is manipulated and all other factors are measured.

Quasi-experimental method

Using a variable to examine cause and effect, but the groups are based on predetermined, fixed characteristics.

Correlational method

Measures the strength and direction of the relationship between two variables. No manipulation involved.

Self-report method

surveys or questionnaires, gather data from a large number of people

Observational method

researcher observes people and systematically records measurements or impressions of their behavior

Case study method

Research procedure in which a single person or small group is studied in detail. The method does not allow conclusions about cause-and-effect relationships, and findings can be generalized only with great caution

Control group

the group that does not receive the experimental treatment.

Experimental group

the group in an experiment that receives the variable being tested

What is a double blind study?

both subjects and the experimenter do not know who has been assigned to which group in order to prevent bias.

What's a correlational coefficient?

Measure of the direction and strength of a correlation (r).

What's a third variable problem?

The causal relationship between two variables cant be inferred from a naturally occurring correlation between them because of the ever-present possibility of a third variable.

What is a neuron?

a nerve cell that communicates with other nerve cells; the basic building block of the nervous system

What is a glial cell?

a brain cell that supports the activities of neurons, they dont send electrical signals.

What's the structure of a neuron?

Cell body, dendrites, axon, myelin sheath, synapse

Cell body

Largest part of a typical neuron; contains the nucleus.

Dendrites

Branchlike parts of a neuron that connect to other dendrites to receive information.

Axon

transmits messages away from the cell body

Myelin Sheath

covers the axon of some neurons and helps speed neural impulses

Synapse

A junction where information is transmitted from one neuron to the next.

What's the function of a neuron?

To transmit messages across the brain.

What is action potential?

a neural impulse; a brief electrical charge that travels down an axon

What comes after resting potential?

Action potential

What comes after action potential?

Refractory period

What is the all or none principal?

A stimulus triggers and action potential in the neuron or it doesn't. They cannot fire "halfway"

What is myelination?

the process of forming a myelin sheath around a nerve to allow nerve impulses to move more quickly.

What is saltatory conduction?

the "jumping" of an action potential between the unmyelinated nodes of ranvier.

What's the process of the synapse?

Action potential travels down the axon, neurotransmitters are released into the synapse, they bind with a receptor site, and excite/inhibit in the receiving neuron. Then they're cleared out of the synapse.

How can neurotransmitters be cleared out of the synapse?

-Reuptake into the sending neuron

-Broken down by enzymes in the synapse

-Binding to autoreceptors on the sending neuron

What are the five neurotransmitters?

Acetylcholine, GABA, dopamine, norepinephrine, serotonin

What's the function of Acetylcholine?

Involuntary movement, attention

What's the function of Dopamine?

Movment, rewards, mood

What is the function of Norepinephrine?

helps control alertness and arousal

What is the function of Serotonin?

sleep/arousal, mood, eating, aggression/impulsivity

What is GABA's function?

Facilitates sleep

What are the four parts of the hindbrain?

Pons, medula, reticular formation, cerebellum

What does the pons do?

Helps with sleep, calming down, and relaxing

What does the Medulla do?

Controls heartbeat and respiration

What does the Reticular Formation do?

regulates sleep, wakefulness, and levels of arousal

What does the Cerebellum do?

Controls balance, equilibrium, and muscle coordination.

What are the parts of the forebrain?

In the cerebral cortex there is the frontal lobe, parietal lobe, occipital lobe, and temporal lobe.

What does the frontal lobe control?

Personality, attention, memory, judgement, decision-making, task switching.

What does the parietal lobe control?

Sensory information, touch, bodily awareness.

What does the occipital lobe control?

Eyesight and vision

What does the temporal lobe control?

Auditory processing (speech processing)

What are the parts of the midbrain?

Basil ganglia, thalamus, hippocampus, amygdala, hypothalamus

What does the basil ganglia control?

Intentional movement and reward

What does the thalamus do?

It's a sensory gateway

What does the hippocampus control?

Memory

What does the amygdala control?

Emotion processing (anxiety, fear, etc)

What does the hypothalamus control?

Four F's: fight, flight, feeding, fornicating

What is hemispheric lateralisation?

Two hemispheres are not exactly the same, each has its own functional specializations.

What's the function of the right hemisphere?

Nonverbal processing like spatial, musical, and visual recognition tasks. (Facial recognition)

What's the function of the left hemisphere?

Verbal processing like language, speech, reading, and writing (good at picking up cause + effect relationships)

Split-brain patients have had their ________ surgically cut.

Corpus callosum

Where is the motor cortex located?

back of frontal lobe

What does the motor cortex do?

controls voluntary movement

Where is the somatosensory cortex located?

Front of parietal lobe

What does the somatosensory cortex do?

Controls sensory perception

Who was Phineas Gage?

He got the pole thru his head

What is the homunculus?

A rendering of the body in which each part is shown in proportion to how much of the somatosensory cortex is devoted to.

Central Nervous System (CNS)

Brain and spinal cord

Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)

The sensory and motor neurons that connect the CNS to the rest of the body

Autonomic Nervous System (ANS)

Involuntary + automatic commands that control blood vessels, body organs, + glands

Somatic Nervous System

Conveys information into and out of the CNS; controls movement of skeletal muscles.

Sympathetic Nervous System

Prepares body for action in threatening situations (eyes dialate, sweaty palms).

Parasympathetic Nervous System

Helps the body return to a normal resting state; opposite of arousal.

What is sensation?

simple stimulation of a sense organ; sensory receptors receiving information from the environment.

What is perception?

the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information.