Intro to Psych Final Study Guide

Correlational study

Data collected and plotted to examine relationships between phenomena

Positive correlation

Association between two variables where one variable increase or decreases with the other

Negative correlation

Association where one variable increases while the other decreases

Case study

Detailed description of a patient

Experiment

Controlled test using cause and effect

Control group

Group that does not receive the treatment in an experiment

Experimental group

group that is exposed to the variable being tested

Independent variable

The factor being manipulated

Dependent variable

what is being measured

Double-blind study

Neither the researchers nor the participants know the groups people are in

Single-blind study

only researchers know what groups people are in

Naturalistic observation

observing subjects in their natural environments

Laboratory observation

observing subjects in a controlled lab

Survey

questionnaires based on opinion and experience

Placebo

inactive substance

EEG

Records waves of electrical activity across the brain surface

Lesion

Purposeful tissue destroying

MRI

Magnetic fields and radio waves produce images

fMRI

Successive MRI scans, injecting liquid

Pet scan

Radioactive glucose injected to show active nuerons

CT scan

Series of X-rays at different angles

Amygdala

Influences stress response emotions like anger and fear

Cerebellum

controls sensory, motor, and consciousness functions

Medulla

Regulates automatic organ functions

Pons

Connects motor and sensory information to higher-level brain functioning

Parietal lobe

process and integrates sensory information

Frontal lobe

manages executive function

Occipital lobe

Interprets visual information

Temporal lobe

interprets information from the ears

Pituitary gland

releases hormones that affect growth and development

Hypothalamus

orchestrates maintenance behaviors

Hippocampus

Forms memories and controls memory retrieval

thalamus

relays information throughout the body

Broca’s area

responsible for language production

Wernicke’s area

responsible for language development and comprehension

Reticular formation

major information relay center

REM

active stage of sleep characterized by rapid eye movement and vivid dreaming

Narcolepsy

disorder that causes sudden loss of muscle tone and extreme daytime sleepiness

Sleep apnea

disorder where breathing repeatedly stops and starts and disrupts sleep

Sleep paralysis

disorder that causes hallucinations and extreme fear during sleep

Restless leg syndrome

causes a constant urge to move and make it hard to relax muscles

Night terrors

extremely scary dreams that frighten the sleeper but are forgotten when they wake up

Kleine-levin syndrome

causes lethargy and abnormal amounts of sleep

Sleep stages

• Stage 1 is the lightest part of sleep that last the first few minutes of sleep

• Stage 2 is where the brain sends signals to the body that sleep is undergoing

• Stage 3 is when the body falls into deeper sleep and the brain starts sending slower brain waves

• REM sleep starts about 90 minutes after the beginning of the sleep cycle. The brain is very active during this stage and your eyes dart back and forth.

Effects of sleep deprivation

loss of eye focus, loss of touch identification, loss of coordination, bad moods, high blood pressure, and decreased lymphatic system functioning

Flashbulb memory

very detailed memory that is emotionally significant to a person

Storage decay

memories fade and become less accessible over time when they are not useful

context dependent memory

improved recall of specific information when the current context matches the context when it was encoded

State-dependent/mood-congruent memory

improved recall of memories of specific states/moods when feel those specific states/moods

Proactive interference

old memories prevent the creation of new memories with similar information

retroactive interference

being unable to recall old information due to learning new similar information that contradicts the old information

Psychogenic amnesia

the inability to remember important personal information suddenly

Source amnesia

inability to remember where/how information was acquired

Transient global amnesia

sudden temporary loss of memory where a person is unable to create memories or recall old ones

Serial-position effect

ability to recall information that is presented first and last better than the information in the middle

implicit memory

long term memories formed unconsciously and are associated with everyday life skills

explicit memory

long term memories formed intentionally about knowledge (semantic) or events (episodic)

Distributed practiced

practice of spreading out times of recall to better understand the material

Mnemonics

associating information with something else to help memorize the information

Childhood/infantile amnesia

inability to recall detailed memories from early childhood

Milgram’s obedience study/results

Study investigating why ordinary people follow harmful orders. 65% of participants fully obeyed. Participants were told to shock their “student” (actor) when they made a mistake.

Stanford prison study/results

Zimbardo wanted to see if prison brutality is caused by the cruelness of guards. Half of the participants were guards and half were prisoner. Guards became psychologically abusive and prisoners began to break down so the study had to stop after 6 days.

Soloman Asch conformity study/results

Tests to measure the effect of peer pressure and conformity. A group was asked to match lines to the given line. Actors told the same wrong answer to see if the real participants would follow. 75% of participants confirmed to the group at least once.

Social facilitation

performing better in the presence of others

Social inhibition

performing worse in the presence of others

Social loafing

putting less effort when there are more people involved

Central route persuasion

considering the content of a message rather than the peripheral factors

Peripheral route persuasion

evaluating a message based off of surface-level characteristics rather than the actual content

Bystander effect

being less likely to intervene in a situation where there are other people around, diffusion or responsibility

Self-serving bias

success is attributed to internal factors while failure is ascribed to external factors

Fundamental attribution error

Tendency for an observer to underestimate the situation and overestimate the personal disposition when explaining the behavior of another person

Groupthink

deterioration of mental efficiency when in a group

Just-world bias

people get what they deserve

Ivan Pavlov’s classical conditioning experiment

Studied the behavior of dogs around food. He trained a dog to salivate from the sound of a bell alone because he rang a bell whenever he fed the dog.

Unconditioned stimulus

Normally elicits a reflex response without being taught

Unconditioned response

the natural reflex that occurs in the presence of the unconditioned stimulus

Neutral stimulus

an object that does not normally elicit a response

conditioned stimulus

object that did not use to create a response now creates one after being conditioned

Conditioned response

a learned reaction to a previously neutral stimulus

Higher-order conditioning

When a conditioned response occurs without the presence of the main conditioned stimulus but a secondary stimulus that was also present

Counter-conditioning

reconditioning a previously conditioned response to illicit an opposite reaction

extinction

when a conditioned response disappears

spontaneous recovery

when a conditioned response reappears after extinction

generalization

response occurs in the presence of similar stimuli and not just the exact same one

discrimination

response only occurs with the exact same stimulus