Ib Psych Paper 1

Neurotransmission

The process by which neurons communicate using chemical messengers across the synapse.

1. an electrical signal (action potential) reaches the end of the neuron

2. neurotransmitter is released into the synapse

3. it binds to the next neuron's receptors - either making it more likely to fire (excitation) or less likely (inhibition). Leftover chemical is reabsorbed (reuptake).

Example: SSRIs (an antidepressant) block the reuptake of serotonin. more serotonin in the synapse → binds to receptors → influences signalling in mood-regulation circuits → over time, symptoms can reduce in some people

Chemical messengers

Chemicals that carry signals around the body - neurotransmitters (fast, across the synapse) and hormones (slower, through the blood).

1. hormones are released by glands into the bloodstream and affect any cell with the right receptor, so they act over minutes or hours rather than milliseconds.

Example: Cortisol is released by the adrenal glands during stress. In short bursts, it increases alertness and arousal, which helps the body respond to the stressor. However, if cortisol stays elevated for a long time - as in chronic stress - it can impair the functioning of the hippocampus, leading to worse memory performance. This shows how one hormone can influence both alertness and cognition depending on how long it is present.

Localisation of function

The principle that specific brain areas are specialised for specific functions.

1. Each area's neurons support a particular process, so damaging that area disrupts that function while the rest of the brain still works

Example: the hippocampus consolidates new long-term memories; patient HM had his hippocampus removed to treat epilepsy and could no longer form new long-term memories, while short-term memory stayed intact - showing the region's role.

Genetic inheritance

The transmission of genetic material (genes, DNA, alleles) from biological parents to offspring.

1. inherited genetic variation influences biological processes (e.g. neurotransmitter systems) that contribute to behaviour; people inherit variants, not behaviours themselves.

example: a family where a parent passes down a specific genetic variant that causes the brain to produce less serotonin (a chemical that stabilizes mood). The child does not inherit "depression" or "anxiety" directly. Instead, they inherit a more sensitive nervous system. If that child grows up facing high levels of stress or trauma, they are much more likely to develop depression than someone without that genetic variant.

Diathesis-stress model

An explanation of behaviour where an underlying vulnerability (diathesis) interacts with environmental stressors to produce an outcome.

1. vulnerability raises susceptibility, but the outcome emerges only when stress exceeds the person's threshold

2. either factor alone may be insufficient, which explains why not everyone with the vulnerability develops the behaviour.

Example: an adolescent with a family history of addiction (vulnerability) plus academic pressure and family conflict (stressors) is at higher risk of problematic gambling; another teen with family history but low stress stays fine, and a highly stressed teen with low vulnerability and strong protective factors stays fine too.

Biological reductionism

Explaining complex behaviour by reducing it to smaller biological components or processes.

1. it isolates one biological mechanism (e.g. dopamine signalling in reward pathways) and explains behaviour through that component's activity.

2. Usefulness: it gives a measurable variable and testable hypotheses about mechanisms and interventions.

3. Limit: the association doesn't prove causation, and gaming also involves habits, beliefs, stress and social circumstances (interaction, emergence).

   
   

Example: gaming addiction - dopamine binds receptors in reward pathways, strengthening the association between gaming and its rewards, so game cues trigger cravings and repeated play.

Schema theory

The theory that people process information using organised mental frameworks (schemas) built from experience.

1. activated schemas guide attention, expectations and interpretation - they direct attention to relevant cues, fill in gaps with prior knowledge (assimilation), and are changed by new information (accommodation).

Example: When a student enters a new classroom, their school schema is instantly triggered (activation), leading them to sit down and take out a notebook to fit the situation into their existing expectations (assimilation). However, when the teacher announces an unexpected outdoor group project instead of a lecture, the student quickly updates their mental framework to adjust to this new style of learning (accommodation).

Confirmation bias

Favouring information that supports an existing belief or hypothesis and discounting information that challenges it.

1. the initial belief guides which evidence is selected and how it's interpreted, often without conscious awareness, so confirming evidence gets more weight and the belief is maintained despite contradictions.

Example: a doctor believes a patient's symptoms are anxiety; they focus on recent stress, interpret a racing heart as support, and give less weight to test results suggesting another explanation - so they retain the original diagnosis.

Dual processing theory

A cognitive model proposing that thought processes operate via two distinct modes:

System 1 (fast, automatic, and low-effort) and System 2 (slow, analytical, and effortful).

1. repetition builds familiarity and processing fluency, encouraging reliance on automatic System 1

2. time pressure pushes people further onto System 1, so deliberate checking is skipped even when the person knows the rules.

Example: train staff complete a departure routine thousands of times, so under time pressure they check without carefully attending and miss a passenger; fixes like point-and-call, a peer check, or a safety pause work because each interrupts automatic processing and forces deliberate System 2 attention at the critical moment.

Cognitive load theory

The theory that working memory has limited capacity, and learning/performance suffers when total mental demand exceeds it.

1. ntrinsic load = the difficulty built into the material itself - how complex it is, how many elements interact. A hard math topic has high intrinsic load no matter how it's taught.

2. Extraneous load = the load created by how the material is presented - a busy board with irrelevant facts, a confusing layout, unnecessary detail. This load is entirely avoidable: change the presentation and it disappears.

3. Germane load = the mental effort you deliberately spend building understanding - chunking, linking to what you already know. This is the good load; effective teaching maximises it.

Example: a student learning a new maths procedure while a teacher talks quickly, uses a cluttered slide and gives unnecessary detail - the extraneous load fills working memory, so the procedure isn't encoded; reducing clutter and chunking steps frees capacity for learning.

Multi-Store Model (MSM)

A cognitive model of memory proposing three stores - sensory memory, short-term memory (STM), long-term memory (LTM) - connected by encoding, rehearsal and retrieval.

1. information enters sensory memory, is attended into STM (limited capacity, ~30 seconds without rehearsal); rehearsal transfers it into LTM (large capacity, long duration), from which it's retrieved back into STM.

Example: rehearsing a phone number aloud keeps it in STM and, with enough rehearsal, stores it in LTM.

a patient like HM shows a separation of stores - intact STM but no transfer into LTM after hippocampal damage.

Classical conditioning

Learning through association, where a neutral stimulus becomes linked to a stimulus that already produces a response.

1. repeated pairing of the neutral stimulus with the unconditioned stimulus turns it into a conditioned stimulus that triggers a conditioned response on its own.

Example: a student feels anxiety (unconditioned response) when shouted at (unconditioned stimulus); if shouting repeatedly happens in maths class, the classroom itself becomes a conditioned stimulus and the student feels anxious entering it, even without shouting.

Operant conditioning

Learning through consequences, where a voluntary behavior is shaped, strengthened, or weakened by what follows it.

1. Reinforcement (positive = adding a reward; negative = removing an unpleasant stimulus) increases a behavior.

2. Punishment decreases a behavior. Immediacy and consistency strengthen this association.

Example: targeting punctual arrival - a point is awarded immediately after each punctual arrival (positive reinforcement), increasing punctuality; continuous reinforcement establishes the association first, then a fixed-ratio schedule (reward every five punctual arrivals) maintains it.

Anchoring bias

The tendency to rely too heavily on the first piece of information (the anchor) when making judgements.

1. the initial value serves as a reference point, and later estimates adjust from it - usually insufficiently - so the anchor distorts the final judgement, often without awareness.

Example: a first price tag of $1000 on a jacket makes a $600 sale price seem like a bargain, so shoppers overvalue it; the initial number anchors their judgement even though it was arbitrary.

Emic approach

Studying behaviour from within a culture, using concepts and meanings meaningful to that culture's members.

1. researchers use local categories, values and interpretations rather than importing outside frameworks, so behaviour is understood in its own cultural context rather than judged against an external standard.

Example: studying grief rituals by interviewing community members about what mourning practices mean to them - rather than measuring grief with a Western questionnaire - reveals culture-specific norms an outsider's framework would miss.

Enculturation

The process by which people learn and adopt the norms, values and behaviours of their own culture.

1. through socialization by parents, peers, schools and media, cultural schemas and norms are internalized - often implicitly through observation and imitation - so cultural practices become second nature.

Example: a child learns politeness norms (bowing, greeting rituals) by observing family members and being corrected; through repeated participation these norms become automatic expectations guiding their behaviour without conscious thought.

Social Learning Theory

The theory that people learn behaviour by observing and imitating models, especially when the model is rewarded.

1. attention to the model

2. retention of the behaviour

3. reproduction when able, and motivation

4. vicarious reinforcement (seeing the model rewarded) increases the likelihood of imitation.

Example: a student sees a classmate praised for raising their hand (vicarious reinforcement), so they begin raising their hand too; observation builds the expectation that the behaviour leads to reward.

—> don't confuse with operant - here the learner sees someone else's consequence first.

Brain imaging techniques

Ways of measuring brain structure or activity in a living person.

1. MRI: Takes a static, 3D photo of brain structure (like anatomy, tissue density, and physical size) to see what the brain looks like.

2. fMRI: Takes a video of brain activity (by tracking blood flow and oxygen use) to see how the brain works during a specific task.

example: a participant performs a memory task in an fMRI scanner; the hippocampus shows heightened activity, supporting its role in memory formation - but this is a correlation between activity and behaviour, not proof of causation.