UCSD PSYCH 105 MIDTERM 1

Donders (1868)

Studied mental chronometry

-Choice RT vs. Simple RT: interval between stimulus and response

-Measuring how long a cognitive process takes

-Reaction time tests

Ebbinghaus (1885)

Read list of nonsense syllables aloud many times to determine number of repetitions necessary to repeat list without errors

-Forgetting curve

Wundt (1879)

-Structuralism: experience determined by combining sensations

-Created first psychology laboratory

-Participants trained to (analytic) introspect

Watson

-Behaviorism

-Disagreed with introspection

-'Little Albert' experiment with loud noise and white rat

-Classical Conditioning

Skinner

-Developed principles of operant conditioning; rewards and punishments shape behavior

Chomsky

-Argued against behaviorism

-Language determined by 'Language acquisition device'

Tolman

-Trained rats to find food in a 4 armed maze

-Theorized that the rats developed a 'cognitive map' of the maze

Introspection

A method of self-observation in which participants report their thoughts and feelings

Forgetting curve

A graphic depiction of how recall steadily declines over time

Behaviorist approach

-A theoretical perspective that focuses only on objective, observable reactions.

-Emphasizes the environmental stimuli that determines behavior.

Classical conditioning

A type of learning in which one learns to link two or more stimuli and anticipate events

Little Albert

Watson's study on the generalization of fear. Conditioning subject to be afraid

Operant conditioning

A type of associative learning that occurs through rewards and punishments for behavior

Physiological approach

Studying the mind by measuring physiological and behavioral responses, and explaining behavior in physiological terms.

Anarthia

An inability to produce overt speech

Cause & Effect

A relationship in which change in one variable causes change in another

fMRI

A technique for revealing blood flow and, therefore, brain activity by comparing successive MRI scans.

Independent vs Dependent variable

Independent variable: causes or influences the dependent variable.

Dependent variable: hypothesized to depend on or be caused by the independent variable.

Between vs Within subjects design

Between subjects: One set of subjects is exposed to one condition, while another set is exposed to a different condition. Sets only see one condition

Within subjects: All subjects are exposed to all conditions of an experiment

Experimental vs Control group

Experimental is the group that has the variable being tested. The control group doesn't received the variable (is compared to the experimental group)

Capgras syndrome

The delusional belief that an acquaintance has been replaced by an identical-looking imposter.

Capgras Syndrome results from a conflict:

-Perceptual recognition is intact

-Yet there is no emotion attached

(conflict - lack of familiarity)

Capgras Syndrome associated Amygdalar damage

Amygdalar damage results in lack of emotional response

Capgras Syndrome associated with Prefrontal coretex damage

Prefrontal coretex damage causing illogical thought pattern (reasoning, planning, problem-solving)

Probabilistic Errors

Errors also driven by probability-Likely to misread words predictably-"TPUM" likely to be misread as "TRUM", "DRUM", or even "TRUMPET"

Hindbrain

Part of the brain sitting atop the spinal cord

Contains the medulla, pons and cerebellum

Medulla

The base of the brainstem; controls heartbeat and breathing. (heartbeat, respiration)

Pons

A brain structure that relays information from the cerebellum to the rest of the brain. (alertness)

Cerebellum

The "little brain" at the rear of the brainstem; functions include processing sensory input and coordinating movement output and balance. (movement, balance, sensory)

Midbrain

A small part of the brain above the pons that integrates sensory information and relays it upward. (movement, pain)

Forebrain

The largest and most complicated region of the brain, including the thalamus, hypothalamus, limbic system, and cerebrum.

Cerebral cortex

The intricate fabric of interconnected neural cells covering the cerebral hemispheres; the body's ultimate control and information-processing center.

Fissure

Narrow, slitlike openings along the surface of the brain

Lobe

A division of the brain, marked off by fissures

Occipital lobe

A region of the cerebral cortex that processes visual information

Parietal lobe

A region of the cerebral cortex whose functions include processing information about touch.

Temporal lobe

A region of the cerebral cortex responsible for hearing and language.

Frontal lobe

A region of the cerebral cortex that has specialized areas for movement, abstract thinking, planning, memory, and judgement

Thalamus

The brain's sensory switchboard, located on top of the brainstem; it directs messages to the sensory receiving areas in the cortex and transmits replies to the cerebellum and medulla

Hypothalamus

A neural structure lying below the thalamus; directs eating, drinking, body temperature; helps govern the endocrine system via the pituitary gland, and is linked to emotion

Limbic system

Neural system located below the cerebral hemispheres; associated with emotions and drives

Contralateral organization

Opposite-side organization, in which stimulation of neurons on one side of the body or sensory organ is represented by the activity of neurons in the opposite side of the brain

Split-Brain patients

Corpus collosum is severed, two hemispheres of the brain don't communicate as effectively

MRI

A technique that uses magnetic fields and radio waves to produce computer-generated images that distinguish among different types of soft tissue; allows us to see structures within the brain

fMRI

-accurate location

PET

A visual display of brain activity that detects where a radioactive form of glucose goes while the brain performs a given task

EEG

-precise measurement of time

-An amplified recording of the waves of electrical activity that sweep across the brain's surface. These waves are measured by electrodes placed on the scalp.

TMS

The use of strong magnets to briefly interrupt normal brain activity as a way to study brain regions

Fusiform face area (FFA)

A region in the temporal lobe of the brain that helps us recognize the people we know.

(FACES)

Parahippocampal place area (PPA)

An area in the temporal lobe that contains neurons that are selectively activated by pictures of indoor and outdoor scenes.

(PLACES)

Extrastriate body area (EBA)

An area in the temporal cortex that is activated by pictures of bodies and parts of bodies, but not by faces or other objects.

(BODY)

Wernicke's area

Controls language reception - a brain area involved in language COMPREHENSION and expression; usually in the left temporal lobe

Broca's area

Controls language PRODUCTION - an area of the frontal lobe, usually in the left hemisphere, that directs the muscle movements involved in speech.

Projection areas

Areas in which the brain tissue seems to form a "map" of sensory information and motor processes. (motor and sensory)

Association areas

areas of the cerebral cortex that are not involved in primary motor or sensory functions; rather, they are involved in higher mental functions such as learning, remembering, thinking, and speaking

Apraxia

Inability to organize movement

Agnosia

The inability to recognize familiar objects.

Aphasia

Inability to speak

Neglect syndrome

The result of certain right parietal lobe lesions that leave a patient completely inattentive to stimuli in half of their visual world

Prefrontal damage

Problems with planning and implementing strategies, inhibiting behaviors

Neurons

Individual cells in the nervous system that receive, integrate, and TRANSMIT information.

Glia

cells found throughout the nervous system that provide various types of SUPPORT for neurons

Nerve net theory

The idea that the nervous system consists of a network of connected nerves.

Golgi stain

A neural stain that completely darkens a few of the neurons in each slice of tissue, thereby revealing their silhouettes

Ramon y Cajal

Discovered the direction of travel for nerve impulses

Cell body

Largest part of a typical neuron; contains the nucleus and much of the cytoplasm

Axon

The extension of a neuron, ending in branching terminal fibers, through which messages pass to other neurons or to muscles or glands

Dendrite

The bushy, branching extensions of a neuron that receive messages and conduct impulses toward the cell body

Action potential

A neural impulse; a brief electrical charge that travels down an axon. (electrical)

Synapse

The junction between the axon tip of the sending neuron and the dendrite or cell body of the receiving neuron. (chemical)

Neurotransmitter

Chemical substance released from a neuron into the synaptic cleft, where it drifts across the synapse and is absorbed by the recieving neuron

Threshold

The level of stimulation required to trigger a neural impulse

Photoreceptors

Rods and Cones - respond to light

Rods

-Sensitive in low light

-Lower acuity

-color-blind

-periphery of the retina

Cones

-Need more light

-Higher acuity

-color-sensitive

-in the fovea

Path of light to perception

Photoreceptors -> Bipolar Cells -> Ganglion Cells and Optic Nerve -> Lateral Geniculate Nucleus (LGN) of thalamus -> Primary visual projection area in occipital lobe (V1)

Lateral inhibition

The pattern of interaction among neurons in the visual system in which activity in one neuron inhibits adjacent neurons' responses. Emphasizes EDGES of stimulus

Receptive fields

Areas of the retina that, when stimulated, produce a change in the firing of cells in the visual system.

Parallel processing

the processing of many aspects of a problem simultaneously; the brain's natural mode of information processing for many functions, including vision.

The binding problem

Problem with feature detection theory regarding how all of different aspects of feature detection are assembled together and related to a single object. This problem is solved by visual attention.

Sensation

The process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment

Transduction

In sensation, the transforming of stimulus energies, such as sights, sounds, and smells, into neural impulses our brains can interpret.

Attention

Focusing awareness on a narrowed range of stimuli or events

Perception

The process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events

Bottom-up processing

Analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain's integration of sensory information

Biederman's RBC theory

Recognition-by-components theory (RBC)

- We perceive objects by perceiving elementary features

Geons

Different three dimensional shapes that combine to form three dimensional patterns that we recognize

Depth perception (binocular)

Retinal disparity uses images from both eyes to determine how far away an object is

Top-down processing

Information processing guided by higher-level mental processes, as when we construct perceptions drawing on our experience and expectations

'blob' experiment

Same blob, placed in different contexts in images, can be seen as multiple different objects

Depth perception (monocular)

Relative size

Interposition

Relative motion

Light and shadow

Linear perspective

Helmholtz: Unconscious Inference

-We infer much of what we know about the world

-Some of our perceptions are the result of unconscious assumptions we make about the environment

-Likelihood principle: we perceive the world in the way that is "most likely" based on our past experiences

Perceptual constancy

Perceiving objects as unchanging even as illumination and retinal images change

Perceptual constancy (size)

We perceive the size of an object as constant from different distances

Perceptual constancy (shape)

our perception of the shape of an object remains constant despite changes in the shape of its retinal projection (i.e. the proximal stimulus) caused by the movement of the object relative to the viewer

Perceptual constancy (color & brightness)

Our perception of the color of an object remains constant under different conditions of illumination

Figure-ground organization

organizing a perception so that part of a stimulus appears to stand out as an object (figure) against a less prominent background (ground)

Principle of grouping

The perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into meaningful groups

Gestalt Laws

A series of principles that describe how we organize bits and pieces of information into meaningful wholes

Law of good continuation

Elements that appear to follow the same pathway tend to be grouped together