Elementary Psychology Exam 2

Sensation

Process by which sensory receptors and nervous system receive and interpret stimuli from the environment

Perception

Organizing and interpreting sensory information

“Bottom Up”

“Top Down”

Making sense of neural impulses, prior experiences can influence how we perceive things

Psychophysics

Study of sensation and perception

Absolute threshold

Minimum amount of stimulant needed for people to detect it about 50% of the time

Just noticeable difference

Minimal change that can be detected 50% of the time

Weber’s law

JND of stimulus is a constant proportion regardless of intensity

Adaptation

Stop noticing a stimulus after it remains constant over time

Wavelength

Distance between two consecutive crests or troughs of a wave (determines experience of different colors)

Amplitude

Height of the crest of a wave

Rods

Nighttime vision, one photopigment

Cones

Color and high resolution, three photopigments

Retina

Back of the eye, contains rods and cones

Fovea

Back of the retina, only contains cones

Perceptual Constancy

Perceiving objects as unchanging

Shape Constancy

Allows us to recognize an object from all angles

Monocular cues

Aspects of a scene that yield information when viewed with one eye (depth in art class)

Binocular cues

Difference in the retinal images of the two eyes that produces information about depth

Ventral stream

“what” pathway, bottom of the back of head, goes to temporal lobe

Dorsal stream

“where” pathway, top of the back of head, goes to parietal lobe

Visual association cortex

Objects are reconstructed from feature detectors and prior knowledge

Visual-form agnosia

Cannot identify an object by sight

Hearing

Detection of sound waves or changes in air pressure over time

Frequency

Pitch, Hz

Amplitude

Loudness, dB

Timbre

Experience of sound quality

Outer ear

Collects sound waves

Eardrum/tympanic membrane

Starts the vibrate when sound waves pass through

Ossicles

Hammer, anvil and stirrup, start to move when eardrum vibrates

Cochlea

Fluid-filled tube

Basilar membrane

Lines in cochlea, where auditory cilia cells are located

Frequency theory

Brain uses frequency of auditory sensory neuron firing to indicate pitch

Place theory

Different pitches comes from stimulation at different places along the basilar membrane (lower pitches closer to the base)

Amplitude perception

Higher amplitude vibrations (very loud) cause more stimulation

Tonotopic organization

Arrangement of auditory cortex, nearby frequencies are processed near each other in the brain

Sound Localization

Need for two ears for comparison to localize sound

Interaural timing

When the sound reaches the ear

Interaural intensity

Loudness of sound in each ear

Conductive hearing loss

Anything before transduction is damaged

Sensorineural hearing loss

Auditory cilia cells are damaged

Epithelium

Mucous membrane inside nasal cavity, contains olfactory receptor neurons

Olfactory bulb

Above nasal cavity, where information is communicated to primary olfactory cortex, connects to higher levels of the brain

Primary olfactory cortex

Anterior temporal lobe, connects to amygdala, hippocampus and limbic system

Consciousness

Moment-by-moment awareness of internal and external world

Mind-body problem

EEG precedes conscious decision motor action

Arousal

Person’s level of wakefulness or alertness

Awareness

Consciously being able to recognize something

Introspection

Examining one’s own internal thoughts and feelings

Selective attention

Focusing one’s awareness to a particular aspect of one’s experience

Inattentional blindness

Failure to perceive objects that are not the focus of attention

Change blindness

When people don’t detect a change in a scene

Automaticity

Ability to preform a task without conscious awareness or attention

Cognitive unconscious

Mental process that support everyday functioning with conscious awareness or control

Subliminal perception

People cannot consciously report having seen the stimulus, but behavior suggest otherwise

Default mode network

System of brain regions that are active when the mind is alert and aware, but not focused on a particular task

Circadian rhythm

24 hour cycle of bodily arousal, can occur without the presence of light

Superchiasmatic nucleus

Brain structure that regulates sleep and alertness, located in hypothalamus

Polysomnography

Sleep study

Melatonin

Sleep inducing hormone

Cortisol

Stress hormone, highest when waking up

Wakefulness

Beta waves (fast with small amplitude)

Relaxed wakefulness

Alpha waves (slow, similar to beta waves)

Stage 1

Shallow sleep, theta waves

Stage 2

k complex waves and sleep spindles

Stage 3

Deeper sleep, long, slow delta waves

REM

fast heart rate, breathing rates, inability to move skeletal muscles, dream state

Metabolic rate

Determines how long we sleep

Un-hemispheric sleep

one hemisphere is sleeping, the other is awake

Activation-synthesis hypothesis

brain attempts to make sense of random neural activity and occurrences during the day

REM rebound

After being awake for a long time, quickly fall into REM stage

Insomnia

Difficultly falling or staying asleep

Sleep apnea

Stop breathing while sleeping, few seconds to a full minute

Sleepwalking

Person walks while sleep, most common in young children

Narcolepsy

Sleep attacks occur during waking activites

Dream content REM behavior disorder

Acting out one’s dreams

Sleep/night terrors

abrupt awakenings with panic and intense emotional arousal

Cataplexy

Sudden loss of muscle tone with full conscious awareness

Depressants

Reduce GABA activity

Alcohol myopia

Alcohol hamper attention, leading people to respond in simple ways to complex situations

Expectancy theory

idea that alcohol effects can be pronounced by people’s expectations about how they will be effected

Stimulants

Excite CNS, heighten arousal, elicit euphoria and confidence

Narcotics

Related to endorphins, used to relieve pain

Hallucinogens

Alter sensation and perception, similar structure to serotonin

Types of depressants

alcohol, barbiturates, toxic inhalants

Types of stimulants

caffeine, nicotine, cocaine, ecstasy

Types of narcotics

heroin, morphine, methadone, codeine

Types of hallucinogens

LSD, mescaline, psilocybin, PCP, ketamine

Marijuana

THC is active ingredient, affects judgment, concentration, STM and motor skills/coordination

Encoding

process of getting information into storage

Misinformation effect

less accuracy with memories every time a memory is restored

False memories

result of misinformation effect, creating a memory that does not exist

Gist memory

Verbatim memory

Storage

Retaining information

Retrieval

Getting information out

Shallow thinking

sensory characteristics, just occipital lobe

Deep thinking

connecting to past experiences and meaning, occipital and frontal lobes

Semantic

creating meaning for memories

Elaboration

connecting what you learn to other areas of your life