Psych thats the wrong number ohhhhhhhh

scientific explanation

rational account of a phenomenon using evidence and established scientific principles

falsifiability

ability of a claim to be tested and possibly refuted

operational definition

specifies exactly how a researcher will measure/manipulate a concept

correlation vs causation

correlation - measure of relatedness of 2+ variables

causation - determination that one variable is responsible for an effect

observation vs experiment

observation - observe certain variables to determine correlation

experiment - control certain variables to determine causation

motor area

controls voluntary muscles

sensory area

feels skin sensations, like temperature and pain

frontal lobe

movement, problem solving, thinking, behavior

broca’s area

speech control

temporal lobe

hearing, language, memory

brain stem

consciousness, breathing, heart rate

parietal lobe

sensations, perception, body awareness

occipital lobe

vision

wernicke’s area

language comprehension

cerebellum

posture, balance

central nervous system

brain and spinal cord, acting as the body’s control center

peripheral nervous system

everything outside of CNS; nerves branching out to the body that act as messengers

brain localization

specific brain areas handling specific functions

brain neuroplasticity

brain’s ability to adapt and reorganize its structure through experience

left brain functions

logic and analysis

right brain functions

creativity and emotion

corpus callosum

major pathway between brain hemispheres

ventral pathway

major visual route from the occipital lobe to the temporal lobe, responsible for facial recognition

electroencephalography (EEG)

measures electrical activity in the brain, specifically Event Related Potential

has good temporal resolution (in ms), but poor spatial resolution

functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)

measure of blood flow to areas of brain (oxygenation)

has good spatial resolution, but poor temporal resolution and can be inconvenient

computed axial tomography (CAT)

X-ray to create 3D cross-sectional images

excels at spatial resolution, decent temporal resolution

dendrite

receives incoming signals from other neurons

axon

sends electrical impulses away from cell body

myelin sheath

fatty layer insulating the axon that speeds signal transmission

neurotransmitter

chemical messangers sending signals across neurons (either excitatory, making it more likely the next neuron will fire, or inhibitory)

acetylcholine

excitatory neurotransmitter that stimulates muscle movement

dopamine

messenger heavily involved in the brain's reward/pleasure system

serotonin

regulates mood and appetite

how do antidepressants work?

block the reabsorption of serotonin, leaving more in the brain to regulate mood

norepinephrine / noradrenaline

alertfulness and wakefulness, also affects eating habits

GABA

inhibitory neurotransmitter that acts as a “calming” chemical

endorphins

relief from pain and stress

What are the two main roles a drug can play for neurotransmitters?

agonists (increased neurotransmitter activity, e.g. simulating release) or antagonists (decrease it, e.g. blocking receptors)

What neurotransmitter does both cocaine and amphetamine boost?

dopamine

sensation

basic sensory functions like taste/touch

synesthesia

stimulation of one sense triggers an automatic experience in another

perception

putting visual information together to represent the external world

transduction

process where sensory organs convert physical energy into nerve impulses

just noticeable difference

smallest difference needed to differentiate two stimuli

binocular disparity

images give slightly different info to each eye

binocular depth cues

visual signals that require both eyes to perceive depth and distance

monocular depth cues

visual signals allowing our brain to perceive depth/distance using one eye

Gestalt properties of perception

“the whole is greater than the sum of its parts”

1. proximity (elements closer = grouped together)

2. similarity (similar in color/shape = grouped)

3. continuity (prefer smooth lines)

4. closure (we fill in gaps)

5. figure-ground (we separate objects from their background)

McGurk effect

phenomenon where what you see affects what you hear

What were Freud’s three parts of the mind?

1. id - driven by instinct, pleasure

2. ego - understands reality

3. superego - internalizes society’s morals, responsible for guilt

What are Freud’s 5 stages of psychosexual development and their fixations?

1. Oral (birth - 1 year) - mouth is sexual pleasure, fixation = immaturity

2. AnaI (1-3 yrs) - anus is pleasure, fixation = compulsiveness

3. Phallic (3-5 yrs) - genital pleasure, fixation = masculinity/femininity

4. Latency (5-puberty) - repressed sexuality

5. Genital (puberty on) - sexual feelings re-emerge consensually, normal

What are the four stages of sleep and their associated brain waves?

1. NREM 1 - falling asleep, theta waves

2. NREM 2 - light sleep, sleep spindles (high intensity waves)

3. NREM 3 - muscle relaxation, delta waves

4. Rapid Eye Movement - less amplitude in brain waves

What happens during REM sleep?

rapid eye movements and vivid dreaming

Why do we sleep?

physical and mental restoration while the brain and body repair

insomnia

difficulty falling asleep or waking up too early

sleep apnea

repeated breathing pauses during sleep

sublimation (defense mechanism)

shifting to activities valued by society

displacement vs projection

displacement: redirecting shameful thoughts to more appropriate targets

projection: denying your emotions by attributing to someone else

rationalization (defense mechanism)

reasoning away anxiety-producing thoughts

reaction formation (defense mechanism)

unconsciously expressing feelings against their own belief, e.g. a person attracted to someone acting hostile towards them

Weber’s law

bigger stimuli require larger differences to be noticeable compared to smaller stimuli

sensory memory

unattended info is quickly lost, like a buffer

short-term memory

unrehearsed info is quickly lost, like RAM

long-term memory

info is lost over time

rods vs cones for lighting

rods: responsible for night vision, light-sensitive
cones: responsible for color vision in bright light

What is a dichotic listening task?

where a headphone plays different sounds to each ear simultaneously, testing selective attention

cocktail party effect

brain's ability to focus on one voice or sound in a noisy environment

inattentive blindness

failure to see fully visible objects while attention is devoted to something else

primacy effect

better recall for items at the beginning of a list because it gets more rehearsal —> long-term memory

recency effect

better recall for items at the end of a list because they’re still in short-term memory

serial position effect

combination of the primacy and recency effect for a list

implicit vs explicit memory

explicit: available consciously, e.g. semantics of a word or autobiographical details

implicit: procedural memory, e.g. remembering how to ride a bike

context-aided memory

phenomenon where information retrieval is enhanced when people are in the same environment as when it was originally learned

Scuba Study

scuba divers given words underwater and on land, recall was better depending on context they learned in

proactive interference

previously learned information intereferes with the accurate encoding of new information

Why is laughter rewarding?

releases endorphins (stress hormones) and decreases muscle tensions

Panksepp's Rats results

rats chirp when they play, similar to giggles

What are the four basic theories of humor?

1. incongruity - a clash between expectations and reality

2. superiority - we are better than the butt of the joke

3. tension-release - we laugh when tension is relieved

4. play - unserious mock-aggression

habituation conditioning

decline in the tendency to respond to stimuli that are familiar because of repeated exposure, e.g. traffic noises

classical (pavlovian) conditioning

learning an association based on repeatedly being presented with paired stimuli

A dog drools when presented with a bone but not when a bell rings. The dog is then conditioned on the bone and the bell. The dog then drools when it hears the bell ring.

Classify the items in this situation into conditioned stimulus, unconditioned stimulus, conditioned response, unconditioned response:

unconditioned stimulus: the bone (was already a stimulus without any training)
unconditioned response: the drooling (was a response without training)
conditioned stimulus: the bell (trained by pairing with the US)
conditioned response: the drooling (now elicited by the CS after training)

John Watson showed that most fears

are a result of classical conditioning

spontaneous recovery

the reappearance of a previous CR after a period of rest due to exposure to the CS, e.g. smelling chalkboards again (CS) and feeling the agony of detention (CR)

stimulus generalization

when a CR is triggered by a similar stimuli to the CS (e.g. the dog also responds to a chime)

Garcia Effect

animal learns to avoid a taste that was followed by illness

Why was the Garcia Effect important in regards to classical conditioning?

showed that conscious awareness of stimuli was not necessary - even if the sickness occurred hours later, you can still be clasically conditioned

conditioned compensatory response

learned body reaction that is the opposite of a drug’s actual effect, triggered by environmental cues

operant conditioning

learning through the consequences of behavior - actions are strengthened by reinforcement or weakened by punishment

positive reinforcement

adding a desirable stimulus to reward a behavior

negative reinforcement

rewarding someone by removing a BAD thing (e.g. umbrella stopping rain)

interval vs ratio reinforcement

interval: reinforce after a passage of time
ratio: reinforce after a number of responses

nature vs nurture

nature - what we are given biologically/genetically

nurture - the environments that influence our development

object permanence

knowing that objects continue to exist when they cannot be directly observed or sensed

conservation problems

problems created by Piaget to test understanding of a quantity staying the same even if its appearance changes, e.g. pouring water into a thinner glass

Piaget’s theory: sensorimotor stage

infants learn through their senses and understand object permanence (0-2 years)

Piaget’s theory: preoperational stage

children can think symbolically (e.g. drawing) but cannot solve logical reasoning problems (2-7 years)

Piaget’s theory: concrete operational stage

children think logically about concrete events (e.g. conservation) but cannot engage in systemic scientific observation (7-12 years)

Piaget’s theory: formal operations stage

develop abstract reasoning and systematic problem-solving (12+ years)

challenges to Piaget’s theories

development is more continuous rather than stage-like, and some children may develop key abilities earlier

What are display rules?

cultural norms that dictate how/when/where emotions should be expressed