Psychology 1 Midterm 1 Gade

Humors theories for Personality

Past theory to explain function of the mind; fluids

Hydraulic theories for sensation and perception

Past theory to explain function of the mind; pressure

Spiritual theories for the "mind"

Past theory to explain function of the mind; relies on unquantifiable, spiritual bases

Heinrich Whilhelm Waldeyer

First man to theorize about the existence of cells in the mind that he termed neurons

Neurons

-communicate with each other through microscopic gaps in cells

-specialized cells that receive/transmit information throughout the body and brain

-come in a number of different shapes and sizes

-thought to be primary tools for/ involved in almost all mental tasks

Golgi staining

Used to observe neurons

Approximately how many neurons do we have in the body?

80-100 billion neurons in body by adulthood

Where are neurons located?

Throughout the body but concentrated in the brain

Synapse

A very small space that separates the terminal buttons of one neuron from the dendrites of another

Terminal button

Small nobs at ends of axon that release neurotransmitters

Dendrites

Branched ends of neurons involved in cell communication

Axon hillock

Joins cell body with nucleus to axon

Axon

Long, threadlike part of neuron that transmits signals

Neurotransmitters

Chemicals that are released by pores in the terminal buttons of neurons

Neurotransmitters can either ____ or ____ the next neuron

Excite or inhibit

Excitation

Increasing the chances of/causing the second neuron to release its neurotransmitters

Inhibition

Reducing the likelihood that the second neuron releases its neurotransmitters

Action Potential

All-or-nothing signal that is propagated along axon of the neuron

Activation (excitation/inhibition in neurons)

Neurotransmitters bind to receptors on dendrites of another neuron and influence the neuron based on type of neurotransmitter

Reuptake

The axon terminal eventually "sucks" back (recycles) the neurotransmitters that were released

What are the benefits of neural reuptake?

-allows cells to conserve energy

-prevents constant activation

Action Potential

Involves a flow of positive and negative charged ions along length of axon (depolarization of cell membrane)

Diffusion/metabolization (of neurons)

The neurotransmitter can be broken down, washed away, or used up by other cells and enzymes that are located in the synapse

Glial cells

Support neurons by:

-removing waste

-synchronizing activity

-insulating neurons (protection and mylenation)

Dopamine (DA)

-"reward"/ positive emotional sensation, motivation

-high levels of DA=schizophrenia and hallucinations

-low levels=Parkinson's disease

Serotonin (5-HT)

-psychological wellness/mood

-linked to hunger, sleep cycles, and arousal

Nervous system

Brain, spinal cord, neurons

Central nervous system

brain, midbrain, hindbrain, and spinal cord

Peripheral nervous system

collection of nerves (neuron clusters) and neurons located throughout body

Frontal Lobe

Concerned with behavior, learning, personality and voluntary movement

Temporal Lobe

Concerned with hearing, selective listening, speech, and some visual perception

Parietal Lobe

Processes sensory information that has to do with taste, temperature and touch

Occipital Lobe

Responsible for processing visual information from the eyes

Left-brain

Side of brain that deals with analytic thought, logic, language, science, and math

Right-brain

Side of brain that deals with holistic thought, intuition, creativity, art and music

Phineas Gage

Metal stake went through brain; lost mental functioning (specifically executive control)

Wernicke area

Language control; damage results in an understanding of the question but inability to form answer/properly produce language and victims are unaware that it makes no sense

Broca area

Language control; damage results in an understanding of the question but uses different words to respond/has the word in mind but is unable to produce language with the knowledge that what they are saying is incorrect

Strengths of animal experiments and case studies

Can determine the necessity of a region for a certain cognitive process

Weaknesses of animal experiments and case studies

-Lack of experimental control

-Neuroplasticity (when the brain can rewrite itself)

-Ethical issues

-Numbers issues

Electroencephalogram (EEG)

-Takes advantage of electric changes due to action potential

-Event related potentials (ERPs)

-Amazing temporal resolution (approx. 1 ms)

Electrical stimulation studies

-Penfield's attempt to find the engram in 1950s

-Electroconvulsive shock treatments

High frequency waves on an EEG represent

An excited state

Low frequency waves on an EEG represent

A drowsy state

Benefits of electrophysiology compared to older methods

-Less invasive

-allows us to get larger samples of individuals

-allows us to more accurately measure the location of activity (spatial resolution-inches)

-allows us to detect when the brain is activated (temporal resolution-milliseconds)

Positron Emission Tomography (PET scan)

-Uses radioactive isotopes to determine where blood is pooling

-Poor temporal resolution (can only measure activity lasting for minutes)

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)

Uses spinning magnets to determine density of the brain

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)

-Uses MRI techniques to determine where blood just left oxygen

-Good temporal resolution

-Issues: temporal resolution still not as good as electric activity; tells us about activity not necessity of specific areas

Sensation

The conversion of energy from the environment into a pattern of responses by that nervous system

Perception

The interpretation of sensory information

Ears

Have specialized cells that can convert tiny mechanical movement caused by changes in air pressure into neurological signals

Touch

Uses receptors that are sensitive to physical pressure and chemical stimulation

Nose and tongue

Cells in these structures convert molecules into signals

Light

Composed of pulses of electromagnetic energy that vary in both wavelength and amplitude

What determines the intensity (brightness) of light?

Amplitude

What determines the color of light?

Wavelength or frequency

What wavelength range can humans detect light from?

350-700 nm

Pupil

The pupil determines how much light is let into the eye. It changes sizes to accommodate for the amount of light that is available

Lens

the transparent structure inside the eye that focuses light rays onto the retina

Iris

The iris helps regulate the amount of light that enters the eye

Retina

the nerve layer that lines the back of the eye. The retina senses light and creates impulses that are sent through the optic nerve to the brain

Cornea

the clear front window of the eye. The cornea transmits and focuses light into the eye

Fovea

a small depression in the retina of the eye where visual acuity is highest. The center of the field of vision is focused in this region, where retinal cones are particularly concentrated

Optic nerve

the nerve that connects the eye to the brain. The optic nerve carries the impulses formed by the retina to the brain, which interprets them as images

Rods

-Adapted for vision in dim light-primary purpose is to detect motion

-Very common in retina (90-95% cells) but most common along the periphery

Cones

-Adapted for color vision, daytime vision, and detailed vision

-Less common in the retina (5-10% of the cells) and most common toward and within the fovea

Path of vision?

eye-> optic nerve -> optic chiasm -> optic tract -> visual area of thalamus -> visual cortex

What areas do perceptual psychologists study the concept of visual perception through?

Color, size, depth, motion, angles, shape and structure

Constructivist Approach to perceiving stimuli

Our expectations of the world around us, what we focus on, and our manipulations of the information presented to us shapes what we perceive (top-down processing)

Ecological approach to perceiving stimuli

What we perceive in our environment can be explained entirely through the characteristics of the stimuli in our environment (bottom up processing)

Young-Helmholtz

Discovered the trichromatic theory of color vision (ecological approach)

Trichromatic theory

Three different types of cells that are sensitive to different frequencies of color react to light and the ratio of response of these cells allows us to determine the color of the stimulus that we are examining

Proof for the trichromatic theory

-Color vision deficiencies and insensitivities (inability to detect certain colors or color differences)

-Identification of 3 types of cones (L-cones, M-cones, S-cones long medium short wavelength)

Problems with trichromatic theory

-Light and dark contrast issues

-After-image effect

The Opponent Process theory of color vision (ecological approach)

-Our vision of color is also determined by a contrast between opposing colors (red-green, blue-yellow, black-white)

-eventually linked to ganglion cells which connect rods and cones of the eye to cells along the optic nerve

Color constancy

We determine color through more than the fequencies being project, we also use ambient lighting and surrounding colors

The retinex theory of color vision

Our expectations and processing of visual information are used to determine color

Gestalt Psychologists

A group of perceptual psychologists that try to understand perception by studying and defining the rules and tricks that our minds use to perceive the chaotic world of the stimuli that surrounds us

"The whole is greater than the sum of all its "parts"

Stimulus

An event that occurs in the environment

Response

The organism's behavior exhibited as a result of that stimulus

Innate responses

Responses to stimuli that are produced by an organism without thought or a requirement of previous exposure

Reflexes

-A type of innate response to stimuli that involve individual muscles

-Mediated by the spinal cord or cranial nerves (no "higher" thinking involved)

-Can be linked to survival but aren't "learned"

Imprinting

The instinctual phenomenon in which a newborn becomes bonded to a parent and proceeds to learn from that parent. Occurs during the critical period

Critical period

a maturational stage in the lifespan of an organism during which the nervous system is especially sensitive to certain environmental stimuli

Behaviorism

An approach to studying psychology that involves studying the observable cause-and-effect relationships between conditions and behavior

Radical behaviorism

A form of behaviorism that looks at only the observable to study the processes of the mind (individual composition doesn't matter)

John B. Watson

A radical behaviorist that conducted the "little baby albert" experiments. Believed that a person is solely defined by their experiences and thus can be shaped into certain people by manipulating their experiences if necessary.

Classical conditioning

Learning how stimuli around us are connected

Operant conditioning

Learning the consequences of our actions in different environments/the process of learning to associate a behavior with a consequence

Ivan Pavlov

Was the first behaviorist who discovered classical conditioning due to experimental difficulties with his work on the digestive system of dogs ("psychic salivations)

Unconditioned stimulus (UCS)

An environmental stimulus that automatically elicits a response (UCR)

Unconditioned Response (UCR)

An automatic response to a given environmental stimulus (UCS)

Neutral stimulus

A random stimulus that is paired with the unconditioned stimulus to eventually elicit the unconditioned response on its own (when it does this the unconditioned response becomes the conditioned response and the neutral stimulus becomes the conditioned stimulus)

Conditioned stimulus

The term used to describe the neutral stimulus once it is successfully paired to produce the desired response

Conditioned Response

The term used to describe the unconditioned response once it has been conditioned to respond to the neutral stimulus

Trace conditioning

The neutral stimulus is introduced and then stopped and then the unconditioned stimulus is introduced and then the unconditioned response

Delayed conditioning

The neutral stimulus is introduced for an extended period of time and then the unconditioned stimulus is introduced and then the unconditioned response

Simultaneous conditioning

The neutral stimulus is introduced at the exact same time as the unconditioned stimulus which then produces the unconditioned response

Backward conditioning (doesn't work!)

Unconditioned stimulus is introduced first and then the unconditioned response happens and then they introduce the neutral stimulus

What are two things that increase the speed of conditioning?

-A relatively unfamiliar neutral stimulus

-Decreased time elapsed between the presentation of the conditioned stimulus and the unconditioned stimulus