Psych 10

Structuralism

Structuralism

• Analyze conscious experience by breaking it down into basic elements (e.g. hydrogen + oxygen = water); Wilhelm Wundt, Edward Titchener.

• Difficult to access subconscious aspects of cognition (3+25=28, but how do we know?)

• Fell out of favor because of limitations.

Psychoanalytic Theory

Explains how behavior and personality are influenced by unconscious processes.

WERID

Tends to Western countries, Educated countries, Industrialized countries, Rich countries, and Democratic countries.

Introspection

• Subjective observation of one's own experience.

• Couldn't break it down in a literal way like chemistry so they trained individuals to do introspection.

Abraham Maslow

• Hierarchy of need in motivating behavior.

• So long as basic needs (e.g. food, water, shelter) were met, higher-level needs (e.g. social) would begin to motivate behavior.

Behaviorism

Study only observable behavior; less subjective, more scientific.

Functionalism

Purpose and function of behaviors and mental processes; influenced by Theory of Evolution.

Humanism

• Perspective within psychology that emphasizes the potential for good that is innate to all humans.

• Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers.

Carl Rogers

• Therapeutic technique known as client-centered therapy in helping his clients deal with problematic issues.

• Involves patient taking lead role vs therapist interpreting (psychoanalytic approach).

Hindsight Bias

The belief that an outcome as foreseeable (after it has occurred); feeling like you knew it all along.

Scientific Method

• Helps reduce bias.

• Helps us study the mind and behavior in an objective way.

Theory

Explanation based on observations; broader.

Cross-cultural Psychology

Field that draws comparisons about individuals and group behavior across culture (e.g. burning house); WEIRD.

Deductive Reasoning

Ideas are tested in the real world.

Dependent Variable

• Behavior that is measured (and is expected to change as a function of change in the independent variable).

• Often has a unit of measurement.

Experimental Designs

Manipulate one variable and look at the other.

Falsifiable

• Capable of being shown to be incorrect.

• Scientific hypothesis are falsifiable.

• Major criticism of Freud because his are not.

Gestalt Psychology

• Although a sensory experience can be broken down into individual parts, how these parts relate to each other as a whole is often what the individual responds to in perception (e.g. melody of a song rather than the notes).

• Would have likely directly contradicted Wundt's ideas of structuralism.

Hypothesis

Prediction based on the theory; specific in how this theory applies.

Independent Variable

Varied or manipulated; the influence.

Inductive Reasoning

Real-world observations lead to new ideas (e.g. fruit trees).

Operational Definition

• A description of a property in concrete measurable terms.

• Describe the variable in a way that you know and are measuring.

Research

Test of the hypothesis; this test yields data.

Clinical/Case Study

• Allows researchers to have a very deep understanding of the individual(s) and the particular phenomena being studied.

• Cannot generalize any observation to the larger population as a whole.

Naturalistic Observation

• Benefit is the validity of information collected unobtrusively in a natural setting and generalization.

• Often difficult to set up and control.

Observer Bias

Observers may unconsciously skew observation to fit research goals or explanation.

Experimenter Bias

Possibility that a researcher's expectation might skew the results of the study.

Reliability

The ability to consistently produce a given result.

Demand Characteristics

Participants form an interpretation of the experiment's purpose and subconsciously change their behavior to fit the interpretation ; caused by experimenter or participants.

Forebrain

• Two hemispheres of the cerebral cortex; largest part of the brain.

• Limbic system, 4 lobes, thalamus, cerebral cortex.

• Processes sensory info, helps with reasoning and problem-solving, and regulates autonomic, endocrine, and motor functions.

Cerebral Cortex

• Forebrain.

• Associated with consciousness, thoughts, emotions, reasoning, language and memory.

• 4 lobes.

Frontal Lobe

• Forebrain → Cerebral Cortex.

• Involved in reasoning, motor control, emotion, and language.

• Motor cortex, prefrontal cortex, Broca's area.

Motor Cortex

• Forebrain → Cerebral Cortex → Frontal Lobe.

• Involved in planning and coordinating movements.

• Similar to somatosensory cortex; cortical representation of information are weighted by "importance."

Prefrontal Cortex

• Forebrain → Cerebral Cortex → Frontal Lobe.

• Responsible for higher level cognitive functioning (problem solving; impulse control).

• Develops last; not fully developed until 20-25 years of age.

Broca's Area

• Forebrain → Cerebral Cortex → Frontal Lobe.

• Language production.

Parietal Lobe

• Forebrain → Cerebral Cortex.

• Involved in sensory processing (e.g. touch information).

• Somatosensory cortex.

Somatosensory Cortex

• Forebrain → Cerebral Cortex → Parietal Lobe.

• Processes touch and sensation.

• Cortical representations of information are weighted by "importance" (e.g. fingers/hands; lips/mouth).

• Each different area of the cortex processes sensations from a different part of your body.

Temporal Lobe

• Forebrain → Cerebral Cortex.

• Involved in auditory processing; hearing, memory, emotion, and some aspects of language.

• Auditory cortex, Wernicke's and Broca's area.

Auditory Cortex

• Forebrain → Cerebral Cortex → Temporal Lobe.

• Responsible for processing auditory information.

Wernicke's Area

• Forebrain → Cerebral Cortex → Temporal Lobe.

• Speech comprehension.

Occipital Lobe

• Forebrain → Cerebral Cortex.

• Involved in visual processing.

• Primary visual cortex.

Visual Cortex

• Forebrain → Cerebral Cortex → Occipital Lobe.

• Responsible for interpreting incoming visual information.

Limbic System

• Forebrain.

• involved in emotion, motivation, and memory.

• Hippocampus, Amygdala, Hypothalamus, Basal Ganglia.

Hypothalamus

• Forebrain → Limbic System.

• "Hypo" → below.

• Regulates 4 F's (fight, flee, feeding, mating).

• Serves as interface between nervous and endocrine system.

Amygdala

• Forebrain → Limbic System.

• Almond-shaped.

• Emotional processes (experience of emotion; tying emotional meaning to memories).

Hippocampus

• Forebrain → Limbic System.

• Critical for creating and integrating new memories.

• Thought to be involved in memory consolidation.

• Looks like seahorse.

• Patient H.M.

Patient H.M.

• Removed hippocampus and seizures went away.

• Could no longer make new memories.

• Difficulty creating future memories; anterograde amnesia.

• Unable to form new explicit memories; difficulty transferring from STM to LTM.

• Performance improved on a mirror tracking task even though he doesn’t remember doing it.

  • Test of procedural memory.

  • Gets better at the task every day (minimizes errors) despite not remembering doing it.

Basal Ganglia

• Forebrain → Limbic System.

• Involved in intentional movement.

• Looks like an over the ear headphone.

• Thought to have links to Parkinson; dopamine neurons are thought to lead to tremors.

Thalamus

• Forebrain.

• Sensory relay for the brain; like a train station.

• Filters and transmits from senses to the cortex.

• All of our senses are routed through it before being directed to other areas of the brain for processing.

Midbrain

• Compromised of structures located deep within the brain, between the forebrain and hindbrain.

• Relay station between sensory and motor areas of the brain.

• Tegmentum and Tectum help orient in response to stimuli (e.g. hearing a loud noise and turning to the source).

• Reticular formation.

• Could survive without it.

Reticular Formation

• Midbrain; Hindbrain.

• Centered in the midbrain, but extends up into the forebrain and down into hindbrain.

• Regulates sleep, wakefulness, and arousal.

• "RE[M]ticular."

Hindbrain

• Located in the back of the head and looks like an extension of the spinal.

• Cerebellum, medulla, reticular formation, pons.

• Helps to regulate autonomic functions, relay sensory information, coordinate movements, and maintain balance.

• Controls information.

Cerebellum

• Hindbrain.

• The "little brain."

• Controls balance, coordination, movement, and motor skills; roadside walk-the-line test.

• Important for processing procedural memory; learning and remembering how to perform tasks.

Medulla

• Hindbrain; below pons.

• Coordinates heart rate, circulation, respiration, and respiration.

• Without "me" medulla, "me" die.

Pons

• Hindbrain.

• The "bridge" (over a pon[d]) to the cerebellum.

• Relays information from cerebellum to the rest of the brain.

Descartes

• Argued mind and body are separate.

• Believed the two interact in the pineal gland, because he thought it was unique to humans and there wasn't two of them, so it must've been the convergent point.

Hemispheric Specialization/Contralateral Organization

• Cerebral hemispheres connected by corpus callosum.

• Largely symmetric, but there is some "lateralization."

• Left hemisphere controls right side of the body and vice versa.

Neuron

• A cell that specializes in receiving information.

• Essential for all the tasks of the nervous system.

Cell Body/Soma

• Coordinates information-processing tasks.

• Keeps cell alive.

• Nucleus of neuron is located in here.

Dendrites

• Receives information from other neurons and relays it to the cell body.

• Has receptor sites where neurotransmitters can bind.

Axon

• A major extension from the soma that signals transmit down from after being transmitted electrically across the soma.

Synapse

• Region between the axon of one neuron and the dendrite (or cell body) of another.

• Where information is relayed.

Mylin Sheath

• Fatty sheath that is formed by glial cells.

• Acts as an insulator.

• Increases the speed at which the signal travels.

• Not continuous as there are small gaps (nodes of ranvier).

Action Potential

• Electrical signal that is conducted along the length of a neuron's axon to a synapse; firing threshold of -55mv.

• Sends information to a neuron.

• Once you set up one channel, all the other channels in the axon will open; all-or-none phenomenon.

Resting Potential

• State of readiness that holds the neuron membrane's potential between signals.

• Ions line up on either side of the cell membrane ready to rush across the membrane when the neuron goes active and opens its channels.

• Outside "+" charged (sodium, chloride); inside "-" charged (potassium, anions).

Depolarization

• When stimulated sodium channels open and + ions rush in.

• It's getting less (-de) negative.

Repolarization

• After the sodium gates close, potassium moves out.

• (Re)turns to negative state.

Transmission Across A Synapse

• How that information is transferred from one neuron to the other.

• Neuron signals move down to terminal buttons, where the vesicles release neurotransmitters into the synaptic cleft.

• These transmitters are then released and bind with a receptor on a dendrite.

Synaptic Cleft

• Small space between neurons where communication occurs.

• When an action potential reaches terminal buttons, it causes release of neurotransmitters into synaptic cleft.

Excitatory

• One of the two options of what a neurotransmitter can be.

• Increase the likelihood of an action potential (by causing membrane potential to be less negative).

Inhibitory

• One of the tow options of what a neurotransmitter can be.

• Decrease the likelihood of an action potential (by causing the membrane potential to be more negative).

Strength of Sensations

Determined by:

• Rate of firing.

• Number of neurons stimulated.

Agonist

• Chemical that enhances or mimics the action of neurotransmitter.

• Dopamine Agonist and Parkinson's disease.

Antagonist

Chemical that blocks the action/normal activity of a neurotransmitter at the receptor.

MRI

• Magnetic resonance imaging.

• Uses a powerful magnetic field to produce high-quality images of the brain and its structure.

fMRI

• Functional magnetic resonance imaging.

• Used to examine changes in ongoing brain activity by measuring changes in the blood oxygen level.

• Great for determining location (i.e. good spatial resolution); not so great at determining timing (i.e. bad temporal resolution).

EEG

• Electroencephalogram.

• Can record electrical activity from large population of simultaneously active neurons at the scalp with millisecond resolution.

• A direct measure of neural activity.

• Good temporal resolution, but poor spatial resolution.

Sensation

The physical processing of environmental stimuli by the sense organs.

Perception

The physiological process of interpreting sensory information.

Psychophysics

Methods that measure the strength of stimulus; Gustav Fechner.

Absolute Threshold

The smallest amount of stimulation needed for detection by a sense 50% of the time.

Just Noticeable Difference (JND)

• The minimum difference between two stimuli needed to detect a difference between them 50% of the time.

• The more intense the original stimulus, the larger the amount that needs to be added before you detect the difference.

Top-Down Processing

When our perceptions are influenced by our expectations or by our prior knowledge.

Bottom-Up Processing

Occurs when we perceive individual bits of sensory information (e.g., sounds) and use them to construct a more complex message.

Signal Detection Theory

Response to stimulus depends on person's sensitivity and on a person's decision criteria:

• Person's experience.

• Expectations.

• Motivations.

• Level of Fatigue.

• Consequences of Missing → Radiologists.

Sensory Adaptation

Diminished sensitivity as a result of contact or recurring stimuli (e.g. phone in pocket, smell on bus, sound of AC).

Selective Attention

• Focusing on one particular task or event.

• Intentional/Change Blindness.

Intentional Blindness

A failure to perceive objects that are not the focus of attention.

Change Blindness

The failure to detect changes to the visual details of a scene.

Retina

• Photoreceptors transform light into a neural signal (transduction).

• Ganglion cells gather info from photoreceptors.

• Messages sent to brain via optic nerve.

• Blind spot in visual field, but brain creates rest of image.

Fovea

The center of the retina.

Cones

• 6 million.

• Center in retina.

• Low sensitivity in dim light.

• High color/detail sensitivity light.

Rods

• 120 million.

• Periphery in retina.

• High sensitivity in dim light.

• Low color/detail sensitivity.

Trichromatic Color Theory

• 3 different cones each sensitive to different wavelengths of light (short, medium, long).

• Does not explain negative afterimages.

Opponent Process Theory

• We perceive colors in terms of opposing pairs: red/green, yellow/blue, white/black.

• Cells stimulated by red are inhibited by green — when green is no longer perceived a rebound effect occurs — the previously inhibited cells are free to fire (ganglia cells).

Vision

• Signal travels down optic nerve to brain.

• Passes through thalamus.

• Sent to primary visual cortex.

Dorsal

• After the visual cortex, information is routed to other cortical areas for processing.

• "Where Pathway"

Ventral

• After the visual cortex, information is routed to other cortical areas for processing.

• "What Pathway"

• Important for face processing & object recognition.

• Visual Agonia; Prosopagnosia.

Visual Agnosia

Inability to recognize objects.

Prosopagnosia

Inability to recognize familiar faces.