Psychology Exam #2

Sensation

The detection of signals in the enviroment by sensory receptors in the body

Perception

The organization and interpretation of this information

Signal detection theory

Studies the extent to which we notice things based on a sensory process and a decision process

Absolute threshold

Minimum amount of stimulation needed to detect a sensory input

Webers law

The change in stimulation needed for us to notice a change (difference threshold) is proportional to the original stimulus

Subliminal messages

Those that come in below the threshold for conscious awareness

Attention

Helps filter out unimportant info, but is limited

Perceptual set

Our expectations of what we think we shall perceive can drive how we process perceptual information

Bottom up processing

Starts from raw sensation and goes up to complex perception

Top down processing

Previous knowledge can affect how we process and organize specific raw data and perceptual set

Synaesthesia

May occur due to a breakdown in the bottom up and top down processes

Fovea

The center focal point, has higher concentration of receptors

Gestalt psychologists

Described various different principles or perceptual organization

Principles of perceptual organization

Similarity, continuity, proximity, closure

Binocular cues

cues of those that come by virtue of having two eyes

Retinal disparity

The term for the difference between the images that reach each eye; allows brain to estimate depth

Monocular cues

Cues that can be perceived with only one eye and reflect information in the environment

Monocular cues

Relative size, occlusion/interposition, linear perspective/convergence, clarity, shadow, motion parallax

Behaviorism

the perspective that viewed psychology as the study of humans via their observable behavior, and looks at how the environment can have an effect on behavior.

Classical conditioning

learned by association

Operant conditioning

Learning by consequences

Observational conditioning

Primarily an extension of operant conditioning which also includes internal factors, such as imitation and expectation

Associated process

Process that leads the neutral stimulus to elicit the same response

Ivan Pavlov

the associated process that was first systematically described by Russian physiologist

neutral stimulus and unconditional stimulus

Classical conditioning process starts with?

Unconditional stimulus

Is one that already brings about the target behavior (the unconditioned response)

Neutral stimulus

Is one that we want to condition to cause the target behavior

neutral stimulus

After a number of associations, you then present what stimulus by itself without the UCS

conditional stimulus

in conditioning terms, the neutral stimulus has no become a what that elicits a conditional response

Stimulus generalization

Sometimes stimuli similar to the CS will bring about the CR, this is called what?,

extinction

over time, if you do not periodically re-associate the CS with the UCS, the CS will cease to bring about the CR, what is this called?

liking/disliking things, taste learning, antabuse

What is extinction good for?

Little Albert

Who was a baby conditioned by Watson to be afraid of soft, furry stuffed animals.

Operant conditioning

The process by which the future likelihood of a behavior depends on consequences of that behavior

Thorndikes Law of Effect

Behaviors that are following by consequences that are satisfying to the organism are more likely to be repeated, and behaviors that are followed by unpleasant consequences are less likely to be repeated

Reinforcer

Anything that increases the likelihood of a behavior happening again

Punisher

Anything that decrease the likelihood of a behavior happening again but does not necessarily have to be bad

Positive reinforcement
Rewards and helping

In operant conditioning, what refers to the addition of a stimulus to the environment to increase the future likelihood of a response? example?

Negative reinforcement
Curfew and car

in operant conditioning, what refers to the removal of a stimulus to increase likelihood of a future response? example?

Positive punishment
Soap or spanking

the addition of something to decrease the future likelihood of a response? examples?

Negative punishment
taking video games away

the removal of something to decrease the likelihood of a future response? examples?

Primary reinforcers

have innate, unlearned reinforcing qualities (water, food, sleep)

Secondary reinforcers

have no inherent value, except as linked with a primary reinforce (money, tokens)

ratio schedule

reward is given based on number of responses

internal schedule

reward is given based on amount of time that has passed since last reward

shaping

you reward behaviors as they get incrementally closer to the complex target behavior

Vicarious reinforcement/punishment

cognitive decisions making based on expectations derived from seeing how others are treated by?

reciprocal determinism

the belief that ones environment can determine behavior, but as we influence the environment via our thoughts and behaviors

Concept

a category or grouping of linguistic information, images, ideas, or memories, such as life experiences?

Prototype resemblances?

Based on a resemblance to an ideal

Proposition

Rules that define category membership? Think of a car and engine.

Cognitive schemas
restaurants

A schema that is mental construct consisting of a cluster or collection of related concepts? examples?

Expertise

Primarily rooted in having better schemas for organizing information

Ideal problem solving process

define/frame problem, develop strategies, subgoaling, and evaluate solutions

Algorithm

tic-tac-toe?

deductive reasoning

all men are mortal, socrates is a man, therefore socrates is mortal. not often used, not subject to negation.

inductive reasoning

the sun has always risen before, therefore itll rise tomorrow.

dialectical reasoning

weighing pros and cons

we were stuck in mental set

why was 8 , 5 , 4 , 9 , 1 , 7 a difficult sequence?

availability heuristic

which is more likely; being killed in school by a shooter or by school bus? which clains more lives in the united states; lightning or tornadoes?

representativeness heuritic

which is more likely: TTHTHHT or TTTTTTT?
8 16 24 32 41 44 or 1 2 3 4 5 6?

emotion

human beings operate on both reason and what?

Ultimatum Game

We often make decisions based less on reason that on emotions, or concepts such as fairness? examples?

base rate fallacy

a new study suggest that people who eat cheetos are 200 percent more likely to suffer from the disease blergostomy.. or a person is shy, meek, and withdrawn-more likely in sales or librarian?

gamblers fallacy

reds due to come up.. or deal or no deal?

Functional fixidness

a type of mental set where you cannot perceive an object being used for something other than what it was designed for?

hindsight bias

a tendency to overestimate your ability to have predicted something in advance?

cognitive dissonance

a state of tension when you hold either two conflicting beliefs or hold a belief that is inconsistent with your behavior?

Festinger

assigned subjects a very monotonous task. at end of hour asked them to tell the next person that it was actually fun or interesting. offered them either one dollar or twenty to do this. then afterwards asked those who lied what they thought about the experiment?

Encoding, storage, retrieval

the capacity and structures used for the retention and retrieval of information involves three processes?

Explicit memory
appointments, math formula

intentionally retrieve memories, examples?

implicit memory
classroom, hitting your brakes

acting on memories without consciously retrieving them

atkinson shiffrin model of memory
sensory memory, short term/working memory, long term memory

the process of memories goes through three areas?

sensory memory

memories that contains raw sensations, prior to perception. very large capacity. material here only briefly

short term/working memory

when attended to, sensory memories enter what?
this is the conscious, aware part of memory. very limited capacity.

serial position effect

more likely to remember stuff at beginning or end of list

maintenance rehearsal

helps keep information here in short term memory

elaborated rehearsal

what transfers info from short term memory to long term memory?

long term memory

practically unlimited storage. detail level varies. info may be permanent, but can be distorted. can feed back into short term.

Procedural

memories of common procedures. mostly accessed implicity. highly robust to amnesia.

Declarative

stores facts and general info

episodic memory

autobiographical memory of things that we have personally experienced?

semantic memory

memory of general knowledge thats stored in conceptual networks

cue dependent

memory is what to more connections to stronger memory

memories

stored by connecting them to other memories

elaborative encoding

involves connecting the new memory to more existent memories

retrieval
tip of the tongue effect

enhanced by activating as many connected nodes as possible. example?

Mnemonics

elaborate rehearsal. keeps pickles cold, only fine gherkins are sour.

chunking

meaningful clusters of information that serve as individual units

schemas

where do we store memories? adding details to larger generic framework?

Loftus

showed all participants footage of the same car wreck, then asked "how fast were the cars going when they hit eachother?

misinformation effect
flashbulb memory, eyewitness testimony, recovered memories of sexual abuse.

reconstructing memories is called what? and has been implicated in other areas of memory distortion. examples?

Flashbulb memories

highly rich, highly detailed memories of a significant moment in your life. however, you are often certain of them.... but really are not certain at all.

Neissers Challenger Study

explosion happened and asked freshmen that day what happened, two years from that day, and went down and down as years went on from scoring 7 to 2.9 as averaged. all recalled vivid, certain memories.

Validity effect

where certainty is high for those told they'd picked correctly.

Biased lineups

the witness was told the suspect was a black male but the lineup included only one and four hispanic suspects

ask non-leading questions, dont use biased lineups, interview immediately after crime, use double blind procedure for lineups

eyewitness testimony can be improved by?

when to be suspicious of recovered memories

if recovered memories from first year or two of life. if they become more and more implausible. if the therapist used hypnosis or other imagination techniques/leading questions

decay, replacement, cue dependent forgetting, interference, repression

several theories on why we forget memories?

decay theory

memories decay over time. time by itself is no factor.