NEPS1001 Midterm

yay chris gibbons

sympathetic neurons

prepares body for stressful situations

parasympathetic neurons

relax body after stressful situations

negativity bias

controlled by amygdala; tendency to focus on negative stimuli/events than positive ones (sort of like staying on your guard)

• shuts down during honeymoon phase (when you first fall in love)

nucleus accumbens

most important pleasure center

What behaviors do psychologists study?

Depends on area of study (different divisions = different approaches to investigations), done so in a variety of ways

behavioral assimilation

priming with a social category associated with a trait increases how much participants behave in line with that trait

• same area of premotor cortex activates when perceiving an action and performing an action

WEED

what (is the paragraph about), explanation, (conveying understanding to reader) examples (using evidence to impress understanding on reader), do (what do I do with this info, offer critical comment)

why is common sense often wrong

• people come to psychological conclusions from anecdotal evidence

• people often assume simple single causes, failing to take into account mediators (other causes to a certain behavior)

anecdotal evidence

small amounts of data coming from a small sample pool

laterality

specialization of the hemispheres (investigated using neuroanatomy, neuroimaging, neuropsychology)

where does information arrive in the brain

at the contralateral hemisphere (opposite side), but does not stay there

how is information transferred in the brain

from the contralateral side to the ipsilateral side via the corpus collosum

Does much of what psychologists have discovered match common sense beliefs?

No, many psychological discoveries don’t match the common sense belief

social psychology

scientific study of how people’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by actual/imagined/implied presence of others

personality psychology

how internal traits/dispositions influence behavior

how do others or social contexts affect us?

through how we interpret events, how we feel about ourselves, how we behave

naive scientist

make attributions about why people do what they do; test hypotheses about people’s intentions based on observable actions

what are attributions based on

others’ observed behavior

internal attribution

personality, mood, ability, attitude, effort (low consensus and distinctiveness, high consistency)

external attribution

actions of others, nature of the situation, social pressures, luck (high consensus and distinctiveness, low consistency)

attributions, attribution theory

process of inferring the causes of events or behaviors

Kelley’s Logical Model

considering consensus info, consistency info, and distinctiveness info to make an attribution

consensus information (Kelley’s Logical Model)

Would others in the situation behave the same?

• yes: high = external attribution

• no: low = internal attribution

consistency information (Kelley’s Logical Model)

Does the person behave the same way in similar situations?

• yes: high = internal attribution

• no: low = external attribution

distinctiveness information (Kelley’s Logical Model)

Does the person behave the same way in other situations?

• yes: low = internal attribution

• no: high = external attribution

high consensus

external attribution (consensus)

low consensus

internal attribution (consensus)

high consistency

internal attribution (consistency)

low consistency

external attribution (consistency)

low distinctiveness

internal attribution (distinctiveness)

high distinctiveness

external attribution (distinctiveness)

fundamental attribution error

persistent tendency to make internal rather than external attributions for a person’s behavior (e.g., road rage = angry person)

just world theory

good things happen to good people, and bad things happen to bad people

attractiveness bias

tendency to see physically attractive people as more intelligent, social, competent, and moral than less attractive people

cognition

how we think (mental processing, thinking, memorizing, etc.)

social cognition

how we think about others; the way people encode, process, remember, and use info in social contexts to make sense of others’ behavior

cognitive miser

reluctancy to expend cognitive resources & looking for any opportunity to avoid engaging in effortful thought when trying to understand others’ behavior

heuristics

time-saving mental shortcuts, reduce complex judgements to simple rule of thumb (quicker and easier BUT results in biased info processes)

availability heuristic

we judge the frequency/probability of an event in terms of how easy it is to think of examples of that event (events that are more available in memory seem more likely to occur, eg plane crashes)

social categorization

common heuristic; classification of people into groups based on their common attributes

• primarily on ethnicity, gender, age (more recently on language/accent)

prototype

mental representation of the idealized form of an object or concept (also called stereotype)

intra-category variability

when a stereotype is activated, we tend to see members of that category as having all the traits associated with that stereotype

outgroup homogeneity effect

the tendency to perceive group members as all similar to each other in intergroup contexts is more apparent when we think about other groups (eg, all med students are the same but us psych students are unique)

stress response model (biological response)

non-specific response of body to any demand made upon it; factor that disrupts homeostasis, inducing a physiologically aroused state

how fast can neurons transmit info?

up to 500 mph

how is stress started?

neurological reaction

hormones

chemicals released into the bloodstream by endocrine glands, maintain stress response, move 3-4 mph

stage 1 stress response

1. threat recognized by optic nerve in each eye (crosses over to hypothalamus)

2. neurological response sent to muscles (500 mph)

3. muscles break down ATP to PO4 to get oxygen readily available in muscles (3 seconds energy surge in muscles, would take 30 seconds for muscles to get oxygen from lungs)

4. break up glycogen in muscles to get useable sugars (90 seconds of energy)

5. phosphates broken up to get more oxygen (10 seconds of energy)

3 seconds

oxygen surge in muscles

90 seconds

breaking up glycogen in muscles to get useable sugars

10 seconds

phosphates broken up to get more oxygen

stage 2

1. threat seen

2. neurological signaling

3. HEART, BRAIN, LUNGS, MUSCLES sent into overdrive

4. other non-vital functions shut down to redirect energy (immune system is compromised)

stage 3 / sympomedullary pathway

1. threat seen

2. neurological reaction sent down spinal cord to adrenal glands

3. adrenal medulla releases adrenaline/noradrenaline (USA version is epinephrine/norepinephrine)

4. signals heart, lungs, brain, muscles to go into overdrive

5. liver releases its supply of RBCs (which carry oxygen, sugars from glycogen and stomach) to muscles and platelets/fibrinogens (body anticipates fight/flight response to stress, platelets cause blood clotting)

stage 4 / HPA axis

1. threat recognized

2. hypothalamus signaled to send CRH (corticotrophin release hormone) to pituitary gland

3. pituitary gland receives the signal and sends ACTH (adrenocorticotropic hormone) to adrenal cortex

4. adrenal cortex releases cortisol

5. cortisol turns off immune system for optimal use of heart, brain, lungs, muscles (sends them into overdrive)

cortisol

suppresses immune system so energy can be redirected to fight/flight, released by adrenal cortex

why is prolonged stress bad for health?

cortisol continues being released & keeps the immune system suppressed when we psychologically feel the stress incident has passed (because the body is still anticipating a continued stressed-out state or the return of that threat)

how is growth controlled in males?

the testes release estrogen

reuptake

neurotransmitters reabsorbed after release during neuron signaling

lungs response to stress

they expand, causing deeper and more frequent breathing; more fluid taken in from mouth and causes it to dry out

stomach response to stress

shuts down, causes feeling of butterflies

liver response to stress

releases store of blood cells to carry sugars and oxygen, stops filtering blood & nutrients from stomach and blood vessels

heart response to stress

beats faster & pumps more blood, over time contributes to high blood pressure and eventually coronary heart disease

pancreas response to stress

reduces/stops insulin production

blood vessels response to stress

• platelets released and cause buildup because the body is anticipating a fight/flight situation; platelets cause blood clotting

• sugars released cause cholesterol and cause plaque buildup over time (narrowing blood vessel)

• blood must be pumped at higher rate (hypertension/high bp)

adrenal glands response to stress

release hormones to maintain stress response

sgACC (subgenal anterior cingulate cortex)

empathy center in brain

yawn contagion

empathic response, if someone yawns you yawn

• when you’re closer to someone you’re more likely to yawn when they do

self-other distinction

recognizing difference between self and others

• empathic importance: when you’re aware of yourself, you can be aware of others and their emotional states

• starts at around 2 years old in humans

oxytocin

hormone involved in empathy; when blocked, empathy disappears/stops

cognitive empathy

using critical thinking to understand another’s emotions/thoughts

emotional empathy

directly feeling the same emotions as another person

using empathy to reduce prejudice

getting an individual to see the outgroup as part of the ingroup (people are less empathetic with the outgroup)

emotion contagion

ability to share emotions

male stone-walling

male emotional shutdown & suppression of fight/flight response; seen through brief, one word answers

female stone-walling

female emotional shutdown & suppression of fight/flight response; seen through brief, one word answers

• more detrimental to relationships

• 94% predictor of ending relationship

cognitive psychology

study of language, thinking, attention, memory & how mental processes shape observable behavior

cognitive behavior therapy

tapping into thinking to change behavior; taking habitual responses/triggers and replacing them with newer, healthier habits

memory

retention of learning/prior experience and its storage and retrieval

• important implications for learning and education

• this is what makes us who we are

cerebellum

stores muscle memory and procedural memory

sensory registration/memory

first stage of multi-store model of memory

• lasts less than a second

• coded by sense organ

• very limited capacity

recoding process

how sensory memory is put into the short-term memory and how info from short-term memory is put into long-term memory; transforms incoming information into a form that can be stored into memory

short-term memory

second stage of multi-store model of memory

• lasts up to thirty seconds (then either lost or hidden in memory bank)

• mostly coded through acoustics/sound

• 7+ / -2, when trying to remember a series of 10 words, people remembered 7 of them— give or take 2

rehearsal loop

in multi-store model of memory, helps retain information in short term memory and consolidate it into the long term memory

retrieval

retrieving information from either the short-term or long-term memory as a response output

long-term memory

third/last stage of multi-store model of memory

• unlimited duration

• coded through semantics and visualization

• unlimited capacity

central executive (working memory model)

cognitive manager: monitors and coordinates other systems in the model and relates them to long-term memory

• limited capacity, modality free, an attention system

visuo-spatial scratch pad (working memory model)

• the inner eye (remembering routes/visual directions, how long it takes to get somewhere, etc.)

• spatial and/or visual rehearsal system

• limited capacity

primary acoustic store

• acts as inner ear, memory of what was just heard (limited capacity)

• can be accessed directly via auditory input

• can be accessed indirectly via articulatory loop

articulatory loop

• inner voice (verbal rehearsal system), repeats information to retain it to primary acoustic store

• phonemic processing

• time-based capacity

context

the cues that are present during learning, such as physical environment or psychological/emotional cues; if present during recall, may aid retrieval

learning

relatively lasting change in behavior that’s the result of experience

habituation

repeated exposure to a given stimulus leads to a decline in individual response

classical conditioning

learning process that occurs through associations (without conscious awareness) between an environmental stimulus and a naturally occurring stimulus

• animal/individual produces a reflex response to a stimulus that normally wouldn’t produce one

• induces an involuntary response

• underpins some behaviourist treatment

unconditioned stimulus

stimulus that leads to an automatic response (eg food)

unconditioned response

automatic response to a stimulus (eg salivation)

neutral stimulus

stimulus that at first elicits no response (eg ringing a bell), becomes associated with unconditioned stimulus to become an conditioned stimulus and invoke a conditioned response

conditioned stimulus

stimulus that eventually triggers a conditioned response (eg bell ringing)

conditioned response

a learned response to a previously neutral stimulus (eg salivation)

higher order conditioning

• other stimuli that originally had nothing to do with the unconditioned stimulus invoke a response

• learning forms a chain with new stimuli becoming associated with the conditioned stimulus

what are stress responses triggered by?

neurons