Dr. Karpinski Exam 1

Pareidolia

tendency to perceive meaningful patterns in random or ambiguous stimuli

Our brains interpret sensory info and use familiar patterns and expectations to make sense of what we see

Why Pareidolia occurs

Sensation

the physical process in which sensory organs detect stimuli and convert them into electrical signals the brain can process aka transduction

ex: your eyes detect light reflecting from a dog

Perception

the psychological process of organizing and interpreting sensory info to understand what we experience

ex: your brain recognizes that the object s a dog

absolute threshold

the minimum amount of stimulation needed to detect a stimulus 50% of the time

ex: the quietest sound you can hear about half the time

difference threshold

the smallest difference between two stimuli that you can detect 50% of the tine

ex: the smallest increase in mus

Weber’s Law

the larger original stimulus, the larger the difference must be fir you to notice a change

unattentional Blindness

• the failure to notice an unexpected object or event because your attention is focused on something else.

• Occurs because attention has limited capacity. Focusing on demanding tasks makes us less likely to notice unexpected events

Bottom Up Processing

perception begins with individual sensory details, which are combined to form a complete interpretation

Top-Down Processing

past experiences, knowledge, and expectations influence how we interpret new info

The same stimulus can be interrupted differently depending on the situation, what we expect, or what we are paying attention to

How context affects perception:

Visual illusions

our brain can misinterpret visual info, such as perceiving two equal length lines as different lengths because of the arrows at their ends

Auditory Illusions

our interpretations of sound can different from physical signal

occurs when what you hear doesn’t match the sound stimulus because your brain is filing in the sound difference

ex: the sheperd tone creates the impression of a continuously rising pitch

pupil

regulates amount of light that enters eye by contracting (in bright) and dilating (jn dim light)

Lens

focuses light on to retina

Retina

layer at the back of the eye where light is converted into electrical signals

rods

• help us see when its dim

• very sensitive to light

• can’t distinguish color

• peripheral retina

cones

• help us see color and fine detail in brighter light

• central retina

Trichromacy Theory

we have three types of cones that respond preferentially to red, green, and blue wavelength

• S-cones = short wave length (blue)

• M-Cones = medium wavelength (green)

• L-cones = long wavelength (red)

opponent process theory

builds on trichromacy theory but explains that colors are seen in pairs

• red and green

• black and white

• blue and yellow

Smell

olfaction

taste

gustation

odorants

may have specific receptions - send info through plate in the skull, so head trauma can cause temporary anosmia

pain

nociceptor

touch

somatosensation

multimodal perception

occurs when info from multiple senses combine to influence one perpetual experience

supperadditive effect of multi-sensory integration

combined sensory info can produce a stronger response than the sum of reasons to each sense individually

principle of inverse effectiveness

additional sensory cues tend to provide greater benefits when the original single-sense info is weak

sensory memory

briefly holds incoming sensory info; very short duration; large amount of

short-term/working memory

holds and works with info you are currently using; limited capacity and brief duration without rehersal

long-term memory

stores info for later use; can last from days to a lifetime; very large capacity

Ionic memory and echoic memory

types of sensory memory

ionic memory

brief visuals memory

echoic memory

brief auditory memory

explicit memory

declarative

conscious memory for facts and events

implicit memory

non-declarative

memory expressed through performance without necessarily consciously remembering the learning experience

episodic memory

memory for specific events or experiences

semantic

general knwoledge facts and word meaning

procedural

memory for perform skills and actions

autobiographical

memories of events across your own life

collective

stories and memories shared by a group and passed between generations

consolidation

neural changes help stabilize memory mover time

chuncking

grouping seperate pieces of into into meaningful units to make them easier to remember

encoding

taking in and learning info

storage

maintaining info over time

retrieval

accessing stored info

• connect new info to prior knowledge

• use mental imagery

• make info distinctive

• use mnemonics

• practice retrieval

how to create stronger long term memories

mnemonic devices

a memory aid that makes info easier to remember

Method of Loci

works well because it connects info to familiar locations and distinctive mental images, creating meaningful retrieval cues

retrieval cue

a hint that helps you access a memory

encoding specificity principle

retrieval cues work best when they overlap with how the info was originally learned33

context dependent memory

remembering many improve when you are in the same environment where you learned something

available vs accessible memories

available info is stored; accessible info is what you currently retrieve

recognition

identifying the correct answer from choices

recall

producing info from memory without being given the answer choices

testing effect

retrieval practice strengthens later retrieval. Ex: answering practice questions can help you remember info better than simply reading it

Cue overload

a cue becomes less effective when it is connected to too many memories; more distinctive = more helpful

flushable memories

vivid memories of emotionally significant or distinctive events

• can feel clear and detailed

• may form because of an event is surprising or emotionally important

• are not necessarily more accurate than ordinary memories

• confident in a memory does not guarantee that it is correct

Anterograde Amnesia

Difficulty forming new long-lasting declarative memories after brain injury or the onset of the condition

Retrograde Amnesia

difficulty retrieving memories from before the onset of the condition

• encoding failures → we’re distracted; not paying attention to specific details

• decay over time → passage of time makes things harder to remember; rehersal

• degradation/disruption →memory traces need to be consolidated; brain damage/physical trauma/medical conditions

• retrieval failures → interferences

Why we forget stuff

Proactive interference

old info interferes with learning of remembering new info

retroactive interference

new info interferes with remembering older info

Forgetting helps prevent irrelevant details and associations from overwhelming us. It allows us to focus on useful info instead of remembering every detail of every experience

Why can forgetting be adaptive?

Eyewitness Testimony

not always accurate and can contribute to wrongful convictions

misinformation effect

occurs when info introduced after an event changes a person’s memory or what happened

can come from leading questions, conversations with other witnesses, info encountered after event

schemas

• mental templates based on expectations and prior knowledge

• helps us process familiar situations efficiently, but can also cause memory errors because we may remember what we expected to see rather than what was actually present

false memories

memories of events or details that did not actually happen as remembered

• poor viewing conditions

• stress during event

• to little time to see the person

• a long delay before identification

• identifying someone from different racial group

Common eyewitness identification errors

Faulty memories and mistaken identification can cause innocent people to be accused or convicted

How can memory impede justice?

H.M

Demonstrated that forming new declarative memories can be impaired while motor-skill learning remains possible

Simon Reinhard

Demonstrated how trained mnemonic techniques can greatly improve memory perfomance

social psychology

studies how the presence of other people affects our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors

social psychologists

focus on how behavior is influenced by both the person and their situation. Instead of assuming someone acts a certain way because of their personality, they consider the circumstances, relationships, culture, and social expectations affecting that person

Kurt Lewin

• German-America psychologist who turn psych from theory to science you can apply in real life

• Behavior= a person x environment

• we can’t understand someone’s behavior without looking at the person and the situation

• unfreeze, change, refreeze theory

Social Cognition

how we perceive others

channel factor (nudge)

• a small feature of a situation that makes a behavior easier or more likely.

• A nudge encourages a particular behavior without necessarily forcing someone to do it

Attribution

explaining the cause of someone’s behavior

Internal/personal/dispositional attribution

explaining behavior through a person’s traits, personality, motives, or character

external/situational attribution

explaining behavior through circumstances or the environment

fundamental attribution error

the tendency to explain other people’s behavior through their personality while overlooking situational influences

cognitive dissonance

mental discomfort people feel when holding 2+ conflicting beliefs, ideas, values, or when their actions conflict with their beliefs

• Introversions vs Extroversions

• intuition vs sensing

• thinking vs feeling

• judging vs perceiving

1. uses categories that are too rigid

2. results are inconsistent

3. it overlooks situational influences

4. may not represent jung’s original ideas accurately

Criticisms of the Myers Briggs Type indicator

1. Subjective interpretations

2. multiple explanations

3. limited certainty

asks people to create stories about ambiguous pictures

Criticisms of thematic Acception Test

Levels on analysis

• Cultural/environmental

• relationship/groups

• thoughts/feelings/perception

• physiology

• chemistry/dna

Areas of social psychology

1. Attraction

2. attitudes

3. peace and attitude

4. social influence

5. social cognition

need to belong

the human desire to form and maintain meaninful relationships with others

schemes

organized mental models or expectations about people, objects, situations, or events

heuristics

are mental shortcuts that help us make judgments quickly

chameleon effect

unconscious mimicry of another persons behaviors (postures, mannerisms, expressions) to foster rapport and liking

implicit bias

evaluation/preference that we have without conscious awareness

explicit bias

conscious and intentional evaluations/beliefs

Social Influence

• conformity

• obedience

• persuasion

• reciprocity

prejudice

attitude or belief towards members of a group based on stereotypes or generalizations

discriminations

a behavior/action that treats people unfairly because of their group membershop

they want to fit in, avoid judgment, or believe others know the correct to act

Why do people conform?

informational conformity

doing what others do because you think they know more than you

normative conformity

doing what others do to feel accepted/fit in

deindividuation

lack of self awareness due to anonymity/getting lost in the crowd

Milgrams Experiment

• obedience

• participants believed they were taking part in a learning and memory experiment

• they were assigned the role of a “teacher” and instructed to give a “learner” increasingly strong electric shocks for incorrect answers

• the learner was actually a confederate and received no shocks

• the experiment encouraged participants to continue, even when the learner protested

• 65% of participants in the basic experiment continued to the maximum setting of 450 volts