Intro to Psych Midterm 1

85-100 w Oppenheimer Midterm 1 fall 2026

operationalization

the process of creating metrics to measure abstract concepts such as love, hunger, spirituality, depression, etc.; must be precise (recreatable) and valid (actually measuring the thing being studied)

Type I error

“false positive”; finding evidence that supports a hypothesis by chance when in reality there is none

Type II error

“false negative”; finding no evidence to support a hypothesis by chance when in reality there is support

ethology

field of comparative psychology that focuses on animal behavior and how behaviors/behavioral mechanisms generalize across the animal kingdom (language, cooperation, etc.)

heritability estimate

proportion of total variation in a trait that is attributable to genetic variance within a group (what is nature vs. nurture); recorded as a number between 0 and 1 (i.e. intelligence = 0.70)

diathesis-stress model

theory of personality development postulating that for a trait to present both high disposition and high stress must be present (trait = disposition (genetics) x environment (stress)); unites nature vs. nurture perspectives

evolutionary psychology

theoretical approach to psychology through the framework of modern evolutionary perspective; i.e. some behaviors consistent across populations are evolutionarily advantageous and naturally selected for

Broadmann Areas

system of mapping the brain into “areas” based on size/density/layering of cells; found to correlate with specific functions (ex. area 4 = primary motor cortex)

Golgi stain

stains random subset of cells; allows one to see details & structure of individual cells but not to see how many cells total/density of cells in a sample

Nissl stain

stains all cells in a set; does not show details/structure of individual cells but allows one to determine amt/distribution/density of cells in a sample

myelin

lipid-rich coating that surrounds axons and increases firing speed of neurons

lesioning techniques

removal/destruction/deactivation of certain areas of the brain for “process of elimination” observation of brain function; i.e. if we damage/remove this part, what abilities are gone & how does behavior change

issues in neural imaging

invasiveness/permanence, temporal resolution, spatial resolution

dendrite

part of a neuron that receives signals from other neurons

axon

part of a neuron that sends signals to other neurons

synapse

gap between neurons (axon & dendrite) in which neurotransmitters travel

excitatory neurotransmitter

depolarizes postsynaptic neuron, making it less negative (more positive) & bringing it closer to acting potential; facilitates firing of the next neuron (“gas pedal”)

inhibitory neurotransmitter

hyperpolarizes postsynaptic neuron, making it more negative & bringing it farther away from action potential; prevents firing of the next neuron (“brakes”)

seductive allure (of neuroscience)

people arbitrarily tend to favor scientific explanations that include neuroscience-y details (diagrams of the brain, the term “the brain,” etc.) over those that do not regardless of the actual quality of the explanation

reverse-inference reasoning

affirming the consequent; the common logical error in thinking that since p —> q, then if q, there must be p (dog has ears; if it has ears, it’s a dog)

neuron

brain cells; neurons are specialized for certain functions (ex. motor neuron), form dictates function

neural communication

happens electrically; neurons have charged membranes that facilitate electrical communication (action potential)

glial cell

cells that support brain function by filtration, removal of dead tissue, etc.; the “housekeeping team” that takes care of everything else while neurons think

astrocyte

type of glial cell; maintains the blood-brain barrier to allow nutrients in and keep toxins out, cleans up dead tissue (dead neurons)

ogliodendrocyte

type of glial cell; produces myelin to support neural communication

resting potential

charge of a neuron relative to the extracellular space (more negative inside vs outside); ~ -70mV @ rest

action potential

the process of neural firing; diffusion of ions Na+ and K+ across the membrane into the neuron through protein channels; unidirectional & self-regenerating, enhanced by myelin

saltatory conduction

extra-fast signals that jump from node to node to increase speed of cell communication; allows for fast processing across the body so pertinent signals don’t have to take the long road (i.e. sending signals from your brain to move your toe)

glial scarring

after brain damage, astrocytes construct emergency “dams” made of scar tissue to restore the blood-brain barrier ASAP & minimize contact with/harm to neurons from blood toxins; can prevent neurogenesis & healing in brain damage cases b/c scars block new neurons from forming & connecting

long-term potentiation

underlying mechanism that supports learning & memory; strengthening of specific synaptic connections for greater efficacy (postsynaptic neuron gains more receptors)

amygdala

involved in fear conditioning (amygdala lesioning abolishes fear conditioning); can tell where emotions are directed & react accordingly (to you vs. to something else); amygdala dysfunction = no risk assessment (Iowa Gambling Task)

fear extinction

when the pre-frontal cortex overwrites the fear conditioning from the amygdala; inhibits the fear response

implicit memory

memory/knowledge that a person is not aware they have/have gained; ex. knowing how to tie your shoes but not remembering specifically when you learned to

explicit memory

memory/knowledge that a person is aware they possess; ex. recalling a specific event that happened last week when talking to a friend

retrograde amnesia

an inability to recall memories formed before amnesia; can form new memories

anterograde amnesia

an inability to form new memories after amnesia; memories formed before amnesia remain (H.M. after hippocampus removed)

hippocampus

part of the brain assoc. with learning/gaining memories about events (long term memory encoding)

REM sleep

rapid-eye-movement sleep; studies show it is correlated with memory consolidation & encoding (sleep with no REM = bad memory, more fatigue)

caffeine

creates circumstances for learning (alertness & focus) but can negatively impact REM sleep, therefore negatively impacting long term memory encoding & retention of learned concepts

types of lesioning techniques

cryogenic, ischemic/hemmorhagic (strokes), external injury, neurochemical

EEG

measures electrical activity in brain areas through external electrodes on the head; good temporal, poor spatial, noninvasive

PET

measures sugar (2-deoxyglucose) flow to brain areas (will go to areas that were in use to replenish energy); poor temporal, good spatial, slightly invasive (radioactive sugars)

fMRI

measures oxygen flow to brain areas (replenishment after activity); poor temporal, good spatial, noninvasive

MR Spectroscopy

measures prevalence of neurochemicals, especially in tumors (chemical composition of tissue); good spatial, slightly invasive (contrastive dyes)

fNIRS

measures blood oxygenation levels in the cortex using infrared light; can be done while participants complete tasks!; poor temporal, moderate spatial, noninvasive

TMS

manually activates neural regions using electrical currents; good temporal, good spatial, extremely invasive

classical conditioning

Pavlov’s dogs; training an association between a stimulus and an involuntary behavior

steps of classical conditioning

1. unconditioned stimulus —> unconditioned response

2. unconditioned stimulus + neutral stimulus —> unconditioned response

3. conditioned stimulus (previously neutral) —> conditioned response

operant conditioning

training an association between a voluntary behavior and a stimulus to increase or decrease a behavior; positive/negative reward/punishment systems on variable/fixed interval/ratio

positive (operant conditioning)

adding something to the system

negative (operant conditioning)

removing something from the system

punishment (operant conditioning)

a consequence given when an undesired behavior happens/a desired behavior does not happen

reinforcement (operant conditioning)

a reward given when a desired behavior happens/an undesired behavior does not happen

fixed conditioning schedules

quicker & easier for the trainee to pick up the desired behavior; more vulnerable to extinction

variable conditioning schedules

more difficult for the trainee to understand & pick up the desired behavior; more resistant to extinction

generalization

learning on stimulus A changes behavior regarding stimulus B (learning is generalized across stimuli)

discrimination

learning on stimulus A does not affect behavior regarding stimulus B (learning discriminates between stimuli)

Social Learning Theory

learning occurs through observation (ex. children learned aggression through Bobo doll experiment; celebrity influencers)

Rescorla-Wagner Model

model of learning that illustrates diminishing returns; i.e. the more surprising/novel a pairing is, the more association (first couple times something is trained is when learning occurs @ the greatest rate); better than Hebbian model (linear relationship between frequency of pairings & association)

Atkinson-Shiffrin model

model that splits memory into 4 parts, including short-term (working) memory and long-term memory; encoding = short-term —> long-term, retrieval = long-term —> short-term

encoding

transfer of information from short-term (working) memory to long-term memory; no known limit to amount of information that can be encoded

retrieval

transfer of information from long-term memory to short-term (working) memory; induced by cues (i.e. environmental, spatial, state-dependent)

retroactive interference

new memories overwrite old ones; cues get “repurposed” for retrieval of newly-learned information

proactive interference

old memories hinder learning of new material; cues remain associated with old memories rather than invoking newer ones

retrieval-induced forgetting

intentionally suppressing interfering memories to better remember something else (recall: trying to remember specific fruits, so the rest of the list gets suppressed)

flashbulb memory

major/significant events induce a feeling of strong memories about when you learned about the event; these memories are not always correct (Challenger explosion)

retinotopic mapping

specific parts of your field of vision correspond to specific neurons; two points next to each other in vision correspond to two neurons that are next to each other in the brain

lateral inhibition

firing neurons prevent adjacent neurons from also firing; helps create defined edges/boundaries in vision

relative thresholds (Weber’s Law)

the extent to which a stimulus must increase in order for change to be noticeable; diminishing returns (i.e. adding one candle to a dark room is obvious, but adding one candle to a floodlight is not)

“where” visual pathway

responsible for perception of space & movement; occipital to parietal lobe; “visual neglect” occurs with dysfunction of this pathway

“what” visual pathway

responsible for recognition of objects by sight; occipital to temporal lobe; visual agnosia (objects, faces/prosopagnosia, etc.) occurs with dysfunction of this pathway

constancy

the brain accounts for/assumes color, brightness, size, shape constancy based on environmental factors (seeing different colors, shapes based on assumed lighting, distance)

top-down processing

making inferences on environmental input based on pre-existing knowledge about the world

bottom-up processing

processing objective input from the environment without filtering it through pre-existing knowledge frameworks

perceptual grouping

the brain separates an object & the background

linguistic ambiguity

lexical (words w/ multiple meanings), structural (words w/ multiple functions), acoustic (accents); context used to disambiguate

priming

prior exposure of a concept restrains semantic space (knowing what is happening will tell someone which meaning of a word to apply in a conversation)

Gricean Implicature

4 maxims: quality (tell the truth), quantity (say only as much as is necessary), relation (relevance), manner (be as clear as possible)

transitional probability

probability of a particular syllable to follow given a prior syllable; ex. “fea-” always followed by “-ther”

Wernicke’s Aphasia

a.k.a. fluent aphasia; dysfunction of Wernicke’s area causes speech that sounds fluent (grammatical order) but has no semantic meaning

Broca’s Aphasia

dysfunction to Broca’s area causes inability to produce sentences in grammatical order; words retain semantic meaning but the individual struggles to place them in logical order to create meaning (“I like it” vs. “It like me”)

Whorfian Hypothesis

cognition/perception of reality is connected to/dependent on/constrained by language (i.e. English speakers perceive reality differently than Spanish speakers)