Elem. Psych chapters 1,2,3,4

what are the 6 principles of scientific thinking?

1. falsifiability

2. replicability

3. Occams’ razor (parsimony)

4. ruling out rival hypothesis

5. correlation isn’t causation

6. extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence

psychology is the scientific study of what?

mind and behavior

structuralism

understanding the conscious experience through introspection

functionalism

focused on how mental activities helped an organism adapt to its environment

behaviorism

focus on observing and controlling behavior

psychoanalysis

focus on the role of the unconscious in affecting conscious behavior

cognitive revolution

period during 1950s-1960s when cognitive psychology replaced behaviorism and psychoanalysis

humanistic

perspective within psychology that emphasizes the potential for good that is innate to all humans

Gestalt

movement in psychology founded in Germany in 1912 seeking to explain perceptions in terms of gestalt rather than by analyzing their constituents

pseudoscience

a set of claims that seem scientific but are not

common signs of pseudoscience…

1. overuse of ad hoc immunizing hypothesis (loopholes)

2. exaggerated claims

3. over reliance on anecdotes

4. lack of self correction when contrary evidence is provided

5. meaningless scientific terms thrown together

6. lack of review by other scholars

7. talk to proof instead of evidence

external validity

extent to which we have our findings related to the real world

internal validity

extent to draw cause and effect relationships in our studies

construct validity

extent to which a measure actually measures what it says it does

reliability

consistency and reproducibility

naturalistic observation

observation of behavior in its natural setting

case study

in depth examination of a single individual, or a small group of individuals, often over an extended period of time

correlational design

examines the extent to which two variables are associated with one another (+) (0) (-)

experimental design

research design characterized by random (randomly placed) assignment of participants into conditions and manipulation of an independent variables

independent variable

variable that is influenced or controlled by the experimenter; in a sound experimental study, the independent variable is the only important difference between the experimental and control group

dependent variable

variable that the researcher measures to see how much effect the independent variable had

operational definition

description of what actions and operations will be used to measure the dependent variables and manipulate the independent variables

central nervous system (CNS)

brain and spinal cord

peripheral nervous system (PNS)

connects the brain and spinal cord to the muscles, organs and senses in the periphery of the body

sympathetic nervous system

involved in stress-related activities and functions

parasympathetic nervous system

associated with routine, day to day operations of the body

somatic division

voluntary muscles, 2 subdivisions, mirror spinal cord, motor nerves

autonomic division

involuntary muscles (heart, glands, etc), internal stuff (blood pressure), emotion regulation, 3 subdivisions

cerebrum

humans are highly developed “forebrain” (split into two different hemispheres)

sulk (sulcus)

the “cracks” that results from the folding of cortical tissue

Gyri (gyrus)

the “bumps” that results from the folding of cortical tissue

frontal lobe

part of the cerebral cortex involved in reasoning, motor control, emotion, and language; contains motor cortex

prefrontal cortex

area in the frontal lobe responsible for higher-level cognitive functioning

primary motor cortex

toward the back of the frontal lobe, just in front of the central sulcus

brocas area

region of the left hemisphere that is essential for language production

parietal lobe

part of the cerebral cortex involved in processing various sensory and perceptual information; contains the primary somatosensory cortex

primary sensory cortex

• located just behind the central sulcus

• sensation to touch, temperature, and pressure and pain

• each part of the primary sensory cortex controls and receives signals from a specific part of the body

occipital lobe

part if the cerebral cortex associated with visual processing; contains the primary visual cortex

temporal lobe

part of cerebral cortex associated with hearing, memory, emotion, and some aspects of language; contains primary auditory cortex

wernicke’s area

important for speech comprehension

left hemisphere

• controls the right side of the body

• location of language centers for most people

right hemisphere

• controls the left side of the body

• better with visospatial based processing

lateralization

each hemisphere of the brain serves slightly different, but complementary functions

limbic system

collection of structures involved in processing emotion and memory

cerebellum

hindbrain structure that controls our balance, coordination, movement, and motor skills, and it is thought to be important in processing some types of memory

peripheral nervous system (PNS)

connect the brain and spinal cord to the muscles, organs and senses in the periphery of the body

sympathetic nervous system

involved in stress-related activities and functions (active during fight or flight)

parasympathetic nervous system

associated with routine, day to day operations of the body (active during digestion and rest)

neuron

cells in the nervous system that act as interconnected information processors, which are essential for all of the tasks of the nervous system

soma

cell body

dendrite

branch like extension of the soma that receives incoming signals from other neurons

axon

major extension of the soma (sending other communications to other neurons)

neurotransmitter

chemical messenger of the nervous system

action potential

electrical signal that moves down the neurons axon

threshold

level of charge in the membrane that causes the neuron to become active

all or nothing

phenomenon that incoming signal from another neuron is either sufficient or insufficient to reach the threshold of excitation

sensation

detection of physical energy by sense organs, which then sends this information to the brain

perception

the brains perception of raw sensory input

sense receptor

specialized cell responsible for converting external stimuli into neural activity for a specific sensory system

transduction

the process by which the nervous system converts an external stimulus into electrical activity within neurons

sensory adaption

decline in strength of a sensory response with continued exposure to a stimuli

absolute threshold

the lowest level of a stimulus needed. for the nervous system to detect that stimulus 50% of the time

just noticeable difference

• also called difference threshold

• the smallest change in the intensity of a stimuli that we can detect (again evaluated @ 50%)

Mcgurk effect

• hearing the audio track from one syllable

• see visual stimuli of someone saying a different syllable

synesthesia

a rare condition in which people experience cross modal sensations

selective attention

process of selecting one sensory channel and ignoring or minimizing others

inattentional blindness

failure to detect stimuli that are in plan sight when our attention is focused else where

change blindness

failure to detect oblivious changes in ones environment (closely related to inattentional blindness)

retina

intermost layer of the eye, where incoming light is converted into nerve impulses

fovea

the part of the retina where light rays are more sharply focused

rods

specialized photoreceptor that works well in low light conditions

cones

specialized photoreceptor that works best in bright light conditions and detects color

optic nerve

carries visual information from eh retina to the brain

blind spot

point where we cannot respond to visual information in that portion of the visual field

lens

curved, transparent structure that provides additional focus for light entering the eye

pupil

small opening in the eye through which light passes

trichromatic theory

color vision is mediated by the activity across the three groups of cones

opponent process theory

color is coded in opponent pairs: black and white, yellow and blue, and red and green

pinna

visible part of the ear that protrudes from the head

ear canal

conducts sound waves to the ear drum

oval window and round window

covered by membrane operates in opposite in phase

cochlea

fluid filled, snail shaped structure that contains. the sensory receptor cells of the auditory system

olfaction

sense of smell

• orthonasal olfaction

• rretronasal olfaction

orthonasal

arising from odor compounds traveling through the olfactory bulb

retronasal

arising from odors that travel to the olfactory bulb through passage ways located

gustation

sense of taste

• taste buds

• papille (bumps in tongue)

somatosensory system

• responds to stimuli applied to the skin

• specialized nerve endings

specialized nerve endings

nerve endings in the skin specialized for detecting…

1. light touch

2. deep pressure

3. temperature

free nerve endings

far more free nerve endings

• sees of touch and temperature

• primary sense of pain

vestibular sense

balance, equilibrium (being dizzy)

top-down processing

conceptually driven processing influenced by beliefs and exceptions

bottom-up processing

system in which perceptions are built from sensory input

perceptual constancy

the process by which we perceive stimuli consistency across varied conditions

gestalt principles

rules governing how we see objects as wholes within an overall text

proximity

objects physically close to one another tend to be perceived as unified wholes

similarity

all things being equal, we see similar objects as compromising a whole, much more so than dissimilar objects

continuity

we still perceive objects as wholes, even if other objects block part of them

closure

when partial visual information is available our brains fill in what’s missing

symmetry

we perceive objects that are symmetrical arranged as wholes often then this that aren’t

figure ground

perceptually, we make an instantaneous decision to focus attention on what we believe to be the central figure, and largely ignored what we believe to be the background