Psychology Lecture Notes Review

Key Concepts Overview

• Sensation vs. Perception:

  • Sensation: Detecting stimuli from the environment through sensory organs.

  • Perception: Brain's interpretation of sensory signals.

• Transduction: Process of converting physical stimuli (e.g., light, sound waves) into neural signals that the brain can process.

• Absolute Threshold: Minimum stimulus intensity required for detection 50% of the time.

• Weber’s Law: The just noticeable difference (JND) is proportional to the initial stimulus magnitude.

• Bottom-up vs. Top-down Processing:

  • Bottom-up: Processing begins with raw sensory input.

  • Top-down: Processing influenced by past experiences, expectations, and context.

• Signal Detection Theory: Explains how signals are detected amid background noise, taking into account expectations and alertness.

Learning Objectives

• Differentiate Sensation and Perception:

  • Sensation = raw sensory input (e.g., light entering the eye).

  • Perception = brain interpreting and making sense of the input (e.g., recognizing a face).

• Define and Apply Transduction:

  • Example: The retina converts light waves into electrical impulses interpreted as vision.

• Understand Absolute & Difference Thresholds:

  • Absolute threshold: Candle flame seen at 30 miles on a clear night.

  • Difference threshold: Noticing a slight change in music volume.

• Describe & Apply Signal Detection Theory:

  • Example: A doctor detecting a tumor in an X-ray based on experience and attention.

• Explain the Role of Attention in Stimulus Detection:

  • Selective attention: Focusing on one stimulus while ignoring others.

• Distinguish Between Top-down & Bottom-up Processing:

  • Bottom-up: Seeing a new object and trying to identify it.

  • Top-down: Recognizing a blurred word due to expectations.

• Describe Depth Perception & Perceptual Constancy:

  • Depth cues: Binocular (retinal disparity) and monocular (linear perspective).

  • Perceptual constancy: Identifying an object as the same despite changes in perspective.

Content Organization

• Sensation: Detecting raw stimuli (light, sound, touch).

• Perception: Organizing and interpreting sensory input based on experience and context.

• Advanced Topics:

  • Depth perception (judging distance).

  • Color perception (how cones in the retina differentiate colors).

  • Perceptual constancy (consistent shape recognition despite angle changes).

Study Resources

• Definitions & Examples: Memorize key terms and apply them to real-life situations.

• Diagrams: Study the structure of the eye, ear, and neural pathways.

• Optical Illusions: Examine illusions (e.g., Müller-Lyer illusion) to understand perceptual errors.

Review Strategies

• Key Points:

  • Sensation is raw data collection, perception is interpretation.

• Common Misconceptions:

  • Perception occurs in the brain, not through the eyes.

• Practice: Relate concepts to everyday experiences (e.g., recognizing a song from a few notes = top-down processing).

Learning: Definition and Types

• Learning: A relatively permanent change in behavior or thoughts resulting from experience. This change is adaptive, aiding in survival by allowing organisms to adjust to changes.

  • Relatively Permanent Change: Must persist over time; temporary changes are not considered learning.

  • Adaptive: Helps organisms survive and reproduce by adjusting.

  • Predicting the Future: Enables organisms to anticipate events and respond accordingly across species.

Non-Associative Learning

• Definition: Responding to a single stimulus without associating multiple stimuli.

• Types:

  • Habituation: Decreased response to repeated non-threatening stimuli (e.g., ignoring background noise).

  • Sensitization: Increased response to repeated irritating or dangerous stimuli (e.g., sibling poking).

Associative Learning: Classical Conditioning

• Definition: Learning where two stimuli are paired.

• Key Concepts:

  • Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS): Naturally triggers a response (e.g., food).

  • Unconditioned Response (UCR): Automatic response to UCS (e.g., salivation).

  • Neutral Stimulus (NS): Initially has no effect (e.g., bell).

  • Conditioned Stimulus (CS): NS after pairing with UCS (e.g., bell after seeing food).

  • Conditioned Response (CR): Learned response to CS (e.g., salivating to the bell).

• Important Concepts:

  • Acquisition, Extinction, Spontaneous Recovery, Generalization, Discrimination, Blocking, Preparedness.

Operant Conditioning

• Definition: Learning where behaviors are influenced by consequences.

• Key Concepts:

  • Reinforcement: Increases behavior likelihood.

  • Punishment: Decreases behavior likelihood.

  • Positive Reinforcement: Adding a pleasant stimulus (e.g., rewards).

  • Negative Reinforcement: Removing an unpleasant stimulus (e.g., pain relief).

  • Positive Punishment: Adding an unpleasant stimulus (e.g., time-out).

  • Negative Punishment: Removing a pleasant stimulus (e.g., toy removal).

• Advanced Topics:

  • Discriminative Stimulus, Shaping, Chaining, Continuous vs. Partial Reinforcement.

Observational Learning and Insight Learning

• Observational Learning: Learning by observing others; requires attention, retention, initiation, and motivation.

• Insight Learning: Sudden understanding of a problem, often without trial-and-error; exemplified by Köhler's studies on chimps.

Learning Types Compared

Key Facts to Memorize

1. Learning is a relatively permanent change in behavior or thought due to experience.

2. Habituation is decreased response to repeated stimuli.

3. Sensitization is increased response to repeated stimuli.

4. Classical conditioning involves a neutral stimulus becoming conditioned after pairing with an unconditioned stimulus.

5. The unconditioned response is automatic to the unconditioned stimulus.

6. The conditioned response is learned in response to the conditioned stimulus.

7. Extinction is the weakening of the conditioned response due to absence of the unconditioned stimulus.

8. Spontaneous recovery is the reappearance of an extinguished conditioned response.

Memory Overview

• Memory: Capacity to store and retrieve information to enable learning.

• Stages of Memory:

  1. Encoding: Getting information into memory.

  • Automatic Processing: Unconscious encoding of info (e.g., timelines).

  • Effortful Processing: Requires conscious effort (e.g., studying).

  • Levels of Processing: Depth affects retention (shallow vs. deep).

  1. Storage: Keeping information across stages:

  • Sensory Memory: Brief sensory info storage.

  • Short-Term Memory: Retains info for 15-30 seconds; limited capacity.

  • Working Memory: Active manipulation of information.

  1. Retrieval: Accessing stored information via recall, recognition, and relearning.

• Types of Long-Term Memory:

  • Explicit Memory (Declarative): Intentionally recalled (episodic vs. semantic).

  • Implicit Memory (Nondeclarative): Unconsciously retrieved (procedural, priming, emotional conditioning).

Constructive Nature of Memories

• Memory is reconstructive, susceptible to distortions.

• Misinformation Effect: False memories from misleading info after events.

• Schemas: Organizational frameworks that can lead to inaccuracies.

Memory Enhancement Strategies

1. Rehearsal: Practice to reinforce memory.

2. Chunking: Organizing info into meaningful units.

3. Elaborative Rehearsal: Linking new info to existing knowledge.

4. Mnemonic Devices: Memory aids to help organize info (e.g., acronyms).

5. Self-Reference Effect: Relating info to personal experience.

6. Distributed Practice: Spacing study sessions for better retention.

7. Environment and Mood Matching: Learning in a similar context to retrieval.

8. Sleep and Exercise: Crucial for memory consolidation.

9. Minimizing Distractions: Reducing interference during study.

Forgetting

• Forgetting: Loss of information retrieval from long-term memory.

• Causes:

  • Encoding Failure: Inattentiveness leads to lack of storage.

  • Interference: New info hinders retrieval of old memories.

  • Proactive Interference: Old info hinders recall of new info.

  • Retroactive Interference: New info disrupts recall of old info.

• Amnesia: Loss of memory due to brain injury or trauma; can be retrograde or anterograde.

Eyewitness Testimony and Memory Errors

• Eyewitness accounts: Often unreliable, causing wrongful convictions.

• Common Memory Errors:

  • Transience, Absentmindedness, Blocking, Misattribution, Suggestibility, Bias, Persistence.

Decisions in Daily Life

• Decision Making: Daily decisions across various fields; influenced by rational and bounded rationality.

Rational Decision Making

• Rational Decision: Evaluating all information to select the best option.

• Bounded Rationality: Challenges the assumption of full rationality due to constraints like time and memory limitations.

System 1 vs. System 2 Thinking

• System 1 Thinking: Fast, emotional responses.

• System 2 Thinking: Slow, analytical deliberation.

Cognitive Biases in Decision Making

• Common Biases: Confirmation Bias, Overconfidence Bias, Anchoring Effects, Framing Effects.

Theories of Intelligence

• Types:

  • Spearman’s g: General intelligence factor.

  • Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences: Eight intelligence types.

  • Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory: Analytical, practical, and creative dimensions.

Growth Mindset

• Definition: The belief that abilities can be developed.

• Influence on learning and performance: Promotes resilience and adaptation.