Psych Exam 2

Chapter 4

Sensation

Process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimuli from the environment 

Processing of basic information from the external world by the sensory receptors in the sense organs 

Perception 

Organizing, identifying, and interpreting sensory information 

Psychophysics

Study of physical characteristics of stimuli and how we perceive them 

Absolute threshold

Minimum needed to detect on 50% of trials 

Just-noticeable-difference

Minimal change that can be detected 50% of the time 

Weber’s law

JND of a stimulus is a constant proportion regardless of intensity 

Signal detection theory

Idea that the intensity of the stimuli and the psychological and physical state of the person contribute to whether or not the person is able to detect the stimuli 

Examples: A lifeguard spotting someone in drowning water, Someone trying to hear a noise in a loud room.

Adaptation

Stop noticing a stimulus that remains constant over time 

Vision

Visible light 

Small portion of electromagnetic spectrum that is visible 

Wavelength

Color, distance between any two consecutive crests or troughs of a wave 

Amplitude

Brightness, the height of the crests of a wave  

Retina

Back of the eye, contains 2 kinds of photoreceptor cells (rods and cones) 

Rods and cones are specialized neurons that take visual sensory information and convert it to neural information 

Rods

Respond to shades of gray, perceiving shapes and motion, located in periphery of retina, support nighttime vision  

Cones

Respond to color, help with visual acuity, located in fovea, responsible for high resolution color vision 

Fovea

Only contains cones, rods are more on periphery 

Photopigments

Sensitive to different wavelengths of the visible spectrum 

optic nerve

Causes blind spot 

opponent-process theory

Cone photoreceptors are linked together to form three opposing color pairs 

Blue - yellow

Red - green

Black - white 

trichromatic theory

Three cone photopigments work together to produce color perception 

Monocular cues 

Aspects of a scene that yield information about depth when viewed with only one eye 

Binocular cues

Binocular disparity- difference in the retinal images of the two eyes that provides information about depth 

visual association cortex

Regions of the brain where objects are reconstructed from feature detectors and prior knowledge 

what vs. where pathway

What - ventral stream, temporal 

Where - dorsal stream, parietal 

Hearing

Involves the detection of sound waves or changes in air pressure unfolding over time 

Frequency

Pitch, measured in Hz

Amplitude

Loudness, measured in dB

Timbre

Experience of sound quality or resonance 

Outer ear

middle ear

eardrum/tympanic membrane, ossicles (hammer, avail, stirrup)

inner ear 

Cochlea - a fluid filled tube

Basilar membrane - lines the cochlea where the auditory cilia are located 

Frequency theory

The brain uses the frequency of auditory sensory neuron firing to indicate pitch, how frequently neurons fire quickly = pitch 

place theory

Different pitches arise from stimulation at different places along the basilar membrane 

Tonotopic organization 

The arrangement of the auditory cortex, nearby frequencies are processed near each other in the brain

auditory cortex

Sound localization

Having two ears allows for comparisons to localize sound 

Conductive hearing loss

Damage to eardrum or ossicles, nothing to do with neural impulses 

sensorineural hearing loss

Problem with cochlea/inner ear 

Epithelium

Mucous membrane in the nasal cavity that contains the olfactory receptor neurons 

Glomeruli

A spherical cluster of neurons in the olfactory bulb

olfactory bulb

Structure just above the nasal cavity where information is communicated to the primary olfactory cortex 

Vestibular Sense

Ability to balance 

Sense of Taste

Sweet, sour, bitter, umami, salty

Chapter 5

Consciousness

Your moment by moment awareness of your internal and external world 

Mind/body problem

EEG (brain activity) precedes conscious decision 

Introspection

The process of examining one's own internal thoughts and feelings 

Focused awareness

Ability to concentrate on a single object, thought, or sensation while tuning out distractions. 

Selective attention

Focusing one’s awareness onto a particular aspect of one’s experience 

inattentional blindness

Failure to perceive objects that are not the focus of attention 

change blindness

When people fail to detect changes in a visual stimulus/visual details of a scene 

Automaticity

Ability to perform a task without conscious awareness or attention (ex brushing your teeth)

Cognitive unconscious

The various mental processes that support everyday functioning without conscious awareness or control  

Subliminal perception

A form of perception that occurs without conscious awareness, people cannot consciously report having seen a stimulus, but their behavior suggests otherwise 

Different brain areas-arousal vs. awareness

Arousal - a person's level of wakefulness or alertness 

Awareness - consciously being able to recognize something 

Default mode network

An interconnected system of brain regions that are active when the mind is alert and aware but not focused on a particular task 

Self-consciousness

Subjective awareness of self

Arousal-circadian rhythm

Circadian rhythm - any biological process that displays an internal, adaptable oscillation of 24 hours, 24 hour pattern of bodily arousal 

SCN

SCN - suprachiasmatic nucleus, a nucleus in the hypothalamus, internal clock, helps regulate sleep and alertness 

Stages of sleep, brain waves

Wakefulness - beta waves, fast with small amplitude 

Relaxed wakefulness - alpha waves, slower but similar to beta 

Stage 1 - theta waves, 5-10 mins

Stage 2 - sleep spindles and K complexes, 20 mins

Stage 3 and 4 - large, slow delta waves, 30 mins each 

REM

Occurs in stage 4, when majority of dreaming takes place, increased heart rate and breathing, increased brain activity 

Unihemispheric sleep

One hemisphere asleep, the other alert 

Dreams

Sequences of images, emotions, and thoughts, sometimes vivid and storylike, that are experienced during sleep 

activation-synthesis hypothesis

Brain attempts to make sense of random neural activity 

Insomnia

Difficulty falling or staying asleep

sleep apnea

Person stops breathing for brief periods of time while asleep 

Somnambulism

Sleepwalking, occurs in stage 3, person arises and walks around during sleep

Narcolepsy

Sudden sleep attacks occur in the middle of waking activities 

RBD

Dream content REM behavior disorder, acting out dreams 

night terrors

Occur in stage 3, abrupt awakenings with panic and intense emotional arousal

Depressants

Reduce CNS activity, alcohol, barbiturates, benzodiazepines, toxic inhalants

Stimulants

Excite CNS, heighten arousal and activity, caffeine, amphetamines, nicotine, cocaine, ecstasy, elicit euphoria and confidence/motivation 

Narcotics

Opiates, relieve pain, highly addictive, heroin, morphine, methadone, codeine, related to endorphins 

Hallucinogens

Alter sensation and perception, LCD (acid), ketamine, PCP, mescaline, cause auditory and visual hallucinations via heightened excitation across brain areas, similar molecular structure to serotonin 

Marijuana

Mildly hallucinogenic, affects judgment, concentration, sensory and time perception, short term memory, motor skills and coordination, THC, binds to anandamide receptors 

Alcohol expectancy/myopia

Expectancy theory - idea that alcohol effects can be pronounced by people's expectations of how alcohol will influence them in particular situations 

Alcohol myopia - condition that results when alcohol hampers attention, leading people to respond in simple ways to complex situations 

Chapter 7

Memory

Constructive, dynamic process of maintaining information in our brain to facilitate learning. Occurs in 3 main stages: encoding, storage, and retrieval 

Encoding

Process of taking in information from our environment or our internal thoughts and feelings

Storage

Process of maintaining encoded information in our brains for later access.

retrieval

Process of accessing information from storage

Misinformation effect, false memories

Occurs when misinformation presented after a recent event alters the memory of that event

Shallow vs. deep encoding (elaboration, semantic, visual imagery, self-referential)

Shallow - based on sensory characteristics, such as how something looks or sounds 

Deep - based on connecting to past experience and meaning 

Elaboration - associating new information with past information

Semantic - thinking of the meaning of something 

Duration

How long you can remember 

capacity 

How much you can remember 

iconic 

Fast decaying store of visual info (⅓ sec)

Echoic

Fast decaying store of auditory info (2-10 sec)

Short-term

Storage that holds non sensory info for more than a few seconds but less than 30 sec-1 min, can hold about 7 items plus or minus 2

Rehearsal

Process of keeping information in short term memory by mentally repeating it 

Chunking

Combining small pieces of info into larger clusters that are more easily held in short term memory 

Working memory

Active maintenance of information in short term memory 

Central executive 

Control center for working memory, responsible for handling information and solving problems

Long-term

Storage that holds info for hours, days, weeks, or years 

Transience

Gradual loss of access to memories over time. Often happens naturally with aging. 

Primacy vs. recency effect (serial position curve)

“Primary Effect” refers to the tendency to better remember information presented at the beginning of a list, while the “recency effect” describes the tendency to better recall information presented at the end of the list. 

Retrograde amnesia 

Lack of memory for events that occurred just before brain trauma 

Anterograde amnesia 

Lack of memory for events that occur after brain trauma 

Consolidation

The process whereby memory storage is integrated and becomes stable in the brain 

Long Term potentiation 

A mechanism that creates enduring synaptic connections, which results in increased transmission between neurons 

Reconsolidation 

Reactivation of consolidation 

Explicit memory

Something you can declare

Implicit memory 

Have a memory but don’t know how you know the info

Procedural 

Acquisition of skills or process, motor memory, ex riding a bike 

Semantic

Facts and information 

Episodic

Experiences  

Priming

The increased ability to process a stimulus because of previous exposure

Flashbulb memory

A vivid memory for an emotionally significant event 

Free Recall 

Retrieval from memory without any cues to aid your retrieval, ex short answer 

Cued recall

Retrieval that is facilitated by providing information related to the stored memory, ex multiple choice 

Recognition

Identify previously seen or experiences information

Encoding specificity

Retrieval is best when the present context recreates the context in which it was encoded 

Mood dependant retrieval 

Same mood during both encoding and retrieval 

State-dependent retrieval 

Same state during both encoding and retrieval 

Tips to improve memory/learning

Pay attention, study often, spacing effect, encode deeply, test yourself, use retrieval cues, reduce stress, sleep 

Theories of forgetting

Interference theory - forgetting in long term memory is related not to the passing of time but to interference created by integrating new and old information 

Trace-decay theory - if we do not access and use the memory representations we have formed the memory trace will weaken and decay over time becoming less available for later retrieval 

Retroactive interference

Newly stored information interferes with retrieval of old information 

proactive interference

Previously stored information interferes with new information you are trying to remember 

Motivated forgetting

Willful forgetting of information so that it is less likely to be retrieved later 

Encoding failure

Occurs when information never makes it into the long term memory 

Infantile amnesia

The inability of adults to retrieve episodic memories from the first few years of life, generally from birth to age 3.5

Chapter 8

Cognitive psychology 

The scientific study of mental activities and how they operate 

Mental representation

An internal mental symbol 

Concept

Mental representation that groups or categories shared features of related objects, events or other stimuli 

Prototype

A best example or average member of a concept 

Category levels-

Subordinate - furniture 

Basic - chair, bed, sofa, cabinet 

Superordinate - office chair, dining chair, high chair, rocking chair 

Bounded rationality

The idea that rational decision making is constrained by limitations in people cognitive abilities 

Dual-processing theory

People use two types of thinking to make judgments and decisions: 

The controlled system which is slow, effortful, and rational. 

Automatic System: Fast and fairly effortless

Heuristics

A mental shortcut that allows people to efficiently solve problems and make judgements and decisions 

Representativeness heuristic

A mental shortcut for judging the likelihood of something  

Availability heuristic

A mental shortcut for deciding how frequent or probable something is 

Affect heuristic 

A mental shortcut for making judgments and decisions that involved relying on affect 

Framing

The particular way that an issue, decision, or set of options is described

Phonemes

Speech sounds 

Morphemes

The smallest unit of meaning 

Grammar

Rules that govern the way that language parts are put together 

Pragmatics

Rules of usage 

Linguistic determination

Language shapes how we think and how we see the world 

Language development

Infants prefer their mothers voice and native language, can distinguish between all human phenomes, although this ability dissipates by 10-12 months of age 

Cooing, babbling, holophrases

Babbling: Practicing speech sounds

Nativist, language acquisition device 

Innate specialized learning mechanism 

General cognitive ability

Ability that consistently differentiates individuals on mental abilities regardless of the cognitive task or test. 

Intelligence

The capability to think abstractly, comprehend complex ideas, reason, plan, solve problems, learn from experience, and acquire new knowledge 

General intelligence (g)

Spearmen 

Fluid vs. crystallized

Fluid - the ability to tackle new and unusual situations

Crystalised - the accumulation of knowledge 

Sternberg: analytical, creative, practical intelligence

Analytical - problem solving

Creative - novel solutions 

Practical - everyday