Psychology AP Exam Cram

Research Design Basic Vocabulary

• Hypothesis: Tentative, falsifiable explanation or educated guess. A testable prediction.

• Operational Definition: Clear, precise, quantifiable variable definition. How a variable is measured.

• Qualitative Data: Descriptive data (e.g., eye color). Non-numerical data.

• Quantitative Data: Numerical data (e.g., test scores). Data with numbers.

• Population: Entire group research applies to. The whole group of interest.

• Sample: Specific people chosen for the study. A subset of the population.

Research Designs

• Correlation: Relationship between variables. Association between two things.

  • Advantage: Useful when experiments are unethical. Can be used when experiments are prohibited.

  • Disadvantage: Correlation ≠ Causation. Association does not equal cause.

  • Directionality Problem: Cannot determine which variable influences the other. Unclear direction of effect.

    • 3rd Variable Problem: An unmeasured variable may be responsible for the observed correlation. Another variable is responsible for X & Y association

  • Positive Correlation: Variables increase/decrease together. Both go up or down.

  • Negative Correlation: One increases, the other decreases. One goes up the other goes down.

  • Strength: Closer to 1 (positive or negative), stronger the relationship. Closer to +/- 1 = stronger relationship.

• Experiments: Manipulate variables for cause/effect. Testing cause and effect relationships

  • Advantage: Establishes cause and effect. Determines what causes what.

  • Disadvantage: Can be unethical, artificial. Not always ethical also sometimes artifical.

  • Independent Variable (IV): altered by researcher. Variable that is manipulated.

  • Experimental Group: Receives treatment (part of IV). Group that gets the treatment.
    - Control Group: Placebo, baseline (part of IV). Group that does not get IV/gets placebo

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    • Dependent Variable (DV): measured; dependent on the IV. What is being measured.

• Vocab Unique to Experiments:

  • Placebo Effect: Effect caused by placebo; fixed with blinded studies. Responding to a fake treatment.

  • Double-Blind: Neither participant nor experimenter knows condition assignments. Neither knows who gets treatment.

  • Single-Blind: Only participant is blind. Participant doesn't know who gets the treatment.

  • Confound: Error/flaw accidentally introduced. An uncontrolled variable that effects results

• Random Assignment: Assigns participants randomly to groups for equal representation; allows cause/effect claims. Randomly assigned to control/experimental groups.

• Other Study Types:

  • Naturalistic Observation: Observe in natural settings. Watching in the real world.

  • Advantage: Real-world validity. Realistic scenario

    • Disadvantage: No cause and effect. Cannot determine cause and effect

  • Case Study: Studies ONE person in detail. In depth look at individual or case

  • Advantage: Collects lots of info. Get a lot information

    • Disadvantage: No cause/effect. Cannot determine cause and effect

  • Meta-Analysis: Combines multiple studies. Combine data from various similar studies

Statistics

• Descriptive Stats: Shows data shape. Describes the data

  • Measures of Central Tendency:

    • Mean: Average (normal distribution). Average number

    • Median: Middle # (skewed distribution). Middle number of group numbers

    • Mode: Most frequent. Number that shows up the most

    • Bimodal: two modes.

  • Skews:

    • Negative: Mean to the left, mode to the right. Tail points to the left (mean < median)

    • Positive: Mean to the right. Tail points to the right (mean > median)

  • Measure of Variation

    • Range: Distance between smallest and largest #. Subtract the largest number by the smallest number

    • Standard Deviation: Avg. spread from the mean. How spread apart the numbers are

• Inferential Statistics: Establishes significance. Numbers to generalize to broader population

  • Statistical Significance: Results not due to chance; p<.05 = significant. Results are not random

  • Effect Size: Practical significance; bigger = better. How large of an effect the IV had on the DV

Ethical Guidelines (IRB Approval Needed)

• Confidentiality: Names kept secret. Keeping personal information private

• Informed Consent: Agreement to participate. Researcher tells participant whats going on and get agreement to participant

• Informed Assent: Minors AND parents must agree. An agreement to participate from the parents and the minors

• Debriefing: Tell true study purpose (after deception). Researcher tells the true goal after deception has taken place during study

• Deception: Must be warranted. Is misleading but must be justified

• No Harm: Mental/physical. Researchers cannot cause any mental or physical harm

Additional Key Vocabulary

• Surveys: Usually correlation; subject to self-report bias. Asking a group about their attitude or behavior. Can be biased because the subject self reports

  • Social Desirability: Give socially approved answers.

  • Wording Effects: The way you word something can impact responses

• Random Sample (Selection): Everyone has a chance to participate; increases generalizability. All has equal opportunity of participating. Results can be generalized

• Representative Sample: Mimics general population. Group of participants reflecting the population

• Convenience Sample: Select participants on availability; less representative. Easy access to participants. Not representative

• Sampling Bias: Sample isn’t representative. Group not representative of population

• Cultural Norms. Standards for accepted or expected behavior, rules, values

• Experimenter/Participant Bias. Expectations can influence results

• Cognitive Bias

  • Confirmation Bias. Seek info supporting preconceptions

  • Hindsight Bias. Believe, after learning an outcome, that you could have predicted it

  • Overconfidence. More confident than correct.

  • Hawthorne Effect. Being observed changes behavior

Biological Basis

• Heredity (nature) vs Environment (nurture). Genes vs experience

  • Nature vs Nurture: Both. Genes and experience

  • Twin/Adoption Studies. Examine influence of heredity and environment

Nervous System

• Central NS: Brain and spinal cord. The brain in spinal cord

• Peripheral NS: Relays to Central NS. Sensory and motor neurons

  • Somatic NS: Voluntary movement. Controls voluntary movement

  • Autonomic NS: Involuntary organs. Controls involuntary movement

    • Sympathetic NS: Fight/flight. Arouses + expends energy

    • Parasympathetic NS: Rest/digest. Conserves energy

Neuron and Neural Firing

• Neuron: Basic cell of the NS. Building block of the nerve system

  • Dendrites: Receive incoming NTs. Receive messages from other cells

  • Axon: AP travels down this. Send messages to other cells

  • Myelin Sheath: Speeds up AP. Covers the axon and helps speed up neural impulses

  • Synapse: Gap b/w neurons. Gap between sending and receiving neurons

• Sensory Neurons: Signals from environment to brain. Carry messages from body’s tissues and sensory receptors to the brain/spinal cord

• Motor Neurons: Signals from brain to move. Carry instructions from central nervous system out to body’s muscles

• Interneurons: Reflex arc. Communicate with one another and process information between the sensory inputs and motor outputs

• Glia: Support cells. Provide support, nourishment, and insulation to neurons

• Neurons Fire w/ an Action Potential:

  • Resting Potential: -70mv. Electrical potential is negative

  • Depolarization: Neuron switches charge briefly. Neuron is briefly positive

  • Threshold: Stimulus strength to start AP. Level of stimulation required to trigger neural impulse

  • All or Nothing: Stimulus must trigger AP past threshold. Neuron reaction is all or nothing

  • Refractory Period: Neuron must rest and reset. Neuron pauses to recharge

Neurotransmitters (NT)

• Chemicals in synaptic gap. Chemical messengers that cross the synaptic gap between neurons

• Excitatory / Inhibitory. Excite/inhibit neuron firing

  • GABA: Major inhibitory NT. Major inhibitory neurotransmitter

  • Glutamate: Major excitatory NT. Major excitatory neurotransmitter

  • Dopamine: Reward & movement. Assoc. w/ addiction. Influences movement, learning, attention, and emotion

  • Serotonin: Mood, emotion, sleep. Too little linked to depression Affects mood, hunger, sleep and arousal

  • Acetylcholine (ACh): Memory & movement Enables muscle action, learning, and memory

  • Norepinephrine: sympathetic NS, too little assoc. w/ depression. Helps control alertness and arousal

  • Endorphins: Decrease pain. Natural, opiate-like neurotransmitters linked to pain control and to pleasure

  • Substance P: Pain regulation.

• Hormones:

  • Oxytocin: Love, bonding, childbirth, lactation. Stimulates contractions during childbirth

  • Adrenaline: Fight/flight. Increase heart rate, blood pressure, and blood sugar, providing a surge of energy

  • Leptin: Satiety. Causes brain to increase metabolism and decrease hunger

  • Ghrelin: Hunger. Secreted by empty stomach that sends “I’m hungry” signals to brain

  • Melatonin: Sleep.

• Agonist: Mimics a NT. Makes it work

• Antagonist: Blocks a NT. blocks it from happening

• Reuptake: Unused NTs taken back up. NT’s reabsorption by sending neuron

• Psychoactive Drugs:

  • Depressants: Decrease NS activity (alcohol). Calm neural activity + slow body functions

  • Stimulants: Increase NS activity (caffeine & cocaine). Excite neural activity and speed up body functions

  • Hallucinogens: Hallucinations (Marijuana). Distort perceptions + evoke sensory images in absence of sensory input

  • Opioids: Relieve pain (heroin). Depress neural activity, temporarily lessening pain and anxiety

  • Tolerance. The diminishing effect with regular use of the same dose of a drug, requiring the user to take larger and larger doses before experiencing the drug's effect.

  • Addiction. a compulsive craving for something

  • Withdrawal. the discomfort and distress that follow discontinuing the use of an addictive drug

The Brain

• Cerebellum: Movement, balance, coordination, procedural memory. Coordinates movement and output

• Brainstem/Medulla: Vital organs. Automatic survival functions

• Reticular Activating System: Alertness, arousal, sleep. Controls arousal

• Cerebral Cortex: Higher thought processes. Body’s ultimate control and information-processing center

  • Limbic System:

    • Amygdala: Emotions, fear. Linked to emotion. Fear and aggression

    • Hippocampus: Episodic & semantic Memory. Processes conscious, explicit memories

    • Hypothalamus: Reward, eating, homeostasis. Bodily maintenance activities

    • Thalamus: Relay center (except smell). Directs messages to sensory receiving areas in cortex and transmits replies to cerebellum and medulla

    • Pituitary Gland: Talks w/ endocrine sys and hypothalamus - release hormones. Regulates growth and controls other endocrine glands

  • Occipital Lobe: Vision. Receives info from visual fields

  • Frontal Lobe: Decision making, planning, movement, personality, language, executive function.

    • Prefrontal Cortex: Executive function. Judgement, planning, processing new memories

    • Motor Cortex: Skeletal movement. Controls voluntary movements

  • Parietal Lobe: Sensations and touch.

    • Somatosensory Cortex: Touch receptors. Touch sensations

  • Temporal Lobe: Hearing and face recognition, language.

    • Association Areas: Integrate info. Areas involved in higher mental functions

    • Left Hemisphere: Broca’s and Wernicke's Area.

      • Broca’s Area: Speech production (Broken speech). Language expression

      • Wernicke’s Area: Speech comprehension (Wernicke’s what?). Language reception

  • Corpus Callosum: Connects hemispheres; severed in “split-brain patients”. Band of neural fibers connecting 2 brain hemispheres and carrying messages between them

Endocrine System

• Sends hormones throughout the body. Set of glands that secrete hormones into bloodstream

• Pituitary Gland: Controlled by hypothalamus, release growth hormones. Master gland

Brain Research

• EEG: Broad brain activity. Amplified recording of waves of electrical activity

• fMRI: Specific brain activity, measures oxygen. Measures brain activity by detecting changes associated with blood flow

• Lesion: Destruction of brain tissue. Naturally or experimentally caused destruction of brain tissue

Diseases & Disorders

• Multiple Sclerosis: Damages myelin sheath, disrupts APs. Communication of muscles slows with eventual loss of muscle control

• Myasthenia Gravis: Acetylcholine blocked, disrupts APs, causes poor motor control and paralysis. Autoimmune disorder attacking acetylcholine receptors

• Blindsight: Lesions to visual cortex; can “see” despite being blind. Respond to visual stimulus without consciously experiencing it

• Prosopagnosia: Face blindness. Inability to recognize faces

• Broca’s Aphasia - stuttered speech, damage to Broca's area. Can’t speak

• Wernicke’s Aphasia - jumbled speech - damage to Wernicke's area. Can’t understand

• Phantom Limb Pain: Pain from amputated limb. Sensations from limb that is no longer there

• Epilepsy: Seizures; too much/little Glutamate/GABA. Unpredictable occurrences

• Alzheimer’s: Destruction of acetylcholine, memory loss. A progressive brain disorder that is characterized by memory loss, cognitive decline, and changes in behavior.

Sleep

• Consciousness: Awareness. Our awareness that we are aware

• Circadian Rhythms: 24-hour biological clock. Occurring on roughly 24-hour cycle

• Beta Waves: Awake.

• Alpha Waves: Drowsy.

• NREM Stages:

  • NREM 1: Light sleep, hypnagogic sensations.

  • NREM 2: Sleep spindles.

  • NREM 3: Deep sleep, delta waves.

• Rapid Eye Movement (REM): Dreaming, cognitive processing. A stage of sleep characterized by rapid eye movements, dreaming, and cognitive processing.

• REM Cycle: 90 minutes; REM lasts longer, deep sleep decreases.

• REM: Paradoxical; HR and brain active, body relaxed.

• REM Rebound: More REM after sleep disruptions.

Dream Theories:

• Activation Synthesis: Random brain activity forms dreams.

• Consolidation Dream Theory: Brain processes memories.

Why Is Sleep Necessary?

• Consolidation: Storage of memories.

• Restoration: Regenerates immune system and restores energy.

Sleep Disorders:

• Insomnia: Inability to sleep.

• Somnambulism: Sleep walking (stage 3).

• Narcolepsy: Fall into REM.

• Sleep Apnea: Stop breathing.

• REM Behavior Disorder: No paralysis during REM.

Sensation Intro Vocabulary

• Sensation: Receive stimulus energy.

• Transduction: Convert to APs.

• Perception: Brain interprets info.

• Absolute Threshold: Detection 50% of time.

• Just Noticeable Difference: Can tell the difference b/w a stronger and weaker stimulus or two similar things.

• Weber’s Law: Stimuli must Differ by Proportion

• Synesthesia: Senses blend.

• Sensory Adaptation: Diminished sensitivity.

Visual System:

• Lens: Focuses light on retina.

• Retina: Photoreceptors (rods/cones/ganglion cells).

• Fovea: Best vision (cones).

• Rods: Black/white, dark adaptation

• Cones: Color, bright light (red, green, blue).

• Ganglion Cells: Create optic nerve.

• Blind Spot: Optic nerve leaves the eye.

• Visual System Vocabulary:

  • Accommodation: Lens changes curvature.

  • Nearsightedness

  • Farsightedness

• Theories of Color Vision:

  • Trichromatic: Three cones (blue, green, red).

  • Opponent Process: Complementary colors are processed in ganglion cells.

  • Color Deficiency

    • Dichromatism

    • Monochromatism

Auditory System

• Properties of Sound:

• Wavelength – Pitch

  • Long waves = low pitch

  • Narrow waves = high pitch

• Amplitude – Loudness

  • Short waves = soft

  • Tall waves = loud

• Theories of Hearing all occur in the cochlea:

  • Place Theory: Location determines sound (high pitches).

  • Frequency Theory: Rate determines sound (low pitches).

  • Volley Theory: groups of neurons fire APs out of sync.

• Other Hearing Stuff

  • Sound Localization

  • Conduction deafness: Damage to bones of ear/eardrum cause hearing loss.

  • Sensorineural: Damge to hairs in cochlea or auditory nerve - damage to cochlea

Other Senses:

• Vestibular: Balance; semicircular canals.

• Kinesthetic: Body position & movement.

• Pain: Gate-control theory.

• Taste (Gustation): 6 Taste Receptors.

• Smell (Olfaction): Does NOT route through the thalamus.

Cognition Pillar - Perception

• Top-Down Processing: Whole idea → smaller parts.

• Bottom-Up Processing: Smaller parts → whole idea.

• Schemas: Preexisting mental concept.

• Perceptual Set: Tendency to see something as part of a group.

Gestalt Psychology

• Whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Gestalt Principles

• Figure/Ground: Organize figures apart from surrounds.

• Closure: Mentally fill in gaps.

• Proximity: Group near each other.

• Similarity: Group based off of looks.

• Constancies: Recognize objects don't physically change.

• Apparent Movement: Objects appear moving when they aren’t.

• Selective Attention: Focus on one thing, block out others.

• Binocular Depth Cues:

  • Retinal Disparity: Location helps determine depth

  • Convergence: Eyes strain more.

• Monocular Depth Cues:

  • Interposition: Overlapping images are closer.

  • Relative Size: Smaller is further.

  • Linear Perspective: Parallel lines converge.

  • Relative Clarity: Hazy objects appear further.

  • Texture Gradient: Coarser objects = closer.

Thinking & Problem Solving

• Concepts: Group objects, events, characteristics.

• Prototypes: Compare to ideal example.

• Algorithms: Step-by-step, guarantee solution.

• Heuristics: Short cut strategy.

  • Representative Heuristic: Judgement based on experience.

  • Availability Heuristic: Judgement based on first thought that pops up.

• Metacognition: Thinking about thinking.

• Mental Set: Keep using one strategy.

• Functional Fixedness: Only see one use for an item.

• Gambler’s Fallacy

• Sunk Cost fallacy

• Divergent thinking

• Convergent thinking

• Executive functioning

Memory

• Automatic encoding - requires no effort

• Effortful encoding-requires work

• Levels of Processing:

  • Structural encoding (shallow)

  • Phonemic encoding (intermediate)

  • Semantic encoding (deep)

• Distributed Practice(spacing effect)

• Massed Practice(cramming)

• Testing Effect

• Multi-Store Model:

  • Sensory memory

  • Short term memory

  • Long term memory model

Forgetting

• Serial Position Effect

• Encoding failure

• Proactive Interference

• Retroactive Interference

• Source Amnesia

Intelligence & Achievement

• Single form of intelligence (g factor)

• Multiple intelligences

• Psychometrics

• Standardization

• Reliability

• Validity

• FLYNN Effect

• Fixed Mindset

• Growth mindset

Development and Learning

• Dev. Psych - 3 thematic issues:

  • 1. Nature/Nurture (genes or environment)

  • 2. Continuous/Discontinuous (gradual dev over time or dev. in stage)

  • 3. Stability/Change (traits persist, unchanging or traits change as we age)

• Physical Development

  • Prenatal Development:

    • Teratogens: external agents that can cause abnormal prenatal development (alcohol, drugs, etc)

• Gross movement: large muscles, strength and coordination develops first.

• Fine movement: small muscles, precision and controlled.

• Reflexes: innate responses we’re born w/ - that go away w/ time.

• Eyes have the most limited development, takes till