PSCYHOLOGY 1 FINAL EXAM

  • What is an independent variable? 

    • Variable that is manipulated and controlled

  • What is an operational definition?

    •  How researchers quantify something they are studying usually an abstract thing 

  • What is a dependent variable?

    •  Variable that is measured but not manipulated

  • What is a correlational study?

    • observes and measures with no experiments

    • infers patterns NOT cause

  • What is an experimental study? How does it differ from a correlational study?

    • Measures with experiments 

    • could possibly infer causality

  • What is the benefit of random assignment?

    • Eliminates pre-existing differences

  • How can we tell whether we have a causal relationship?

    • Covariance: DV and IV are interchangeable, Temporal Precedence, Internal Validity, Removal Confounds, and Random Assignment

  • What are some reasons a study might not replicate?

    • Faking data, Small sample size, P-hacking

  • What is attention? Why is it important?

    • The choice to focus on something with the exclusion of others

    • We can hear and see what we look at in a crowded space

  • Describe the invisible gorilla experiment? What did researchers do? What were the (general) results?

    • Two different audios playing at the same time in different ear one of them was relatively boring and so participants tuned them out however, at some point one of the audios started saying gorilla over an over again

    • Participants did not notice or remember the gorilla audio

  • What is inattentional blindness?

    • Attending to one thing can lead to the missing of others

  • Why is selective attention and inattentional blindness important? 

    • helps us focus in a crowded space and not overstimulate ourselves with visual and auditory info

  • Distinguish between overt and covert attention. Give examples of each.

    • Overt attention: physically directing attention with body (eye/head movement)

    • Covert attention: Directing attention without physical movement (shifting attention without actually looking (peripheral vision)

  • Describe the Posner cueing paradigm

    • Cues from arrows to look in a box with a star

    • Invalid cues: people were slower with reaction time

  • Distinguish between voluntary and involuntary attention

    • Voluntary: focusing in a controlled way

    • Involuntary: something catching our attention

  • Define the following memory stores and distinguish between them: sensory memory, working memory, long-term memory

    • Sensory: everything we sense

    • Working: our thoughts/temp loading for long term memory 

    • Long Term: everything we know and learned 

  • What are the different capacities and durations of sensory memory, working memory, and long-term memory?

    • Sensory: (high capacity/low duration)

    • Working: (limited capacity/low duration unless rehearsed)

    • Long Term: (infinite capacity/long duration)

  • Describe how attention, maintenance rehearsal, encoding, and retrieval work in the context of memory

    • Deeply focusing and putting what you learned into concepts makes it easier to encode and remember. 

    • If idea is not rehearsed you'll lose it

    • Encoding: bringing info from working memory into long term memory

    • Retrieval: pulling from long term memory to working memory

  • Why is sensory memory important?

    • We can be conditioned to not touch things even if our working memory is not working

  • How does auditory sensory memory differ from visual sensory memory?

    •  generally lasts longer than visual sensory memory

  • What is chunking? How does it affect working memory capacity?

    • learning things in smaller pieces so it's easier to remember

      • ex : remembering pid in 4 numbers at a time

  • Explain what predicts successful encoding  

    • Depth of processing 

  • Describe experiments related to depth of processing: What is it? How is it studied? What implications does it have for how we remember things

    • easier to remember occupation rather than name even if they were the same

  • Explain what predicts successful retrieval

    • Maintenance rehearsal, being in similar environment to what you learned it in

  • Explain the testing effect

    • Taking practice quizzes can improve learning and long term retention compared to rereading notes

  • Define encoding specificity

    • Info the way you encoded it is easier to retrieve when it is in the same order

  • What did the months of the year challenge tell us about encoding specificity and memory?

    • Saying the months of the year backwards is harder than saying it jan, feb.. because that is how we naturally learned it

  • What did a study involving on-land and underwater memorization tell us about encoding specificity and memory?

    • Studying content on land it was easier to remember it when your on land vs in the water.

  • Describe the role of the hippocampus in memory

    • Temporary store for memory houses working memory

  • What is anterograde amnesia? What kinds of memories are impaired, and what kinds of memories are NOT impaired?

    • Disease affecting the hippocampus makes you forget everything from working memory.

    • cannot create new memories however long term memory is not impaired

  • Describe how schematic knowledge affects our memory. 

    • We use concepts of what we know to fill in gaps about the world around us even if these are false

  • In a study, participants falsely reported seeing books in an office. Explain these results using schematic memory

    • Quickly looking at an image we use schematic knowledge of a typical office having books to fill in gaps in that image.

  • Describe how memory researchers’ perceptions of memory differs from the public’s perception of memory

    • Memory researchers know memory is not accurate while most people think that they remember everything perfectly

  • Describe classical conditioning

    • Associating a neutral stimulus with a stimulus that provides a unconditioned response

  • Describe the results of Pavlov’s experiments with dogs

    • Classically conditioned dogs to salivate at a bell ( the once neutral stimulus) was associated with food (unconditioned response) 

  • Define the unconditioned stimulus, unconditioned response, conditioned stimulus, and conditioned response. If I were to give a hypothetical example, be able to define each one

    • Unconditioned stimulus; does not naturally produce a response (bell)

    • Unconditioned response; natural response to a stimulus (dogs salivating at the meat)

    • Conditioned stimulus; associating the unconditioned stimulus with the unconditioned response (ringing a bell, while dogs sees meat)

    • Conditioned response: no longer needs conditioned stimulus will now respond to unconditioned stimulus with unconditioned response (dog salivating at ring of bell) 

  • Describe conditioned taste aversions

    •  taste has a delayed response and so we can not like certain foods for a long time because if we get nauseous by it later we won't like it

  • What is the benefit of scapegoat treatments in conditioned taste aversions?

    • Chemotherapy makes patients nauseous doctors will not have patient eat their favorite foods during it so that they don’t create a conditioned taste aversion 

  • Describe the pinprick experiment

    •  anterograde amnesia pin pricked lady every time he saw her and she got scared the next time she saw him even though she didn't remember his name each time

  • Describe operant conditioning

    •  conditioning conditioned behavior with rewards and punishments

  • How is operant conditioning different from classical conditioning?

    • Operant: Associating Behavior with an event

    • Classical: Associating Stimulus with an event

  • Define reinforcement and punishment

    • Reinforcement: rewarding desired behavior

    • Punishment: teaching not to do undesired behavior

  • Define System 1 and System 2 thinking

    • System 1: fast automatic no sense of voluntary control

      • Use this more because it's second nature

    • System 2: slow and methodical

      • Use this less because it would take all day

  • Explain why we use System 1 thinking

    • It's very fast and takes less brain power to do for most tasks

  • Define and give examples of the default heuristic

    • Choosing the default every time

      • Organ donation; countries with default donation higher donation rates and without default donation lower rates of donation

  • Define and give examples of the availability heuristic

    • Using available information to judge how often it occurs 

      • Coming up with 5 ways to improve a class vs 50 ways

  • What are factors that make information “available”?

    • Ease of recall, personal event, frequency heard, vividness of memory, hearing recently

  • Define and give examples of the framing heuristic 

    • The way a thing is framed draws attention to and changes opinion

      • 20% fat vs 80% lean same thing

      • One high priced item buyers will choose 2nd highest priced item

  • Define and give examples of the anchoring heuristic  

    • using initial pieces of information to guide later decisions

      • Why we love sales if we see something is a lower price then we think it's a good deal

      • Multiplying 1-8 easier than 8-1 but same answer

  • Define and give examples of confirmation bias  

    • seeking info that confirms expectations and beliefs

      • Looking for articles to include that only agree with your thesis

  • Define and give examples of the representativeness heuristic  

    • assuming that a category is represented by an individual category

      • Relies on the assumption that category is uniform GENERALIZATIONS

      • Smoking cant be bad they smoke twice a day is fine

  • Describe dualism and monism in your own words

    • Dualism is the belief that the mind and brain are separate. (freaky friday)

    • Monism: the mind is the brain 

  • Describe the placebo effect, and give experimental evidence

    • Mental stim turns into physical effects

    • Pain cream vs control cream found evidence of activity in spinal cord despite both creams being control (no actual painkiller)

  • Give examples of biological, cognitive, and social functions of emotions

    • Biological; survival, fear to take action 

    • Cognitive; Anger and fear can focus our attention 

    • Social; Fear alerts our pack; seeing people running

  • Explain the role of the autonomic nervous system. What are the two branches of the autonomic nervous system? What are their roles?

    • The role of the ANS is responsible for internal, involuntary processes

      • Flight or fight

    • The two branches of the ANS is the sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight) and parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest)

  • Describe James-Lange theory of emotion. What are some issues with this theory?

    • Emotions are a direct result of physiological response

      • However, emotions don't cause a change in heart rate it is the consequence 

  • Describe the Schachter-Singer Two Factor theory of emotion

    • Emotions are a consequence of a scary stimulus that we interpret 

  • Describe the short-term consequences and long-term consequences of the stress response

    • Short term stress; take action and do things

    • Long term stress; health complications and disorders

  • What is the relationship between stress and performance?

    • U shaped curve with peak performance with a little stress

  • What are neurons?

    • Cells that make up the nervous system

  • What are the three types of neurons? What is the role of each?

    • Motor Neurons: sends info from brain to body (to move)

    • Sensory Neurons: sends info from body to brain (to feel)

    • Interneurons: sends info from neuron to another

  • Describe the role of the following parts of the neuron: cell body (soma), dendrites, axon, myelin sheath, axon terminal

    • Soma:contains visual cell structure

    • Dendrites: receive signals from neurons

    • Axon: cells transmits signals down the length of the axon

    • myelin sheath: insulator speeds up signals to transmit faster

    • Axon terminal: end of neuron, sends signals to other neurons

  • Define the action potential

    • All or none electrical charge that travels along the axon

  • How does the intensity of the stimulus affect the action potential?

    • The intensity of the stimulus does not affect the size of the action potential instead they become more frequent 

  • Describe the steps of neural communication, from an action potential arriving at an axon terminal to neurotransmitter action stopping

    • Action potential travels to axon terminal of presynaptic neuron to the postsynaptic neuron and releases neurotransmitters (communication between two called a synapse)

  • Distinguish between agonists and antagonists for drugs. 

    • Agonist: increase neurotransmitters

    • Antagonists: decrease neurotransmitters

  • What is the central nervous system? The peripheral nervous system?

    • CNS: brain and spinal cord

    • Peripheral nervous system: sensory neurons and motor neurons; somatic skeletal and ANS

  • Describe the basic role of the following brain regions: Hippocampus, amygdala, frontal lobe, parietal lobe, occipital lobe, temporal lobe

    • Limbic System: Border that separates the evolutionarily old part of the brain from new

      • Amygdala: emotions (fear)

      • Hippocampus: memory and navigation (patient H)

    • Cortex: complex abilities 

      • Occipital Lobe: visual processing

      • Parietal Lobe: attention, sense of touch, spatial awareness

      • Frontal Lobe: planning, personality, judgement

      • Temporal Lobe: hearing and memory

  • Split brain patients have damage to which area?

    • The corpus callosum (connector between right and left hemispheres)

  • Define sensation, define perception, and explain the difference between them

    • Sensation: info through sensory organs

    • Perception: organizing and interpreting information

    • Difference between: 

  • Define transduction more generally, and describe gustatory transduction

    • The conversion of a physical stimulus into a neural signal

      • The fungiform papilla on tongue that contain 6 taste buds that each contain 150 gustatory cells 

  • What pathway does taste information take to the brain?

    • Tastants/food molecules dissolved from saliva cause ion channels to open up, leading to action potentials in taste receptors

    • Nerve fibers are carried out to thalamus then primary taste cortex

  • For vision, sound, taste, touch, and smell: define the physical stimulus

    • Vision: light waves

    • Sound: sound waves

    • Taste: food molecules

    • Touch: pressure

    • Smell: odor molecules

  • Describe how the pupil helps us adjust to many levels of light

    • It expands and shrinks to adjust to different sensitivities

  • Describe the different contributions of rods and cones. 

    • Rods: more sensitive to light; better for night vision; no color; and lower acuity/sharpness

    • Cones: less sensitive to light; better for well lit; color vision; higher acuity

  • Where is each type of photoreceptor found in the retina?

    • Cones are found in the central fovea 

    • Rods are found in the periphery

  • Describe experimental evidence that experience guides perception (e.g., the ambiguous face experiment we discussed in class)

    • Perception leaves multiple interpretations; priming for different images mouse vs a face

  • Describe color constancy and why it is useful

    • Stable color appearance

      • We control the interpretation under certain colored lighting despite receiving a diff wavelength of light

  • In class, I call illusions “principled mistakes.” What does this mean?

    • Illusions happen in context because our brain is working to interpret it in a way that makes sense

  • Explain why some people see the dress as black and blue, while others see it as white and gold. What assumptions about the lighting is each group making?

    • Some people see the dress as blue and black because they view it under yellow lighting while others view the dress as white and gold because they view it under blue lighting.

  • What is the most common cause of colorblindness?

    • Genetics or injury →missing one of your color receptors

  • What do I mean when I say that defining “atypicality” is hard?

    • It is hard to find and know where to draw the line of atypicality and neurotypical

  • What is the DSM-5? What information does it provide? What information does it not provide?

    • A medical document that makes a criteria for disorders, however does not include explanations 

  • What are some benefits of standard diagnostic criteria like the DSM-5?

    • Creates language around disorders

  • What does polythetic mean in the context of clinical diagnoses?

    • Different combinations of signs interlap between disorders

  • What does it mean that diagnoses are often categorical? What are the drawbacks to this?

    • that there are different severities and categorical doesn't include people close to that line 

  • Explain the potential for bias in the DSM-5

    • Racial and gender bias may misdiagnose based on own judgements

  • Describe the Diathesis-Stress model

    • the diathesis explains that genetics and environment go hand in hand with susceptibility of disorders

  • Describe the symptoms of schizophrenia

    • Hallucinations 

  • Describe evidence for a genetic component to schizophrenia. How do we know that schizophrenia is not 100% genetic?

  • What are some environmental factors that increase the likelihood of developing schizophrenia?

  • Describe evidence from twin studies about developing depression

    • Twins whose twin has had a history of depression and have experienced trauma are likely to get it whereas twin who had depression but they hadnt experienced trauma less likely

  • Describe the following types of psychotherapy: psychoanalytic/psychodynamic therapy, humanistic therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy. 

    • Psychoanalytic: Freud; talk to patients and judge based on dreams, 

    • Humanistic: Egalitarian approach where therapist did not judge and worked on patients self improvement

    • COG Behavior: Focused on reframing and identifying harmful thinking patterns.

  • What are some important ideas from the psychoanalytic approach? What are some limitations?

    • it helped create talk therapy 

    • limits; was not a representative group and has bias

  • Describe the benefits and limitations of antidepressants

    • Takes time to work 

    • Is based on individual if it works

  • We talk about physiological correlates of schizophrenia (e.g., ventricle size). What can this tell us? What does this NOT tell us?

    • It tells us that it correlates to scz but not causal. 

  • What is treatment additivity?

    • Doing two treatments at once eg pills and talk therapy together

  • Distinguish between dispositional and situation factors in behavior

    • Dispositional: describes traits or innate characteristics explaining behavior

    • Situational: environment or situation explains behavior 

  • What makes a test reliable?

    • If the test produces the same results over time

  • What makes a test valid?

    • How well it compares to the real world

  • What is the Myers-Briggs personality test? What are the issues with this test?

    • A categorical test for personality based on 4 different aspects of personality

    • Issues: not reliable, answers change overtime, not reliable not valid

  • What is the Big Five personality test?

    • 1970’s UMichigan study: 5 personalities OCEAN 

    • Rated 0-100 not categorical, reliable results with tracking participants with mic. 

  • Describe evidence in support of the validity of the Big Five personality test

    • Tracked person with a microphone/electronic learning device the personality held up in the person’s day to day

  • Define attribution

    • Inference of why people behave the way they do

  • What three questions should we ask when trying to attribute behavior?

    • Consistency: do they regularly exhibit this behavior

    • Consensus: do people generally exhibit this behavior in the situation

    • Distinctiveness: how specific is the behavior to this situation

  • Describe the Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE). Explain evidence for the FAE.

    • FAE: overestimating dispositional factors and underestimate situational factors in other people

  • Describe the self-serving bias: success=dispositional, failures=situational

  • Describe the main Milgram experiment: What was the research question? What were the results of the main experiment? 

    • Tested obedience in humans and asked how people could stay complacent during atrocities like the holocaust. 

    • Found that 60% of people would stay obedient and send a shock that “killed” someone

  • How did the presence of a disobedient or obedient companion impact the results?

    • Obedient companion people were more likely to conduct the death shock

    • Disobedient companion people were more likely to back out before harder shocks 

  • What are some ethical issues with the Milgram experiment?

    • Only tested men

    • Caused distress on patients

    • Urged patients to stay or obey etc

  • What is pluralistic ignorance? What are some real-life examples?

    • If a majority of a group is saying the wrong thing others are likely to follow to not stand out even if they know it's wrong. The example of the study of the actors vs the random patient.

  • Define the spotlight effect, and describe experimental evidence for it

    • We believe that people are paying more attention to us than they actually are. \

    • Asked students to wear a silly shirt to school thought more people remembered the shirt than they actually did.

  • Distinguish between conformity and obedience

    • Conformity: behave like others in their group differs from obedience more focus on peers

  • Distinguish between informational influence and normative influence

    • Informational influence: conforming to others bc you think they have more expertise

    • Normative Influence: conforming to a group to fit in

      • eating a certain way because it's popular

  • What is a descriptive norm? How do descriptive norms change behavior?

    • Descriptive norms: perception of what others think we do

      • can encourage desirable behaviors

        • consume less alc

        • and less energy

      • can promote undesirable behaviors

        • people may steal from national parks more bc others are doing it

  • Describe the Asch Conformity studies. What did researchers do? What did they find?

    • one participant and other fake participant: participants conformed to confederates answer despite knowing it was wrong

  • What reduced rates of conformity in the Asch studies?

    • conformity dropped when answers were not heard

  • What are the four stages of development according to Piaget theory? What are the (approximate) age ranges of each one?What do children learn in each stage?

    • Sensorimotor: object permanence(learning) 0-2yrs

    • Preoperational stage: mastered obj perm. Learning conservation (2-7yrs)

    • Concrete operations: thinking abstractly without visual (7-11yr)

    • Formal operations: attain reasoning (12-16)

  • What is object permanence? How do you test it?

    • Understanding that objects remain if they aren't in your view. Test it with things like peekaboo on a baby.

  • What is conservation? Give examples (e.g., conservation of number, mass, length, volume)

    • Things stay the same when they are rearranged for example you put the same cup of water into a taller glass you know that they still have the same amount of water 

  • What are some challenges to Piaget theory?

    • The stages aren't really set in stone and some children can vary in age or be in two stages at the same time.

  • What is attachment? What are some common symptoms of attachment?

    • Attachment: long lasting emotional bond btw infants and parents

    • Typical signs

      • Seperation anxiety

      • pleasure at reunion

      • Strander danger

      • Exploratory behavior; will explore when caregiver is presents

    • Describe the “strange situation” experiment—how did it determine the three attachment styles?

      • Mary Ainsworth: the strange situation experiment

        • Child plays with mother present (exploratory behavior)

        • stranger walks into room and talks with mom and then child and leaves (stranger anxiety)

        • Mother leaves (separation anxiety )

        • Mother returns (pleasure at reunion)

      • Secure: explore when mom is near scared when mom is gone happy upon return

      • Anxious: doesnt explore near mom, upset when mom leaves, isnt ocmforted by return

      • Avoidant: doesnt cry and isnt relieved upon return

  • What are the limitations of the “strange situation” experiment?

    • The environment being new from their home environment and feeling uncomfortable or more clingy than usual to mom

  • Define sensitive periods in development. 

    • Happens at different times in life for example language SP is during early years of childhood they can learn language faster than an adult would

  • What is neural plasticity?

    • the brains ability to adapt and change due to experience higher in chidlren

  • Describe perceptual narrowing, and give an example in visual perception

    • the brain uses environmental experiences to shape perceptual abilities 

      • Better recognize faces similar to racial ingroup than non racial group

      • Bias in eyewitness 

  • Describe perceptual narrowing, and give an example in language perception

    • Newborn babies can hear the difference in sound between different da’s that arent frequent in english and lose it around 1

  • What are WEIRD samples?

    • Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic

    • mainly undergraduate students

  • Distinguish between internal and external validity

    • Internal: how good are the measurements? how well can we make a casual inference?

    • External: how well we can generalize beyond the sample

  • How do non-representative samples affect the validity of an experiment?

    • They dont generalize to other populations that arent western

  • Do we always need fully representative samples?

    • Not always when a study is more physiological and scientific it is not needed

  • Describe cross-cultural differences in the fundamental attribution error and self-serving bias

    • Study on self serving bias

      • American more dispositional attributions (individualist culture)

        • thanks themselves and what they did

      • Japanese: more situational attributions (collectivist culture)

        • Thanks team and people they worked with

  • How do you overcome the WEIRD problem?

    • Having diverse groups of samples samples from different regions and different researchers