Elementary Psychology Test 2

Chapter 5-

Basic Components of Sensation and Perception-



All Senses-

  • Receive sensory stimulation, often using specialized receptor cells

  • Sensory receptors transform the stimulation into neural impulses (transduction)

  • Deliver the neural information to the brain



Sensation-

  • Detecting stimuli and converting them into neural signals through transduction



Transduction-

  • Receive sensory stimulation, transform to neural impulses, deliver neural info to brain

Figure-Ground-

  • The brain separates a primary focal object (Figure) from its background (Ground)

Synesthesia- 

  • A neurological condition where stimulating one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to involuntary, automatic experiences in a second pathway

    • Thalamus is the relay center of the brain

    • Can get crossed sensations

    • Genetic link

    • More prevalent amongst women

    • Caused by a lack of pruning in a neural connection throughout development

Types-

  • Grapheme-Color 

    • Letters and numbers associated with specific colors

  • Audiotune (Chromesthesia)

    • When sounds evoke colors

  • Factory (Smell)

    • Specific scents trigger experiences of different colors

  • Touch and vision

    • Feeling or seeing touch can trigger a visual experience

  • Mirror-Touch

    • Seeing someone else being touched can cause you to feel touch on your own body




Perception-

  • The brain’s process of organizing, identifying, and interpreting sensory information

    • Enables the recognition of meaningful objects and events

    • What you choose to focus on will shift your perception of the image

      • People tend to organize visual sensations into a Gestalt

Gestalt-

  • A German word meaning “whole.” We perceive everything in front of us as one complete, seamless scene, not as separate left and right views.

Types of Interpretations-



Bottom-Up processing- (Senses to brain)

  • Bottom-up processing is when you understand something by starting with the individual details or sensory information and building toward a complete understanding



Top-Down Processing- (Brain to senses)

  •  Information-processing guided by higher-level mental processes

  • Top-down processing is building understanding by using your previous knowledge, experiences, expectations, motivation, emotion, and context to interpret/skew perception. 

Ex: Reading sentences where the words have the correct first and last letter placements, but everything in between can be disorganized, and we can still read just fine



Psychophysics-

  • The study of how physical stimuli affect what we sense and perceive


Absolute Threshold-

  • The smallest amount of a stimulus you can detect 50% of the time (Below threshold = Subliminal)



Difference Threshold-

  • The smallest difference between two stimuli you can notice 50% of the time (Just Noticeable Difference)

    • That detectable difference increases with the size of the stimulus

Weber’s Law-

  • The bigger the original stimulus, the bigger the change needed for you to notice a difference

  • For an average person to perceive a difference, two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage (not a constant amount)

  • JND (Just Noticeable Difference) of a stimulus is a constant proportion regardless of intensity

Sensory Adaptation-

  • The brain's ability to adjust and recalibrate how it interprets sensory input after prolonged exposure to altered or constant stimuli

    • Stop noticing a stimulus that remains constant

    • Enhanced detection of stimulus changes





Vision-




Theories of Color Vision-



Trichromatic Theory (3 Color Theory)-

  • Three types of cones

  • Red, Green, and Blue sensitive cones



Trichromatic Color Blindness-

  • Naturally occurring deficiency in one of the two or three types of cones

  • 1 in 50 people

  • Most affect white men

  • Most commonly deficient in red and green cones



Types of Color Blindness-



Dichromacy- 

  • Having only 2 cones

  • Only have about 1% of color variety

  • Most mammals are dichromats



Monochromacy-

  • Only one kind of cone (Rare condition)

  • See all wavelengths as shades of gray

  • No color perception

  • One of the cones is deficient

Opponent Process Theory-

  • Cones are linked together to form three opposing color pairs (Antagonistic Relationship)

  • Activation of one member of the pair inhibits the other

  • Burning opposite color of image in after image

    • If we overstimulate neural processes that correspond to one color, they might get fatigued and create an afterimage




Video: Hubel and Wiesel Cat Experiment

  • The cat is anesthetized and presented with visual images

  • Trying to test how the cat's visual system was responding to a black circle

    • They found that the edge of the slide was triggering the neuron rather than the black dot on the slide that they were originally trying to test

    • Proving existence of feature detectors


Properties of Light-

Visible Light-

  • A small proportion of the electromagnetic spectrum that remains visible

Frequency and brightness are directly related

Red = High Wave length, Blue = Low

Physical properties-

Wavelength-

  • The distance between any two consecutive peaks of a wave

    • Determines hue (The experienced color)

Amplitude-

  • The height of the peak of a wave

    • Determines the color’s intensity (The amount of energy contained in each wave)







Eye-

Pupil: Opening that lets light into the eye

Lens: Focuses light onto the retina (reflects the inverse of images back onto retina)

Iris: Controls how big the pupil gets (How much light enters the eye)

Cornea: Transparent lens that helps focus incoming light

Optic nerve: Carries visual information from the retina to the brain's visual cortex

  • Perception flips the image

Blind spot: Point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye (No photoreceptors)

Retina-

  • Light-sensitive layer that detects light using photopigments and converts it to nerve impulses

  • As far as retina knows, everything visual is upside down and reversed

Fovea: Central point of focus

  • Only contains cones; rods are on the periphery





The Eye to Brain Pathway-



  1. Light enters the eye → triggers chemical reactions in rods and cones (Back of Retina) 

  2. Chemical reaction activates the Bipolar cells

  3. Bipolar cells activate Ganglion cells (Whose combined axons form the optic nerve)

  4. The optic nerve transfers the information to the visual cortex (via the thalamus)



Vision Receptors (In the Retina)

  • Specialized neurons that take visual sensory information and convert it into neural information

Cones-

  • Color vision

  • Located in/around fovea

  • 1:1 neural connections

  • Work best in bright light

  • High visual acuity (Fine Detail/Resolution)



Rods (Black and White Peripheral Vision)-

  • Night vision

  • Low acuity (Poor resolution/detail)

  • Detect shades of gray, not color (Black/White)

  • Located in peripheral retina

  • Detect faint light and peripheral motion



Rods and Cones Throughout the Day-                             Vision Pathway to the Brain-



Daylight-

  • Cones are more active

  • Central vision

  • High color perception

  • High visual acuity

Twilight-

  • Both cones and rods are active

  • Transitional period

Nighttime-

  • Rods are active

  • Low color perception

  • Sensitive to movement

  • Peripheral vision



Higher Level Vision: Identify and Localize Objects-

  • The brain organizes sensory information received from the retina in different stages

    • Each higher level of the brain builds a more complete understanding of what we see

Pathways-



  • Ventral Stream (Identify what you are seeing)

    • Occipital → Temporal lobe

Feature Detectors-

  • Nerve cells in the occipital lobe’s visual cortex that respond to a scene’s specific features — to particular edges, lines, angles, and movements

  • These specialized neurons pass this specific information to other cortical areas, where teams of cells (supercell clusters) respond to more complex patterns, such as recognizing faces. The resulting brain activity varies depending on what’s viewed.



  • Dorsal Stream (Identify Where you see object)

    • Occipital → Parietal lobe

    • Process information about location, movement, and spatial relationships

    • Helps you interact with objects + guide movements

Disorders-

  • Visual-form agnosia

  • A rare apperceptive visual agnosia where people cannot recognize shapes, objects, or draw simple figures despite having normal eyesight


Depth Perception-

  • The ability to see objects in three dimensions, although the images that strike the retina are two-dimensional; allows people to judge distance


Monocular Cues-

  • Depth cues that use one eye

    • E.g., texture gradient, linear perspective, interposition


Examples of monocular depth cues
Depth cue Key phrase

Linear perspective Lines converge

Interposition One object blocks another

Relative size Smaller = farther (assuming similar actual size)

Relative clarity Hazy = farther

Texture gradient Finer texture = farther

Relative height Higher in visual field = often farther

Shading Light and shadow create form

Motion parallax Nearby objects appear to move faster across your vision as you move


Binocular Cues-

  • Depth cues that use both eyes

Retinal disparity-

  • The slight difference between the images cast on the left and right retinas

    • Thumb and alternating the closing of each eye example

Discussion VID: Scientist wearing inversion goggles

  • Struggled a lot with coordination, however the brain adapted and learned how to ignore it



Perceptual Constancy-

  • Perceiving objects as unchanging (having consistent color, shape, and size) even as illumination and retinal images change.

Take Home Points-

  • The brain is very good at detecting patterns!

    • But, the brain wants to be efficient so it takes “short-cuts”

  • When the short-cuts work, we perceive constancy.

  • When the short-cuts fail, we experience illusions.



Perceptual Set (Images)- 

  • An image with two different perspectives

  1. Sensation stays the same and perception changes

Example: Optical Illusion

  • The visual stimulus reaching your eyes stays essentially the same

  • Your brain can interpret the image in different ways

  • Key Idea: Same sensory input, different perception

  1. Perception stays the same and sensation changes

  • Shape Constancy: Flipping the coin/ looking at car from different angles example

  • Size Constancy: Comparing sizes of people 

    • Sensation sees that the one furthest area is smaller, but perception states the actual relative size

  • Color/Brightness constancy: Sensation takes the literal color, based on lighting, while the perception states the real color of fruit

    • Fill in color based on skewed perception

    • Context matters: Your brain uses surrounding colors to determine the objects perceived color

Hearing-



  • Hearing involves the detection of sound waves or changes in air pressure unfolding over time

Sound Waves-

  • Compress and expand air molecules

  • Ears detect these brief air pressure changes 


Components of Soundwaves-

  • Frequency (Hz) = Pitch

  • Amplitude (dB)= Loudness

  • Timbre: experience of sound quality or resonance

    • Different instruments can play the same note but sound different because they have different timbres



Anatomy and Physiology of the Ear-

Outer-

  • Starts with the pinna (conducting sound waves into the ear)

  • Auditory Canal

    • Curling Pinna Forward Example: Alters the loudness of the sound

Middle-

  • Eardrum/tympanic membrane

    • Vibrates to the sound once received

  • Ossicles: hammer, anvil, and stirrup

    • Once the eardrum starts to vibrate, it sets the ossicles into motion to transmit sound to the cochlea

Inner-

  • Where auditory transduction  occurs

  • Cochlea: A fluid-filled tube in the inner ear that helps you hear by turning sound vibrations into nerve signals

    • Basilar membrane: lines the cochlea where the auditory cilia (hair cells) are located

    • The bending of the hair cells converts it into neural impulses

Transduction VID-

  • Those that are close to the oval window respond to higher frequencies

  • The far end responds to lower frequencies



Basilar Membrane VID-

  • Operates like a piano

  • Higher pitch to the close end and lower to the far end


Pitch Perception-

Frequency Theory (Number of times in a given period)-

  • The brain uses the frequency of auditory sensory neuron firing to indicate pitch

Place Theory-

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

  • Different pitches are represented on different parts of the basilar membrane




Amplitude (Loudness) Perception-

  • Higher-amplitude sound waves cause greater movement of the basilar membrane, which is perceived as louder sound

Sound Localization-

  • Comparing the differences of stimulus between our two ears to figure out where the sound is located

  • Interaural Timing- Difference in when the sound reaches each ear

  • Interaural Intensity- The difference in intensity (Loudness) in each ear



Hearing Loss-

  • Conductive hearing loss

    • Happens when sound waves cannot pass freely through the outer or middle ear to reach the inner ear

    • Damage to any components that help sound reach the cilia

    • Damage to the bones in the middle ear

  • Sensorineural hearing loss

    • Damage to hair cells or nerve pathways within the inner ear




Cochlear Implants: First Time Hearing VID-

  • Born without auditory nerves

  • The implants translate sounds into electrical signals that, wired into the cochlea’s nerves, transmit sound information to the brain

  • Used implants to restore hearing in the ear by bypassing damaged parts of the inner ear



Senses-



Taste (Gustation)-

  • Involves several basic sensations

    • Can be influenced by learning and expectations

Papillae-

  • Bumps on the tongue

  • Taste buds located within papillae contain (50-100) receptor cells



Smell-



Epithelium-

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



Olfactory bulb-

  • A brain structure above the nasal cavity that sends smell info to the olfactory cortex



Olfactory receptor neurons-

  • Produce different patterns to identify an estimated 1 trillion different odors

  • Responding to different chemical molecules in the air



Body Position and Movement-

  • Knowing where your body parts are and how they are moving



Kinesthesia-

  • Sensing the position and movement of individual body parts

Receptors: Proprioceptors in the joints

Vestibular sense-

  • Helps you sense your body’s movement and position so you can keep your balance

Receptors: Cilia in the ears








Touch- 

  • The “sense of touch” is actually a combination of four basic and distinct skin senses:

    • Pressure

    • Warmth

    • Cold

    • Pain

Other skin sensations are variations or combinations of these four basic senses. For example:

  • Tickling: Stroking side-by-side pressure spots can create a tickling sensation.

  • Itching: Repeated, gentle stimulation of a pain spot can produce an itching sensation.

  • Wetness: Stimulating side-by-side cold and pressure spots can create the perception of wetness.

The Brain’s Role in Touch-

  • The brain’s interpretation and expectations can influence how we experience touch.

Example: A soft touch on the leg produces a different cortical response when a straight man believes he was caressed by an attractive woman rather than by another man (Gazzola et al., 2012).

  • The same physical touch can be experienced differently depending on how the brain interprets it 

    • Like our experience and response to pain

Pain-



The Importance of Pain-

  • Pain serves as a protective function by alerting us that something is wrong and encourages us to change our behavior.

    • People born without the ability to feel pain are at risk for serious injuries, infections, joint damage, and even early death.

Example: Ashlyn Blocker

  • Ashlyn Blocker has a rare genetic mutation that prevents her from feeling pain.

    • As a child she ran for two days on a broken ankle, burned the flesh from her hand on a hot machine, reached into boiling water to retrieve a spoon

  • Her experience illustrates why pain can be considered a “gift”: without pain, the body loses an important warning system.



Understanding Pain-

  • Our feeling of pain reflects both top down cognition and bottom up sensations

  • Pain is a biopsychosocial experience

  • People can experience the same pain differently







Biological Influences on Pain-

  • Nociceptors (Located in your skin)

    • Specialized sensory nerve cell endings that detect actual or potential tissue-damaging stimuli and trigger threat signals to the spinal cord and brain

  • Pain begins with physical stimulation, but it differs from senses

  • The brain then processes these signals and creates the perception of pain

    • Brain constructs the experience through interpreting sensation

Individual Differences of Pain-

  • Pain can be influenced by

    • Fear of pain

    • Genetics

    • Physical Characteristics

    • Sex differences

  • Research suggests that women are more sensitive to pain

Gate Control Theory-

  • The gate-control theory proposes that the spinal cord contains a neurological “gate” that controls how much pain information reaches the brain

Injury → small nerve fibers activated → gate opens → pain signals reach brain → pain is experienced

Small-fiber activity: Opens pain gate → more pain

Large-fiber activity(Massage,Acupuncture): Closes pain gate → less pain



Endorphins: The Body’s Natural Pain Killer-

  • Endorphins are released for severe pain or rigorous exercise

Genetics: Some people naturally produce more endorphins, while others have genes that make them less sensitive to pain.

The Brain can Create Pain-

  • The brain can create pain even without a physical injury or stimulus.

Phantom Limb Pain-

  • After an amputation, a person may feel pain in a limb that is no longer there because the brain interprets nerve activity as coming from the missing limb






This applies to other senses as well:

  • Hearing: Tinnitus can produce the perception of sound without an external sound source.

  • Vision: Some people who lose their vision experience phantom visual sensations or hallucinations.

  • Taste and smell: Damage to these systems can produce phantom tastes or smells.

Psychological Influences on Pain-

  • Attention can influence pain perception

Example: An athlete focused on winning may pay less attention to physical injury and continue playing.



Social-Cultural Influences-

  • Pain is a product of our attention, our expectations, and our culture

  • We tend to feel more pain when others also seem to be experiencing pain

Pain is influenced by:

  • Attention

  • Expectations

  • Culture

  • Social surroundings

  • Empathy (Empathizing with people in pain can bring our minds pain)

Controlling Pain-

  • Because pain involves both the body and mind, pain can be treated through both physical and psychological approaches

    • Depending on the symptoms, pain control therapies may include drugs, surgery, acupuncture, electrical stimulation, massage, exercise, hypnosis, relaxation training, meditation, and thought distraction

Hypnosis-

  • A social interaction in which one person (the hypnotist) suggests to another person (the subject) that certain perceptions, feelings, thoughts, or behaviors will spontaneously occur.

    • Can maximize pain relief by combining a placebo with distraction

Social-Influence Theory-

  • Hypnosis works because people respond to social expectations and the hypnotist’s suggestions

Dissociation Theory-

  • Hypnosis causes a split between what a person senses and what they consciously experience

Embodied Cognition-

  • A social interaction in which one person (the hypnotist) suggests to another person (the subject) that certain perceptions, feelings, thoughts, or behaviors will spontaneously occur.

Sensory Interaction-

  • A social interaction in which one person (the hypnotist) suggests to another person (the subject) that certain perceptions, feelings, thoughts, or behaviors will spontaneously occur.



Chapter 12-

Personality-

  • An individual’s characteristic pattern of behaving, thinking, and feeling



Theories-

Psychodynamic Theories-

  • Proposes that childhood sexuality and unconscious motivations influence personality

Humanistic Theories-

  • Focus on inner capacities for growth and self-fulfillment

Trait Theories-

  • Examine Characteristic patterns of behavior

Social Cognitive Theories-

  • Explore the interaction between people’s traits, thoughts, and their social context




Psychodynamic Theories-

  • View personality with a focus on the unconscious and the importance of childhood experiences

  • Didn’t have biological cause more clinical psychology

Psychoanalysis-

  • Freud’s: therapy and theory of personality

    • Attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts

    • Three Structures

      • The ID (Devil)

        • Unconscious energy (Libido = sexual energy)

      • The Ego (Conscious Mind)

        • Most conscious, makes peace between the id and superego

        • Protective methods of reducing anxiety by distorting reality

      • The Super Ego (Angel)

        • Preconscious (Outside of awareness but accessible) 

        • Internalized ideals






Freud’s Psychodynamic Perspective-

  • The unconscious holds repressed thoughts and desires

    • Repression protects people from unsettling feelings

    • Dreams = “Royal road to the unconscious”

    • Free association uncovers repressed childhood memories

Freudian Slips-

  • Unintentional mistakes in speech that reveal unconscious thoughts or feelings

Freud’s Personality Structure-

  •  Conflict between impulse and restraint

    • With socialization, people internalize social restraints

    • Personality results from people’s efforts to resolve basic conflict

Defense Mechanisms-

  • Ego’s protective methods of reducing anxiety by distorting reality

  • Operate indirectly and unconsciously

Repression-

  • Gets rid of thoughts, feelings, and memories that arouse anxiety

  • Enables other defense mechanisms








Projective Techniques-

  • Standard series of ambiguous stimuli (Ex: Pictures) designed to elicit unconscious thoughts or feelings

  • Subjective interpretation, no obvious answer

Rorschach Inkblot Test- 

  • Individual interpretations of the meaning of a set of unstructured inkblots (form, color, movement/shading)

Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)-

  • Ambiguous pictures of people shown to individuals who make up stories about them

Modern Psychodynamic Theorists-

Agree-

  • Assumption that people’s mental life is unconscious

  • Believe that people struggle with inner conflicts among wishes, fears, and values

  • Defense mechanisms help with anxiety

  • Agree that childhood shapes personality and attachment

Disagree-

  • Doubted sex and aggression as primary drives, 

    • Focus on higher motives and relationships

  • Doubt that only the unconscious matters, consider the role of the conscious mind

Humanistic Theories-

Humanistic Psychologists (Maslow, Rodgers)-

  • Emphasize positive aspects of human nature

  • Ways people strive for self-determination and self-realization

Maslow’s Self Actualization Tendency-

  • Human motive toward realizing our inner potential to become the most authentic version of yourself

    • Flow 

      • Something that's challenging but not so much that it doesn't bring anxiety

    • Optimal Arousal

      • Self actualization scale (CSAS)

        • Potentially bias

Carl Rogers’ Person-Centered Perspective- 

  • An individual’s self-concept is the central feature of personality

    • You help people realize self through acceptance (Unconditional positive regard), genuineness, empathy



Maslow’s and Rodger’s Ideas-

  • Influenced counseling, education, etc. 

  • Laid groundwork for positive psychology subfield

Problems-

  • Concepts are vague and based on the personal opinions of theorists

  • Attitudes encouraged by the theories could lead to self-indulgence, selfishness

Trait Theories-

Trait (Adjectives)-

  • Stable characteristic of an individual

Factor Analysis-

  • Sorts trait items into small dimensions

  • Clusters of behavior tendencies that occur together; reflect a basic factor

Big Five (Traits of a five-factor model)- 

  • Openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism (OCEAN)

  • Accounts for variability without overlap

  • Multiple observer agreeability

  • Reliable across cultures

Measuring Personality-

  • Personality inventories use multiple-choice/ forced-choice

Self-report: Series of answers to a questionnaire, survey (Limitation = Socially desirable bias)

MMPI-3: clinical questionnaire used to assess personality and psychological problems


Cutaneous Senses (Skin Sensations-

  • Sensations detected by receptors in the skin

  • The “sense of touch” is actually a combination of four basic and distinct skin senses:

    • Pressure

    • Warmth

    • Cold

    • Pain

Tactile Senses (Touch)- 

  • Sense of touch, especially contact and texture (Rough, smooth)


Factor-

  • Clusters of consistent behavioral patterns that operate in unison



Hans and Sybil Eysenck: reduce individual variability to:

  • Extraversion–introversion

  • Stability–instability

  • Accounts for various backgrounds

Biological Factors of Personality-

  • Extraversion and introversion relate to neurophysiology

    • Over/under stimulation in reticular formation (arousal)

    • Social situations, taste, flavors, makes them shy away from too much arousal/stimulation

    • Introverts = easily stimulated, extraverts = higher stimulation tolerance

  • Genes influence behavioral style and temperament that mark personality

    • Temperament related to reactivity and arousal

      • Autonomic nervous system

Monozygotic (identical) vs dizygotic (fraternal) Twins

  • Studies over these shows how much genes vs environment influences behavior

  • Assess the relative influence of genes vs environment (Nature v Nurture)

Big Five Q’s-

How stable: Personalities are fairly stable, however changes in maturation (Getting older), people become less neurotic and more conscientious

How well do they apply to other cultures: Consistent across cultures. It’s reliable and valid

  • Predict behaviors in situations

  • Across situations there is interaction between traits and environment

Person-Situation Controversy: Question of whether behavior is caused more by personality or by situational factors. (Trait v state Controversy)

Evaluating Trait theories-

  • Weak prediction of a person’s behavior in any one situation

  • Predict a person’s average behavior over many situations

  • Remain hidden in unfamiliar, formal situations

Vid: Person v Situation

  • Personality Psychologists (Behavior is determined by personality)

  • Social Psychologists (Situation dictates behavior)

  • Interactionism believes that both dictate behavior

    • Personality influences actions in situations

  • High in conscientiousness = more outspoken in classroom

  • High in extrovert = less outspoken in class

  • Certain traits aren't as prevalent in certain situations


Social Cognitive Theories- 

Social Cognitive Approach-

  • How individual traits and thoughts interact with social situations

Outside Influences: Social psychology

Inside Influences: Personality psychology

Reciprocal Determinism- Interacting influences of behavior, cognition, and environment

  • We evoke different reactions from people based on their personality


Evaluating Social Cognitive Theories- 

  • Theories have too much emphasis on the situation, and ignore the person’s traits

  • Too much like social psychology

  • Traits have some predictability, but we need to identify the situation

Exploring the Self-

Self: The center of personality.

Possible Selves: Imagining who you want to become and who you don’t.

Self Esteem: Feelings of high or low self-worth.

Self-efficacy: Sense of competence on a task.

Narcissism: People with inflated self-esteem. Arrogant and charismatic, strive for status and recognition. Easily provoked and more defensive.

Cost of Self Esteem-

Self-serving bias: People’s tendency to take credit for their successes but downplay responsibility for their failures.

  • People are most overconfident when most incompetent

  • Dunning-Kruger effect: Ignorance of one’s own incompetence

Culture and the Self-

Individualism: Emphasizes people’s individual goals over group goals.

  • Defines identity mainly in terms of unique personal traits

Collectivism: Prioritizes the groups of the group and associates their identity to it. (Humility)

  • Varies within cultures

Deadly Individualism Graph Example:

Individualist countries had higher death rates than collectivist countries.