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MedST IB: Neurobiology and Human Behaviour (NHB) > 10.0 Psychology > Flashcards

10.0 Psychology Flashcards

(106 cards)

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1
Q

Define introspection

A

Examination/observation of one’s own mental or emotional processes

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2
Q

What is structuralism?

A

Approach to psychology where complex perceptions are broken down into ‘elementary sensations’<br></br><br></br>This approach is associated with Wundt who attempted to classify stimuli according to their sensory properties

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3
Q

What is functionalism?

A

Approach to psychology that focused on how mental processes combine and interact to achieve functions<br></br><br></br>Associated with James

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4
Q

Define cognition

A

A mental process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses

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5
Q

Define overt attention

A

Physically moving in order to process object/region

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6
Q

Define covert attention

A

Arises when we don’t move our eyes. Using attention to focus on some objects and ignoring others (independent of eye movements)

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7
Q

What is the filter model of attention?

A

Sensory information has to pass a bottleneck to reach a limited-capacity area where processing takes place.<br></br><br></br>The filter model states that a filter selects information (based on physical attributes) and ignores the rest by blocking it

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8
Q

What is the filter-attenuation model?

A

The filter does not completely block the ignored information, it simply attenuates it

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9
Q

What evidence is there fore the filter-attenuation model?

A

1) During dichotic listening, if messages delivered to subjects switched sides, the subjects subconsciously matched this switch<br></br><br></br>2) During dichotic listening, subjects would notice their name if it was presented on the ‘ignored side’<br></br><br></br>3) During dichotic listening, fear inducing words played to the ignored side lead to galvanic skin responses

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10
Q

Endogenous vs exogenous attention ques:

A

Endogenous = cue presented in the centre of screen (and centre of focus) - responses to this are voluntary<br></br><br></br>Exogenous = cue presented outside the centre of focus - responses to this are reflexive (involuntary)

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11
Q

Hoe many objects can be tracked in multiple object tracking?

A

4

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12
Q

What lobe is affected in attention disorders?

A

Parietal lobe

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13
Q

What are three disorders of attention?

A

<b>1) Unilateral neglect syndrome</b><br></br>- Unilateral parietal lobe damage<br></br>- Patients fail to pay attention to one side<br></br><br></br><b>2) Unilateral extinction</b><br></br>- Unilateral parietal lobe damage<br></br>- Patients can notice stimuli on both sides when presented in isolation<br></br>- If stimuli are presented together - one side is affected<br></br><br></br><b>3) Balint’s syndrome</b><br></br>- Bilateral parietal lobe damage<br></br>- Triad of symptoms: <br></br>i) Simultanagnosia<br></br>ii) Fixity of gaze<br></br>iii) Optic ataxia

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14
Q

What are the two sensory memory stores?

A

<b>1) Iconic store</b><br></br>- Brief sensory store for visual info<br></br><b>2) Echoic store</b><br></br>- Auditory info<br></br><b>Both are short duration (0.5-2 seconds)</b><br></br><b>Both are passive</b><br></br><b>Large capacity</b> (difficult to measure)

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15
Q

What is the memory span (capacity) of short-term memory?

A

7 ± 2 digits

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16
Q

What is recency effect?

A

Last few items in list are remembered better<br></br>Due to short term memory

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17
Q

What is primacy effect?

A

Earlier items in list are better remembered<br></br><br></br>Due to long term memory

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18
Q

What are the 4 primary components of the working memory model?

A

<b>1) Phonological loop</b><br></br>- Short term storage of info in speech based form<br></br><br></br><b>2) Visuo-spatial sketch pad</b><br></br>- Short term storage of spatial and visual information<br></br><br></br><b>3) Multimodal episodic buffer</b><br></br>- Hold and integrates diverse info (from phonological loop, visuo-spatial sketchpad and long term memory)<br></br><br></br><b>4) Central executive</b><br></br>- Modality free<br></br>- Responsible for selecting + initiating cognitive processing

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19
Q

What are the three stages of processing human memory?

A

1) Encoding<br></br>2) Storage<br></br>3) Retrieval

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20
Q

What was Ebbinghaus’ experiment?

A
  • He was sole subject<br></br>- Taught himself a series of nonsense syllables until he could repeat it twice in order, without errors<br></br>- Tested his retention at various delays<br></br>- Retention decreases as interval increases<br></br>- Rate of forgetting goes down
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21
Q

What factors influence memory encoding?

A

1) Practice<br></br>2) Levels of processing (depth)<br></br>3) Organisation<br></br>4) Spacing<br></br>5) Active retrieval

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22
Q

What are the two major forms of amnesia?

A

1) Retrograde - forgetting events prior to trauma<br></br><br></br>2) Anterograde - Inability to retain new material in permanent form

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23
Q

What are the causes of amnesia?

A

V - Anoxia / ischaemia<br></br>I - Encephalitis<br></br>Trauma<br></br>Autoimmune<br></br>M - Dietary insufficiency (Korsakoff)/ alcoholism<br></br>I - Neurosurgery<br></br>Neoplasms<br></br><br></br>C<br></br>D - Alzheimer’s<br></br>E

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24
Q

Unilateral right medial temporal lobe lesions cause _________ defects, whilst unilateral left medial temporal lobe lesions cause _________ defects.

A

Unilateral right medial temporal lobe lesions cause <b>non-verbal</b> defects, whilst unilateral left medial temporal lobe lesions cause <b>verbal</b> defects.

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25
Where does brain damage occur in cases with selective loss of short term memory, but intact long term memory?
Posterior cortex
26
Define agnosia:
Higher level sensory deficits
27
Define movement agnosia:
Subject cannot see movement
28
Define prosopagnosia:
Subject cannot recognise faces
29
What are the two types of visual agnosia?
1) Associative agnosia
- Subject cannot recognise/name/use objects
- Can draw them accurately

2) Apperceptive agnosia
- Can name objects
- Cannot draw object
30
Declarative vs non-declarative memory:
1) Declarative memory (Explicit)
- Requires conscious recollection of previous experience
- Based on facts and events
- Temporal lobe + diencephalon

2) Non-declarative memory (implicit/procedural)
- Knowledge gained through practice
- Represents a skill
- Basal ganglia + cerebellum
31
What did monkeys with induced temporal lobe lesions show experimentally?
1) Impaired delayed non-matching to sample (DNMS)
2) Intact skill learning
3) Mild retrograde amnesia
32
What area of the brain is associated with recognition memory?
Rhinal cortex (found on medial temporal lobe)
33
What area of the brain is associated with emotional memory?
Amygdala
34
What area of the brain is associated with scene/episodic memory?
Hippocampus
35
What makes up the hippocampal formation?
1) Hippocampus
2) Dentate gyrus
3) Subiculum
36
What are the afferents to the hippocampal formation?
1) All major cortical association areas (to entorhinal cortex)

2) Subcortical structures (septum/anterior thalamus/amygdala)

3) Non-specific arousal systems (cholinergic, serotonergic + NA pathways)
37
What connects dentate gyrus to CA3 pyramidal cells?
Mossy fibres
38
What connects CA3 pyramidal cells to CA1 pyramidal cells?
Schaffer collaterals
39
What is the role of hippocampus in memory?
1) Episodic memory
2) Spatial memory

LONDON CABBIES have altered hippocampal volume
40
What neurotransmitter is used by perforant pathway, mossy fibres and schaffer collaterals?
Glutamate
41
What are the 3 types of glutamate receptor? Which one is implicated in LTP?
1) Quisqualate
- Normal fast transmission

2) Kainate
- Normal fast transmission

3) NMDA
- Plays a role in LTP
42
Define aphasia:
Disorder of language
43
What is seen in Broca's aphasia?
Slow laboured speech with impaired articulation
Patient can comprehend what they hear
44
What is seen in Wernicke's aphasia?
Effortless and melodic speech which is unintelligible.
There is impaired comprehension of speech
45
What fibres connect Broca's and Wernicke's areas?
Arcuate fasciculus
46
What is conduction aphasia?
Aphasia that occurs following damage to arcuate fasciculus

Symptoms = impaired repetition of spoken word

(no spontaneous speech deficits or issues with comprehension)
47
What studies have shown that language is mainly associated with left hemisphere?
1) Split brain patients
- Corpus callosum severed for epilepsy
- Showed objects processed in left cortex (right hand) could be named easier

2) WADA procedure
- LA injected to right or left carotid
- 96% of right handed people had speech representation on left (4% on right)
- 70% of left handed people had speech representation on left (15% right and 15% bilateral)

3) fMRIs
48
What is the right hemisphere important for in language?
Emotional and tonal colouring of language (prosody)
49
What is the Wernicke-Geshwind model for language?
States that there are different pathways for spoken and written word.

Spoken word comes through auditory cortex and processed in Wernicke's area

Written word comes through visual cortex, is processed in angular gyrus, then Wernicke's area. Written word needs to be converted to auditory format.
50
Transcortical motor aphasia:
Non fluent speech, but can repeat long sentences

Damage to frontal lobe (ant. to Brocas)
51
Transcortical sensory aphasia:
Poor comprehension, but can repeat long sentences

Damage to junction of temporal, parietal and occipital lobes
52
Define anomia:
Subject shows inability to produce words for things that they want to talk about
53
Regarding language, what structural changes occur during ageing?
Volumetric loss

(Grey matter around lateral prefrontal cortex and hippocampus, some white matter as well)
54
What language impairments occur with age?
1) Reduced speech intelligibility (because ↓ sensory and perceptual changes)

2) Compromised comprehension of complex sentences (due to limits in working memory capacity)

3) Word finding difficulties (TOTs)
55
What aspect of language is not affected by ageing?
1) Vocabulary (can be increased)

2) Detection of misspellings

3) Syntax (ability to process sentence structure)
56
Define elderspeak
Speech adopted when speaking to older adults to accommodate the anticipated communication difficulties
57
Define apraxia:
Difficulty performing purposeful/voluntary movements

(difficulty performing the movements to command/imitation but can perform them spontaneously)
58
4 types of apraxia:
Limb apraxia
Oral apraxia
Graphic apraxia
Constructional apraxia
59
Role of:

1) Posterior parietal cortex
2) Lateral premotor cortex
3) Supplementary motor cortex
1) Posterior parietal cortex → Mediates spatial perception and direction of movement

2) Lateral premotor cortex → Important for movements with external cues

3) Supplementary motor cortex → Important for bimanual co-ordination and internal generation of action
60
Role of pre-frontal cortex:
1) Holding information 'online' in working memory to attend to it
2) Allowing emotions to contribute to complex decision making
3) Inhibitory control of irrelevant or inappropriate actions
61
Regarding judgement biases, what types of events are overestimated?
Accessible events are over-estimated
- These can include rare events or those that are more famous
62
Define conjunction fallacy:
"Probability of A occurring should be less than the probability of A occurring + the probability of B occurring. Conjunction fallacy states that this isn't always the case as ""availability"" can skew our judgement. Example = words ending in ___ing vs words ending in ____n_"
63
Define subadditivity:
"Availability can affect how we unpack a category.

E.g. ""All of the above"" can seem more significant if examples are given"
64
Define base-rate neglect:
When presented with base-rate information + specific information - mind tends to focus on the latter
65
Define Gambler's fallacy
The mistaken belief that if something occurs more frequently than normal/expected, in the future it will occur less frequently
66
Regarding theories of cognitive development:

Define nativism
Nativism states that cognitive skills are consequences of genetically pre-programmed cognitive mechanisms. This theory suggests that areas of the brain act as modules (specialised to process specific inputs)
67
Regarding theories of cognitive development:

Define Empiricism
Empiricism states that the newborn mind is a blank slate and experiences are written upon this
68
Regarding theories of cognitive development:

Define Constructivist
Constructivism states that mental structures develop out of interaction with physical and social reality - knowledge is constructed via child's action upon their environment
69
Regarding theories of cognitive development:

Define Neoconstructivism
Neuroconstructivism is a theory that states that gene-gene interaction, gene-environment interaction and, crucially, ontogeny are all considered to play a vital role in how the brain progressively sculpts itself and how it gradually becomes specialized over developmental time
70
What are Piaget's stages of development?
Sensorimotor stage 0-2yrs
Pre operational stage 2-6yrs
Concrete operational stage 6-12yrs
Formal operational 12yrs +
71
What occurs in sensorimotor stage?
Initially there is infantile egocentrism (cannot draw distinction between self + external world)

Child begins to understand world through interaction with it

1st actions are innate sensors-motor schemas (sucking/grasping)

End of this period is marked by beginning of representational thought (ability to call to mind a representation of an object or person who is not currently present)
72
What is representational thought?
Ability to call to mind a representation of an object/person who is not currently present
73
What are criticisms of Piaget's stages?
Underestimates infant competence.

Tests ('violation of expectation' showed that some children at 3.5 months understand object permanence
74
Define theory of mind:
It is a social cognition whereby we develop a theory of what others minds may contain

May not develop until ?4yrs old?
75
What are two developmental changes in the adolescent brain?
1) ↑ activity of nucleus accumbens (reward system) - can explain impulsive behaviour

2) Subtle changes in the prefrontal cortex (may underly egocentricity and lack of regard to future consequences)
76
How was a child's IQ score defined?
His mental age divided by his chronological age and multiplied by 100
77
What is deviation IQ?
A measure of how far an adult's score deviates from the population mean
78
What is the name of the modern IQ test?
Wechsler Intelligent scale for adults - revised (WAIS-R)
79
What are the subtests of WAIS-R tests?
1) Verbal (6 subtests)
2) Performance (5 subtests)
80
Define heritability:
The proportion of the variation in an individual due to genetic differences
81
What environmental variables contribute to IQ?
1) Neighbourhood
2) Type of accommodation
3) Number of siblings
4) Birth order
5) Parental income
82
What IQ changes occur with ageing?
Performance IQ ↓
Verbal IQ stays the same
83
What pathologies affect IQ?
1) Alzheimers disease (AD)
- ↓ performance IQ
- ↓ some aspects of verbal IQ

2) Williams syndrome (WS)
- Relatively higher verbal IQ compared to performance

3) Autism spectrum conditions (ASC)
- High performance IQ compared to verbal IQ
84
What are positive symptoms for schizophrenia?
Delusions
Hallucinations
85
Define hallucination
Sensory experience in absence of stimulus
86
Define delusions
Abnormal and firmly held beliefs that are contrary to reality
87
What are negative symptoms for schizophrenia?
Avolition
Alogia
Anhedonia
Affective flattening
Asociability

Negative symptoms are poor prognostic indicators
88
What are other symptoms for schizophrenia?
1) Disorganised speech
2) Disorganised behaviour
3) Catonia/motor abnormalities
4) Catonic immobility
5) Waxy flexibility
6) Inappropriate effect
89
What brain area is overactive in delusions/hallucinations?
Left parahippocampal region and left striatum
90
What brain area is overactive in poverty of speech/facial expressions?
Pre-frontal cortex, cingulate and head of caudate
91
What are the subtypes of schizophrenia?
1) Paranoid (most common)
2) Disorganised
3) Catatonic
4) Residual
5) Undifferentiated
92
Etiological theories about schizophrenia?
1) Schizophrenogenic mother theory
2) High expressed emotion (EE)
3) More in ↓ SES
4) More in cities (social drift)
5) Genetics (44% concordance in MZ twins)
6) Viral invasion of brain
7) ↓ IQ
93
Define expressed emotion:
A measure of a family's involvement/attitude towards a family member with a disorder
94
What changes to the brain ventricles are seen on brain imaging in schizophrenia?
Enlarged ventricles (loss of brain volume/mass)
95
What neurotransmitter is implicated in Schizophrenia?
↑ Dopamine → positive symptoms
↓ Dopamine → negative symptoms
96
What drugs can treat schizophrenia?
Typical
Haloperidol
Chlorprozamine
Clopixol

Atypical
Olanzapine
Risperidone
Clozapine
97
What is Beck's cognitive theory on depression?
Depression is secondary to early loss, emotional abuse + excessive criticism

Involves:

1) Negative triad (views on self, world and future)

2) Negative schemata (Feeling inept, self blaming and -ve self-evaluation)

Negative schemata causes cognitive bias
98
What is the concordance of depression and bipolar in monozygotic twins?
Depression = 0.5

Bipolar = 0.75
99
What neurotransmitters are involved with depression?
1) Monoamines (↓ monoamines → depression)

2) Serotonin (↓ 5-HT)
100
What hormone is involved with depression?
Cortisol

Over-activity in HPA → ↑ cortisol → depression

Evidence = Cushing's have more depression
101
What functional changes are seen when neuroimaging depressed patients?
Prefrontal cortex → ↓ activity
Anterior Cinuglate → ↓ activity

Amygdala → ↑ activity
102
Drugs for depression:
SSRIs
- Fluoxetine
- Citalopram
- Sertraline
SNRIs
- Venlaflaxine
TCAs
- Amitriptyline
- Imipramine
MAOIs
- Phenelezine
103
What are the different types of bipolar?
Type I = ≥1 episode of mania/mixed episode

Type II = ≥ 1 major depressive episode + ≥ 1 episode of hypomania

Type II ½ - Milder form (cyclothymis)

Type III - Antidepressant induced
104
Symptoms of bipolar:
Distractibility
Indiscretion
Grandiosity
Flight of ideas
Activity ↑
Sleep deficit
Talkativeness
105
Drugs for bipolar:
Mood stabilisers
Lithium
Gabapentin
Carbamazepine
Valporate
Lamotrigine

Atypical antipsychotics
Quetiapine
Olanzapine
Risperidone
106
Describe four features of LTP that make it a good candidate for a cellular mechanism for memory:
Rapidly induced, long lasting, synapse-specific, can be associative

MedST IB: Neurobiology and Human Behaviour (NHB) (11 decks)

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