Midterm Flashcards
1
Q
Metaphysical questioning
A
Seeking first principles of nature
the search for overarching and universal principles
2
Q
What two things does psych work to do?
A
Understand and also control (change) the human experience
3
Q
Pyschology
A
the systematic study of behavior and experience
4
Q
Different types of psych professions
A
1) addressing basic research questions
2) clinical psych
3) how to enhance productivity (advertisements/military)
5
Q
Different domains within psychology
A
Physiology, physics, philosophy, medicine, sociology, and biology
6
Q
Unification of psychology
A
psychology is unified by it’s variety of perspectives on psychological phenomenon
can look at things through many different lenses
7
Q
Science
A
knowledge that is sanctioned by a certain method
data-driven
8
Q
Systematic scientific method
A
define a problem in measureable terms
observe based on fact
analyze with statistics and classification
Interpretation and replicate
9
Q
3 basic scientific approaches in psych
A
1) Nautralistic observation
2) Case study
3) Experimental method
10
Q
Naturalistic observation
A
no manipulation of population you are studying, do not impose treatment
11
Q
Case study
A
systematic observation of an individual or a few individuals
12
Q
Experimental method
A
manipulate variables/impose treatment and compare to control
determine the relationship between the dependent and independent variable
13
Q
Scientific truth
A
is an approximation, is replicable, is flasifiable
it is agreed upon through consensual language
14
Q
How can you compare the outcome of nature versus nurture??
A
Use a Twin study
15
Q
What type of twins to use for a twin study?
A
Monozygotic twins
16
Q
What separates humans from other animal behavior??
A
Humans have a language with grammar and syntax
Humans can self reflect and talk about metaphysical things
17
Q
Inhibitory function
A
ability to refrain from natural urges
animals and humans possess this
18
Q
3 conditions for natural selection
A
1) Variation among individuals within a population
2) Some traits are more fit for survival than others
3) Traits are inheritable
19
Q
Ultimate survival
A
gene survives through evolution
20
Q
Proximate survival
A
the individual survives
21
Q
Can evolution happen quickly?
A
Yes in example of fish developing armour
22
Q
Motivated action behavior
A
like feeding, fighting, fleeing and sex
thought to have evolutionary roots
23
Q
What shows that human behavior can be inherited?
A
Basic emotional expressions are universal
such as everyone smiles
24
Q
Dias + Ressler Study
A
Mice inherit specific memories due to epigenitics
A traumatic event can influence the DNA in sperm and future generations are predisposed to the same traumatic event
25
Phineas Gage
Foreman who got a rod stuck in front lobe
Before accident he was friendly, after he was argumentative and obstinate
Shows how the brain's functioning can trickle down to a basic level (brain affects function)
26
Jody Miller
Became epileptic at around 3 years old
Electrical explosions in right side of brain left her left side of her body unable to function
Brain's plasticity allowed it to change shape and connections
Shows the resiliency of the brain
27
Who started the secular approach to studying the brain?
Descartes in 17th century difference between mind and body
Reflex concept
28
Phrenology
Franz Joseph Gall
External bump on head reflects differences in individuals brain/disposition
Example of trying to link the mind to the body
29
What is an example of modern day phrenology?
We basically do indepth phrenology with MRIs
30
What is the basic unit of communication?
Neuron
31
Neuron is composed of
Dendrites connected to cell body connected to axon which is connected to axon terminal
32
Central nervous system
brain and spinal cord
33
Peripheral nervous system
the nervous system outside the brain and spinal cord
34
Communication among neurons
cell membrane potential is highly unstable
when the difference in potential electric charge is greater than the threshold an action potential activates on neuron to another
35
Action potential mechanics
interior of cell temporarily reaches slightly less negative . (-55 instead of -70mV)
Go from -55 to fully positive (no inbetween, all/nothing)
36
Synapes
at terminal ending of neuron, neurotransmitters move from axon terminals to dendrites
if dendrites accept neurotransmitters, another action potential is triggered
37
What type of processes are action potentials?
Binary
all or nothing mechanism
38
What happens to neurotransmitters after action potential is fired?
some are inactivated by a "cleanup enzyme"
other are reused by synaptic uptake
39
Examples of neurotransmitters
dopamine, serotonin, acetylcholine
40
Subdivisions of the peripheral nervous system
Somatic nervous system and autonomic nervous system
41
Somatic nervous system
skin, muscles, joints that connect spine to brain
42
Autonomic nervous system
glands and internal organs connect to the spine/brain
uses hormones for long distance signaling
broken into sympathethic or para-sympathetic
43
Sympathetic nervous system
directs the body's rapid involuntary response to dangerous or stressful situations
constricts pupils, boosts heart, erection
44
Parasympathetic nervous system
rest and digest system
conserves energy as it slows heart rate, increases gland activity, and relaxes sphincter muscles in GI tract
45
Homeostasis
maintenance of internal environment of the organism
46
Hind brain
subconscious, primary functions like breathing and heartbeats
47
Midbrain
coordinates motion, relays information to other sites
48
Forebrain
associated with human consciousness
cortical and subcortical
49
The Cortex
part of the forebrain
3mm thick, makes up 89% of total brain volume
Very compact (folded and wrinkled)
2 hemispheres and 4 paired lobes
50
What are the brain's 4 lobes?
Frontal
Parietal
Occipital
Temporal
51
Occipital lobe
determines vision
52
Frontal lobe
linked to executive function
53
Parietal lobe
processes sensory information as well as processing language and mathematics
54
Temporal lobe
sound is processed
auditory and speech comprehension systems are located
55
What connects the left and right brain?
corpus callosum
corpus callosum size could potentially indicate schizophrenia
2 halves work as an integrated whole and are generally similar
56
What is right brain involved with?
more creativity
57
What is left brain involved with?
logic and analytics and language
58
Subcortal brain structures
thalamus
hypothalamus
limbic system
59
Thalamus
relay station for sensory information
60
Hypothalamus
eating, drinking, aggession, sexual behavior
releases hormones and controls body temperature
61
Limbic system
learning, memory, and emotion
has the hippocampus and amygodala
62
How do we record the brain?
MRI/CT studies anatomy
PET/PMRI studies activity of the brain through bloodflow
63
Sensation
the raw data
the psychological phenomena involving an awareness of physical stimulation
64
What is the flow of sensation?
1) External stimulus energy
2) Amplification of stimulus
3) Transduction to impulse
4) Coding of sensation
5) Interaction with the rest of system
65
More big picture flow of sensation
Stimulation
Sensation
Perception
Representation (knowledge)
66
Psychophysics
works on relationship between physical energy and what we actually experience
67
Weber's law
the size of the difference threshold of stimulus is a constant ratio of the standard stimulus
need a lot of physical energy to detect smaller changes
68
Fechner's law
the strength of a sensation grows as the logarithm of stimulus intensity
strength vs intensity
eventually plateaus
69
Proximal stimulation
need to have contact to stimulus
70
Types of proximal stimulation
Kinesthesis of preoprioception: skeletal movements
Vestibular sense: sense of relative stability
Taste/gustatory sense
Skin sense (pressure, temp, pain)
71
Distal stimulation
don't need to touch stimulus
72
Types of distal stimulation
olfaction
audition (frequency, pitch, sound)
vision (color, contrast, movement)
73
What is true of detection features?
they are very specialized
74
Perception
the meaning making process of sensory experience
the interpretation of sense data
75
3 theories of perception
Info processing approach
Gestalt theory
Ecological approach
76
Info processing approach
way of looking at perception
bottom to top reconstruction
piecewise puts info together
combine info from retina with stored knowledge
77
Gestalt theory
immediate impression, not piecewise
innate properties of the perceive (have evolved to perceive)
78
Ecological approach
directedness and immediacy of perceptual processes
all needed information is already available in nature, just have to pick it up
ex: way light falls on a rock shows depth
no reconstruction of information like in the info processing approach
79
What is perception always?
Contextual
We assume and fill in gaps in our perception
80
Consciousness
our awareness of ourselves, thoughts and environment
81
How can consciousness be studied?
introspection
82
What is the problem with consciousness?
it can be hard to describe experience and sometimes people are deceitful
83
Cognitive unconscious
unnoticed support machinery
much of what is going on in our minds happens outside of awareness
84
Unconscious functioning
the scope of the cognitive unconscious is evident in cases of brain damage
we can remember/perceive without being aware
85
Unconscious attribution
ability to evaluate and interpret evidence while being unaware of the process
86
What does cognitive unconscious allow for?
Processes that are fast, effortless, and automatic
87
Mind body problem
the conscious mind is completely different from physical body
88
What are the two dimensions of consciousness?
level of arousal and clarity of context
example is sleepwalking has high level of arousal, but low clarity of context
89
Global Workspace Hypothesis
consciousness is made possible by integrating neural activity of various regions
this is made possible by workspace neurons
controlled by process of attention
90
Sleep
our conscious state changes when we are asleep
people seem to need a right amount of slow wave and REM sleep
91
Different theories for why we sleep
repair our bodies
allow neurons to reset
allow for rest when not finding food
92
Dreams
occur during REM sleep
can contain preoccupations or events that occur that day
dreams are a byproduct of activity that occurs while we sleep
93
Hypnosis
highly relaxed state of mind in which a person is likely to feel that his/her actions and thoughts are happening to him/her rather than it being produced momentarily
can be susceptible to social pressures
94
Meditation
quiet, relaxed state produced by intense focus to a specific stimulus
brain activity changes during meditation (more relaxed)
95
Theories about the origins of knowledge
nativism- knowledge is innate, prewired and built in
empiricism- knowledge is learned and determined by individual experiences
true origins of knowledge is probably somewhere inbetween these two
96
Learning
process by which an activity originates or is changed through reactions to an encountered situation
react to situations differently after an encounter
97
What can learning not be explained by?
learning exists outside of native response tendencies (reflexes), maturation, and temporary states of the organism (drugs + fatigue)
98
What are ways of learning
1) Habituation
2) Classical conditioning
3) Operant conditioning
4) Observational learning
99
Habituation
a decline in response to a stimulus once the stimulus has become familiar
100
Dishabituation
an increase in responsiveness when something new is presented following a series of presentations of something familiar
101
What are evolutionary advantages of habituation?
we don't waste energy on stuff we already know
ex: babies transition from the universal learner to free space
102
Classical conditioning
a form of learning in which one stimulus is paired with another so that an organism can learn a relationship between the two
103
Pavlov's experiment
dog learns to associate a bell with food
US: food
UR: salivate
CS: the bell
CR: salvation with the bell
104
Unconditioned response
the natural response elicited from a unconditioned stimulus
105
Unconditioned stimulus
reliability triggers a response without prior training
106
Conditioned stimulus
initially neutral stimulus that becomes associated with the US and elicits a conditioned response
107
Example of different conditioned and unconditioned response
mouse runs away when sees a cat (UR)
mouse associates cat with kitchen (CS)
mouse is on high alert when in the kitchen, but doesn't run away (CR)
108
What does the strength of conditioning depend on?
timing and contingency
109
Extinction
the weakening of a learned association when a conditioned stimulus is now repeatedly presented without the unconditioned stimulus
110
Operant conditioning
participant receives a reinforcer only after performing the desired response and therefore learns the relationship between the response and the reinforcer
111
Thorndike's cat
Thorndike rewarded the cat for getting out of the cage
made the cat get out of the cage more
an example of operant conditioning
112
The Law of Effect
performance is strengthened if rewarded and weakened if not
113
Operant
voluntary response that is defined by its effect (the way it operates) on the environment
114
Reinforcer
stimulus delivered after a response makes a response more likely in the future
115
Who is responsible for saying "free will is an illusion" but also doing work with operant conditioning?
BF Skinner
116
Difference between operant conditioning and classical conditioning
Operant conditioning is based on rewards of voluntary responses and classical conditioning is not voluntary response
117
Observational learning
process of watching others behave and learning from their example
118
Mirror neurons
neurons that fire both when an animal acts and when an animal watches another animal perform the same action
119
Implicit memory
memories that you are unable to talk about but exist and come up through actions without being aware of
120
When can you explicitly talk about memory?
2-3 years of age
121
What helps with accuracy errors in memory?
schema (narrative to tell)
| chunking
122
Flashbulb memory
highly detailed snapshot of when big news was heard
123
Thoughts on selective memory
could be a defense mechanism
124
sensory memory
< 3 seconds
| Immediate memory of sensory stimuli
125
Short term memory
also called working memory
10 seconds
Immediate conscious memory
126
Long term memory
hours to lifetime
127
Stages of long term memory
Encoding, storage, retrieval, output
128
Primacy
early items receive more rehearsal and are more likely to be transferred to long term storage
(remembering things in a list)
129
Recency
just heard items can be easily retrieved from working memory
130
Chunking
items are recoded into a smaller number of larger units (ex: phone numbers)
131
Active nature of memory
we change and shape our memories
132
Maintenance rehearsal
process of repeatedly verbalizing or thinking about a piece of information
does little to promote long term storage
133
Shallow processing
encoding that emphasizes superficial characteristics
134
Deep processing
encoding that emphasizes understanding and meaning
135
Clive's case
hippocampus damage
no long term memory after brain damage
stops encoding memories after the event
lives moment to moment
136
Hippocampus
part of the limbic system
plays role in transferring info from short term to long term memory
137
Retrograde amnesia
unable to remember past events
138
Anterograde amnesia
unable to remember events after the trauma
139
Episodic memory
concerns specific episodes
140
Semantic memory
concerns broader knowledge (ex: language)
141
Amygdala
helps emotional memory lead to better episodic memories
plays a key role in the processing of emotions
142
Thinking
process by which meanings and ideas are developed
143
Concepts
an idea of what something is or how it works
generic idea formed through experience
144
Two types of views of concepts
prototype versus conceptual
145
Representation
present something to the mind that gets converted to words, symbols, and images
146
Analogical representations
capture some of the actual characteristics of what they represent
147
Symbolic representations
bear no such relationship to what they represent
148
Two types of thinking
spatial (mapping + imaging)
abstract (conceptualization + reasoning)
149
Non-analogical thinking
another name is abstract thinking
two types of non-analogical thinking
inductive (observation to conclusion)
deductive (premise to conclusion)
150
Directed thinking
internal thinking with the goal of problem solving
goal oriented mental hierarchy of action
