Psychology Foundations
What is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes?
Psychology
What is a specific, testable, prediction called?
Hypothesis
Which lobe primarily processes visual information?
Occipital Lobe
What is the process of detecting physical stimuli from the environment?
Sensation
Learning through associations between two stimuli is known as what?
Classical Conditioning
What are the four major goals of psychology?
Describe, explain, predict, and control/change behavior/
In an experiment, what is the variable that the researcher deliberately changes?
Independent Variable
Which brain structure is especially important for forming new memories?
Hippocampus
What is the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information?
Perception
A student earns $10 every time they complete all their homework for the week. What type of consequence is this?
Positive Reinforcement
Which early psychologist established the first psychology laboratory in 1879?
Wilhelm Wundt
A researcher changes how many hours students sleep and then measures their test scores. Identify the dependent variable.
Test scores
Which neurotransmitter is strongly associated with reward, motivation, and movement?
Dopamine
Which photoreceptors work especially well in low-light conditions?
Rods
A driver fastens their seat belt because doing so stops an annoying warning sound. What type of consequence is this?
Negative Reinforcement
Which psychological approach focuses on observable behavior and how behavior is learned from the environment?
Behaviorism/Behavioral Perspective
What is the difference between reliability and validity?
Reliability refers to consistency; validity refers to whether something actually measures what it is intended to measure.
During which stage of sleep are vivid dreams most commonly experienced?
REM Sleep
What is the minimum amount of stimulation needed to detect a stimulus approximately 50% of the time?
Absolute Threshold
A teenager breaks curfew, so their parents take away their phone for the weekend. What type of consequence is this?
Negative Punishment
Name the psychologist associated with each approach:
1. Functionalism
2. Psychoanalysis
3. Humanistic Hierarchy or Needs
1. William James (Functionalism)
2. Sigmund Freud (Psychoanalysis)
3. Abraham Maslow (Humanistic Psychology/Hierarchy of needs)
Researchers discover that students who sleep more tend to have higher grades. Can they conclude that additional sleep causes better grades? Explain.
No. This is a correlation, and correlation does not prove causation. Other variables could influence both sleep and grades, and the direction of the relationship is not established.
According to activation-synthesis theory, why do we dream?
The brain attempts to organize and make sense of neural activity occurring during sleep
You're concentrating on a conversation with your friend in a crowded room and largely ignore the other conversations around you. What concept does this demonstrate?
Selective Attention
A slot-machine gives a jackpot after an unpredictable number of plays. Identify the reinforcement schedule and explain why it often produces persistent behavior.
Variable-Ratio Schedule. Reinforcement occurs after an unpredictable number of responses, so the person continues responding because they do not know when the next reward will occur.