Psych 100
Famous Experiments Described by a 5-Year Old
Brainy Bunch
RAs Accidentally Describing Research Method Concepts
Psychology Rhyme Time
Misconceptions
100
Freud practiced this early psychological school of thought
What is Psychoanalysis?
100
A man in a white coat told people to press buttons that made someone say “ow!” just to see how much they’d listen to a grown-up even when it seemed mean.
What is Milgram's Shock Experiment?
100
This region of the brain that is important in motor control, latin for "little brain"
What is the cerebellum?
100
"Are you sure we should tell the participant exactly what we were looking for after the study?"
What is debriefing?
100
You might find a strong R squared between years of schooling and amount of time spent on the beach
What is an education-vacation correlation?
100
No. It is not true that we only use 10% of our brains, in fact we use this percentage
What is 100%?
200
This disorder is characterized by persistent and intrusive thoughts that are not linked to a specific cause, and often lead to ritualistic behaviors
What is Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder?
200
Some very mean grown-ups told kids they could have one sweet now or two if they waited forever
What is the Marshmallow Study?
200
This set of brain structures helps regulate emotion and memory, some of the structures include: the hippocampus, amygdala, hypothalamus, and the Basal Ganglia
What is the Limbic System?
200
"Should I know which condition I'm assigning the participant to?"
What is a double-blind study?
200
When a cephalopod lets its unconscious desires breach the surface
What is a squid id?
200
You are not the father! Lie detectors, known by this official name, measure anxiety, not dishonesty... so you could get a Type 1 error from a nervous honest person or a Type 2 error from a calm liar
What is a polygraph?
300
In operant conditioning, this type of reinforcement removes a desirable stimulus to decrease a behavior
What is negative punishment?
300
Some sneaky scientists made a fake see-through floor so babies (and baby animals!) would crawl toward their mommy until the ground suddenly looked like a big scary drop, showing who was brave and who said, “Nope!”
What is the Visual Cliff Study?
300
The fibrous bundle of nerve tissue that connects the two hemispheres of the brain
What is the corpus callosum?
300
"I don't know why I can't just invite my friends to participate in the study"
What is snowball sampling or convenience sampling?
300
I dunno, this inkblot screams "Toccata and Fugue in D minor" to me
What is a Bach Rorschach?
300
Straight Up, this Paula Abdul song is wrong... Research shows that people are most often drawn to those who are similar to them
What is Opposites Attract?
400
The cognitive heuristic at play in the following example:
A couple have 6 children and are expecting a 7th, they have 6 boys, what is the likelihood that the next is a boy?
What is the Gambler's Fallacy?
400
More mean grown-ups made two groups of boys at summer camp fight over games and prizes and then had to bribe them with a broken bus and teamwork to make them friends again
What is the Robbers Cave Experiment?
400
The tiny little junctions between the myelin sheath on axons that drastically speed up firing
What are nodes of ranvier?
400
"After spending my entire day coding, my results look nothing like the other RAs..."
What is inter-rater reliability?
400
Irrational fear of a southeast Asian country... close enough
What is a Cambodia phobia?
400
Nope, it's not true that we can be left-brained or right-brained... This misconception probably stemmed from this phenomenon whereby the left and right sides of the brain serve specialized purposes
What is hemispheric lateralization?
500
It's the effect at play in the below illusion that makes square A and B look like different shades (yes, they are the same color)
What is perceptual (color) constancy?
500
Teachers were tricked into thinking some kids were extra smart... and... and then those kids actually did better, showing that believing in someone can kind of work like magic brain fertilizer.
What is the Pygmalion Effect study?
500
The technical names of any two macroglial cells
What are any two of the following: astrocytes, oligodendrocytes, ependymal cells, radial cells, schwann cells, satellite cells, or enteric glial cells?
500
"I think I might have accidentally made the participant do the study with the light off"
What is a confounding or third variable?
500
It's my mental representation of a common condition where excess fluid accumulates in the body's tissues (usually legs and feet)
What is an edema schema?
500
Incorrect, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross' five stages of grief due not necessarily occur in this proposed order... every person is different with some people going through one stage multiple times and others never entering certain stages
What are?:
1. Denial
2. Anger
3. Bargaining
4. Depression
5. Acceptance