Perception
What is Sensation?
The detection of physical energy from sense receptors
What is Learning?
A relatively lasting change in behavior or knowledge resulting from experience.
What are the three stores in the three-store model of memory?
Sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory.
What is cognitive economy, and how do schemas help achieve it?
Organizing information into categories to save mental effort and processing time.
In memory, what is the difference between recall and recognition?
Recall requires producing information from memory; recognition involves identifying information encountered before.
What is the difference between Bottom-Up and Top-Down processing?
Bottom-up processing starts with sensory input; top-down processing uses prior knowledge, expectations, and experience.
In classical conditioning, what are the US, UR, NS, CS, and CR?
US: unconditioned stimulus; UR: unconditioned response; NS: neutral stimulus; CS: conditioned stimulus; CR: conditioned response.
What is the difference between episodic and semantic memory?
Episodic memory concerns personal experiences; semantic memory concerns facts and general knowledge.
What is a heuristic, and how does it differ from an algorithm?
A heuristic is a mental shortcut that saves time but can lead to errors. An algorithm is a step-by-step procedure that, when correctly applied, produces a solution if one exists.
Differentiate between classical and operant conditioning
Classical conditioning: classical conditioning links stimuli and often involves automatic responses
Operant Conditioning: operant conditioning links behavior with consequences
What is timbre, and how does it help us distinguish sounds?
The quality or tone color of a sound, influenced by its complexity and harmonic composition; it helps distinguish sources playing the same note.
A child fears one particular dog, then begins fearing similar-looking dogs. What is this called?
Stimulus Generalization
In a memory span test, what is measured, and what is the significance of the 'magic number 7 ± 2'?
Memory span measures how many items a person can immediately repeat in order. The traditional estimate is about 5–9 items or chunks.
After seeing several news stories about plane crashes, someone believes flying is more dangerous than it actually is because those examples come easily to mind. What heuristic is this?
The availability Heuristic
Remembering how to ride a bike is an example of which type of memory? What about remembering the capital of France?
Riding a bike: procedural memory, a type of implicit memory. Capital of France: semantic memory, a type of explicit memory.
How do rods and cones differ?
Rods are highly sensitive in dim light and do not provide color vision; cones function best in brighter light and provide color and fine detail.
Distinguish between:
Positive and negative punishment and positive and negative reinforcement
Positive: Something is added
Negative: Something is taken away
Punishment: To decrease a behavior
Reinforcement: Increases a behavior
A student remembers information better when their internal emotional or physiological state matches the state they were in while learning. What is this called?
State-dependent Memory
A doctor describes a treatment as having a “90% survival rate” rather than a “10% mortality rate.” Why might these descriptions lead to different decisions?
The framing effect: decisions can change depending on how equivalent information is presented.
A student remembers the first few items and the last few items on a list but struggles to remember the middle items. What are the two effects responsible for this pattern, and why do they occur?
The primacy effect (better memory for early items, often due to rehearsal and long-term memory encoding) and the recency effect (better memory for recent items that may still be in short-term memory).
What are absolute threshold, just-noticeable difference, and Weber’s Law?
Absolute threshold: minimum stimulus intensity detected 50% of the time.
JND: smallest detectable difference between stimuli.
Weber’s Law: the JND is a roughly constant proportion of the original stimulus intensity.
Explain how classical conditioning could contribute to a phobia or a taste aversion.
A previously neutral stimulus becomes associated with an unpleasant experience and later triggers a learned fear or disgust response. Taste aversion can develop when a food becomes associated with illness.
Compare anterograde and retrograde amnesia. What role does the hippocampus play in forming new memories?
Anterograde amnesia involves difficulty forming new long-term memories; retrograde amnesia involves loss of memories formed before the injury. The hippocampus is important for forming new declarative memories, though it is not the permanent storage site for all long-term memories.
A student struggles to use a paperclip as a tool to reset a device because they only think of paperclips as office supplies. Identify this obstacle to problem solving. Then explain how a mental set differs from surface similarities.
Functional fixedness means seeing an object only in its usual function. A mental set is relying on a familiar strategy, while surface similarities involve focusing on superficial features rather than deeper structural similarities
Trace the path of sound through the ear to the neural signal.
Eardrum vibrates → ossicles (hammer, anvil, stirrup) transmit vibrations → oval window moves fluid in the cochlea → basilar membrane vibrates → hair cells convert movement into neural signals.