Perception
What causes our blindspot?
The lack of photoreceptors in the portion of the retina where the optic nerve exits the retina
I told my husband that every time he takes out the trash, I'll reduce the number of times I complain about watching baseball. This is an example of using a _________ to _________ his behavior (taking out the trash).
negative reinforcer; increase/strengthen
Name and define the 3 processes critical for successful long-term memory (LTM) , i.e. not forgetting.
Encoding: getting information into LTM
Storage: The persistence of learning over time via consolidation and long-term potentiation
Retrieval:The recall of information previously learned
What is one way women have been shown to differ from men when it comes to emotion?
express more complex emotions; people tend to attribute emotional expression to their personality/disposition rather than circumstances; more adept at interpreting emotion from others
Who is a pioneer in structuralism and what was the core aim of this early school of thought?
Wilhelm Wundt;break down conscious experience into its basic, fundamental elements to determine the structure of the mind (periodic table of the mind)
Duke and UVA fans watching the basketball game together perceived two different things during a heated play. Duke fans swear they saw the UVA player "dive" while UVA fans are certain they saw the Duke play shove the UVA player. What is the broad term describing the many factors that can contribute to two distinct perceptions of the raw sensory information?
perceptual set
A child that learns that his parents stop playing with him when he throws a tantrum may start throwing tantrums less often. What type of learning would this reflect?
operant conditioning
My niece recently got a new doll she named Daisy and now I can only think of Daisy and I can't remember her old doll's name. This is an example of what type of memory error?
retroactive interference
Which personality types (name two) are more prone to stress and the physical consequences of stress?
Pessimists & Type A
IV: study music; DV: test performance
Would you expect a professional chef to have a lower or higher difference threshold for distinguishing the taste of similar spices compared to the average person?
lower
My nephew salivates whenever he gets ice cream. He has learned that the sound of an ice cream truck means he will likely get ice cream and now he salivates just upon hearing the ice cream truck. If he starts salivating in response to all types of trucks, this would be an example of:
generalization
1) draw or describe the serial position curve and 2) name and define the terms used to describe the two highest points in the curve
1) greater memory for items and the beginning and end of lists with lower memory for items in the middle of the list, i.e. "sagging in the middle"
2) recency effect: increased memory for items at the end of the list (due to still being in working memory) & primacy effect: increased memory for items at the beginning of the list (due to more rehearsal and encoding into LTM)
According to ___________, our day to day happiness is likely to __________ (stay low, return to our baseline) after getting a bad grade.
hedonic adaptation; return to baseline
Describe what an action potential is and why it is considered "all or none."
a brief electrical signal that travels down the axon of a neuron; it is either sent or not
How does sensory adaption relate to absolute threshold?
sensory adaptation occurs when sensory receptors stop responding to a stimulus after prolonged exposure to it- it effectively raises the absolute threshold (i.e. requires a higher signal to be detected at least 50% of the time)
To my surprise, despite never foraging for berries myself, I realized that I was able to identify edible berries on our hike recently. This must be from all the nature shows I watch. This is an example of what type of learning
latent learning
1) Name and briefly describe the 3 memory stores included in the modal (AKA 3 stage) model of memory. 2) What was a major update to this model that changed how one of the original memory stores is thought to operate?
1) sensory memory: very brief storage of sensory information; short-term memory: passive temporary storage of information with limited capacity that is either encoded into LTM or lost once rehearsal stops; long term memory: relatively permanent and limitless archive of the memory system that includes knowledge, skills and experiences
2) short-term memory updated to working memory that involves active processing and manipulation of memory rather than just passive storage
How would the Singer Schactner Two-Factor model of emotion explain a change in emotion (e.g. somebody going from anxious to happy)?
would assume that there was a change in cognitive appraisal/interpretation such that what the person originally interpreted as anxiety could be viewed differently to produce excitement (sweaty palms might first make somebody feel anxious about their date but once reflecting on how much they have in common this may shift to an experience of excitement)
What is the difference between a causal relationship vs. a correlation?
A correlation merely describes how two factors vary together but does not imply that a change in one causes the change in the other. Experiments (not descriptive methods) are required to test causal relationships.
_______ (cones/rods) allow us to see color by responding to a specific range of _______ (wavelengths/wave amplitudes) of the light _______ (reflected off/absorbed by) the object we are viewing.
Cones; length; reflected off
Which schedule of reinforcement produces high response rates and is most resistant to extinction?
variable ratio
What did patient H.M. teach us about the long-term memory system in humans?
There are largely independent brain systems for implicit vs. explicit memory. Removal of the hippocampus resulted in an impaired ability to form new episodic memory but his procedural memory remained largely intact.
We discussed a study in class that used patients with spinal cord injuries to challenge a key tenet of the Cannon-Bard Theory of emotion. What part of this theory did it challenge and how did the results either support/contradict this part of the theory?
The idea that our physiological response and emotional experience occur simultaneously yet independently and do not affect each other. If this were true than losing bodily sensation (from spinal cord injuries) should not affect one's emotional experience at all but the results showed that these patients did indeed have a muted emotional response after injury.
1) What theory of development includes concepts of assimilation and accommodation. 2) what do each of these terms refer to?
1) Piaget's theory of development
2) assimilation: Interpreting new experiences in terms of existing schemas (mistaking a cat for a dog because you have concept of dog but not yet of cat); accommodation: updating existing schemas/creating new ones to incorporate new information (dogs also must bark and not meow)