Intro and Empiricism
What is behaviorism and name a behaviorist
Behaviorism: an approach to psychology that restricts scientific inquiry to observable behavior (Watson, Skinner, Thorndike, maybe Pavlov idk)
Which part of the hindbrain coordinates fine motor skills?
the cerebellum
How does a sensory event lead to perception?
sensory event --> transduction --> sensation --> perception
What is the difference between implicit (or procedural) memory and explicit memory (or declarative memory)?
Implicit memory: "knowing how"
Explicit memory: "knowing that"
Explicit memory split into semantic memory (general facts and concepts) and episodic memory (personal experiences)
What is learning and how does it relate to the law of effect?
Learning involves the acquisition, from experience, of new knowledge, skills, or responses that results in a relatively permanent change in the state of the learner. Remember: experience --> changes --> relatively permanent
Law of effect: Behaviors that are followed by a reward are more likely to be repeated.
The law of effect helps us understand how organisms learn --> through rewards for desirable responses and repetition.
Contrast internal validity with external validity
Internally valid: can establish causal relationships (valid experiment)
Externally valid: variables have been operationally defined in a way representative of the real world
Describe and distinguish between broca and wernicke's aphasia and which parts of the brain they affect.
Broca's aphasia: grammar-free speech but listening comprehension is relatively preserved (frontal lobe).
Wernicke's aphasia: contentless speech because they don't understand language (temporal lobe).
What is the process for object recognition?
1. perceptual organization: what colors and lines are part of which objects
2. separating figure from ground
3. recognition of composite shapes (geons)
4. matching to template
What kind of memory failure is suggestibility?
Suggestibility is the tendency to incorporate misleading info from external sources into personal recollections.
What is latent inhibition?
the tendency for learning to occur less readily to familiar stimuli that have prior associations
ex. pacificer won't itself make little Albert cry even after being paired with white rat
Contrast dualism and materialism
dualism: the mind and body are fundamentally different things
materialism: all mental phenomena are reducible to physical phenomena --- i.e. mind and body are the same individual and both obey the brain (Hobbes)
Name all of the divisions and subdivisions of the nervous system
Central (brain and spine: receives sensory info and sends instructions to skeletal and muscular systems. and Peripheral NS (connects CNS to organs and muscles). Peripheral divided into somatic ("body" voluntary movements) and autonomic (organs, involuntary). Autonomic divided into sympathetic (fight or flight) and parasympathetic (rest and digest).
What is the difference between monocular and binocular depth cues?
Monocular depth cues: hints to depth that can be seen with just one eye: familiar size, linear perspective, texture gradient, interposition, relative height.
In contrast, binocular depth cues: the difference in retinal images between the two eyes provides info about depth. More disparate = closer.
What is long-term potentiation?
A process whereby repeated communication across the synapse between neurons strengthens the connection, making further communication between neurons easier
Describe the four types of positive and negative reinforcement and punishment.
Positive reinforcement: applying a stimulus to increase a response
Negative reinforcement; removing an unpleasant stimulus to increase a response
Positive punishment: applying an unpleasant stimulus to decrease a response
Negative punishment: removing a pleasant stimulus to decrease a response
Remember: reinforcement=increase response while punishment = decrease response; positive = applying stimulus while negative = removing stimulus
When can you generalize the results of a study to a population. (hint law of large numbers)
Do 1 and 2.
1. sample randomly from the population
2. sample widely
Law of large numbers: as sample size n increases, the average property of the sample more closely reflects the population.
Name all of the subcortical structures and their functions
Basal ganglia: directs intentional movements
Thalamus: receives and sends info from senses to cerebral cortex (except smell)
Hippocampus: memory
Amygdala: emotion
Hypothalamus: body temp, hunger, thirst, sexual behavior
Pituatary gland: releases hormones and directs endocrine system
What is signal detection theory (Weber's Law)
Signal detection theory holds that the response to a stimulus depends on a person's sensitivity to the stimulus in the presence of noise. Weber's law: the change in a stimulus that is just noticeable is a constant proportion to the baseline stimulus. c = change in I over I.
What is encoding and describe the three types of encoding
Encoding: the process by which we transform what we perceive, think, or feel into an enduring memory.
1. Semantic encoding: relating new info in a meaningful way to knowledge that is already stored in memory
2. Visual imagery encoding: storing new info by converting it into mental pictures
3. Organizational encoding: categorizing info, according to the relationships among items.
What are all of the types of reinforcement schedules? then order them in terms of effectiveness in obtaining responses.
Continuous reinforcement: reinforcement arrives every time
Fixed Ratio schedule: reinforcement arrives after a fixed number of responses
Variable ratio schedule: reinforcement arrives after a varied number of responses (i.e. slot machine)
Fixed interval schedule: reinforcement arrives after a fixed amount of time as long as response occurred at least once
Variable interval schedule: reinforcement arrives after a variable amount of time.
Continuous most effective when learning behavior, fixed ratio prob most effective to maintain behavior.
How is causation established?
Experimentation!
1. manipulate independent variables
2. control other possible causal variables (through randomization)
3. measure the dependent variable
4. compare the value of the dependent variable in one condition with its value under another condition
Correlation is necessary for causation but does not equal it.
Explain in detail how an action potential occurs (i.e. explain the whole process of how one neuron transmits info to another)
Pre-synaptic neuron contains neurotransmitters (which can be excitatory or inhibitory) in a vesicle that it releases into the synaptic cleft. the neurotransmitters are caught by receptors on the postsynaptic neuron, which changes the voltage of the membrane. If the voltage reaches the threshold of excitation), the postsynaptic neuron opens channels that allow positive sodium ions to rush in, changing the internal charge to positive. This sudden positive charge is the action potential and it spreads down the postsynaptic neuron their axon for the process to be repeated again.
Explain how vision works (and why vision is processed contralaterally)
Light hits the eye and is focused onto the retina by the lens. Cones detect color and detail, while rods only activate under low-light. The light stimulates retinal ganglion cells, the axons of which form the optic nerve. The optic nerve runs through the thalamus to the primary visual cortex (area v1). The left half of each retina receives the right visual field while the right half receives the left visual field. At the optic chiasm, the left half of the right retina crosses to the left and the right half of the left retina crosses to the left. End result: right visual field processed in left hemisphere and left visual field processed in right hemisphere.
Describe the flow of information through the memory system (i.e. how does sensory input become long-term memory)?
sensory input becomes sensory memory (unattended info is lost). Sensory memory becomes short-term memory through attention and rehearsal (unrehearsed info is lost). Short-term memory becomes long-term memory through encoding. When long-term memory is retrieved, it temporarily becomes short-term memory again and needs to be re-encoded.
Describe both Classical (Pavlovian) and Operant (Skinner) Conditioning and how they work
Classical conditioning: a type of learning that occurs when a neutral stimulus produces a response after being paired with a stimulus that naturally produces a response. US-->UR then CS paired with US produces UR. Then CS by itself produces CR (the same as UR).
Operant conditioning: stimulus produces a response that is reinforced (S-->R-->R).