Brain Function
What are the two main divisions of the human nervous system?
The central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) and the peripheral nervous system (somatic and autonomic).
What is transduction?
The process by which sensory receptors convert a physical stimulus (e.g. light or sound waves) into a neural signal.
Name the three memory stores in the multi-store model of memory.
Sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory
In classical conditioning, what is a "neutral stimulus" and what does it become after conditioning?
A neutral stimulus (NS) produces no relevant response before conditioning. After being repeatedly paired with an unconditioned stimulus, it becomes a conditioned stimulus (CS) that produces a conditioned response (CR).
Who wrote the famous dystopian novel 1984
George Orwell
Name the four lobes of the cerebral cortex.
Frontal, occipital, parietal and temporal lobes.
Which brain structure processes sensory information
The thalamus.
What are the four components of the working memory model?
The central executive, phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad, and episodic buffer.
What is negative reinforcement in operant conditioning?
negative reinforcement removes an unpleasant stimulus to increase a behaviour.
In what year did the Berlin Wall fall
1989
Which three brain structures are associated with the storage of explicit memory?
The hippocampus, the neo-cortex and the amygdala
Define "perceptual set" and name one factor that can influence it.
A predisposition to perceive things in a certain way based on expectations; influenced by past experience, context, motivation, or emotional state.
Distinguish between implicit and explicit memory, giving an example of each.
Implicit memory is memory without conscious recall (e.g. a procedural skill like riding a bike, or a classically conditioned response); explicit memory involves conscious recollection (e.g. an episodic memory of your last birthday, or a semantic fact).
Explain 'Little Albert' in terms of learning
That fear responses can be learned through classical conditioning — Little Albert learned to fear a neutral stimulus (a white rat) after it was repeatedly paired with a loud, frightening noise.
What is the only country in the world that features a shipwreck on its national flag?
Bermuda
Compare the roles of Broca's area and Wernicke's area
Broca's area is mainly responsible for speech production/language expression; Wernicke's area is mainly responsible for language comprehension. Geschwind's territory connects and integrates the two.
Describe Gestalt principle closure
closure — the tendency to mentally fill gaps so an incomplete shape is perceived as a whole object, helping the brain organise fragmented visual information into a coherent whole.
Name three strategies that can be used to improve memory.
Any three of: spacing, interleaving, chunking, elaborative rehearsal, maintenance rehearsal, the method of loci.
Explain the difference between modelling and vicarious conditioning in social learning theory, using the Bobo doll experiment as an example.
Modelling is simply imitating an observed behaviour; vicarious conditioning is learning by observing the consequences a model experiences. In Bandura's Bobo doll experiments, children who saw a model rewarded (or not punished) for aggression toward the doll were more likely to imitate that aggression.
What is the name of the fictional continent where the majority of the action takes place in Game of Thrones?
Westeros
Explain causes, symptoms, treatments of Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease
Parkinson's disease is linked to reduced dopamine (loss of dopamine-producing neurons), causing motor symptoms such as tremor and rigidity, treated with dopamine-replacement drugs (e.g. L-DOPA). Alzheimer's disease is linked to reduced acetylcholine and neurodegeneration, causing memory loss and cognitive decline, treated with cholinesterase inhibitors.
Explain how cultural background can influence visual perception, referencing relevant research
Cultural upbringing shapes perceptual habits, Hudson (1960) and Deregowski (1972), and later replicated by de Bruïne, Vredeveldt & van Koppen (2018). people from different cultural backgrounds can interpret depth cues and scenes differently, showing perception is shaped by experience as well as biology
LOP model - why does deep/semantic processing generally lead to better memory retention than shallow/phonemic processing?
Deep/semantic processing involves elaborating on meaning and connecting new information to existing knowledge, which creates stronger, more durable memory traces than shallow processing (e.g. focusing on sound or appearance), as shown in studies such as Craik & Tulving (1975)
Compare classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and social learning theory
Classical conditioning (behaviourist) explains learning through association between stimuli. Operant conditioning (behaviourist) explains learning through consequences — reinforcement increases behaviour, punishment decreases it. Social learning theory (social/cognitive) explains learning through observation and imitation of models, without the learner necessarily being directly reinforced themselves.
What is the smallest independent country in the world by land area
Vatican City