Brain Function
What are the two divisions of the peripheral nervous system?
Somatic and autonomic nervous systems
What is transduction in sensation?
The process of converting sensory information into neural signals that can be processed by the nervous system.
What is the difference between iconic and echoic memory?
Iconic memory is sensory memory for visual information, while echoic memory is sensory memory for auditory information.
What is context-dependent memory, and how did Grant et al. (1998) investigate this concept?
Context-dependent memory is the idea that memory retrieval can be improved when the context at retrieval matches the context in which learning occurred. Grant et al. (1998) compared participants who studied and were tested in matching or mismatching environmental conditions to investigate whether context affected recall.
Which three brain regions work together to plan, initiate and coordinate voluntary movement, ensuring movements are smooth and accurate?
The primary motor cortex, basal ganglia and cerebellum.
What are the roles of Broca’s area, Wernicke’s area and Geschwind’s territory in language processing.
Broca’s → produce speech
Wernicke’s → understand language
Geschwind’s → connect/integrate language information
What are the three main psychological characteristics of sound that allow us to distinguish between different sounds?
Loudness, pitch and timbre.
A student remembers the meaning of a word but cannot remember where or when they learned it. Which type of explicit memory are they using?
Semantic memory
What is the main difference between the Multi-Store Model and the Working Memory Model?
The Multi-Store Model describes memory as separate stores through which information passes, including sensory, short-term and long-term memory. The Working Memory Model describes short-term memory as an active system with several components that process and manipulate different types of information.
What Gestalt principle states that we tend to perceive objects that are close together as belonging to the same group?
Proximity
What is the difference between an excitatory and an inhibitory neurotransmitter?
An excitatory neurotransmitter increases the likelihood that the next neuron will fire, while an inhibitory neurotransmitter decreases the likelihood.
What is a perceptual set?
A tendency to perceive something in a particular way based on factors such as past experience, context, motivation or emotional state.
In the Working Memory Model, which component temporarily stores and processes verbal and auditory information?
Phonological loop
What is Alzheimer’s disease, and how does interference with neurotransmitter function contribute to its causes, symptoms and treatment?
Alzheimer’s disease involves progressive damage to brain cells, including disruption of acetylcholine function. Reduced acetylcholine contributes to difficulties with memory, learning and cognitive functioning. Treatment can include acetylcholinesterase inhibitors, which reduce the breakdown of acetylcholine and can temporarily improve or stabilise symptoms, although they do not cure the disease.
What is visual constancy?
The tendency to perceive an object as remaining stable despite changes in the sensory information reaching our eyes, such as changes in size, shape or colour.
Explain how brain function can be both localised and distributed.
Some functions are strongly associated with specific brain regions, while other functions involve multiple brain regions working together.
A student sees a word that could be either “CAT” or “COT”. The surrounding sentence makes them perceive it as “CAT”. What psychological factor is influencing their perception?
Context, which contributes to their perceptual set.
Explain the role of the hippocampus, neo-cortex and amygdala in forming and storing explicit memories.
The hippocampus is important for forming and consolidating new explicit memories. The neo-cortex is involved in the long-term storage of explicit memories, while the amygdala contributes emotional information to memories, particularly emotionally significant experiences.
What were the results of de Bruine, Vredeveldt & van Koppen (2018) regarding the influence of culture on visual perception?
The African participants performed worse than European participants when recognising objects following a 2D-to-3D transformation, although both groups performed similarly on 3D-to-2D transformations. This suggests that cultural background can influence aspects of visual object perception and recognition.
What is the difference between recall and recognition?
Recall involves retrieving information without the information being present, while recognition involves identifying previously learned information when it is presented.
A patient with Parkinson’s disease develops difficulty initiating and controlling voluntary movements. Explain how disruption of neurotransmitter function can contribute to these symptoms.
Parkinson’s involves reduced dopamine function, which disrupts the basal ganglia circuits involved in coordinating voluntary movement, leading to difficulties with movement.
What is binocular disparity, and is it a monocular or binocular depth cue?
Binocular disparity is the difference between the images received by each eye. It is a binocular depth cue.
What is the difference between maintenance rehearsal and elaborative rehearsal. Which is more likely to produce long-term learning?
Maintenance rehearsal involves repeatedly saying or reviewing information without adding meaning, while elaborative rehearsal involves connecting new information to existing knowledge or meaning. Elaborative rehearsal is generally more effective for long-term learning because it involves deeper processing.
What were the results of Patel & Demorest (2013) regarding the influence of culture on auditory perception?
People with different cultural and language backgrounds can perceive musical pitch differently. People generally had an advantage when listening to culturally familiar music, including better recognition of unfamiliar music in a familiar musical style.
What is the difference between encoding failure and retrieval failure?
Encoding failure occurs when information is not successfully processed into memory in the first place. Retrieval failure occurs when information has been stored but cannot be accessed when needed, meaning the person may know they learned it but cannot currently retrieve it.