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Psychology
Psych 101
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Mind-Body Problem | Are body and mind identical or distinct? Is behavior reflexive and determined or freely chosen and willed? |
| Positions on the Mind Body Problem | Strict Dualism Cartesian Interactionism Willful Materialism Absolute Materialism |
| Strict Dualism | Body and mind are distinct. Behavior in lower animals is reflexive and determined by biological processes. Humans have free will. |
| Cartesian Interactionism / Descartes Opinion | Body and mind are distinct but interact. The mind can influence the body via the pineal gland. Lower animals are entirely reflexive, humans have mostly reflexive behavior, but not entirely. Descartes didn't want to be killed by the church. |
| Willful Materialism | Mind and body overlap, humans can actively override desires or impulses. Animals are entirely reflexive. |
| Absolute Materialism | No separation of body and mind. All behavior is biologically determined, no free will, no free won't. |
| Nativism v Empiricism | Born with knowledge v. solely acquired through experience |
| Associationism | You have never see a purple cow with wings but could imagine what this would look like because you have seen a cow + the color purple + wings |
| Early Psychological Theories | Structuralism Functionalism Gestalt Psychology Freud Behavioralism |
| Structuralism | Analyzing the conscious experience by dividing it into elements: ex. purple + cow + wings. "The whole is the sum of the parts" |
| Functionalism | Analyzing the conscious experience as it naturally occurs, without division. "Thinking is for doing" |
| Gestalt Psychology | Functionalism + examine the conscious experience as a whole. "The whole is greater than the sum of the parts" |
| Freud | Analyze the unconscious mind and forces that give rise to conscious thinking. Hidden, forbidden impulses guide behavior. |
| Behaviorism | Analyze behavior, ignore thinking. All behavior is reflexive or habitual. |
| Nativists | Some knowledge at birth which is released via maturity. Plato, Descartes. Opposite of Tabula Rasa. |
| Tabula Rasa | The mind is a blank slate at birth.Experience is the sole source of all knowledge. Aristotle, Locke. |
| Contemporary Perspectives | Biological Cognitive Humanism Sociocultural |
| Ways of Knowing | Dogmatism Rationalism Empiricism Positivism Science |
| Dogmatism | If a figure of authority says something is true, it must be so. Passive acceptance of truth. E.g. The Church, Wikipedia, Parents |
| Rationalism | Truth in logic, cannot be proven false. Cartesian doubt: "I think therefore I am" |
| Empiricism | True if it can be shown to be true by sensory experience. "Seeing is believing" |
| Posivitism | Empiricism that is verified to be true by multiple, neutral observers. |
| Science | Logical posivitism. Use of logic to generate hypothesis which is then tested using positivism. |
| Functions of Science | Description Prediction Explanation Control |
| Description as a function of science | WHAT occurs, multiple neutral observers describe phenomena |
| Prediction as a function of science | WHAT is likely to happen? WHAT goes to what? Correlations. |
| Explanation as a function of science | WHY is the world the way it is? Occurs in the minds of people, is not right or wrong, but an inferred cause. |
| Control as a function of science | Create, modify, or eliminate phenomena. Alter or improve things. |
| Basic research v Applied research | Understand a phenomena, explain something v Solve a problem, control / change something |
| Variable | Any quantity or attribute for which there is variability. Required to form a prediction. Allows us to relate variation in example to variation in result - covariability. |
| Hypothesis | Educated, logical, testable prediction about covariability of two or more variables |
| Law | An established foundational association that underlies a branch of science. A well established truth. |
| Theory | General principles that explain why two or more variables are related. Never right or wrong. Is an explanation. |
| Scientific Process | Theory -> Deductive Logic (Generalizations to specifics, large to small.... "I bet" -> Hypothesis -> Research -> Observation -> Inductive logic (Specifics to Generalizations, small to large) -> Theory |
| Three Criteria used to Evaluate a Theory | Parsimony Breadth Generativity |
| Parsimony | Occam's Razor: never use complex logic when simple logic will suffice. |
| Breadth | A good theory will predict a lot of things |
| Generativity | Inspires research |
| Neuroscience | The study of development, structure, and function of the nervous system |
| Neuropsychology | Study of relationship between nervous system and the mind |
| Crick's Astonishing Hypothesis | Everything we identify as, memories, etc. is only cells |
| Two Guiding Questions of Neuroscience | Where are psychological phenomena produced and located? How are psychological phenomena generated? |
| Methods of Study of Neuroscience | Brain functioning - fMRI Neurological damage - study naturally occurring brain damage Animal studies - lesion brains of rats |
| The Nervous System | A network of cells that sense and react, monitoring internal / external stimuli and through electrochemical processes, generate thoughts, feelings, and behavior. |
| Divisions of the Nervous System | Central Nervous System (CNS) Peripheral Nervous System (PNS) |
| CNS | brain and spinal cord, all centralized cells are located here |
| PNS | all special cells connected to CNS that aren't brain / spine such as sensory receptors, muscles, glands |
| Neurons | ~100 billion of them in the human nervous system. They receive, integrate, and transmit information. They are linked / bundled together in circuits. All animals more advanced than a sponge posses neurons. |
| Glial Cells | ~10x as many as neurons in the human nervous system. They cover neurons with a fatty insulation called myelin. The provide nutrients to neurons and clean up their debris. |
| Sensory neurons | All reside in the PNS and extend to the CNS. Information transfer from PNS to CNS. |
| Interneurons | Transfer information within the CNS, all reside completely within the CNS. |
| Motor neurons | Reside in the CNS, extend to the PNS. Carry information from the CNS to muscles, glands, and organs in the PNS |
| Neuronal Anatomy | Dendrites Nucleus Soma Terminal buttons Axon Nodes of Ranvier Myelin sheathe |
| Dendrites | Neuron receptors |
| Soma | Cell body of a neuron |
| Terminal buttons | Release chemicals received by the dendrites of other neurons, all electrochemical processes involved in neuronal communication are highly similar. |
| Axon | The hose or wire of a neuron |
| Nodes of Ranvier | Action potential = intracell travel. Ion flow across the membrane occurs only at the nodes of Ranvier. Action potential signal jumps along the axon, from node to node, rather than propagating smoothly, as they do in axons that lack a myelin sheath. |
| Myelin | a dielectric (electrically insulating) material that forms a layer, the myelin sheath, usually around only the axon of a neuron. |
| Action potential | A short lasting event in which the difference in electric potential between the interior and the exterior of a biological cell rapidly rises and falls. Generated by special types of voltage-gated ion channels embedded in a cell's plasma membrane. |
| Action potential part I | Depolarization: Neuron is sufficiently stimulated, sodium gates open and sodium enters the cell. Cell is positively charged at ~+40mV |
| Action potential part II | Repolarization: Potassium gates open and K+ starts leaving. Na+ gates close. K+ leaves, K+ channels close. Neuron repolarizes w/ a slight period of hyperpolarization. Excess K+ outside diffuses away. |
| All or None principle | There must be enough stimulation to change neuron's polarity to > -55mV, then an action potential occurs with the same strength and magnitude. |
| Summation | Spatial Summation Temporal Summation |
| Spatial Summation | How many neurons react, not how much one reacts. Either one opens gates or not. |
| Temporal Summation | A single neuron firing rapidly. |
| Propogation | If depolarization >= -55mV, voltage strength does not decay as it travels down the axon. The signal is repeated along the way. |
| Transmission speed | Myelination insulates axons, increasing the speed of transmission Is faster through axons with large diameters |
| Hodgkin & Huxley | Nobel prize winning research studying the giant axon of a squid ~1mm in diameter extending from head to tail |
| Neurons II | Ion movement across neuronal membrane = reversal in neuron's electrical charge = electrical signal (action potential) = electrochemical, interneuronal communication |
| Ion movement | Depends on relative distribution of ions inside of and outside of the cell, tending towards equilibrium. Also depends on permeability of cell membrane, which is more permeable to K+. |
| Resting phase | K+ and Na+ are inside and outside of neuron and sort of moving around. ~28x more K+ inside cell than outside of cell. ~15x more Na+ outside than inside cell. Exiting K+ leaves cell -, equilibrium is ~-70mV |
| Careers in Psychology | Psychotherapist - clinical, counseling, psychiatry Business Academic |
| Academic Areas of Psychology | Biological Clinical Cognitive Developmental Personality Social |
| Synapse | Microscopically small gap between one's neuron's terminal buttons and another's dendrites where chemicals are spilled |
| Presynaptic neruon | Termial button releases chemicals into synaptic cleft |
| Postsynaptic neuron | Dendrites receive chemicals from synaptic cleft |
| Synaptic transmission | 1. Action potentials cause calcium gates to open in terminal button which cause synaptic vesicles to migrate towards membrane. 2. Neurotransmitter released into synaptic cleft, binds on to membrane of postsynaptic neuron, opening or closing ion channels |
| Major Neurotransmitters | Acetylcholine, Dopamine, Norepinephrine, Serotonin, GABA, Glutamate |
| Acetylcholine (ACh) | Controls muscles and regulates memory. ACh producing neurons deteriorate with Alzheimer's disease |
| Dopamine | Produces feelings of pleasure, motivation, reward, and affects movement. High levels correlated with schizophrenia, low levels associated with Parkinson's disease. |
| Norepinephrine | Controls mood & arousal. Undersupply = depression |
| Serotonin | Regulates hunger, sleep, arousal, mood, aggression. Undersupply = depression |
| GABA - Gamma aminobutycrc acid | Primary inhibitory neurotransmitter. Undersupply = seizures, tremors, insomnia |
| Glutamate | Major excitatory neurotransmitter associated with learning & memory. Undersupply = alzheimers |
| Excitatory reactions | Some neurotransmitters increase the likelihood that another action potential will occur by allowing cations to enter |
| Inhibitory reactions | Some neurotransmitters decrease that likelihood that another action potential will occur by blocking the entry of cations or allowing anions to enter |
| Neurotransmitter facts | Once bound to a receptor, it continues to excite or inhibit the neuron until it is deactivated or removed. Each neuron generally synthesizes and releases a single type of neurotransmitter. |
| Neurotransmitter facts II | Neurotransmitters can produce multiple effects depending on which receptor is present. After transmission, neurotransmitter is degraded by an enzyme or returned to the pre-synaptic membrane by a transporter or reuptake pump |
| Psychoactive drug | Exogenous chemicals (produced outside the body) that alter psychological processes by affecting synaptic transmission |
| Agonists | Mimic the effect of a neurotransmitter by binding to a receptor. Ex. morphine mimics endorphins |
| Antagonists | Block the effect of neurotransmitters by preventing them from binding to their receptor sites. Ex. curare blocks ACh (paralyzing) |
| Steps in a postsynaptic spinal reflex | 1. sensory neuron relays signal to spinal cord 2.signal synapses on interneuron and is sent in two directions (to motor neuron for physical reaction and to brain for processing) 3. Physical reaction occurs before signal reaches brain |
| Nervous System | Organized network of specialized cells that sense and react |
| Functions of the nervous system | Reflex, Regulate, Learn / Adapt, Modify / Change |
| Axon bundles | Nerves in PNS, Tracts in CNS |
| Cell bodies (soma) | Ganglia in PNS, nuclei in CNS |
| White matter | Only in CNS, bundles of myelinated axons |
| Gray matter | Only in CNS, everything that isn't a myelinated axon |
| PNS - Somatic Nervous System | Senses & controls responses to the external environment, ex. voluntary muscle movement |
| PNS - Autonomic Nervous System | Senses & controls responses to body's internal environment, ex involuntary muscle movement |
| Sympathetic division of the ANS | Mobilizes body systems during activity (fight or flight) |
| Parasympathetic division of the ANS | Calms body to conserver energy and promote restoration (rest & digest) |
| Spinal cord | Densely packed bundle of sensory axons, motor ganglia, and interneurons Reacts / Regulates and transmits messages from sensory and motor neurons to brain and back Connects most parts of the PNS with the brain |
| 12 Cranial nerves | E.g. optic nerve, connect the PNS directly to the brain |
| Spinal Reflexes | Reflex in which the neurons responsible for a motor response do not involve the brain |
| Reflex | The body's automatic (innate, unlearned) response to a stimulus |
| Monosynaptic | Knee-jerk reflexes that don't involve interneurons |
| Polysynaptic | Pain-withdrawal reflexes that do involve interneurons |
| Brain stem | A functional system consisting of the medulla, pons, and midbrain. Registers sensory stimuli, processes sensory info, responds. |
| Hindbrain | pons, cerebellum, medulla |
| Midbrain | Tectum, Tegmentum |
| Forebrain (cerebrum) | Cortex, subcortical structures. Largest, most developed part of the brain in humans. Controls non-instinctive, (motivated) behavior. Approach / avoid, feel, connect, remember. |
| MacLean's Theory of Phylogenetic Brain Development | Reptilian brain -> Mammalian brain -> Primate Brain |
| Reptilian Brain | Cerebellum & Brain stem, controls basic bodily functions, balance, sensory awareness, and attention. React & regulate |
| Mammalian Brain | Subcortical structures of forebrain, experience basic emotions, form associations between emotions and stimuli that elicit them. Negative associations form more readily than do positive |
| Primate Brain | Cortex, language, morality, consciousness, modify, plan, override, delay. Coordinates behaviors that satisfy motivational and emotional urges. |
| Limbic System | Amygdala, Hippocampus, Hypothalamus, Nucleus Accumbens, Thalamus, Olfactory Bulb |
| Amygdala | Recognition and registration of emotional stimuli, especially ones that engender fear |
| Hippocampus | Controls memory organization & integration |
| Hypothalamus | Controls the ANS, regulates sleep, eating, homeostasis, governs the pituitary gland |
| Nucleus Accumbens | The brain's reward center, with many dopamine receptors |
| Thalamus | The brain's switchboard, located on top of the brain stem |
| Olfactory Bulb | The oldest and most fundamental sense, smell has a direct route to the cortex that does not go through the thalamus |
| Reticular formation | A collection of nuclei (CNS soma) that run through the middle of the brain stem. Axons go in two directions, forming two systems. ARAS, DRAS |
| Ascending Reticular Activating System (ARAS) | Axons that go upwards through the brain, Regulates sleep-wake cycle, affects vigilance and arousal. |
| Descending Reticular Activating System (DRAS) | Axons that go downward to the cerebellum and spinal cord, affect movement, posture, equilibrium. Governs various reflexive behaviors, coughing, chewing, swallowing, vomiting. |
| Evolutionary Psychology | Study of the evolution of the mind, brain, and behavior |
| Genes | DNA molecule segments that specify the production of a protein |
| Evolution | A change over time in the heritable characteristics of an interbreeding population. Changes in the genome and the prevalence of particular alleles. |
| Proximate Explanations | How does a particular structure produce an adaptive behavior? |
| Ultimate Explanations | Why did a particular structure of behavior develop? What adaptive problem did it solve? |
| Homologous simliartites | Similar in design, suggest common lines of descent |
| Analogous simlilarities | Similar in function, suggest adaptiveness of behavior |
| Selective Breeding | A procedure in which on organisms with certain qualities are allowed to reproduce. Over time these qualities become increasingly prevalent in offspring. Darwin referred to selective breeding as artificial selection |
| Domestication of Animals | Behavioral tendencies can be artificially selected. Since 1959 Russian researchers have been selectively breeding silver foxes for tameness, after 35 generations the foxes are as tame and amiable towards humans as domestic dogs. |
| Adaptation | Inherited qualities that are present in (almost) all members of a species because they continue to promote reproductive success. Ex. vision, language, walking |
| Vestige | Inherited qualities that were once adaptive but are no longer needed. Ex. appendix, wisdom teeth, grasping reflex |
| Byproduct | Inherited qualities that never directly improved reproductive success but accompanied qualities that did. Ex. belly button |
| Noise | Inherited qualities that never affected reproductive success but became common due to random factors. Ex. dimples, attached ear lobes, blood types |
| Morphological features | The offspring of tame foxes have features we normally associate with friendliness such as floppy ears, round faces, curly tails... |
| Natural selection | Nature presents obstacles to reproduction (predators, limited food) and over time more and more offspring possess beneficial heritable qualities |
| Adaptations | Some physical qualities enhance reproductive fitness (long necked giraffes). Instincts are inherited behaviors (walking). |
| The role of variability | Without genetic variability there is nothing for nature to 'select'. Sources of variability include Inheritance (genetic shuffling), mutations, environmental variations, climate change, and presence of other species through migration. |
| Sexual selection | Promote reproductive success, parental investment: the sex that invests more in parenting will be more selective about mating (women) and the sex that invests less must work harder to be selected |
| Sensation | Registration of physical stimuli by a sensory neuron's receptor |
| Transduction | Conversion of physical stimulation into electrochemical activity |
| Perception | The (largely) conscious awareness and interpretation of sensory input |
| Regressive evolution | Need it or lose it. Ex. blind fish living in the darkness. Features and senses require energy |
| Sensation without perception | Frogs possess 'bug detectors' allowing them to reflexively catch flies. Reflexes don't require perception. |
| Hubel & Wiesel 1962 | Recorded action potentials in the visual cortex of cats while cats looked at various visual displays. Specific neurons fire in respsonse to specific features |
| Lateral inhibition | A stimulated sensory neuron sends two signals: one facilitates an action potential (excitatory effect) while the other inhibits action potentials in neighboring neurons. This highlights contrast and exaggerates differences. |
| Bottom-up processing | Sensory info is integrated in association areas to produce a unified perceptual experience. Physical stimuli determine perception, passive, data driven process. Whole = parts |
| Top-down processing | Sensory info is interpreted in prefrontal cortex based on existing knowledge and expectations. Deductive, stimuli influence perception but perception is affected by other factors. Whole > parts. |
| Two stage model of feature detection (stage 1) | Feature detection: Stimuli are scanned for primary sensory features, feature detection is automatic and involves parallel processing |
| Two stage model of feature detection (stage 2) | Feature integration (binding): Stimuli are integrated to produce a unified perceptual experience, feature integration is effortful and involves serial processing |
| Disjunctive visual search | Parallel - effortless, instantaneous search of all stimuli |
| Nondistinctive, conjunctive visual search | Serial - effortful, sequential search of all stimuli |
| Psychophysics | Study of connection between physical stimuli and subjective perceptual experience. Ex. how loud a sound is v. how loud a subject thinks the sound is |
| Absolute threshold | Minimum amount of energy that can be detected 50% of the time |
| Just noticeable difference | Smallest change in stimulation that can be detected 50% of the time |
| Weber's law | Just Noticeable Difference JND = kM where k is a constant function that varies depending on the stimulus and M = physical intensity of original stimulus. k = 0.03 for weight w/ 100g standard. |
| Gestalt Psychology | Interdependence: Perception occurs in an interdependent field of forces, depends on the whole. Pragnanz: Perception is guided towards achieving a perfect endstate, disorder creates tension which the brain reduces by altering the display |
| Gestalt Psychology contd. | No motives: Perception is hard-wired and cannot be overriden by psychological needs, motives, wishes, desires. |
| Figure and ground | Figures are the focus of our attention, ground refers to the surrounding context |
| Laws of perceptual organization | Proximity, Similarity, Continuity, Closure |
| Law of proximity | Things that are close together are perceived to be joined |
| Law of Similarity | Similar elements are perceived as belonging together |
| Law of continuity | People link individual elements together to form a pattern that makes sense |
| Law of closures | People tend to fill in gaps to complete figures |
| Perceptual constancy | The tendency to perceive stimuli as unchanging under changing conditions - brightness constancy, size constancy |
| Motivation | Learn to approach / avoid stimuli that have previously brought pleasure / pain |
| Homeostasis and motivation | Tendency for an organism to maintain a stable, internal environment. Disequilibrium creates an aversive tension that organisms are drive to reduce. Avoid > approach. Easier to quit feeling bad than start feeling good |
| Motivational conflict | Approach - approach (equally attractive), avoid - avoid (equally repulsive), approach - avoid (same object) |
| Central Drive Systems | Receive and integrate signals that monitor needs / drives. Control processes that carry out motivational behavior. |
| Hypothalamus | Central drive system that receives input from various parts of the body and coordinates responses to internal and external stimuli |
| Lateral hypothalamus | Appetite stimulation, if destroyed animals can starve themselves to death |
| Ventromedial hypothalamus | Appetite suppression, when destroyed, animals can overeat |
| Needs | Something that an organism requires (biologically) or desires (psychologically) |
| Drives | States of internal tension or arousal that occurs when a need arises |
| Goals / Incentives | An object or experience that satisfies a need |
| Motivation | Movement towards incentives that satisfy needs or desires |
| Physiological needs | Needs that directly promote survival or reproductive success |
| Regulatory | Needs that maintain internal equilibrium |
| Safety | Needs to avoid harm or escape danger and to feel safe |
| Reproductive | Needs that lead to procreation and the procreation and nurturing of offspring |
| Psychological Needs | Needs that can promote survival or reproductive success, but do not necessarily do so |
| Social | Needs that promote bonds between people |
| Self-worth | Needs for self-respect, self-satisfaction, self-actualization |
| Educative | Need to play, create, master, or explore. Be curious. |
| Maslow's Triangle | Hierarchy of needs |
| Mood | State of emotion that requires no eliciting stimulus |
| Basic emotions | Emotions that are universal and innate because they are adaptive, can be recognized by all members of a species |
| Hedonic Principle | Move towards things that feel good, away from things that feel bad. Emotions motivate behavior |
| Secondary (taught) emotions | Regret / guilt, shame, envy, jealousy, pride |
| Brain and emotion | Sympathetic division of the ANS, limbic system, prefrontal cortex, facial musculature |
| Hemispheric specialization - emotion | Left-hemisphere activation underlies positive emotions, right-hemisphere underlies negative emotions. Negative are primary, positive require maturity |
| Plutchik's Functional model | Fear: Threat = Danger > escape = safety Anger: Obstacle = enemy > attack = conquer Disgust: unpalatable object = poison > vomit = eject poison Sadness: Loss = abandonment > cry = reattach to valued object |
| Common sense theory | Stimulus > appraisal > feelings > behavior SAFB |
| James-Lange theory (spinal reflex) | Stimulus > appraisal > behavior > feelings SABF |
| Cannon-Bard theory (Anticipatory, learned habits) | Stimulus > appraisal > feeling > behavior SAFB |
| Schachter-Singer theory (Decide feelings) | stimulus > arousal > appraisal > feeling > behavior SAAFB |
| Habit | Learned stimulus instigated that is acquired through experience |
| Learning | Forming an association between two stimuli or between a response and a consequence |
| Habituation | Learning not to respond to a stimulus |
| Classical conditioning | Through principles of association, a previously neutral stimulus comes to evoke a previously reflexive response (Pavlov) |
| Operant conditioning | By virtue of it's personal consequences, a previously neutral stimulus comes to evoke a voluntary behavior (thorndike, watson, skinner) |
| Observational Learning | By virtue of it's observed consequences, a previously neutral stimulus comes to evoke a voluntary behavior. (bandura) |
| Unconditioned stimulus (UCS) | A stimulus that innately produces a reflexive response (food = salivation) |
| Unconditioned response (UCR) | Reflexive response to an UCS (reflexive salivation in the presence of food) |
| Conditioned stimulus (CS) | A stimulus (previously neutral) that, through association, produces a learned "reflex-like" response (tone = salivation) |
| Conditioned response (CR) | A learned response (habit) to a previously neutral stimulus |
| Equiprobablility | Any neutral stimulus can become a conditioned stimulus with equal ease. Turning any neutral stimulus into a conditioned stimulus is easiest when neutral stimulus precedes the UCS. |
| Short-temporal delay | There is a short delay between the neutral stimulus and the UCS |
| Stimulus generalization | A similar CS produces a CR |
| Discrimination | A dissimilar CS doesn't produce a CR |
| Secondary conditioning | A CS can function as a 'secondary' UCS |
| Extinction | CR stops occurring if UCS no longer follows CS |
| Spontaneous recovery | CR is easily reinstated if UCS follows CS |
| Behaviorism assumptions | All behavior originates through trail and error, organisms flail but do not purposefully attempt. Mechanism: Thoughts play no role in guiding behavior, animals mindlessly repeat behaviors that have met with prior reinforcement. |
| Thorndike | Put animal in puzzle box, arbitrarily pick a correct response, reinforces animal whenever it emits the correct response, over time the animal emits behavior soon after put in the box |
| Law of effect | Behavior is a function of it's prior consequences. |
| Law of excersize | Learning curve is shallow |
| Darwin and Natural Selection | Variations exist among members of a species, some variations are adaptive, adaptive variations endure |
| Thorndike and Operant Condititioning | Animals flail, some movements are adaptive, followed by desired outcomes, adaptive movements persist |
| Skinner | Developed a better box (operant chamber). Stimulus occurs, if animal performs desired task within 3 seconds, food / water is dispensed. |
| Variable schedule | Reinforcement occurs at a variable, unpredictable rate. Promote resistant extinction. Like gambling. |
| Fixed schedule | Reinforcement occurs at a constant, predictable rate. Promotes faster learning. |
| Positive reinforcement | Add consequence following a response. Praise child when he cleans his room. |
| Positive punisher | Add consequence following a response. Scold child when he hits |
| Negative reinforcer | Remove consequence following a response. Quit nagging when he cleans his room. |
| Negative punisher | Remove consequence following a response. Take away toys when boy hits. |
| Clark Hull | A stimulus is only reinforcing if it reduces a drive or satisfies a need. Drive is a build up of tension that arises from and unsatisfied need, motivates behavior. Learning occurs only if a consequence reduces a drive. |
| Garcia and Koelling 1966 | Rat drinks sweet water, a light and gentle buzzer turn on. 1/2 rats get nauseated from water, 1/2 receive electrical shock. Nauseated rats avoided sweet taste but not lights / noise. Taste and smell form association more readily than sight / sound. |
| Memory | the reordering, storing, and retrieval of experiences and information |
| Encoding | The process of attending to information and transforming it into a memory code |
| Retrieval | The process of bringing to mind information that has previously been encoded and stored |
| Three memory stores | Sensory, working, long term |
| Sensory memory | Brief, large capacity. .3 sec duration of visual info, 2 sec duration of auditory info. |
| Sperling 1960 | Showed subjects 9 letter displays for brief intervals. Low recall rates. |
| Working (short-term) memory | Sensory info deemed worth of attention. Long term memory that is retrieved. Thinking, reasoning, remembering occur here. ~30 sec. 7 +- 2 meaningful items. |
| Chunking | combining individual units into groups for easier memorization |
| Long term memory | Limitless library of durable memories. Implicit - motor skills (cerebellum), recalled without conscious intention, classical conditioning. Explicit - consciously called to mind. |
| Semantic memory | Facts, info, knowledge, prefrontal cortex |
| Episodic memory | Events, personal experiences. Hippocampus, prefrontal cortex |
| Long term potentiation | When two neurons communicate repeatedly, they form a neural circuit that strengthens their ability to communicate, resulting in a greater release of the neurotransmitter (glutamate) by the presynaptic neuron and increased receptor sites on the post-neuron |
| Herman Ebbinghaus | Repetition and memory - forget the most info within the first hour it is learned |
| Serial position effects | The ability to recall an item is influenced by its position in the series. Primacy effect: 1st few easily remembered. Recency effect: last few easily remembered |
| Relearning | Time or trials needed to relearn material. As rehearsal increases, learning time decreases |
| Spaced v Massed Repetitions | Info is remembered better when it is rehearsed several 'smaller' times with separation than when it is learned all at once |
| Elaborative encoding | Actively focusing on the meaning, understand, relate to personal knowledge, use mnemonic devices |
| Levels of processing | The more deeply we process info, the better we remember it. |
| Craik and Taiving | Subjects are asked to make one of 3 judgements about a series of words: how it's printed, what sounds does it make, what does it mean. Meaning group remembers most words |
| Schema | A cluster of interrelated knowledge that helps us make sense of experiences and events. Remember better when new info fits into an existing schema |
| Mnemonic Devices | Aids that reorganize info into meaningful units. Operah Eats Hot Minestrone Soup |
| Retrieval | Bringing info to mind. Cues can be a stimulus that activates info stored in long term memory. Multiple cues enhance recovery |
| Associative Network Models | Memory exists as a network of associated ideas and concepts. Activation of one concept spreads to related concepts like dominos. |
| Encoding specificity principle | Learn drunk if you want to test drunk, match environment. Context-dependent memory. |
| Godden and Baddeley | Tested scuba knowledge on water v on land |
| Mood-state-dependent memory | Recall stuff you learned happy when you're happy |
| Directed thinking | Logical reasoning, problem solving, intelligence, decision making, categorical thinking, category-specific deficit. |
| Logical Reasoning | Confirmation bias: focus on confirmatory cells and ignore non-confirmatory cells. Sampling bias: base conclusions on faulty samples that are too small or non-representative of the population |
| Rational Choice theory | People make rational choices, maximizing expected utility. Does not distinguish gains from losses. |
| Kahneman and Tversky | Risk-averse for gains - prefer certain small gains to uncertain, large ones Risk-seeking for losses - prefer uncertain large loss to certain small loss |
| Framing effects | Gain frame: prefer same expected utility framed as a gain |
| Libet | All decisions are initiated by our unconscious minds, but we can choose to act or not |
| Sympathetic Magic | People believe we can alter events from a distance by engaging in symbolic behaviors |
| Law of contagion | when humans contact inanimate objects an essence is transferred that remains even after the two are separated |
| Law of similarity | Image = object. |
| Intuition | Old, fast, automatic. Ventromedial area of prefrontal cortex VMPFC |
| Reason | Modern, slow, controlled. Dorsolateral area of prefrontal cortex DCPFC |
| Damasio | Patients with VMPFC damage reason normally, solve hypothetical moral problems, cannot make actual moral decisions. |
| Consciouness | Subjective awareness of sensory experience and mental products |
| Flynn Effect | IQ scores have risen 25 points in the past 5 years |
| Modeling variability | To what extent do variations in genetic similarity predict variations in observable characteristics? |
| Twin studies | Compare monozygotic twins with dyzygotic twins |
| Adoption studies | Compare correlation between adopted children and biological v adoptive parents or siblings |
| Intelligence | Ability to acquire knowledge, reason effectively, and solve problems |
| Mental tests | Achievement test, Aptitude test, Intelligence test |
| Achievement test | Assessment of knowledge in specific areas |
| Aptitude test | Measure potential for future learning and performance in specific areas |
| Intelligence test | Ability to quickly solve unfamiliar problems |
| Fluid intelligence | Ability to solve problems for which personal experience does not provide a solution |
| Crystallized intelligence | Apply previously acquired knowledge to solve current problems |
| Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale | Most popular IQ test, scores general and specific. Intellectual ability and processing speed and performance. IQ scores predict education and job attainment and performance, longevity (in women esp) |
| Sir Francis Galton | Darwin's half cousin, developed the correlation coefficient, studied family histories |
| Charles Spearman | Developed factor analysis, noted that tests of mental ability are positively correlated. Intellectual performance is influenced. |
| Louis Thurstone | Intelligence is comprised of 7 specific abilities |
| Modern Approachs: Gardner | Intelligence is comprised of 8 specific abilities |
| Sternberg | Intelligence is comprised of analytical, practical, and creative abilities |
| Alfred Binet | Commissioned to design an intelligence test to identify remedial students. Believed nurture > nature |
| Mental age | Age at which a child is performing mental tasks |
| IQ | ratio of mental to chronological age multiplied by 100, average IQ is 100 |
| Stanford-Binet test | IQ test. Mental abilities develop gradually with age. Intelligence is best measured using unfamiliar stimuli |
| Developmental Psychology | Study of psychological changes that occur with aging |
| Dev. Psych major issues | Nature v Nurture, Continuity v Discontinuity (stages), Timing |
| Continuity | gradual, uniform change |
| Stage theory | Rapid, different change, no backtracking |
| Jean Piaget | swiss scientist who worked with Binet. Claims that cognitive development passes through a series of discrete stages that culminates in the ability to display abstract, symbolic reasoning |
| Cognitive development | is driven by a child's active attempt to manipulate physical objects in exploration, curiosity, and play. |
| Schemes | Behavior is controlled by schemas that mentally represent objects with the physical world and the things we can do with them |
| Assimilation | The process of applying an existing schema to a new object |
| Accomidation | The process of modifyig a schema to manipulate a new object |
| Modern views of Cognitive Development | Modern researchers credit infants with a great deal of cognitive sophistication, some of which is present at birth (nativists) and designed by natural selection |
| Cognitive Development Research | is largely based on Eye Gaze: infants stare longer at unfamiliar stimuli |
| Piaget's Theory stages | Sensoimotor, Peroperational, Concrete Operational, Formal Operational |
| Sensorimotor | Birth - 2yrs. Infants understand the world through sensory experience and movement, act on objects only when objects are physically present. Lack object permanence. |
| Preoperational | 2-7yrs. Infants can mentally represent physical objects, can't mentally operate on them. Language and object permanence achieved. No distinction between real & imaginary |
| Concrete Operational | 7-12yrs. Children can perform basical mental operations involving tangible objects, understand reversibility, solve conservation problems, less egocentric. Can't think abstractly or reason hypothetically |
| Formal Operational | 12-adult. Individuals can think logically about abstract problems, form hypotheses and test them using a deductive model of reasoning. Concerned with ideological problems |
| Egocentrism | Belief that other people share your visual perspective |
| Piaget misgivings | Underestimated capabilities of children, rarely considered cultural roles in cognitive development |
| Intermodality | Something that affects one sense also affects another, touch a sphere and visualize the object |
| Vygotsky | Russian psychologist claimed social interaction (not personal exploration) is the principal force behind cog. dev. Kids acquire cultural values, beliefs, and problem solving from interacting with elders. |
| ZPD - Zone of Proximal Development | Range of tasks too complex for child to solve alone, but able to solve with help |
| Scaffolding | We help a child to reach their outer limit of their ZPD |
| Facial preferences | Infants come into the world with an innate preference to look at faces. Fusiform face area (temporal lobe) in the brain is only purposed with perceiving faces |
| Distress at nonresponsive faces | By ~2moa, infants become distressed when interacting with an impassive, unemotional face |
| Facial synchrony | Synchronized facial expressions between parent and child makes infants happier |
| Social attainment | We learn by watching others, infants as young as 2 days old can imitate the facial expression of an adult model. |
| Social refrencing | By ~10moa infants look to caregivers for emotional cues when facing an ambiguous exception. Visual cliff is an exception; once they crawl they trust their own eyes |
| Eye gaze as information | ~3moa are sensitive to eye gaze as a signal of what someone is interested in |
| Theory of mind | Tendency to express behavior in psychological terms. False belief task: until 4yrs most children will trust their perspective |
| LAD - Language Acquisition Device | An innate biological mechanism that contains the general grammatical rules common to all languages |
| LADD - Language Acquisition Support System | Environmental factors that facilitated the learning of a language |
| Vocal preferences | Infants possess an early preference for language, babies <6mo can hear the difference between any two phonemes in any language. After 6 mo, they become selectively sensitive to their native lang |
| Universal grammatical errors | ~3yoa children make predictable grammar errors that are not the result of imitation |
| Language development in deaf infants | Infants coo and babble just like other children, deaf infants exposed to sign language learn to babble with their hands |
| Wernicke's area | Speech part of the brain |
| Brocka's area | Speech production (motor) part of the brain |
| Phonemes | Smallest part of a sound |
| Morphemes | Smallest unit of meaning |
| Phrases | Morpheme combinations that convey meaning |
| Sentences | Phrase combinations |
| Phonology | Rule of grammar that dictates how phonemes can be combined to form morphemes |
| Morphology | Rules that specify how morphemes can be arranged to form words |
| Syntax | Rules that specify how words can be arranged to produce phrases and sentences. |
| Cooing | ~2moa, infants can distinguish human speech from other sounds |
| Babbling | 4-6moa, sounds the same in all languages |
| Babbling in native language | 7-11moa, Ability to distinguish phonemes narrows |
| Single words milestone | 12-18moa |
| Two words milestone | 18-24moa, telegraphic speech |
| Sentences milestone | 24-36moa, Rapid development of complete speech |
| Personality | Distinctive and relatively enduring patterns of thinking, feeling, and behavior, along with processes that produce them |
| Extroversion | ARAS, energetic, outoing |
| Neuroticism (Emotional stability) | Experience a wide range of negative emotional states. Anxious, ashamed, fearful as opposed to calm, relaxed, stable |
| Conscientiousness | Disciplined, goal-oriented, organized, persistant. Hardworking v lazy, dependent v not |
| Agreeableness | Good natured, Easy-going, Cooperative |
| Openess to Experience | Enjoy novelty and change and willing to try new things. |
| Victorian era | Smug about human rationality, division between humans and animals, proper women don't have sexual desires, sexual double standard |
| Psychoanalytic theory | Reality prevents us from fulfilling animal needs, as well as morality |
| Basic Needs | food, water, sex, safety (Eros); Desire to end life and return to inanimate state (Thanatos) |
| Personality II | Each person's way of satisfying basic needs in a world that discourages their direct gratification. Most experiences that create personality arise very early in life |
| Psychic determinism | All psychological events have determinable causes |
| Freud | Stressed the influence of early childhood, benefits of talking about problems, interpreting dreams, defense mechanisms, human native and sexuality |
| Freud critique | Broad and generous, not parsimonious (male v female superego), controversial, sexist, pessimistic |
| Id | Source of all motives, needs, wishes and desires. Present at birth, unconscious. Limbic system. Seeks gratification and uses primary process thinking |
| Ego | Seat of reason, rationality and logic, develops early in life. Almost entirely conscious or pre-conscious. Prefrontal cortex. Takes reality into account using secondary process thinking. |
| Superego | Source of morality, conscience, and ideal behavior. Develops ~4yoa. VMPFC, DLPFC |
| Conscious | Thoughts and images currently in awareness |
| Preconscious | Thoughts and images that can be easily brought into conscious |
| Unconscious | Thoughts, feelings, and desires actively kept out of awareness. Source of all human motivation. |
| Ego strength | Ability to balance competing forces, calm is the payoff |
| Delay of gratification | Ability to resist pleasing yourself |
| Imbalance | Underdeveloped, unrestrained, impulsive or Overdeveloped, timid, rigid, fearful |
| Personality Development | 5 stages, each stage involves a conflict regarding the gratification of sexual (sensory) pleasure at a different body part. Fixation, irreversible |
| Polymorphously perverse | We are born capable of deriving sensory pleasure from any part of the body. Through socialization, we learn to derive pleasure through sex |
| Oedipus complex | Everyone wants to kill their father and possess their mother. Superego is developed when children resolve incestuous wishes, no gender difference, resolved by identifying with same-sex parent |
| Psychosexual stages | oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital |
| Oral | 0-18moa, mouth, sucking, chewing, biting. Weaning occurs, resulting in trust and independence or a fixation of being overindulged or underindulged |
| Anal | 18-36mo, bowels, bladder, self-control of bodily processes. Toilet training occurs resulting in self-control, sometimes overcontrolled or undercontrolled |
| Phallic | 3-6years, Genitals, resolve oedipus complex by identifying with same sex parent and developing superego. Can result in sexual confusion, immoral behavior |
| Latency | 7-puberty. Sexual feelings channeled into socially appropriate behavior. Become a responsible member of society. Fixation = self-centeredness. |
| Genital | Pubery and beyond. Mature, sexual feelings, relationships. Provides adult responsibility. Fixation = sexually aberrant behavior, immoral |
| Stranger anxiety | Distress over contact with unfamiliar people, emerges around 7moa, ends by 18moa |
| Separation anxiety | Being separated from primary caregiver ~12-16mo, gone ~2-3yrs |
| Harry Harlow | Hulls drive-reduction model: primary caregiver reduces hunger drive = bond. Disproved with monkey surrogates |
| John Bowlby | Psychiatrist in charge of London's orphanages. Orphans were well fed, safe, cared for, but did not thrive as children |
| Erik Erikson | Psychosocial stages of development: personality develops in 8 stages involving conflict / crisis & backtracking is a thing |
| Social psychology | Study of how people think about, affect, and relate |
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