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Psychology
Year 1
Question | Answer |
---|---|
What is our working definition of psychology? | The scientific study of behaviour and mental processes |
What behaviours and mental processes do psychologists study? | -Mental health -Mental illness -Intelligence -Decision making -Parenting |
What are the benefits of studying behaviour and mental processes scientifically? | -Avoid confirmation bias -Avoid claims that do not generalize to a broader group or set of conditions |
What kinds of variation do psychologists study? | -Between People: to what extent are people similar and different -One person’s behaviour in various situations: i.e. around family, around friends, around coworkers/bosses -Variation of a person over time: childhood to adulthood and on |
What are the key features of true experiments? | -Two or more groups are being compared -Participants are randomly assigned to groups (this fact makes it a true experiment) -The groups are different to the independent variable |
What are the main types of non-experimental methods? | Quasi-experiments Case studies Correlation studies |
Key Features of Quasi-Experiments? | -Comparing Two or more groups -Cannot randomly assign people. |
Key Features of Case Studies? | Purpose: close examination of a small number of people to learn more about rare phenomena |
Key Features of Correlational Studies? | Two or more variables No groups are being compared |
Correlation studies examine... | ...the direction and strength of the relationship between two variables |
What does a correlation coefficient tell us? | -The sign tells you about the direction -The number tells you about the strength of the relationship, larger numbers mean a stronger relationship. |
A correlation coefficient is zero when... | ...there is no relationship between the variables |
Guess the Research Method! We are comparing random groups | True Experiment |
We are comparing groups that are NOT random | Quasi-Experiment |
We are not comparing groups and they are NOT random | Correlation |
We are experimenting with one person or a VERY SMALL group | Case Study |
Define what psychological scientists mean by ‘sensation’ | Process by which information in the physical world is detected by sensory organs. |
Define what psychological scientists mean by ‘perception’. | Process by which the sensory information is interpreted in the brain: Sensation begins with a process called transduction |
What are some examples of human transducers? | All of your sensory organs |
What do transducers do? | Sense organs are energy translators |
What is the challenge during sensation? | Sensory organs can transduce the “avalanche of sensations” available in the environment, but the brain cannot process all of this information |
What are two solutions to the challenge? | Restrict incoming information through selection and selective attention |
What is the challenge with respect to attention? | Attention is limited |
Name four factors that increase the chances we will pay attention to a stimulus: | Information that: -Is physically salient (e.g., bright, loud, sharp) -Is appealing or interesting -Has meaning or importance (e.g., cocktail party effect) -Allows us to meet goals |
Describe Yarbus' Study. | G1: determine the ages of the people in the picture. G2: be able to describe the clothing of the people in the picture G3: remember the location of people and objects in the picture |
What were the results of that study? | Eye tracking shows that people look toward aspects of the painting that will provide the information needed to meet their goal. |
What was the take home message from that study? | -Goals impacted what we attend to, and therefore what we perceive -We miss some stimuli because we focus attention on the other things -**Sensory information is NOT always sent to the brain for processing |
Describe Simons and Chabris. | We were asked to count how many times the white team passed the basketball while the black team was also passing another basketball and a gorilla walked by. |
What were the results of the study? | About half the participants missed the gorilla in the video |
What was the take home message from that study? | Attention can be narrowed to include only things that are relevant to our goals. |
Name the two types of ‘blindness’ that can result from selective attention when we pursue our goals. | -Inattentional blindness -Change Blindness |
Inattentional blindness: | Fail to see elements of a scene you are watching (objects; actions) |
Inattentional blindness happens for two reasons: | -Attention is focused on a goal -What you saw was unexpected |
Change Blindness: | Fail to see gradual change to elements of a scene you are watching |
Explain what is meant by multimodal integration. | The brain doesn't deal with information coming from one sense at a time; it combines information from all senses. |
What are some everyday examples in which multimodal integration plays a role? | -Sports -Playing music -Eating and Drinking -Speech |
Name and describe two conditions that illustrate this type of human diversity in multimodal perception. | -Synesthesia -Autism |
Describe one way in which transducers contribute to similarities in perception. | Human transducers work in the same way for most people, yielding a similar perceptual experience. |
Describe how experience contributes to similarities in perception. | We often use similar ‘perceptual rules’ to interpret stimuli and consequently have similar perceptual experiences |
Name two examples of experience-based perceptual ‘rules of thumb’ that contribute to similarities in perception. | Shape Constancy Brightness constancy |
Shape Constancy: | we understand that the shape is constant even if we are visually exposed to something different (ie., an apple is round even behind another fruit) |
Brightness constancy: | Our perception is being changed because of the light |
Describe five ways in which transducers contribute to differences in perception. | -Number/type of sensory receptors -Physical location -Genetics -Age-related change -Exposure to environments and experiences (e.g., abuse, surgery, loud noise) that damage transducers |
Describe what psychological scientists mean by the term ‘bottom-up processes’, and provide some examples. | Trying to make sense or come to conclusions about something (system 2) |
Describe what psychological scientists mean by the term ‘top-down processes’, and provide some examples. | -Lots of experience, looking and recognizing and knowing effortlessly (system 1) |
What are the four characteristics of memory? | -Vary in terms of time -Vary in terms of how automatic it is to retrieve them -Vary in terms of ‘episodic-ness’ -Vary in terms of format |
What are the two elements that make up the modal model of memory? | -Memory systems: Types of memory -Memory processes: Move information between memory systems |
What are the characteristics of sensory memory? | -Large capacity -Very brief duration -Not conscious |
What are the characteristics of working memory/short term memory? | -Like a mental workbench, where we can manipulate information currently in our minds -Interacts with SM and LTM -Very small capacity -Brief duration -Conscious |
How did prior researchers conceptualize WM/STM? | Previously considered a “storage place” with limited capacity |
What tasks were used to establish its capacity? | “Simple” span tasks test |
What is the current view of WM/STM? | It’s not just a space, it’s also a dynamic process |
What tasks are used to establish its capacity? | Complex span tasks test WM processing |
Explain what we know about variation in the capacity (or processing power) of people’s WM/STM. | -People differ in terms of their working memory ability -Research suggests that WM is relatively fixed; training does not improve it |
What are the characteristics of long term memory (LTM)? | -Very large capacity -Very long duration (permanent?) -Not conscious |
Two types of LTM | implicit and explicit |
What are the characteristics of Implicit memory? | Difficult to verbalize |
Provide three examples of implicit memory | -Procedural knowledge -Learned associations -Priming |
What is Priming? | Activating specific information in memory increases the likelihood that related information will also be activated |
What are the characteristics of Explicit memory? | Easy to verbalize |
What are the two types of Explicit memory? | -Semantic Memory -Episodic Memory |
Semantic Memory: | Memory for facts and concepts |
Episodic Memory: | Memories connected to a specific time and/or place |
2 main points of Long-Term Memory: | -Your memories are stored in a network. Made up of nodes and links between the nodes. -Some memories are stored in the network as pictures or sounds. |
Selective attention: | Moving information from sensory memory to working memory. |
Describe the process of selective attention: | The processes that allow an individual to select and focus on particular input for further processing while simultaneously suppressing irrelevant or distracting information. |
Maintenance rehearsal: | keeping information in working memory. |
Describe the process of maintenance rehearsal: | A conscious effortful process. For example, I give you a phone number and you repeat the number over and over again until you can put it in your phone. |
Encoding | Moving information from working memory to long-term memory. |
What are the two processes that help improve encoding? | -Emotion -Deep processing |
How does emotion help to improve encoding? | Emotions make it more likely that experiences will be encoded in LTM |
How does deep processing help to improve encoding? | Help us to integrate new material in WM with information previously stored in the LTM network |
What are the two strategies that encourage deep processing? | -Mental images -Elaborative rehearsal |
Mental images | Concept maps |
Elaborative rehearsal | Focuses on meaning and connects new ideas to those already in your memory network |
Retrieval | moving information from Long-Term Memory to Working Memory |
Describe the process of retrieval: | Retrieval capacity is limited; most of what we know isn’t instantly available all the time. |
What are the three key points that were made about memory? | -Retrieval is not like rewinding a movie -Speed and success of retrieval depends on distances between nodes in the network -Retrieval is like a construction process |
Define what psychological scientists mean by ‘learning’. | Relatively permanent changes in behaviour and knowledge |
What are the two types of associative learning? | -Classical Conditioning -Operant Conditioning |
How does classical conditioning (CC) work? | When a neutral stimulus becomes associated with a stimulus that naturally produces a behaviour. |
On which type of relationship is traditional CC focused? | Focus is on a naturally-occurring stimulus-response relationship |
How does operant conditioning (OC) work? | Focus is on the relationship between voluntary behaviours and their consequences |
Positive Reinforcement? | Something good is provided to increase likelihood that behaviour will happen again |
Positive Punishment? | Something bad is provided to decrease likelihood that behaviour will happen again |
Negative Reinforcement? | Something bad is removed to increase likelihood that behaviour will happen again |
Negative Punishment? | Something good is removed to decrease likelihood that behaviour will happen again |
What was the focus of early research on cognitive learning? | Early research focused on schema development |
What are two points made from Piaget's Research? | Assimilation and Accommodation |
Assimilation: | Adapting existing concepts and schemas when confronted with new information |
Accommodation: | New concepts and schemas created to manage new information |
Outline two reasons why children’s cognitive learning can be slow. | -Lots of trial-and-error (Steven and dog example) -Children’s thinking hampered by limitations and misconceptions |
Three limitations to children's thinking: | -Object permanence -Conservation -Egocentrism |
Object Permanence: | Understanding that objects continues to exist even when they are not in sight |
Conservation: | Failure to understand that properties of matter stay the same even when shape or appearance change |
Egocentrism: | Inability to see the world from another person’s point of view |
How does prior knowledge stored in LTM facilitate new cognitive learning? | Prior knowledge facilitates new cognitive learning by improving the ability to: -Understand new information -Remember new information |
How well do we assess ourselves? | Decisions often depend on beliefs about our own knowledge, skills, personality and values |
What is metacognition? | The ability to evaluate your thought processes, understanding, skill level and performance |
What are the three factors that contribute to the optimistic bias? | -Difficulties defining competence -Poor/incomplete feedback from others -Information deficits |
Definition of the DK Effect: | People who are incompetent don’t recognize they’re incompetent and are likely to feel confident that they are competent |
What is the best way to study for an exam? | Self-test |
Nervous System: | Network of neurons that communicate with electrical and chemical signals |
Types of Neurons | -Sensory Neurons -Motor Neurons -Interneurons |
Sensory Neurons | Carry sensory information to brain and spinal cord |
Motor Neurons | Carry instructions from brain and spinal cord to muscles and glands |
Interneurons | -Connector neurons -Information processing role |
Two major divisions of the Nervous System | -Central Nervous System -Peripheral Nervous System |
Central Nervous System | -Brain and spinal cord -Receives sensory info, makes decisions, and commands muscles and organs to take action -Spinal Cord |
Peripheral Nervous System | -Everything in nervous system except brain and spinal cord -Informs CNS and transmits its decision |
Somatic Nervous System | Conveys sensory info to CNS through sensory neurons |
Autonomic Nervous System | Controls involuntary bodily functions through organs and glands |
Branches of Autonomic Nervous System | -Sympathetic Branch -Parasympathetic branch |
Sympathetic Branch | Fight or flight response |
Parasympathetic Branch | -Reduces arousal -Rest and digest |
Endocrine System | Network of glands that release hormones into bloodstream |
How do Neurons Communicate | Conduction and Synaptic Transmission |
Conduction | electrical signals |
Synaptic Transmission | chemical signals |
Resting Potential: Voltage | Neuron in inactive state |
Resting Potential: Ions | Negative charge inside, positive charge outside the axon |
Ion Channels | Gates in axon membrane |
Action Potential | Sodium ion channels open when threshold of excitation met |
Propagation of Action Potential | Action potential propagated down axon to axon terminal |
Refractory Period | Negative after-potential |
Neurotransmitters | Bind to receptor sites |
Neural Networks | Networks of interconnected neurons |
Brain Structure: | Measure with CT scan or MRI |
Brain Function: | Measure with fMRI, PET scans |
Major Divisions of the Brain: | -Hindbrain (lowest part) -Midbrain (Middle part) -Forebrain |
Parts of the Hindbrain: | -Medulla -Pons -Reticular Formation -Cerebellum |
Medulla | Vital life functions |
Pons | Bridge between hindbrain and rest of brain |
Reticular Formation | Arousal levels |
Cerebellum | Fine motor skills; procedural memory |
Parts of the Midbrain: | -Tectum -Tegmentum -Brain Stem |
Tectum | Orientation |
Tegmentum | Regulating arousal, mood, and motivation |
Brain Stem | Midbrain plus pons and medulla in the hindbrain |
Parts of the Forebrain | Subcortex and Cerebral Cortex |
Parts of the Subcortex | -Limbic System -Thalamus -Basal Ganglia |
Limbic System: | Emotions, motivation, memory |
Thalamus: | Relays sensory information to cerebral cortex |
Basal Ganglia | Directs intentional movement |
Parts of the Limbic System: | -Hypothalamus -Hippocampus -Amygdala |
Hypothalamus: | Regulates bodily functions and motives |
Hippocampus: | Creates long-term memories |
Amygdala | Automatic emotional reactions hard to consciously control |
Forebrain: Cerebral Cortex | Primarily responsible for language, reasoning, planning, inhibiting impulses |
Lobes of the Cerebral Cortex: | Occipital lobe: vision Temporal lobe: hearing Parietal lobes: touch |
Frontal Lobe: | -Prefrontal Cortex -Primary Motor Area |
Prefrontal Cortex | Reasoning, planning, self-regulation |
Primary motor area | Controls voluntary muscle movement |
Genes | Segments of DNA |
Chromosomes | Threads of DNA on rod-like structures in nucleus |
Cell Nucleus | 23 pairs of chromosomes |
DNA | Molecular structure with chain of organic bases that code genetic information |
Organic bases | Adenine (A), Thymine (T), Guanine (G), Cytosine (C) |
What do genes do? | Code for production of proteins |
What are the two types of Alleles? | Homozygous or heterozygous |