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Intro Psych Ch.1-4
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| What is Psychology and how is it related to empiricism? | -Empiricism in psychology has to do with the role of experience in identifying facts. - Science begins with empiricism (knowledge should initially be acquired through observation) |
| What is confirmation bias? | -The tendency to interpret new evidence as confirmation of one's existing beliefs or theories. |
| What is pseudoscience and what makes it distinct from science? | - Pseudoscience is a collection of beliefs or practices mistakenly regarded as being based on scientific method. - Pseudoscience lacks the safeguards against confirmation bias and belief perseverance that characterize science. |
| What do we mean when we talk about correlation vs. causation? What is the correlation-causation fallacy? | - Can we be sure that A causes - Correlation does NOT equal causation! - The correlation-causation fallacy is when people assume a cause-and-effect relationship simply from correlation. |
| What do we mean by the term falsifiability? | - Can the claim be disproved? - If a theory isn’t falsifiable, we can’t test it! If we gather evidence against it, can it prove proven wrong? |
| What’s the importance of replication when it comes to findings in Psychology/research? | - Can the results be duplicated in other studies? - If not, the original findings may have occurred just due to chance! |
| What is generalizability? | - Do these findings and conclusions reflect the diversity of the human experience? - Do results obtained from PSY 1013 students extend to all adults? Or to those with/from other cultures? |
| Structuralism | A mode of knowledge of nature and human life that is interested in relationships rather than individual objects or, alternatively, where objects are defined by the set of relationships of which they are part and not by the qualities possessed by them. |
| Functionalism | A psychological philosophy that describes the mind as a functional tool that allows us to adapt to our environments. It posits that our mental states and behaviors are survival mechanisms, in line with our inherent biological goals. |
| Behavioralism | The idea that all behaviors are learned through interaction with the environment. This learning theory states that behaviors are learned from the environment, and says that innate or inherited factors have very little influence on behavior. |
| Psychoanalysis | The belief that all people possess unconscious thoughts, feelings, desires, and memories. |
| Cognitivism | How a person's mind receives, organizes, saves and retrieves information. The cognitive theory believes that the human mind functions like an information processor or computer. |
| Naturalistic Observation | A research method that involves observing subjects in their natural environment. This approach is often used by psychologists and other social scientists. It is a form of qualitative research. |
| Experiments | An investigation in which a hypothesis is scientifically tested. An independent variable (the cause) is manipulated in an experiment, and the dependent variable (the effect) is measured; any extraneous variables are controlled. |
| Survey | A series of questions asked to the respondents in order to understand their thought processes and mental state. Psychological surveys bring out the various traits, behaviors, and conditions in respondents that can affect their actions the most. |
| Correlational Design | Investigates relationships between variables without the researcher controlling or manipulating any of them. A correlation reflects the strength and/or direction of the relationship between two (or more) variables. |
| Case Study | Very detailed investigations of an individual or small group of people, usually regarding an unusual phenomenon or biographical event of interest to a research field. Due to a small sample, the case study conducts a deep analysis of the individual/group. |
| What is an IRB and what role does it serve in research? | Institutional Review Boards, or IRBs, review research studies to ensure that they comply with applicable regulations, meet commonly accepted ethical standards, follow institutional policies, and adequately protect research participants. |
| What is the difference between reliability and validity? | - Reliability refers to the consistency of a measure (whether the results can be reproduced under the same conditions). - Validity refers to the accuracy of a measure (whether the results really do represent what they are supposed to measure). |
| What is an independent variable? | The characteristic of an experiment that is manipulated or changed by researchers, not by other variables in the experiment. |
| What is a dependent variable? | The variable that changes as a result of the independent variable manipulation. It's the outcome you're interested in measuring, and it “depends” on your independent variable. |
| What are the components of an experiment? | Control group, independent variable and dependent variable, constant variables, random assignment and manipulation. |
| What does a negative v. positive relationship look like? | A positive correlation means that both variables change in the same direction. A negative correlation means that the variables change in opposite directions. |
| What is a control group and why is it important for psychological research? | The control group consists of elements that are the same characteristics of the experimental group, except for the variable applied to the experimental group. It is important because it increases the reliability of results and reduces errors and bias |
| What do we mean by an operational definition? | - A working definition of what a researcher is measuring - Different researchers can adopt different operational definitions for their own purposes |
| What is the placebo effect and how does keeping a participant “blind” to conditions help to avoid it? | - It is resulting from the mere expectation of improvement - Patients must remain blind to the condition that they’re assigned to eliminate risk of placebo effect, due to them not having any expectations |
| What is the principle of informed consent and how does it relate to the Tuskegee Syphilis study? | - Informing participants of what’s involved in a study before asking them to participate because it could lead to unwanted consequences. - Participants are given the details of a study and allowed to ask questions about the study and what it involves. |
| What are the measures of central tendency and how do you calculate/solve for them? | - Measure of the “central” scores in a dataset, or where the group tends to cluster - Mean - sum of all the scores divided by the total -Median: the middle score in a dataset; scores arranged from low to high - Mode - the most commonly occurring # |
| What are the measures of variability and what happens to standard deviation as you increase the variability in a dataset? Does it get larger or smaller? | - Range and Standard Deviation - If scores are all very similar to each other, the standard deviation will be low - The more variability among the scores, the higher the standard deviation |
| What are the different types of imaging techniques used for studying the brain? Which are functional? Which are structural? | - Electroencephalography (EEG): Functional - Neuroimaging: Both - CT Scans & MRI Images: Structural - PET Scans: Functional - Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI): Functional - Magnetoencephalography (MEG): Functional |
| What are the different parts of a neuron called? What is the order whereby information is processed in a neuron? What does each do? | (In Order) The Dendrites, The cell body (also called the "Soma"), the Axon and the Axon Terminal, then reaches Synapse. |
| What are the various neurotransmitters that we discussed in class? | Glutamate, GABA, Acetylcholine, Monoamines |
| What are the divisions of the nervous system? | The Central Nervous System and the Peripheral Nervous System |
| What are glial cells and how are they different than neurons and what roles do they play? | Glial cells help support, connect, and protect the neurons of the central and peripheral nervous systems. |
| What is the “all or none” law as it relates to action potentials? | Neurons obey the “all or none” law: they either fire or they don’t |
| What is the action potential? | When the electrical charge inside the neuron reaches a high enough level relative to the outside (activation threshold), it triggers an electrical impulse called the action potential |
| What is the difference between an agonist and an antagonist? | Agonist:Drugs that increase or mimic the effect of a neurotransmitter Antagonist:Drugs that block or decrease the effect of a neurotransmitter |
| What is neurogenesis? | Neurogenesis is the creation of new neurons in the adult brain |
| What are the different lobes of the cerebral cortex? | Frontal Lobe, Parietal Lobe, Temporal Lobe |
| What is Broca’s area and what function does it serve? | a language area in the prefrontal cortex important for speech production |
| What is the limbic system and what kind of function does it have? | The emotional center of the brain, involved in emotion, motivation, and memory |
| What is the thalamus? | In the Limbic System, is a sensory relay station from the sensory organs; main source of input to the cortex |
| What is the amygdala? | In the Limbic System and is for evaluating emotional information, detecting threat and fear conditioning |
| What is the hippocampus? | In the Limbic System and is critical for certain types of memory, especially memories for individual events |
| What is the cerebellum? | In the Hindbrain, and plays a major role in our sense of motor movement, balance, coordination, and timing |
| What is the medulla? | In the Hindbrain, responsible for vital reflexes such as breathing, heartbeat, vomiting, salivation, coughing, and sneezing |
| What’s the pituitary gland and why is it referred to as the “master gland”? | The pituitary gland controls the other glands in the body and releases a variety of hormones that serve numerous functions, and affecting water retention in our kidneys) |
| What’s the hypothalamus? | In the Limbic System and is essential for control of eating, drinking, temperature control, and reproductive behaviors; conveys messages to the pituitary gland to alter the release of hormones |
| What’s the difference between genotype and phenotype? | Genotype is the set of gene transmitted from our parents to use and Phenotype is a set of observable traits |
| What is sensation and perception? What’s the difference between them? | Sensation is our ability to detect senses like touch, pain, vision, or the movement and positioning of our body. Perception is the way in which the brain processes and communicates these senses to the rest of the body. |
| What is the process of transduction and what is meant by the term “absolute threshold”? | The absolute threshold of a stimulus is the lowest level of a stimulus we can detect on 50% of the trials when no other stimuli of that type are present |
| What is Weber’s law and the just noticeable difference? | There’s a constant proportional relationship between the JND and the original stimulus intensity |
| What is selective attention? How does it relate to the phenomenon of the cocktail-party effect? | Selective attention allows us to choose which sensory inputs to focus on and which to “turn down”; We can focus on a conversation despite the fact that we may be in a noisy room |
| What is the optic nerve and what role does it play in vision? | The optic nerves relay messages from your eyes to your brain to create visual images. They play a crucial role in your ability to see. |
| What is the difference between the trichromatic theory and the opponent-process theory for color vision? | The trichromatic theory explains how color vision happens at the receptors, while opponent process theory interprets how color vision occurs at a neural level. |
| What is blindsight? | The ability of individuals with blindness to detect and respond to visual stimuli despite lacking awareness of having seen anything. |
| What are the various parts of the auditory system (e.g. what is the cochlea vs. the pinna) | Outer Ear: Pinna and Ear Canal Middle Ear: Ossicles Inner Ear: Cochlea |
| What nerve carries auditory information? | Cochlear Nerve |
| What are the different types of deafness? | Conductive Deafness, Noise-induced Deafness, Nerve Deafness |
| How is the limbic system involved in our chemical senses? | It connected due to the systems responsiveness to chemical and cortical stimuli, meaning it can connect senses to our memories and emotions |
| What neurotransmitter is involved in our sense of umami? | Glutamate |
| What is proprioception? | Proprioception, otherwise known as kinesthesia, is your body's ability to sense movement, action, and location. |
| What information do free nerve endings carry? | Free nerve endings can detect temperature, mechanical stimuli (touch, pressure, stretch) or danger (nociception). |
| What is the gate control theory of pain? | Theory that tries to explain how pain may be blocked from consciousness by neural mechanisms in the spinal cord |
| What are endorphins? | Endorphins are hormones that are released when your body feels pain or stress. They are produced in your brain and act as messengers in your body. Endorphins are produced to help relieve pain, reduce stress and improve mood. |
| What is our vestibular sense? | The vestibular sense, also known as the movement, gravity and/or balance sense, allows us to move smoothly. We are able to maintain our balance while engaged in activities because of this sense. |
| What is the difference between bottom-up and top-down processing? | In bottom-up processing, we allow the stimulus itself to shape our perception, without any preconceived ideas. In top-down processing, we use our background knowledge and expectations to interpret what we see. |
| What are the different types of perceptual constancies and what are the differences between them? | Brightness, Shape, Size, and Color - No matter the changes in an object's position or orientation, the shape of the object will be perceived as constant to someone familiar with the object; this is shape constancy. |
| What is prosopagnosia? | Prosopagnosia (also known as face blindness or facial agnosia) is a neurological disorder characterized by the inability to recognize faces. |
| What is binocular disparity? | The slight difference between the right and left retinal images. When both eyes focus on an object, the different position of the eyes produces a disparity of visual angle, and a slightly different image is received by each retina. |
| What is the visual cliff experiment and what does it help demonstrate? | The Visual Cliff Experiment conducted by Gibson and Walk in 1960 examined depth perception in infants by creating a visual illusion of a cliff and observing their reluctance to crawl across the perceived drop, showing how depth perception is innate |
| What do Dendrites do? | - Dendrites: many branches that receive stimuli from other neurons |
| What does the Axon and the Axon Terminal do? | - Axon / Axon Terminal: sends the neural signal; the axon terminal is the end of the axon where synaptic vesicles containing neurotransmitters can then fuse with the membrane to release them when an electrical signal reaches the terminal axom |
| What does the Soma do? | Soma: includes Nucleus, molecules are synthesized or generated; necessary for life of nerve cell |
| What does Synapses do? | - Information is exchanged between cells in the nervous system at the synapse, a gap between two neurons, or between a neuron and another cell (i.e. muscle cell or skin cell) |
| What does Glutamate do? | Associated with learning and memory |
| What does GABA do? | - Most anti-anxiety drugs bind to GABA receptors as well as sleep aids - Plays roles in learning, memory, and sleep |
| What does Acetylcholine do? | - Plays roles in arousal, memory, and sleep - Neurons connecting with muscle cells also release ACh, allowing them to trigger movement |
| What does Monoamines do? | - Dopamine plays critical roles in motivation and reward - Norepinephrine and serotonin have influences on consciousness and arousal |
| What does the Frontal Lobe do? | Responsible for motor function (movement), language (Broca’s area), decision making, planning, personality, and certain types of memory |
| What does the Parietal Lobe do? | Processing and integrating information about eye, head, and body positions from information sent from muscles and joints |
| What does the Temporal Lobe do? | Primary site of hearing, understanding language, and forming new, conscious long-term memories |
| What is the Sclera? | The white of the eye |
| What is the Iris? | The colored portion of the eye; controls how much light enters the eye |
| What is the Pupil? | Where light enters the eye through |
| What is the Cornea? | Where the focusing power of the eye happens; focuses light to the back of the eye |
| What is the Lens? | Structure behind the pupil which changes shape to bring objects into focus |
| What is the Retina? | The retina is a multi-layered collection of neurons that covers the back of the eye |
| What is Proximity? | All other things equal, stimuli that are near each other tend to be grouped together |
| What is Similarity? | Similar stimuli are grouped together; Stimuli that are similar in size, shape, color, or form tend to be grouped together |
| What is Continuity? | We still perceive objects as wholes, even if other objects block part of them |
| What is Closure? | When partial visual information is present, our brains fill in what’s missing |
| What is Symmetry? | We perceive objects that are symmetrically arranged as wholes more often than those that aren’t |
| What is Figure-ground? | Organizing a perception so that part of a stimulus appears to stand out as an object (figure) against a less prominent background (ground) |
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