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Sensation

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The process of detecting a physical stimulus.

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Perception

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The mental process of integrating, organizing, and interpreting sensory data.

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Subliminal Perception

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Stimulation that is below one's level of awareness.

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Transduction

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The process by which physical energy, such as light, is converted into a coded neural signal that can be transmitted & interpreted by the brain.

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Absolute Threshold

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The smallest possible stimulus that can be detected 50% of the time, AKA the minimum level of stimuli that we can detect.

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Difference Threshold, or JND

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The smallest possible difference between two stimuli that can be detected 50% of the time.

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Sensory Adaptation

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Adjusting to the magnitude of a stimuli. Ex: there is a bad smell in a room, but you get used to it and no longer notice it.

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Visible Spectrum

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The narrow range of wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum that is visible to the human eye.

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Cornea

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Transparent membrane that covers the outside of the eye; bends and focuses light.

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Iris

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Muscle that controls the amount of light entering the pupil; the colored part.

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Lens

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Thickens or thins to focus light onto the back of the eye.

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Accommodation

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The process by which the lens thickens or thins to focus light on back of the eye. To focus far away, it thins. To focus close up, it thickens.

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Fovea

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Vision is most accurate here.

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Blindspot

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Where the optic nerve leaves the eye.

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How do glasses correct visual problems?

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Glasses correct vision by intercepting and bending incoming light waves so that they are focused properly on the retina.

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Rods

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Peripheral and night vision (sensitive to light).

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Cones

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Color; requires more light. Far fewer in number than rods. Focused in the fovea.

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What is the path taken by light signals in the eye?

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Cornea, pupil, lens, retina.

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Trichromatic Theory of Color Vision

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3 types of cones: RED, GREEN, BLUE.

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Opponent Process Theory of Color Vision

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3 receptors/cones with opposites: Red/Green, Blue/Yellow, Black/White

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Afterimages

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Explained by Opponent Process theory. When you look at something long enough, then look away, you see it represented by opposite colors.

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Sound Waves

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Stimulus necessary for audition

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Amplitude

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Loudness. Represented by the height of a sound wave. Measured in dB.

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Frequency

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Pitch. Slower is lower, faster is higher. Represented by wavelength. Measured in Htz.

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Frequencies that humans can detect?

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Between 20 and 20,000 Htz.

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Outer Ear

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Contains the Pinna and Auditory Canal

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Middle Ear

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Contains the Tympanic Membrane (eardrum), 3 Ossicles, Oval Window

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Inner Ear

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Cochlea, Basilar Membrane (cilia inside)

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Pinna

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Floppy cartilage and skin attached to your head; funnels sound waves into the ear.

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Tympanic Membrane (Eardrum)

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Stretches across opening of ear canal. Sound waves hit it, and cause it to vibrate. Vibration transfers to 3 Ossicles.

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3 Ossicles

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Tiniest bones in the body. Hammer (malleus), Anvil (incus), and Stirrup (stapes). Vibration transfers to Oval Window.

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Oval Window

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Separates the middle ear from the inner ear. Vibration transfers to Cochlea.

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Cochlea (snail)

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Snail-shaped part of the inner ear. Vibration moves through fluid in the cochlea, then transfers to Basilar Membrane.

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Basilar Membrane

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Contains the receptor sites for sound (Cilia).

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Cilia

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Tiny hair cells; the receptor sites for sound.

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Sequence of parts of the ear that sound travels through?

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Pinna, ear canal, ear drum, hammer, anvil, stirrup, oval window, cochlea, basilar membrane, cilia.

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Place Theory of Pitch

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Different cilia respond to different frequencies. Explains frequencies above 1000 Htz.

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Frequency Theory of Pitch

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Sound waves cause cells to fire at the same frequency as the wave; but there is a limit to how quickly neurons can fire. Explains frequencies below 1000 Htz.

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Chemical stimuli are...

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involved in both olfactory and gustatory (taste) senses.

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The Limbic System regulates what?

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The emotional response to odors.

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JND

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Whether we can detect a change in the strength of a stimulus depends on the intensity of the original stimulus. Ex: two tiny pebbles vs. one heavy rock and one tiny pebble.

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What are the 5 primary tastes?

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Salty, sweet, sour, bitter, and umami (MSG).

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Gate-Control Theory of pain

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The sensation of pain is controlled by a series of 'gates' in the spinal cord.

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Vestibular Sense (body sense)

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The sense of balance and equilibrium (semicircular canals).

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Kinesthetic Sense (body sense)

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The sense of body movement; position of joints, muscle tension, etc. Ex: close your eyes and touch your toes.

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Figure-Ground relationship

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A perceptual principle, in which we automatically separate elements of a scene into an object and its background.

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Law of Proximity (Gestalt law)

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The tendency to group objects that are close to one another as a single unit.

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Law of Similarity (Gestalt law)

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The tendency to group similar-looking objects together.

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Law of Continuity (Gestalt law)

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The tendency to see the smoothest lines, rather than odd angles.

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Law of Closure (Gestalt law)

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The tendency to fill in missing pieces of commonly recognizable objects.

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Law of Common Fate (Gestalt law)

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The tendency to see things moving in the same direction to be more related than things that appear stationary or that move in a different direction.

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Relative Size (perceptual cue)

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Objects that appear to be largest will be judged to be the closest

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Monocular Cues

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Distance cues that require the use of only one eye. Ex: accommodation and artist cues.

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Binocular Cues

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Distance cues that require the use of two eyes to perceive depth. Ex: retinal disparity and convergence.

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Retinal Disparity

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Brain compares image on right retina to image on left retina. Compares the degree of difference between them.

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Convergence

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The angle your eye must converge to focus on an object.

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Visceral Sense (body sense)

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The sense of internal organs.

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Learning

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Relatively permanent change in behavior or knowledge due to past experience.

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Conditioning

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Learning associations between environmental events and behavioral responses.

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Classical Conditioning

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A process of learning an association between two stimuli.

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Stimulus Generalization

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When you respond not only to the CS, but to other similar stimuli.

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Stimulus Discrimination

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When you can discriminate between the CS and other similar stimuli.

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Extinction

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Weakening and eventual disappearance of CR, because the CS no longer reliably predicts the UCR.

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Spontaneous Recovery

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Reappearance of CR after initial extinction.

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Classical Conditioning involves ______, while Operant Conditioning involves _______.

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Reflexive (involuntary) behaviors; Voluntary behaviors.

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Thorndike's Law of Effect

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Rewarded behaviors are more likely to be repeated, while unrewarded behaviors are less likely to be repeated.

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Skinner coined the term 'operant' to describe

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Active behaviors that operate on the environment to generate consequences.

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The basic idea of Operant Conditioning is that...

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Behavior is shaped and maintained by its consequences.

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Primary Reinforcers

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Biological (food, drink, pleasure)

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Secondary Reinforcers

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These gain power through association with other secondary/primary reinforcers (money, grades, words of praise)

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Punishment is most effective if...

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It immediately follows an operant, and consistently follows the operant.

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Reinforcement ________ behavior, while Punishment ________ behavior.

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Increases; Decreases.

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Positive Reinforcement

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ADDS something positive as a reward for correct response/behavior.

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Negative Reinforcement

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REMOVES something aversive as a reward for correct response/behavior.

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Positive Punishment

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ADDS something negative for improper response/behavior.

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Negative Punishment

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REMOVES something positive for improper response/behavior.

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Punishment should....

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Be consistent, immediate, and fit the crime.

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Shaping

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Reinforcing successively closer approximations of behavior until the desired behavior is displayed.

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Partial reinforcement is to ____, as continuous reinforcement is to ________.

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Never; Always.

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What schedules of reinforcement are more resistant to extinction?

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Variable Ratio and Variable Interval

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Fixed Ratio

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Reinforced only after a specified number of responses.

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Variable Ratio

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Reinforced after an unpredictable number of responses.

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Fixed Interval

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Reinforced after a certain amount of time has passed.

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Variable Interval

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Reinforced after an unpredictable amount of time has passed.

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Learned Helplessness

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Exposure to inescapable and uncontrollable aversive events produces passive behavior.

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BOBO doll experiment...

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by Albert Bandura; showed the power of Observational Learning.

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Fundamental Processes of Memory

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Encoding, Storage, Retrieval

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Information-Processing Model of Memory

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Sensory Memory, Short-Term Memory, and Long-Term Memory.

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Sensory Memory

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Stores exact replicas. Duration: 1 second. Capacity: limitless. Two kinds: Iconic and Echoic.

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Iconic Memory

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Visual; part of sensory memory.

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Echoic Memory

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Auditory; part of sensory memory.

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Short-Term Memory

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aka "working" memory. Attention is key. Duration: 30-60 seconds. Capacity: 7, +/- 2. If information is not further processed, it decays or fades.

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Chunking

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Strategy to help remember info, for STM.

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Maintenance Rehearsal

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Repetition; keep saying it, and you'll remember for a little while..

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Elaborative Rehearsal

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Key to going from STM to LTM.

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Memory

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The mental processes that enable us to acquire, retain, and retrieve information.

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Long-Term Memory

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Duration: limitless. Capacity: limitless. Retrieval can be difficult. Elaborative rehearsal necessary. We encode by semantics. 3 types: Semantic, Episodic, and Procedural.

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Semantic Memory

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LTM. General memory, ex: math facts. Part of Declarative memory

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Episodic Memory

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LTM. Personal knowledge, ex: your car crash. Part of Declarative memory

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Procedural Memory

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LTM. Skills and habits, ex: riding a bicycle.

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Declarative Memory

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LTM. Factual information; semantic and episodic are part of this. Also called "explicit" memory.

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Clustering

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Tendency to remember groups of related words within a list.

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Semantic Network Model

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Suggests that info in long-term memory is organized in a complex system of associations.

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Retrieval

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The process of accessing info stored in LTM.

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Essays are to _____, as matching tests are to _____.

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Free Recall; Cued Recall.

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Serial Position Effect

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Position in a list influences how well you remember something; primacy and recency effects.

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Primacy Effect

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When you remember items in the first part of a list.

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Recency Effect

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When you remember items at the end of a list.

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Mood Congruence

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Retrieval cue, and encoding specificity principle. Being in a certain mood makes you more likely to remember other things associated with that mood.

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Flashbulb Memory

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Remembering a memory exactly as it was.

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Forgetting

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Encoding-failure (poor attention/didn't understand) Storage-failure (shallow processing/disorganized) Retrieval-failure (poor retrieval cues: recall vs. recognition) Decay Interference Amnesia Repression/Suppresion

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Interference

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Proactive: old info interferes with remembering new info. Retroactive: new info interferes with remembering old info.

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Amnesia

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caused by trauma. Retrograde: can't recall former memories. Anterograde: can't form new memories.

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Which brain region is involved in retrieving/organizing info associated with episodic and autobiographical memories?

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The frontal lobe

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Cocktail Party Effect

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Part of selective attention.

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Nonselective Attention

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Repetition, intensity, and contrast automatically attract your attention.

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Types of effective elaborative rehearsal?

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Visualize terms and concepts. Explain material in own words. Relate info to what you already know. Relate info to examples in own life.

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Long-Term Potentiation

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Long-lasting increase in synaptic strength, associated with new memories/learning a new skill.

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Forgetting: definition

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The inability to recall info that was previously available to memory.

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Repression

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Unconscious forgetting; trauma-related. Freud likes this; psychologically threatening things from early childhood.

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Suppression

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Motivated/consciously, deliberately forgetting

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Memory Consolidation

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Gradual, physical process of converting new long-term memories into stable, enduring memory codes.

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