Exam #1 General Psychology (Chapters 1,2,3,&5) – Flashcards
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Who created the first psychological laboratory experimenting mental processes in 1879?
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Wilhelm Wundt
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What was the definition of psychology in the 1920's?
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The science of mental life
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Who were the behaviorist and what did they do?
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The behaviorist redefined the definition (from 1920) of psychology to, "only behavior can be observed." or observable behavior without mental processes
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In 1960, two groups believed the behaviorist were limiting the definition of psychology, what did they focus on?
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How the environment helps or prevents personal growth. Cognitive Revolution/ Cognitive Psychology, how people perceive, process, and remember information.
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What is Cognitive Neuroscience?
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brain activity connected with the mental activity
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What is the modern definition of Psychology?
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The science of behavior and mental processes
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Why do people believe Psychology is easy and unimportant to study?
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People think personal experiences, common sense, and intuition is what psychology is. People think Psychology is just being able to understand each other and make sense of the things around them.
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Name three flaws that limits intuition.
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hindsight bias, over confidence, and making patterns in random events
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What is Hindsight Bias?
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" I-Knew-It-All-Along" phenomenon, could have made predictions after knowing the outcome
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What is behavior?
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Anything that a human and non-human does
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What are mental processes?
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the internal state inferred by behavior
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What is cognitive psychology?
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how we think,perceive, and solve problems
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What is developmental psychology?
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growth from womb to tomb
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What is Critical Thinking?
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questioning everything, examine assumptions/guesses, testing conclusions.
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What are the three levels of Biopsychosocial Approach?
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Biological, psychological, and socio-cultural
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What is dual processing or two track mind?
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an unconscious/unaware and conscious/aware track of information processing
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What is gender?
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behaviors and traits expected in a man or a woman
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What is sex?
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biological characteristics
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What makes up a persons culture?
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values, behaviors, traditions, and ideas passed down to generations
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What is the nature-nurture issue?
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the influence nature(biology/genes) and nurture(experience) has on the psychological growth of traits and behavior. "nurture works on what nature gives"
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What three things does positive psychology focus on?
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positive emotions, positive traits, and positive institutions
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What makes a good theory?
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clearly explains and organizes ideas and observations
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What is a hypothesis?
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testing a theory confirming or rejecting a theory
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What is operational definitions?
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detailed descriptions
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What is replicate?
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repeating a research or recreating a study
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What are three descriptive methods and explain each one?
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case studies, studies in depth & can't be generalized naturalistic observations, describes but doesn't explain behavior surveys and interviews, less depth & random sampling
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What are three correlational methods?
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Positive correlations increase or decrease together Negative correlations one increases while the other one decrease and vise versa Coefficient correlation is little to no relationship/ correlation
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How do experiments work?
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by having independent(X) and dependent variables(Y) "if X is given, then Y occurs"
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What is an experimental group?
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with treatment
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What is control group?
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no treatment
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What is placebo and how does it help people?
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its a fake pill with nothing inside it. The pill tricks people into feeling better
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What is double blind study?
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a study conducted, where nobody knows who has the treatment
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What results after placebo?
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The placebo effect
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What is confounding variable?
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a factor besides the independent variable that gives results
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What is debriefing?
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informing participant after the experiment what the purpose was
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What is the nervous system building block?
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the neuron or the nerve cell. All neurons are different, every neuron has a cell body
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How does the brain take in, interpret, store, and use information?
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by using electrical and chemical processes
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What are the parts of the neuron?
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DENDRITES are long ends that receive information or messages from other cells and sends them to the cell body. The axons sends out the message from the dendrites.
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How does action potentials help neurons?
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action potentials help send messages through the axon at faster speeds
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Action potentials are aka?
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neural impulses
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The axon is covered in?
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the myelin sheath
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What else supports the neurons myelin sheath?
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glia cells
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What is phrenology?
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a false belief that the skull or the shape makes up a persons personality
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What are synapses?
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the gaps between close neurons, neurons release chemical neurotrasmitters at the end of a sypnapse. neurons change electrical impulse to chemical nerve impulses
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What kind of signals do neurons have?
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excitatory signals and inhibitory signals and threshold
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What is the all or nothing response?
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neurons fire or don't fire
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what is a reuptake?
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a neuron that picks up any left over neurotransmitters at the end of the sypnase
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What is the role of terminal branches of an axon?
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releases neurotransmitters
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What do neurotransmitters do?
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influence behavior and emotion. neurotransmitters are produced chemically by neurons to cross the synapses to send information to other cells or neurons
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What is the nervous system?
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sends electrochemical communication and consists of nerve cells from both the central nervous system the peripheral nervous system
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What is the central nervous system(CNS)?
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the brain and the spinal cord
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What are nerves?
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bundled of axons that attend to the central nervous system
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How does the peripheral nervous system help the CNS?
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sensory and motor neurons connect the CNS to the rest of the body
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What are sensory neurons?
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neurons carry messages from body tissues and sensory receptors to brain and spinal cord
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What are motor neurons?
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neuron sends messages from central nervous system to muscles and glands
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What are interneurons?
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neurons that communicate in the brain and the spinal cord both and process information from sensory input and motor output
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What is the somatic nervous system?
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the motor output controls skeletal muscle movement aka skeletal nervous system
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What is autonomatic nervous system? (ANS)
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an autopilot. controls glands, muscles of internal organs, heart, and digestive system
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The autonomic nervous system orders the adrenal glands to...
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release epinephrine and norepinephrine to act in a fight or flight situation
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What is the difference between the two subdivision of the autonomatic nervous system?
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the sympathetic nervous system alerts and parasympathetic nervous system calms.
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What is a reflex?
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an automatic reflex like the knee jerk response
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What does the endocrine system release?
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glands release chemical messenger known as hormones in the bloodstream influences behavior and emotions
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What controls the Pituitary glands? and what is the role of the pituitary glands?
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the hyPothalamus control the pituitary glands and the pituitary glands release growth, sex hormones, and oxytocin (for social interactions). at the same time the pituitary gland sends messages to other endocrine glands to do the same
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What is the feedback system?
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it's an interplay between the nervous system and the endocrine system Brain>pituitary>other glands>hormones>body and brain
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What is the brains oldest and innermost region?
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the brainstem
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What is located at the base of the brainstem? what does it do?
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Medulla it controls heartbeat and breathing
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What is above the medulla? what does it do?
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Pons it coordinates movement
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Whats above the brainstem? what does it do?
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Thalamus receives information from all the senses (sensory messages) except smell it replies to other brain regions like the medulla and the cerebellum
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What does the spinal cord include? three things.
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the brainstem, medulla, and pons
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What is the role of reticular formation?
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neuron network, from your brainstem, and into your thalamus. its role is controlling arousal
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amygdala, hypothalamus, and the hippocampus are in the...
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limbic system
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What is the role of Amygdala? what is it?
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play a role in emotions such as fear and anger processes emotional memories. looks like two lima bean neuron clusters. damage to the amygdala will no fear or anger
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What is the hippocampus?
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linked to conscious memories. damage to the hippocampus causes inability to make new memories
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What is the role of the hypothalamus?
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is below the thalamus, directs bodily maintenance such as thirst, hunger, sex urges, and body temperature . helps govern the endocrine system via the pituitary gland and is linked to emotion and reward (dopamine)
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What is the role of the cerebellum?
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"little brain" it coordinates voluntary movement, processes and stores outside the awareness, emotional control, helps time sound and texture
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What is the cerebral cortex?
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A thin layer of interconnected neurons in the middle of the two hemispheres each hemispheres has four lobes
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What are the frontal lobes?
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located behind forehead involved in speaking, judgement, muscle movements, and making plans
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What are the parietal lobes?
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located at the top of the head receives sensory input for touch and body position
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What are occipital lobes aka visual cortex?
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located at the back of the head receive information from the visual fields
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What are temporal lobes aka auditory cortex?
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located above the ears receives information from the ears
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What is the motor cortex?
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controls voluntary movement the mouth and the fingers have the greatest cortical space
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What role does the somatosensory cortex?
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processes information from your skin senses and from movements of your body parts. Example: The more sensitive a body region, the larger the somatosensory cortex area devoted to it. Why do we kiss with our lips rather than rub elbows? Our super sensitive lips project to a larger brain area than do our arms
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What are association areas? what is an example of damage to the association areas?
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involved higher mental functions, such as learning, remembering, thinking, and speaking. brain plasticity, neurons can repair themselves at a young age. Damage in each loss has different losses
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The two hemispheres are able to send information to each other because of...
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corpus collosum... a severed corpus collosum is unable to allow the two hemisphere to communicate
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The right hemisphere...
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high level language processing
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The left hemisphere...
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makes exact interpretations of language
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What is neurogenesis?
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the formation of new neurons
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What is the prenatal development order?
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zygote, embryo, and fetus
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What is DNA? deoxyribonucleic acid
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a molecule that contains genetic information that makes up chromosomes
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What do chromosomes contain?
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DNA and genes
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genes make up
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biochemical units of heredity that make up chromosomes and segments of DNA
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What is circadian rhythm is...
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biological clock
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What is change blindness?
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a failure to notice our surroundings
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What is inattentional blindness?
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when our direction is focused on one thing and doesn't notice other visible objects
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What is selective attention?
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focusing on a particular object
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What is REM rapid eye movement?
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sleep recurring in body movement and high brain activity
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What are alpha waves?
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relaxed state, where a person grows tired and falls asleep
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What are delta waves?
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deep sleep
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What is insomnia?
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difficulty faling asleep
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What is narcolepsy?
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uncontrollable sleep attacks direct REM state
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What is sleep apnea?
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when a sleeping person stops breathing
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What is REM rebound?
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sleep deprivation leads to an immediate REM sleep
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What is a genome?
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the complete instructions for making an organism, consisting of all the genetic material in that organism's chromosomes
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What are Identical (monozygotic) twins?
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are nature's own human clones. They develop from a single fertilized egg, and they share the same genes. They also share the same uterus, and usually the same birth date and cultural history.
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What is are Fraternal (dizygotic) twins?
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develop from separate fertilized eggs. As wombmates, they share the same prenatal environment but not the same genes. Genetically, they are no more similar than non-twin brothers and sisters.
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What are teratogens?
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virus that can hurt an embryo
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What is fatal alcohol syndrome (FAS)?
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physical and mental abnormalities in children caused by a pregnant woman's heavy drinking. In severe cases, signs include a small, out-of-proportion head and abnormal facial features.
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What are epigenetic markers?
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which are often organic molecules. These molecules can block the expression of any gene in the DNA segment they affect. studies how the environment can cause genes to be either active (expressed) or inactive (not expressed). Genes can influence development, but the environment can switch genes on or off. The molecules that trigger or block genetic expression are called epigenetic marks. When one of these molecules attaches to part of a DNA strand, it instructs the cell to ignore any gene present in that DNA stretch
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What is cognition?
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all mental activities
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What is Jean Piaget's theory?
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children develop through universal changes
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What are three of Piaget's theory?
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Schema, assimilate and accomodation
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What are four stages of Piaget?
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sensorimotor,preoperational, concrete, and formal operational
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What is Autism Spectrum Disorder?
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children have an impaired theory of mind, they have a difficult time reading people feelings and thoughts
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What is Theory of mind?
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children's ability to read others mental states
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What is perception?
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brain organizes and interprets sensory information, transforming it into meaningful objects and events
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What is bottom up processing?
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basic processing level of sensory receptors.
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What is top down processing?
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make perceptions given from sensory receptors or input using expectation and experiences
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What is transduction?
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changing one form of energy to another. receive information from specialized cells. change into neural impulses, and then sends information to the brain
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What is absolute threshold?
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50% minimum stimulation needed to detect taste, odor, sound, light and pressure
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What is subliminal?
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what we can't detect 50% of the time, below out absolute threshold
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What is prime?
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perceiving stimulus or information without being aware of it e.g. we assocaite experiences and information when looking at a picture or a word
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What is difference threshold?
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detecting the difference between two things such as weight, odor, appearances ect.
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What is the Weber's laws?
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any person can only detect a difference between two things if its two things are different by a minimum percentage.
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What is sensory adaptation?
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nerve cells fires less frequently when we are accustomed to a stimulus the never changes and is also different e.g. odor
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What is perceptual set?
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"to believe is to see" expecting certain results can affect taste, hearing, and vision
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What is Young Helmholtz trichromatic theory?
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ability to produce any color via primary colors of red, green, and blue
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What is a wavelength?
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the distance from one peak to the next
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What is hue?
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colors we perceive and experience
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What is amplitude?
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The light's wave height determines the intensity,the amount of energy and brightness a color may have
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What is the eye?
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pupil>iris>cornea(protective layer)>lens>retina (image)
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Does the retina make a picture whole?
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no, the retina has receptor cells that change light energy into neural impulses and then sends it to the brain
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How does the retina work and sends information into the brain?
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retina>rods and cones>bipolar cells> ganglion cells> axons form optic nerve> nerve sends info. via thalamus to the brain and visual cortex
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What is optic nerve?
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nerve carries neural impulses from the eye to the brain
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What is a blind eye?
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no receptor cells
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What does the retina have?
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rods and cones that process visual information
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What do rods and cones detect?
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rods detect white, black, and grey while cones detect detail and perceive color
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What are feature detectors?
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nerve cells in the brain recognize specific details like edges, line, and angles of a drawing
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What is parallel processing?
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many aspects processing and working on a problem
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Face recognition processing is located...
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in the temporal lobes
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What is the figure-ground relationship?
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recognizing objects that stand out from their surrounding
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What is depth perception?
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the estimated distance between a person from an object
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What is retinal disparity?
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both eyes perceive image differently
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What is monocular cue?
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depth cue such as retinal disparity, depends on both eyes
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What is binocular cue?
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interposition or linear perspective,each eye has it
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What is perceptual consistency?
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recognizing objects without being deceived by changes
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What is color consistency?
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experience of color depends on context
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What is shape consistency?
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retina changes shapes, but they are perceive as the same e.g. door openig
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What is audition?
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hearing sound waves
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Amplitude also deals with...
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volume
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Wave length deals with....
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pitch
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The outer ears receives?
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sound waves into ear cannel
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What is the middle ear? what is it made of?
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three tiny bones and picks up vibrations and sends it to cochlea
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What is the Cochlea?
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a snail shape tube in the inner ear
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What happens in the inner ear?
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vibrations in the cochlea's membrane moves fluid inside cochlea it bends the hair cells
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What do hair cells do ?
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cause neurons to fire and each hair cell focuses in a particular frequency
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What is rineural hearing loss?
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damaged hair cells that can't be corrected it is inherited,disease, age, chronic exposure to loud noise
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What is conducted hearing loss?
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damage to the mechanical system that conducts sound waves to the cochlea it can be corrected minor and fixable problems like impacted ear was
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sensory receptors exclude....
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pressure out of cold, warmth, and pain
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What are endorphin's?
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body's natural pain reducer
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Distractions also control...
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pain
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sweet is for...
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energy
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bitterness is for...
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detecting poisons
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saltiness is for...
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sodium
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sour is for...
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detecting spoiled foods
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umami is...
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the fifth taste
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What is transduction of taste?
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each taste bud had pores the tongue has hair cells
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olfaction has
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receptor is the nasal cavity can trigger memories
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What is clairvoyance?
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predicting the future
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What is telepathy?
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communication with the mind
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What is precognition?
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predicting future events
