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Sensation

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process of receiving raw sensory information and sending it to the brain

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Perception

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process of selecting, organizing, and making sense of sensory information

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Psychophysics

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the study of the relationship between physical characteristics of stimuli and our psychological experience

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Transduction

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of air pressure waves into neural messages that the brain reads as meaningful sound

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Vision

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receptor cells in retina (rods and cones) convert light waves into messages sent along the optic nerve

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Lens

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focuses the light waves as they pass through

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Cornea

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protective outer layer; where light waves enter

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Iris

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eye color

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Pupil

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small opening in the eye

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Retina

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contains photoreceptor cells

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Rods

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used for periphery and night vision (low light); more rods than cones; not as acute (fuzzy vision)

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Cones

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used for central and color vision; very acute (very clear)

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Blind Spot

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point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye, creating a "blind spot" because there are no receptor cells located there

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Inattentional Blindness

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the failure to notice a fully-visible, but unexpected object because attention was engaged on another task, event, or object

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Smell

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olfactory receptors in the nose transduce info from odorants (molecules with odor) directly to olfactory bulb at base of frontal lobe, where info is processed and sent to other brain regions; smell is 'chemical senses' because they use chemoreceptors and are sensitive to chemical molecules; olfaction is the only sensory system not routed through the thalamus

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Hearing

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outer ear captures sound, there tiny bones in middle ear transmit eardrum's vibration to the inner ear where cochlea transforms waves into neural impulses; hearing is audition

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Conduction Hearing Loss (conduction deafness)

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problems with mechanics of sending sound waves to cochlea (hearing aids and surgery help)

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Sensorineural Hearing Loss (nerve deafness)

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damage to hair cells of auditory nerve

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Skin Receptors

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detects pressure, temperature, and pain; most concentrated in face and hands

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Sensory Interaction

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principle that one sense may influence another; ie: when the smell of food influences its taste

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Taste Sensations

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sweet, sour, salty, bitter

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Absolute Threshold

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minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus; usually defined as the stimulus needed for detection 50% of the time; too much --> must change

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Signal Detection Theory

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predicts how and when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus (signal); assumes that there is no absolute threshold; detection depends partly on a person's experience, expectations, motivations, level of fatigue

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Visual Cliff

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crawling infants use to move to the deep end

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Perceptual Constancy

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perceiving objects as unchanging despite changes in retinal image (color, shape, size)

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Perceptual Set

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readiness to perceive stimuli in a particular manner, based on expectations

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Illusion

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false or misleading impression produced by errors in the perceptual process or by actual physical distortions

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Gestalt

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an organized whole; tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes

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Subliminal Messages

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a message passed to the human mind without the mind being consciously aware of it

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Extrasensory Perception

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controversial claim that perception can occur apart from sensory input

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Telepathy

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mind to mind communication

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Clairvoyance

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reading information in the environment (thinking of someone and the phone rings... it is the person you were thinking)

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Precognition

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aware of something before it happens

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Parapsychology

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the study of paranormal phenomena

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Learning

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relatively permanent change in behavior of mental processes caused by experience

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Conditioning

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process of learning associations between stimuli and behavioral responses

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Skinner

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Father of Operant Conditioning; extended Thorndike's law to more complex behaviors: emphasized that reinforcement and punishment should always be presented after the behavior of interest has occurred

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Thorndike

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created the law of effect: behavior changes based on consequences; responses that produce a satisfying effect are more likely to occur again, compared to those that produce a discomforting effect become less likely to occur again

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Pavlov

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discovered classical conditioning

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Classical Conditioning

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type of learning in which one learns to link two or more stimuli and anticipate events

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Unconditioned Stimulus (US)

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naturally, automatically triggers a response: food

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Unconditioned Response (UR)

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naturally occurring response to a US; unlearned, ex: salivation

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Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

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an originally irrelevant stimulus that, after association with an unconditioned stimulus (US) comes to trigger a conditioned response

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Conditioned Response (CR)

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the learned response to a previously neutral (but now conditioned) stimulus (CS)

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Extinction

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diminishing of a CR; in classical conditioning when a UCS does not follow a CS

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Spontaneous Recovery

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sudden, temporary reappearance of a previously extinguished conditioned response (CR)

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Conditioned Taste Aversion

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pairing a taste with a sickness

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Generalization

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the tendency, once a response has been conditioned, for stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus to elicit similar response

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Discrimination

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in classical conditioning, the learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and stimuli that do not signal an unconditioned stimulus

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Operant Conditioning

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type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by a reinforcer or diminished if followed by a punisher

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Punishment

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the adding or taking away of a stimulus following a response, which decreases the likelihood of that response being repeated (tells you to stop to decrease a behavior)

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Positive Punishment

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administering an aversive stimulus (ex: spanking)

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Negative Punishment

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removing a desirable stimulus (ex: timeout, taking away privileges)

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Reinforcement

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the adding or taking away of a stimulus following a response, which increases the likelihood of that response being repeated (tells you what to do, to increase behavior)

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Positive Reinforcement

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rewards or other positive consequences that follow's behaviors (ex: give dog a treat when he follows a command)

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Negative Reinforcement

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removing an aversive stimulus; engaging in behavior to remove a "negative" stimulus (ex: fastening seatbelt to make dinging stop)

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Amount of Reinforcement

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has contrast effects (effect of reward is dependent on previous experiences with rewards that differed in amounts and quality; Negative Contrasts (smaller size or quality); Positive Contrasts (larger in size or quality)

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Ratio

answer

number of behavioral responses

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Fixed Ratio

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provides reinforcement after a fixed number or responses

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Variable Ratio

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provides reinforcement after an unpredictable number of responses (ex: fishing - not going to catch something every time you cast a line)

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Interval

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passage of time

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Fixed Interval

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reinforce the behavior after a fixed period of time (ex: weekly paycheck)

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Variable Interval

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reinforce the behavior after an unpredictable period of time (ex: pop quiz)

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Shaping

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a training method where reinforcement is delivered for successive approximations of the desired response

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Latent Learning

answer

the process in which learning takes place, but there is no demonstration of that knowledge until a reward or incentive is present (cognitive learning)

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Observational Learning

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Albert Bandura's Social Learning Theory: much of human behavior is learned observationally through the modeling of others

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Memory

answer

any indication that learning has persisted over time; our ability to store and retrieve information

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Encoding

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getting information into memory in the first place (imagery, mnemonics, chunking, hierarchies)

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automatic processing

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space (reading a TB and record place of picture on a page), time (unintentionally note the events that take place in a day), frequency (effortlessly keep track of things that happen to you

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effortful processing

answer

committing information to memory requires effort, just like learning a concept from a textbook

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semantic

answer

the encoding of meaning

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visual

answer

the encoding of pictures

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Storage

answer

retaining memories for future use

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short term memory

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limited in duration and capacity; magical number 7 +/- 2

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long term memory

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the relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system

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explicit memory

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memory of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and declare; hippocampus helps to process

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implicit memory

answer

retention without conscious recollection; motor and cognitive skills; classical and operant conditioning effects

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Retrieval

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recapturing memories when we need them

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recall

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the ability to retrieve info learned earlier and not in conscious awareness (ex: fill in blank test)

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recognition

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the ability to identify previously learned items (ex: multiple choice test)

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relearning

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amount of time saved when relearning previously learned information

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priming

answer

activation, often unconsciously, of particular associations in memory

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Mood congruent memory

answer

tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with one's current mood

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state dependent memory

answer

what is learned in one state (drunk, high, depressed) can more easily be remembered when in same state

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Flashbulb Memory

answer

some events stay in our minds and define our world as before and after; memories that are vivid, detailed, and near-permanent images from surprising or strong emotional events

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Forgetting Curve

answer

rapid initial decline in retention becoming stable thereafter

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Proactive Interference

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disruptive effect of prior learning on recall of new information (forward acting) [ex: French learned previously, interferes with learning Spanish now]

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Retroactive Interference

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disruptive effect of new learning on recall of old information (backwards acting) [ex: Spanish learned after, interferes with the previous French learned]

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Memory Disorders

answer

Organic and Dissociative

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Organic

answer

biological cause; head trauma or disease

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Amnesic

answer

just memory loss

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Antrograde

answer

can't form new messages

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Retrograde

answer

can't remember things before amnesia

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Dementia

answer

memory and cognitive loss (ex: Alzheimer's = most common)

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Dissociative

answer

no physical cause to memory loss

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Dissociative Fugue

answer

psychological disorder characterized by loss of personal identities and details of one's past life and flight to an entirely different location

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Dissociative Identity Disorder

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psychological disorder characterized by the development of two or more distinct personalities

question

extra

answer

**The longer it takes eyewitnesses to decide if the perpetrator is in a line-up, the less confident they actually are about their decision

question

extra

answer

**Better able to identify people from own race

General Psychology Exam 2 (TCU – Broom) – Flashcards

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