Psychology Past Paper Study Guide - Chapter 5

Midterm 2 Study Guide Psyc 100 **[Chapter 5]** 1. **Be able to define and recognize examples of the following terms:** a. **Transduction:** Transducting electrical signals from the outside to our brains. In other words, conversion from sensory stimulus energy to action pote...

Midterm 2 Study Guide Psyc 100 **[Chapter 5]** 1. **Be able to define and recognize examples of the following terms:** a. **Transduction:** Transducting electrical signals from the outside to our brains. In other words, conversion from sensory stimulus energy to action potential. b. **Synesthesia:** Happens when the electrical signals go somewhere else they're not supposed to (go to the wrong receptors). c. **Selective attention:** The ability to focus on a specific thing while ignoring distractions and irrelevant information. d. **Inattentional blindness:** Failure to notice something that is completely visible because of lack of attention. e. **Size constancy:** A cognitive mechanism that allows people to perceive an object as having the same size even when it is viewed from different distances or perspective. f. **Brightness constancy:** A psychological phenomenon that describes the tendency to perceive an object's brightness as the same, even when the illumination changes. g. **Color constancy:** The ability of the human visual system to perceive an object's color as relatively constant, even when the lighting conditions change. 2. **What is the difference between absolute thresholds and difference thresholds?** Absolute thresholds refers to the minimum amount of stimulus energy that must be present for the stimulus to be detected 50% of the time. The difference threshold changes depending on the stimulus intensity. 3. **Be familiar with hue, brightness and saturation. What physical properties of light (i.e., amplitude, frequency bandwidth, etc) do they correspond to?** 4. **Be able to identify and discuss the function of each of the following structures of the eye:** h. **The retina:** Light-sensitive lining if the eye i. **Rods:** Specialized photoreceptors that works well in low light conditions j. **Cones:** Specialized photoreceptors that works best in bright light conditions and detects colors k. **The optic nerve:** Carries visual information from the retina to the brain l. **The optic disk:** A round section at the back of the eye. It's where the retina and optic nerve connect. It is also where the retina's main artery and vein enter the eye. 5. Be able to correctly answer the writing prompt about night vision (why does a star look brighter out of the corner of our eye). If you didn't earn full credit, see my feedback for clarification. 6. **What is the trichromatic theory of vision? How does it explain color blindness and color deficiency?** Color vision is mediated by the activity across three groups of cones. According to this theory, all colors in the spectrum can be produced by combining red, green, and blue. The three types of cones are each receptive to one of the colors. Therefore, if one or more of these cones are malfunctioning or missing colorblindness occurs leading to an inability to properly perceive certain color combinations. 7. **What is the opponent process theory of vision? How does it explain negative afterimages?** Color is coded in opponent pairs: Black-White, Yellow-Blue, and Green-Red, where stimulating one color in a pair simultaneously inhibits the perception of its opposite which explains why we see after-images when we look away from a bright color. As the fatigued cells responsible for that color are replaced by the activity of the opposing color cells in the visual system 8. **What role do feature-detector cells and the fusiform face area play in vision processing?** Feature-detector cells are responsible for identifying basic visual features like edges, lines, and corners in an image, while fusiform face area is a specialized region in the brain primarily dedicated to recognizing faces by processing the complex configuration of facial features, essentially acting as a "face detector" within the visual system. 9. **Be able to identify the different types of binocular and monocular depth cues we covered. What is the difference between a binocular and monocular depth cue?** Binocular cues: Relies on the use of both eyes. - Convergence - Retinal disparity - Experience depth in our 3D world - Interposition: Partial overlap of objects, and the relative size and closeness of images of the horizon - Linear perspective: Refers to the fact that we perceive depth when we see two parallel lines that seem to converge in an image 10. **Be familiar with loudness, pitch and timbre. What physical properties of sound (i.e., amplitude, frequency bandwidth, etc) do they correspond to?** - The loudness of a given sound is closely associated with the amplitude of the sound wave. Higher amplitude louder the sounds. It's measure in decibels (dB). - Timbre refers to a sound purity, and it is affected by the complex interplay of frequency, amplitude, and timing of sound waves - The frequency of a sound wave is associated with our perception of that sound's pitch. High-frequency sound waves are perceived as high-pitched sounds, and low-frequency sound waves as low-pitched sounds. The audible range of sound frequencies is between 20-20000 Hz. 11. **Be familiar with the function of the following hearing-related structures:** m. Tympanic membrane: Eardrum n. Ossicles: The middle ear contains three tiny bones known as the ossicles: Malleus (hammer), incus (anvil), and stapes (stirrup). o. Cochlea: Fluid-filled, snail-shaped structure that contains the sensory receptor cells of the auditory system. 12. **How do cochlear implants work?** Electronic device that consists of a microphone, a speech processor, and an electrode array to directly stimulate the auditory nerve to transmit information to the brain. 13. **What are the 4 types of well-established taste receptors? What are the two that are more controversial (i.e., what flavors do they detect)?** Well-established taste receptors: Sweet, Salty, sour, and bitter Controversial receptors: Umami, taste for fatty content of a given food. 14. **Know the difference between a taste bud and a taste receptor.** A taste bud is a cluster of specialized cells on the tongue containing multiple taste receptors, which are the actual molecules within those cells that detect specific tastes. A taste bud is a collection of taste receptors, while a taste receptor is a single molecule. 15. **What role does the limbic system play in smell processing?** - From the olfactory bulb, information is sent to regions of the limbic system. - Your sense of smell causes you to recall memories and certain emotions related to smell. 16. **Be familiar with the categories of touch that each of the following receptors detect:** p. Meissner's corpuscles: Constant pressure - low frequency. q. Pacinian corpuscles: Transient changes in pressure -- high frequency r. Merkel's disks: Light pressure s. Ruffini corpuscles: Touch receptor that detects stretch t. Free nerve endings: pain & temperature 17. **What is the placebo effect?** Expecting something to happen can actually make it happen. 18. **What is the gate-control theory of pain?** The spinal cord acts as a gate that can open or close to allow or restrict the pain signals. When the stimulus is intense enough, the gate opens and pain signals pass through to the brain. Non-painful stimuli like light touch can activate the gate control mechanism and reduce pain. 19. **What is phantom pain?** A painful perception that an individual experiences relating to a limb or an organ that is not physically part of the body. **[Chapter 6]** 1. Be able to define and recognize examples of the following terms: a. Conditioned/unconditioned stimulus b. Conditioned/unconditioned response c. Neutral stimulus d. Extinction i. What causes it with classical conditioning? ii. What causes it with operant conditioning? e. Counterconditioning f. Bridge g. Extinction burst h. Discriminative stimulus i. Latent learning j. Observational learning 2. Be able to explain each of the steps of classical conditioning (see slide \#2 with the diagram of Pavlov's dog). 3. What is higher-order conditioning? 4. What do stimulus generalization/discrimination refer to? k. Know what they refer to in both classical and operant conditioning 5. How can classical conditioning create phobias and food aversions? 6. What role do punishment and reinforcement play in operant conditioning? 7. Be able to compare primary vs secondary reinforcers. How are secondary reinforcers created? 8. Be able to compare and contrast the following: l. Positive reinforcement m. Negative reinforcement n. Positive punishment o. Negative punishment 9. What's the difference between continuous and intermittent reinforcement. What is continuous reinforcement used for? What is intermittent reinforcement used for? 10. What is shaping? What is it used for and how does it work? 11. What are the downsides of punishment (slide \#21) 12. What are the downsides of rewards (slide \#22) 13. What is social-cognitive learning theory? How does it differ from traditional behaviorism? **[Chapter 7]** 1. Be able to define and recognize examples of the following terms: a. Schema i. Role schema ii. Event schema b. Semantics c. Syntax d. Overgeneralization e. Heuristic f. Dialectical reasoning g. Functional fixedness h. Confirmation bias i. Availability heuristic j. Hindsight bias k. Fairness bias l. The framing effect m. Psychometrics 2. What is cognition? 3. What role do prototypes play in the organization of thoughts and concepts? 4. When do children typically speak their first word? 5. What was the primary limitation of the vervet monkey communication method we covered? What was so impressive about Alex the Parrot's communication ability? Hint: they both have to do with generalization and flexibility. 6. Be able to compare/contrast formal and informal reasoning. 7. What is a mental set? What are the benefits and downsides of using them? 8. Be able to compare/contrast crystallized and fluid intelligence. When is the mutual peak of crystallized and fluid intelligence for most people (what general age range)? 9. What was the explanation for Clever Hans' perceived intelligence? 10. What is the Turing Test? What is it meant to measure? **[Chapter 8]** 1. Be able to define and recognize examples of the following terms: a. Self-reference effect b. Rehearsal c. Procedural memory d. Declarative memory e. Semantic memory f. Episodic memory g. Procedural memory h. Recall i. Recognition j. Relearning k. Flashbulb memory l. Retrograde amnesia m. Anterograde amnesia n. Confabulation 2. Be able to compare/contrast automatic and effortful processing. 3. Be able to define and recognize of each type of encoding (semantic, visual and acoustic). 4. Be able to explain the information processing model of memory. What is reach stage responsible for and how does it work? o. The sensory register p. Short-term memory i. What is the capacity of our short-term memory? q. Long-term memory 5. What is an engram? What does it do? What is it physically made of? 6. Know the role each of the following structures play in memory formation and retrieval: r. Amygdala ii. What role does emotional arousal play in memory formation? s. Hippocampus t. Cerebellum u. Prefrontal cortex 7. What do we mean when we say memory is a "reconstructive process"? 8. Review each of the "Memory and Suggestion" studies we covered (slide \#23). What were the findings? v. Car collision study w. Headlight study x. Bugs Bunny study