Chapter 3 Summarized Notes from Textbook PDF

Chapter 3 Summarized Notes from Textbook Class PSYAO1 Contemporary psychologists view the contributions of nature (our heredity or innate predispositions) and nurture (the results of our experience with the environmen...

Chapter 3 Summarized Notes from Textbook Class PSYAO1 Contemporary psychologists view the contributions of nature (our heredity or innate predispositions) and nurture (the results of our experience with the environment) as being closed intertwined. Credit for describing the contrast between heredity and environment as “nature vs nurture” goes to Francis Galton. Galton believed intelligence was largely the result of inheritance. Every nucleus in our bodies contains 2 complete copies of the human genome. Your personal set of instructions is known as a genotype, which interacts with the environment to produce observable characteristics, known as a phenotype. Epigenetics is an emerging area of scientific research that shows how environmental influences actually affect the expression of genes. Each parent contributes 23 chromosomes. Gene: A smaller segment of DNA located in a particular place on a chromosome. Gene Expression occurs when these genetic instructions are used to produce a particular protein. Different versions of a gene, or alleles, can give rise to different phenotypical traits. Many alleles can occur for a given gene, but an individual only receives 2. Homozygous: Same type of allele. Heterozygous: Different alleles. Chapter 3 Summarized Notes from Textbook 1  Recessive alleles are only expressed in th`e absence of a dominant allele. Relatedness is the probability that 2 people share copies of the same allele from a common ancestor. Identical twins: single egg fertilized by a single sperm that then splits in two. Fraternal Twins: Separate eggs fertilized by separate sperm. Most females carry two X chromosomes, whereas most males carry one X and one Y. Individuals may be born with a single sex chromosome or three sex chromosomes. Intersex is an umbrella term used to describe individuals who are born with sex characteristics that don’t fit typical binary notions of male/female. Hemophilia: Allele found only on X chromosome. It. is recessive, so a male is more likely to get the disease than a female. These are called sex-linked characteristics. Behavioral Genetists: attempt to discover the strength of genetic influences on a particular behavior. Molecular Geneticists: look for candidate genes (genes that have a greater impact on a trait of interest). Functional Geneticists: study the entire genome, looking for whole patterns of genetic differences linked to a given trait. Gene-Environment Interactions: look for situations in which candidate genes appear to have different effects. Behavioral Genetics: investigates the strength of genetic influences on a particular behavior. Chapter 3 Summarized Notes from Textbook 2  Heritability: the statistical likelihood that variations observed across individuals in a population are due to genetics. If genes play 0 part in making phenotypical differences among individuals, heritability is 0. If genes are totally responsible for all phenotypical differences among individuals, heritability is 1. Heritability of most human traits is typically in the range of 0.30 to 0.60. Heritability always refers to populations, never individuals. If the environment is held constant, the heritability of a trait will appear to be high. In variable environments, heritability is lower. Concordance Rates: statistical probabilites that a trait observed in one person will be seen in another. Useful because they provide estimates of the heritability of a condition. All humans share 100% of genes, but not 100% of alleles, so we all have unique version of genome. Genes encode for proteins, not behaviors. Before Human Genome Project, investigating more than a few genes at a time wasn’t possible. So, candidate gene research studies were conducted where one gene or a small number of genes were compared between groups of people with and without a condition of interest. This did not result in accurate/complete findings. Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWAS): A scan of complete sets of DNA from many participants, which is performed to look for variations associated with a particular phenotype/condition/disease. Chapter 3 Summarized Notes from Textbook 3  When factors other than the genotype produce changes in a phenotype, we say that an epigenetic change has occurred. Epigenetic change influences gene expression. The magnitude of epigenetic change depends on an organism’s age. Fetus experiences the highest rate of epigenetic change, than the child and then the adult. The factors that produce epigenetic change are nutrition, disease-causing organisms, drugs, stress, and environmental toxins. Four processes that produce lasting but reversible changes in gene expression: RNA interference, RNA editing, histone modification and DNA methylation. Histones are protein structures where your DNA is wound. DNA methylation occurs when a methyl group is added to the DNA molecule, which can turn genes off. Evolution: descent with modification from a common ancestor. Artificial Selection: breeding animals/plants with desirable traits by mating them together. Natural Selection: organisms that survive long enough to reproduce would pass their traits to the next generation. Main points of Darwin’s theory of natural selection: 1. Overproduction 2. Competition 3. Variation 4. Adaptation Evolution can result from mutation, migration and genetic drift. Mutation: an error that occurs when DNA is replicated. Chapter 3 Summarized Notes from Textbook 4  Migration/Gene Flow: occurs when organisms move from one geographical location to the next. Genetic Drift: produces change from one generation to the next through chance or accident. Fitness: the ability of one genotype to reproduce relative to other genotypes. Adaptation refers to either the process or the result of change because of natural selection. Hominin: species that walked on two feet, had large brains, and are assumed to be related to modern humans. The major factor distinguishing human intelligence from intelligence of other species is the richness and complexity of the social behavior supported by the human brain. Cerebral cortex: the outermost layer of the brain. Altruism: the sacrifice of yourself to others. Sacrificing your life to save a close blood relative might increase the likelihood that your alleles would be passed along to subsequent generations. Reciprocal Altruism: when we help another individual who is likely to return the favor. Sexual Selection: development of traits that help an individual compete for mates. Influenced by the different investments in parenting made by males and females. Sexual Selection might occur in 2 ways: Chapter 3 Summarized Notes from Textbook 5  Intrasexual Selection: members of 1 sex compete with one another for access to the other sex. Intersexual Selection: characteristics of one sex that attract the other might become sexually selected. Chapter 3 Summarized Notes from Textbook 6  Chapter 4 Summarized Notes from Textbook Class PSYAO1 Biological Psychology: the scientific study of the reciprocal connections between the structure and activity of the nervous system, behavior and mental processes. Phrenology: End of 18th century, phrenologists proposed that the pattern of bumps on an individual’s skull correlated with that person’s personality traits and abilities. This wasn’t accurate. They did have one correct conclusion: their notion that some behavioral functions are localized to certain areas of the brain. Ramón y Cajal demonstrated the nervous system was made of separate cells, known as the Neuron Doctrine. John Hughlings Jackson proposed the nervous system is organized as a hierarchy, with more complicated behaviors being managed by more recently evolved and complex structures. Spatial Resolution: provides information about the specific location of activity within the brain. Temporal Resolution: indicates the precise timing of activity in the brain. Electroencephalogy (EEG) involves placing electrodes on the scalp and recording the electrical activity of the brain. Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) involves placing participants into a machine that measures brain activity by detecting changes in cerebral blood flow. Can determine specific regions of the brain that are more are less active during particular tasks. Chapter 4 Summarized Notes from Textbook 1  But, fMRI has poorer temporal resolution than EEG. A lobotomy is a type of brain surgery that involves severing the connection between the frontal lobe and other parts of the brain. There are different types: Prefrontal Lobotomy: Used to treat schizophrenia. Side effects included an inability to plan ahead, indifference to the opinions of others and child- like actions. Biomedial Lobotomy: Used to treat depression. Orbital Lobotomy: Used to treat depression, OCD and extreme anxiety. Bilateral Lobotomy: Used to treat severe depression. Limbic Lobotomy: Used to treat abnormal aggression. Nerves of the central nervous system are encased in bone, but those in the peripheral nervous system aren’t. Peripheral: Connects to the body. Somatic: Our conscious control. Autonomic: Part of the system not under our control. Sympathetic: Is the “flight or fight” response. It down-regulates digestive processes and increases the heart and breathing rate. During this, the body releases cortisol, norepinephrine and adrenaline. Parasympathetic: Is about long term survival and maintenance of the body - heart and breathing will slow down (”rest and digest” mechanism). Enteric: consists of nerve cells in the lining of the GI system to release chemicals for digestion. Endocrine: made up of glands that release hormones. Central: Brain and spinal cord only. Chapter 4 Summarized Notes from Textbook 2  Neurons: a cell specialized to send and receive neural messages. They have a large cell body and within that, they have a nucleus. They feature an outer membrane which is composed of fatty materials that don’t dissolve in water to hold apart the water-based fluids on either side. Pores within the membrane act as channel to allow chemicals to move into or out of the cell. They have axons which carry information to other neurons, while dendrites receive input from other neurons. At its farthest point from the cell body, the axon bulges to form a terminal. Here, there are hollow spheres known as synaptic vesicles. The nervous system contains many supporting cells, known as glia. They form tight connections with blood vessels serving the nervous system, forming a blood-brain barrier that prevents toxins from exiting brain tissue where neurons could be harmed. Glia wrap around some axons forming a layer of insulation called myelin. Glia in the brain form scar tissue, inhibiting repair to damaged nerves. Damaged glia in the PNS don’t form scar tissue and help damaged axons regrow. Psychoactive Drugs: substances capable of penetrating the blood-brain barrier. The prefrontal cortex is involved with judgment and morality. Neural Communication: 1. The neuron generates an action potential which travels from the axon to its terminal. 2. Between two neurons, the arrival of an action potential signals the release of chemical messengers, which float across the synaptic cleft to the other neuron. Chapter 4 Summarized Notes from Textbook 3  When a cell is at rest, the difference between the readings from the interior of the axon and the external fluid is the resting potential. Agonists - drugs that enhance neurotransmitter actions. Antagonists - drugs that inhibit neurotransmitter actions. Chapter 4 Summarized Notes from Textbook 4  Acetylcholine (ACh) - a neutrotransmitter found in many systems important to behavior, found at the neuromuscular junction. Interference with ACh can result in paralysis or death. Dopamine is involved with systems that govern movement, planning, and reward. Parkinson’s disease results when dopamine-releasing neurons begin to die. Serotonin is involved with systems regulating sleep, appetite, mood, and aggression. Endorphins modify our natural response to pain. Neurogenesis: creation of new neurons. New neurons are generated by stem cells in two regions: the hippocampus and the olfactory bulb. Neuroplasticity: the ability of neurons to change in structure and function in response to alternations in their environment. Surrounding the brain and spinal cord are heavy bones of the skull and spinal vertebrae. Under these bones, are membranes called the meninges. The brain and spinal cord are further protected by a clear fluid known as cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), which seeps out of the lining of hollow spaces in the brain called ventricles. Near the base of the skull, openings let CSF flow from the ventricles into a space within the meninges. The build up of CSF is called hydrocephalus. Sensory neurons carry information from the external environment to the CNS. Chapter 4 Summarized Notes from Textbook 5  Motor neurons carry commands from the CNS to the muscles. Brainstem: part of the brain containing the midbrain, pons, and medulla. Medulla: structure that lies above the spinal cord and manages many functions like heart rate and breathing. Pons: contains structures involved with the management of sleep, arousal, and facial expressions. Cerebellum: maintains balance and motor coordination. Midbrain: contains a number of structures involved in sensory reflexes, movement and pain (in the periaqueductal gray). Reticular formation: participates in the management of levels of arousal. The Thalamus: inputs from most of our sensory systems travel to the thalamus first, which forwards the information to the cerebral cortex. It’s also involved with memory and states of consciousness. The Basal Ganglia: consist of several large structures involved with voluntary movement. Some of the structures included are: the caudate, putamen, globus pallidus, and nucleus accumbens. Degeneration of this leads to Parkinson’s. Contributed to OCD and ADHD. Nucleus Accumbens: plays an important role in the brain’s reward and pleasure circuitry. The Hypothalamus: involved with motivation and homeostasis. The Hippocampus: essential to the formation of long-term memories - specifically, storage and retrieval of memories elsewhere in the brain. The Cingulate Cortex: forms a fold of tissue on the inner surface of each cerebral hemisphere. The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) participates in the control of the autonomic nervous system and has roles in decision making, emotion, Chapter 4 Summarized Notes from Textbook 6  anticipation of reward, and empathy. The posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) participates in memory and visual processing. The Amygdala: receives sensory information and produces emotional and motivational output. Corpus Callosum: wide band of nerve fibers connecting the right and left cerebral hemispheres. Each hemisphere of the cerebral cortex has 4 lobes: Frontal lobe: location of primary motor cortex and areas responsible for most complex cognitive processes. Broca’s Area: participate in the production of speech. Prefrontal Cortex: involved with planning of behavior, attention and judgement. Orbitofrontal cortex: plays an important role in our emotional lives. Executive functions: range of cognitive processes that enable self- regulation and cognitive control of behavior. Alien hand syndrome: occurs when connections between the prefrontal cortex and lower areas of the brain involvement in movement are damaged. Parietal lobe: location of the primary somatosensory cortex and gives our sense of proprioception. Occipital lobe: location of the primary visual cortex. Temporal lobe: location of the primary auditory cortex. Damage to the left temporal lobe leads to a lost ability to comprehend and produce speech. Damage to the right temporal lobe affects the ability to perceive non- speech sounds. Chapter 4 Summarized Notes from Textbook 7  Lateralization: the localization of a function in either the right or left cerebral hemisphere. E.g., movement and sensations on the right side of the body are processed by the left hemisphere, and vice versa. Chapter 4 Summarized Notes from Textbook 8  Chapter 5 Summarized Notes from Textbook Class PSYAO1 Sensation is how we bring information to the brain, but perception is how we interprete this information. Synesthesia: a condition where the stimulation of one sensory pathway leads to the simultaneous and automatic stimulation of another pathway. May see letters as colors (grapheme-color synesthesia). May taste words (lexical-gustatory synesthesia). May perceive non-visual stimuli as colors (chromesthesia). Transduction: the process of translation from stimulus to neural signal. An important gateway to perception is the process of attention, or a narrow focus of consciousness. Sensory Adaptation: the reduced response to an unchanging stimulus. Selective Attention: the ability to focus on a subset of available information and exclude the rest. Bottom-Up Processing: the brain’s use of incoming signals to construct perceptions. Top-Down Processing: a process where memory and other cognitive processes are required for interpreting incoming sensory information. Gustav Fecher developed methods, which he called psychophysics, for studying the relationships between stimuli and the perception of those stimuli. Chapter 5 Summarized Notes from Textbook 1  Absolute Threshold: the smallest possible stimulus that can be detected at least 50% of the time. Difference Threshold: the smallest difference between 2 stimuli that can be detected at least 50% of the time. Weber-Fecher Law: as stimuli get larger, differences must also become larger to be detected by an observer. Signal Detection is a two-step process involving (a) the actual intensity of the stimulus and (b) the individual observer’s criteria for deciding whether the stimulus occurred. Wavelength is decoded by our visual system as color or shades of gray and the height of waves is translated into brightness. Sclera: White part of the eye that serves as protection. Cornea: begins the process of bending light to form an image on the back of the eye. Pupil: an opening formed by muscles of the iris. Iris: adjusts the opening of the pupil in response to the amount of light. Lens: the clear structure behind the eye that bends light towards the retina. Muscles relax and the lens flattens for distant objects. Muscles contract and the lens becomes spherical for closer objects. Retina: a complex network of neurons specialized for the processing of light. Aqueous Humor: fluid that nourishes the front of the eye. Vitreous Humor: fluid that nourishes inner part of the eye. Fovea: specialized for seeing fine detail. Bipolar Cells: used for image sharpening. Ganglion Cells: used for color sharpening. They come in two types: red/green and blue/yellow. Each cell represent an opponent process system. Chapter 5 Summarized Notes from Textbook 2  Axons from the final layer of ganglion cells leave the back of the eye to form the optic nerve. The optic nerves cross the midline at the optic chiasm. The thalamus sends information about vision to the amygdala and the primary visual cortex. Two major pathways from the occipital cortex continue the analysis of visual input: The dorsal stream extends upwards from V1 into the parietal lobe to help process movement. The ventral stream extends downward from V1 to the temporal love to help recognize objects and faces. Jean Piaget: Said: “If the brain comes in contact with a specific thing, and if it has it will try to assimilate into that specific instance.” Accommodation vs Assimilation Trichromatic Theory: a theory of color vision based on the existence of different types of cones for the detection of short, medium, and long wavelengths. Explains color deficiency, but not other color vision phenomena. Short (blue), medium (green) or long (red). Opponent Process Theory: proposes the existence of color channels: a red- green channel and a blue-yellow channel. The channels are competing. Recognizing Objects: We analyze patterns of lines, where the simplest patterns are gratings. These can vary along 2 dimensions: frequency and contrast. High-frequency have many bars and give fine detail. Chapter 5 Summarized Notes from Textbook 3  High-contrast have large differences in intensity between adjacent bars. Association cortex is important for this. Recognizing Faces: Visual processing of faces activates the fusiform face area, part of the ventral pathway in the inferior temporal cortex. Association cortex is important for this. Gestalt Psychology: Said we are born to organize incoming sensory information in certain ways: 1. We spontaneously divide a scene into a main figure and a ground. 2. Objects that are close together tend to be grouped together. 3. We assume that points that form smooth lines when connected probably belong together. 4. We see a complete, unbroken image even when there are gaps in the lines forming the image. 5. We will use the simplest solution to a perceptual problem./ Recognizing Depth: To construct a 3D image, we use both monocular cues (one eye) and binocular cues (two eyes). Hearing and Auditory Stimulus: Audition: our sense of hearing. Sound waves: the amplitude is the loudness and the frequency is the pitch. Ultrasound stimuli - frequencies above the range of human hearing; above 20,000 Hz. Infrasound: frequencies below the range of human hearing; less than 20 Hz. Chapter 5 Summarized Notes from Textbook 4  The Biology of Audition: Components that make up the ear are divided in 3 parts: The Outer Ear consists of: The Pinna: outer visible structure of the ear and helps to localize sounds as being above or below. Sounds collected her go through the auditory canal, ending at the tympanic membrane, at the boundary of the middle ear, formed by the oval window. The Middle Ear And The Inner Ear: Contains two fluid-filled cavities in the bond of the skull. One is part of the vestibular system, the other is the cochlea which responds to vibrations transmitted to the inner ear. The cochlea has 3 parallel chambers: Two of these, the vestibular canal and the tympanic canal, are connected at the apex of the cochlea. Lying between the vestibular and tympanic canals is the cochlear duct, which is separated by the basilar membrane. On top of this membrane is the organ of Corti, containing rows of hair cells that transduce sound energy into neural signals. Bending of these hair cells stimulates the release of neurotransmitters onto the cells of the auditory nerve - one branch makes contact with the hair cells, the other proceeds to the medulla. From the medulla, sound is sent to the midbrain, which manages the reflexive responses and the localization of the sound. Midbrain passes the information to the thalamus, which sends the information to the primary auditory cortex. Chapter 5 Summarized Notes from Textbook 5  Pitch Perception: Place Theory: suggests the frequency of a sound is correlated with the part of the basilar membrane showing a peak response. High-frequency tones produce movement near the base, while low- frequency tones produce movement near the apex. Works well for sounds above 4,000 Hz. Below, we use temporal theory. Localization of Sound: The pinna localizes sounds in the vertical place (above head). For the horizontal place (front, behind and side), we compare the arrival times of the sound at each ear. Biology of Somatosenses: Body Position: The structures of the vestibular system provide information about body position and movement, e.g., position of the head relative to the ground. These contain sensitive hair cells that are bent back and forth within their surrounding fluid when the head moves. The movement results in the production of signals in the auditory nerve, which form connections in the medulla and cerebellum. Touch: Begins with the skin. In the skin, there are specialized neurons that produce action potentials when they are bent or stretched. Information about touch travels from the skin to the spinal cord, then to the thalamus, which transmits it to the primary somatosensory cortex. Pain: Chapter 5 Summarized Notes from Textbook 6  Information is carried to the brain by 2 types of fibers: Fast, myelinated axons and slower, unmyelinated axons. Pain fibers from the body form synapses with the spinal cord, which sends messages to the thalamus and then to the anterior cingulate cortex and the insula. Gate Control Theory: suggests input from touch fibers competes with input from pain receptors, possibly preventing pain messages to reach the brain. Smells and Tastes: Chemical senses begin with molecules suspended in the air for olfaction and dissolved in saliva for gustation. Olfaction: Air is taken in through the nostrils and circulated within nasal cavities, where it interacts with olfactory receptors located on the olfactory epithelium. Cells at the base produce mucus and the other branch carries information to the CNS as part of the olfactory nerve - synapses in one of two olfactory bulbs just below the mass of the frontal lobes. Fibers proceed to the olfactory cortex and to the amygdala. Gustation: Most papillae contain 1 and 100 taste buds, which then contain receptor cells, which extend cilia into the saliva that interact with dissolved taste stimuli and transduce the information into neural signals. Information travels to the medulla and then to the thalamus, which sends information to the insula, lower somatosensory cortex of the parietal lobe, and to the orbitofrontal cortex. Chapter 5 Summarized Notes from Textbook 7  Chapter 6 Summarized Notes from Textbook Class PSYAO1 Consciousness refers to knowing or being aware of ongoing experiences occurring both internally and externally. Can also refer to a state of awareness. Self-awareness: when we focus on ourselves. Additional brain structures, like the reticular formation of the brainstem, play an active role in raising/lowering the thresholds of conscious awareness. Default Mode Network (DMN): maintains a high level of unconscious, background activity as it prepares the brain for conscious thought. Decreases when a person participates in a conscious task. Prosopagnosia: where people cannot recognize faces, despite having no difficulty naming objects. But, faces were still being recognized, it’s just the conscious pathway of face recognition is impaired. Capgras Syndrome: where the sense of emotion and familiarity is distorted. Seizures: uncontrolled electrical disturbances in the brain that produce changes in consciousness. Recurring seizures get diagnosed as epilepsy. Occur as a result of brain injury/infection. Disturbances in the activity of the neurotransmitter GABA may account for many seizures. Chapter 6 Summarized Notes from Textbook 1  Drugs that inhibit GABA produce seizures, while drugs that enhance GABA prevent seizures. Seizures are classified as either partial or generalized: Partial: originate in a particular part of the brain (the focal area) and are accompanied by an aura or a premonition that the seizure is about to occur. Generalized: do not arise from a focal area, but are characterized by the abnormal activation of circuits connecting to the cortex and the thalamus. There are 2 major categories: Tonic-clonic: begin with a loss of consciousness, cessation of breathing, and intense muscular contraction, which gives way to violent contractions that may break bones and then followed by a coma period. Absence: the person loses consciousness and awareness, and motor movements limited to blinking, head turns, and eye movements. Circadian rhythms respond to a combination of factors: Internal biological clocks, controlled by the hypothalamus, provide an approximate schedule for physical processes (sleep, waking, temperature, hunger). These interact with external stimuli called zeitgebers. Light is most important zeitgebers - exposure to sun resets internal biological clocks. Without light, can lead to desynchronization. Eating patterns are also important zeitgebers. Artificial lighting affects sleep by breaking down melatonin. When less light is available for setting the body’s internal clocks, some people experience major depressive disorder with seasonal pattern. Seasonal depression is treated by exposure to bright light, with or without melatonin supplements and antidepressants. Chapter 6 Summarized Notes from Textbook 2  Chronotypes: individual differences in preferred sleep times and activity patterns. During waking, we alternate between 3 patterns of activity indicated by the recordings of beta waves, alpha waves, and gamma waves in the EEG. Beta Activity: A person is actively thinking and alert. It’s characterized by rapid, irregular, low-amplitude waves. Alpha Activity: A person is awake, but relaxed. Alpha waves are slightly slower, larger, and more regular than beta waves. Gamma Activity: Waveforms faster than 30 cycles per second. Daydreaming: spontaneous, subjective experiences in a no-task, no-stimulus, no-response situation. Correlated with activity in the DMN, which is closely correlated to alpha waves. We divide sleep into 2 types: Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep: Paradoxical Sleep (1st Episode): A combination of brain activity resembling waking with the external appearance of deep sleep. During this, the eyes make periodic movements back and forth and the sympathetic nervous system becomes active. Heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing become rapid or irregular. Males experience erections, while female experience increased blood flow in the vicinity of the vagina. Major postural muscles are inactive, effectively paralyzing the sleeper. Non-rapid eye movement (N-REM) sleep (4 stages): Stage 1: Some theta waves are observed. Here, people may not be aware they are sleeping. Chapter 6 Summarized Notes from Textbook 3  Stage 2: Further reductions in heart rate and muscle tension occur and the EEG shows special waveforms called K complexes and sleep spindles. Stage 3/4: Both stages show delta wave activity, but stage 4 has the most. Awakening from stage 4 is difficult and disorientation may occur before they become fully awake. Sleepwalking may occur during this stage. 1st half of sleep has longer N-REM than REM. The second half is more dominant on REM sleep. An activation-synthesis theory of dreaming suggests that the content of dreams simply reflects ongoing neural activity. The social stimulation theory of dreaming says that the function of dreaming is to stimulate social interactions and events. Lucid Dreaming: Dreamers become aware they are dreaming and many use this awareness to control or direct the content of the dream. Associated with increased activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Nightmares are dreams that occur during REM sleep, while sleep terrors occur during N-REM sleep. Insomnia: where a person has difficulty initiating or maintaining sleep. It occurs in 2 forms: Onset Insomnia: a person lies in bed for what seems like a long time but is unable to go to sleep. Maintenance Insomnia: occurs when sleep is frequently interrupted or early waking occurs. Typically results from stress, substance use, or psychological disorders. Narcolepsy: consists of “sleep attacks,” in which REM sleep occurs during wakefulness. Cells in the hypothalamus that normally secrete orexins are missing or damaged. Chapter 6 Summarized Notes from Textbook 4  Results from a combination of genetic vulnerability and autoimmune processes. Cataplexy: occurs when the muscle paralysis normally associated with REM sleep occurs during wakefulness without loss of consciousness. Sleep Apnea: where breathing can stop for a minute or two, and the sleeper awakens gasping for air. A CPAP machine could be used as a treatment. Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS): occurs when a healthy infant simply dies when asleep. It peaks between 2 and 4 months of age and more frequently among male infants. Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS): occurs when one of a person’s limbs experiences a tingling feeling and moves at regular intervals. Results from a gene variant that is active only during early prenatal development in the basal ganglia. Psychoactive Drugs: substances that alter consciousness. Tolerance: occurs when a person must take larger quantities of a drug to produce the desired effects. Withdrawal: A set of effects opposite of those produced by the drug. Addiction: a compulsive physical or psychological dependence on a substance or activity that continues in spite of negative consequences. The disruption of normal decision making can occur because of distortions in one or more of 3 related neural systems: 1. An impulsive system involving dopamine pathways connecting to the midbrain and the basal ganglia. 2. A reflective system in the frontal lobes that weights the pros and cons of a decision and controls impulses. 3. A craving system involving the insula. Cannabis: Chapter 6 Summarized Notes from Textbook 5  Most individuals experience some excitation, vivid imagery, and mild euphoria. At higher doses, it can produce hallucinations. It contains more than 50 psychoactive compounds, known as cannabinoids. Most important of this is tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). It interacts with receptors for endogenous cannabinoids. LSD: Chemically similar to serotonin, and it interacts with serotonin receptors. Leads to the experience of flashbacks, even after the drug has been discontinued. Caffeine: A stimulant found in a range of sources. It interferes with the inhibition normally produce by adenosine in the brain. Correlated with lower risk of Parkinsons and Alzheimers, but higher rates of problems during pregnancy. Nicotine: It mimics the action of acetylcholine, increasing heart rate and blood pressure, reducing fatigue, and improving cognitive performance while at the same time relaxing muscles. Cocaine and Amphetamines: At moderate doses, they produce alertness, elevated mood, confidence, and a sense of well-being. At higher doses, they can produce symptoms similar to schizophrenia - users experience hallucinations. Methamphetamine mimics dopamine, leading it to be moved out of the synaptic gap into neurons by dopamine transporters. Once outside, it enters synaptic vesicles, pushing out dopamine molecules. Chapter 6 Summarized Notes from Textbook 6  Cocaine simply blocks the transporters, keeping all previously released dopamine active in the synaptic gap. Methylphenidate (Ritalin): Most commonly used to treat ADHD. It boosts the activity of dopamine and norepinephrine. 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA - Ecstasy): Increases sociability by stimulating the activity of serotonin and oxytocin. MDMA mimics serotonin and is taken up more readily than serotonin itself by serotonin receptors. Once inside the cell, MDMA interferes with the storage of serotonin in vesicles, causing the transporters to act in reverse, releasing large amounts of serotonin. Alcohol: At low doses, it dilates blood vessels and reduces anxiety. At high doses, it leads to aggression, risky behaviors, and poor motor coordination. At very high doses, can lead to coma and death. Alcohol boosts the effects of GABA, so it depresses the activity of the brain. At the same time, it blocks receptors for glutamate. Opioids: Natural or synthetic substances that interact with endorphin receptors. They imitate the action of endorphins, resulting in the release of large amounts of dopamine. At low doses, they produce sense of euphoria, pain relief, reduced anxiety, muscle relaxation, and sleep. The higher dose characteristic is the rapid onset feeling of euphoria. With even higher doses, they exert a strong depression on breathing. Naloxone is a drug that can temporarily reverse the effects of opioids. Chapter 6 Summarized Notes from Textbook 7  Hypnosis: a state of consciousness involving focused attention and reduced peripheral awareness characterized by an enhanced capacity for response to suggestion. Stroop Test: participants are asked to respond to the color of the letters they are shown. When the ink color and the word are congruent, reaction time is significantly faster than when they aren’t. Meditation: a conscious state without thought, accompanied by a blissful emotional state. Mindfulness: nonjudgmental awareness of experiences in the present moment. Chapter 6 Summarized Notes from Textbook 8  Chapter 8 Summarized Notes from Textbook Class PSYAO1 Reflexes are inevitable, involuntary responses to stimuli to promote welfare. But, have the disadvantage of being inflexible. Instincts are inborn patterns of behavior elicited by environmental stimuli. Learning: a relatively permanent change in behavior due to experience. Learning is divided into three categories: Associative Learning: occurs when we form associations among stimuli, behaviors, or both. It helps to predict the future based on experience. There are two important types of this: Classical Conditioning: we form associations between pairs of stimuli that occur sequentially in time. Discovered by Ivan Pavlov. Operant Conditioning: we form associations between behaviors and their consequences. Non-associative Learning: involves changes in the magnitude of responses to a single stimulus rather than the formation of connections between stimuli. There are two important types: Habituation: reduces our reactions to repeated experiences that have already been evaluated and found to be unchanging and harmless. Sensitization: increases our reactions to a range of stimuli following exposure to one strong stimulus. Observational Learning: occurs when one organism learns by watching the actions of another organism. Chapter 8 Summarized Notes from Textbook 1  Implicit Learning: the learning of complex information that occurs in the absence of conscious awareness. Explicit Learning: when the individual is consciously aware of the learning and can generally report on what has been learned. Conditioned refers to something that must be learned, while unconditioned refers to factors that are reflexive or that occur without learning. Conditioned Stimulus (CS): refers to an environmental event whose significance is learned. Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS): has innate meaning to the organism. Conditioned responses (CRs) are learned reactions, while unconditioned responses (UCRs) don’t need to be learned. Acquisition refers to the development of a conditioned response. It requires contingency, or a correlation between the CS and the UCS. Conditioned responses disappear, or undergo extinction, if the association between the CS and the UCS is broken. Spontaneous Recovery: the reappearance of conditioned responses following periods of rest between sessions of extinction training. Inhibition: where a CS predicts the non-occurrence of a UCS. Generalization: once a CR is successfully acquired, organisms often show a tendency to respond to a stimuli that are similar to the CS. Discrimination: allows us to make fine distinctions between the implications of stimuli. CRs can occur in response to stimuli that predict the CS, a process known as higher-order conditioning. It takes more time to learn about a familiar CS than about an unfamiliar CS, a phenomenon known as latent inhibition. Chapter 8 Summarized Notes from Textbook 2  Rescorla and Wagner proposed a model of classical conditioning in which learning occurs as a function of how suprising the association between the CS and the UCS appears. Garcia and Koelling demonstrated that the types of stimuli used as CSs and UCs matter, and that some combinations are learned faster than others. Watson and Raynor claimed they demonstrated that fears could result from classical conditioning. Exposure Therapy: treating phobias by exposing people to fear-producing stimuli in a manner that’s safe until they not longer respond. It works, but is often traumatic. Counter-conditioning: the substitution of one CR for another, opposite response. Aversion Therapy: used to replace inappropriate positive reactions to a stimulus with negative reactions. Systematic Desensitization: a variation of counterconditioning used to treat fear. Prejudice is a negative attitude about a group of people. It is influenced by classical conditioning. The law of effect states that a behavior will be “stamped into” an organism’s repertoire depending on the consequences of the behavior. Operant Conditioning: the association between a behavior and its consequences. Organisms operate on their environment, and their behavior is often instrumental in producing an outcome. Consequences are divided into four classes: Positive Reinforcement: increases the frequency of its associated behavior by providing a desired outcome. Chapter 8 Summarized Notes from Textbook 3  Primary Reinforcers: are effective because of their natural roles in survival. Conditioned/Secondary Reinforcers: a reinforcer that gains value from being associated with other things that are valued. Negative Reinforcement: involves the removal of unpleasant consequences from a situation to increase the frequency of an associated behavior. Positive Punishment: refers to applying an aversive consequence that reduces the frequency of or eliminates a behavior. Negative Punishment: involves the removal of something desirable. Premack Principle: states that whatever behavior an organisms spends the most time and energy doing is likely to be important to that organism. Reinforcing a behavior every time it occurs is known as continuous reinforcement. This is inconvenient to do forever. Partial Reinforcement: the reinforcement of the desired behavior on some occasions, but not others. There are 2 ways to apply partial reinforcement: Ratio Schedules: reinforcement depends on the number of times a behavior occurs. Interval Schedules: reinforcement depends on the passage of a certain amount of time. A fixed ratio (FR) schedule requires that a behavior occur a set number of times for each reinforcer. Continuous reinforcement = FR of 1. Variable ratio (VR) schedules involve counting the number of times a behavior occurs, but the required number of behaviors is allowed to fluctuate around some average amount. In a fixed interval (FI) schedule, the time that must pass before reinforcement becomes available following a single respond is set to a certain amount. Chapter 8 Summarized Notes from Textbook 4  The variable interval (VI) schedule is characterized by an interval that’s allowed to fluctuate around some average over the course of a session. Partial Reinforcement Effect in Extinction: the more rapid extinction observed following continuous reinforcement compared to that following partial reinforcement. Occurs because of one of two factors: The transition from continuous reinforcement to extinction is more obvious than the transition from a partial schedule to extinction. Partial schedules teach organisms to persist in the face of non- reinforcement. Method of Successive Approximations (or shaping): a method for increasing the frequency of behaviors that never or rarely occur. If you reinforce too much, learning stops because there’s no incentive for change. If you don’t reinforce frequently enough, the learner becomes discouraged. Chaining: breaking down the behavior into manageable steps. it’s important to teach a complex behavior. Can be done forwards or backwards. Latent Learning: learning that occurs in the absence of reinforcement. Biological boundaries in operant conditioning were described by Keller and Marian Breland. They outlined challenges encountered while using operant conditioning to train animals for entertainment. Social Facilitation: the performance of learned behaviors varies depending on an interaction between the presence of others and the complexity of the learned task. Chapter 8 Summarized Notes from Textbook 5  A widely used application of operant learning is the token economy - where tokens that can be exchanged for other reinforcers are used to increase the frequency of behaviors. Learning theories also have been applied successfully to the clinical setting in the form of behavior therapies, or applied behavior analysis. The ability to learn by others is called observational learning. Albert Bandura is one of the most influential psychologist He was interested in imitation, or the copying of behavior that’s unlikely to occur naturally and spontaneously. He identified 4 necessary cognitive processes in the modelling of others’ behavior: attention, retention, reproduction, and motivation. Models that get our attention are more likely to elicit imitation. A person must retain a memory of what the model did. We must be able to reproduce the behavior. A person must have a motivation for imitating the behavior. A society is a group of people living together. Culture, in contrast, consists of all the socially transmitted information used by the group of people. Richard Dawkins envisioned a way to break culture down into observable parts. He referred to the basic unit of cultural transmission as a meme. Memes, he said, are transmitted by observational learning from one person to another and can take the form of ideas, symbols, or practices. Chapter 8 Summarized Notes from Textbook 6  Chapter 9 Summarized Notes from Textbook Class PSYAO1 Memory is the ability to retain knowledge. Evolutionary psychologists view memory as “a component of a neural machine designed to use information acquired in the past to coordinate an organism’s behavior in the present”. Information processing refers to the flow of information through the human nervous system. Memory can be divided in 3 steps: Encoding: the process of acquiring information and transferring it into memory. Storage: This can last anywhere from fractions of a second to several sections to indefinitely. But, human memory doesn’t generate exact records, but bits of information that are reconstructed. Retrieval: is the recovery of stored information. The most common causes of retrieval failure are interference and stress. Atkinson and Shiffrin proposed the multistore model of memory, saying that data flow through a series of separate stages of memory. Sensory Memory: first stage of this model that holds large amounts of incoming data for brief amounts of time. Chapter 9 Summarized Notes from Textbook 1  Short-Term Memory: the second stage that models a small amount of information for a limited time. This last about 30 seconds at most, but if you rehearse the information over and over, it stays indefinitely so long as you don’t think of anything else. Working Memory: an extension of short-term memory that includes the active manipulation of multiple types of information simultaneously. Long-Term Memory: the final stage that is the location of permanent memories. Information is moved to here through rehearsal, which can be divided into 2 types: Maintenance Rehearsal: simple repetition of the material. Elaborative Rehearsal: linking the new material to things you already know. This is more effective and can be explained using: The Levels of Processing Theory: the depth of processing applied to information that predicts its ease of retrieval. Sensory input is transduced into several types of codes/representations: A representation of a memory is the mental model of a bit of information that exists even when the information is no longer available. Visual Codes/Iconic Memories: used for the temporary storage of information about visual images. Haptic Codes: process touch and other senses. Acoustic Codes: represent sounds and words. These last longer than visual codes. The serial position effect: when people are given a list of words to remember and are told to recall them, the likelihood a word on the list will be remembered depends on it’s position on the list. The primacy effect is the superior recall for the first words on the list, and the recency effect refers to the superior recall for the last words on the Chapter 9 Summarized Notes from Textbook 2  list. Long-term memory can be divided into several categories. Declarative Memories: memories that are easy to declare or discuss verbally. These are further divided into: Semantic Memory: the store of general knowledge in the form of word meanings and facts. Episodic Memory: is a personal account of past experiences. Non-Declarative Memories: Are difficult to discuss. There are 3 types: Classical Conditioning Procedural Memories: contain information about how to carry out a skilled movement. One advantage of these is their ability to automate our performance. Priming: occurs when exposure to a stimulus changes a response to a subsequent stimulus. Often studied using a lexical decision task. We can distinguish between semantic and episodic memory along four dimensions: the type of information processed, the organization of the information in memory, the source of the information, and the focus of memory. The blending of semantic and episodic memories characterizes autobiographical memories, which can contain factual, semantic aspects or knowledge about one’s self without episodic aspects. Collective Memory: memories of past events that are common to members of a particular social group. Transactive Memory: where members of a group are each responsible for remembering different pieces of information, so no one knows everything. Chapter 9 Summarized Notes from Textbook 3  Connectionism: views the mind as a network made up of simpler units or concepts. Connectionist models of memory suggest thinking about one concept leads to thinking about related concepts. Spreading Activation Model: recognizes people form their own organizations in memory based on their personal experiences. It also suggests concepts differ in the strength of their connections. Frederic Bartlett concluded memory storage doesn’t occur in a vacuum. When we encounter new information we attempt to fit it into an existing schema. Details that are consistent with these are more likely to be retained. A cue is any stimulus that helps you access target information. Cues might word because of encoding specificity, or where memories incorporate unique combinations of information when encoded. Context-Dependent Memory: the improvement in memory that occurs when the external context present at encoding and retrieval are the same. State-Dependent Memory: the improvement in memory that occurs when the internal state (mood) of the individual the same at encoding and retrieval. When retrieved, information to be used flows from long-term to working memory. The mind engages in reconstruction, or the building of a memory out of the stored bits by blending retrieved information with new content present in working memory. Fuzzy trace theory suggests we use precious resources to form different types of memories based on our needs. Flashbulb Memory: an especially vivid memory. People feel these are more accurate, but they might not be any more accurate than normal. Chapter 9 Summarized Notes from Textbook 4  If stress and learning happen simultaneously, a flashbulb memory might be formed. Stress occurring before or after learning impairs memory formation. According to the theory of decay, memories fade over time unless we continually practice retrieving the information. The method of savings compares the rate of learning material the first time to the rate of learning the same material a second time. Interference is the competition between newer and older information in the memory system. Proactive Interference: is reduced memory for target information as a result of earlier learning. Retroactive Interference: is reduced memory for target information because of subsequent learning. Blocking refers to cases of forgetting that occur when we know we have the correct information, but we simply cannot access it. The theory of motivated forgetting is the failure to remember/retrieve unpleasant or threatening information. Forming new memories requires changes in the connections neurons make with one another at the synapse, or synaptic consolidation. One of the major processes responsible for change at the synaptic level during learning is long-term potentiation, which enhances communication between 2 neurons. Results from this suggest that the simultaneous activation of a neuron sending information and the neuron receiving information produces Chapter 9 Summarized Notes from Textbook 5  changes that make the synapse between them more efficient. The inability to form new memories is known as anterograde amnesia. Areas of the temporal lobe and insula are important for remembering emotional personal experiences. Source Amnesia: where people maintain their semantic knowledge but don’t recall how they acquired it. Procedural memories are correlated with activation of the basal ganglia. Drugs that inhibit ACh interfere with memory formation. E.g., medications to reduce Alzheimer’s disease boost ACh activity. High ACh levels might impair memory consolidation and retrieval. Low levels of ACh (sleep) improve the transfer of information from temporary to more permanent storage. The N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor is a prime candidate for learning-related changes, like those observed in LTP. Chemicals that enhance glutamate receptors boost memory formation. Improving Memory: Space the input of information to the brain over time rather than cramming it. Taking tests Physical exercise increases adult neurogenesis in the hippocampus. More types of memories appear stronger after a period of sleep. Recitation, or verbalizing the material in your own words. Using mnemonics Chapter 9 Summarized Notes from Textbook 6