Introductory Psychology Exam 2 Study Guide PDF

Introductory Psychology: Exam 2 Study Guide \*Note: The information below is intended only as a guide to direct your studying for the second exam. The terms listed for each section should be used to direct you to relevant sections of your notes and the text. I recommend studying so that you know wh...

Introductory Psychology: Exam 2 Study Guide \*Note: The information below is intended only as a guide to direct your studying for the second exam. The terms listed for each section should be used to direct you to relevant sections of your notes and the text. I recommend studying so that you know what, when, where, why, and how for each term (as applicable). Some exam questions will involve applying information (not just defining). The exam will include 50 questions (100 points). Approximately 35 questions will come from new material (Sleep and Dreaming, Basics of Sensation and Perception; Vision and Touch; and Learning). The remaining questions will come from Exam 1 cumulative material (Psychological Science, Development, and Biology of Behavior). **Sleep and Dreaming** \*altered state of consciousness- shift in the quality of pattern of mental activity - Impacted by drugs, medications etc. (sleep) \*circadian rhythm- 24-hour bodily rhythm \*Consciousness- a person\'s awareness of everything going on inside and outside of you - Used to organize our behavior \*Dreams- Freud - Dreams provide access to the unconscious (wish-fulfillment) - Manifest content and latent content - Dreams are like safety belts, you must understand them \*Manifest content: actual content of the dream "the way you describe the dream to someone else" \*Latent content: the hidden meaning of the dream, "dreams have meaning" \*Insomnia- inability to fall asleep, stay asleep, or get good quality sleep - Caused by many things: stress, changes in lifestyle - Changes while you\'re sleeping - Researchers suggest cognitive behavior therapy is the most effective to treat insomnia \*Narcolepsy- person falls immediately into REM sleep during the day without warning \*Cataplexy: sudden loss in muscle tone, triggered by emotional events - Rare disorder 1 in 2000 people are diagnosed - Can happen during the day, unexpectedly - Dangerous - Medication is primary treatment - Always tired during the day \*Nightmares- bad dreams arousing feelings of horror, helplessness, extreme sorrow - Influenced by dream content - Occurring during REM sleep (second half of the night) - Factors that cause them - Wake up \*non-REM sleep- non rapid eye movement sleep \*REM behavior disorder- mechanisms that typically block the movement of voluntary muscles fails, allowing the person to trash around and get up and act our nightmares, usually affects older males, linked to Parkinson\'s, diagnoses through sleep studies \*REM sleep- rapid eye movement sleep \*REM paralysis: the inability of voluntary muscles to move during REM sleep - The average sleep cycle is 90 minutes - The first half of the night is more deep non-REM sleep - Second half of the night is more REM sleep \*sleep apnea- person stops breathing for short periods during sleep - Sleep related breathing disorder, airway becomes blocked - Snores loudly - CPAP - Affects cardiovascular system- heart disease \*sleep need Sleep deprivation: any significant loss of sleep (acute or chronic) Consequences: **Behavioral** - Risk-taking - Consume more alcohol - Smoke more - Eat more **Cognitive** - Decision making - Focusing - Memory - Planning - Problem-solving **Emotion** - Easily upset - Less patience **Psychical** - Body weight regulation - Increased risk of heart disease \*sleep stages REM: rapid eye movement sleep (active sleep) - Less REM sleep as we get older compared to young ages when they are proportional when older - Non-REM: REM 80:20 Non-REM: **non** rapid eye movement sleep (deep sleep, quiet sleep) Stage 1: Non-REM sleep- light sleep, hypnic jerk, hypnagogic images Stage 2: Non-REM sleep- temperature, breathing and heart rate decrease, sleep spindles Stage 3: Non-REM sleep- the deepest level of sleep, growth hormones released, hard to wake up \*sleep terrors- attacks of extreme fear that the victim has while sound asleep - Do not wake up, but could look awake - Happen during non-REM sleep, first half of the night - Children do not remember them - Can be predicted based on sleep-schedules \*Sleepwalking- occurs during deep non-REM sleep, movement around or walking around in one's sleep, most common in children, primary cause is sleep deprivation \*theories of sleep Adaptive theory: animals and humans have evolved sleep patterns to avoid predators, sleep when predators are most active\ Restorative theory: sleep is necessary for the physical health of the body (we feel better when we get enough sleep) (recovery) Memory consolidation: information is taken from the hippocampus and moved to the appropriate part of the cortex Creative thinking/problem solving you continue to work on things from the day after falling asleep Growth/development: hormones do their job while you sleep and have regulatory effect on body processes **Basics of Sensation and Perception; Vision and Touch** \*absolute threshold- least energy for correct stimulus detection 50% of time - Touch - Vision - Hearing - Smell - Taste \*Afterimages- visual sensations that persist after the initial stimulus has been moved - What we do with the initial process of light \*binocular cues- cues for perceiving depth based on both eyes (living and daily interactions) \*bottom-up processing- sensation and stimulus - Working its way to the cortex \*color blindness (color-deficient vision)- caused by defective cones in the retina of the eye - Color deficient vision \*Cornea- first layer, focuses light that comes into the eyes, bend the light waves \*depth perception- the ability to perceive the world in three dimensions - Monocular and binocular cues \*Gestalt principles of perception Figure-ground: tendency to perceive objects or figures as existing on a background Principle of proximity: tendency to see objects close to each other as part as the same group \- see objects as close to each other Similarity: the tendency to perceive things that looks similar as being part of the same group Closure: tendency to complete figures that are incomplete Conti**n**uity: the tendency to perceive things as simply as possible with a continuous pattern rather than a complex broken up pattern (N) Conti**g**uity: the tendency to perceive two things that happen close together in time as being related together (G) Common region: tendency to perceive objects that are in a common area as being in a group \*Illusions- perception that does not correspond with reality **or** visual stimuli that fool the eye \*Iris- colored portion of the eyes, a muscle, controls the size of the pupil \*just noticeable difference- smallest difference between two stimuli, detectable 50% of the time \*kinesthetic sense- (location of body parts in relation to one another) - sense of the location of body parts in relation to the ground and each other \*Lens- can change shape to help bring objects into focus - Visual accommodation: change in the thickness of the lens and the shape as the eye focuses on objects \*light becoming a neural impulse **Stage 1**: light passes through ganglion and bipolar cells (form the optic nerve) **Stage 2**: it reaches and stimulates the rods and cones (photo receptor cells) (stimulated by light) - Rods: process non-color (black, white, gray) dim vision - Cones: activated by color and bright light visual information **Stage 3**: nerve impulses from the rods and cones travel along a nerve pathway to the brain \*monocular cues (definition only, don't need to know specific examples)- depth cues that can be perceived by one eye only (pictures and paintings) Pain- \*Perception- method by which the sensations experienced at any given moment are interpreted and organized in some meaningful fashion - Top-down processing \*Factors influencing perception: - Mind - Perception - Interpretation - Sensation - stimulus \*perceptual constancy- the ability of our brain to see the size and shape of objects despite the changes in their distance or lighting \*perceptual expectancy- tendency to perceive things in a certain way, because of pervious experiences or expectations influence those perceptions \*Pupil- darker portion of the eye, light enters the interior portion of the eye, when larger more light can enter your eye, when smaller less light can enter \* Retina- the final stop for light \*rods and cones Rods: process non-color (black, white, gray) dim vision Cones: activated by color and bright light visual information \*Sensation- process that occurs when special receptors in the sense organs (eyes, ears, skin, nose, and mouth) are activated, allowing outside stimuli to become neural signals in the brain - Bottom-up processing \*Sensory receptors- specialized neurons, stimulated by different forms of energy - Light (visual) \*somesthetic senses- Sense of touch is really several sensations, originating in several different places in (and on) the body \*theories of color **Trichromatic theory** Three types of cones: blue, green, and red \- primary colors of light \- firing rate of cones and color Afterimages: visual sensations that persist after the initial stimulus has been moved - What we do with the initial process of light **Laid the foundation for opponent-process theory** **Opponent-process theory** Four primary colors arranged in pairs - Yellow, red, blue, green - Better able to explain after images - When one color is active, the other color is inhibited Pairs: Red and green Yellow and blue \*top-down processing- mind and perception - Working its way from the mind \*vestibular senses- (movement, body position) - the sensations of movement, balance, and body position \*visual accommodation- change in the thickness of the lens and the shape as the eye focuses on objects **Learning** \*biological preparedness- tendency to learn certain associations with only one or few pairings due to the survival value of the learning \*classical conditioning- (involuntary) learning to make an involuntary response (reflex) to a stimulus other than the original natural stimulus that normally produces the response \*conditioned response- (CR) learned reflex response to a condition stimulus - Salivation to the bell \*conditioned stimulus- (CS) a stimulus that becomes able to produce a learned reflex response by being paired by the original unconditioned stimulus - The bell after conditioning takes place \*conditioned taste aversion- development of a nausea or aversive response to a particular taste because that taste was followed by a nausea a reaction, occurring after only one association \*Extinction- disappearance of weakening of a learned response, following the absence of an unconditioned experience \*Learning- relatively permanent **change** in behavior or thought due to **experience or practice** \*Ivan Pavlov- Russian physiologist discovered classical conditioning, reflexes \*Neural stimulus- (NS) a stimulus that has no effect on the desired response \*spontaneous recovery- the reappearance of a learned response, after extinction has occured \*stimulus discrimination- the tendency to stop making a generalized response, because the similar stimulus is never paired with the unconditioned stimulus \*stimulus generalization- the tendency to respond with the conditioned response, to a stimulus that is only similar to the original stimulus \*unconditioned response- (UCR) involuntary response to an unconditioned stimulus - Salivating to the food \*unconditioned stimulus- (UCS) naturally occurring stimulus that leads to an involuntary response - Pavlov food **Cumulative Material** **Psychological Science** case study- detailed investigations of one subject control group- not exposed to the independent variable Correlation- a measure of the relationship between two variables - Positive: same direction (both go up or down) - Negative: opposite direction (one goes up one goes down) dependent variable- variable that represents the measurable response of participants (symptoms of depression) Experiment- experimental group- exposed to the independent variable goals of psychology Description- not the why, observing behavior and everything about it Explanation- the why? Develops a theory Theory- general explanation of a set of observations or facts Prediction- when will this happen again Control- can we change behavior from undesirable to desirable Hypothesis- independent variable- variable that is manipulated in an experiment laboratory observation- watching people or animals in a controlled situation (lab) naturalistic observation- watching animal or people in their natural habitats (lack of control) observer bias- the tendency for observers to see what they expect to see observer effect- the tendency for people or animals to behave different when they know they are being watched placebo effect- expectations and bias of participants that could affect their behavior Psychology- the scientific study of behavior and mental process representative sample- randomly selected sample of subjects from a larger population of subjects scientific method- a system for reducing bias in error in the measurement of data 1. Perceive (question) description 2. Hypothesize (the theory) description/explanation 3. Test, data collection (goal) explanation 4. Draw conclusions (supported or not) prediction 5. Report, revise, replicate **Development -- Conception through Adolescence** Attachment- bond between infant and primary caregiver Centration- focus on one aspect or feature of an object cognitive development- (lack of) Conservation- the ability to understand that changing the appearance of an object does not change its nature human development- study of changes in people from conception until death nature vs. Nurture- nature is biology nurture is environment object permanence- the knowledge that something exists even when it is out of sight (develops around 15 months of age) Jean Piaget (stages of cognitive development) Sensorimotor- children explore using senses and motor abilities - Birth to 2 years of age Preoperational- pretend play, imagination - 2-7 years of age Concrete operational- - 7-12 years of age Formal operations- children become reasonable with abstract and hypothetical thinking, able to think about things that are not visibly present - 12 years to adulthood research designs (longitudinal, cross-sectional, cross-sequential) Longitudinal- one group of subject\'s studies repeatedly over a period of months or years Cross-sectional- subjects from different age groups are studied at the same point in time Cross-sequential- subjects from different age groups are studied repeatedly over a period of months or years Schema- sensory system development- Strange Situation- Ainsworth\'s Secure- explore environment, wary of stranger (but remain calm), upset when mom leaves, easily soothed when mom returns Avoidant- explore environment, don't "touch base" with mom, little reaction to mom's exit or return Ambivalent- "mixed feelings", clingy- unwilling to explore, upset by stranger, upset when mom leaves, demand to be picked up when mom returns but resists her attempts to provide comfort (push away) Disorganized-disoriented- appear fearful, sad/dazed look, no clear pattern of responses, abuse/neglect Temperament- behavioral and emotional characteristics established at birth (innate) Easy- children are regular in their schedules (eating and sleeping) adaptable to change, easily soothed if they are upset, happy disposition Difficult- hard to retain or create regular schedules, loud, not adaptable to change, irritable Slow to warm up- does not show emotions right away, takes time to acclimate to new situations **Biology of Behavior** action potential- the release of the neural impulse consisting of a reversal of the electrical charge within the axon Amygdala- influences our motivation, emotional control, fear response, and interpretation of nonverbal emotional expressions (lower part of the limbic system) autonomic nervous system- "automatic" organs and glands (fight or flight part) central nervous system- brain, spinal cord (CNS) - Brain: stores and interprets information and sends messages throughout the body, command center (useless without spinal cord) - Spinal cord: bundle of neurons that carries messages between body and brain and is responsible for very fast, lifesaving reflexes communication between cells Cortex- wrinkled outermost covering of the brain Higher thought processes and interpretation of sensory input - Divided into 2 hemispheres (right=language) (left=visual) Hippocampus- plays a role in our learning, memory, ability to compare sensory information to expectations Hypothalamus- part of the forebrain that regulated the amount of fear, thirst, sexual drive, and aggression we feel (pituitary gland is contained here) limbic system- group of several brain structures (located under cortex) - Learning - Memory - Irregulating emotion - Motivation lobes of the brain (describe and locate) Frontal- right and left front of the brain, contains motor cortex (controls voluntary muscles) - High order functions (ability to plan, complex decision making, regulate emotions) Temporal- behind the temples, contains primary auditory cortex (hearing) - Processing auditory information and involvement in the processing of language Occipital- back of the brain, contains visual association cortex - Processing and interpreting visual information Parietal- back and top of brain, contains somatosensory cortex - Information from the skin (sense of touch) (movement/body position) Myelin- fatty substance, insulates the axon, protects the axon, speeds up neuro impulse nervous system- a network of cells that carries information to and from all parts of the body neural impulse- generating the message, seeing something/catalyst Neuron- basic cell that makes up the nervous system and that receives and sends messages within that system Dendrites (receivers) - Branch-like structures - Receive messages from other neurons Soma (cell body) - Nucleus of the cell - Maintains the life of the cell Axon (axis) (middle) - Responsible for carrying messages to other cells - Coded in myelin Axon terminal (synaptic knob) (transmitters) (end) - Message gets transmitted to the next cell resting potential- the state of a neuron when not fighting a neuro impulse - Balance of energy is a negative charge somatic nervous system- consists of nerves that carry information from the senses to the CNS and from the CNS to the voluntary muscles of the body Thalamus- part of the forebrain that relays information from sensory organs to the cerebral cortex (relay station/center)