General Psychology Proctored Midterm Exam -Study Guide Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, & 7
What is mindfulness meditation?
teaches an individual to be fully present in each moment; to be aware of his or her thoughts, feelings, and sensations; and to detect symptoms before they become a problem
What are amphetamines?
A central nervous stimulant that hyperactivity, narcolepsy, and obesity
Know about Binet's method of intelligence testing.
A cognitive ability and intelligence test used on young children
What is a lucid dream?
A dream in which you become aware that you are dreaming while you are still asleep.
What is the Muller-Lyer illusion?
A famous visual illusion involving the misperception of the identical length of two lines, one with arrows pointed inward, one with arrows pointed outward.
What is operant conditioning?
A method of learning that employs rewards and punishments for behavior
Define successive approximations
A method of shaping behavior by reinforcing similar to the desired behavior
What is avoidance learning?
A natural adaptive learning behavior performed in response to danger
What theory is John Watson responsible for creating?
Behaviorism
Know the parts and functions of the neuron
Cell body, axon, and dendrites, help send and receive signals
research regarding eyewitness testimony
Confident eyewitness testimonies are usually more correct.
What are some examples of drifting consciousness?
Daydreaming, letting your thoughts wonder
Who proposed the Law of Effect and what is it?
Edward Thorndike, "responses that produce a satisfying effect in a particular situation become more likely to occur again in that situation, and responses that produce a discomforting effect become less likely to occur again in that situation
three-stage model of memory
Encoding, storage, and retrieval
Know about the historical theories of structuralism and functionalism
Functionalism is the importance of how we adapt. Structuralism is studying the most basic components using introspection
What is insight learning?
Immediate and clear learning or understanding that takes place without trial and error
What factors contribute to narrowing the racial gap in IQ?
Improved conditions for people of color, amount of people jailed
Define conciousness
The state of being awake and aware of your surroundings
What is the most widely used illicit drug in the United States?
Marijuina
What are negative and positive reinforcements?
Negative reinforcement strengthens likelihood of behavior by removing undesirable renforcement. Positive keeps undesirable renforcement
What are declarative and procedural memories?
Procedural memories are a part of the long term memory that is responsible for knowing how to do things. Declarative memories are short term learned things
What discipline is William Wundt responsible for founding
Psychology
Be familiar with the research concerning alcohol usage among college students.
Questionnaire responses showed college students (66 females, 24 males) believed their decisions about drinking were made independently of peer or environmental pressure but light and heavy drinkers made different judgments about their peers' drinking behavior. Home background factors did not predict extent of drinking. Most students started drinking during high school and reported no change in drinking rate since attending college.
What is circadian rhythm?
Regulates the sleep cycle and repeats with earth rotation
Be familiar with "split-brain" research.
Research done if the corpus callosum is severed
What are the definitions of Sensation and Perception?
Sensation- allows us to take in information because of our five senses. Perception- ability to become aware from our senses
What are short term memory and long term memory?
Short term memory is where information that you have gathered from the past few days is stored. Long term memory is where information you learned a while ago is at
What are stimulants and depressant drugs?
Stimulants speed up bodily functions depressants slow down bodily functions
How do children acquire language?
Through interaction with parents and even other children.
What are the sensory receptors of our sense of taste?
Taste receptor cells
What does olfaction mean?
The action of smelling, your sense of smell
What makes up the Central Nervous System and Peripheral Nervous System and how do they function?
The central nervous system is made up of the brain and spinal cord and spinal cord and the peripheral nervous is made up of nerves that branch out from the spine.
Know the definition of memory.
The faculty by which the mind stores and remembers information
What is the absolute threshold?
The lowest level of all of the five senses
What is correlational research attempting to discover?
The relationships between variables
What is lesioning?
To give attention to sound
maintenance rehearsal
To repeatedly verbalize or think about a piece of information
Why is Psychology considered a scientific discipline?
Uses scientific method
Know about the gender differences in cognitive abilities
Women usually excel in verbal fluency, perceptual speed, accuracy, and fine motor skills while men are more likely to be better in mathematics, working memory, and spatial.
What is a mental image?
a mental representation of objects or events that are not physically present
What is a mnemonic device?
a plan to encode items in a special way to remember them
What is a mental set?
a tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past
flashbulb memories
detailed recollections of when and where we heard about shocking events
divergent thinking
expands the number of possible problem solutions (creative thinking that diverges in different directions)
Know the parts and functions of the ear
inner ear- sound receptors Middle ear- links to eardrum Outer ear- has ear canal and ear drum
What is the trichromatic theory?
only need 3 colors to see all colors (blue, green, red)
What is a mental picture?
significantly resembles the experience of visually perceiving some object, event, or scene, but occurs when the relevant object, event, or scene is not actually present to the senses.
Define Psychology
the scientific study of behavior and mental processes
What is the serial position effect?
the tendency of a person to recall the first and last items in a series best, and the middle items worst