Psych 10 UCLA final

barnum effect

"we have something for everyone"

nativist perspective

Chomsky argues that language learning capacities are built into the brain

personality

a characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting

mental set

a frame of mind involving a certain representation of a problem, its context or procedure for solving it

sound wave

a pattern of changes in air pressure during a period of time; produces sound

long term potentation

a process whereby communication across the synapse strengthens the connection, making further communication easier

imprinting

a sensitive period during which young animals become strongly attached to a nearby adult

Trait

a stable quality of a person that shows in most situation

language

a system for communicating with others using signals that are combined according to rules of grammar and convey meaning

stress

a type of physical and psychological response that typically involves an unpleasant state, such as anxiety/tension

discrimination

ability to distinguish between similar but distinct stimuli

intelligence

ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations

positive punishment

adding an unfavorable consequence to decrease behavior

positive reinforcement

adding favorable consequence to increase behavior

recognition by components

all objects can be described as a collection of several volumetric primitives or geons and the reactions between them

fight or flight response

an emotional and physiological reaction to an emergency that increases readiness for action

telomerase

an enzyme that rebuilds telomeres at the tips of chromosomes

prototype theory

an imaginary average

coping response

any attempt made to avoid, escape from, or minimize a stressor

environment

any non genetic influence on behavior

template theory

any pattern that fits template of an object will be recognized as that object

Cartensen's socioemotional selectivity theory

as people grow older they perceive time to be limited and adjust their priorities to emphasize emotionally meaningful events, experiences, and goals

behavior therapy

assumes disordered behavior is learned; seeks to change maladaptive behaviors into more constructive behaviors

resting membrane potential

at rest electrical charge

visual neglect

attentional disorder in which patients are unaware or don't respond to objects on one side of space

family resemblance theory

attributes may be true of some but not all members

echoic memory

auditory sensory register

temporal lobe

auditory, processing language

ratio

based on number of behaviors

interval

based on time intervals

Neurons

basic units of the nervous system that operate via electro-chemical signals

Hindsight Bias

belief that an outcome was foreseeable

antipsychotic drugs

block dopamine receptor cites; treat some positive symptoms but not negative

HPA axis

body system involved in stress responses

immune system

body's mechanism for dealing with invading microorganisms

humanistic therapy

boost people's self fulfillment and promote self growth

CNS

brain and spinal cord

sound localization

brain integrates different sensory info coming from each ear

psychosis

break from reality in which the person has difficulty distinguishing what thoughts or perceptions are real vs imagined

motor neurons

carry info from CNS to muscles/glands (brain to body)

Sensory neurons

carry info from sensory receptors to CNS (brain to body)

action potential

caused by changes in the electrical and chemical gradients across the cell membrane

fovea

center of retina where cones are densely packed

framing effects

changing how an issue is presented can change people's decisions

bipolar disorder

characterized by cycles of abnormal, persistent high mood and low mood

panic disorder

characterized by the sudden occurrence of multiple psychological and physiological symptoms that contribute to a feeling of terror

generalized anxiety disorder

chronic excessive worry accompanied by three or more of: restlessness, fatigue, concentration problems, irritability, muscle tension, and sleep disturbance

interposition

closer objects block farther ones

stereotypes

cognitive schemas that allow for easy, fast processing of info about people based on their membership in certain groups

cell body (soma)

collects/sums input; contains nucleus and cell material

exemplar theory

compare new instances with stored memories for other instances

interneurons

connect sensory, motor, and other interneurons

pons

connects to rest of brain

general adaptation syndrome

consistent pattern of responses to stress that consists of three stages: alarm, resistance, and exhaustion

myelin sheath

covers the axon of some neurons and helps speed up neural impulses

dendrites

detect incoming signals

sensation

detecting physical stimuli and sending this info to the brain

amplitude

determines loudness

frequency

determines pitch

retinal disparity

different retinal images each eye receives based on its different perspectives

agnosia

difficulty perceiving shapes and object form

sensory adaptation

diminished sensitivity as a result of a constant or recurring stimuli

episodic memory

discrete events, specific time/place, personally experienced

positive psychology

emphasizes the strengths and virtues that help people thrive; its primary aim is an understanding of psychological well being

law of conservation of quantity

even if a substance's appearance changes its quantity may remain unchanged

learning

experience that results in a relatively permanent change in the state of the learner

semantic memory

facts, general knowledge

blocking

failing to recall something even when you know it

bystander intervention effect

failure to offer help by those who observe someone in need when other people are present

agoraphobia

fear of public places, often because of fear of panic attacks in public

tend and befriend response

females' tendency to protect and care for their offspring and form social alliances rather than fight or flee in response to threat

cerebellum

fine motor skills; balance and coordinated movement

post-decisional dissonance

focusing on positive aspects of something you chose and the negative aspects of something you did not choose

spontaneous recovery

following extinction, presenting the CS may lead to the CR again

misattribution

forgetting who you told a joke to; Ronald Cotton Case

Structuralism

goal: to discover the mind's structure by breaking down experiences into their underlying components

functionalism

goal: to study the purpose of behaviors and mental processes by examining them in terms of adaption to the environment

atherosclerosis

gradual narrowing of the arteries that occurs as fatty deposits or plaque build up on the inner walls of the arteries; main cause or coronary heart disease

chunking

group items into more meaningful chunks

medulla

heart rate, circulation, breathing

oxytocin

hormone important for mothers in bonding to newborns and encourages affiliation during social stress

top down processing

how knowledge, expectations, or past experiences shape the interpretation of sensory info

foot in the door effect

if people agree to a small request, they become more likely to comply with a large undesirable request

belief perseverance

ignoring opposing information

sensory memory

immediate, brief recoding of sensory info before it is processed into short term or long term memory

Weber's Law

in order to be perceived as different, the intensity of two stimuli must vary by a constant proportion of the intensity of the original stimulus

aphasia

inability to comprehend and produce language

achromatopsia

inability to perceive color despite having a normally functioning eye

functional fixedness

inability to realize that something has a certain use might also be used for performing other functions

prosopagnosia

inability to recognize faces

fixation

inability to see a problem from a fresh perspective

insecure (anxious) attachment

infant avoids contact with caregiver or switches between approach and avoidance behaviors

secure attachment

infant is confident enough to play in unfamiliar area only if caregiver is there

narcissistic personality disorder

inflated sense of self importance, exploitative of others

group polarization

initial attitudes become extreme over time

acquisition

initial stage of learning/conditioning

interactionalist perspective

innate capacity for language interacts with experience

specific phobia

irrational fear of a particular object or situation that markedly interferes with an individual's ability to function

social phobia

irrational fear of being publicly humiliated or embarrassed

availability heuristic

judging the probability of events based on examples that come readily to mind

non declarative memory

knowing "how", expressed behaviorally, awareness not necessary (implicit memory)

declarative memory

knowing "what", expressed verbally, conscious awareness (explicit memory)

informativeness

knowledge of category membership allows inferences to be made

absentmindedness

lapses in attention, sometimes due to divided attention

retina

light sensitive inner surface of the eye

persistent depressive disorder

long lasting depression, lasting two or more years

prospect theory

losses "matter" more than gains

long term memory

memory that persists over time without conscious activation

concepts

mental representations that group related things together into categories

intelligence test

method of assessing an individual's mental aptitudes and comparing them to others'

reduced discrimination

minimize the number of labels of objects

absolute threshold

minimum amount of stimulation needed to detect a stimulus 50% of the time

difference threshold

minimum difference between 2 stimuli needed to detect difference between them 50% of the time

Institutional Review Board

need to make sure it meets the accepted standards of science

PNS

neurons transmit info from CNS to organs/muscles

retroactive interference

new learning gets in the way of old

behavior

observable actions of humans and animals

dissociative identity disorder

occurrence of two or more distinct identities int he same individual, along with memory gaps

transience

of the forgetting that will happen, most happens fast

proactive interference

old learning gets in the way of new

join attention

older infants follow an adult's gaze while younger infants follow head movement

generalization

once a response has been conditioned, similar stimuli can elicit the same response

expert blind spot

once you know the answer it is impossible to remember what it felt like to not know

schemas

organized knowledge structure or mental model that we've stored in our memory

hierarchies

organizing information

normative influence

our tendency to conform in order to fit in with the group

informational influence

our tendency to conform when we assume that the group is right

door in the face

people are more likely to agree to a small request after they have refused a large request

ingroup favoritism

people are more likely to favorably evaluate and privilege members of the ingroup more than members of the out group

diffusing of responsibility

people fear making social blunders in ambiguous situations

representative heuristic

people judge probabilities based on the degree that the situation is similar to, or representative of, their stereotypes or knowledge

sunk-cost fallacy

people make their decisions about a current situation based on prior investments

problem focused coping

people take direct steps to confront or minimize a stressor

loss aversion

people tend to want to avoid losses more than they want to achieve gains

emotion focused coping

people try to prevent having an emotional response to a stressor

bottom up processing

perception based on the physical features of the stimulus - basic to more complex

incubation

period of not thinking about a problem for a while

austism spectrum disorder

persistent communication deficits, and restricted and repetitive patterns of behaviors, interests, and actions

mental disorder

persistent disturbance or dysfunction in behavior, thoughts, or emotions that causes significant distress or impairment

antisocial personality disorder

pervasive pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of others that begins in childhood or early adolescence and continues into adulthood

frontal lobe

planning, decision making, speaking

signal detection theory

predicts how and when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus amid background noise; assumes that there is no single absolute threshold and detection depends on experience, expectations, motivations, fatigue, etc

social facilitation

presence of others generally enhances performance

consolidation

process by which memories become stable in the brain

transduction

process of converting one form of energy to another

accommodation

process of creating a new schema or drastically altering an existing schema to include new info that wouldn't have fit in the old schema

assimilation

process of placing new info into an existing schema

perception

processing, organizing, and interpreting sensory info

schizophrenia

profound disruption of basic psychological processes; a distorted perception of reality; altered or blunted emotion; disturbances of thoughts, motivation, and behavior

plasticity

property of the brain that allows it to change as a result of experience or injury

heritability

proportion of variation in the population that is explained by genetic factors

BMI

ratio of body weight to height

cognitive revolution

reaction against behaviorism in 1950s-1960s; brought back interest in mental processes; set stage for modern approach to psychology

retrieval

reactivating and recalling information

perceptual constancy

real objects don't change at random so our perceptions of those objects don't change either even though the visual info can change drastically

occipital lobe

receive visual information

somatosensory cortex

receives info

seasonal affective disorder

recurrent depressive episodes in a seasonal pattern

behaviorism

redefined psychology as the scientific study of observable behavior; predominant in 1920s-1960s

means ends heuristic

reduce the difference between the current state and the goal state

fixed

reinforcement after a given amount of time or responses

variable

reinforcement after a random amount of time or responses

negative punishment

removing a favorable consequence to decrease behavior

negative reinforcement

removing unfavorable consequence to increase behavior

cones

respond to higher level of light; result in color perception

rods

respond to low levels of light; results in black and white perception

Nervous system

responsible for everything we think, feel, and do

working backwards heuristic

reversed version of means end work from goal state to current state

grammar

rules for combining sounds/words to make meaningful speech

anti-depressants

selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors

motor cortex

sends out info

parietal lobe

sensory input for touch and position

major depressive disorder

severely depressed mood and/or inability to experience please, lasting two or more weeks, accompanied by feelings of worthlessness, lethargy, and sleep/appetite disturbance

behaviorist perspective

skinner says we learn languages through reinforcement

reticular formation

sleep/wakefulness, arousal

terminal buttons

small modules at the end of the axon that release chemical signals from the neuron into the synapse

morphemes

smallest unit of meaning in a language

phonemes

smallest unit of sound in language (not letters)

chronic stressors

sources of stress that occur continuously or repeatedly

synapse

space between axon of a sending neuron and dendrite of a receiving neuron

attachment

strong emotional bond that persists over time and across circumstances (usually with a caregiver)

psychopharmacology

study of the effect of drugs on the mind and behavior

genetic influence

study people with different genes raised in the same environment

environmental influence

study people with same genes raised in different environments

forebrain

subcritical structures and cortex

health psychology

subfield of psychology concerned with ways psychological factors influence the causes and treatment of physical illness and the maintenance of health

psychodynamic

takes one to two sessions per week for several months, therapist in view, focus on childhood experience

Cognitive/Behavioral Therapy

teach people new more constructive ways of thinking and acting

cognitive therapy

teach people new, more constructive ways of thinking and feeling

suggestibility

tendency to incorporate misleading info into memories

confirmation bias

tendency to produce positive rather than negative information in reasoning

Theory of Mind

the ability to explain and predict another person's behavior as a result of recognizing his/her mental state

encoding

the information gets into our brains in a way that allows it to be stored

storage

the information is held in a way that allows it to later be retrieved

mental processes

the mind, private inner experience

stereotype

the process by which we draw inferences about others based on knowledge of the categories to which they belong

psychology

the scientific investigation of behavior and mental processes

egocentrism

the tendency to view the world through their own experiences

opponent process theory

three sets of retinal processes; red/green, yellow/blue, white/black

Young Heimholtz Trichromatic Color Theory

three types of cones; respond to red, green or blue light

psychoanalytical

took several sessions per week for years, therapist was out of view, focused on childhood experiences

axon

transmits signal to axon terminal

operant conditioning

type of learning in which the consequences of an organism's behavior determine whether it will be repeated again

electroconvulsive shock therapy

type of neurostimulation where patient is induced into a brain seizure

anti-anxiety drugs

type of tranquilizer; facilitates the neurotransmitter GABA which can inhibit some neutral activity

object permanance

understanding that an object continues to exist when it cannot be seen

short term memory

used to keep track of what is currently relevant

mnemonics

using mental imagery and other well known cues; loci

social referencing

using others' reactions to gauge how we should think or feel

iconic memory

visual sensory register

rational choice theory

we make decisions by determining how likely something is to happen, judging the values of the possible outcome and multiplying by two

attribution theory

we tend to give casual explanations for people's behavior

convergence

when a person views a nearby object, eye muscles turn inward

social loafing

when evaluation apprehension is low, effort is low

extinction

when the US and CS stop occurring together and the CR is weakened

paradox of choice

when too many options are available, people experience conflict and indecision

low balling strategy

when you agree to buy a product for a certain price, you are more likely to comply with a request to pay more for the product

Bias

your current knowledge/beliefs can affect how you remember the past

persistence

PTSD, flashbulb memories