Psych 110 Exam #2

What are the three major tasks involved in memory?

1. Encoding- Getting info into your brain. Occurs at the time of learning as the brain changes info into neural code that it can use. 2. Storage- Retaining the info in your brain. 3. Retrieval- Getting the info back out

How are sound waves converted into neural activity in the brain? What role does the eardrum play in converting neural activity?

1. When changes in air pressure produce sound waves within a person's hearing distance, sound waves arrive at the outer ear and travel down the auditory canal to the eardrum 2. The eardrum marks the beginning of the middle ear where the sound waves make the eardrum vibrate. 3. These vibrations are transferred to the ossicles, which are the three bones of the middle ear, called the hammer, anvil and stirrup. 4. Ossicles transfer the eardrum's vibrations to the oval window, a membrane located within the cochlea (in the inner ear). The cochlea is a fluid-filled tube curled into a snail-like shape with a membrane at the end called the round window. The cochlea has the basilar membrane running through the center of it. 5. The oval window's vibrations create pressure waves in the cochlear fluid which prompts the basilar membrane to oscillate. 6. Movement of the basilar membrane stimulates hair cells to bend and send info to the auditory nerve. Hair cells are primary auditory receptors. These hair cells convert the vibrations into neural impulses. The auditory nerve takes the neural impulses from the hair cells and sends them along to the brain stem. 8. Auditory neurons in the thalamus extend their axons to the primary auditory cortex in the Temporal Lobe. 9. Conversion of sound waves to brain activity produces sensation of sound

Explain the "modal model" of memory (i.e., the three-stage model). Distinguish between sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory.

3 parts of one's memory: sensory memory, Short Term Memory and Long Term Memory Sensory memory is memory created when something (light, sound) hits your nervous system for a split second. Short Term memory (aka working memory) has a limited capacity. It lasts longer than sensory, but only for 20-30 seconds. Some think that your short term memory can only learn 7 things, but it really depends on how things are organized in your short term memory to decide the capacity. You use working memory to visualize things and do critical thinking like to solve math problems.

What are the four possible outcomes in a trial of a signal detection experiment? How could response bias affect these outcomes

4 possible outcomes: Hit (Stimulus and Yes Response), Miss (Stimulus and No Response), False Alarm (No Stimulus and Yes Response) and Correct Rejection (No Stimulus and No Response) Response Bias affects these outcomes in that there is a tendency to report detecting the signal in an ambiguous trial, where there is no stimulus

What is a mneumonic?

A learning aid, strategy, or device that aids in memory. This can be a rhyme, story, or some kind of device that is easily memorable. The weirder the memory link, the better the memory

Cryptomnesia- memory error

A type of source misattribution where you think you came up with an idea but it actually came from somewhere else

What are absolute thresholds?

Absolute threshold- minimum intensity of stimulation which has to occur for a sensation Sensory organs constantly require info from the environment

Explain the difference between an algorithm and a heuristic.

An algorithm is a guideline that if followed correctly will always yield the correct answer. It is like a formula that is sure to give you what you accurate info. Heuristics on the other hand are mental shortcuts that are fast and efficient strategies that people typically use to make decisions. Algorithms are step-wise procedures for solving a specific problem in a finite number of steps, and produces a predictable result. A heuristic is more of an educated guess which guides you through following exploration.

What is sensitization?

An increase in behavioral response after exposure to stimulus usually if the stimulus is threatening or painful. This leads to heightened responsiveness. For example, if you are studying and smell something burning, you probably won't habituate this smell, you will instead have a greater sensitivity to the smell of something burning to assess if there is a threat of fire.

Where did the behaviorists go wrong? In other words, what weaknesses have now been identified when we evaluate radical behaviorist claims? Explain how Rico the dog (discussed in class) challenges a behaviorist view of language learning.

Behaviorists went wrong firstly in that they said that learning is something that happens when the outside works upon you and secondly, that any 2 stimuli can be paired. Behavior is not, as they said, an unthinking, mechanical process. Also, behavior and conditioning is largely predicated on prediction. Stimuli are associated when the first reliably predicts the second. Food aversion is another opposing example because it takes like 1 trial for a human being to become averse to a food. Cognitive revolution came out of science and said that the weaknesses of behaviorism were that behavior isn't the end of things; we study behavior to infer unobservable constructs. Rico the dog challenged the behaviorist view of language learning because when Rico the dog was told to get a completely new toy from his toy chest, he was able to infer that it wasn't any of the toys that he had seen before. Therefore, Rico learned in the absence of reinforcement, which opposes the behaviorist view that reinforcement was the key to learning.

Intelligence Quotient

Binet introduced the concept of mental age which is determined by taking the child's test score and comparing it with average score of kids their age IQ is a calculation where the mental age is divided by the chronological age and multiplied by 100, however the formula breaks down for adults

Binet

Binet's goal was to identify children in the French schools who needed extra help and special instruction. He said intelligence is understood as a collection of high-level mental processes He developed a test for measuring a child's vocab, memory, number skills, mental abilities, etc.

How does counterconditioning work?

By associating the thing that one fears with something that they love, over time they will associate the two, which helps them overcome the fear. For example, a boy's fear of rabbits was solved by presenting the rabbits with cake and over time, he came to associate the rabbits with happiness.

What is chunking?

Chunking is grouping strings of information together in some way to make them easier to remember.

Be able to explain the basics of classical conditioning in terms of the US, UR, CS, and CR. What is the ideal timing with regard to the neutral stimulus and unconditioned stimulus?

Classical Conditioning is about learning to associate two stimuli that you didn't normally associate together. Explaining classical conditioning in terms of US, UR, CS, CR- An unconditioned stimulus is the stimulus that produces an unlearned/unconditioned response (UR). A conditioned stimulus is a stimulus that you condition the test subject to have a conditioned response to (can be the same response as you would have to the US or different) Ex: Pavlov and dogs- Dogs salivated (UR) when they saw/smelled food (US). He played a metronome (CS) before giving the dogs the food so that they would expect the food to come as well which made them eventually salivate only when they heard the metronome (CR). The optimal timing is about 1/2 second and you want the neutral stimulus to come before the unlearned stimulus.

How is operant conditioning different from classical conditioning?

Classical is fast/automatic and usually works at the unconscious level. Classical involves associating an involuntary response (salivating) with a stimulus. Operant Conditioning is non-reflexive, more complex. Operates involves associating a voluntary response (pushing a lever) and a stimulus

What are difference thresholds?

Difference Threshold aka "just noticeable difference"- smallest noticeable difference between two stimuli Minimum amount of change required for a person to detect difference Increases as stimulus becomes more intense

What evidence seems to support the notion of multiple intelligences?

Each person has a unique pattern of intelligences and no one should be viewed as smarter than the other, just differently talented. This is supported by standard intelligence tests not being able to capture people who are practically smart, but not book smart. People can have high IQ but lack curiosity and/or drive Gardner showed that there is evidence of different intelligences in prehistoric humans, with some being picture smart and others music smart. Sternberg theorized that there are three types of intelligence. Analytical (problem solving skills), Creative (ability to gain insight and solve novel problems with novel solutions) and Practical (dealing withe everyday tasks)

What is similarity and an example?

Elements that look similar are seen as part of the same thing

How did Binet's views on intelligence testing differ from Galton's?

Galton felt intelligence was completely genetic, while Binet was more focused on environmental aspects of expression of genes coded for intelligence. Galton felt intelligence was fixed by genes while Binet felt it was mostly cultural.

Galton

Galton felt that the smartest people had the quickest responses, perceived the most and were the most intelligent. He felt intelligence was related to brain efficiency.

What is the Garcia effect? How does this effect challenge the notion that any two stimuli could be linked through classical conditioning?

Garcia Effect says that certain pairings of stimuli are more likely to be associated than others. We are biologically primed to associate things with smell or taste A certain food that made you sick, leads to you becoming nauseous when you smell or taste it. Whether or not a food caused illness, people demonstrate a conditioned taste aversion. Conditioned taste aversion can happen in 1 trial, which shows that stimuli can be linked without classical conditioning Overall, Garcia showed that stimuli that caused nausea or uncomfortableness are more likely to have created an aversion than other stimuli because knowing what causes these things can be an adaptive advantage.

What is the difference between habituation and sensory adaptation?

Habituation is when decrease in behavioral response after repeated exposure to a stimulus. We tend to notice new things around us. This leads us to ignore things that we don't consider rewarding or harmful. We perceive the stimuli but don't think its important enough to respond. We habituate meaningless events and ignore them but if they suddenly stop, we immediately notice the change which causes increase in response aka dishabituation Sensory Adaptation is when we have decreased sensitivity to constant level of stimulation. After some time of perceiving a stimulus, the sensory response to it becomes less and less over time. Habituation is unlike Sensory Adaptation in that you can still perceive the stimuli, you just don't respond to them because you learned they aren't important.

What role does the hair cells play in converting neural activity?

Hair cells are primary auditory receptors which bend and send info to the auditory nerve, and in the process convert the vibrations into nerve impulses.

What are the two major types of sensory memory?

Iconic sensory memory- deals with visual sensory memory Echoic sensory memory- deals with auditory sensory memory.

What is proximity and an example?

If we see things close together, we see them as one thing

What role does the retina play in vision

It has an image projected on it by the lens and contains the sensory receptors that transduce light into neural signals. There are two types of sensory receptors: rods and cones.

What is a feature detector?

It is a neuron that detects the presence of a particular aspect of an object, such as a shape or a direction of movement. They are found in the visual cortex and are sensitive to specific features of the environment.

How do humans localize sound?

Locating origin of a sound is important in auditory perception which the brain does by integrating different sensory info from each ear Brain uses sound intensity and the time it takes to arrive at the ear to judge where the sound originated from

How does Locke's notion of "Tabula Rasa" relate to the behaviorist movement?

Locke's notion of Tabula Rasa (Latin for "blank slate") relates to the behaviorist movement in that the movement said that all humans and animals are born with the potential to learn just about anything. So, animals are born with blank slates for filling with learned stuff.

State the formula for IQ and explain why there is no true "intelligence quotient" now.

MA/CA x 100 -> Problem with this is that the formula breaks down for adults, and also that intelligence tests may not be as reliable and valid as they should be. Data suggests modest correlations between IQ and work performance, and IQ scores only predict 25% of variation in performance, so other factors are present. The reason why there is no intelligence quotient is that the formula doesn't work for adults and the IQ actually shifts on your birthdday

Terman

Modified Binet-Simon test, made Stanford-Binet test where there were normative scores for American children (average scores based on age)

Describe the two different types of nerve fibers for pain.

Most painful experiences happen when skin damage activates haptic receptors. The two kinds of nerve fibers are fast fibers (for sharp, immediate pain) and slow fibers (for chronic, dull, steady pain). The biological difference between them is that fast nerve fibers are myelinated (so the impulse moves much quicker which is why the pain is sharper) and unmyelinated (so the impulse moves slower because of lack of myelin which is why the pain is more dull and isn't as sharp). Fast nerve fibers are activated by physical pressure and temperature extremes while slow nerve fibers are activated by chemical changes in tissue due to skin damage. Fast pain leads us to recoil from harmful things while slow pain leads us to not use affected body parts so we can recover.

What role does the basilar membrane play in converting neural activity?

Movement of the basilar membrane (caused by pressure waves in the cochlear fluid) stimulates hair cells to bend and send info to the auditory nerve.

What causes nearsightedness and farsightedness?

Nearsightedness is caused when the cornea focuses light too early correctly onto the retina, and projects it in front of the retina, while farsightedness occurs when the image comes into focus too late and the cornea projects light behind the retina

What is common movement and an example?

Objects that move at the same rate in the same direction are seen as part of one thing

Explain why afterimages occur.

Occurs when receptors are overworked and become dulled to the color, so they want to see the opposite. Additionally, photochemical activity in the retina continues even when the eyes are not experiencing the original stimulus. For example, if you stare at a blue image for long enugh, then look at a white background, you will see the image in yellow.

Explain the principles and give an example of generalization

Occurs when stimuli similar, but not identical to the CS produce the CR. It is an adaptive thing because in nature, the CS is rarely repeated identically. For example, if a dog associates a metronome sound with the food and brings about the CR, if the dog hears a metronome sound that is very close in pitch to the original metronome sound, then it will salivate even though the sound isn't the exact same. Unless there is a difference established in whether the US will appear or not based upon pitch/note, then generalization will continue.

What role does the ossicles play in converting neural activity?

Ossicles are the three bones of the middle ear, called the hammer, anvil and stirrup Ossicles transfer vibrations to the oval window, a membrane located within the cochlea (inner ear).

Explain the notion of biological preparedness and give an example.

Our learning is constrained by our biology. Animals are genetically programmed to fear certain objects, which explains why people tend to fear potentially dangerous things. Monkeys know to be afraid of snakes almost naturally, but it is really hard to make monkeys fear flowers.

Positive and Negative Reinforcement

Positive is adding something good to reinforce that behavior because that behavior brought that good thing- ex: if I get good grades, I get $5 Negative is when something aversive is taken away so you encourage a behavior- ex: when you have a headache, you take some ibuprofen, which removes the aversive stimulus which is the headache

What types of outcomes can be predicted by scores on traditional intelligence tests?

Predicts individuals productivity, academic performances, job performances and creativity. Also, people in professional careers tend to have high IQ's.

Describe the difference between primary and secondary reinforcers.

Primary Reinforcers are stimuli that reinforce things necessary for biological survival, such as stimuli that produce food or water. They are easily established. Secondary Reinforcers are stimuli that serve as reinforcers but don't satisfy biological needs. They are established through classical conditioning

Describe the difference between bottom-up and top-down processing. Be able to give examples of each.

Processing sensory info goes 2 ways Bottom-up processing is based on physical features of stimuli; each sensory aspect adds up to create perception of stimulus. For example, when light hits our eyes, and then goes to our visual processing system. Top-down processing is based on how knowledge, expectations or past experiences shape interpretation of sensory info. Context affects perception and what we expect influences what we perceive. For example, if you see a picture of a rabbit, you start with the conscious idea of a duck or a rabbit and then it moves downward into your perception

What are the problems associated with using punishment to modify behavior? To what does "spread of effects" refer?

Punishment doesn't work as well as reinforcement and is a bit less reliable- punishment doesn't communicate what you should be doing, it just says not to do it and there is no shaping happening here Doesn't stop you from wanting to do it Punishment sometimes just teaches you how to get away with the behavior Another thing to look out for is the spread of effects- when you try to punish one thing but end up punishing something that you don't actually want to punish. For example, when someone talks too much and you try to punish the behavior of talking out of turn, but in punishing this, you embarrass the person and this leads to them not speaking, so therefore punishment is assigned to speaking in general.

Punishment (positive, negative)

Punishment- Intended to weaken response either by presenting an aversive stimulus (positive) or removing something good (negative) Ex of positive- A hangover is the aversive stimulus added to the situation that results from drinking a lot. Ex of negative- Your phone is taken away from the situation because you did drugs or drank alcohol.

Reinforcement (general definition, primary and secondary, what is a reinforcer)

Reinforcement is when an observable event produces an observable learned response The reinforcer is the stimulus that occurs after a response and increases likelihood that that response will be repeated Primary Reinforcers are stimuli that reinforce things necessary for biological survival, for example stimuli that produce food or water. They are easily established Secondary Reinforcers are stimuli that serve as reinforcers but don't satisfy biological needs. These are established through classical conditioning

Explain Rescorla's cognitive perspective on classical conditioning and the Rescorla-Wagner Model (including positive and negative prediction errors). How does dopamine activity in the brain relate to prediction errors?

Rescorla's cognitive perspective says that conditioned stimulus must come before unconditioned stimulus to set up expectation for it. Stimulus before US is better conditioned than one after it The RM Model states that an animal learns an expectation that some predictors are better than others. There are prediction errors that can happen as well, both positive and negative. Positive prediction errors are when something better than expected happens, which strengthens the CS-US association. A negative prediction error is when the absence of something expected weakens the CS-US association. For example, when you open a can of dog food with an electric opener, your dog learns that the sound of opening predicts the arrival of food, so the sound of the opener is the CS. If you use a non-electric opener and give your dog the food, it didn't expect it so that is a positive prediction error and a lot of dopamine activity happens in reward regions. But once the assocation is strong enough, the dog will have the flood of dopamine from the CS and not the US because it has built expectations and the less the prediction error, the less dopamine activity. Over time, it will come to learn that the non-electric one predicts food. If the non-electric can opener breaks, then the food cannot be produced anymore and the dog's CS-US association weakens as he learns that the can opener doesn't predict the food anymore. This also leads to a drop-off in dopamine activity.

What are the differences between rods and cones?

Rods are required for low light (like twilight/night) and cons are required for bright light (like daylight). There are also way more rods than cones and the cones are used for detail and color, while the rods cannot focus quite as well.

What role does the rods and cones play in vision

Rods respond to low levels of light and are responsible primarily for night vision. They don't support color vision and don't help with fine detail. Cones on the other hand are less sensitive to low levels of light and more sensitive to higher levels of light. They are responsible for color and detail. Rods and cones have light-sensitive chemicals that initiate transduction of light waves into impulses. Each retina has 120 million rods and 6 million cones. The cones are densely packed in the fovea at the retina's center and then spread out throughout the retina's middle, while rods are found on the edges of the retina.

Describe (in general terms) the behaviorist movement and how it was a change for the field.

Said that learning is always the result of direct experience. Behaviorism was a change in the field of psychology because it didn't focus on introspection, which was a major part of psychology at that point in time, because they thought it wasn't very reliable. Instead, they felt that to be scientists, psychologists had to study observable things, specifically behaviors displayed. Only study things you can see (observable phenomena). Behaviorist movement said all behavior can be explained by conditioning

What is Thorndike's Law of Effect?

Says that responses that produce a satisfying effect in a particular situation become more likely to occur again in that situation. When a cat was put in his puzzle box and there was food placed outside, the cat just needed to pull a lever to open the door to get to the food. Because the effect of pulling the lever produced a satisfying effect, the lever being pulled was more likely to occur again. Responses that produce a discomforting effect become less likely to occur again in that situation.

Eugenics

Science dealing with improving hereditary qualities of society through selective breeding. This was created by Galton.

What role does the sclera play in vision

Sclera is the white part of your eye and bounces light off so it doesn't enter the eye. It also forms a transparent dorm known as the cornea. The sclera prevents unwanted light from entering

How are sensation and perception different?

Sensation is the detection of physical stimuli and transmission of that info to the brain. Physical stimuli can be light or sound waves, molecules of odor or food or changes in temp or pressure. Sensation is the basic experience of those stimuli with no interpretation. Perception on the other hand is the brain's processing, organization and interpretation of sensory information. Perception results in our conscious experience of the world.

Explain the basic process of sensory adaptation and give an example.

Sensory adaptation is the reduction or disappearance of sensory responsiveness when stimulation is unchanging- you not longer experience the world as it is. An example would be if you are studying and construction work begins at a nearby site. When it first starts, you will be disturbed by it, but after a while it will fade into the background and you almost stop sensing it. If the noise stopped however, you would notice the silence.

Shaping and Successive approximations

Shaping is the process by which you reinforce behaviors that are increasingly similar to the desired behavior. Reinforcing successive approximations eventually produces the desired behavior in the animal

Working memory vs short term memory

Short term memory is mainly about storing information for a short time. Working memory is where the things in your brain can be manipulated and moved actively with visual and auditory components.

What is non-associative learning?

Simplest form of learning which happens due to repeated exposure to a certain stimulus or event Response to something in the environment and change in response is learning Can be broken down into 2 common forms: Habituation and Sensitization

Describe second order conditioning.

Sometimes conditioned stimulus doesn't become directly associated with an unconditioned stimulus Conditioned stimulus becomes associated with other conditioned stimuli that are already associated with unconditioned stimulus Once CS and US association is well learned and consistently produces CR, CS can take on value Once CS has value, other stimuli can become associated only with the CS and produce CR's and can be learned even without learner ever associating CS with original US For example, in the Pavlov experiment, if the CS-US bond is formed between the tone and the meat, if we run another experiment where a black square is presented right after the tone with no meat presented, then the black square is presented alone, it can also produce salivation. A common example is also if we associate money with candy and then money with happiness because once we see that money means we can buy candy and candy means happiness, then we associate the money with the happiness.

Explain Spearman's idea of "g." What is factor analysis?

Spearman's used the letter "g" to refer to general intelligence as a factor which he viewed contributed to performance on any intellectual task. Spearman acknowledged that people could differ in specific skills that enabled them to perform better on some tasks than others. Factor analysis is a form of study which was used to examine correlation among items of intelligence tests. It involved grouping items similar to each other together and these clusters were called factors.

Are the CR and UR identical? Explain.

The CR and UR are usually not identical. The CR is usually weaker than the UR and the CR will die off over time, while the UR most likely won't. In Pavlov's experiment, the metronome did make the dogs salivate, but less than when the food was presented.

In audition, what characteristics of the sound wave determine intensity and pitch?

The amplitude determines the intensity/loudness and the frequency determines the pitch (cycles/sec aka Hertz)

What role does the auditory nerve play in converting neural activity?

The auditory nerve receives info from the basilar membrane in the inner ear to the brain stem and then into the temporal lobe.

What role does the optic nerve play in vision

The axons running from inside the eye to the thalamus make up the bundle known as the optic nerve, which exits the eye at the back of the retina. The exit point has no rods or cones so it is known as the blind spot. The brain fills in this gap automatically, so you are not aware that it exists in the middle of your vision field.

What role does the blind spot play in vision

The blind spot is the major entry point for blood vessels that serve the retina and is the spot at which the optic nerve exits the retina.

Describe the methodology of the Bobo doll study and why this study was important. What did it teach us about learning that differed from what behaviorists were saying?

The bobo doll study involved kids looking at videos or live demonstrations of confederates either being gentle or roughly beating up a bobo doll. The kids mirrored the actions of those they observed in their own interactions with the Bobo dolls, as those who saw the confederates beating up the doll, were likely to do the same when they interacted with the doll. It taught us that learning can occur through observation too, and not only through experiences that directly impact us. We don't need punishment or reinforcement, a mental image may be all we need to learn.

Explain the gate control theory of pain.

The brain regulates the experience of pain. Pain is a complex experience that depends on biological, psychological and cultural factors. We experience pain when pain receptors are activated and the neural gates in the spinal cord allows the signals through to reach the brain. These gates can be closed when info about touch is being transmitted (rubbing a sore arm or touching something distracting) Conceptualizes pain as a perceptual experience within the brain rather than a response to stimuli. Distractions, such as interaction, can close the gate. Positive moods can help people cope with pain

What role does the cochlea play in converting neural activity?

The cochlea is a fluid-filled tube curled into a snail-like shape with a membrane at the end called the round window. Vibrations in the oval window create pressure waves in the cochlear fluid which prompts the basilar membrane to oscillate.

What role does the pupil play in vision

The dark circle at the center of the eye which is a small opening in front of the lens. It contracts and dilates, allowing certain amounts of light to enter the eye.

Organization and Encoding in LTM

The deeper the level of encoding and the more meaning you apply to processing knowledge, the better one can memorize something in the long term. The levels of encoding from worst to best are visual, auditory, semantic

Transience and the Ebbinghaus curve

The fading of memory over time. The Ebbinghaus curve was created by Ebbinghaus to look at Transcience. Memory decreases over time without study sessions. Constant study sessions over long periods of time create better memory long-term

What role does the fovea play in vision

The fovea is the spot at the center of the retina where the cones are concentrated.

What role does the iris play in vision

The iris is a circular muscle which determines the eye's color and the pupil size. The pupil dilates in dim light

What is Weber's law?

The just noticeable difference between two stimuli is based on proportion of original stimuli instead of fixed amount of difference. For example, if we had 1 pennies in 1 hand and 2 pennies in another hand, we would be able to sense the difference in weight. But, if we had 500 in 1 hand and 501 in the other, we wouldn't find it easy to feel the difference. Therefore, the noticeable difference depends on the original stimulus.

What role does the lens play in vision

The lens works with the cornea to collect and focus light rays reflected from an object. It bends light from the cornea farther inward and focuses to form an image on the retina. It hardens as people age and can actually harden till a condition called presbyopia develops where people find it difficult to see close images.

Explain the general premise of the "levels of processing" model and what the three levels are.

The levels of processing model says that the more deeply an item is encoded, the more meaning it has and the better it is remembered. The three levels are visual, acoustic and semantic. Visual is seeing something, acoustic is hearing something and semantic (the deepest level of memory) is where things are processed based upon what they mean to you (remembering places based upon how far they are from your home).

What role does the oval window play in converting neural activity?

The oval window's vibrations (which are transferred in by the ossicles) create pressure waves in the cochlear fluid which prompts the basilar membrane to oscillate.

Explain the principles and give an example of acquisition

The pairing/learning of the association between the unconditioned and conditioned stimuli. An example would be presenting the metronome sound before presenting the food so that the dog develops a mental link between the sound and the food.

What role does the cornea play in vision

The place where light first passes through. It is a thick transparent outer layer. It focuses the incoming light, which then enters the lens.

What is sensory coding?

The process by which our sensory systems translate the physical properties of stimuli into patterns of neural impulses. This process is called sensory coding. Different features of the physical environment are coded by activity in different neurons.

Explain the principles and give an example of extinction

The process by which the behavior gradually disappears. An example would be if you kept presenting the metronome sound to a dog but with no food and over time, they salivate less and less until they learn that the metronome doesn't predict food anymore.

Anterograde amnesia vs Retrograde Amnesia

The two basic types of Amnesia Retrograde- "Going backwards". Where you lose memories that happened prior to the thing that caused the memory loss. Anterograde- When one has difficulty in forming new memories. In most cases, both kinds of amnesias are not complete symptoms so people have big difficulty making new or remembering old memories but can still do so a little bit

Know the basics regarding the stimulus for vision (light) -- i.e., what characteristics of light determine what we see?

The wavelength determines the color of the light. The frequency of the light determines how intense the light is.

Stanford-Binet

The widely used American revision (by Terman at Stanford University) of Binet's original intelligence test, which had average scores for children based upon age.

What role does the ganglion cells play in vision

These cells make up the optic nerve which sends signals along the axons to the thalamus.

What role does the bipolar cells play in vision

They are cells that connect the outer retina to the inner retina and implement another layer of processing not found in other sensory organs.

Distinguish between the following types of memory: explicit (episodic and semantic), implicit.

They are the two kinds of LT Memory. Explicit Memory (Declarative)- Things that you know that you know. Things that you can declare (ex: I remember that I had pizza for dinner last night), and things that you can describe how they taste, sound, feel. Two kinds which are Episodic and Semantic Memories. Episodic Memories are personal memories from your life that you experienced (ex: What did you do at your 16th birthday party). Semantic Memories don't take personal experience. They are things that you could know without experiential knowledge (ex: you can know that the capital of the US is Washington DC without having gone there). Implicit Memory (no effort or awareness of the memory). An example is classical conditioning. Can be a memory trace that affects you and your behavior, perception, etc. A lot of procedural memories are implicit.

Explain the trichromatic theory of color vision and the opponent-process theory and how both contribute to our understanding of color perception.

Trichromatic says that there are three types of cones: blue, green and red. Cones respond to each length of wavelengths: small, medium and large. However, this theory cannot explain color-blindedness, inability to imagine certain colors or afterimages. Opponent Process on the other hand says that the visual system (ganglion cells, thalamus and cortex) treats pairs of colors as opposing. Red/Green, Black/White and Blue/Yellow. But, you cannot see these at the same time. You can detect red at one point on the retina, but can't detect green in the same place

What is temporal coding vs. place coding? (for audition)

Two distinct theories about how pitch is perceived. Temporal Coding is used to encode relatively low frequencies like the sound of a tuba. It refers to the timing in which pitch is encoded by the firing patterns of the hair cells. This type of coding only works at low frequencies. At high frequencies, temporal coding can only be maintained if hair cells fire in volleys in which different groups of cells take turns firing, so overall temporal pattern matches sound frequency. Place coding is when low frequencies activate different type of receptor than high frequencies would. Different pitches activate different hair cells to fire on the basilar membrane depending on the frequency. Different frequencies activate receptors at different locations on the basilar membrane. The basilar membrane responds to sound waves, vibrating in resonance with the sound. Hair cells at the base of the cochlea are activated by high-frequency sounds, while hair cells at the tip are activated by low-frequency sounds. Frequency is encoded by receptors on the area of the basilar membrane that vibrates the most. They work together to allow the ear to know the frequency of sounds

What are the four index scores one gets from the current Wechsler intelligence scale (IV)?

Verbal Comprehension, perceptual reasoning, working memory and processing speed

Describe the basic pattern of findings included in your book under "face perception."

Visual system is sensitive to faces. Any pattern you see that has face-like qualities will look like a face to you. Humans are very able to perceive facial expressions and interpret them We are also able to determine a lot about a person from what we see on their face, such as mood, sex, race, age, etc. People are also better at recognizing members of their own race than of other races Deficit in ability to recognize faces- Prosopagnosia Faces are so important that regions of the brain are dedicated solely to perceiving them Humans are bad at recognizing unknown faces that are upside down People more quickly recognize angry faces than happy ones because of the evolutionary advantage created by knowing if someone is angry

What is "savings in relearning?"

We have a lot of knowledge in our long term memory. Evidence of implicit memory. When an old man named HM who had complete damage to his hippocampus had an inability to make new memories. However, when he did the Tower of Hanoi puzzle, each time he did it, he did it a little bit quicker. He wasn't remembering things explicitly, but was implicitly. Relearning something we learned in the past is a lot quicker than learning it the first time.

Wechsler.

Weschler developed the WAIS to test adults' intelligence. His test consisted of several tasks with separate scores. There was a verbal portion where comprehension, vocab and general knowledge were tested

Explain the principles and give an example of discrimination.

When animals learn to differentiate between two similar stimuli if one is consistently associated with the unconditioned stimulus and the other is not. An example would be if a dog is conditioned with a metronome and hears two very close pitches, but only given the food when the metronome's pitch is one of those two notes, then he will learn to discriminate between the two pitches and predict when food will come, causing him to discriminate when he salivates based upon pitch.

What is good continuation and an example?

When lines intersect, we tend to see them as having minimal changes in direction; lines keep going even when we can't see them

What is closure and an example?

When we view things with gaps, we see them as enclosed despite the gaps

Absentmindedness- memory error

When you don't remember something because you weren't very conscious or with it when you experienced or sensed it This is due to shallow encoding and inattentiveness Lack of attention can cause poor memory of something- shallow encoding means not remembering as well

Source misattributions- memory error

When you get the content of a memory right but can't remember the source from where it came from Misremember where the memory came from

Explain the principles and give an example of spontaneous recovery

When, sometime after extinction, the conditioning stimulus reappears, then your conditioned response will spontaneously come back. Recovery is temporary and will fade quickly unless the CS and US are paired again. An example would be if sometime after extinction, the dog heard the metronome again and began to salivate.