Iowa State PSYCH 101 Exam 1

If two variables have a perfect positive relationship, what would be the value of the correlation co-efficient for those variables?

+1

How many neurons are there in each optic nerve?

1 million ganglion cells

What are the four parts of a neuron and what are their functions?

1) Dendrites - Receive electrical signals from other neurons 2) Cell body - Contains the nucleus and provides for the life processes 3) Axon - Carries electrical signal from cell body to the terminal buttons 4) Terminal buttons - Release neurotransmitters that cause electrical changes to the next neuron in the change

What are three pieces of evidence that face recognition differs from the process of recognizing other objects?

1) Different parts of the brain are responsible for the 2 tasks 2) Faces are more difficult to recognize in photographic negatives than objects 3) Faces are more difficult to recognize when they are upside down compared to objects

What are the two circumstances when a Psychologist would use the correlational approach?

1) Impossible, very difficult (age, sex, ACT score) 2) Unethical (forcing to smoke)

What are 2 reasons why introspection was a bad method for studying mental events?

1) It does not replicate across individuals 2) Many psychological processes are not conscious

Weber's law

2 stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage

How many different types of cones are there?

3

What is the capacity of short term memory?

7 terms

How long does a full sleep cycle last?

90 minutes

Causation

A casual relationship exists if a change in one variable results in a change in the other

Sensory memory

After a stimulus has been presented, the respond for 1/10th of a second after

Oculogyral illusion

After spinning around, people experience paradoxical motion in which the world appears to be spinning but visually remains in the same place

Population (when doing research)

All those in a group being studied

In contrast to all other research techniques, what does an experiment allow a researcher to do?

Allows researchers to infer a casual relationship between the independent and dependent variables

What part of the brain is bombarding the cortex with random signals during REM sleep?

Amygdala

Psychoanalysis

An approach to studying mental illness that assumes it is caused by subconscious conflicts

Recuperative theory

Animals sleep in order to provide time for the body to repair itself

What are naturalistic observations good for?

Answering simple questions

Correlational approach

Attempts to determine the relationship between variables without manipulating the variables

What is more effective for rehearsing items in the short term memory, visual rehearsal, or auditory rehearsal?

Auditory rehearsal

Neurotransmitter

Binds to the receptors in the dendrites of the next neuron in the chain thereby electrically exciting or inhibiting the next cell

What depth cue is used to make 3D movies?

Binocular disparity

Circadian rhythm

Biological clock

Double blind procedure

Both the participants and the researchers do not not which group has the treatment and the placebo

Why did S. have such a good memory?

Brain could form associations with multiple senses of everything he encountered

Plasticity

Brain's ability to change, especially during childhood

Thalamus

Brain's sensory control center, directs messages to the sensory receiving areas in the cortex and transmits replies to the cerebellum and medulla

Is the duration of sensory memory long or brief? Is the capacity of sensory memory low or high?

Brief, high

How does the Muller-Lyer illusion work?

By manipulating verticese to make one line appear to be bulging toward you and the other away from you

What sorts of brain waves are observed during REM sleep?

Stage 1 waves

Top-down processing

Starts with higher mental processes

Social Psychology

Study of how people influence and relate to one another

Community psychology

Study of how people interact with their social environments and how social institutions affect them

Cognitive Psychology

Study of how the brain encodes, stores, retrieves, and interprets info

Sensation and Perception

Study of how the nervous system receives and interprets information about the senses

Counseling and Clinical Psychology

Study of mental health problems and vocational guidance

Physiological Psychology

Study of the brain mechanisms underlying behavior

Behavioral genetics

Study of the relative power and limits of genetic and environmental influences on behavior

Evolutionary Approach

Studying psychology in which a researcher tries to develop theories by speculating about what brain structures would have been useful in the environment when the human brain was evolving

Cognitive Approach

Studying psychology that tries to determine how information is encoded, stored, transformed, and received by the brain

What did Sigmund Freud think caused mental illnesses?

Subconscious events

What are the three variables that determine how attractive people will find a face?

Symmetry, close to the average face, exaggerate sex specific features

What are the divisions of the autonomic nervous system?

Sympathetic and parasympathetic

Kinesthesia

System for sensing the position and movement of individual body parts

What are the 2 theories explaining why animals need to sleep?

Circadian theory and Recuperation theory

Flashbulb memory

Clear memory of emotional significant event

What is the metaphor upon which the Cognitive approach relies?

Computer metaphor

Operational definition

Concept defined in terms of the variables used to measure it (hunger is defined as hours without food)

Explicit memories

Consciously available, such as facts and personal experiences

Inferior colliculus

Controls auditory reflexes

Medulla oblongata

Controls breathing, heart rate, and vomiting

Amygdala

Controls emotional responses, particularly fear

Superior colliculus

Controls visual reflexes

Transduction

Converts stimulus energies into neural pulses

What 2 parts of the eye bend light to create an image on the retina?

Cornea and lens

What is the name of the neural structure that allows the two hemispheres of the brain to communicate with one another?

Corpus callosum

What part of the brain was severed in the split brain patients?

Corpus callosum

Which two parts of the brain shrink during Alzheimer's disease?

Cortex and hippocampus

Random sample

Each member has equal chance of inclusion

Who was the founder of Structuralism and opened the first psychology lab in America?

Edward Titchner

To what do olfactory cells likely respond?

Either some part of the shape or vibration of molecules that bind to them

What sort of machine is used to measure brain waves?

Electroencephalogram (EEG)

Humanistic Psychology

Emphasized human growth potential

Nociceptor

Enable perception of pain

Hippocampus

Encodes long term memories

Testing effect

Enhanced memory after retrieving, rather than rereading

What type of memory is most affected by aging?

Episodic memory

Random assignment

Every person has an equally likely chance of being assigned to each level of the independent variable

Scientific Theory

Explanation for a phenomenon that can be falsified and involves entities that cannot be directly observed

What functions of the brain are considered right hemisphere functions?

Face recognition, music, spatial abilities

What produces color afterimages?

Fatigued ganglion cells

What part of the brain (hindbrain, midbrain, or forebrain) contains the cortex, hypothalamus, amygdala, hippocampus, and basal ganglia

Forebrain

Neurogenesis

Formation of new neurons

What lobe of the brain was damaged in Phineas Gage?

Frontal lobe

What are the 4 lobes of the cortex?

Frontal lobe, temporal lobe, parietal lobe, occipital lobe

Prosopagnosia

Inability to identify faces

Why did behaviorism decline in popularity?

Inability to provide explanations for many psychological phenomena (language in particular)

What two characteristics must an experiment possess?

Independent and dependent variable

Semi-sircular canals

Indicate changes in rotary acceleration

Utricle

Indicates changes in linear acceleration and head tilt

Neuron

Individual nerve cell

How does infant perception of speech sounds differ from adult perception?

Infants can hear distinctions that adults can't

Sensation

Initial process of encoding environmental energy

Where can the vestibular organs be found?

Inner ear

What was the main research technique of Structuralism?

Introspection

Association areas

Involved in higher mental functions

How is implicit memory affected by aging?

It is not affected

Who was the founder of behaviorism who conditioned Little Albert?

John Watson

In what hemisphere and lobe of the brain is Broca's area?

Left frontal lobe

In what hemisphere and lobe of the brain is Wernicke's area?

Left temporal lobe

Which hemisphere of the brain controls and receives input from the right side of the body? Which hemisphere of the brain controls and receives input from the left side of the body?

Left, Right

What are the effects of deprivation of NREM3 and REM sleep on memory?

Long term memory consolidation

How does the Ames room manipulate depth cues?

Makes you think both corners of the room are the same distance

What health problems do people with congenital analgesia typically experience?

Mass damage to their joints

What sort of stimuli can awaken someone in REM sleep?

Meaningful stimuli, such as hearing their name

Implicit memories

Memory of how to do things

The Peg word method, the Method of Loci, and the Person-Object-Action system are what type of techniques?

Methods of remembering ordered lists

What part of the brain (hindbrain, midbrain, or forebrain) contains the superior colliculus, the inferior colliculus, and the substantia nigra?

Midbrain

Difference threshold

Minimum difference between 2 stimuli needed to detect a particular stimulus 50 percent of the time

Absolute threshold

Minimum stimulus energy needed to detect a particular stimulus 50 percent of the time

Antagonist

Molecule that blocks a neurotransmitter's action

Agonist

Molecule that increases a neurotransmitter's action

Where can receptors for the common chemical sense be found?

Mouth, nose and eye

In what stage of sleep do sleep spindles first appear?

NREM2

In what stage of sleep do night terrors occur?

NREM3

What research technique did Jane Goodall use to study the chimpanzees?

Naturalistic observation

Reticular formation

Nerve network that plays role in controlling arousal

Are there people with photographic memories?

No, just good and remembering

Does short term memory span decline during aging?

Nope

Frequency

Number of completed wavelengths in a given time

What was Rajan Mahadevan good at remembering?

Numbers

What lobe of the brain is damaged in someone with achromatopsia?

Occipital lobe

If a split brain patient held an orange in her left hand and a pencil in her right, what would she say if asked what she was holding?

Pencil

Change blindness

People often miss large changes in scenes becasue the form perception areas can only process a small part of the scene at any one time

Which cells convert light energy into electrical signals?

Photreceptors (rods and cones)

Why does dark adaptation occur?

Photreceptors regenerate their photopigments

Blind spot

Point where optic nerve leaves the eye

What part of the brain paralyzes the body during REM sleep?

Pons

Sound waves

Pressure changes in the atmosphere capable of being detected by auditory organs

Accomodation

Process by which eye's lens changes shape to focus near or far objects on the retina

Perception

Process of interpreting information received from the senses

Cerebellum

Processes sensory input, coordinating movement and balance, and enables nonverbal learning

Retina

Processes visual information

Parallel processing

Processing many aspects simultaneously

Which school of Psychology used case studies as their primary research technique?

Psychoanalysts

During what stage of sleep does a male's penis become erect and a female's vaginal lubrication increase?

REM

Ponzo illusion

Railroad tracks have depth cues that make the top bar look further away and thus bigger

Olfactory mucosa

Receptors for smell embedded in a tissue region

What are the 3 types of ganglion cells?

Red-Gree, Blue-Yellow, Black-White

What is the function of sleep spindles?

Reduce the brain's sensitivity to sensory movement

Pons

Regulates sleep and arousal

Hypothalamus

Regulates the "Four Fs": feeding, fighting, fleeing, and mating

What does a hair cell do when it is vibrated by the basilar membrane?

Releases neurotransmitter that causes an action potential in the auditory nerve

Implicit memory

Remembering independent of conscious recollection

Naturalistic observation

Research technique in which the researcher observes and describes behavior

Wernicke's area

Responsible for language comprehension

Frontal lobe

Responsible for planning, interpreting emotions, houses the motor cortex, producing speech

Basal ganglia

Reward system of the brain

Which hemisphere is damaged by prosopagnosia?

Right

What are the names of the 2 types of photoreceptors?

Rods and cones

How are the rods different from the cones?

Rods are larger, very sensitive to light, do not support color vision, and are used in low illumination

What are the 5 types of taste receptors?

Salt, sour, sweet, bitter, umami

Positive psychology

Scientific study of human functioning, with goals of discovery and promoting strengths that help people thrive

Behaviorism

Scientific study of the relationship between behavior and reinforcement

Which memory store (sensory, short term, or long term) has the shortest duration?

Sensory

What did Rene Descartes think about the soul?

Separate from the body, and was not subject to physical laws

Circadian theory

Sleep has evolved to keep animals inactive during times of the day when they do not need to be active

What sorts of brain waves are observed in NREM1 sleep?

Slightly larger brain waves

What sorts of brain waves are observed in NREM2 sleep?

Slower brain waves

What sorts of brain waves are associated with NREM3 sleep?

Slowest brain waves

Synapse

Space between the terminal buttons of one neuron and the dendrites of another neuron

What is Broca's area responsible for?

Speech production

What functions of the brain are considered left hemisphere functions?

Speech production and comprehension

What is the last name of the man who did the split brain studies?

Sperry

Action potential

Spike of electricity that travels down its axon

Survey

Technique to obtain attitudes or behaviors of a group, usually a random sample

What lobe of the brain in damaged in someone with visual agnosia?

Temporal lobe

Sleep apnea

Temporary cessations of breathing during sleep and repeated awakenings

REM rebound

Tendency for REM sleep to increase after REM sleep deprivation

Spacing effect

Tendency for distributed study to yield better long-term retention

Hindsight bias

Tendency to believe after learning an outcome that one would have foreseen it

What determines how sensative a body part is to touch?

The amount of area in the somatosensory cortex

What is the evidence for Circadian theory?

The amount of time animals spend sleeping can be manipulated by manipulating the time of the dark-light cycle

Why is colorblindness more common in me than women

The genes are in the X chromosone, and all the X chromosones must have the color blind gene

According to Burnham and Phelan's theory of how the basal ganglia work, what happens when people have a gain in their material success?

The happiness begins to fade so we will continue to strive to have more success

Psychology

The science of behavior and mental processes

Psychiatry

The study of the medical treatment of psychological disorders

What does it mean for a scientific theory to be falsifiable?

There must be some hypothetical facts that would prove it false

What effects do the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems have on the body?

They arouse and mobilize the body, and call and conserve energy

Ossicles

Three bones in the ear

Why is the surface of the cortex wrinkly?

To increase its surface area

Pitch

Tone's experienced highness or lowness

What are the 3 somatosensory senses?

Touch, pain, and temperature

What do the ossicles vibrate to transfer atmospheric vibrations to the fluid in the cochlea?

Tympanic membrane

What happened to Phineas Gage as the result of his brain damage?

Unable to acceptable express his emotions

Priming

Unconscious activation of associations in memory

Automatic processing

Unconscious uncoding of incidental information

Narcolepsy

Uncontrollable sleep attacks

What is the capacity of long term memory? What is the duration?

Unlimited capacity, unlimited duration

Common chemical sense

Used to detect chemical irritants

Dependent variable

Variable measures to determine the effects of the independent variable

Independent variable

Variable that is manipulated

How will people in NREM3 sleep feel when awakened?

Very groggy

Who opened the first psychology lab and in what country?

Wilhelm Weldt in Germany

Who was the founder of Functionalism and wrote the book "The Principles of Psychology"?

William James

Can external stimuli be incorporated into dreams?

Yes

Can the correlational approach be used to determine if two variables have a causal relationship?

Yes

Do people perceive time accurately during dreams?

Yes

Does visual information influence speech perception?

Yes

Random assignment

Chance determines whether participants are in the experimental or controlled group

What is responsible for the moon illusion?

Depth cues on the surface of earth

Case study

Description of the behavior or abilities of a single individual

How did Functionalists try to understand the mind?

Determining its purpose

Range, Standard deviation

Difference between high and low, how much scores vary around the mean score

Sensory adaptation

Diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation

Congenital analgesia

Disorder in which one is incapable of experience pain

What causes motion sickness?

Dissociation between the visual and vestibular senses

Somatic nervous system

Division of peripheral nervous system that controls the body's skeletal muscles

Autonomic nervous system

Division of peripheral nervous system that controls the glands and the muscles of the internal organ

What will people report doing when awakened from REM sleep?

Dreaming

Activation-Synthesis theory

Dreams are the cortex's effort to make sense of the neural signals

What did Freud believe was a function of dreams?

Dreams contained symbols that revealed the unconscious mind

Which part of the brain (hindbrain, midbrain, or forebrain) contains the medulla oblongata and the pons?

Hindbrain

What part of the brain stores explicit memories?

Hippocampus

What part of the brain was missing in HM that led to his problems transferring information from short term to long term memory?

Hippocampus

Why don't people remember most of their dreams?

Hippocampus is suppressed during dreaming

Temporal lobe

Houses the primary auditory cortex, performs speech comprehension, and visual recognition

Occipital lobe

Houses the primary visual cortex, used entirely for vision

Parietal lobe

Houses the somatosensory cortex (touch), navigation, and math ability

What is someone with visual agnosia unable to do?

Identify objects visually

Mean, median, and mode

If you don't know this what are you doing with your life

How do people with hemispatial neglect behave?

Ignore half the visual field and one side of all objects

What would someone with achromatopsia be unable to do?

Imagine colors

What was the name of the behaviorist who studied operant conditioning?

B.F. Skinner

What part of the brain stores implicit memories?

Basal ganglia

Bottom-up processing

Begins with sensory receptors works up to brain

Glial cells

Cells in the nervous system that support, nourish, and protect neurons, also play a role in learning, thinking, and memory

What research technique in Psychology is most subject to the problem of confirmation bias?

Case studies

Brainstem

Central core of the brain, responsible for automatic survival functions

Akinetopsia

Damage to the motion perception areas of the brain

What scientific theory influenced the Functionalists?

Darwin's theory of evolution

Which cells in the retina send color information to the brain?

Ganglion cells

Dichromat

Have 2 cone types, are either red-green or blue-yellow colorblind

Tetrachromat

Have 4 cone types, can see 100 times as many colors

Anomalous trichromat

Have only one cone type with abnormal pigment, have trouble distinguishing certain shades of color

Monochromat

Have only one cone type, see in black and white

Is the capacity of short term memory low or high?

High

Endorphins

Opiate-like neurotransmitters link to pain control and pleasure

To what do different parts of the basilar membrane vibrate in response?

Oval window

In what lobe of the brain are the motion perception areas?

Parietal lobe

In what lobe of the brain is the somatosensory cortex?

Parietal lobe

What lobe of the brain is damaged in someone with hemispatial neglect?

Parietal lobe

What disease involves the death of neurons in the substantia nigra?

Parkinson's disease

What does it mean if the correlation co-efficient between two variables is near 0?

The closer to 0, the weaker the relationship is

According to Burnham and Phelan's theory of how the basal ganglia work, what happens when people experience negative events?

The emotional pain will fade quickly so we won't be debilitated by grief