Psych 10

Hindbrain: Cerebellum

-Balance and coordination -responsible for sensory info that governs fine motor skills -procedural memory such as riding a bike

theory

-an idea or set of ideas that is intended to explain facts or events -MUST be falsifyable -if findins support the hypothesis the confidence grows -scientifically tested and proven -based on wide range of data -can be formulated as a hypothesis

Structuralism

-break down personal, subjective observations to most basic elements -how is the mind structured -what are the diff aspects of cognitive experience -INTROSPECTION -Wundt and Titchener

benefits of correlational research

-can study events that would be unethical to give to people -establighing relationships and making predictions

the issue with directionality and causation

-can't tell which led to which -or if caused by a 3rd factor all together

Neuron parts and functions

-cell body: info processing and maintaing cell funct has nucleus --activation of genes can be due to surroundings -dendrites:recieves info from other neurons and relays it to cell body --can recieve info from 100s of other neurons -axon hillock: initiates an electrical impulse if it recieves enough stimulation -axon: long slender projection conducts electrical impulses away from cell body -terminal buttons: located at end of axon and releases neurotransmitters to neighboring neurons -synapses: region b/w axon of 1 neuron and dendrites of another

motor cortex

-cortical representations of info are weighted by surface area -involved in initiating voluntary movement

limits of stucturalism

-experience is subjective -difficult to access subconscious aspects of cognition

Forebrain: Basal Ganglia

-intentional movement -set of cordical structures -

quasi-experimental design

-no random assignment because participants they are innate characteristics -could be more difficult to infer causality

prefrontal cortex brain development

-prefrontal cortex develops last in humans -not fully developed until 20-25 years old -could be why teens have issues with impulse control and problem solving

cerebral cortex: temporal lobe

-primary auditory cortex -near temples -receives sensory information from the ears and secondary areas process the information into meaningful units such as speech and words. -damage can cause impairment to speech, object and facial recognition

Midbrain parts and functions

-relay station b/w sensory and motor neurons -orients response to stimuli tegmentum- involved in movement and arousal tectum- orients an organism in response to stimuli in environment

Forebrain parts and functions

-section that controls complex thought cerebral cortex basal ganglia thalamus hypothalamus amygdala brain stem hippocampus

Scientific Method Steps

1. form testable hypothesis 2. select research method and design study -operational definition 3. collect data 4. analyse data and draw conclusions 5. report findings

Split brain patient experiment:

1. word on R eye (Ring) is sent to L hemisphere "speech center" -can say what is in R eye (ring) 2. word in L eye (key) is sent to R hemisphere "spacial center" -cannot say what is in L eye (key) -but can feel for key with L hand because R hemisphere controls L side of body

why is the WEIRD pop significant in psych

12% of global pop but 96% psych studies are on them

double blind procedure

A research strategy in which neither subjects nor experimenters know which subjects are in the experimental or control groups. -eliminates participant and experimenter bias

participant bias

A tendency for research participants to behave in a certain way because they know they are being observed or they believe they know what the researcher wants.

If a student was accepted for training in the psychology laboratory of Wilhelm Wundt, it is likely that the student would have been trained to_______________. a. Listen intently while individuals tell them of their depression or nervousness. b. Condition participants to fear certain types of stimuli c. Carefully feel the bumps on a person's head in order to determine their character traits. d. Analyze how to break down sensations into their most basic elements. e. Determine the function or purpose of a particular human behavior.

Analyze how to break down sensations into their most basic elements.

A medical research team was interesting in studying whether "an apple a day keeps the doctor away" At the beginning of the experiment, each participant had their blood pressure taken. The team then randomly assigned participants to one of two conditions: Condition A: Instructed to eat one Apple every day for a month Condition B: No special instructions, ate as usual for a month At the end of the month, the researchers tested each participants' blood pressure again to see if there was any positive benefit of being in the Apple-eating group. Which research method did they use?

Correlational Method

the ego, the id, and the superego

Ego: practical way of life that reflects conscious behavior SuperEgo: balance between consciousness and unconsciousness Threshold: b/w ego and superego ID: what drives us, we are born with unconscious behavior

expert blind spot

Once you know the answer, it's impossible to remember what it felt like to not know

An experimenter was interested in finding out how to help people do well on exams in an astronomy class. They randomly assign participants into one of three exam preparation groups: Group A: Studied Textbook Materials Group B: Watched Educational Videos Group C: Played Video Games After participants completed their assigned conditions, they returned to the lab three days later to take a final test. What is the dependent variable in this study?

The score on the final test

W.E.I.R.D

Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic

Homunculus

a maplike representation of regions of the body in the brain -representations of info are weighted by importance

positive correlation

a relationship between two variables in which both variables either increase or decrease together

hypothesis

a specific prediction that can be tested -not yet tested or proven -based on limited data -can lead to a theory

correlation coefficient

a statistical measure of the extent to which two factors vary together, and thus of how well either factor predicts the other -range from -1 to +1

If an experimenter created two groups by designating all Males in the study to be in Group A and all Females to be in Group B, this process would violate the principle of:

a. Random Assignment

Brain Plasticity (Neuroplasticity)

ability of healthy brain cells to take over for damaged cells -largely age dependent

negative correlation

as one variable increases, the other decreases

random assignment

assigning participants randomly to experimental conditions -increases chances that participant chararacteristics will be equally distributed across experimental groups

psychoanalytic theory

attempts to explain how behavior and personality are influenced by unconscious process (generally from childhood events)

what part of the brain is associated with parkinson's

basal ganglia

Charles Darwin's impact on psych

behaviors are shaped by natural selection ex mom and kid socialization increases survival

hindsight bias

belief that the event just experienced was predictable, even though it really wasn't

benefits and limits to experimental desigs

benefits: able to infer causation -percise control over variables can eliminate alternative explanations limits: may be unethical to addess certain types of research q's use an experimental design -highly controlled lab settings can make generalization of findings to real world more difficult

cross-cultural psychology

branch of psychology that studies the effects of culture on behavior and mental processes

can the 2 hemispheres be disconnected

can be medically severed to prevent seizures SPLIT BRAIN

Key aspect of experimental research

changing independent variable

most popular psych theories of thought

cognitive and neuroscience

Tanya is studying conditions that are important for improving memory. She asks half of her participants to try to memorize a word list while saying "la" repeatedly and half of her participants to try to memorize a word list without doing so. She hopes that differences in performance between these groups of participants will tell her about the components of working memory. What school of thought does Tanya most likely belong to?

cognitive psychology

Forebrain (parts and function cerebral cortex)

complex perceptual, cognitive, and behavioral processes -largest surface area of the brain so must be folded to fit into skull -4 areas: frontal lobe, parietal lobe, temporal lobe, occipital lobe

cerebral cortex: corpus colosum

connects the 2 cerebral hemispheres so they can share info

cerebral cortex: occipital lobe

contains visual processing parts, where visual signals occur

Hindbrain: Medulla

coordinates heart rate, circulation, and respiration

hindbrain parts and function

coordinates info coming in and out of the spinal cord pons medulla reticular formation cerebellum

split brain

corpus callosum is cut via surgery so there are complications b/w sight and sppech

type of design? # of hours studying vs grade on a test

correlation

Issue with correlational studies

correlation does not mean causation -there could be a third variable -directionality of causation?

correlational vs experimental designs

correlation: -measures strength of relationship b/w 2 variables --correlational coefficient -observed -cannot infer causation experimental: experimentally manipulating an IV to see its impact on a DV -is controlled (impact of X on Y while holding Z's constant) -can infer causation (change in IV potentially causes a change in DV)

Ni is interested in decision-making behavior. She tells participants to imagine that they come home one day to find their house on fire. Their spouse and their mother are both inside the house, and they only have time to save one of them. They must choose to save either their spouse or their mother. She presents this scenario to 25 American students at school, and then 25 Taiwanese students while she is home for the summer and plans to compare the responses of both samples. What type of psychological research is Ni conducting?

cross-cultural

Jamal surveyed 30 undergraduate students and found that the students who ate more servings of fresh fruit per day also reported getting sick for fewer days during the school year. What is the best conclusion to draw from this study? a. Being sick less often makes students want to eat more fresh fruit. b.All of these conclusions are equally valid based on this study. c. An overall focus on healthy living causes students to both eat healthier and get sick less. d.Eating more fruit causes students to get sick less often. e. Eating fresh fruit and days being sick are negatively correlated in this population.

e. Eating fresh fruit and days being sick are negatively correlated in this population.

random sampling

every person in the population has an equal chance of being selected

Tamar is testing whether women's decrease in body satisfaction is larger after looking at cosmetics advertisements versus looking at neutral images. She randomly assigns a group of women to look at either advertisements for cosmetic products or pictures of trees, and then complete a survey about their body satisfaction. What type of design is Tamar using?

experimental

experimenter bias

experimenter's exception can influence outcome of a study -they see what they want to see -can also be priming

Wilhem Wundt (1832-1920)

father of psych Focus: reaction time studies: if task requires more cognitive involvement it will take more time to complete -STRUCTURALISM

Santiago Ramon y Cajal

first stained neurons in the brain -mapped neural structure and funtion

Ayesha wants to examine the relationship between social media use and feelings of anxiety in college students. What should be her first step in conducting her scientific investigation?

form a hypothesis

forebrain: hippocampus

formation of new memories -amygdala can stimulate hippocampus which helps form emotional memories

Sigmund Freud

founder of psychoanalysis

forebrain lobes

frontal, parietal, temporal, occipital

the 3 major regions of the brain

hindbrain, midbrain, forebrain

theory or hypothesis: drivers who use cell phones more frequently will get into more accidents

hypothesis

What type of evidence was embraced by Structuralists but rejected by Behaviorists?

introspection

Wernicke's area

language comprehension -located b/w parietal and temporal lobe in L hemisphere

contralateral organization

left hemisphere controls right side of body and vice versa ex: left eye sends into to right hemisphere and vice versa ex: left hemisphere controls right side of body and vice versa

Wenicke's aphasia

left temporal lobe damage, speech is fluent but nonsensical -grammar and syntax is adequate -little speech repetition

general: left hemisphere controls...vs right hemisphere which controls

left: better at language right: better with spatial relationships

Phrenology

localization of brain funct -parts of the skull correlate with funct introduced point that brain structure influences funct

motor homunculus

map showing portion of motor cortex devoted to each body region -disporportionatly represented by hands and face

operationalize variables

means giving an operational definition: descrption of a property in MEASURABLE terms ex internet use: # pages visited, data used GB

correlation designs

measures how 2 factors vary together -how well you can predict a change in 1 factor from observing a change in another factor

importance of a control groups in experimental studies

need to have a group to compare the behavior of in response to manipulated variable

zero correlation

no relationship between variables as one drc/incr the other stays the same

How does the media spin research study results

oversimplifying making obvious statements with out providing evidence or stating why/the context of the statement

Broca's aphasia

patient can understand spoken language but has difficulty communicating verbally -can happen due to stroke -disordered speech and grammar -tendency to repeat words

barnun effect

people give high accuracy ratings to assumptions on their personalitles that are supposedly tailored to them -though they are vauge and general descriptions

cerebral cortex: frontal lobe

personality, behavior, emotions, intellectual function -problem solving in impulse control

Importance of replication in experiments

process of repeating a study and finding a similar outcome each time -increases credibility

Caitlyn wants to examine how someone's gender affects their response to clothing advertisements. She will likely use a _______ design because _________.

quasi experimental; they cannot pick their gender

somatosensory cortex

receives stimulus from touch by diff parts of the body -could have 1 cell or many cells devoted to a part of the body

Hindbrain: Reticular Formation

regulates sleep, wakefulness, and levels of arousal -when under anesthetics this part is low activity -runs through the midbrain/hindbrain

Hindbrain: Pons

relays information from the cerebellum to the rest of the brain

basic research

research examining how the mind works -biological/physiological psych & neuroscience --brain, neurons -cognitive psych --thinking, memory, attention -developmental psych

forebrain:amygdala

responds to emotion -fear response -emotional processes

cerebral cortex: parietal lobe

responsible for sensory processing -contains somatosensory cortex --touch --visual spacial tasks

2 types of amnesia

retrograde: forgetting past info and anterograde: can't form new memories

convenience sampling

sample of consists of people who are conveniently available for the study

applied research

scientific study that aims to solve practical problems -treatment

Broca's area

speech production -left pre frontal cortex

experimental research

studies that seek clues to cause-effect relationships by manipulating one or more factors (independent variables) while controlling others (holding them constant)

Funstionalism

study of the PURPOSE & FUNCTION of behaviors and mental processes -how do mental functions correspond to environment

behaviorism

study only observable behaviors -less subjectives, more scientific

cognitive psychology

study the internal mental processes that lead to behavior study: -attention -memory -problem solving

forebrain: thalamus and hypothalamus

thalamus: filters and transmits info from senses to cortex -hearing, seeing, taste and touch, NOT SMELL hypothalamus: regulates 4 F's: fighting, fleeing, feeding, fornicating -pleausure center -endocrine system

forebrain: olfactory bulb

the first brain structure to pick up smell information from the nose in forebrain

Dualism (Descartes)

the presumption that mind and body are two distinct entities that interact

why do we need to use the scientific methos

to reduce bias