MCAT 85 page doc

semantic memory

- Explicit LT memory - facts

Alzheimer's disease

- a progressive and irreversible brain disorder characterized by gradual deterioration of memory, reasoning, language, and, finally, physical functioning - cause unknown but buildup of amyloid plaques in brain

sensorimotor stage

- age: 0-2 - develop object permanence

preoperational stage

- age: 2-7 - children going/engage in pretend play - very egocentric

concrete operational stage

- age: 7-11 - learn idea of conservation - begin to learn empathy

episodic memory

- explicit LT memory - events

procedural memory

- implicit LT memory - tasks such as riding a bike

rods

- night vision/peripheral - always turned on unless light hits it - made up of rhodopsin which contains retinal - when light hit retinal change in shape from bent to straight - 1000x more sensitive to light than cones - slow recovery time - found in peripheral

reward pathway in the brain

- pleasure center - dopamine is produced in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) - sends to amygdala, nucleus accumens, prefrontal cortex, hippocampus - as dopamine goes up, serotonin goes down

phonological loop

- working memory - any words, number in both iconic and echoic memory - verbal info (any words + numbers in both iconic and echoic memory) is processed - LANGUAGE

How light is processed in the eye

1. light enters pupil and goes to retina which contains rods and cones 2. light turns rods off which turns bipolar cells on (conversion to neural impulse) 3. retinal ganglion cells turn on which sends signal to optic nerve and enters brain (light --> neural impulse via photoreceptors)

how smell is processed

1. odorous substances enter the nasal cavity 2. bind to receptors in the cilia 3. odorous substances depolarize the olfactory receptors 4. axons from the olfactory receptors join to form the olfactory nerves 5. olfactory nerves project directly to the *olfactory bulbs* in the base of the brain

Piaget's stages of cognitive development

1. sensorimotor 2. preoperational 3. concrete operational 4. formal operational (sexy penguins can't fart)

how sound is processed

1. sound hit outer part of ear (pinna) then the auditory canal and then ear drum 2. sound vibrates ear drum that causes 3 bones to vibrate (malleus, incus and stapes) 3. vibration of the ossicles exerts pressure on the fluid in the cochlea' 2. stimulating the hair cells to transduce the pressure into action potentials 3. action potentials travel via the auditory (cochlear) nerve to the brain for processing - hair cells are attached to gate of K channels, so when pushed back they allow K+ to flow inside the cell, this activated Ca+ to cause an action potential in spiral ganglion cell which activated the auditory nerve (pinna --> auditory canal --> eardrum --> cochlea --> hair cells get pushed down --> K+ go inside cell --> Ca+ activate AP in spiral ganglion cell)

flashbulb memory

A clear and vivid long-term memory of an especially meaningful and emotional event. (episodic)

method of loci

A mnemonic technique that involves associating items on a list with a sequence of familiar physical locations

Narcolepsy

A sleep disorder characterized by uncontrollable sleep attacks. The sufferer may lapse directly into REM sleep, often at inopportune times.

nicotine

A stimulant that disrupts sleep and suppresses appetite. Also causes muscles to relax and release stress-reducing neurotransmitters.

Broadbent's early selection theory

All info in environment goes intos ensory register, then gets transferred to selective filter right away which filters out stuff in unattended ear and what you don't need to understand it (accents etc.), and finally perceptual processes identifies friend's voice and assigns meaning to words. Then you can engage in other cognitive processes

hypnotism

An artificially induced somnambulistic state in which the mind readily acts on suggestion. - increased alpha waves

Multitasking/divided attention

Attempting to do more than one thing at the same time. This can be tougher when tasks are similar and harder Becomes better with practice

pheromones

Chemical signals released by an animal that communicate information and affect the behavior of other animals of the same species. - innate response

Treisman's Attenuation Theory

Instead of complete selective filter, have an attenuator-weakens but doesn't eliminate input from unattended ear. Then some gets to perceptual processes, so still assign meaning to stuff in unattended ear, just not high priority. Then switch if something important

task similarity

It's harder to multitask with similar tasks

deutch and deutch's late selection theory

Places broadband selective filter after perceptual processes. Selective filter decides what you pass on to conscious awareness.

misleading information

Supplying information that may lead a witness' memory for a crime to be altered - ex. using the word hit or smash when describing car accident

Visuo-spatial sketchpad (VSS)

The component of the WMM that processes visual and spatial information in a mental space often called our 'inner eye'. - VISUAL and SPATIAL Information

proprioception

The cumulative sensory input to the central nervous system from all mechanoreceptors that sense body position and limb movement.

state dependent memory

The theory that information learned in a particular state of mind (e.g., depressed, happy, somber) is more easily recalled when in that same state of mind.

sleep apnea

a sleep disorder characterized by temporary cessations of breathing during sleep and repeated momentary awakenings - snoring - don't get enough N3 (slow wave) sleep

episodic buffer

a storage component of working memory that combines the images and sounds from the other two components into coherent, story-like episodes - visual and verbal info - acts as a connecter for information to be stored in long-term memory.

signal detection theory

a theory predicting how and when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus (signal) amid background stimulation (noise). Assumes there is no single absolute threshold and that detection depends partly on a person's experience, expectations, motivation, and alertness. options: - hit, miss, false alarm, correction rejection

cocktail party effect

ability to attend to only one voice among many - ability to concentrate on one voice amongst a crowd. Or when someone calls your name - endogenous (meaning of name draws attention)

manifest content

according to Freud, the remembered story line of a dream

latent content

according to Freud, the underlying meaning of a dream

short term memory

activated memory that holds a few items briefly, such as the seven digits of a phone number while dialing, before the information is stored or forgotten

visual field processing

all right visual field goes to left side of brain and vice versa

long-term potentiation

an increase in a synapse's firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation. Believed to be a neural basis for learning and memory. - this is learning!

bottom-up processing

analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain's integration of sensory information - never seen before - data driven - inductive reasoning - begins with stimulus, stimulus influences what we see

somatosensory cortex

area at the front of the parietal lobes that registers and processes body touch and movement sensations

awake

beta waves (alert/concentrated) alpha waves (daydreaming)

divided attention

concentrating on more than one activity at the same time

Benzodiazepines

depressant, commonly perscribed suppressant, sleep aids and anti-anxiety, enhance your brain's response to *GABA* (open GABA-activated chloride channels in your neurons, and make neurons more negatively charged)

alcohol

depressant, disrupts REM sleep and memory formation, removes your inhibitions

Barbiturates

depressant, sleeping pills, depress your CNS, with alcohol can lead to death

hallucinogens

drugs that alter perception - ecstasy, LSD, marijuana

stimulants

drugs that excite neural activity and speed up body functions - caffeine, nicotine, cocaine, amphetamines and methamphetamines

depressants

drugs that lower you body's basic functions and neural activity (heart rate, reaction time etc) - alcohol, barbiturates, benzodiazepines, opiates

shadowing task

experiment that studies selective attention - different sounds in both ears, have to focus on one sound and repeat

decay

fading away of memory over time when you do not encode something well or retrieve it for a while

change blindness

failing to notice changes in the environment - Famous study done where a person asks a stranger in a big city to give directions. The person is swapped with another person and the direction giver does not notice that this was a different person that they were now giving directions to

inattentional blindness (Perceptual Blindness)

failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere - the inability to recognize an unexpected object, event, or stimulus that is in 'plain sight'. This is due to a psychological lapse in attention, rather than a defect or deficit in sensory perception.

basilar tuning

hair cells at the base of cochlea are activated by high frequency sounds and those at apex by low frequency sounds

ecstasy

hallucinogen and stimulant, increases dopamine and seotonin, euphoria, stimulates body's NS

LSD

hallucinogen, interferes with serotonin

Task difficulty

harder to multitask if tasks are difficult

homeostasis for drug users

how your body maintains temperature, heartbeat and metabolism - drugs can disrupt homeostasis and your body counteract the drug effects - if you are an avid user, brain recognizes external cues and will trigger homeostasis prior, which is why it takes a higher dose to reach the same high

dissociation theory of hypnotism

hypnotism is an extreme form of divided consciousness

aging and memory

implict / procedural memory stays constant, as does recognition semantic memory and crystallized intelligence improves (using knowledge and experience), better at emotional reasoning recall, episodic memories impaired, processing speed, divided attention are decreased at old ages

anterograde amnesia

in ability to encode new memories

retrograde amnesia

in ability to recall info prior of accident

top-down processing

information processing guided by higher-level mental processes, as when we construct perceptions drawing on our experience and expectations - theory driven - deductive reasoning - perception influenced by our expectation

Marijuana

mild hallucinogen, heightens sensitivity to sounds, tastes and smells

absolute threshold of sensation

minimum intensity of stimulus needed to detect a particular stimulus 50% of the time

pain

nociceptors

sleep walking/talking

occurs during stage 3

source monitoring error

occurs when a memory derived from one source is misattributed to another source - ex. angry at someone but forgot it happened in a dream

Opiates

opium and its derivatives, such as morphine and heroin; they depress neural activity, temporarily lessening pain and anxiety - not really a depressant but overlap with helping anxiety

constancy

our perception of object does not change even if it looks different on retina

serial position effect

our tendency to recall best the last and first items in a list

social influence theory of hypnotism

people do and report what's expected of them, like actors getting caught up in their roles

endogenous

produced from within; due to internal causes - require internal knowledge, cocktail party effect

exogenous

produced unconsciously; due to external causes - bright colors, loud noises

monocular cues

relative size, interposition, relative height, shaping and contour, motion parallax

binocular cues

retinal disparity, converfence

cones

retinal receptor cells that are concentrated near the center of the retina (fovea) and that function in daylight or in well-lit conditions. The cones detect fine detail and give rise to color sensations. - contain photopsin - detect color - fast recovery time

5 types of taste receptors

salt, sour (ion channels) , bitter, sweet, umami (GPCR receptors)

insomnia

sleep disorder characterized by persistent trouble falling asleep or staying asleep

photoreceptors

specialized nerve that can take light and convert to neural impulse

stages of sleep

stage 1: dominated by theta waves, light sleep stage 2: sleep spindles and K-complexes, deeper sleep stage 3: delta waves, sleep walking/talking occurs in this stage REM: muscles are paralyzed but rapid eye movement, dreaming occurs

caffeine

stimulant that inhibits adenosine receptors and disrupts sleep

amphetamines and methamphetamines

stimulant that triggers release of dopamine, highly addictive, long-term effects can be the inability to maintain normal dopamine levels

subliminal stimuli

stimuli below the absolute threshold

cocaine

strong stimulant that releases dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine that it can deplete your brain supply

priming

the activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations, thus predisposing one's perception, memory, or response - we're primed to respond to our name

object permanence

the awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived

fovea

the central focal point in the retina, around which the eye's cones cluster - completed covered in cones - NO rods

retroactive interference

the disruptive effect of new learning on the recall of old information - ex. can't remember your old phone number

proactive interference

the disruptive effect of prior learning on the recall of new information - ex. keep typing in your old password not your new one

selective attention

the focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus

conservation

the principle (which Piaget believed to be a part of concrete operational reasoning) that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in the forms of objects

weber's law

the principle that, to be perceived as different, two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage (rather than a constant amount)

parallel processing

the processing of many aspects of a problem simultaneously; the brain's natural mode of information processing for many functions, including vision. Contrasts with the step-by-step (serial) processing of most computers and of conscious problem solving. - detects all info and processes (color, form, motion) at the same time

primary auditory cortex

the region of the superior temporal lobe whose primary input is from the auditory system

long term memory

the relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system. Includes knowledge, skills, and experiences. - explicit (semantic/episodic) - implicit (automatic/procedural)

just noticeable difference (JND)

the threshold at which you're able to notice a change in any sensation ∆I/I = k(weber's law)

temperature

thermoceptors

Gestalt Principles

ways for the brain to infer missing parts of a picture when a picture is incomplete - similarity, pragnanz, proximity, continuity, closure

blind spot

where optical nerve connect to retina - there are no rods or cones