PSY Exam 2
Little Brandon fell off his tricycle and scraped his knee. At first he cried out in pain, but when he rubbed his knee the pain went away. This can be explained by the _______ theory.
gate-control
longest
green, yellow, orange, red
Memory Mechanisms
help us to survive and reproduce should be preserved by natural selection
short-term memory
holds nonsensory information for more than a few seconds but less than a minute
Priming is an example of ________ memory.
implicit
figure-ground distinction
in Gestalt terms, this means identifying a figure apart from the back ground in which it resides
variable-ratio schedule
in operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response after an unpredictable number of responses
variable-interval schedule
in operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response at unpredictable time intervals
fixed-ratio schedule
in operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified number of responses
fixed-interval schedule
in operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified time has elapsed
College students talking on cell phones while walking through campus were much less likely to notice a clown ride past them on a unicycle than students not talking on cell phones, illustrating:
inattentional blindness.
Positive reinforcers ________ and negative reinforcers ________ the future probability of the behavior that led to these respective consequences.
increase;increase
Shortest wavelength
deep purple
Cones
detect color, daylight, fine detail; less numerous at 6 million densely packed in the fovea and sparsely around the retina
Brittany is daydreaming in class when her instructor asks her a question. Brittany finds herself replaying in her "mind's ear" the instructor's last words, taking advantage of a process called:
echoic memory
Continuity
edges or contours that have the same orientations tend to get grouped together perceptually
common fate
elements of a visual image that move together are perceived as parts of a single moving object
Students who do relatively little work until just before an upcoming exam and then engage in a burst of studying are displaying a response pattern similar to the one engendered by a ________ schedule of reinforcement
fixed interval
Sam gets a free pretzel using his Pretzel Smorgasbord card with every 10th pretzel he buys. This arrangement is an example of a(n) ________ schedule.
fixed ratio
Robert, a successful businessman, was driving to work one day when he was in a terrible car accident. He now cannot remember any new pieces of information for more than a few seconds. However, he is able to remember everything before the accident perfectly clearly. Robert's condition is an example of:
anterograde amnesia.
secondary reinforcer
any reinforcer that becomes reinforcing after being paired with a primary reinforcer, such as praise, tokens, or gold stars
reinforcer
any stimulus or event that increases the likelihood of the behavior that led to it
Short-term memory can hold:
approximately seven meaningful items.
monocular depth cues
aspects of a scene that yield information about depth when viewed with only one eye; distance and size
Marcie found that remembering her ATM card number and pin number was much easier when she grouped the twelve numbers into sets of threes instead of trying to remember twelve separate numbers. What technique is Marcie using to extend her short-term memory capacity?
chunking
Your friend's mother was always baking ginger-flavored cookies whenever you were at their house. You loved those cookies, and would eat several each time you visited. One day, you noticed that you started to salivate as you walked up the front steps to the house, before you smelled the cookies. The reason for this is that the house has become a(n):
conditioned stimulus.
second-order conditioning
conditioning where the US is a stimulus that acquired its ability to produce learning from an earlier procedure in which it was used as a CS
longer
continuously to blue
Burt has to wear a patch on one eye. Which of the following cues to depth perception will be unavailable to him now?
convergence.
Chunking
involves combining small pieces of information into larger clusters or chunks that are more easily held in short-term memory
observational learning
learning by observing others
Shaping
learning that results from the reinforcement of successive steps to a final desired behavior
Cornea
light that reaches the eye; bends the light wave and sends it through the
capacity of long term memory
limitless
A brochure displays a long stretch of road. The lines that make up the road are drawn so that they converge at the horizon. The result is that the picture creates a sense of distance. This is based on an environmental depth cue called
linear perspective.
Sound-wave frequency is to pitch as amplitude is to:
loudness.
Rods
low-light for night vision; more sensitive; 120 million rods around each retina except in the very center (fovea); can have less fine detail
Elka can remember the phone number she just looked up only by repeating it over and over. When she stops saying it out loud, she forgets it. Elka is using ______ rehearsal to keep the information in ______ memory.
maintenance; short-term
explicit memory
memory of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and "declare"
example of a secondary reinforcer
money
Your friend is ordering pizza and wants to know what toppings you want. You say "pepperoni, sausage, green peppers, olives, mushrooms, onions, tomatoes, and pineapple." Your friend doesn't write this down but then dials the pizza place and places the order. Which of the following toppings is your friend most likely to forget?
mushroom
Booker has a really bad headache, and so he takes a new painkiller. The drug works wonderfully to relieve his headache. The next time Booker has a headache, he definitely will take that drug. Booker's behavior of taking the new drug has been:
negatively reinforced
Every time Kasey, the dog, whines, her owners give her a doggie treat. As a result of her clueless owners, Kasey is a very whiney dog, illustrating the effects of:
operant conditioning
serial position effect
our tendency to recall best the last and first items in a list
apparent motion
perception of movement as a result of alternating signals appearing in rapid succession in different locations
working memory
refers to active maintenance of information in short-term storage
Amplitude
refers to its height and corresponds with loudness
similarity
regions that are similar in color, lightness, shape, or texture are perceived as belonging to the same object
partial reinforcement schedule
reinforcing a response only part of the time; results in slower acquisition of a response but much greater resistance to extinction than does continuous reinforcement
continuous reinforcement schedule
reinforcing the desired response every time it occurs
Extinction of a conditioned fear response to the sound of the dentist's drill will most likely involve:
repeated presentations of the drill sound without the pain of the drilling
Transduction occurs for the visual system in the and for the auditory system in the .
retina; cochlea
Although it is the area of the retina where vision is clearest, the fovea contains no ________ at all.
rods
Sensory adaption
sensitivity to prolonged simulation tends to decline over time as an organism adapts to current conditions
If you forget to take out the trash for two weeks, it will probably stink. After a few minutes of being around it, you don't notice the smell. This is an example of:
sensory adaptation.
You give your friend instructions about what to buy for a party by quickly rattling off fifteen unrelated grocery store items. Then to check whether your friend got all the information, you ask him to repeat the grocery list back to you. You should expect that your friend will recall about _________ items.
seven
Shamu, the killer whale at Sea World, was trained to do amazing tricks likely through a process called:
shaping
Players on a soccer team are clearly distinguished from their opponents by their uniforms, which, according to Gestalt principle, are grouped by:
similarity.
unconditioned stimulus
something that reliably produces a naturally occurring reaction in an organism
The tendency of a learned behavior to recover from extinction after a rest period is called:
spontaneous recovery
Not only did Little Albert learn to fear white rats, he also cried when presented with a Santa Claus mask or a seal-fur coat. This behavior was the result of:
stimulus generalization
Perception
takes place at the level of your brain; organization, identification, and interpretation of a sensation in order to form a mental representation
Closure
tend to fill in missing elements of a visual scene
Generalization
the CR is observed even though the CS is slightly different from the CS used during acquisition
memory
the ability to store and retrieve information over time
Define learning
the acquisition, from experience, of new knowledge, skills, or responses that results in a relatively permanent changes in the state of the learner
Priming
the activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations, thus predisposing one's perception, memory, or response
Discrimination
the capacity to distinguish between similar but distinct stimuli
middle ear
the chamber between the eardrum and cochlea containing three tiny bones (hammer, anvil, and stirrup) that concentrate the vibrations of the eardrum on the cochlea's oval window
binocular depth cues
the difference in the retinal images of the two eyes that provides information about depth
retroactive interference
the disruptive effect of new learning on the recall of old information
proactive interference
the disruptive effect of prior learning on the recall of new information
law of effect
• Behaviors that are followed by a "satisfying state of affairs" tend to be repeated, and those that produce an "unpleasant state of affairs" are less likely to be repeated
Compare the physical dimensions of wavelength, amplitude, and purity with their psychological counterparts, hue, brightness, and saturation.
• Length = hue • Amplitude = brightness • Purity = saturation
Describe the components of the olfactory and gustatory systems. Identify what is unique about our olfactory sense.
• Our experience of smell, or olfaction is associated with odorant molecules binding to sites on specialized olfactory receptors, which converge at the glomerulus within the olfactory bulb.
semantic memory
a network of associated facts and concepts that make up our general knowledge of the world
punishment
an event that decreases the behavior that it follows
anterograde amnesia
an inability to form new memories
retrograde amnesia
an inability to retrieve information from one's past
primary reinforcer
an innately reinforcing stimulus, such as one that satisfies a biological need
Habituation
an organism's decreasing response to a stimulus with repeated exposure to it
When learning a new word, like "amygdala," Angie will remember it best if she
thinks about what the word means.
episodic memory
A category of long-term memory that involves the recollection of specific events, situations and experiences.
Hippocampus
A neural center located in the limbic system that helps process explicit memories for storage.
procedural memory
A type of long-term memory of how to perform different actions and skills. Essentially, it is the memory of how to do certain things.
Pitch
Changes in the physical frequency of a sound wave are perceived by humans as changes in pitch
Timbre
Differences in the complexity of sound waves or a mix of frequencies corresponds to timbre which is a listener's experience of sound quality or resonance
implicit memory
Memories we don't deliberately remember or reflect on consciously
proximity
Objects that are close together tend to be grouped together
Weber's law
The just noticeable difference of a stimulus is a constant proportion despite variations in intensity
You probably can detect a weight difference between a 1-ounce and a 2-ounce envelope. But if you pick up a 20-pound package, you'd probably need another package that weighs at least 20.5 pounds before detecting a difference between them. This description illustrates:
Weber's law.
Describe the processes involved in the perception of motion and change
To sense motion, the visual system must encode information about both space and time.
inattentional blindness
a failure to perceive objects that are not the focus of attention
echoic memory
a fast-decaying store of auditory information
iconic memory
a fast-decaying store of visual information
curve of forgetting
a graph showing a distinct pattern in which forgetting is very fast within the first hour after learning a list and then tapers off gradually
pupil
a hole in the colored part of the eyes (the iris)
Retina
a layer of light sensitive tissue lining the back of the eyeball; contains photoreceptor cells
Define synesthesia and discuss how the phenomenon may reveal different, and otherwise normal, ways of brain organization.
a perceptual phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathways leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. The brain is "Wired" differently than most, so that brain regions for different modalities cross activate one another.
In second-order conditioning, what serves as the unconditioned stimulus (US)?
a previously established conditioned stimulus
conditioned stimulus
a previously neutral stimulus that produces a reliable response in an organism after being paired with a US
conditioned response
a reaction that resembles an unconditioned response but is produced by a conditioned stimulus
unconditioned response
a reflexive reaction that is reliably produced by an unconditioned stimulus
Sensation
a simple simulation of a sense organ; central nervous system
positive reinforcers
a stimulus is presented that increases the likelihood of a behavior
negative reinforcers
a stimulus is removed that increases the likelihood of a behavior
operant conditioning
a type of learning in which the consequences of an organism's behavior determines whether it will repeat that behavior in the future
sensory memory
a type of storage that holds sensory information for a few seconds or less
relationship between classical conditioning and phobias
abnormal conditioning in which the US and the CS only need to be paired once and the CR becomes stronger with time rather than weaker
Fovea
an area of the retina where vision is the clearest and there are no rods at all
Serial position effect
the first few and the last few items in a series are more likely to be recalled than the items in the middle
Extinction
the gradual elimination of a learned response that occurs when the CS is repeatedly presented without the US
partial reinforcement extinction effect
the greater persistence of behavior under partial reinforcement than under continuous reinforcement
encoding specificity principle
the idea that cues and contexts specific to a particular memory will be most effective in helping us recall it
transfer-appropriate processing
the idea that memory is likely to transfer from one situation to another when the encoding and retrieval contexts of the situations match
just noticeable difference
the minimal change in a stimulus that can just barely be detected
absolute threshold
the minimal intensity needed to just barely detect a stimulus in 50% of the trials
Retrieval
the process of bringing mind information that has been previously encoded and stored
Organizational encoding
the process of categorizing information according to the relationships among a series of items
Rehearsal
the process of keeping information in short-term memory by mentally repeating it
storage
the process of maintaining information in memory over time
semantic encoding
the process of relating new information in a meaningful way to knowledge that is already stored in memory
visual imagery encoding
the process of storing new information by converting it into mental pictures
Encoding
the process of transforming what we perceive, think, or feel into an enduring memory
signal detection theory
the response to a stimulus depends both on a person's sensitivity to the stimulus in the presence of noise and on a person's decision criterion
state-dependent retrieval
the tendency for information to be better recalled when the person is in the same state during encoding and retrieval
spontaneous recovery
the tendency of a learned behavior to recover from extinction after a rest period
Iris
translucent, doughnut shaped muscle that controls the size of the pupil and hence the amount of light that can enter the eyes
classical conditioning
when a neutral stimulus produces a response after being paired with a stimulus that naturally produces a response
simplicity
when given two or more possible interpretations of an object's shape, the visual system tends to select the simplest or most likely
Transduction
when many sensors in the body convert physical signals from the environment into encoded neural signals sent to the CNS; vison = light reflected; audio = vibrations; touch = pressure of a surface against skin; taste and smell = molecules dispersed in air or dissolved in saliva
change blindness
when people fail to detect changes to the visual details of a scene
Inner ear
• The inner ear contains the spiral shaped cochlea (a fluid filled tube that is the organ of auditory transduction). The cochlea is divided along its length by the basilar membrane, a structure in the inner ear that undulates when vibrations from the ossicles reach the cochlear fluid. Its wavelike movement stimulates thousands of tiny hair cells, specialized auditory receptor neurons embedded in the basilar membrane.
Outer ear
• The outer ear collects sound waves and funnels them toward the middle ear, which transmits the vibrations to the inner ear where they are transduced into neural impulses • The outer ear consists of the outside of the head (pinna), auditory canal, and the eardrum: an airtight flap of skin that vibrates in response to sound waves gathered by the pinna and channeled into the canal
Discuss visual processing in the brain, noting the pathways and how the two hemispheres of the cerebral cortex process information to the occipital lobe.
• The ventral (below) stream = travels across the occipital lobe into the lower levels of the temporal lobes and includes brain areas that represent an object's shape and indemnity • The dorsal (above) stream = travels up from the occipital lobe to the parietal lobes, connecting with brain areas that identity location and motion of an object
Describe the basic operations of the body senses, discussing how touch, pain, and the senses of balance and movement occur.
• Touch begins with the transduction of skin sensations into neural signals • Receptors located under the skin's surface enable us to sense pain, pressure, texture, pattern, or vibration against the skin.