General Psychology Proctored Midterm Exam -Study Guide Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, & 7

What is mindfulness meditation?

teaches an individual to be fully present in each moment; to be aware of his or her thoughts, feelings, and sensations; and to detect symptoms before they become a problem

What are amphetamines?

A central nervous stimulant that hyperactivity, narcolepsy, and obesity

Know about Binet's method of intelligence testing.

A cognitive ability and intelligence test used on young children

What is a lucid dream?

A dream in which you become aware that you are dreaming while you are still asleep.

What is the Muller-Lyer illusion?

A famous visual illusion involving the misperception of the identical length of two lines, one with arrows pointed inward, one with arrows pointed outward.

What is operant conditioning?

A method of learning that employs rewards and punishments for behavior

Define successive approximations

A method of shaping behavior by reinforcing similar to the desired behavior

What is avoidance learning?

A natural adaptive learning behavior performed in response to danger

What theory is John Watson responsible for creating?

Behaviorism

Know the parts and functions of the neuron

Cell body, axon, and dendrites, help send and receive signals

research regarding eyewitness testimony

Confident eyewitness testimonies are usually more correct.

What are some examples of drifting consciousness?

Daydreaming, letting your thoughts wonder

Who proposed the Law of Effect and what is it?

Edward Thorndike, "responses that produce a satisfying effect in a particular situation become more likely to occur again in that situation, and responses that produce a discomforting effect become less likely to occur again in that situation

three-stage model of memory

Encoding, storage, and retrieval

Know about the historical theories of structuralism and functionalism

Functionalism is the importance of how we adapt. Structuralism is studying the most basic components using introspection

What is insight learning?

Immediate and clear learning or understanding that takes place without trial and error

What factors contribute to narrowing the racial gap in IQ?

Improved conditions for people of color, amount of people jailed

Define conciousness

The state of being awake and aware of your surroundings

What is the most widely used illicit drug in the United States?

Marijuina

What are negative and positive reinforcements?

Negative reinforcement strengthens likelihood of behavior by removing undesirable renforcement. Positive keeps undesirable renforcement

What are declarative and procedural memories?

Procedural memories are a part of the long term memory that is responsible for knowing how to do things. Declarative memories are short term learned things

What discipline is William Wundt responsible for founding

Psychology

Be familiar with the research concerning alcohol usage among college students.

Questionnaire responses showed college students (66 females, 24 males) believed their decisions about drinking were made independently of peer or environmental pressure but light and heavy drinkers made different judgments about their peers' drinking behavior. Home background factors did not predict extent of drinking. Most students started drinking during high school and reported no change in drinking rate since attending college.

What is circadian rhythm?

Regulates the sleep cycle and repeats with earth rotation

Be familiar with "split-brain" research.

Research done if the corpus callosum is severed

What are the definitions of Sensation and Perception?

Sensation- allows us to take in information because of our five senses. Perception- ability to become aware from our senses

What are short term memory and long term memory?

Short term memory is where information that you have gathered from the past few days is stored. Long term memory is where information you learned a while ago is at

What are stimulants and depressant drugs?

Stimulants speed up bodily functions depressants slow down bodily functions

How do children acquire language?

Through interaction with parents and even other children.

What are the sensory receptors of our sense of taste?

Taste receptor cells

What does olfaction mean?

The action of smelling, your sense of smell

What makes up the Central Nervous System and Peripheral Nervous System and how do they function?

The central nervous system is made up of the brain and spinal cord and spinal cord and the peripheral nervous is made up of nerves that branch out from the spine.

Know the definition of memory.

The faculty by which the mind stores and remembers information

What is the absolute threshold?

The lowest level of all of the five senses

What is correlational research attempting to discover?

The relationships between variables

What is lesioning?

To give attention to sound

maintenance rehearsal

To repeatedly verbalize or think about a piece of information

Why is Psychology considered a scientific discipline?

Uses scientific method

Know about the gender differences in cognitive abilities

Women usually excel in verbal fluency, perceptual speed, accuracy, and fine motor skills while men are more likely to be better in mathematics, working memory, and spatial.

What is a mental image?

a mental representation of objects or events that are not physically present

What is a mnemonic device?

a plan to encode items in a special way to remember them

What is a mental set?

a tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past

flashbulb memories

detailed recollections of when and where we heard about shocking events

divergent thinking

expands the number of possible problem solutions (creative thinking that diverges in different directions)

Know the parts and functions of the ear

inner ear- sound receptors Middle ear- links to eardrum Outer ear- has ear canal and ear drum

What is the trichromatic theory?

only need 3 colors to see all colors (blue, green, red)

What is a mental picture?

significantly resembles the experience of visually perceiving some object, event, or scene, but occurs when the relevant object, event, or scene is not actually present to the senses.

Define Psychology

the scientific study of behavior and mental processes

What is the serial position effect?

the tendency of a person to recall the first and last items in a series best, and the middle items worst