Psy 201 Midterm 2 Study Guide

Chapter 6

Absolute thresholds smallest quantity of physical energy that can be

reliably detected by an observer

o Reliable detection = 50/50 chance
o Measures how sensitive a persons senses are
Teaspoon of sugar in 2 gallons of water
Drop of perfume across three rooms
Difference thresholds smallest difference in stimulation that can be
reliably detected by an observer when two stimuli are compared
o Compare two stimuli to determine similarities and difference in
dimensions
o As stimulus magnitude increases, ability to detect small

differences decreases
2lbs vs 10 lbs
100lbs vs 105 lbs
Signal-detection theory a psychophysical theory that divides the
detection of a sensory signal into a sensory process and a decision
process (ie. Can you feel that?)
o Sensory determine intensity of stimulus
o Decision observers response bias
o Brain takes input, tells you yes or no, but decision process

decides which is real

o 4 possible responses
Hit subject detects present stimulus
False alarm detects signal with no stimulus
Miss doesnt detect signal with stimulus
Correct rejection doesnt detect signal without stimulus
o Yay Sayers have more hits, but also more false alarms
More likely to say it was there
o Nay Sayers have more correct rejections, but also more misses
More likely to say it wasnt there
Sensory adaptation reduction or disappearance of sensory
responsiveness when stimulation is unchanging or repetitious
o Our mind pays attention to differences more than constants
Brain gets tired and experiences fatigue
o Sensory deprivation absence of normal levels of sensory
stimulation

Selective attention focusing of attention on selected aspects of the

environment and the blocking out of others
o Protects us from being overwhelmed by the sensory signals that

are constantly impinging out sense receptors

Brain must decide what is important, and take shortcuts
o Opposite of sensory deprivation
Inattentional blindness failure to consciously perceive something you
are looking at because you are not attending to it
o We look, but do not see
o Protects us from overload, but also deprives us of sensory

information that we may need

Light and sound in the brain
o Light is an electromagnetic wave
Color doesnt exist outside of the eye
Brain translates different wavelengths as color
Hue dimension of visual experience specified by color

names and related to wavelength

Brightness lighteness or luminance
Intensity of light an object emits
Saturation vividness or purity of volor
Dimension of visual experience related to the

complexity of light
Light with only one wavelength, pure
o Retina neural tissue lining the back of the eyeballs interior,
containing visual receptors
Extension of the brain
Rods visual receptors that respond to dim light
Long and narrow
Sensitive to light
Outer edges of the retina
Explains difficulty of defining color in low light

situations
3 types, 3 frequencies of light
Cones visual receptors involved in color vision
Cone shaped
Densely packed in center of retina, sparse in outer
edges

Ganglion cells neurons in the retina of the eye, which

gather information from receptor cells; axon makes up

optic nerve
Feature detector cells cells in the visual cortex that are sensitive to

the environment
o Actively processing signal
o Detect boundaries or movement
In visual cortex, not eyes
o Some specialize in detecting lines
o Higher order cells detect more complex things
Jennifer Anniston cells
Code for specific identity or categories
Trichromatic theory a theory of color perception that proposes three
mechanisms in in the visual system, each sensitive to a certain range

of wavelengths
o First level processing of color in retina
o 3 rods 3 frq of light
Primary colors Red Green Blue
Mix of these colors create secondary colors
o Color blindness cones not functioning
Opponent process theory a theory of color perception that assumes
that the visual system treats pairs of colors as opposing or antagonistic
o Second level processing of color in the ganglion cells in retina
and neurons in the thalamus and visual cortex of the brain
o Antagonistic pairs of cones
Fire one, turn off the other
Blue vs yellow
Red vs green
If one is super active, it fatigues, and something blue will

appear yellow
Negative afterimages
Binocular vs Monocular depth cues
o Gestalt Principles describes brains organization of sensory
information into meaningful units and patterns
Proximity objects near each other tend to be grouped

together
Closure brain fills in gaps to perceive complete forms

Similarity similar objects tend to be perceived as

belonging together
Continuity lines and patterns tend to be perceived as

continuing in time or space

o Binocular cues visual cues to depth or distance requiring two
eyes
Convergence the turning inward of the eyes, which

occurs when they focus on object up close

Retinal disparity slight difference in lateral separation
between two objects as seen by the left eye and the right

eye
o Monocular cues visual cues to depth or distance which can be
used by one eye alone
Interposition when an object is blocking another from

view, we perceived blocked object as being farther away

Linear perspective two parallel lines appear to be

converging far away, implied existence of depth

Perceptual constancies accurate perception of objects as stable or
unchanged despite change in the sensory patterns they produce
o Size an object has a constant size, even when its image in our
head is being scaled based on our distance from the object
Car driving away, friend walking toward us
o Shape an object has constant shape, even though image in our
head is perceived to be changing shape
Door opening and closing
o Location stationary objects remain in the same place even
though our mental image moves around as we do
Telephone poles going by when were driving
o Brightness objects have relative constant brightness even
though the amount of light changes, the level of overall
illumination changes
Black car remains black in sun, snow is white when its
dark
o Color outdoor light is bluer than indoor light
We adapt to this change in overall color and know that an
apple is red no matter where we are

Taste
o Relevant physical structures
Papillae knoblike elevation on tongue containing taste
buds
Taste buds nest of taste receptor cells
o Types/categories of receptors
4 tastes
salty
sour
bitter
sweet
umami
Smell
o Relevant physical structures
Olfactory bulb, olfactory receptor, olfactory tract
Touch
o Types/categories of receptors
Bare nerve ending
Pain and temp
Mechanoreceptor
Vibration and pressure
Light touch
Gate-control theory theory that experience of pain depends in part on
whether pain impulses get past a neurological gate in the spinal cord

and thus reach the brain

o If lot of pain, gate open
o Little pain with other stimulus, gate closed
Phantom pain experience of pain in a missing limb
o Brain reorganizes itself, missing links = pain
Placebo effect say its a pain med, placebo can be as effective as
morphine

Chapter 7

Cognitive Schemas integrated mental network of knowledge, beliefs,

and expectations concerning a particular topic or aspect of the world

Subconscious processes mental processes occurring outside of
conscious awareness but accessible to consciousness when necessary
o Muscle memory, decoding letters in a word

Nonconscious processes mental processes occurring outside of and

not available to conscious awareness
o Implicit learning learning that occurs when you acquire
knowledge about something without being aware of how you did
so and without being able to state exactly what it is you have
learned
Learn rule or adaptive behavior
Cant explain how you learned it
Language
o Mindlessness mental inflexibility, inertia, and obliviousness to
the present context
Prevents us from recognizing when a change in a situation

requires a change in behavior

Xerox can I copy, I need to make a copy
Incongruent with what we expect
Formal vs informal reasoning drawing of conclusions or inferences
from observations, facts or assumptions
o Formal Information needed for drawing a conclusion or reaching
a solution is specified clearly, and there is a single right answer
Step by step way to answer
Pragmatic/there is an answer
Recipe/script
o Informal no clearly correct solution
Gut feelings
Best judgement based on evidence
Voting, religion
o Inductive vs deductive reasoning
Deductive large idea that comes to specific conclusion
Inductive small idea to large idea
Little evidence -> larger conclusion
o Heuristics rule of thumb that suggests a course a course of
action or guides problem solving but does not guarantee an
optimal solution
Method sufficient for immediate need
Rule of thumb
o Dialectical reasoning opposing facts or ideas are weighted and
compared, with a view to determining the best solution or
resolving differences

Critically cross examine the other

Look at both sides
Juries
Barriers to rational thinking
o Exaggerating the improbable
Affect heuristic tendency to consult ones emotions

instead of estimating probabilities objectively

o Minimizing the probable
Availability heuristic tendency to judge probability of a
type of event by how easy it is to think of examples or
instances
o Avoiding loss
Framing effect tendency for peoples choices to be
affected by how a choice is presented or framed, such as

whether it is worded in terms of potential losses or gains

Aversion to incurring loss cognitive bias, we dont like

losing over and over

o Fairness bias
Ultimatum Game 2 people, 1 w/ $20, can share with
partner any among, if 2nd partner rejects, both ger nothing
Offers <20%-30% some accepted some rejected, if

Im going down, were all going down.

Evolutionary benefit give up short term gain if its unfair
Cooperative tendencies and a desire for fairness and

reciprocity
o Hindsight bias
Hindsight is 20/20, knew it all along
Medical judgements
Military opinions
o Confirmation bias
Paying attention to evidence that supports/confirms belief
and finding fault with evidence or arguments that point in a
different direction
More effective to find violating evidence that to find

supporting evidence
Supporting evidence look for confirmation in
preconceived opinion

Conflicting evidence
o Minimize to protect study/theory/belief

o Mental sets
Tendency to try to solve new problems by using same
heuristics, strategies, and rules that worked in the past on
similar problems
Biases are shortcuts to help us understand things faster
Increases mental efficiency
Decreases flexibility and adaptability
o Cognitive dissonance
People resolve conflicts in predictable, but not obvious,

ways
Post decision dissonance Ive made a huge mistake

buyers remorse
Justification of effort justify firing someone to preserve

self-image
Measures of intelligence
o Psychometrics measurement of mental abilities, traits, and
processes
Crystalized cognitive skills and specific knowledge over
time, heavily dependent on education and tends to remain

stable
Fluid capacity to reason and use information to solve
problems, relatively independent of education and tends to

decline in old age

o Cognitive Approach identify the genitive processes and
strategies that people use when they are thinking and behaving
intelligently
Triarchic Theory- theory that emphasizes analytic, creative,

and practical abilities

Componential intelligence
o Metacognition
Experiential or creative intelligence
Contextual or practical intelligence
Emotional intelligence
Anthropomorphism attribution of human traits onto animals
Anthropodenial humans better than everything else

Turing Test test of intelligence to decide whether youre talking to a

computer or a person

Chapter 8

Reconstructive nature of memory process of assembling information

from stored knowledge when a clear or coherent memory of specific
events does not exist.
o Tell stories, not remember every detail
Change details whenever they retold stories
o Source misattribution recall events as if they actually happened
to them
Inability to distinguish an actual memory of an event from
information you learned about the event somewhere else
9/11 and trump examples
o Car collisions how fast did the car bump into how fast did
the car smash into
o Headlights do you remember the broken headlight? Do you
remember a broken headlight
o Bugs Bunny - @ Disneyland but cant happen, but many would

defend it as real
Confabulation confusion of an event that happened to someone else
with one that happened to you, or a belief that you remember

something when it never actually happened

o This is why eyewitness accounts suck
o People swore they saw a Star Wars scene that never happened
Explicit vs Implicit memory
o Explicit conscious, intentional recollection of an event or of an
item of information
Recall ability to retrieve and reproduce from memory

previously encountered material

Recognition ability to identify previously encountered

material
o Implicit unconscious retention of memory
Priming method of measuring implicit memory, most

recently accessed memory

Relearning retention of memories to rebuild skills

Measures retention that compares the time required

to relearn material within the initial time of learning

the material
Information processing model of memory
o Sensory -> short term -> long term
Transferred transferred/retrieved
o Sensory register momentarily preserves extremely accurate
images of sensory information
Entryway
Holding bin
Short lifespan
o Procedural vs declarative
Procedural memories for the performance of actions or
skill knowing how
Like playing video games and not really thinking

about how to play it

Declarative memories of facts, rules, concepts, and
events knowing that
Semantic explicit, general knowledge
Episodic autobiographical, things that youve

experienced
Long-term potentiation and consolidation
o Long-term potentiation long-lasting increase in the strength of
synaptic responsiveness, thought to be a biological mechanism
of long-term memory
o Consolidation process by which a long-term memory becomes

durable and stable

Forgetting
o Decay theory theory that information in memory eventually
disappears if it is not accessed
Applied better to short term than long-term
o Replacement new information will wipe out old
o Interference similar items of information interfere with one
another in storage or retrieval
Retroactive forgetting that occurs when recently learned
material interferes with ability to remember similar
material stored previously

Proactive forgetting that occurs when previously stored

material interferes with ability to remember similar more

recently learned material

Cue dependence inability to retrieve information because of
insufficient cues for recall
o State dependent memory tendency to remember something
when the remember is in same place or mental state as original
situation
o Mood congruent tendency to remember experiences that are
consistent with ones current mood and overlook to forget
experiences that are not

Chapter 9

Classical conditioning process by which a previously neutral stimulus

is paired with a stimulus that already elicits a certain response and, in
turn, acquires the capacity to elicit a similar or related response
o Pavlovs Dogs
o Unconditioned stimulus stimulus that already elicits certain
response without additional learning
o Unconditioned response response from unconditioned stimulus
o Conditioned stimulus initially neutral stimulus that becomes to
elicit a conditioned response
o Conditioned response response from a conditioned stimulus
o Extinction weakening and eventual disappearance of a learned
response
When conditioned stimulus is no longer paired with
unconditioned stimulus
o Stimulus generalizations vs discrimination
Stimulus generalizations post conditioning, describes
tendency to respond to a stimulus that resembles one

involved in original conditioning

When stimulus that resembles the CS elicits CR
Similar stimuli may produce similar reaction
Stimulus discrimination tendency to respond differently to
two or more similar stimuli
When stimulus similar to CS fails to evoke CR

Different responses to stimuli that resemble the

conditioned stimulus
o Evolutionary origins
Food poisoning
Livestock protection
Cancer and chemo
o Counterconditioning pairing a conditioned stimulus with a
stimulus that elicits a response that is incompatible with
unwanted conditioned response
Associating something bad with something good so the
bad seems good
o Operant conditioning responses become more or less likely to
occur based on consequences
Reinforcement process by which stimulus strengthens the

probability of the response that it allows

Dog sit = treat
Punishment stimulus or event weakens probability of the

response that it follows

Dog lie down = dog sits
Positive reinforcement presentation of reinforcing

stimulus, task becomes more likely to occur

Negative reinforcement removal, delay, or decrease in

intensity of unpleasant stimulus

Primary innate, inherent, typically a survival need
Secondary learned, association, classical conditioning
Shaping operant conditioning in which successive

approximations of a desired response are reinforced

Bridge
Extinction and extinction burst
Extinction weakening and eventual disappearance
of learned response
o Occurs when a response is no longer followed

by a reinforce
Extinction burst
Stimulus generalizations vs discrimination
Response thats been reinforced in presence of one
stimulus to occur in the presence of another

Discrimination response to occur in the presence of

one stimulus but not in the presence of other stimuli

that differ from it

Discriminative stimuli stimulus that signals when a
particular response is likely to be followed by a certain type

of consequence
Continuous vs intermittent reinforcement schedules
Cont a reinforcement schedule in which a

particular resonse is always reinforced

Int reinforcement schedule in which a particular

response is sometimes but not always reinforced

Downsides of punishments and reinforces
Punishment administered inappropriately
Effectiveness is often temporary
Most behavior is hard to punish immediately
Punishment conveys little info
May be reinforcing negative behavior because of

attention
Latent learning form of learning thats not immediately expressed in

an overt response without obvious reinforcement

Social cognitive learning theory theories that emphasize how
behavior is learned and maintained through observation and imitation
of others. Positive consequences and cognitive processes such as plans
expectations and beliefs
o Observational learning tutorials
o Vicarious - same