Psychology: Unit 5-Sensation and Perception

Sensation: Your window tot he world

Perception: Interpreting what comes in your window

Sensation: The process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive stimulus from the environment


Bottom-up vs. Top-down Processing

Bottom-up Processing: Begins with the sense receptors and work up to the brains integration of sensory information
Top-down Processing: Information processing guided by higher level mental processes

Absolute Threshold: The minimum stimulation to detect a stimulus 50% of the time
Difference Threshold: The minimum difference that a person can detect between two stimuli

• Also known as "Just Noticeable Difference"

Weber's Law: The idea that to perceive a difference between 2 stimuli, they must different by a constant percentage; not a constant amount

Signal Detection Theory: predicts how we detect a stimulus amid other stimuli

Sensory Adaptation: Decreased responsiveness to stimuli due to constant stimulation

Selection Attention: The focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimuli

Cock-tail-party-Phenomenon: Describes the ability to focus one's listening attention on a single talker among a mixture of conservation and background noises, ignoring other conversations

• Form of selective attention

Vision: Our most dominating sense

Visual Capture

• Phase One: Gathering light
• Short wavelength =high frequency (bluish colors, high pitched sounds)

• Long wavelengths=low frequency (reddish colors, low-pitched sounds)

• The height of a wave gives us its intensity (brightness)
• The length of the wave gives is its hue (color)
• ROY GBIV
• The longer the wave, the more red
• The shorter the wavelength the more violet

• Phase 2: Getting the light int he eye

Transduction: Transforming signals into neural impulses

• Information goes from the senses tot he thalamus then to the various areas in the brain
• Changes from one form of energy to another
• Ex. Light energy to vision, chemical energy to small and taste, sound waves to sound

Color Vision: Young Helmholts Trichromatic (3 color) Theory

• 3 types of cones
• Red
• Blue
• Green
• These 3 types of cones can make millions of combination of colors
• Most color blind people simply lack receptors cells for one or more of these primary colors

Opponent-Process Theory: The sensory receptors come in pairs

• Red/Green 
• Yellow/Blue
• Black/White
• If one color is stimulated, the other is inhibited

Hearing

• We hear sound waves
• The height of the wave gives us the amplitude of the sound
• The frequency of the wave gives us the pitch of the sound

Transduction in the ear

• Sound waves hit the eardrum then anvil, then hammer, then stirrup, then the oval window
• Everything is just vibrating
• Then the cochlea vibrates
• The cochleas is lined with nerves called basilar membrane
• In basilar membrane there are hair cells
• When hair cells vibrate, they turn vibrations into neuron impulses which are called "organ of Corti"
• Sent then to the thalamus up auditory nerve

Place Theory and Frequency Theory

Place Theory: Different hairs vibrate in the cochlea when there are different pitched

• So some hairs vibrate when they hear high pitch and others vibrate when they hear low pitches

Frequency Theory: All the hairs vibrate but at different speeds

Deafness

• 2 Types
• Conduction deafness
• Something goes wrong with the sound and the vibration on the way tot he cochlea
• You can replace the bones or get hearing aid to help 
• Nerve (sensorineural) deafness
• The hair cells in the cochlea get damaged
• Loud noises can cause this type of deafness
• No way to replace the hairs
• Cochlea implant is possible

Small and Taste 

Studies together because of:

• Sensory Interaction: The principle that one sense may influence another

Taste

• We have bumps on our tongue called papillae
• Taste buds are located on the papillae (they are actually all over the mouth)
• Sweet, salty, sour, and bitter

Umami: Flavorable, meaty, savory, taste

Monocular Cues

Interposition: If something is blocking our view, we perceive it as closer

Relative Size: If we know that 2 objects are similar in size, the one that looks smaller is farther away

Relative Clarity: We assume hazy objects are farther away

Texture Gradient: The closer it looks, the closer it is

Relative Height: Things higher in our field of vision look farther away

Relative Motion: Things that are closer appear to move more quickly

Liner Perspective: Parallel lines seem to converge with distance

Light and Shadow: Dimmer objects appear farther away because they reflect less light

Motion Perception

• We judge mostly by the size of the object

Phi Phenomenon: An illusion of movement created when 2 or more adjacent blink on and off in succession

Perceptual Consistency: Perceiving objects as unchanging even as illumination and retinal images changes

Psychology: Unit 5-Intelligence, Language and Thought, and Thinking

Intelligence

Intelligence: The ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations

Factor Analysis: A statistical procedure that identifies clusters of related items ona test

Howard Gardner came up with the concept of multiple intelligence

• Visual/Spatial
• Verbal/Linguistic
• Logical/Mathematical
• Bodily/Kinesthetic
• Musical/Rhythmic
• Interpersonal
• Intrapersonal
• Natural

Sternberg's 3 aspects of intelligence

• Analytical: Academic problem solving
• Creative: Generating novel ideas
• Practical: Required for everyday tasks where multiple solutions exist

Emotional Intelligence: The ability to perceive, express, understand, and regulate emotions

Small +.15 correlation between head size and intelligence scores

+.44 correlation with brain size and IQ score

Higher performing brains use less glucose that lower performing brains, and their neurological speed is a bit quicker

Mental Age: What a person of a particular age should know

Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS): Consists of 11 sub tests and cues us in to strengths  by using factor analysis

Aptitude Test: A test designed to predict a  person's future performance

Achievement Test: A test designed to assess what a person has learned

Tests must be standardized, reliable, and valid

Standardization: The test must be pre-tested to a representative sample of people and form a normal distribution or bell curve
Reliability: The extent to which a test yields consistent results over time
Validity: The extent to which a test measures what is is suppose to measure

• Content Validity; does the test sample a behavior of interest
• Predictive Validity; does the test predict future behavior

Language and Thought

Language: Our spoken, written or gestured words and the way we combine them to communicate meaning

Phonemes: The smallest distinctive sound unit

Morphemes: The smallest unit that carries meaning

Grammar: A system of rules in a language that enables us to communicate and understand others

Semantics: The set of rules by which we derive meaning in a language

Syntax: The rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences

Language Development

• Babbling Stage: Starting at 3-4 months, the infant makes spontaneous sounds
• One-word stage: 1-2 years, uses one word to communicate meanings
• Two-word Stage: Age 2, uses two words to communicate meanings-called telegraphic speech

Skinner thought that we can explain language development through social learning theory

Chomsky-Inborn Universal Grammar

• We have this learning box inside our heads that enable us to learn any human language

Worf's Linguistic Relativity: The idea that language determines that way we think

We think in words, but more often we think in mental pictures

Thinking

Concepts: A mental groouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people

Prototypes: A mental image or best example of a category

Algorithms: A methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem

Heuristics: A rule-of-thumb strategy that often allows us to make judgement and solve problems efficiently

Insight: A sudden and often realization of the solution to a problem

Confirmation Bias: The tendency to search for information that confirms one's preconceptions

Fixation: The inability to see a problem from a new perspective

Mental Set: A tendency to approach a problem in a particular way, especially if it has worked in the past

Functional Fixedness: The tendency to think only in terms of their usual functions

Types of Heuristsics (That often lead to errors)

• Representative Heuristics: A rule of thumb for judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they match our prototype; can cause us to ignore important information

• Availability Heuristics: Estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in our memory; we may presume it to be common

• Overconfidence: The tendency to be more confident then correct

• Framing: The way an issue is posed

• Belief Bias: The tendency for one's preexisting belief's to distort logical reasoning; sometimes making invalid conclusion

• Belief Perseverance: Clinging to your initial conceptions after the cases on which they were formed has been discredited

Psychology: Unit 4-Biological Basis of Behavior

Biological School

The Nervous System:

• Starts with an individual cell called a Neuron

Synapse: A structure that permits a neuron to pass a chemical or electrical signal to another call.

How does a neuron fire?

• It is an electrical process inside the neuron
• Chemical outside the neuron (in the synapse int he form of a neurotransmitter)
• The firing is called Action Potential
• Resting Potential: Sightly negative charge
• Reach the threshold when enough neurotransmitters reach dendrites

The All-or-None Response

• The idea that either the neuron fires or it does not--no part way firing
• Like a gun

Neurotransmitters: Chemical messengers released by terminal buttons through the synapse

4 Types

1. Acetycholine (ACH)
• Deals with motor movement and memory
• Lack of ACH has been linked to Alzheimer's disease
2. Dopamine
• Deals with motor movement and alertness
• Lack of dopamine has been linked to Parkinson's disease
• Too much has been liked to Schizophrenia
3. Serotonin
• Involved in mood control
• Lack of serotonin has been linked to clinical depression
4. Endorphin
• Involved in pain control
• Many of our most addictive drugs deal with endorphin

Drugs can be...

• Agonists: Make neuron fire
• Antagonists: Stop neural fire

3 Types of Neurons

1.  Sensory Neurons (Afferent Neurons)
• Take information from the senses to the brain
2. Inter Neurons
• Take messages from the Sensory neurons to other parts of the brain or to Motor Neurons
3. Motor Neurons
• Take information from the brain to the rest of the body

Central Nervous System

• The brain and the spinal cord

Peripheral Nervous System

• All nerves that are not encased in bone
• Everything but the brain and the spinal cord
• Is divided into 2 categories...Somatic and Automatic
1. Somatic Nervous System
• Controls voluntary muscle movement
• Uses motor (efferent) neurons
2. Automatic Nervous System
• Controls the automatic functions of the body
• Divided into 2 categories...The Sympathetic and Parasympathetic
1. Sympathetic Nervous System
• Fight or Flight Response
• Automatically accelerates heart rate, breathing, dilates pupils, slows down digestion.
2. Parasympathetic nervous System
• Automatically slows the body down after a stressful event
• Heart rate and breathing slow down, pupils constrict and digestion speeds up.

Reflexes

• Normally; sensory (afferent) neurons take info up through spine to the brain
• Some reactions occur when sensory neurons reach just the spinal cord

Lesions

• Cutting into the brain and looking for change

Less invasive ways to study the brain

Brain Structures

Some scientists divide the brain into 3 parts:

• Hindbrain
• Midbrain
• Forebrain

Medulla Oblangata controls:

• Heart Rate
• Breathing
• Blood Pressure

Pons

• Connects hindbrain, midbrain, and forebrain together
• Involved in facial expressions

Cerebellum

• Located in the back of our head means little brain
• Coordinates muscle movement
• Like tracking a target

Midbrain

• Coordinates single movements with sensory information
• Contains the reticular formation: arousal and ability to focus attention

Thalamus

• In forebrain
• Received sensory information and sends them to appropriate areas of forebrain
• Like a switchboard
• Everything but small

Limbic System

• Emotional control center of the brain
• made up of Hypothalamus, Amygdala, and Hippocampus

Hypothalamus

• Pea sized in brain but plays a not so pea sized role
• Hunger
• Thirst
• Sexual arousal (libido)

Hippocampus is involved in memory processing

Amygdalal is vital for out basic emotions

Cerebral Cortex

• Top layer of our brain
• Contains wrinkles called fissures 
• The fissures increase surface are of our brain
• Laid out it would be about the size of a large pizza

Hemispheres

• Divided into a left and right hemispheres
• Contralateral controlled-left controls right side of body and viceversa
• Brain lateralization
• Lefties are better at spatial and creative tasks
• Righties are better at logic

Split-Brain Patients

• Corpus Collosum attaches the two hemispheres of cerebral cortex
• When removed, you have a split-brain patient

The cerebral cortex is made up of four lobes

• Temporal Lobe
• Process sound sensed by our ears
• Interpreted in auditory cortex
• Contains Wernike's Area: Interprets written and spoken speech
• Wernike's Aphosia: Unable to understand language: the syntax and grammar jumbled
• Parietal Lobe
• Contains sensory Cortex: Receives incoming touch sensations from rest of the body
• Most of the Parietal Lobes are made up of Association Area: Any are not associated with receiving sensory information or coordinating muscle movement
• Occipital lobe
• Deals with vision
• Contains Visual Cortex: Interprets messages from our eyes into images we can understand
• Frontal Lobe
• Abstract thought and emotional control
• Contains Motor Cortex: Sends signals to our body controlling muscle movements
• Contains Broca's Area: Responsible for controlling muscles that produce speech
• Damage to Broca's Area called Broca's Aphasia unable to make movements to talk

The Endocrine System

• A system of glands that secret hormones
• Similar to nervous system, except hormones work a lot slower than neurotransmitters

Thyroid Gland-affects metabolism among other things

Pituitary gland-secrets many different hormones, some of which affect other glands

Adrenal Gland-inner parts, called the medulla, helps trigger the "flight or fight" response

Pancreas-regulates the level of sugar in the blood

Ovary-secrets female sex hormones

Testes-secrets male sex hormones

Brain Injury Group Activity

Using the description of each person's behavioral symptoms, determine the probable cause locations of the damage and explain their function. You can include neurotransmitters, brain parts, cortical areas, glands, or anything else we have studied in this chapter that you believe might account for the damage. there is not necessarily always one correct answer. 

1. Katie had problems coordinating her movement and keeping her balance
2. David lost the ability to move his right arm
3. Molly and Samiyah suffered from an impaired ability to initiate, plan, and make good judgement 
4. Kelsey's eyes seemed fine, but she still had lost her vision in her left eye
5. Sara often kept falling asleep at odd times and in odd places
6. Ezekiel and Santos seemed to always be hungry and their temperatures ran high
7. Arlene suffered from an inability to from new memories
8. Chisom experience difficulty with analytic thinking science, and math reasoning
9. Kendall and Ciara both often flew into a rage and started picking fights with each other
10. Paco lost the feeling in his left leg
11. Jane and Asia seemed to constantly be experiencing a "runner's high"
12. Nathalie could no longer respond to her doctors soft tap in the knee
13. Kayla's speech was choppy, slow, and a grammatical mess
14. Bianca experience irregularities in heartbeat and respiration rates
15. Michelle started growing much, much larger
16. Mustafa and Abdul were uncontrollably thirsty.

Key

1. Cerebellum
2. Motor Cortex
3. Frontal Lobe
4. Occipital Lobe
5. Reticular Formation
6. Hypothalamus
7. Hippocampus
8. Cerebral Cortex
9. Amygdala
10. Sensory Cortex or Porietal Lobe
11. Pituitary Gland or Hypothalamus
12. Spinal Cord injury
13. Wernike's Area
14.  Medulla
15. Thyroid Gland
16. Hypothalamus

Psychology: Unit 4-Developmental Psychology

Developmental Psychology: The study of YOU from womb to tomb

Nature vs. Nurture

• The way you were born: Nature
• The way you were raised: Nurture

Physical Development

• Focus on our physical development over time

Prenatal Development

• Conception begins with the drop of an egg and the release of about 200 million sperm
• The sperm seeks out the egg and attempts to penetrate the eggs surface
• Once the sperm  penetrates the egg, we have a fertilized egg called...The zygote

Zygote

• The first stage of prenatal development . Lasts about 2 weeks and consists of rapid cell division
• Less than half of all zygotes survive the first 2 weeks
• About 10 days after conception, the zygote will attach itself to the uterine wall
• The outer part of the zygote becomes the placenta which filters nutrients
• After 2 weeks of conception, the zygote develops into an ...Embryo

Embryo

• Lasts about 6 weeks
• Hearts begins to beat and the organs begin to develop

Fetus

• BY 9 weeks we have a fetus
• The fetus by about the 6th month, the stomach and other organs have formed enough to survive outside of mother
• At this time the baby can hear (and recognize) sounds and respond to light

Teratogens 

• Chemical agents that can harm the prenatal environment
• Alcohol (FAS)
• Other STD's can harm the baby...
• HIV

Healthy Newborns

• Turn head toward voiced
• See 8 to 12 inches from their faces
• Gaze longer at human like objects right from birth. 

Reflex

• Inborn automatic responses
• Rooting: The baby's tendency when touched on the cheek to open the mouth and search for the nipple. 
• Sucking
• Grasping 
• Moro
• Babiaski

Maturation: Physical growth regardless of the environment

Puberty: The period of sexual maturation during which a person becomes capable of reproducing

Primary Sexual Characteristics: Body structures that make reproduction possible

Secondary Sexual Characteristics: Non-reproductive sexual characteristics

• Widening of the hips, deeper voice, breast-development

Landmarks for Puberty

• Menarche for girls
• First ejaculation for boys (spermarche)

Physical Milestones 

• Menopause

Death

• Elizabeth Kobler-Ross's Stages of Death/Grief
1. Denial
2. Anger
3. Bargaining
4. Depression
5. Acceptance

Social Development

• At about a year. infants develop stranger anxiety
• Up until about a year, infants do not mind stranger people (maybe because everyone is a stranger to them)
• Separation Anxiety: Wherever a child is separated from their child
• Ex. Mom putting you in daycare

Attachment

• Harry Harlow and his money
• Harry showed that monkeys needed touch to form attachment

Critical Periods: The optimal period shortly after birth when an organisms exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produce proper development

• Those who are deprived of touch have trouble forming attachment when they are older

Types of attachment

• Many answorth Strange Situation 
• 3 Types of attachments
1. Secre-okay with being with other people besides parents
2. Avoidant-avoid parents
3. Anxious/avoidant-only need when needed 

Parenting Styles

• Authoritarian-parents in charge
• Permissive-kids in charge
• Authoritative-parents and kids compromise

Erik Erikson

• A neo-Freudian
• Worked with Anna Freud
• Thought our personality was influenced by our experiences with other
• Stages of Psychosocial Development (each stage centers on a  social conflict
1. Trust vs. Mistrust
• 0-2 years
• Can a baby trust the world to fulfill its needs?
• The trust or mistrust they develop can carry on with the child for the rest of their lives
2. Autonomy vs. Shame & Debut
• Toddlers begin to control their bodies (toilet training) 
• Control temper tantrum
• Big word id "No"
• Can they learn to control or will they doubt themselves 
3. Initiative vs. Guilt
• Word turns from "No" to "Why"
• Want to understand the world and ask questions
• Is there curiosity encouraged or scolded?
4. Industry vs. Inferiority
• 6-12 years
• School begins
• We are for the first time evaluated by a formal system and our peers
• Do we feel good or bad about ourselves for the rest of out lives...inferiority complex
5. Identity vs. Role Confusion
• Early teens (13-15)
• In our teenage yeas we try out different roles
• Who am I?
• What group do i fir in with?
6. Intimacy vs. Isolation
• Have to balance work and relationship
• What are my priorities
7. Generativity vs. Stagnation
• Middle adult (40's -50's)
• Is everything going as planned?
• Am I happy with what i have created
• Mid-life crisis!!!
8. Integrity vs. Despair
• Look back on life
• Was my life meaningful or do i have a regret?
• Senior citizens

Cognitive Development 

• It was thought that kids were just stupid versions of adults 
• Then came along Jean Piaget
• Kids learn differently than adults

Schemas

• Children views the world through schemas (as do adults for the most part)
• Schemas are ways we interpret the world around us
• It is basically what you picture in your head when you think of anything

Assimilation: Incorporating new experiences into existing schemas

Accommodation: Changing an existing schema to adapt to new information

Stages of Cognitive Development

1. Sensorimotor Stage
1. Experience the world though our sense
2. Do not have object performance
3. 0-2 years
2. Preoperational Stage
1. 2-7 years
2. have object performance
3. Begin to use language to represent objects and ideas
4. Egocentric: Cannot look at the world through anyone's eyes but their own
5. Conservation: Refers tot he idea that a quantity remains the same despite changes in appearance and is part of logical thinking
3. Concrete Operational Stage
1. Can demonstrate concept of conservation
2. Learn to think logically
3. 7-11 years
4. Formal Operational Stage
1. Abstract reasoning
2. manipulate objects in our minds without seeing them
3. Hypothesis testing
4. Trial and Error
5. Metacognitive
6. Not every adult gets to this stage 

Types of intelligence

• Crystalized Intelligence
• Accumulated Knowledge
• Increases with age 
• Fluid Intelligence
• Ability to solve problems quickly and think abstractly
• Peaks in the 20's then decreases over time

Moral Development

• 3 Stages Theory by Lawrence Kohlberg
• Preconventional Morality
• Morality based on rewards and punishments
• If you are rewarded then it is okay
• If you are punished, the act must be wrong
• Conventional Morality
• Look at morality based in how others see you
• If your peers, or society, thinks it is wrong, then so do you
• Post Conventional Morality
• Based on self-defined ethical principles
• Your own personal code of ethics