PSY 103

QUIZ ONE

Chapter 1
- Psychology: the scientific study of the behavior of individuals and their mental
processes.
- Scientific methods: the set of procedures used for gathering and interpreting objective
information in a way that minimizes error and yields generalizations. (set of orderly steps
used to analyze and solve problems)
- Behavior: the means by which organisms adjust to their environment. Is an action
Examples: smiling, crying, running, hitting etc.
- Individual: the subject of psychological analysis
- Mental processes: the workings of the human mind
- Social sciences: social behavior of groups or institutions
- Biological science: study brain processes and the biochemical bases of behavior
- cognitive science: question how the human mind works are related to research and
theory in computer science
- Health science: medicine, education, law and environmental studies
- Goals of psychology: Describe, explain, predict and control behavior
-Describe what happens
- Behavioral data: observational reports about the behavior of organisms
and the conditions under which the behavior occurs or changes
-Level of analysis: different levels of psychological descriptions
- Objectivity: collecting the facts as they exist and not as the researcher
expects or hopes them to be
- Subjective points: biases, prejudices and expectations
- Explaining what happens
- Descriptions: perceivable information (what you can see/observe)
- Explanations: deliberately go beyond what can be observed
- Predicting what will happen
- Predictions in psychology are statements about the likelihood that a
certain behavior will happen (ex. If roommate is shy then predict that
uncomfortable speaking in class)
- Controlling what happens
- Control means making behavior happen or not happen
- Hernamm Ebbinghause: one of the first experimental psychologist who wrote
Psychology has a long past but only a short history
- Plato and Aristotle: Greek Philosophers
- John Locke: an empiricist who believes that people begin life with their mind as a
blank tablet; the mind acquires information through experiences in the world
- Immanuel Kant: fully developed nativist views (believe that people begin life with
mental structures that provide constraints on how they experience the world. (certain
skills or abilities are native or hard-wired into the brain at birth))
- Rene Descartes: proposed that the human body is an animal machine: that can be
understood scientifically- by discovering natural laws through empirical observations
- Wilhelm Wundt: founded the first formal laboratory devoted to experimental
psychology (in Leipzig)
- First psychology lab in North America at John Hopkins University
- Edward Titchener: one of the first psychologists in the US founding a lab at Cornell
University in 1892
- William James: wrote The Principles of Psychology (one of the most important
psychology texts ever written)
- Structuralism: the study of the basic structural components of mind and behavior
- Introspection: the systematic examination by individuals of their own thoughts and
feelings about specific sensory experiences
- Max Wetheimer: focused on the way in which the mind understands many experiences
as gestalts (organized wholes) rather than as the sums of simple parts
- Gestalt psychology: A school of psychology that maintains that psychological
phenomena can be understood only when viewed as organized, structured wholes, not
when broken down into primitive perceptual elements.
- Functionalism: the perspective on mind and behavior that focuses on the examination of
their functions in an organisms interactions with the environment
- John Dewey: a functionalist who focused on the functions of reflexes, which he
described as a continuously ordered sequence of acts, all adapted in themselves and in
the order of their sequence, to reach a certain objective end, the reproduction of the
species, the preservation of life, locomotion to a certain place
- Mary Whiton Calkins: established one of the first psychology laboratories in the US and
invented important techniques for studying memory. First women president of the
American Psychological Association
- Margaret Floy Washburn: first woman to receive a PhD in psychology. Wrote The
Animal Mind
- Helen Thompson Wooley: accomplished some of the earliest research that examined
differences between the sexes
- Leta Stetter Holingworth: attacked the claim that women were genetically inferior to
men with respect to their levels of creativity and intelligence
- psychodynamic perspective: behavior is driven, or motivated, by powerful inner force;
actions are viewed as stemming from inherited instincts, biological drives, and attempts
to resolve conflicts between personal needs and social requirements
- Sigmund Freud: developed psychodynamic principles of motivation
- Behaviorist perspective: particular environmental stimuli control particular kinds of
behavior
- First analyzes the antecedent environmental conditions (those that precede the
behavior and set the stage for an organism to make a response or withhold a response)
- Secondly look at the behavioral response (the action to be understood, predicted,
and controlled)
- Finally look at the observable consequences that follow from the response
- John Watson: a behaviorist who argues that psychological research should seek the laws
that govern observable behavior across species
- B.F. Skinner: extended the influence of behaviorism by expanding its analyses to the
consequences of behaviors
- Behaviorism: a specific approach that limits the study of psychology to measurable or
observable behavior
- Humanistic perspective: people are neither driven by the powerful, instinctive forces
postulated by the Freudians nor manipulated by their environments, as proposed by
behaviorist. Believe that people are active creatures who are innately good and capable of
choice (look for patterns in peoples life histories)
- Carl Rogers: emphasized that individuals have a natural tendency toward psychological
growth and health ( a process that is aided by the positive regard of those who surround
them)
- Abraham Maslow: self-actualization; which refers to each individuals drive toward the
fullest development of his or her potential
- Cognitive perspective: human thought and all the processes of knowing (attending,
thinking, remembering, and understanding) People act because they think and people
think because they are human beings
- Noam Chomsky: helped originate the cognitive perspective by arguing forcefully
against skinners claim. (believes that children are able to produce utterances that fall
outside the bounds of their previous experience)
- Jean Piaget: Swiss researcher who used a series of mental tasks to demonstrate
qualitative changes over the course of cognitive development
- Biological perspective: guides psychologists who search for the causes of behavior in
the functioning of genes, the brain, the nervous system, and the endocrine system
- Behavioral neuroscience: a multidisciplinary field that attempts to understand the brain
processes that underlie behavior such as sensation, learning, and emotion.
- Cognitive neuroscience: trains a multidisciplinary research focus on the brain bases of
higher cognitive functions such as memory and language
- Evolutionary perspective: seeks to connect contemporary psychology to central ide of
the life sciences (Charles Darwins theory of evolution by natural selection)
- Sociocultural perspective: study cross cultural differences in the causes and
consequences of behavior.
Table 1.1 Comparison of Seven Perspectives on Psychology
Perspective Focus of Study Primary Research Topics
Psychodynamic Unconscious drives Conflicts
Behavior as overt expression of
unconscious motives
Behaviorist Specific overt responses
Behavior and its stimulus causes and
consequences
Humanistic
Human experience and
potentials
Life patterns
Values
Goals
Cognitive Mental processes Language
Inferred mental processes through
behavioral indicators
Biological
Brain and nervous system
processes
Biochemical basis of behavior and
mental processes
Evolutionary
Evolved psychological
adaptations
Mental mechanisms in terms of
evolved adaptive functions
Sociocultural
Cross-cultural patterns of
attitudes and behaviors
Universal and culture-specific
aspects of human experience
RECAPPING MAIN POINTS:
What Makes Psychology Unique?
- Psychology is the scientific study of the behavior and the mental processes of
individuals.
- The goals of psychology are to describe, explain, predict, and help control behavior.
The Evolution of Modern Psychology
- Structuralism emerged from the work of Wundt and Titchener. It emphasized the
structure of the mind and behavior built from elemental sensations.
- Functionalism, developed by James and Dewey, emphasized the purpose behind
behavior.
- Taken together, these theories created the agenda for modern psychology.
- Women made substantial research contributions in psychologys early history
- Each of the seven perspectives on psychology differs in its view of human nature, the
determinants of behavior, the focus of study, and the primary research approach.
- The psychodynamic perspective looks at behavior as driven by instinctive forces, inner
conflicts, and conscious and unconscious motivations
- The behaviorist perspective views behavior as determined by external stimulus
conditions.
- The humanistic perspective emphasizes an individuals inherent capacity to make
rational choices. The cognitive perspective stresses mental processes that affect
behavioral responses.
- The biological perspective studies relationships between behavior and brain
mechanisms.
- The evolutionary perspective looks at behavior as having evolved as an adaptation for
survival in the environment.
- The sociocultural perspective examines behavior and its interpretation in cultural
context.
What Psychologists Do
- Psychologists work in a variety of settings and draw on expertise from a range of
specialty areas
- Almost any question that can be generated about real- life experiences is addressed by
some member of the psychological profession.
How to Use This Text
- Devise concrete strategies for determining how much study time you need and how to
distribute the time most efficiently.
- Take an active approach to your lectures and the text. The PQ4R method provides six
phasesPreview, Question, Read, Reflect, Recite, and Reviewfor enhanced learning.
1. Four components of the definition of psychology: SCIENTIFIC study of the
BEHAVIOR of INDIVIDUALS and their MENTAL processes
2. Four goals that apply to psychologists who conduct research: describe, explain,
predict, and control behavior
3. Why is there a close relationship between the goals of explanation and prediction:
researchers regularly try to explain behaviors by identifying underlying causes;
successful causal explanations often allow accurate predictions
4. Central concerns of the structuralist and functionalist approaches: Structuralism
tries to understand mental experiences as the combination of basic components.
Functionalism focuses on the purposes of behavioral acts.
5. What conclusion Helen Thompson Wooley raw about differences between the
sexes: Wooley argued that sex differences do not reflect natural ability but, rather,
differences in mens and womens social experiences.
6. How do the psychodynamic and behaviorist perspectives conceptualize the forces
that shape peoples actions: psychodynamic perspective focuses on powerful,
instinctive forces. Behaviorist perspective focuses on how consequences shape
behaviors
7. What is the purpose of cognitive neuroscience: Researchers in cognitive
neuroscience combine the cognitive and biological perspectives to understand
the brain bases of mental activities such as memory and language.
8. How do the evolutionary perspective and sociocultural perspective complement
each other: The evolutionary perspective focuses on the features that all
people share as a consequence of human evolution. The socio- cultural
perspective focuses on the differences brought about by cultures, against that
shared evolutionary background.
9. What is the relationship between research and application: Research provides
new insights that psychologists then try to apply in real-world settings.
10. In what two settings are most psychologists employed: Psychologists are most
employed in academic settings (e.g., colleges and universities) and hospitals
and other human services.
11. What does it mean to be an active participant in a course: You must be actively
involved in the course by developing your own understanding of what you
hear in lectures and read in the text.
12. What is the relationship between the Question and Read phases of PQ4R: In the
Question phase you invent questions that direct your attention while you are
reading; in the Read phase you read the material with an eye to answering
your questions.
13. What is the purpose of the Recite phase of PQ4R: When you attempt to recite
explicit answers to questions, you obtain concrete evidence of what you know and
what you dont know.














Chapter 2
PROCESS OF RESEARCH
- Theory: an organized set of concepts that explains a phenomenon or set of phenomena
- Theories generate hypotheses
-Hypothesis: a tentative and testable statement about the relationship between causes and
consequences. Often stated as if-then predictions; specifying certain outcomes from
specific conditions
- Determinism: the idea that all events (physical, mental, and behavioral) are determined
by specific causal factors that are potentially knowable
- Lawful patterns: patterns that can be discovered and revealed through research
- Scientific method: a general set of procedures for gathering and interpreting evidence in
ways that limit sources of errors and yield dependable conclusions
- Public verifiability: other researchers must have the opportunity to inspect, criticize,
replicate, or disprove the data and methods (secrecy is banned)
-Peer review: manuscripts are sent to two to five experts in the field who analyze the
manuscript.
- Discussion: researchers lay out the implications and limitations of their work
OBSERVER BIASES
- Observer Bias: an error due to the personal motives and expectations of the viewer (see
and hear what they expect rather than what is)
- To minimize observer biases, researchers rely on standardization and operational
definitions
- Standardization: using uniform, consistent procedures in all phases of data and
collection. All features of the test or experimental situation should be sufficiently
standardized so all research participants experience exactly the same experimental
conditions (ask question the same way and score according to pre-established
rules)
- Operational Definition: a definition of a variable or condition in terms of the
specific operation or procedure used to determine its presence
- Variable: any factor that varies in amount or kind
- Independent Variable: the factor you manipulate. Functions as the causal
part of the relationship (what changed)
- Dependent Variable: what the experimenter measures to assess the
impact of variation in an independent variable (what occurred)
- Controlled Variable: What stayed the same
EXAMPLE: If you sleep in, you will be late.
Independent variable (what you changed): Hit the snooze and slept in.
Dependent variable (what occurred): I was late.
Controlled variable (what stayed the same): the bus came at the same time
it always does
EXPERIMENTAL METHODS
- Experimental methods: research method that involves the manipulation of independent
variables to determine their effects on the dependent variables
- The more alternative explanations, the less confidence there is that the initial hypothesis
is accurate
- Confounding variable: when something other than what an experimenter purposely
introduces into a research setting changes a participants behavior and adds confusion to
the interpretation of the data
- two types of confounds: expectancy effects and placebo effects
- Expectancy effects: when a researcher or observers subtly communicates to
participants the kind of behavior he or she expects to find, thereby creating that expected
reaction. Will use double-blinded experiment to prevent this
- Double blinded experiment: an experimental technique in which biased
expectations of experimenters are eliminated by keeping both participants and
experimental assistants unaware of which participants have received which
treatment (no one knows)
- Placebo effects: when experimental participants change their behavior in the
absence of any kind of experimental manipulation. (ex. two pills, one real one fake
(placebo). Patient given placebo but doesnt know and gets better thinking the placebo
pill helped). Will use placebo control to prevent this
- Placebo control: an experimental condition in which treatment is not
administered; it is used in cases where a placebo effect might occur.
- Control procedures: methods that attempt to hold constant all variables and conditions
other than those related to the hypothesis being tested
- Between-subjects designs: different groups of participants are randomly assigned by
chance procedures, to an experimental condition (exposed to treatment) or a control
condition (not exposed to treatment)
-Random assignment: a procedure by which participants have an equal likelihood of
being assigned to any condition within an experiment
- Experimental group: a group in an experiment that is exposed to a treatment or
experiences a manipulation of the independent variable
- Control group: a group in an experiment that is not exposed to a treatment or does not
experience a manipulation of the independent variable
- Population: the entire set of individuals to which generations will be made based on an
experimental sample
- Sample: a subset of a population selected as participants in an experiment
- Representative sample: a subset of a population that closely matches the overall
characteristics of the population with respect to the distribution of males and females,
racial and ethnic groups, and so on.
- Random sampling: a procedure that ensures that every member of a population has an
equal likelihood of participating in an experiment
- Within-subjects design: a research design in which uses each participant as his or her
own control. For example, the behavior of an experimental participant before receiving
treatment will be compared to his behavior after receiving the treatment.
- Correlational methods: research methodology that determines to what extent two
variables, traits, or attributes are related
- Correlation coefficient (r): a statistic that indicates the degree of relationship between
two variables. The precise degree of correlation that exists between two variables. Value
can vary between +1.0 and -1.0 where +1.0 is a perfect positive correlation and -1.0 is a
perfect negative correlation and 0.0 is no correlation at all
- positive correlation coefficient means that as one set of scores increases, a
second set also increases
- negative correlation is if decreases then second also decreases
- correlations closer to zero means weak relationship or no relationship between
scores on two measures. Correlations get closer to +/-1.0 maximum, more
accurate
- how to overcome observer biases: standardize their procedures and provide operational
definitions for their variables
- correlations does not imply causation because correlation coefficient indicates the
extent to which two variables are related- not why that relationship exists
PSYCHOLOGICAL MEASUREMENT
-Quantity: numbers
-Reliability: the consistency or dependability of behavioral data resulting from
psychological testing or experimental research. A reliable result is one that will be
repeated under similar conditions of testing at different times
-Validity: the information produced by research or testing accurately measures the
psychological variable or quality it is intended to measure
- Rapport: a positive social relationship with the respondent that encourages trust and the
sharing of personal information
- Behavioral measures: ways to study overt actions and observable and recordable
reactions
- Observation focuses on either the process or the product of behavior
- Naturalistic observations: a research technique in which unobtrusive observations are
made of behaviors that occur in natural environments (naturally occurring behavior
viewed by a researcher who makes no attempt to change or interfere with it)
- Case study: intensive observation of a particular individual or small group of
individuals
- Some measures can be reliable but not valid because reliable means that it yields to a
comparable value when researchers use it repeatedly but that value may not accurately
reflect the psychological variable that the researcher is after. (ex. shoe size is reliable but
not a valid measure of happiness)
- Important for interviews to establish rapport because interviews seek to create a context
in which people are willing to provide information through self-reports that might be
highly personal or sensitive
ETHICAL ISSURES IN HUMAN AND ANIMAL RESEARCH
- Informed consent: the process through which individuals are informed about
experimental procedures, risks and benefits before they provide formal consent to
become research participants. (participants have the opportunity to understand their rights
and responsibilities before they choose to engage in an experiment)
- Debriefing: researcher provides as much information about the study as possible and
makes sure that no one feels confused, upset, or embarrassed.
- Three Rs of animal research: reduce, replace, refine





Chapter 4
- Perception: the overall process of apprehending object and events in the environment-
to sense them, understand them, recognize and label them, and prepare to react to them.
Organizes information in the sensory image and interprets it as having been produced by
properties of objects or events in the external, 3D world.
- Sensuality: the quality of being devoted to the gratification of the senses (enjoy the
experiences that appeal to your various senses of sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell)
- Sensation: the process by which stimulation of sensory receptors (the structures in your
eyes, ears, and so on) produces neural impulses that represent experiences inside or
outside the body
- Perceptual observation: the stage in which your brain integrates evidence from your
senses with prior knowledge of the world to form an internal representation of an external
stimulus. (ex. vision: organizational processes provide estimates of an objects likely size,
shape, movement, distance, and orientation)
- Identification and recognition: two ways of attaching meaning to percepts. Identification
is what is this object and recognition is what is the objects function. Can identify circular
objects as coins, baseballs etc. and can identify people as male and female, friend or foe,
etc.
SENSORY KNOWLEDGE OF THE WORLD

The Proximity and Distal Stimuli
- Retinal image is two dimensional while environment (physical object of the world) is
three dimensional
- Distal stimulus: the physical object in the world
- what you wish to perceive is the distal stimulus (the real object in the
environment)
- Proximal stimulus: the optical image on the retina
- the stimulus from which you must derive your information (the image on the
retina)

Psychophysics
- Psychophysics: the study of the relationship between physical stimuli and the behavior
or mental experiences the stimuli evoke
- Gustav Fechner: German physicist who coined the term psychophysics and provided a
set of procedures to relate the intensity of a physical stimulus (measured in physical
units) to the magnitude of the sensory experience (measure in psychological units)
- Absolute threshold: the minimum amount of physical energy needed to produce a
reliable sensory experience; operationally defined as the stimulus level at which a sensory
signal is detected half the time
- Psychometric function: a graph that shows the percentage of detections (plotted at y
axis) at each stimulus intensity (plotted on the x axis)

- Because a stimulus does not suddenly become clearly detectable at all times at a
specific intensity, the operational definition of absolute threshold is the stimulus level at
which a sensory signal is detected half the time
- Sensory adaption: the diminishing responsiveness of sensory systems to prolonged
stimulus input (sunshine becomes less blinding after being outside for awhile, foul odor
fades out of awareness)
- Response bias: the systematic tendency for an observer to favor responding in a
particular way because of factors unrelated to the sensory features of the stimulus
-Signal detection theory (SDT): a systematic approach to the problem of response bias
that allows an experimenter to identify and separate the roles of sensory stimuli and the
individuals criterion level in producing the final response.

- Difference threshold: the smallest physical difference between two stimuli that can still
be recognized as a difference. The point at which the stimuli are recognized as different
half of the time.
- Just noticeable difference (JND): the smallest difference between two sensations that
allows them to be discriminated
- Ernst Weber: pioneered the study of JNDs. Discovered the important relationship that is
known as Webers law
- Webers law: the JND between the stimuli is a constant fraction of the intensity
of the standard stimuli (the bigger or more intense the standard stimuli, the larger the
increment needed to get a just noticeable difference)

From Physical Events to Mental Events
- Transduction: transformation of one form of physical energy into another (ex. light is
transformed into neutral impulses)
- Stimulus: the detection of an environmental event
- Sensory receptors: specialized cell that converts physical signals into cellular signals
that are processed by the nervous system (convert physical form of the sensory signal into
cellular signals that can be processed by the nervous system)

-In signal detection theory, what two processes contribute to observers judgments?
- sensory processes and observers biases
THE VISUAL SYSTEM
The Human Eye
- Light enters the cornea (a transparent bulge on the front of the eye) then passes
through the anterior chamber ( filled with a clear liquid called the aqueous humor) then
the light passes through the pupil (an opening in the opaque iris) lens Light travels
through the vitreous humor then strikes the retina (a thin sheet that lines the rear wall of
the eyeball)
- To focus light in the eye, a bean shaped crystalline lens changes its shape (thinning to
focus on distant objects and thickening to focus on near ones)
- To control how much light comes into the eye, the muscular disk of the iris changes the
size of the pupil

Pupil and The Lens
- Pupil: the opening in the iris through which light passes
- Iris: makes the pupil dilate or constricts to control the amount of light entering the
eyeball
- Lens: the flexible tissue that focuses light on the retina. The lens reverses and inverts
the light pattern as it does so. (ability to focus near and far)
- Accommodation: the process by which the ciliary muscles change the thickness of the
lens of the eye to permit variable focusing on near and distant objects
- Nearsightedness: focus point falls in front of retina
- Farsightedness: focus point falls behind retina

Retina
- Retina: the layer at the back of the eye that contains photoreceptors and converts light
energy to neutral responses
- Basic conversion from light energy to neural responses is performed in your retina by
rods and cones
- Photoreceptors: receptor cells in the retina that is sensitive to light
- two ways of processing light: rods and cones
- Rods: one of the photoreceptors concentrated in the periphery of the retina that are most
active in dim illuminations; rods do not produce sensation of colors. Rods operate best in
near darkness
- Cones: One of the photoreceptors concentrated in the center of the retina that are
responsible for visual experience under normal viewing conditions for all experiences of
color. Specialized for the bight, color filled day
- Dark adaptations: the gradual improvement of the eyes sensitivity after a shift in
illumination form light to near darkness. It occurs because as time passes in the dark, rods
become more sensitive than your cones and over time your rods are able to respond to
less light from the environment than our cones are.
- Fovea: area of the retina that contains densely packed cones and forms the point of
sharpest vision (rod free)
- Bipolar cells: nerve cells that combine impulses from many receptors and send the
results to ganglion cells
- Ganglion cells: cell in the visual system that integrates impulses from many bipolar
cells in a single firing rate. The axons of the ganglion cells make up the optic nerve which
carries the visual information out of the eye and back toward the brain
- Horizontal cells: one of the cells that integrates information across the retina; rather than
sending signals toward the brain, horizontal cells connect receptors to each other
- Amacrine cells: one of the cells that integrates information across the retina; rather than
sending signals toward the brain, it links bipolar cells to other bipolar cells and ganglion
cells to other ganglion cells
- Blind spot (optic disk): contains no receptor cells at all; region of the retina where the
optic nerve leaves the back of the eye

Processes in the Brain
- Optic nerve: the axons of the ganglion cells that carry information form the eye toward
the brain. Optic nerve come together in the optic chiasma (resembles Greek letter X)
- Once information from the eye arrives at the cortex, visual analysis is separated into
pathways for pattern recognition (what things are) and place recognition (where things
are)
- Agnosia: brain damage that can affect either the pattern or place pathways (or
communication between the pathways). People who experience agnosia have difficulty
recognizing or identifying objects or people
- David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel: won Nobel Prize for their pioneering studies of
receptive fields of cells in the visual cortex
- Receptive field: the area of the visual field to which neuron in the visual system
responds (receives stimulation)
- Simple cells: respond most strongly to bars of light in their favorite orientation
- Complex cells: have a favorite orientation, but they require as well that the bar
be moving
- Hypercomplex cells: require moving bars of a particular length or moving
corners or angles
ORGANIZATIONAL PROCESSES IN PERCEPTION
Attentional Processes
- Attention: a state of focused awareness on a subset of the available perceptual
information
- Goal directed attention: a determinant of why people select some parts of sensory input
for further processing; it reflects the choices made as a function of ones own goals
- Stimulus- driven attention: a determinant of why people select some parts of sensory
input for further processing; occurs when features of stimuli (objects in the environment)
automatically capture attention, independent of the local goals of a perceiver
(example: spotlight changes from red to green)
- Usually stimulus-driven attention wins over goal directed attention
- The principles of perceptual grouping were studied extensively by proponents of Gestalt
psychology, such as Kurt Koffka, Wolfgang Kohler, and Mac Wertheimer.
- Gestalt psychology: maintains that psychological phenomena can be understood only
when viewed as organized, structured wholes, not when broken down into primitive
perceptual elements
Gestalt laws:
- law of proximity: people group together the nearest (most proximal) elements
(see 5 columns of objects instead of 4 rows)

- law of similarity: people group together the most similar elements. Thats why
you see a square of Os against a field of Xs rather than columns of mixed Xs and
Os

- law of good continuation: people experience lines as continuous even when they
are interrupted. (heart piercing the heart rather than as a design with three separate
pieces)

- law of closure: people tend to fill in small gaps to experience objects as wholes
(fill in the missing piece to perceive a whole circle)

- law of common fate: people tend to group together objects that appear to be
moving in the same direction. (alternating rows moving apart)

- To get a complete idea of what is around you, you must combine information from
fixations of different spatial locations (spatial integration) at different moments in time
(temporal integration)
- Phi phenomenon: the simplest form of apparent motion the movement illusion in which
one or more stationary lights going on and off in succession are perceived as a single
moving light
- Motion perception also helps you piece together the elements of the visual worlds
- Depth perception requires accurate information about depth and its direction
- Depth: the distance from you to an object
- Binocular depth cues: depth cues that uses information from both eyes
- 2 sources of binocular depth information are: retinal disparity and convergence
- Retinal disparity: the displacement between the horizontal positions of corresponding
images in the two eyes
- Convergence: the degree to which the eyes turn inward to fixate on an object (cross eye)
- the angle of convergence is larger when an object is closer to you
- Motion parallex: a source of information about depth in which the relative distances of
objects from a viewer determine the amount and direction of their relative motion in the
retinal image
- Monocular depth cues: depth cue that uses information form only one eye
- Interposition or occlusion: arises when an opaque object blocks out part of a second
object
- Perceptual constancy: the ability to retain an unchanging percept of an object despite
variations in the retinal image
- Size consistency: the ability to perceive the true size of an object despite variations in
the size of its retinal image
- Shape constancy: the ability to perceive the true shape of an object despite variations in
the shape of the retinal image
- Lightness constancy: the tendency to perceive the whiteness, grayness, or blackness of
objects as constant across changing levels of illumination.
- Illusions: an experience of a stimulus pattern in a manner that is demonstrably incorrect
but shared by others in the same perceptual environment
- Richard Gregory: suggested that people experience the standard arrow as the exterior
corner of a building bulging toward them
- Bottom up processing: perceptual analyses based on the sensory data available in the
environment; results of analysis are passed upward toward more abstract representations
- Top-down processing: involves your past experiences, knowledge, motivations, and
cultural background in perceiving the world (example: phonemic restoration)
- Set: temporary readiness to perceive or react to a stimulus in a particular way.
- three types of set: motor, mental, perceptual
- motor set: readiness to make a quick, prepared response
- mental set: readiness to deal with a situation, such as a problem solving task or a
game in a way determined by learned rules, instructions, expectations or habitual
tendencies. Can prevent you from solving a problem when the old rules dont
seem to fit the new situation
- perceptual set: readiness to detect a particular stimulus in a given context (new
mother perceptually hears the cries of her child)








QUIZ 2
Chapter 3
- Casual Explanations in Psychology
- nature vs. nurture
- heredity vs. environment
- Natural selection: favorable adaptations to features of the environment allow some
members of species to reproduce more successfully than others (Charles Darwin (Origins
of Species) and Alfred Wallace) (Theory of evolution)
- environmental pressure (changes in the environment) competition (for
resources) selection of fittest phenotype (among a variety of phenotypes)
reproductive success (genotype corresponding to fittest phenotype passed to next
generation) frequency of that genotype (and phenotype) increases (in next generation)
- Genotype: genetic structure (traits being passed down through generations)
ex. Gene responsible development and behavior
- Phenotype: observable characteristics (eye color, hair color, etc)
- Peter and Rosemary Grant: showed that natural selection natural selection can have
noticeable effects even over short periods

Human evolution
- bipedalism (ability to walk upward) encephalization (increases in brain size),
language cultural evolution
- Heredity: the biological transmission of traits from parents to offspring
- Genetics: the study of the inheritance of physical and psychological traits form
ancestors
- Gregor Mendel: the earliest systematic research exploring the relationship between
parents and their offspring (1866) the discovery of genes
- Human behavior genetics: the area of study that evaluates the genetic component of
individual difference in behavior and traits. Focuses on the origins of individual
differences
- Sociobiology: a field of research that focuses on evolutionary explanations for the social
behavior and social systems of humans and other animal species
- Evolutionary psychology: the study of behavior and mind using the principles of
evolutionary theory
- DNA: the physical basis for the transmission of genetic information
- Gene: the biological unit of heredity; discrete section of a chromosome responsible for
transmission of traits
- dominant and recessive genes. Dominant wins out
- Sex chromosome: chromosomes that contain genes coding for development of male or
female physical characteristics
- Polygenic traits: Characteristic that is influenced by more than one gene
- Genome: the genetic information for an organism, stored in the DNA of its
chromosomes
- Heritability: the relative influence of genetics- versus environment- in determining
patterns of behavior. Measured on a scale of 0-1. If near 0 then the attribute is largely a
product of environmental influences; if estimate is near 1 then attribute is largely a
product of genetic influences
-Twin studies: examine the extent to which monozygotic (MZ) twins (identical) and
dizygotic (DZ) twins (fraternal) show similarity within pairs on particular traits or
behavior
THE NERVOUS SYSTEM IN ACTION
- Neuroscience: the scientific study of the brain and of the links between brain activity
and behavior
- Neuron: a cell specialized to receive, process, and/or transmit information to other cells
within the body
- Dendrite: One of the branched fibers of neurons that receive incoming signals
- Soma: The cell body of a neuron, containing the nucleus and cytoplasm
- Axon: the extended fiber of a neuron through which nerve impulses travel from the
soma to the terminal buttons
- Terminal button: a bulblike structure at the ranched ending of an axon that contains
vesicles filled with neurotransmitters
- Sensory neurons: neuron that carries messages rom sense receptors toward the central
nervous system
- Motor neuron: neuron that carries messages away from the central nervous system
towards the muscles and glands
- Interneuron: brain neuron that relays messages form sensory neurons to other
interneurons or to motor neurons
- Giaomo Rizzolatti: accidental discovery of the mirror neurons
- Mirror neurons: neurons that responds when an individual observes another individual
performing a motor action
- Glia: the cells that hold neurons together and facilitate neural transmission, remove
damaged and dead neurons, and prevent poisonous substances in the blood form reaching
the brain
- Myelin sheath: insulating material that surrounds axons and increases the speed of
neural transmission
- Excitatory input: information entering a neuron that signals it to fire
- Inhibitory input: information entering a neuron that signals it not to fire
- The right pattern of excitatory inputs lead to the production of an action potential
- Action potential: The nerve impulse activated in a neuron that travels down the axon
and causes neurotransmitter to be released into a synapse
- neural communication is produced by the flow of electrically charged particles
called ions.
- Resting potential: the polarization of cellular fluid within a neurons cell membranes
that selectively permits certain ions to flow in and out
- All-or-none law: the action potential obeys this rule. The size of the action potential is
unaffected by increases in the intensity of stimulation beyond the threshold level
(once excitatory inputs sum to reach the threshold level then action potential is generated
if the threshold is not reached then no action potential)
- Axons of the faster neurons are covered with a myelin sheath (which have glial cells)
the tiny breaks between the tubes are called nodes of Ranvier. If neuron has myelinated
axons, the action potential literally skips along from one node to the next saving time and
energy
- Refractory period: the period of rest during which a new nerve impulse cannot be
activated in a segment of an axon
- absolute refractory period: further stimulation cannot cause another action
potential to be generated
- relative refractory period: neurons will fire only in response to a stimulus
stronger than what is ordinarily necessary
- Synapse: the gap between one neuron and another
- Synaptic transmission: the relaying information from one neuron to another across the
synaptic gap
- Neurotransmitters: Chemical messenger released from a neuron that crosses the synapse
from one neuron to another, stimulating the postsynaptic neuron
- will bind to the receptor molecules under two conditions: 1. No other
neurotransmitters or other chemical substances can be attached to the receptor
molecule and 2. The shape of the neurotransmitter must match the shape of the
receptor molecule
- Acetylcholine: memory loss among patients with Alzhimers disease
- GABA: most common inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain
- Glutamate: the brains most common excitatory neurotransmitter
- high dopamine found in schizophrenia; low norepinephrine depression;
serotonin arousal and many automatic processes
- Endorphinsclassified as neuromodulators (any substance that modifies or
modulates the activities of postsynaptic neuron)
- endorphins play an important role in the control of emotional behaviors
and pain
- Oxytocin: trust
- Limbic system: regulates emotions and motivated behavior
- Thalamus: relays sensory information
- Spinal cord: pathway for neural fibers traveling to and from brain
- Brain stem: sets brains general alertness level and warning system
- Cerebellum: regulates coordinated movement
- Hypothalamus: manages the bodys internal state
- Cerebral cortex: involved in complex mental processes
- Lower Level Structures: support basic life processes
- brainstem
- medulla (heart rate, breathing)
- reticular formation (arousal)
- pons (bridge within brainstem and to cerebellum)
- thalamus (sensory switchboard)
- cerebellum (coordination, balance)
- Limbic system (emotion, motivation, memory)
- Amygdala (emotion)
- Hippocampus (memory)
- Hypothalamus (eating, drinking, sexual arousal, temp regulation, hormones)
- Cerebral Cortex (outer surface of the cerebrum)
- Frontal Lobe
- high Cognitive Processes
- Motor cortex
- Parietal Lobe
- Somatosensory cortex
- Occipital Lobe
- Primary Visual Cortex
- Temporal Lobe
- Auditory cortex
- emotion, learning and memory
- Motor Cortex
- controls the action of the bodys voluntary muscles
- the RIGHT motor cortex controls the LEFT side of your body
- the LEFT motor cortex controls the RIGHT side of you body
- Somatosensory Cortex
- Processes sensory input from various body areas
- the RIGHT somatosensory cortex receives input from the LEFT side of your
body
- the LEFT somatosensory cortex receives input from the RIGHT side of your
body
- Hemisphere Lateralization
- Left and right hemispheres of the brain are connected via the Corpus callosum
- Left and right have specialized functions
- Hemispheric Laterality: left language, right visuospatial
- Isolates capabilities of brain hemispheres (left-verbal; right- spatial)
- shows that we can know things that we are not conscious of
- Paul Broca: studying the brains role in language
- Brocas area: the region of the brain that translates thoughts into speech or signs
- Lesions: injury to or destruction of brain tissues (used to produce a well founded
understanding of the brain and its relationship to behavioral and cognitive functioning)
- Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS): a technique for producing
temporary inactivation of brain areas using repeated pulses of magnetic stimulation
- Walter Hess: pioneered the use of electrical stimulation to probe structures deep in the
brain
- Electroencephalogram (EFG): an amplified tracing of the brain activity; a recording of
the electrical activity of the brain
- Computerized axial tomography (CT): A technique that uses narrow beams of X rays
passed through the brain at several angles to assemble complete brain images
- Positron emission tomography (PET): Brain image produced by a device that obtains
detailed pictures of activity in the living brain by recording the radioactivity emitted by
cells during different cognitive or behavioral activities
- Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI): a technique for brain imaging that scans the brain
using magnetic fields and radio waves
- Functional MRI (fMRI): A brain imaging technique that combines benefits of both MRI
and PET scans by detecting magnetic changes in the flow of blood to cells in the brain
- nervous system divided into 2 divisions: central nervous system and peripheral nervous
system
- Central Nervous system: part of the nervous system consisting of the brain and
the spinal cord
- Peripheral Nervous system: the part of the nervous system composed of the
spinal and cranial nerves that connect the bodys sensory receptors to the CNS
and the CNS to the muscles and the glands
- composed of two sets of nerve fibers: somatic nervous system and
autonomic nervous system
- somatic nervous system: connects the CNS to the skeletal
muscles and skins
- autonomic nervous system: controls the bodys involuntary motor
responses by connecting the sensory receptors to the CNS and the
CNS to the smooth muscle, cardiac muscle and glands (fight or
flight). Consists of sympathetic (emergency or stressful situations)
and parasympathetic division (monitors the routine operation of the
bodys internal functions)

- Brain stem: structures involved primarily with autonomic processes such as heart rate,
breathing, swallowing, and digestion; regulates the bodys basic life processes
- Medulla: part of brain stem that regulates breathing, waking and heartbeat
- Pons: part of brain stem that connects the spinal cord with the brain and links
parts of the brain to another
- Reticular formation: past of the brain stem that is a dense network of nerve cells
that serve as the brains sentinel; alerts the cerebral cortex to incoming sensory
signals and is responsible for maintaining consciousness and awakening from
sleep


- Limbic system: involved with motivation, emotion and memory processes
Parts of the Limbic system
- Hippocampus: involved in the acquisition of explicit memory
- Amygdala: controls emotion, aggression, and the formation of emotional
memory
- Hypothalamus: brain structure that regulates motivated behavior (eating
drinking) and homeostasis (constancy or equilibrium of the internal conditions of the
body
- Cerebrum: universe of the human mind exists in this region; region of the brain that
regulates higher cognitive and emotional functions
- Cerebral cortex: outer surface of the cerebrum
- Motor cortex: the region of the cerebral cortex that controls the action of
the bodys voluntary muscles
- Cerebral hemisphere: the two halves of the cerebrum, connected by the corpus
callosum
- Corpus callosum: the mass of nerve fibers connecting the two hemispheres of
the cerebrum
Four Lobes
- Frontal lobe: region of the brain located above the lateral fissure and in front of
the central sulcus; involved in motor control and cognitive activities (planning,
making decisions, setting goals)
- Parietal lobe: behind the frontal lobe and above the lateral fissure; contains
somatosensory cortex (responsible for sensations of touch, pain and temperature)
- Occipital lobe: rearmost region of the brain; contains primary visual cortex
- Temporal lobe: below the lateral fissure; contains auditory cortex (processes of
hearing)
-Temporal lobe includes a region called Wernickes area, which allows
fluent speech production and comprehension
- Carl Wernicke: discovered that patients who had damage to this
region produced speech that was fluent but meaningless and had
disrupted language comprehension

- Thalamus: channels incoming sensory information to the appropriate area of the
cerebral cortex
- Cerebellum: the region of the brain attached to the brain stem that controls motor
coordination, posture, and balance as well as the ability to learn control of body
movements
- Somatosensory cortex: the region of the parietal loves that processes sensory input from
various body areas (processes information about temperature, touch, body position and
pain)
- Auditory cortex: the area of the temporal lobes that receives and processes auditory
information
- Visual cortex: the region of the occipital lobes in which visual information is processed
- Association cortex: the parts of the cerebral cortex in which many high level brain
processes occur
- Roger Sperry and Michael Gazzaniga: devised situations that could allow visual
information to be presented separately to each hemisphere
- Endocrine system: the network of glands that manufacture and secrete hormones into
the bloodstream
- Hormone: one of the chemical messengers, manufactured and secreted by the endocrine
glands, that regulate metabolism and influence body growth, mood and sexual
characteristic
- Pituitary glands: the gland that secrets growth hormone and influences the secretion of
hormones by other endocrine glands
- Testosterone: the male sex hormone
- Estrogen: the female sex hormone
- Plasticity: changes in the performance of the brain: may involve the creation of new
synapses or changes in the function of existing synapses

Chapter 5
- REM: rapid eye movements; dream like mental activity
- NREM: non-REM sleep; less dream activity
Sleep cycle
- Stage 1: brain waves of about 3-7 cps
- Stage 2: sleep spindles which are minute bursts of electrical activity of 12 to 16 cps
- Stage 3 and 4: very deep state of relaxed sleep; brain wave is 1-2 cps and your breathing
and heart rate decreases
- Final stage): also known as paradoxical sleep; the electrical activity of brain increases
(EEG looks like stage 1 and 2) during this stage you experience REM sleep and begin to
dream

Chapter 6
-learning performance distinction: the difference between what has been learned and
what is expressed or performed in over behavior (example: know what book you like
through books youve read); behavior does not always reflect everything they have
learned
- sensitization: increase in behavioral response when a stimulus is presented repeatedly
(pain stimulus)
- habituation: decrease in behavioral response when a stimulus is presented repeatedly
(bored of it)
- behavior analysis: area of psychology that focuses on the environmental determinants of
learning and behavior; find regularities in learning that occur in all types of animal
species
- John Watson: founded Behaviorism
- B.F. Skinner: formulated radical behaviorism. Believes thinking and imagining do not
cause behavior but are examples of behavior that are caused by environmental stimuli
(behavior analysis)
- classical conditioning: a type of learning in which behavior (conditioned response)
comes to be elicited by a stimulus (conditioned stimulus) that has acquired its power
through an association with a biologically significant stimulus (unconditioned stimulus);
(one stimulus or event predicts the occurrence of another stimulus or event)
- Ivan Pavlov: first study of classical conditioning (was an accident)
- dogs salivate when hear a tone; tone was at first an orienting response (meant
nothing to the dogs) but after play tone and given food, the tone became reflex
responses and dogs salivate

- reflex: a response that is naturally triggered by specific stimuli
- unconditioned stimuli (UCS): the stimulus that elicits an unconditioned response; (any
stimulus that naturally elicits a reflexive behavior; not learned just reflexive)
- unconditioned response (UCR): behavior elicited by the unconditioned stimulus
meat powder given to dogs (UCS)dog salivate (UCR)


-conditioned stimulus (CS): a previously neutral stimulus that comes to elicit a
conditioned response; stimuli that didnt originally trigger reflex response now does
when paired with unconditioned stimulus
- conditioned response (CR): a response elicited by Conditioned stimuli
(tone (CS) with meat (UCS) Conditioned response)
- acquisition: the stage in which the conditioned response is first elicited by the
conditioned stimulus
-extinction: in conditioning, the weakening of a conditioned association in the absence of
a unconditioned stimulus (dog stops responding to tone because no food is given)
- spontaneous recovery: the reappearance of an extinguished conditioned response after a
rest period; sudden reappearance of CR after a rest period without a UCS (dog stops
salivation to tone but one day starts salivating again even though not given food (UCS))
- stimulus generalization: the automatic extension of conditioned responding to similar
stimuli that have never been paired with the unconditioned stimulus (high pitch tone
changed to low pitch tone but dog still salivates for low pitch tone even though tones
(CS) is different)
- stimulus discrimination: organism learns to respond differently to stimuli that differ
from the conditioned stimulus on some dimension
- Robert Rescorla: showed that in classical conditioning, pairing two stimuli doesnt
always produce the same level of conditioning. Conditioning works better if the
conditioned stimulus acts as a reliable signal that predicts the appearance of the
unconditioned stimulus. (ex. if take out gun and shoot it then we cringe at sight of gun
but if not take out gun and play gunshot sound, then sight of gun doesnt predict gunshot
therefore not respond as strongly to the sight of the gun)
- Shepard Seigel: learning to be a drug addict
- taste aversion learning: an organism learns in one trial to avoid a food whose ingestion
is followed by illness
- John Garcia: first documented taste aversion learning in a lab
- Edward L. Thorndike: stimulus-response (S-R) connection (learning is an association
between stimuli in the situation and a response that an animal learned to make); law of
effect
- law of effect: a basic law of learning that states that the power of a stimulus to evoke a
response is strengthened when the response is followed by a reward and weakened when
it is not followed by a reward (relationship between behavior and consequences)
- operant conditioning: learning in which the probability of a response is changed by a
change in its consequences (manipulate the consequence of an organisms behavior to see
what effect it has on subsequent behavior)
- operant: any behavior that is emitted by an organism and can be characterized in terms
of the observable effects it has on the environment (affecting the environment/operating
it) operant is not elicited by specific stimuli
- reinforcement contingency: consistent relationship between a response and the change
in the environment that it produces (ex. pigeons pecking a disk (the response) is
generally followed by the presentation of grain (corresponding change in the
environment)
- reinforcer: any stimulus, when made contingent in a response, increases the probability
of that response
- positive reinforcement: a behavior is followed by the presentation of an appetitive
stimulus (you like or want), increasing the probability of that behavior; (ex. if dog do
tricks then will get treats)
- negative reinforcement: when a behavior is followed by the removal of an aversive
stimulus (seek to avoid them); removal reduction or presentation of an aversive stimulus
(ex. student will sit if you stop giving them strawberries)
- escape conditioning: escape from an aversive stimulus (use umbrella during
downpour to escape the aversive stimulus of getting wet)
-avoidance conditioning: animals learn responses that will allow them to avoid
aversive stimuli before they begin (if car makes buzzer sound when you dont
buckle seat belt, then you learn to buckle up to avoid the aversive noise)
-BOTH reinforcements increases the probability of the response that precedes them
- punisher: any stimulus that when it is made contingent on a response, decreases the
probability of that response over time
- positive punishment: a behavior is followed by the presentation of a aversive stimulus,
decreasing the probability of that behavior (ex. touch hot stove produces pain that
punishes the preceding response so next time not touch it)
- negative punishment: behavior is followed by the removal of an appetitive stimulus,
decreasing the probability of that behavior (parents withdraw child allowance after she
hits baby brother; the child learns not to hit baby brother)
- PUNISHMENT decreases/reduces the probability of a response occurring again
- REINFORCMENT increases the probability of a response occurring again
- discriminative stimuli: stimulus that acts as a predictor of reinforcement, signaling when
particular behaviors will result in positive reinforcement
- three-term contingency: the means by which organisms learn that, in the presence of
some stimuli but not others, their behavior is likely to have a particular effect on the
environment


-primary reinforcers: biologically determined reinforce, such as food and water
- conditioned reinforcer: in classical conditioning, a formerly neutral stimulus that has
become a reinforce (money, grades, smiles of approval, etc. are conditioned reinforcers
that influence much of your behavior)
- schedule reinforcement: in operant conditioning, a pattern of delivering and withholding
reinforcement
- partial reinforcement effect: The behavioral principle that states that responses acquired
under intermittent reinforcement are more difficult to extinguish than those acquired with
continuous reinforcement.
- Fixed ratio (FR) schedules: the reinforcer comes after the organism has emitted
a fixed number of responses (deliver food pellet to a rat after it presses a bar 5
times)
- Variable Ratio (VR) schedule: the average number of responses between
reinforcers is predetermined; response is reinforced after an unpredictable number
of responses. Produces high steady rate of responding. (deliver food pellets to a
rat after one bar press, again after four bar presses, and a third pellet after two bar
presses. (not consistent))
- Fixed interval (FI) schedule: a reinforcer is delivered for the first response made
after a fixed period of time (reinforcing a rat with a lab pellet for the first bar
press after a 30 second interval has elapsed.)
- Variable interval (VI) schedule: a reinforcer is delivered for the first response
made after the variable period of time whose average is predetermined; response
is rewarded after an unpredictable amount of time has passed (deliver a food
pellet to a rat after the first bar press following a 1 minute interval, another pellet
for the first response following a 5 minute interval, and a third food pellet for the
first response following a 60 minute interval.
-Shaping by successive approximations: a behavioral method that reinforces responses
that successively approximate and ultimately match the desired response
- Keller Breland and Marion Breland: used operant conditioning techniques to train
thousands of animals to perform a remarkable array of behaviors
- instinctual drift: the tendency for learned behavior to drift toward instinctual behavior
over time
- comparative cognition: the study of the development of cognitive abilities across
species and the continuity of abilities from nonhuman to human animals
- cognitive map: mental representation of physical space
- observational learning: the process of learning new responses by watching behavior of
another
- Albert Bandura: demonstration of human observational learning
-