Test #1 (PSYC 370) Flashcards

Founded the functionalistic school of psychology which stressed the role of consciousness and behavior in adapting to the environment

Law of Effect - a stimulus will tend to produce certain responses over time if an organism is rewarded for that response

puzzle box

Ebbinghaus’ research showed that scientific methods could be applied to the study of the higher thought processes

radical behaviorism

stimulus and response

founded the behaviorist school

classical conditioning

Fixed variable

demonstrated that this learning process could be used to make an association between an environmental stimulus and a naturally occurring stimulus.

proposed that behaviors could be learned via conditioned associations.

• devised an ingenious set of experiments in which rats could be conditioned to engage in certain behaviors based on either reinforcing that behavior (i.e., through a reward) or punishing that behavior.
• created operant conditioning

• argued that behaviorism could never achieve its goals of explaining behavior through conditioning because people engage in novel behaviors that they have never had a chance to learn --> ex. language

• Bottom-up
• Top-down

• Processing that is determined directly by environmental stimuli rather than the individuals’s knowledge and expectations

• Stimulus processing is determined by expectations, memory, and knowledge rather than directly by the stimulus

• Serial
• Parallel

• Involves only one process occurring at any given moment; that process is completed before the next one starts

• Two or more processes occurring simultaneously

• Examines how events or ideas be associated with one another
• Contiguity, similarity, contrast

physical conditions to which some experimental subject is being subjected

The behavior that the subject engages in

• a mapping between a set of another
• take an input and produce its output

the experience of seeing something with the ‘mind’s eye in the absence of real perceptual stimulation

• concerned with how people interact with physical systems, such as car consoles or machinery

• research whose goal is to try to understand the world and it’s phenomena without regard to a specific end-use of this knowledge

• research concerned with the end goal of developing a solution to a problem

• the long extension of a neuron that carries nerve impulses away from the body of the cell

the hair-like ends of the axon

Release neurotransmitters to transmit signals to the next neuron or target cell.

• the cell body of the neuron; it contains the nucleus (also called the soma)

Insulates and speeds up signal transmission along the axon

• Contains genetic information and controls cell functions

• Transmits electrical impulses away from the cell body

• Produces myelin in the peripheral nervous system, aiding in signal conduction

• The conversion of physical properties of the world or body into a neural code by the peripheral nervous system.
• Takes place in the sensory neurons

• The processing and interpretation of sensory information into a form that can meaningfully guide behavioral decisions.
• Takes place in the Brain.

• the ability to see the world in 3 dimensions and detect distance.
• Vision only has a two-dimensional view.
• We interpret the information given to perceive depth.
• We take flat images and create a three-dimensional view. Optic illusions demonstrate this (perception) isn’t always accurate.

• Can understand everything said
• The patient can only response in monosyllabic words
• located in the left hemisphere

• Speaks fluently but nonsensically
• Not coherent, contains lexical and grammatical errors
• located in the left hemishoere

• Language functions (speech, songs)
• Logical thought (writing, logic)

• Spatial-relation functions
• Perception of rhythm, abstract or intuitive thought

• suffered a serious accident when a metal bar penetrated his skull and traveled through much of his frontal cortex
• A brain injury could cause such specific impairments—and that it could affect something as seemingly intangible as personality—generated a great deal of interest at the time and served to galvanize the school of thought that different parts of the brain carried different functions.

• who was interested in understanding how individual mental responses might consist of component processes

• Detection condition
• Discrimination Condition
• Choice condition

the subject had to respond as quickly as possible to the stimulus by pushing a button

• participants were presented with two possible stimuli, such as left and right lightbulbs. They performed something that would now be called a go/no-go task: If one stimulus appeared (such as a left light turning on) they would respond by pressing the button; if the other stimulus appeared, they would not press the button.

• two possible stimuli and two respective responses, such as responding with the right button for the right light and the left button for the left light.

Attentional selection and processing of a location while eye fixation is maintained elsewhere

• Selective attention of a location that is accompanied by eye fixation of the same region

control occurs when we choose to pay attention to it. This can differ among individuals

occurs when some property of the environment drives us to pay attention to it. Like a really bright light or extremely high-volume sound. We pay attention to it whether we want to or not

• Engaging in multiple tasks at once
• Performance decreases
• Switching between tasks instead of focusing on multiple things at once is what some researchers argue multitasking is

• Highlights a part of one’s environment and blocks out other parts.
• Primes a person for a speedy reaction.
• Helps the learner to retain information.

The process of directing your attention to the chosen stimuli

• Our sensory organs have limited sensitivity.
• (Example: with vision, we have restricted wavelengths between 420 and 700).

• enhance and inhibit information. In vision, lateral inhibition enhances boundaries and contrasts.