AP PSYCHOLOGY

MIDTERM EXAM
REVIEW
2010-2011
Myers’ PSYCHOLOGY
(7th Ed)

Prologue:


 The Story of Psychology



 James A. McCubbin, PhD

 Clemson University


 Worth Publishers
Prologue:
Psychology’s Roots

§ Definition of Psychology
§ The science of behavior (what we
do) and mental processes
(sensations, perceptions,
dreams, thoughts, beliefs, and
feelings)
Prologue: Contemporary
Psychology
§ Psychology’s Perspectives
Prologue: Contemporary
Psychology
§ Psychology’s Perspectives
§ A lot depends on your viewpoint
Prologue: Contemporary
Psychology
§ Psychology’s Subfields
§ Basic Research
§ Personality psychologists
investigate our persistent traits
§ Social psychologists explore how
we view and affect one another
Prologue: Contemporary
Psychology
§ Psychology’s Subfields
§ Applied Research
§ Industrial/organizational
psychologists study and advise
on behavior in the workplace
§ Clinical psychologists study,
assess, and treat people with
psychological disorders
Prologue: Contemporary
Psychology

§ Psychiatry
§ A branch of medicine dealing with
psychological disorders
§ Practiced by physicians who
sometimes use medical (for
example, drug) treatments as well
as psychotherapy
Prologue: Common
Terminology

§ Clinical Psychologist
 Diagnose and treat patients


§ Academic Psychologist
 Conduct Research

Prologue:
Contemporary Psychology
 People to know & Why
 Plato – development due to nature
 Aristotle – development due to nurture
 Wilhelm Wundt – First Psychology Lab
 William James – Wrote first text book
 Sigmund Freud – Founder of
Psychoanalysis
Myers’ PSYCHOLOGY
(7th Ed)

Chapter 1


 Thinking Critically with

Psychological Science


 James A. McCubbin, PhD

 Clemson University


 Worth Publishers
The Need for Psychological
Science

 Psychologists, like all scientists,

use the scientific method to
construct theories that organize
observations and imply testable
hypotheses
The Need for Psychological
Science

§ Theory
§ an explanation using an integrated
set of principles that organizes and
predicts observations
§ Hypothesis
§ a testable prediction
§ often implied by a theory
The Need for Psychological
Science
The Need for Psychological
Science

§ Hindsight Bias
§ we tend to believe, after learning an
outcome, that we would have
foreseen it
§ the “I-knew-it-all-along”
phenomenon
§ Overconfidence
§ we tend to think we know more than
we do
The Need for Psychological
Science

§ Critical Thinking
§ thinking that does
not blindly
accept
arguments and
conclusions
§ examines
assumptions
§ discerns hidden
The Amazing Randi--
Skeptic values
The Need for Psychological
Science

§ Operational Definition
§ a statement of procedures
(operations) used to define research
variables
§ Example-
§ intelligence may be operationally
defined as what an intelligence test
measures
The Need for Psychological
Science

§ Replication
§ repeating the essence of a
research study to see whether
the basic finding generalizes to
other participants and
circumstances
§ usually with different
participants in different
situations
Description


 Psychologists describe
behavior using case studies,
surveys, and naturalistic
observation
Decription
Surveys – Must be aware of the wording


effect
 Wording effect is when specific words are

chosen so as to achieve a desired

effect.
 For only $19.95 –but we all know it’s

really $20 but hearing it’s less than $20

makes us look on it more favorably.
Description
 Case Study
§ Psychologists
study one or
more
individuals in
great depth in
the hope of
revealing
things true of
us all
§ May be
unrepresentat Is language uniquely human?
ive of what is
generally true
Description
§ Random Sample
§ a sample that fairly represents a population
because each member has an equal
chance of inclusion
§
§ Population
§ all the cases in a group, from which samples
may be drawn for a study
§
§
§
 Illusory Correlation

§ Illusory Conceive Do not conceive

Correlation confirming disconfirming
evidence evidence
§ the Adopt
perception
of a
relationship disconfirming confirming
evidence evidence
where none Do not
exists adopt
Correlation
§ Correlation Coefficient
§ a statistical measure of the extent to which two
factors vary together, and thus how well either
factor predicts the other
§
Indicates direction
of relationship
(positive or negative)

Correlation r = +.37
coefficient

Indicates strength
of relationship
(0.00 to 1.00)
Correlation

Perfect positive No relationship (0.00) Perfect negative

correlation (+1.00) correlation (-1.00)

Scatterplots, showing patterns of correlations

Correlation
 Three Possible Cause-Effect Relationships
could cause
(1)
Depression
Low self-esteem
or

(2) could cause

Low self-esteem
Depression

or
Low self-esteem
(3)
Distressing could cause
events and
or biological
predisposition Depression
Experimentation

§ Experiment
§ an investigator manipulates one or
more factors (independent
variables) to observe their effect
on some behavior or mental
process (the dependent variable)
§ by random assignment of
participants the experiment
controls other relevant factors
Experimentation
§ Placebo
§ an inert substance or condition that may be
administered instead of a presumed active
agent, such as a drug, to see if it triggers the
effects believed to characterize the active
agent
§ Double-blind Procedure
§ both the research participants and the
research staff are ignorant (blind) about
whether the research participants have
received the treatment or a placebo
§ commonly used in drug-evaluation studies
Experimentation
§ Experimental Condition
§ the condition of an experiment that exposes
participants to the treatment, that is, to
one version of the independent variable
§ Control Condition
§ the condition of an experiment that
contrasts with the experimental treatment
§ serves as a comparison for evaluating the
effect of the treatment
Experimentation

§ Random Assignment
§ assigning participants to
experimental and control
conditions by chance
§ minimizes pre-existing
differences between those
assigned to the different
groups
Experimentation
§ Independent Variable
§ the experimental factor that is manipulated
§ the variable whose effect is being studied
§ Dependent Variable
§ the experimental factor that may change in
response to manipulations of the
independent variable
§ in psychology it is usually a behavior or
mental process
Statistical Reasoning
§ Mode
§ the most frequently occurring score in a
distribution
§ Mean
§ the arithmetic average of a distribution
§ obtained by adding the scores and then
dividing by the number of scores
§ Median
§ the middle score in a distribution
§ half the scores are above it and half are below
it
Statistical Reasoning
Measures of Variation
§ Range
§ the difference between the highest and lowest
scores in a distribution; most affected by a
few extreme scores
§ Standard Deviation
§ a computed measure of how much scores vary
around the mean
§ Statistical Significance
§ a statistical statement of how likely it is that
an obtained result occurred by chance

Myers’ PSYCHOLOGY
(7th Ed)

Chapter 2


 Neuroscience, Genetics
 and Behavior

 James A. McCubbin, PhD

 Clemson University


 Worth Publishers
Neural Communication
Neural Communication

§ Action Potential
§ a neural impulse; a brief electrical charge
that travels down an axon
§ generated by the movement of positively
charged atoms in and out of channels in
the axon’s membrane
§ Threshold
§ the level of stimulation required to trigger a
neural impulse
Neural Communication
§ Synapse [SIN-aps]
§ junction between the axon tip of the sending
neuron and the dendrite or cell body of the
receiving neuron
§ tiny gap at this junction is called the synaptic
gap or cleft
§ Neurotransmitters
§ chemical messengers that traverse the
synaptic gaps between neurons
§ when released by the sending neuron, neuro-
transmitters travel across the synapse and
bind to receptor sites on the receiving
neuron, thereby influencing whether it will
generate a neural impulse
Neural Communication

§ Acetylcholine [ah-seat-el-KO-leen]
§ a neurotransmitter that, among its
functions, triggers muscle
contraction
§ Endorphins [en-DOR-fins]
§ “morphine within”
§ natural, opiatelike
neurotransmitters
§ linked to pain control and to
Neural Communication
 Neural Communication

Neurotransmitter Receiving cell

molecule membrane

Agonist mimics
Receptor site on neurotransmitter
receiving neuron
Antagonist
blocks
neurotransmitter
The Nervous System

Nervous
system

Central
Peripheral (brain and
spinal cord)

Autonomic (controls Skeletal (controls

self-regulated action of voluntary movements of
internal organs and glands) skeletal muscles)

Sympathetic Parasympathetic
(arousing) (calming)
The Nervous System

Neurons in the brain § Neural Networks

connect with one
another to form networks § interconnected
neural cells
§ with experience,
networks can
learn, as
feedback
Inputs Outputs
strengthens or
inhibits
connections that
produce certain
results
The brain learns by modifying § computer
certain connections in simulations of
response to feedback
neural networks
The Nervous System
§ Nerves
§ neural “cables” containing many axons
§ part of the peripheral nervous system
§ connect the central nervous system with
muscles, glands, and sense organs
§ Sensory Neurons
§ neurons that carry incoming information
from the sense receptors to the central
nervous system
The Nervous System
§ Interneurons
§ CNS neurons that internally communicate
and intervene between the sensory
inputs and motor outputs
§ Motor Neurons
§ carry outgoing information from the CNS to
muscles and glands
§ Somatic Nervous System
§ the division of the peripheral nervous
system that controls the body’s skeletal
muscles
The Brain
§ Lesion
§ tissue
destruction
§ a brain lesion
is a naturally
or
experimental
ly caused
destruction
of brain
tissue
The Brain
§ Brainstem
§ the oldest part and central core of the
brain, beginning where the spinal cord
swells as it enters the skull
§ responsible for automatic survival
functions
§ Medulla [muh-DUL-uh]
§ base of the brainstem
§ controls heartbeat and breathing
The Brain
The Brain
§ Reticular Formation
§ a nerve network in the brainstem that
plays an important role in controlling
arousal
§ Thalamus [THAL-uh-muss]
§ the brain’s sensory switchboard, located
on top of the brainstem
§ it directs messages to the sensory
receiving areas in the cortex and
transmits replies to the cerebellum and
medulla
The Brain
§ Cerebellum [sehr-
uh-BELL-um]
§ the “little brain”
attached to the
rear of the
brainstem
§ it helps
coordinate
voluntary
movement and
balance
The Brain
§ Limbic System
§ a doughnut-shaped system of neural structures
at the border of the brainstem and cerebral
hemispheres
§ associated with emotions such as fear and
aggression and drives such as those for food
and sex
§ includes the hippocampus, amygdala, and
hypothalamus.
§ Amygdala [ah-MIG-dah-la]
§ two almond-shaped neural clusters that are
components of the limbic system and are
linked to emotion
 The Brain
§ Hypothalamus
§ neural structure lying
below (hypo) the
thalamus; directs
several maintenance
activities
§ eating
§ drinking
§ body temperature
§ helps govern the
endocrine system via
the pituitary gland
§ is linked to emotion
§ Major link between the
The Limbic System
The Cerebral Cortex
§ Frontal Lobes
§ involved in speaking and muscle movements
and in making plans and judgments
§ Parietal Lobes
§ include the sensory cortex
§ Occipital Lobes
§ include the visual areas, which receive visual
information from the opposite visual field
§ Temporal Lobes
§ include the auditory areas
The Cerebral Cortex
The Cerebral Cortex

§ Motor Cortex
§ area at the rear of the frontal lobes that
controls voluntary movements
§ Sensory Cortex
§ area at the front of the parietal lobes that
registers and processes body sensations
The Cerebral Cortex
Visual and Auditory
Cortex
The Cerebral Cortex
§ Aphasia
§ impairment of language, usually caused by
left hemisphere damage either to Broca’s
area (impairing speaking) or to Wernicke’s
area (impairing understanding)
§ Broca’s Area
§ an area of the left frontal lobe that directs
the muscle movements involved in speech
§ Wernicke’s Area
§ an area of the left temporal lobe involved in
language comprehension and expression
Specialization and
Integration
Brain Reorganization

§ Plasticity
§ the brain’s capacity for
modification, as evident in
brain reorganization
following damage (especially
in children) and in
experiments on the effects of
experience on brain
Our Divided Brain
Corpus callosum
§ Corpus
Callosum
§ large band
of neural
fibers
§ connects
the two
brain
hemispher
es
§ carries
messages
between
Our Divided Brain
§ The information
highway from
the eye to the
brain

Split Brain
“What word
did you see?”

or

“Point with
your left
hand to the
word you
“Look at the dot.” Two words separated saw.”
by a dot are
momentarily projected.
Brain Structures and their
Functions
The Endocrine System

§ Endocrine System
§ the body’s “slow”
chemical
communication
system
§ a set of glands
that secrete
hormones into
the
bloodstream
Neural and Hormonal
Systems
§ Hormones
§ chemical messengers, mostly those manufactured
by the endocrine glands, that are produced in
one tissue and affect another
§ Adrenal [ah-DREEN-el] Glands
§ a pair of endocrine glands just above the kidneys
§ secrete the hormones epinephrine (adrenaline)
and norepinephrine (noradrenaline), which help
to arouse the body in times of stress
§ Pituitary Gland
§ under the influence of the hypothalamus, the
pituitary regulates growth and controls other
endocrine glands
Myers’ PSYCHOLOGY
(7th Ed)

Chapter 3


 The Nature and Nurture

 Of Behavior

 James A. McCubbin, PhD

 Clemson University


 Worth Publishers
Evolutionary Psychology

§ Natural Selection
§ the principle that, among the range of
inherited trait variations, those that lead
to increased reproduction and survival will
most likely be passed on to succeeding
generations
§ Mutations
§ random errors in gene replication that lead
to a change in the sequence of
nucleotides
§ the source of all genetic diversity
Evolutionary Psychology

§ Evolutionary Psychology
§ the study of the evolution of
behavior and the mind, using the
principles of natural selection
§ Gender
§ in psychology, the characteristics,
whether biologically or socially
influenced, by which people
define male and female
Genes: Their Location and
Composition

Nucleus Chromosome Gene

Cell DNA
Genetics
 Genes are self-regulating – genetic
switches turn off or on automatically as
needed – butterfly is green in summer
for camoflage but turns brown in fall
automatically
Behavior Genetics
§ Behavior Genetics
§ study of the relative power and
limits of genetic and
environmental influences on
behavior
§ Environment
§ every nongenetic influence, from
prenatal nutrition to the people
and things around us
Behavior Genetics
Identical
twins
Fraternal
twins
§ Identical Twins
§ develop from a single
fertilized egg that
splits in two, creating
two genetically
identical organisms
§ Fraternal Twins
§ develop from separate
eggs
§ genetically no closer
than brothers and
sisters, but they share
Same
sex only
Same or
opposite sex
the fetal environment
Behavior Genetics
§ Temperament
§ a person’s characteristic emotional
reactivity and intensity; found to
be stable over time, genetically
influenced
§ Heritability
§ the proportion of variation among
individuals that we can attribute
to genes
§ may vary, depending on the range
of populations and environments
Environmental Influence
§ Culture
§ the enduring behaviors, ideas,
attitudes, and traditions shared
by a large group of people and
transmitted from one generation
to the next
§ Norm
§ an understood rule for accepted
and expected behavior
The Nature and Nurture of
Gender
§ Social Learning Theory
§ theory that we learn social behavior by
observing and imitating and by being
rewarded or punished
§ Gender Schema Theory
§ theory that children learn from their
cultures a concept of what it means to
be male and female and that they adjust
their behavior accordingly
Myers’ PSYCHOLOGY
(7th Ed)

 Chapter 4
 The Developing Person


 James A. McCubbin, PhD

 Clemson University


 Worth Publishers
Prenatal Development and
the Newborn
§ Developmental Psychology
§ a branch of psychology that studies
physical, cognitive and social change
throughout the life span
§ Major question: Continuity vs. Stages
Prenatal Development and
the Newborn

Life is sexually transmitted

Prenatal Development and
the Newborn
§ Zygote
§ the fertilized egg
§ enters a 2 week period of rapid cell
division
§ develops into an embryo
§ Embryo
§ the developing human organism from 2
weeks through 2nd month
§ Fetus
§ the developing human organism from 9
weeks after conception to birth
Prenatal Development and
the Newborn
 40 days 45 days 2 months 4
months
Prenatal Development and
the Newborn
§ Teratogens
§ agents, such as chemicals and viruses, that
can reach the embryo or fetus during
prenatal development and cause harm
§ Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS)
§ physical and cognitive abnormalities in
children caused by a pregnant woman’s
heavy drinking
§ symptoms include misproportioned head
Prenatal Development and
the Newborn

§ Rooting Reflex
§ tendency to open mouth, and search for
nipple when touched on the cheek
§ Preferences
§ human voices and faces
§ facelike images-->
§ smell and sound of mother
preferred
Prenatal Development and
the Newborn

§ Habituation
§ decreasing
responsiven
ess with
repeated
stimulation

Prenatal Development and the
Newborn

Having habituated to the old

stimulus, newborns preferred
gazing at a new one
 Infancy and Childhood:
Physical Development
§ Maturation
§ biological growth
processes that
enable orderly
changes in
behavior
§ relatively
uninfluenced by
experience
§ Between 3-6 years At birth 3 months 15 months
old neural Cortical Neurons
Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive
Development

Typical Age Description Developmental

Range of Stage Phenomena
Birth to nearly 2 years Sensorimotor •Object permanence
Experiencing the world through •Stranger anxiety
senses and actions (looking,
touching, mouthing)
About 2 to 6 years Preoperational •Pretend play
Representing things •Egocentrism
with words and images •Language development
but lacking logical reasoning
About 7 to 11 years Concrete operational •Conservation
Thinking logically about concrete •Mathematical
events; grasping concrete analogies transformations
and performing arithmetical operations

About 12 through Formal operational •Abstract logic

adulthood Abstract reasoning •Potential for
moral reasoning
Infancy and Childhood:
Cognitive Development
§ Egocentrism
§ the inability of the preoperational child to take
another’s point of view
§ Theory of Mind
§ people’s ideas about their own and others’
mental states- about their feelings,
perceptions, and thoughts and the behavior
these might predict
§ Autism
§ a disorder that appears in childhood
§ Marked by deficient communication, social
interaction and understanding of others’
states of mind
Infancy and Childhood:
Cognitive Development
§ Schema
§ a concept or framework that
organizes and interprets
information
§ Assimilation
§ interpreting one’s new
experience in terms of one’s
existing schemas
Infancy and Childhood:
Cognitive Development
§ Accommodation
§ adapting one’s current
understandings (schemas)
to incorporate new
information
§ Cognition
§ All the mental activities
associated with thinking,
knowing, remembering, and
Social Development
§ Stranger Anxiety
§ fear of strangers that infants commonly
display
§ beginning by about 8 months of age
§ Attachment
§ an emotional tie with another person
§ shown in young children by their seeking
closeness to the caregiver and displaying
distress on separation
Social Development
§ Harlow’s Surrogate
Mother Experiments
§ Monkeys preferred
contact with the
comfortable cloth
mother, even
while feeding from
the nourishing
wire mother
Social Development
§ Monkeys
raised by
artificial
mothers
were terror-
stricken
when placed
in strange
situations
without their
surrogate
mothers.
Social Development
§ Critical Period
§ an optimal period shortly after
birth when an organism’s
exposure to certain stimuli or
experiences produces proper
development
§ Imprinting
§ the process by which certain
animals form attachments during
a critical period very early in life
Social Development
§ Basic Trust (Erik Erikson)
§ a sense that the world is
predictable and trustworthy
§ said to be formed during infancy by
appropriate experiences with
responsive caregivers
§ Self-Concept
§ a sense of one’s identity and
personal worth
Social Development: Child-
Rearing Practices

§ Authoritarian
§ parents impose rules and expect obedience
§ “Don’t interrupt.” “Why? Because I said
so.”
§ Permissive
§ submit to children’s desires, make few
demands, use little punishment
§ Authoritative
§ both demanding and responsive
§ set rules, but explain reasons and
encourage open discussion
Adolescence
§ Primary Sex Characteristics
§ body structures that make sexual reproduction possible
§ ovaries--female
§ testes--male
§ external genitalia
§ Secondary Sex Characteristics
§ nonreproductive sexual characteristics
§ female--breast and hips
§ male--voice quality and body hair
§ Menarche (meh-NAR-key)
§ first menstrual period
§ Spermarche (Sperm-AR-key)
§ first ejaculation


§
 Kohlberg’s Moral Ladder

Postconventional
Morality of abstract
principles: to affirm
§ As moral
level agreed-upon rights and
personal ethical principles
development
progresses, the
focus of concern
Conventional
level
Morality of law and
social rules: to gain
moves from the
approval or avoid self to the wider
disapproval
social world.
Preconventional Morality of self-interest:
level to avoid punishment
or gain concrete rewards
Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial
Development

Approximate
age Stage Description of Task

Infancy Trust vs. mistrust If needs are dependably met, infants

(1st year) develop a sense of basic trust.

Toddler Autonomy vs. shame Toddlers learn to exercise will and

(2nd year) and doubt do things for themselves, or they
doubt their abilities.

Preschooler Initiative vs. guilt Preschoolers learn to initiate tasks

(3-5 years) and carry out plans, or they feel
guilty about efforts to be independent.

Elementary Competence vs. Children learn the pleasure of applying

(6 years- inferiority themselves to tasks, or they feel
puberty) inferior.
Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial
Development
Approximate
age Stage Description of Task
Adolescence Identity vs. role Teenagers work at refining a sense of self by
(teens into confusion testing roles and then integrating them to
20’s) form a single identity, or they become
confused about who they are.

Young Adult Intimacy vs. Young adults struggle to form close relation-
(20’s to early isolation ships and to gain the capacity for intimate
40’s) love, or they feel socially isolated.

Middle Adult Generativity vs. The middle-aged discover a sense of contri-

(40’s to 60’s) stagnation buting to the world, usually through family
and work, or they may feel a lack of purpose.

Late Adult Integrity vs. When reflecting on his or her life, the older
(late 60’s and despair adult may feel a sense of satisfaction or
up) failure.
Adolescence: Social
Development
§ Identity
§ one’s sense of self
§ the adolescent’s task is to solidify
a sense of self by testing and
integrating various roles
§ Intimacy
§ the ability to form close, loving
relationships
§ a primary developmental task in
late adolescence and early
Adulthood: Physical
Development
§ Menopause
§ the time of natural cessation of
menstruation
§ also refers to the biological changes a
woman experiences as her ability to
reproduce declines
§ Alzheimer’s Disease
§ a progressive and irreversible brain disorder
§ characterized by a gradual deterioration of
memory, reasoning, language, and finally,
physical functioning
Adulthood: Cognitive
Development
100 Older age groups have
Percent poorer performance § Recalling new
of names 90
recalled 80 names
70
After three introduced
introductions
60
once, twice,
50
or three times
40
After two is easier for
introductions
30 younger
20 adults than
After one
10 introductions for older ones
0 (Crook &
18 40 50 60 70 West, 1990).
Age group
Adulthood: Cognitive
Development

§ Crystallized Intelligence
§ one’s accumulated knowledge and
verbal skills
§ tends to increase with age
§ Fluid Intelligence
§ ones ability to reason speedily and
abstractly
§ tends to decrease during late
adulthood
Adulthood: Social
Changes
§ Multinational
Percentage 80
“satisfied” surveys show
with life
as a whole 60
that age
differences in
40 life
satisfaction
20
are trivial
0
15 25 35 45 55 65+
(Inglehart,
1990).
Age group
Myers’ PSYCHOLOGY
(6th Ed)

 Chapter 5
 Sensation


 James A. McCubbin, PhD

 Clemson University


 Worth Publishers
Sensation
§ Sensation
§ a process by which our sensory
receptors and nervous system
receive and represent stimulus
energy
§ Perception
§ a process of organizing and
interpreting sensory information,
enabling us to recognize
meaningful objects and events
Sensation
§ Our
sensory
and
perceptu
al
processe
s work
together
to help
us sort
out
complext
Sensation

§ Bottom-Up Processing
§ analysis that begins with the sense
receptors and works up to the brain’s
integration of sensory information
§ Top-Down Processing
§ information processing guided by higher-
level mental processes
§ as when we construct perceptions drawing
on our experience and expectations
Sensation- Thresholds

§ Absolute Threshold
§ minimum stimulation needed to detect a
particular stimulus 50% of the time
§ Difference Threshold
§ minimum difference between two stimuli
required for detection 50% of the time
§ just noticeable difference (JND)
 Sensation- Thresholds

100
§ Subliminal
Percentage
of correct § When stimuli
detections 75
are below
one’s absolute
50 threshold for
Subliminal conscious
stimuli
25 awareness

0
Low Absolute Medium
threshold

Intensity of stimulus
Sensation- Thresholds

§ Weber’s Law- to perceive as different, two

stimuli must differ by a constant
minimum percentage
§ light intensity- 8%
§ weight- 2%
§ tone frequency- 0.3%


 Difference Threshold- the minimum

difference between two stimuli required for
detection 50% of the time. We experience
the difference threshold as a just noticeable
difference


§ Sensory adaptation- diminished sensitivity

Vision
Vision
§ Accommodation- the process by which
the eye’s lens changes shape to help
focus near or far objects on the retina
§
§ Retina- the light-sensitive inner serface of
the eye, containing receptor rods and
cones plus layers of neurons that begin
the processing of visual information
Vision

§ Farsighted Nearsighted Normal

Vision Vision Vision
Retina’s Reaction to
Light- Receptors
§ Rods
§ peripheral retina
§ detect black, white and gray
§ twilight or low light
§ Cones
§ near center of retina
§ fine detail and color vision
§ daylight or well-lit conditions
 Vision- Physical Properties
of Waves

Short wavelength=high frequency Great amplitude

(bluish colors, high-pitched sounds) (bright colors, loud sounds)

Long wavelength=low frequency Small amplitude

(reddish colors, low-pitched sounds) (dull colors, soft sounds)
Visual Information
Processing
§ Parallel Processing
§ simultaneous processing of
several aspects of a problem
simultaneously; allows humans
to speedily recognize familiar
objects
Audition
§ Audition
§ the sense of hearing
§ Frequency
§ the number of complete
wavelengths that pass a point in
a given time
§ Pitch
§ a tone’s highness or lowness
§ depends on frequency
Audition- The Ear
§ Middle Ear
§ chamber between eardrum and cochlea
containing three tiny bones (hammer,
anvil, stirrup) that concentrate the
vibrations of the eardrum on the
cochlea’s oval window
§ Inner Ear
§ innermost part of the ear, contining the
cochlea, semicurcular canals, and
vestibular sacs
§ Cochlea
§ coiled, bony, fluid-filled tube in the inner
ear; changes movement caused by
sound waves into nerve impulses.
Touch

§ Skin Sensations
§ pressure
§ only skin
sensation
with
identifiable
receptors
§ warmth
§ cold
§ pain
Pain
§ Gate-Control Theory
§ theory that the spinal cord
contains a neurological “gate”
that blocks pain signals or allows
them to pass on to the brain
§ “gate” opened by the activity of
pain signals traveling up small
nerve fibers
§ “gate” closed by activity in larger
fibers or by information coming
Smell
Olfactory
nerve
Olfactory
bulb

Nasal Receptor cells in

passage olfactory membrane
Body Position and
Movement
§ Kinesthesis
§ the system for sensing the
position and movement of
individual body parts
§ Vestibular Sense
§ the sense of body movement and
position
§ including the sense of balance
Myers’ PSYCHOLOGY
(7th Ed)

 Chapter 6
 Perception


 James A. McCubbin, PhD

 Clemson University


 Worth Publishers
Perceptual Organization: Gestalt

§ Grouping
§ the perceptual tendency to organize
stimuli into coherent groups
§ Grouping Principles
§ proximity--group nearby figures together
§ similarity--group figures that are similar
§ continuity--perceive continuous patterns
§ closure--fill in gaps
§ connectedness--spots, lines, and areas are
seen as unit when connected
Perceptual Organization:
Grouping Principles
 Perceptual Organization

§ Figure and Ground--organization of the visual

field into objects (figures) that stand out
from their surroundings (ground)
Perceptual Organization:
Closure

§ Gestalt
grouping
principles
are at
work
here.
Perceptual Organization: Depth
Perception

§ Depth Perception
§ ability to see objects in three dimensions
§ allows us to judge distance
§ Binocular cues
§ retinal disparity
§ images from the two eyes differ
§ closer the object, the larger the disparity
§ convergence
§ neuromuscular cue
§ two eyes move inward for near objects
Perceptual Organization: Depth
Perception

V isu a lC liff
Perceptual Organization: Depth
Perception

§ Monocular Cues (cont.)

§ relative height
§ higher objects seen as more distant
§ relative motion
§ closer objects seem to move faster
§ linear perspective
§ parallel lines converge with distance
§ relative brightness
§ closer objects appear brighter
Perceptual Organization: Depth
Perception

§ Monocular Cues
§ relative size
§ smaller image is more distant
§ interposition
§ closer object blocks distant object
§ relative clarity
§ hazy object seen as more distant
§ texture coarse --> close
fine --> distant
Perceptual Organization
Perceptual Organization: Size-
Distance Relationship
Perceptual Constancy
§ Perceptual Constancy
§ perceiving objects as unchanging even as
illumination and retinal image change
§ color
§ shape
§ size
Is There Extrasensory
Perception?
§ Extrasensory Perception
§ controversial claim that perception can
occur apart from sensory input
§ telepathy
§ clairvoyance
§ precognition
§ Parapsychology
§ the study of paranormal phenomena
§ ESP
§ psychokinesis
Myers’ PSYCHOLOGY
(7th Ed)

 Chapter 7
States of


Consciousness


 James A. McCubbin, PhD

 Clemson University


 Worth Publishers
Waking Consciousness

§ Consciousness
§ our awareness
of ourselves
and our
environment
s
Perception
§ Selective Attention focus of
conscious awareness on a
particular stimulus
Sleep and Dreams

§ Biological Rhythms
§ periodic physiological
fluctuations
§ Circadian Rhythm
§ the biological clock
§ regular bodily rhythms that
occur on a 24-hour cycle, such
as of wakefulness and body
temperature
Sleep and Dreams
§ REM (Rapid Eye Movement)
Sleep
§ recurring sleep stage
§ vivid dreams
§ “paradoxical sleep”
§ muscles are generally relaxed,
but other body systems are
active
§ Sleep
§ periodic, natural, reversible loss
of consciousness
 Night Terrors and
Nightmares
Sleep § Night Terrors
stages
Awake § occur within 2
1 or 3 hours of
falling asleep,
2
usually
3
REM
during Stage
4 4
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
§ high arousal--
Hours of sleep appearance
of being
terrified
 Nightmares
Myers’ PSYCHOLOGY
(7th Ed)

 Chapter 8
 Learning


 James A. McCubbin, PhD

 Clemson University


 Worth Publishers
Learning

§ Learning
§ relatively
permanent
change in an
organism’s
behavior due
to
experience;
experience is
the most
crucial
ingredient in
Classical Conditioning

§ Classical Conditioning
§ organism comes to associate two
stimuli
§ a neutral stimulus that signals an
unconditioned stimulus begins to
produce a response that
anticipates and prepares for the
unconditioned stimulus
Classical or Pavlovian
Conditioning

§ We learn to
associate
two
stimuli
§
§
Pavlov’s Classic
Experiment
Before Conditioning

UCS (food
in mouth)

Neutral
UCR stimulus No
(salivation) (tone) salivation

During Conditioning After Conditioning

UCS (food
in mouth)

Neutral CS
stimulus (tone)
UCR
(tone) (salivation) CR (salivation)
Classical Conditioning
§ Extinction
§ diminishing of a CR
§ in classical conditioning, when
a UCS does not follow a CS
§ in operant conditioning, when
a response is no longer
reinforced
 Extinction
151

 When the US (food) does not follow the CS (tone),

CR (salivation) begins to decrease and eventually
causes extinction.
Applications of Classical Conditioning
152

Watson used classical

conditioning procedures to
develop advertising campaigns
for a number of organizations,
including Maxwell House,
making the “coffee break” an
American custom.

Brown Brothers
John B. Watson
 Applications of Classical Conditioning
153

1. Former crack cocaine users should avoid cues

(people, places) associated with previous drug
use.
2. Through classical conditioning, a drug (plus its
taste) that affects the immune response may
cause the taste of the drug to invoke the immune
response.
Operant Conditioning

§ Operant Conditioning
§ type of learning in which behavior is
strengthened if followed by
reinforcement or diminished if followed
by punishment
§ Law of Effect
§ Thorndike’s principle that behaviors
followed by favorable consequences
become more likely, and behaviors
followed by unfavorable consequences
become less likely
Operant Conditioning

§ B.F. Skinner
(1904-1990)
§ elaborated
Thorndike’s
Law of Effect
§ developed
behavioral
technology
Operant Chamber

§ Skinner Box
§ chamber with a
bar or key that
an animal
manipulates to
obtain a food
or water
reinforcer
§ contains devices
to record
responses
Operant Conditioning

§ Reinforcer
§ any event that strengthens the
behavior it follows
§ Shaping
§ operant conditioning procedure
in which reinforcers guide
behavior toward closer
approximations of a desired
goal
Operant Conditioning
Punishment

§ Punishment
§ aversive event that
decreases the behavior that
it follows
§ powerful controller of
unwanted behavior
Punishment
Cognition and Operant
Conditioning

§ Intrinsic Motivation
§ Desire to perform a behavior for
its own sake and to be effective
§ Extrinsic Motivation
§ Desire to perform a behavior due
to promised rewards or threats
of punishments
 Biological Predisposition
162

Instinctive Drift
Biological constraints

predispose organisms to
learn associations that are
naturally adaptive.
Breland and Breland (1961)

showed that animals drift

towards their biologically

Photo: Bob Bailey

predisposed instinctive
behaviors.
Marian Breland Bailey
Myers’ PSYCHOLOGY
(7th Ed)

 Chapter 9
 Memory


 James A. McCubbin, PhD

 Clemson University


 Worth Publishers
Memory
§ Memory
§ persistence of learning over
time via the storage and
retrieval of information
§ Flashbulb Memory
§ a clear memory of an
emotionally significant
moment or event; stored
in long-term memory
Encoding
§ Automatic Processing
§ unconscious encoding of incidental
information
§ space
§ time
§ frequency
§ well-learned information
§ word meanings
§ we can learn automatic processing
§ reading backwards
Encoding

§ Effortful Processing
§ requires attention and
conscious effort
§ Rehearsal
§ conscious repetition of
information
§ to maintain it in consciousness
§ to encode it for storage
Encoding
§ Spacing Effect
§ distributed practice yields better
long- term retention than
massed practice
 Encoding: Serial Position
Effect

Percent 90
age of 80
words Serial Position Effect--
recalled 70 tendency to recall
60 best the last items in
a list
50
40
30
20
10
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Position of
word in list
Storage:
Retaining Information
§ Iconic Memory
§ a momentary sensory memory of
visual stimuli
§ a photographic or picture image
memory lasting no more that a few
tenths of a second
§ Echoic Memory
§ momentary sensory memory of
auditory stimuli
 Storage:
Short-Term Memory
Percentage
who recalled90 § Short-Term
consonants 80
70 Memory
60 § limited in
50
40
duration and
30 capacity
20 § “magical”
10 number 7+/-
0
3 6 9 12 15 18 2
Time in seconds between presentation
§ Slightly better
of contestants and recall request for auditory
(no rehearsal allowed) information
than for
Storage:
Long-Term Memory
§ Amnesia--the loss of memory
§ Explicit Memory
§ memory of facts and experiences that one
can consciously know and declare
§ also called declarative memory
§ hippocampus--neural center in limbic system
that helps process explicit memories for
storage
§ Implicit Memory
§ retention independent of conscious
recollection
§ also called procedural memory
Retrieval: Getting
Information Out
§ Recall
§ measure of memory in which the
person must retrieve
information learned earlier
§ as on a fill-in-the blank test
§ Recognition
§ Measure of memory in which the
person has only to identify
items previously learned
§ as on a multiple-choice test
Retrieval
§ Relearning
§ memory measure that
assesses the amount of
time saved when learning
material a second time
§ Priming
§ activation, often
unconsciously, of
particular associations in
memory
Myers’ PSYCHOLOGY
(7th Ed)

 Chapter 10
 Thinking and Language


 James A. McCubbin, PhD

 Clemson University


 Worth Publishers
Thinking
§ Cognition
§ mental activities associated with thinking,
knowing, remembering, and communicating
§ Cognitive Psychologists
§ study these mental activities
§ concept formation
§ problem solving
§ decision making
§ judgment formation
Thinking

§ Concept
§ mental grouping of similar objects, events,
ideas, or people
§ Prototype
§ mental image or best example of a
category
§ matching new items to the prototype
provides a quick and easy method for
including items in a category (as when
comparing feathered creatures to a
prototypical bird, such as a robin)
§ Important in aiding in classifying objects
Thinking

§ Algorithm
§ methodical, logical rule or
procedure that guarantees
solving a particular problem
§ contrasts with the usually
speedier–but also more error-
prone--use of heuristics
Thinking
§ Heuristic
§ simple thinking strategy that
often allows us to make
judgments and solve
problems efficiently
§ usually speedier than
algorithms
§ more error-prone than
algorithms
Heuristics

§ Availability Heuristic
§ estimating the likelihood of
events based on their
availability in memory
§ if instances come readily to mind
(perhaps because of their
vividness), we presume such
events are common
§ Example: airplane crash
Thinking
§ Insight
§ sudden and often novel realization of the
solution to a problem
§ contrasts with strategy-based solutions
§ Confirmation Bias
§ tendency to search for information that
confirms one’s preconceptions
§ Fixation
§ inability to see a problem from a new
perspective
§ impediment to problem solving
Thinking

§ Framing
§ the way an issue is posed
§ how an issue is framed can
significantly affect
decisions and judgments
§ Example: What is the best
way to market ground
beef--as 25% fat or 75%
lean?
Language

§ Language
§ our spoken, written, or gestured
works and the way we combine
them to communicate meaning
§ Phoneme
§ in a spoken language, the
smallest distinctive sound unit
Language
§ Morpheme
§ in a language, the smallest unit that
carries meaning
§ may be a word or a part of a word (such
as a prefix)
§ Grammar
§ a system of rules in a language that
enables us to communicate with and
understand others
Language
§ Semantics
§ the set of rules by which we derive
meaning from morphemes, words, and
sentences in a given language
§ also, the study of meaning
§ Syntax
§ the rules for combining words into
grammatically sensible sentences in a
given language
Language
§ Babbling Stage
§ beginning at 3 to 4 months
§ the stage of speech development in
which the infant spontaneously utters
various sounds at first unrelated to the
household language
§ One-Word Stage
§ from about age 1 to 2
§ the stage in speech development during
which a child speaks mostly in single
words
Language
§ Two-Word Stage
§ beginning about age 2
§ the stage in speech development during
which a child speaks in mostly two-
word statements
§ Telegraphic Speech
§ early speech stage in which the child
speaks like a telegram-–“go car”--using
mostly nouns and verbs and omitting
“auxiliary” words
 Explaining Language Development
187

 Inborn Universal Grammar: Chomsky (1959,

1987) opposed Skinner’s ideas and suggested that
the rate of language acquisition is so fast that it
cannot be explained through learning principles,
and thus most of it is inborn.